This post is all about how to safeguard and grow your online network.
How frustrated do you feel, when you’ve just washed your car, you take it out for a spin and a massive truck goes buy and covers it in dirt? What about when you’ve been working on a document for 20 minutes, your computer crashes and you suddenly realise you lost all that work!
Frustrating isn’t it?
Then just imagine how frustrated you will feel, if that social network you have spent months building on your favourite social networking site, gets trashed; following an unpopular acquisition or mass user exodus!
I wrote a post yesterday, about FaceBook buying FriendFeed. Within hours of the acquisition, many established FriendFeed users told me they will stop using the service. Others are posting messages, telling people how to get in touch with them – because they believe FriendFeed will be closed by the new owners.
No one outside FaceBook know’s what they are planning to do with FriendFeed, but that’s not the point.
The point is, this perfectly demonstrates how exposed we can be, is we decide to rely too heavily on any single, third-party, for the development of our online network.
I believe there are two lessons here:
- Firstly, make sure you have at least 2 places online, where you can connect with your network – not just one!
- Secondly, develop a central hub for your online presence, which YOU control – Not something governed by a third-party, who could pull the plug on you, suspend your account (or go broke) at any time.
My online network is spread between my blog, my FriendFeed account and my Twitter account. I am reviewing adding another contact point shortly and I will let you know more closer to the time.
Self hosted blogs
In my experience, the best hub for your online network is a self-hosted blog. By hosting your own commercial blog, you maintain control. Host it for free on someone else’s platform and they control it. Through your blog, you can connect with people, share ideas and grow a community. Plus, with plugins and tools like Google Friend Connect, you can enjoy many of the features of a social networking site, on your blog.
No matter what happens with your account at; Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn or FriendFeed – your blog will remain a constant contact point for your online community.
If you are investing a lot of your time and energy developing a single, online network, this might be a good time to consider how future-proof your strategy is.
Image credit: Avolore
Related posts:
Jim two great essentials there.
Chris Brogans idea of a hub, with social media outposts, has served me very well, and proves to be a great way of building social media experiences for my clients.
Scott,
Thanks for the feedback. What does Chris suggest using as a hub?
BTW: I’m assuming from your comment that you don’t already know, the ‘hub and spoke’ idea is older than either Chris or myself.
Wordpress or Typepad.
I’m with Wordpress. Using the Disqus commenting plugin, you can also suck in everything that links to your post, wether on Twitter / FriendFeed / Blogs / Youtube – truly a social hub.
Scott,
I should have been more specific. What I meant was whether he recommended blogs as a hub or something else.
I am not a fan of DisQus myself, though it was interesting connecting with them a few months back.
My concern is that once it’s installed, if you remove it, your blog retains ONLY the comments sent to the blog. So, once removed, your comments section will have people answering and responding to stuff that’s no longer there.
Ah, apologies.
He suggested that there be some blog element to it – a place for your thoughts to be communicated and responses to be welcomed.
You are right about having your information on multiple platofrms. In the past, you have written best practices for Twitter. That information helped me a lot and has helped me become a better player. What about FriendFeed? I use it, but I just don’t feel I am using it the best way possible. Maybe if people used it correctly, more people like myself would see its value. I think understanding how to use these mediums correctly helps maximize the discussion and ultimately creates a better experience. Any information or links you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks again for your great posts and insights! Brent
Hi Jim,
I think social networks are just tools. The important thing is not to get too attached. There are people who don;t know what to do when Twitter is down and this is bad – they forgot why they are using Twitter. It doesn’t really matter the place where you are it’s what you do there. If you spend time on Twitter and build trust and create relations I think those relations will move off that social network on e-mails or comments on blogs.
Brent,
You ask some great questions, however, they are a little longer than can be answered fully as a comment on a blog.
In short, I have found FriendFeed of huge value to me professionally. It’s an excellent place to find useful information and to connect with great people. I massively prefer it over Twitter.
If you want to learn how to use FriendFeed, the best thing is to look at some of the instructional videos, like this one from my FriendFeed pal Robert Scoble. A lot of newer users find this really helpful:
http://www.kyte.tv/ch/6118/301757
There’s also a useful thread here, with some hints and tips:
http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer/1e1a5ec7/to-new-friendfeeders-there-are-thousands-due
Hope these help.
Friend
Hello Toma,
Thanks for the comment. I agree that the sites are just tools, but for people who only connect on one network, if that network closes of they lose their account, they also lose their contacts.
This happened to a lot of people when Pownce folded.