Microblog Stew

I hear this quite a bit, "Gosh, Mike, you have pretty much joined everything, haven't you?" Of course these people are referring to social networks, micro blogs, you get the idea. The answer to that is always, "Can't help it.". I'm always trying to find that right formula for posting in a  new web environment. I think a lot of people are. So out of all those hundreds of services, what am I using, and what has found the trash heap (for now)?

As I discussed earlier, the blog is home. It will always be home. I learned that pouring myself into these start ups typically leave me with my data scattered and confusing to access. From home, I regularly update Twitter, read and share articles via Google Reader, and then feed them through my main Tumblr blog which has been optimized for mobile use. I also have a Posterous account and my own picture posting Tumblr page. When I Digg something, it relays back to the mobile site, but there's a handy link to it in my blog.

Of course there's Facebook, but that's another topic for another time...maybe.

That's it. It all runs together. If I take a picture on my phone, I email it to Posterous which sends to Flickr, those Tumblr pages, and to my Facebook News Feed. When I post a new blog entry, it feeds to my Twitter via Twitterfeed, posts to my mobile Tumblr page, and to my Facebook notes.

So there is some redundancy, but it is well thought out. It's too easy to get a Ping or HelloTXT account and just dump everything you say, think, photograph, video, reply, comment, but how tired can that get if you follow people on multiple accounts? Pretty tired. That's my biggest annoyance when it comes to these networks being tied in together and my biggest point of advice to anyone on these social networking sites.

Keep It Simple, Superuser. Don't post everything everywhere.

So what has not made it? What's sitting on the trash heap of social media? As I mentioned earlier, though I have a respect and have services like Ping and HelloTXT ready to use, I prefer to avoid services like that. Friendfeed since being purchased by Facebook for me is on the shelf for now. I look forward to using it once it's all integrated together, but as I mentioned, that's another post for another time. Jaiku has been an unfortunate casualty. I love the service, I love that it's a Google service, but I don't think anything is going to come of it. Cork'd, Socialthing, Remember the Milk, Mento, Plurk, Socialmedian, and others have all been shelved. I wont' say they're dead to me, they just don't fit into this space, at the moment.

In time who knows, I do know that it will need to pass two tests. It needs to work well with the blog, and it has to work well with my other services, seamlessly.

So what am I missing? What should I be using? What are you using? I'd love to know!