How to manage a social media overload

I'm suffering from social media overload! Maintaining my social media presence has become a burden. Being a person that thrives on social interaction, I never thought that I'd reach this stage in my life.

Let’s start with some history.

In the beginning, there was Facebook. The world of status updates was simple. Facebook even told us how to start the sentence: “Napoleon is …”

Then along came a punky upstart by the odd name of “Twitter”. Its open platform rapidly encouraged people to share links (with URL shorteners, like Bit.ly), upload and comment on photos (with Twitpic), retweet other people's thoughts and star your favourites. All this within the space of 140 characters.

The world of status updates changed overnight. Now everyone and his mother is offering status updates, be it Sina Weibo, Google Buzz, Plaxo Pulse or Me2day memos.

Thanks to the creativity of the open source world(s) we currently inhabit, there are quite a few tools out there to manage all these conversations and they are all heading in the same direction.

Many started as tools for managing Twitter conversations, like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic but have now integrated Facebook as well. Ping.fm allows you to manage your status updates across multiple platforms at once. But, I’m going to run through a tool that I find works very well in an office environment, for managing your work and personal messaging platforms.

It’s called “Digsby”. No it’s not related to the large fluffy dog ‘Digby’, but is almost as faithful to its master’s demands. The software comes in Windows, Mac and Linux versions, and can be downloaded at www.digsby.com.

Basically, Digsby allows you to collect all your email, instant messaging, social networking and microblogging accounts under one roof. I only learnt whilst writing this article that they’ve also added LinkedIn, which means that I can watch what all my business contacts (and recruiters!) are saying and decide whether to involve them in my status updates.

Once installed, open the programme, click on the “Digsby” menu item, select “My Accounts” and set yourself up as follows:

So let’s start with email first. Unless you like having your email icon flashing at you every other second, I’d advise that you do not to switch on the email function. I believe that email needs to have its own special place on your desktop, away from the more instant messaging and statusphere tools.

Instant messaging is different, in some ways a more useful and succinct tool than email. Do add your most often used IM accounts, like MSN, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. If you’re someone who loves to be reached across all channels, you can tap into your Facebook Chat account too. (If Facebook is open on your browser, a chat can pop up in both interfaces, which can be confusing).

Then, if you’re an active online social butterfly, click on the “Add Social Network” button from where you can plug into your conversation streams on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Each one of these channels can appear as separate icons on your desktop tray, but I find it only makes sense for Twitter, from where you can watch and participate in real time idea sharing.

Probably the most useful element of Digsby is that, once you have all these accounts set up, you can change your status update across all your platforms in one foul swoop. Simply click on “Global Status” at the bottom of the Digsby interface, enter your message and publish.

My final piece of advice, turn off all notifications so that you are in control not being distracted every other moment. Or at least, leave the constant distraction to email!

If you are interested in sharing your tips with other Media readers, email [email protected].