A lot of my friends and family are on Facebook. They like it because Facebook makes it easy for them to share pictures and have conversations. And everybody else is on Facebook too so nobody is excluded.
Except you could have said that about MySpace a few years ago, and where is all your MySpace stuff now? And what do you do if some of your friend are on Twitter, some on BBM, others elsewhere? Friend hell.
Here’s how to establish an online presence that brings together all your friends into one place and lets you publish your stuff to wherever they are.
1. Decide where to put your stuff
Here’s where I put mine. I’m not recommending a particular service but this setup works for me:
- Pictures: Flickr
- Links I want to share: Tumblr. Here's my list: https://dominicsayers.tumblr.com/
- Short thoughts for a wide audience: PixelPipe or ping.fm + add connectors for all the communities where your friends hang out.
- Private conversations: Go to wherever your interlocutor hangs out
- Long thoughts: Wordpress. Here's mine: https://www.dominicsayers.com/
- Professional contacts: LinkedIn
2. Tell everybody where your stuff is
I use about.me to list where my stuff is.
3. Listen to all the conversations in one place
I use Google Reader to aggregate all the noise into one place. I can also use it to read columnists and writers I’m interested in without checking their websites to see if they’ve written anything new.
To subscribe to notifications from a particular site, look for an feed logo like this: 
- Add the feed to Google Reader and you’ll never miss an update from that site.
I don’t spend much time on Facebook. I want to talk to you here, outside in the great big world wide web. Don’t get institutionalized.
(p.s. I could just have easily said Twitter instead of Facebook - the same thoughts apply)