Cynthia Peterson's List: Personalizing Your Space on the Web

• Integrity

   

  Don’t be phony! Be yourself — it’s what your  social network friends added you for. There are, of course, many ways  to “game” just about every social media system, to get more diggs, to appear to  have more followers, to get your posts Stumbled, and so on. But in the end, it’s  an empty gain — people who follow you because you appear to be something you’re  not will quickly un-follow you, people who end up at your site because you  managed to get more votes on a post than you deserve will leave without reading,  and all you’ll have is an empty number to show off.

• Focus

   

  Signing up for social networking sites and social news sites is easy, but  unless you’re willing to put in some work, you won’t get much out of it. You  need to keep your profile reasonably up-to-date, maintain at least a marginally  active presence, and talk to other people now and again to make it work.
• Pick a handful of services and sites to put a lot of energy  into — or however many you have time to really commit to — and stay off  the rest.

• Add Value

   

  This is the single most important thing to remember on any social networking  site. Do whatever it takes to make your posts, your profile, your story  submissions, or whatever the “currency” of the site it, as valuable as  possible. You add value when you submit a link; you add more value when  you include a really good description of the article; you add more value still  when you explain why I would want to read it; and you add yet more value when  you tell me what the author left out or how the information might be used.

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