Social media for the time-starved: How to get started.

One of the major excuses I hear for not embracing social media is that people are simply too busy.

Anyone can be a passive Web browser, maybe reading the occasional blog or watching a few video clips online. But it can seem like a colossal leap to actually start producing your own content or staking your claim in the blogosphere.

Well don't worry. Here are four simple steps that will make you feel socially savvy without making your life even more hectic:

1. Start a blog on Tumblr.
2. Move your résumé onto LinkedIn.
3. Add Delicious to your Web browser.
4. Merge your digital life on FriendFeed.

After the jump, I write a bunch of detailed stuff that you're probably too busy to read.

1. Start a blog on Tumblr.

This is blogging stripped down to its bare essentials: Share lots of cool stuff with minimal effort.

A Tumblr blog post can be a quote that inspired you, a photo you took or a cool illustration you found online. The writing-averse will also appreciate that you don’t even need to say a word when you post something.

Some sample Tumblr blogs:
• That's What She Said
• Moose Garden
• TMBLG

To start your own, head over here. It takes about 10 seconds to sign up.

2. Move your résumé onto LinkedIn.

While some use this career-oriented site as a full-on social network, for most people it’s little more than a virtual Rolodex.

So if you haven’t already, go make an account on LinkedIn. You can probably copy and paste most of the info from your résumé.

What’s nice about LinkedIn is that it’s what I call a “passive” network. I only update it about twice a year, and yet I still hear often from old colleagues and potential business partners. I’ve even gotten a job offer based solely on my LinkedIn info, so never underestimate who might be reading your account.

A few related tools:
    • Looking for a job? Create a swank VirtualCV.
    • Looking to be (or find) a pundit? Sign up on Speaker Site.

3.Add Delicious to your Web browser.

Of all the funky social tools I’ve tried over the years, the Delicious “Tag” button is consistently the most useful.

Delicious is an online bookmarking service. If you find something cool on the Web, you can simply bookmark it in your Delicious account and dig it up when you need it. Unlike your browser’s bookmarks, your Delicious items can be accessed from any computer with Internet access.

That’s all fine and good, but the real game-changer was the Delicious plug-in for the Firefox Web browser. If you use Firefox (and you should), simply add the Delicious tools. Then you can click the “Tag” button wherever your Web browsing finds you.

Try it. Use it. Love it. You’ll wonder how you ever kept track of stuff online before.


4. Merge your digital life on FriendFeed.

FriendFeed creates one simple place where your friends/colleagues/readers can find all the stuff you create online.

When you set up your account, FriendFeed makes it easy to add your blogs, your Twitter posts, your Flickr photos, your YouTube videos, your Delicious bookmarks. Heck, you can throw in your Netflix queue if you really want to.

But you don’t have to be a social media maven to appreciate FriendFeed, which can quickly become a reservoir for all the streams of your digital life. Best of all, once you’ve got it set up, it’ll run on autopilot for years to come.

Well those are my  top picks for squeezing connection and conversation into your time-crunched life. If you’re curious, here are my links on some of these sites:
• Me on LinkedIn
• My bookmarks on Delicious
• My Speaker Site page
• My FriendFeed

Anyone else got any tips on easy-peasy social media?

Today's photo credit: thefourelements on Flickr.

Comments

[Josh Stomel]

In regards to moving your resume / bio to linkedin..

I have built a site that allows consumers to take their traditional resume and convert it to a highly optimized web resume.

Check it out; www.resumebucket.com

Takes, 10 seconds to sign up, and users will get a unique url that they chose like; www.resumebucket.com/joshstomel

We optimize the keywords in the resume and the meta description. Within 24 hours, if you did a google search for that persons name or a boolean search, they will be ranked at the top of the google search results.. We are in beta and very excited. New site coming soon :-)

Great post

[Chris Prakoso]

Another site I found the other day which also do Online Resume is http://www.visualcv.com/. What makes LinkedIn a bit different to these, is its Social Networking aspect, which is why it's called LinkedIn.
Good Post btwy.

[Dave Allen]

I'm surprised you don't mention Twitter. I'd say skip the blog, use Twitter instead. Or, if you do need a blog [seems so old-fashioned already!] be sure to use FriendFeed to push your posts to Twitter.

Feel free to follow my Twittering here http://www.twitter.com/Pampelmoose

[David Griner]

Dave A.,

I'm a big fan of Twitter, but I just don't think it's a good tool for those who already feel overloaded. It's a site that hinges on nearly real-time conversation.

Sure, you could use Twitter in extreme moderation, but you won't ever really appreciate its value.

And if you were creating a Twitter account just to have an extra place to push your blog posts and such, I'd say don't bother.

[Dave Allen]

BTW, Peter Campbell at Idealware has a great post about the use of Twitter...

http://www.idealware.org/blog/2008/12/why-we-tweet.html

[Chris Donaldson]

Very good post. But I think saying you need to make time for social media is similar to saying you have to set aside time tomorrow to use your hammer. Social media is another tool in the toolbox, and we have to pick the right tool to solve the problem or maximize the opportunity. If we're looking for a gig, for example, one of the best tools is LinkedIn. That's how social media get's integrated into our daily approach - by making it an invaluable part of our toolkit.

I'll sign-up for FriendFeed tonight. Thanks for the recommendation.

Chris
http://www.pimpyourmarketing.com