How to select the right social media network(s)

With the recent launch of Mel­crum’s new social media site for com­mu­nic­a­tions pro­fes­sion­als, I’m begin­ning to really start eval­u­at­ing which net­works I asso­ci­ate myself with. There are many, and to fully par­ti­cip­ate in any of them does take time. And, like you, I’m a busy guy. Eval­u­at­ing each site based on my needs will show me where I should be spend­ing my time. 

I’ll get into the rest of my eval­u­ation cri­ter­ia in a moment, but let me talk for a moment about what I think is the key eval­u­ation cri­ter­ia: a social media site’s repu­ta­tion — because by asso­ci­ation and exten­sion, that repu­ta­tion can rub off on you. I’m think­ing care­fully about my net­work asso­ci­ations because using a par­tic­u­lar net­work can col­our how oth­ers per­ceive you as a com­mu­nic­at­or, or as a mem­ber of online soci­ety in general

We’ve already developed some ste­reo­types: Slash­dot­ters are Linux tech-heads. Dig­gers are mal­con­tents, 2nd Lifers are just plain weird, Twit­ters, nobody gets..etc. Heh, these aren’t my per­son­al opin­ions, as I dabble in all of them, but they’re com­ments I’ve heard from others.

So, by using a par­tic­u­lar social media net­work, as much as when you choose your cloth­ing for a social/networking func­tion, you are pro­ject­ing a par­tic­u­lar per­sona, a par­tic­u­lar char­ac­ter, so you’d bet­ter be care­ful which one you choose. People are already mak­ing up their minds about these sites, and about you.

Oth­er cri­ter­ia I’m using to eval­u­ate my networks:

• Who’s there. Is there a group of opin­ion and thought lead­ers act­ively par­ti­cip­at­ing in dis­cus­sion? Then I want to be there. Odds are, if they’re talk­ing about some­thing, that ‘some­thing’ will soon be in my world and I’m bet­ter off know­ing about it now.
• A large com­munity. Big­ger can be bet­ter, espe­cially if they’re par­ti­cip­at­ing, and you’ve got a par­tic­u­lar issue or ques­tion you’d like opin­ions about.
• Smart social media tools. Hav­ing tools that eas­ily enable net­work build­ing and main­ten­ance is key. Allow me to import my address books, search out all my oth­er social media sites and allow me to invite friends to this one. Make it easy for me to find, add and com­mu­nic­ate with friends, and you’ll have sold me.
• Site theme or pur­pose. Why are you net­work­ing and con­nect­ing? How does it sup­port your busi­ness strategy? Answer these ques­tions and you’ll under­stand why an eco­nom­ics pro­fess­or wish­ing to extend his pro­fes­sion­al net­work would­n’t sign up to a music-ori­ented social media site (unless he’s inter­ested in music too, but then that’s not pro­fes­sion­al interest, as I see it). Basic­ally, it’s not where his audi­ence is, nor is it where he would get any recip­roc­al value — ie, what’s in it for me.

As I men­tioned in the first para­graph, there are many sites now, so stra­tegic­ally select­ing where you spend your time is key. I think I’ll settle into two or three sites pro­fes­sion­ally, but I’ll keep try­ing oth­ers, and may migrate from one to anoth­er depend­ing on my needs.

That’s the beauty of this tech­no­logy, new and bet­ter ways to com­mu­nic­ate are being developed every day. I’m look­ing for­ward to a great ride.

So, these are my key cri­ter­ia, what are yours? What net­works do you use and why? Or why not?

FYI: This post star­ted as a com­ment to Dan York’s Dis­rupt­ive Con­ver­sa­tions item: “Mel­crum’s Com­mu­nic­at­ors’ Net­work makes its debut — anoth­er social net­work for com­mu­nic­a­tions pro­fes­sion­als”. Then it grew, took on a life of it’s own, and now resides here. Thanks for the inspir­a­tion Dan!

Tech­nor­ati Tags: Social Media, Mel­crum, Dan York, Eval­u­ation, How To, Selec­tion Criteria