"How Many Social Networks are Enough?"

[Rich Jacobson]

If you're like me, it seems like you're get invited to some new social platform nearly every day.

How many Social Networks are enough? Seriously. How effective can you be at networking if you're spread too thin already? After all, we do actually have to spend 'some' amount of our time doing 'business.'

Are we just the kind of folks who have to take a peak at anything new that comes along? Are we just naturally 'curious?' Or is it that the social networks we're already involved in just don't satisfy all our needs/wants?

What say ye?

[Rich Jacobson]

Sorry for my absence. I had no idea that you all would pipe in so wonderfully, so THANKS!

My main purpose in asking this question was just an effort to get my arms around the reasons why many of us keep wandering onto other social networks, AND, what is it, what features do we need to create on ActiveRain that we're missing the boat on?

Carole - you mentioned the looks of this place. I would totally agree. I love the aesthetics, and having my own music library, How sweet is that?

But really, what other elements/features could we create on AR that would give us greater sticking power, and keep people from wandering onto other platforms? OR, is that just our nature, to be curious, to want to go check out other places, even when AR offers so much already?

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

[Carole Cohen, Realtor®, Howard Hanna Company]

I think Bob said it best Rich (and bout time you showed up LOL) :-) AR is the best place for real estate networking with other agents; the SEO thing isn't satisfied with AR is it? When I get time (huh) I want to do the Ohio group in full form on here but it's still too early to tell about hyper local here. Twitter is great for meeting real people and letting our hair down with everyone.

[Lisa Heindel]

Hi Rich, thanks for the reminder that I even belong here :)

If you are looking for AR suggestions, it looks like everyone likes the way we can personalize our pages here and how easy it is. IMO, the way we have to toggle from WYSIWYG to HTML on AR is painful. I have messed that up sooooo many times it's not even funny.

I also like the discussion option here - I don't have to create a blog post to ask a question or for assistance on something. So far, no nastiness here either that I've seen, but I'm not here alot either and the network isn't that large yet.

I love what AR has done for my google ranking and I have learned alot from it, but I'm working hard on my outside blog as well, because there is no temptation for the consumer to click away from me to someone else there.

[Stephanie Edwards-Musa]

I agree with Lisa, having the abilities to make changes to our page, etc. I also like how everyone 'plays nice' on this site. Occasionally I get irritated with the hectic dashboard on AR...2 dashboards or an additional page for discussions would be nice.

[The Maui Hunter Georgina M. Hunter R(S)]

Hi Rich, I really like the photo adding (8 at a time) and organizing feature, and creating albums and slide shows that can be added to our own websites.... I'm making good use of that. Being able to customize our page is nice too.

[Elaine Reese]

Versus AR, this site is so much more visually appealing - not industrial strength geeky. I LOVE how much nicer my profile looks here. I like having access to the photos I've uploaded in case I want to change them. Can't do that on AR. Plus, having the album display of my photos and my videos next to my profile is nice. It's also much quicker to post or write a forum question or reply to a forum question here.

AR has been a disappointment as they seem to prefer quantity vs quality. People or posts with kersplatts should be deleted, and AR's not doing that. The "Top Agents" on Localism is a joke. It should read "Top Gamers". Take a look at the posts since Sept of the #2 in Ohio. Why do I want to be in that category? It's embarassing for the industry.

Your comment indicates that we should only use AR. That would be dangerous for us to put all our eggs in one basket. My fear this past year has been that unless AR cleans up the gamers & plagiarizers, at some point Google will whack AR, and our hard work to build our business on their site will be lost. AR already went from PR5 to a 3 last fall.

That's why our outside blogs are so important, AND joining other places for added Google Juice.

[Stephanie Edwards-Musa]

Ditto Elaine, my outside blog has actually been getting indexed quicker than my AR ones lately.

[Lisa Heindel]

I agree, Elaine...if the gamers on AR are the top dogs on Localism, why the push for everyone to post more there? My consumers are my focus, but if you look at Localism in my area, the first things people see are OLD articles. Not the best face to put forward to potential buyers/sellers.

[Justin Smith - Tomato Coach | SEO | SEM | SMO]

Hey Rich,
I have a question on something that Lisa touched on. Why is it that on Localism, so many older posts show up before newer ones on the state county and city pages. Is it because those posts have had more views or comments? How is that determined?

Thanks Rich!

BTW, my personal feeling with all the networks (and what I teach the Tomato students), is that creating a basic profile at the bare minimum is a necessity. Beyond that we concentrate on more of the real estate related networks like activerain, realtown, wannanetwork, and others.

[Rich Jacobson]

I want to thank all of you for making such valued thoughts and opinions. I definitely DO NOT feel that ActiveRain could ever hope to be all things to all people. I don't think we even want to try that! But certainly, if there are features/functions that we're missing the boat on, we should know about it, and determine if they could be or should be implemented into our platform. My goal/hope is to make improvements/changes to AR that will benefit the members, and enhance their experience there!

Always feel free to give me any input of suggestions along the way. Thanks again!

Rich Jacobson

[Jack Johnson]

Hey Rich,
I think a huge motivating factor for so many networking platforms is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Yes its true the more places you are then the more places you can be found. But if one is too lazy and is not well versed in the ways of SEO then one might simply copy and paste themselves all over the world. The unfortunate fact is that when one does that a search engine will view thier posts as 'Duplicate Information' and will not bennefit at all.
My oppinion, Stick with one or two networking platforms and thrive at it. Organic marketing is great, but it must be done right.

Jack Johnson
Realtor
Pottstown PA
http://www.iknowjackandtom.com

[Eric Kodner]

What drove me here today is my daily addiction (LOL) which was thwarted by the ActiveRain servers being down again.

Finding ActiveRain members was my biggest motivation for joining this site. The "following" aspect of membership is certainly one reason we gravitate from one social network to the next.

I wish there was some simple way of managing all the social networks, networking directories and so forth from one platform.