Cutting through the noise

Staying focused can be challenging sometimes. Especially working in a busy newsroom, where torrents of information are strewn like beads at a Mardi Gras parade.

Considering the smorgasbord of media choices available and the lightening-fast evolution of how information is collected, retooled and distributed, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into cutting through the noise.

Press releases, e-mails, phone calls and text messages continually bombard the senses, not to mention the dozens of pieces of spam and junk mail that find their way onto my desktop each day. I even received a 25-page old-school fax last week. Then there are the standard weekly meetings, the buzz of other reporters and coworkers, and my good old-fashioned inbox.

I thrive on it.

But I have to admit that the sheer volume of information itself can be overwhelming. Even for a self-professed mediaphile. Then there’s the task of sorting through it all in order to pick out the most pertinent items. You pluck out the really important items – the one’s that grab your attention – organizing the rest into tidy, or not so tidy, little compartments until the need for them arises or they become totally irrelevant.

Social-media applications are multiplying as well. Since the 2003 launch of MySpace, dozens of others have bellied up to the bar, garnering thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of new users each week.

It’s synergistic and it's exponential.

A few weeks ago, fellow blogger Isaiah McGee and I broached the subject of filtering “friends,” “followers” and “connections” on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, respectively.

That conversation got me thinking about the topic of this post and led me to form the following questions:

• Do you try to screen your Facebook friends, picking and choosing whom to add based on how they fit in to your life? Or perhaps you'd like to connect with a particular person, but on a different level or in another forum?
• When someone follows you on Twitter, do you follow them right back or do you try to be more selective? Are you hesitant to follow too many people, fearful that the stream of updates will get clogged, hindering you from tracking the folks you really want to keep tabs on? (I’m considering downloading TweetDeck, a desktop application “that enables users to split their main feed into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets.”)
• When using LinkedIn, do you try to look only for professional connections and professional development opportunities?

I emphasize “try” because it seems the more involved I become with building my online social networks, the more I consider the questions of how, why and even IF I should be filtering my contacts or attempting to compartmentalize them. Do you think vetting potential contacts somehow defeats the objective of social media?

I want to hear what methods you are implementing to regulate how your social networks are built and if there is/should be some type of social-media ethical standard to help us answer how to respond to these types of questions.

Am I way over-analyzing this?

Chime in.

See you in the news!

- Todd Razor

Comments

[Nathan T. Wright]

Great post, Todd! There are definitely different social mores within each network, which can potentially make the friending / following process even more confusing.

Here are the "standards" I try to adhere to. (Emphasis on try.)

Facebook: This is reserved for people I've actually met. Friends, family, co-workers, a few clients here and there, and more recently old high school acquaintances.

Twitter: I follow liked-minded or interesting people. I may meet them some day, or never, but it doesn't really matter. I just like consuming what they're thinking about.

LinkedIn: I reserve this for professional connections. It's my living, breathing rolodex. Every time I meet someone in a business setting, I go back to the office and look them up on LinkedIn. If they have a profile, I request a connection.

[giolicious]

I appreciate the fact that you are letting us see the previews

[Justin Brady]

I agree with Nathan on this one. I am more selective when it comes to Facebook friends.

Also, I won't follow anyone back on Twitter unless I think they are interesting, or they are a wealth of knowledge. I use Twitter because I legitimately want to pay attention to my friends / colleagues.