My Online Life is As Hard to Balance As My Real Life...

Is There a Right or Wrong Way?

Alright, so it's been a few more days than I expected since my first post, but I swear I had all intentions of not letting too much time pass before my 2nd ever blog entry. Not sure what happened? I'm going to go out on a limb as say LIFE happened! My days are coming and going awfully fast lately. But, I think my real dilemma was figuring out how I was going to tailor my blog posts and decide what audience I wanted to most effectively reach. I want to make my blog posts relevant, but I also want it to have that personal touch to it as well. After all, this is supposed to be a blog about my journey through life post college era....

My Online Persona

Anyway, this past week I have been trying to focus on getting my "online life" organized. Wow, who knew keeping up with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even my new blog could be so time consuming? Thank god I love every minute of it! In an effort to calm my OCD and get things coordinated, I have stumbled across lots of new tools, interesting blogs, and also discovered quite a few new sites and people to follow on Twitter.

If are one of those people that think that technology has somehow made life more complicated with all the different channels of communication etc, THINK AGAIN. Google has proved once more that they still run the show with the launch of two new tools to make juggling all this clutter more simple. I am only going to briefly touch on these tools being that they are still invitation only (for me at least), meaning I have not experienced them myself yet.

Google voice is a free service that provisions a U.S. phone number chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Basically, you choose what phone you want to reached on and by whom. So, when you co- workers call you, you can have it only ring you work phone. But if your friends call, you can have it ring your cell and your home phone simultaneously. It's actually a fabulous idea, that is if you are willing to adapt an entirely new cell phone number. (the idea of that stresses me out)

Google Wave is a community where people can communicate and work together with text, videos, and photos in real-time aka live. Also, any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit content, and add participants at any point in the process. Then, you can conveniently rewind the wave to see who said what and when. Overall, this feature makes communication faster and, of course, easier!

And on to Twitter. I've been building my network of tweeples for a little less than a year now. When, I first started tweeting, I was using the networking site more for personal reasons than anything, but I have come to understand the effect it can have if used the "correct" way. As I try and make a name for myself in the PR and advertising industry, I believe my Twitter page is a place for me to start building credibility. That being said, I have really been focusing on following people/companies that are relevant to the industry, as well as incorporating more pertinent tweets. However, I still think the most important quality of any Twitter page is the level of personality you fuse into your tweets, making the ability for followers to relate much easier and more fun. So, some of my favorite new advertising, PR, and social media pages to follow on Twitter are:

- @mashable : always has the most up-to-date social media news

- @socialnetdaily : provides information on how to make the most of your Twitter and social media

pages and how they can help influence your business

-@theREALPRman : follow this guy to get social media info you probably won't find elsewhere and to

participate in polls and see how other tweeps are responding

Obviously there are a lot of other relevant tweeps to follow relating to this industry, I just think it's important to enjoy the Twitter style of the people you follow so you actually gain knowledge from their tweets. I know I look for elements like sarcasm, humor, and most importantly passion in posts on any social networking site. It really helps you identify with that person. Enthusiasm makes tweets or posts much more enjoyable for readers.

As the social media platform becomes more and more saturated, we have to make sure that we are focusing on sorting through the clutter and taking away what is most relevant to us individually. As I continue to expand my knowledge of the social media landscape each and every day, I encourage everyone to take time out each day to do the same. The future capabilities social media have only just begun, and I'm thrilled to be along for the ride!