Comments on: Is Social Media a Waste of Time, or What Are You Doing With Your Cognitive Surplus?

By: Making the best use of your time in social media | The Social Enthusiast

Making the best use of your time in social media | The Social Enthusiast — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:35:39 +0000

[...] help you keep your sanity, for another, it makes it easier to combat the almost-universal “are you wasting time on the internet?” question. Â Here are a few tips to [...]

By: Ad:Tech Chicago: Can We Please Stop Preaching to the Choir? | Social Media Explorer

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:16:28 +0000

[...] of Shirky’s since I caught his Web2.0 speech, which I wrote about in a post here considering whether or not social media is a waste of time.Â You won’t be shocked to hear that I think it’s not–but if you’re [...]

By: Social media is the topic of the day…plus some other stuff « PR Research

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:47:07 +0000

[...] the flip side, Social Media Explorer examines if social media is a waste of time. Is it simply “goofing off on the Internet”? One of [...]

By: Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire! » The Buzz Bin

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire! » The Buzz Bin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:38:29 +0000

[...] French of Social Media Explorer takes a deeper look at social media and its role in society. Is social media really just the 2008 version of Solitaire? In this intriguing post, Kat argues [...]

By: KatFrench

KatFrench — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:32:48 +0000

Thanks for the great, positive feedback. I was a little nervous about my first post here (Jason’s done a great job providing stellar content so far.) It’s good to know that my stuff is up to snuff.

By: Jason Falls

Jason Falls — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:21:22 +0000

Thanks to you all for the comments. I was impressed with Kat’s first post and I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one.

More to come from us both!

By: JLR

JLR — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:01:44 +0000

I agree with Vinny, I find this to be an exceptional post. I agree also that there are psychological benenfits to social media. I still have only poked my foot into the pool, so to speak, but my experiences with LinkedIn and trying out other social media options has had an immense effect on me.

My success at interacting and making new contacts (and/or friends) online has translated to the face-to-face world. I am more outgoing and more readily open to people. I am looking forward to continued success and personal development. I’m still not sure about blogging, I tried it but stopped due to unclear direction and worry someone might actually read it.

By: David Pye

David Pye — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:49:38 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed reading that. I wrote on my personal blog just last night about how I can never stop blogging because it’s better than having a shrink on hand whenever you need one. I recently added your RSS feed to my reader and it ain’t going anywhere. Keep up the great writing.

By: Dr. Pete

Dr. Pete — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:42:02 +0000

Great stuff, Kat. I definitely think that, historically speaking, leisure is a relatively new thing for most of us, and we have no idea how to use it. The timing of this is interesting, in that I decided to take a May “vacation” from many social networks. Honestly, I felt my internet use was becoming a bit compulsive. Although the month was very productive, I also realized that there was legitimate value to some of what I was doing, even on sites like Twitter.

Like anything, it wasn’t a problem with the tools themselves, but how I was using them. Social networks have tremendous potential for productivity and for time-wasting, and I think we’ll see a lot of both in the next few years.

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:37:17 +0000

::applauds::

Excellent, excellent post Kat. I’ve heard of Clay Shirky but this has convinced me that he’s a must-read.

This is the kind of stuff about social media that excites me!

Jason, you’re a lucky man to have Kat on your wing!

By: vdegeorge

vdegeorge — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:20:02 +0000

Great post. Where this should really hit home is with PR and Ad companies, leveraging personal relationships with people on social networks and engaging potential clients. Where industries once relied on local business lunches, that can now be branched out to – “Let’s chat online.” or “Here’s my Facebook profile.” or “Follow me on Twitter.” It’s much more personal and where the personal approach exists, there lies loyalties and solid business ties.

Some companies are using the social media approach for transparency, letting clients (or even competitors) read a blog written by an executive member of the company. This can work hand in hand with traditional press releases about products or service.

There is still “goofing off” (e.g. watching YouTube mindlessly), but actively using and participating in social media is simply a new layer of business and relationships related to business.