This is a guest post by Chris Goddard from Affilorama.com – an affiliate marketing training site.

Technology has a habit of embedding itself in our lives – so much so that we start working by its schedule, rather than by our own.

Unfiltered, social media can be too much to handle! image: theVanCats

There isn’t a single application or service that, in my mind, does an excellent job of aggregating multiple social feeds into one manageable interface. (Sorry FriendFeed fans… but I’ve never been satisfied with you!). Hopefully one day there will be, but for now we have to rely on our own time management to navigate the insurmountable torrent of information that passes over our screen and mobile devices each day.

So how do you do it? How do you stay on top of social media without it being all you do?

I follow three basic processes:

1.) Segment

With so many sources, the trouble is knowing what to listen to and what to ignore. One option could certainly be to just block out some of those sources – follow less people, blogs, etc. But that kind of defeats the purpose! Instead, I segment sources by relevant topics and by my level of interest. Applications like Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader all allow you to create sub-lists or “groups” of people or sources.

There are people on my Facebook who I really don’t need to hear from all the time – or people that I’ve added, like old school friends who I’ve accepted mainly to be nice and not out of any real desire to keep in touch. By adding these people to common lists, it’s not only possible to remove them from the stream, but you can also set privacy settings across them so they can only see limited information about you – this is particularly good if you don’t want your boss or new business partner seeing those drunken photos of you in the Santa suit last Christmas.

Twitter is a little trickier. While a lists function has been added it still has a few limitations – mainly that many Twitter apps have yet to support Twitter’s lists – with the exception of Tweetdeck 0.32 and a few others. I rarely use Twitter’s web interface anymore, opting for the in-browser plugin EchoFon (great for receiving updates while you’re working). Once more apps like these incorporate lists, then sifting through Twitter feeds will become a lot easier.

2.) Prioritize

Some sources you want and need to hear from throughout the day, whereas for others once a day is enough. Things like breaking news, new releases, new trending topics, etc, are temporal and are “need to know now,” where as more in-depth analysis, commentary, entertaining and personal can be a once or twice a day thing. The hardest part is disciplining yourself to only look at the segments you should – however I find that by checking my top lists every hour or so, I feel sufficiently “plugged in” to satisfy my appetite for information while not taking too much time to do it. While if I try to go cold turkey and abstain completely – then I just get frustrated! A little moderation is easier.

3.) Follow Well-connected Influencers

Finally – find the people who make staying plugged in easier for you. These are the people who collect information from a variety of sources and republish it. In digital media some of the best examples would be some of the big ‘news services’ like @Mashable, @Techcrunch, as well as a few individuals like @copyblogger, @philipnowak and @rebbeccakelley. These 5 probably account for 80% of the important updates that I get – and therefore are the first 5 that I check. Follow these influencers and you are letting someone else do the work for you.

At the end of the day, the flow of information is too vast and overwhelming to catch it all – it’s like trying to divert a river with your hand. Instead, focus on grabbing the few important bits that are floating by and you’ll stay informed while still being able to achieve something else with your day!

How do YOU stay productive and manage information overflow?

  Click here to share this post on Twitter!

“If you enjoyed this post, leave quick comment below or subscribe via e-mail or RSS. Don’t miss out on new social media articles and interviews!” -Brett

This year, several million people and companies will roll out new blogs and web sites. Because of the intense competition and limited supply of reader attention, a majority of these new sites will fail. If anything about your content seems missing or “off” during the initial split-second glance… you are doomed.

Understanding the essentials of contemporary Web content style & structure will give your content a much better chance of getting noticed, read, and recommended to others:

#1 – Truthful Headline & Strong Hook

The headline is key. If it doesn’t create a sense of interest and value, no one will ever click on your post to read it. The hook is the juicy / interesting angle of the story that reaches out and snags people’s attention – pulling them in to read the copy. Every good story has a hook… but sometimes you have to brainstorm and dig deep to find it.

An excellent article headline on Copyblogger by Michael Stelzner

Make your headline as interesting as possible – but take care to avoid sensationalism… because your headline is a written promise. If the content doesn’t fully deliver on the expectations you created in the headline – you’ll get clicks but you’ll quickly “burn” your readers… leaving an angry reaction and a bad impression about your brand.

