The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog

What’s a Crafter to Do with All These Social Networks? Tips for Not Going SN Insane

| 8 Comments

Are you to the point now where if you get one more email inviting you to one more social network (SN) you are going to scream? I mean enough is enough already! Am I right?

I’m not saying that social networks are not a good idea. I’ve met some wonderful, creative, and talented people through just about every SN I’ve joined. I’ve also managed to get some decent connections and promotion out them as well. But who has time for all of this socializing and networking? When does it start to be a waste of time rather than a way to promote your crafting while you get to know others in your chosen craft field?

If you go to my About Me page, you’ll see links to various SNs I’ve joined, about 8 so far, and holding. Honestly, while I know there are some other great ones out there, I’ve decided to stick with these for now. Even then, I still know I’m not using them to their full potential, but I have managed to find a balance that has worked for me, so I thought I’d pass it along.

Ideally, I would be posting blog entries every day on these SNs, but Twitter is really the only one I can manage because it’s so quick. Plus, I have my blog entries from my About.com site and this site set up to automatically post over there, and then Twitter automatically updates my Facebook page. So, that requires zero time on my part now that I have that set up.

The other SN sites, though, are a different story. For those, I try to go over once a week or every other week, when I have the time, and post a duplicate blog entry that lists lots of links to projects, articles, and whatever else I’ve been doing around the web. As an example, you can see my latest blog post over at MyCraftivity and then pop over to my MySpace page and see the same post, same goes for MetalChasers.

Most blogs in these SNs have an HTML option. Thus I can write up one blog post, view the HTML, block and copy it, and then paste it into the HTML window of another blog. This saves me a lot of time, and I can spread the word about my various other writing and craft work to a variety of readers since not all my myspace readers will necessarily be on metalchasers and metalchasers might not be on mycraftivity.

As I said, if I had the time, I know a daily posting like this to all the blogs would be a better way to go, but for now, this system is what I’ve come up with as a way to still use the advantages of SNs without driving myself completely insane with it all.

If you know of other simple ways to manage SNs, bring them on! I’m sure there are other simple methods I’m probably not considering.

Author: Tammy

Welcome to the Crafty Princess Diaries, my weblog and site where I get to blab about my passion for crafts, primarily jewelry making, and my crafting career. My name is Tammy Powley, and I decided to call my blog the Crafty Princess Diaries because of this very dorky picture I have of myself and because my husband often refers to me as “the princess and the pea,” which is just another way to say that I tend to be particular sometimes. Along with this weblog, I have a number of jewelry making books published.

8 Comments

  1. That’s pretty much what I do with my social networks. There’s only so much, or rather, so little time.

  2. I just join everything and ignore it.

    xox jean

  3. I found out about ping.fm from another sn contact. You can use ping.fm to simultaneously update ALL your social networks. It allows you to post a “status update” (which is like a tweet, I guess), a blog entry, and… microblogs (I’m not sure what the difference between status updates and microblogs are). You can also add the ping.fm app to igoogle (I am loving igoogle to keep track of all my stuff all spread out across the web…)

    Anyway, if you want to check ping.fm out, this week’s special sign up code is “vivalaping” (you need a code to sign up).

    I’m enjoying your blog!
    Heather

  4. I copy and paste my blog daily into MySpace and when it’s relevant into MyCraftivity. It’s a simple copy/paste maneuver. Then I Twitter the link. My IndiePublic has an RSS feed sidebar so that’s automatically updated. I feel the same as you, how many social networks can you join? When does it lose effectiveness and how much of it is spinning wheels?

    You have to assess what works for you and you seem to have a good handle on it my friend!

    Love ya
    Margot

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  7. I have just not figured out a proper balance with all the “opportunities” out there. Thanks for helping me think it through.

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