Mindjet: Connections Newsletter
Andrew Shuttleworth
My name is Andrew Shuttleworth and I’m the Founder of Customers, Vendors, People, a business matching service. I also co-founded the Tokyo 2.0, an event for web professionals in Japan, and Mobile in Japan, an online community of mobile enthusiasts. I spend a large percentage of my time networking online, so I have a good handle on the latest Web 2.0 and social media services and how to best engage in online conversations.
During my experience with these new social media services in late 2007 I noticed something concerning. The number of offerings out there began to balloon. There were new applications and services for blogging, microblogging, video, books, bookmarks and more. Pretty much anything you'd find in the offline world had a social equivalent online. Some social media services were developed to integrate with each other and some social media services were created just to manage other services.
What I came to see early on was that a person’s productivity level could easily slow just trying to: a) keep a hold of this flurry of new social media services and b) monitor and update contend on existing ones. To paraphrase the article editors at ReadWriteWeb wrote on the subject last year which featured me, social media fatigue became a reality most Web 2.0 savvy Internet surfers faced.
Being a heavy social media user, I needed a way to understand the types of information that existed within each of my social media applications and services. I also needed a way to make sure I was using my time to create, manage and share that information effectively. I developed twelve categories for content ranging from text, videos and photos to microblogs, bookmarks, Website URLs, bookmarks, software, lifecasting, comments, and blogrolls that I knew existed within my social media groups. At first I used many tools to capture the data within each and illustrate how each group related to each other. But after several failed attempts it was MindManager (with its ability to create floating topics, text markers, icons and relationship markers) that gave me the freedom to layout the best map of my social media presence.
Without having the ability to chart the relationships within and among my social networks that MindManager provided, I would have drowned in the sea of content, images and hyperlinks. I also suspect my endeavor would have failed before it even got off the ground. But within my MindManager map I was able to make some changes to the information flow that kept things working nicely. Whenever a new social media application or service appeared I would work out where it fit into the system of relationships I had already mapped and could quickly begin making use of it. In addition, my map became a central dashboard for managing all my social media online profiles, which came in handy for easy access when I needed to update them.
Since last year I believe fighting social media fatigue has gotten a little easier as people start to centralize on some core applications like Facebook and Twitter. Services like ping.fm enable you to post to multiple sites using your method of choice such as email or IM. But there is still a lot of complexity. If you would like to learn how to make better use of these services I recommend making a MindManager map like I did. You'll feel much more centered and organized when you get that bird's eye view of how your online life is organized.
