I’m A Social Media Castaway

This is my first post in a month and I wanted to look back at what’s happened in the social media environment in the last 30 days.

Basically, nothing.

The truth is I needed a break, because (I’m sure you’ve heard it before) keeping up with social media can have its toll on your productivity.

Sometimes I think the whole thing goes out of hand.

You need to be up to speed with hundreds of friends, keep with hundreds of feeds, update your blog several times a week, and then there’s work and family.

I felt guilty, lost and anxious. What are they talking about? Do they miss me?

But I needed to get things done. There was a huge relaunch happening. A new project being developed. A site that was closing.

Today I feel more balanced.

It’s true that FriendFeed’s sale to Facebook kind of tripped this whole process. One month later, I see things in perspective, and I think it was a good thing.

What have I changed in the last month in terms of my Social Media approach?

First, I have made my Facebook Page the root of my short Social Media broadcasts. Using the Facebook Twitter App, I send this comments out to my Twitter followers and Twitter then posts to FriendFeed (and by the way, Facebook is really slow these days).

For my Google Reader Sharing, I’m using Facebook’s Notes App and made it read the RSS feed from Google Reader, and thus, each time I share an item in Google Reader, it gets posted (eventually, not PuSubHubbub there) to my Facebook Page, which then pushes to Twitter, which then pushes to FriendFeed.

If your head is not spinning by now, you’re a true Social Media warrior.

Has it been worth it? Absolutely. I got a lot of work done, and even though I popped in to Twitter and FriendFeed here and there, I feel like I kept up to date with my friends, even though not with the same intensity as before.

And what do I recommend for you to do? Reduce the number of people you follow on Twitter (make sure you read my post about it first),  try to leverage Google Reader’s new social tools, following a handful of great people and reading what they share, instead of reading yourself 1,000+ items each day, and try to limit the amount of time you spend on Social Media sites. I’m checking in the morning and in the afternoon about half an hour each session, catching up and interacting with people.

And If you feel you need to disconnect, do it. You’ll see things in a better perspective when you come back.

We’ll all be waiting for you.