The Measure of A…

No, no, no, not a Clay Aiken album, but in the world of social media and social networking, how do you measure the positive effects of your activities? This is the business that Networked Insights is into as it relates to advertising, but what about your home metrics?

Here are some easy ones:

1. How long do you spend on social networking? I would say that I put about 30 minutes into it and 30 minutes into e-mail, and that’s my digital networking day.
2. How many links do you have? Friends? Groups? Most sites give you a nice counter – just add em up!
3. How many inbound message do you get?
4. How many do you read?
5. How many messages do you send?

If you’re thinking along with this post, you might already be putting together your own observations. You tend to send and recieved lots of updates, but if you have a moderately busy life, you don’t read most of them. I fly through my Facebook page because I simply don’t have the time to manage 200 relationships daily. I can probably handle 5 high-value interactions a day… maybe less if there are emotions involved.

Here’s another conclusion: Of all those inbound messages I just said that I choose to skim over, how many of those alter your day in any way? “I had ice cream.” Ok. “Going for pizza.” Maybe I’ll join you! Of all those inbound connections, first ask yourself if it is only one or two people making the noticeable messages. Is your network really providing much information for you? Of your 300 connections, do you only read 100 messages and act on 2?

Some more metrics, but these are of the more dorky, career-minded kind. When was the last time you did business over social media? Planned a trip? Coordinated something of value? I can happily say that of my near-500 connections across 4 sites I landed a single job interview and planned 2 parties.

So, to conclude, 30 minutes a day, 500 connections, 100 messages, and over the 2 years I’ve probably been involved with social networking I’ve done 3 things of interest.

Is it worth it or are we gambling that it will some day become worth it?

I’m really not so sure right now…

Today’s Word: Shoosh

I can remember a Danger Mouse episode in which Pennfold, Kernel K, and Danger Mouse all spent about 2 minutes of the show shooshing one another. There was some feigned shock at Kernel shooshing DM, etc, etc, etc.

I’m reminded of this today as I had the chance to observe a coworker pop-off, as well as read a few terribly misinformed blog posts. One of the drawbacks to the new social media is the alure of saying something when, truth be told, we should probably not say anything at all. People want to be known for their ideas, but many times, they are best represented if other have no idea what they are thinking.

“It’s better to stay silent and look a fool, rather than speak and remove all doubt.” — Benjamin Franklin

I see as in particular peril those of my generation (The cuspy-X-Y-ers) who just now are getting mature enough in their career to where they suppose they know something. Perhaps we do! True wisdom is tied up in descerning this.

My apologies if this post sounded too much like a fortune cookie.