So how many you are not using Facebook? How many of you have not heard about Twitter and Facebook? We all are social more on social networks then in the society.
According to social media research, Facebook has around 1.11 billion users across the globe. LinkedIn has 277 Mn users, Twitter boasts of 200 million users and Google+ also says it has around 340 million active users. The power of Social media is incredible. Just look at this amazing infographic… 
I have been using Twitter, Facebook, Google+ for more than a couple of years now. And I would say, I have been able to make pretty good use of them. I have learnt new things, made friends with strangers and expanded my social reach beyond the obvious friend circle.
Through this post, I am sharing my strategy or organizing my social presence with the aim of leveraging the power of social networks. Somebody could ask, Is there a need to organize social networks. I have tried to answer this question in the rest of this post.
The typical approach
There are 2 ways in which people typically manage their social presence
1. The simplest and the most common way is to use them as platform to share and connect with people without any strategy and thought.
2. The second approach is to put your brain to work and organize the social network. On a lighter note, Organized social network ensures that your tweet about your boss after a couple of drinks over your limit doesn't end up eating your job :)
A more detailed answer to Why organize Social networks is to
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Expand your social network beyond friends, colleagues and family
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Create a strong brand for yourself to excel in career
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Find resources to full-fill your aspirations
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Expand your horizon by connecting with strangers from vivid areas
Have a doubt? Check out the stats in the infographic above.
How do we organize Social Presence then?
Some psychological gyaan first
It is said we as Human being have 3 primary requirements for life. they are Social, Functional and Emotional. (Please read the book "innovator DNA" to know in details the significance of these needs.)
My idea is to base the strategy to organize social networks on these theory.
The Functional need are connected
- with your job, with your career aspirations,
- with your creative pursuits,
- with fulfilling your needs and wants.
The Social and Emotional needs are about
- being connected to the near and dear,
- being a part of the social fabric,
- staying close and relevant to people,
- being a part of the social conversations
I use LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for these purpose.
Twitter for Hobby
I use Twitter to keep my creative juices flowing, for inspiration. After I got a Twitter Account, I took a conscious decision to connect only with strangers. I decided to build a network of people with whom i share my interests, my thoughts process, my aspirations.
I started this by following my favourite authors. I then used Twitters discover tool to find more people to follow. I read, re-tweeted things not connected to my job but definitely of my interest. There was no condition on what I tweet and what i read.
For example I often tweet news articles from Faking News just for fun. I use twitter to get inspirations quotes, lessons. To get latest news on technology, design. I use twitter to take part in contests. By using this approach, over a period of time, I have 200 followers whom i know only through twitter.
LinkedIn for career
The sole purpose of my LinkedIn account is to create a strong brand for myself and excel in my career.
On LinkedIn, I am connected to my current colleagues, ex-colleagues. I have made new friends whom I haven't met in-person but we happen to work in the same Domain and so are connected. I use LinkedIn groups to connect with people in the upcoming technology areas. The focus here is more on connecting with people, reading things that are connected to my career.
I would say LinkedIn is a more filtered and a double clicked view of what I do on twitter.
Facebook for social needs
Facebook is the place that takes care of my social needs. I am connected to my friends, family, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. etc. Around 80% of the people I have met or known in my life are connected to me on Facebook except for my Managers :) ( though there are few exceptions)
Google + falls between LinkedIn and Twitter
Of late, I have been checking my G+ account more frequently. For me, its somewhere between LinkedIn and Twitter.
I follow communities on G+ that are of interest to me but not necessarily related to my job. G+ is the gateway to my curiosity. I use it follow Home Design, NASA, Windows8, Android Development, Go Green ideas, Jokes etc.
Then there is Pinterest, I use Pinterest to pin about my hobbies, pictures from my blog and my site. Often my Pinterest posts are sent to twitter.
The idea is to not duplicate your contacts, posts, across social networks and thus keep your social presence organized.
So what are you waiting for, go head, get a plan and make the most of your social networks.
What's the plan that you follow for your social presence, did you think its good to have a defined plan to manage social presence? Do let me know your views using comments section.
References
http://theeword.co.uk/news/survey_reveals_power_of_facebook_for_local_smes/#sthash.De8MdkQD.dpuf
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026521/google-outranks-twitter-as-no-2-social-network-after-facebook.html
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