#2 – Beautiful Typography

Most default blog and content-management themes come with very basic typographic styles. This was okay a few years back when blogs were new… but now your text has to be formatted with style, readability and originality in mind – or else your ideas won’t be taken seriously. This excellent article on content optimization explains how many experts recommend using the font Veranda – but I’m a fan of Arial (the font you’re reading now).

If you want examples of immaculate web typography to emulate, check out CSS Zen Garden.

Your site’s header logo needs to be professionally designed with a graphics program. Then the text typography needs to be formatted in CSS. All of the critical text (HTML) elements of your content – bold, italics, header 1, header 2, header 3, ordered lists, unordered lists, links, already clicked-on links, blockquotes, definitions – need custom styles. Tweak out the subtleties of spacing and font decoration until you get a look you’re very proud of. (CSS is an essential skill if you want to blog with style – I learned it from these awesome online courses.)

#3 – Professionally-formatted Photos and Illustrations

Unless you’re an A-list’er or some Pulitzer-prize winning writer – too much plain text is downright intimidating. Having one or more images in the text will make your content easy on your readers eyes (and brain). Get images from Flickr Creative Commons, stock photo sites, or your own digital camera. A simple chart or illustrations can make a post look many times more professional. For relatively easy-to-use graphics software, I recommend OmniGaffle for OS X or Fireworks. Finally, try to format your images with captions, dropshadows, or CSS “frames” to make them look professional.

#4 – Subheaders and Bulleted / Numbered Lists

Many people will be reading your content at work and they may be in a tremendous hurry to get the gist of it. Also, most users prefer to quickly scan web content diagonally, rather than actually “read” it.

Having bold, nicely CSS-styled subheaders (i.e., H2, H3, H4 tags in XHTML) make your content easier to grok and less intimidating to zip through in a hurry. Lists (i.e., UL & OL tags) help people soak in important facts that would otherwise sail right under their radar.

#5 – Clear, Lean & Engaging Writing

Quality writing is important. image: StaR DusT

If your writing is murky, verbose, or filled with errors - your content won’t get shared and recommended. Review the classics like The Elements of Style – and also check out more modern primers like A Guide to Writing Well and the Copywriting 101 series.

#6 – A Unique Perspective

There’s way too much fresh, high-quality content being created for stale or recycled stuff to have much chance. If you just echo stuff that has already been written, or publish lists of links – you become really easy to ignore or safely unsubscribe to.

A fresh new twist on the same-old flavor. image: David K

As Maki @ DoshDosh explains in his article The Future of Content in the Age of Information Overload:

“Detailed, unique content immediately stands out on its own, even without extensive marketing efforts. People don’t just want to be informed, they want to better grasp a topic in all its nuances. The joy of consumption lies not only in the skimming of a news story but the processing of new perspectives to enrich a personal worldview or professional need.”

#7 – No Pagination, Forced-Registration or Intrusive Ads

Some corporate Web publishers like to take an article like “Top 10 North American Snowboarding Resorts” – and split it up into 10 pages to increase pageviews and make more ad impression money. This kind of “company-first” thinking doesn’t fly with the modern social media culture, who demands quick access to your information and minimal hassles. Also, pagination harms your SEO efforts.

This was a good article, but it would be a better experience if hadn’t been split into 13 pages.

Forced-registration will kill any social media potential, and the much-hated interstitial ads (example) will give your content some serious negative points when it comes to viral potential. Lastly, make sure your ad network doesn’t permit deceptive schlock that insults the intelligence of 99.9999% of your users:

Avoid this shit like the plague.                            

#8 – Links to Sources and Additional Information

 

High-quality web content has text with hyperlinks to sources, proof and additional resources. This takes your content to a higher level of credibility than “just some guy’s opinion.”

#9 – Information About the Author

Who wrote the story?… An anonymous troll? A highly-respected expert? Some guy in Swaziland you hired on Elance?

Linkerati like top bloggers, librarians and “real” journalists need to know. If they can hold someone accountable to a story… they’re more likely to feel secure blogging about it, linking to it, or quoting facts from it. Having the author’s full name in the byline, with a link to their biography (containing a clear photograph) will help score major credibility points.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment or sharing it with your friends on Twitter! Subscribe via RSS for more high-quality content from Social Media Rockstar!