I don’t use Twitter. OVERWHELMING. Like a gushing fire hydrant of information.

LinkedIn – have an account, use it once every couple of weeks. I try and keep connections there who I only truly know in a professional capacity.

My thinking is that you can be passive w/ some connections and that’s ok. It’s interesting to see what others are thinking about. And, some of those passive connections can flip over to active once in a while.

A social media “expert” explained it to me once this way: think of social media as a moving stream or river. Dive in when you can and get out when you must. But don’t try and keep up with everything and everyone. You will be frustrated.

This advice has helped me to have a good perspective on its utility.

My Facebook “friends” are a jumble of people (217) from all parts of my life. I have friends, family networks (I love keeping in touch with my nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews who I don’t see very often). I also have networks of coworkers, former coworkers, business/media contacts, high school classmates, friends from church, Leadership Twin Cities connections, friends from the disability community. One of my largest networks comes from a former online community: Readerville.com. These people, scattered all over the U.S. and Europe, were part of my online fix for about seven years. It’s been great to discover many of them have migrated to Facebook.

My personal Facebook network is about as large as I can handle. Maybe a few more old friends or other family members, but it’s plenty for me to keep up with. I now find I don’t post status updates as much as I did at the beginning. But, almost daily I’m on seeing who’s posted, linked, made a hilarious comment. It’s become my way to keep in the loop.

I also manage Courage Center’s social media sites. Our corporate Facebook Fan page has grown to 769 fans. For a nonprofit, Facebook is a must. It’s a fun new tool in the toolbox. But it’s just one tool.

Twitter has grown on me. I went into the world of tweets kicking and screaming (“Do I really have to?”) After a few trial balloons, I’m now comfortable Tweeting (although the name really doesn’t do much to add to its credibility), I also have a personal Twitter account @sgwarn12, but seldom use it.

There are lots of options in social media. Something is likely to fit your personality. Try them all. See what feels right and what doesn’t. If you’re a private person or only want to network professionally? Probably stick to LinkedIn. If you’re social, with lots of types of connections, Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter are probably a better fit.