I still think of Twitter as a social reality for me, so I've not "limited" my presence there to any set number. But I do limit how much promotional items I do.

As for the rest, I've started only posting once or twice on Facebook a day. Once on my fan page a day to keep customers informed on new items. I'm a TOTAL flickr failure, I'm so rarely there. Although, my goal is to load one photo a day-- it's not happening. And I'm scaling back on how much I blog as well--mostly due to time, if I'm honest about it. But, I was never a 3 times a day blogger, so it's never been overkill in that regard.

All this to say, I've started narrowing my scope and how much I put out there. It is about quality, I think. Although, I don't know that I succeed, I'm trying. :D

Timely post for myself because I'm struggling with what to share, what to tweet, what to blog and most important, who really cares! The difference I see is that you have established web exposure and a personal brand. Many of us haven't and in an effort to build one we tend to overshare. See what works. I've thought about just deleting everything - God knows I'd have so much more time - and saying to hell with the digital footprint. Twitter gives me the most trouble even though it is the least structured. Good ideas to think about though. Thanks.

Mine's a work in progress, for sure, especially as my online presence gains a little more exposure. I've become much more cognizant of the information I share in various places, be it about myself or just something I found somewhere, keeping in mind who my audience is in each place and making deliberate decisions about who needs to be able to weigh in on what. Interesting thoughts, as always. :)

I was nodding in agreement throughout this post, and then I got to the quote at the end and burst out laughing...

I never had a MySpace account that I remember. I use FB infrequently in there is a much broader range of contacts (ie. family, personal friends, biz friends, biz contacts and long-lost-I'm-not-sure-how-much-I-want-you-back-in-my-life people) who see what I post.

I'm a frequent tweeter, and use groupings a lot in an attempt to organize the streams of info. I just started ACTIVELY using Delicious to tag articles/blogs that not only moved me in some way but that I also want to highlight for others to check out.

I still email. And I love texting.

I'm most personal on my blog, and also most abstract. It most clearly reflects the different facets of my personality, interests and beliefs. While I'm still fine-tuning the frequency of posts, my overall goal is to put a smile on my readers' faces by way of something beautiful or profound. Of all my forays into social media, it is the place I love the most. And while it has it's share of blindingly intimate, emotional posts, I've never wanted it to be a close-up of my underwear drawer.

Pictures tend to still be a one-to-one exchange for me. I reveal some on my blog or on FB on occasion but I have yet to want a Flickr or Tumblr account. I tend to look at Flickr, in particular, as a place to go to discover talented artists/photographers rather than as a place to keep my photo albums.

I agree with you that there are so many places one CAN be and that the challenge truly is to discover the most meaningful and worthwhile places. It's such a personal and fluid process.

And in general, the online world is like a buffet - I may want to eat a bit of everything, but if I do, I feel sick and can't move for days. My goal is to stick by a one plate rule that reflects a well-balanced meal. At the moment, I must admit I'm still going back for seconds.

Much like Mike, I'm trying to figure this out for myself right now, too. Facebook is how I keep in touch with family and friends (most of them from college, a few from law school). So far, Facebook is for strictly "non-work, non-marketing" connections and so I'm more open there -- your example of the differences between Facebook and Twitter was spot on. I have only one Facebook connection with someone I work with day to day, and have some anxiety about expanding that.

Twitter is a new experiment for me, and I'm just getting started.

My current blog is brand new and also experimental. I haven't really bothered to let anyone know that it exists yet, because there are only two posts so far. My last public blog -- that is, the last one other than a disused 2000-era Livejournal shared only with a few friends and family -- never really got off the ground because I never found my public voice. I blame work and say I didn't have time, but perfectionist fear was my real impediment. I was too self-conscious, too worried about what people thought of me. It's time to get past some of that perfectionism and anxiety.

That old Livejournal still exists, but I haven't written anything there since August. That would probably still be where any serious private post for a more intimate audience would go. Most of my friends and family have migrated to Facebook for quick-update sorts of communication, though.

It's intriguing to note that you use Delicious to tag blog posts you read and comment on, as I've been stumbling and reviewing such articles lately.

Hmmm, a hierarchy of sharing :-) by quantity or quality?

By quality, my blog is top of the tree - I only post something every couple of weeks, but I've kept that going for nearly a year now. Before that I was a citizen of 43things, where I was very open but anonymous. Which worked very well as a personal growth community.

I like Delicious, it's brilliant for sharing ideas - your tagging idea is inspired!

Then it's Twitter, though after playing with it for a few months, it's hard to find people who are both interesting and not constantly retweeting marketing gumpf. And it's a total time-sucker for me - I'm not sure what skills I would need to get more out of it. Big question mark.

I haven't had the email overload problem that people talk about, so I check 3 or 4 times a day without any anxiety.

Facebook scared the crap out of me. Not only did I get connected to all sorts of people I left my home town to get away from, but I don't like what they are doing collecting all that data. It's almost another Internet. Brrrrr. I deactivated (though I still haven't worked out how to be deleted!).

I think you are right about filtering before sharing making a big comeback. It's just respectful to others really, isn't it? And I suspect it's more creative for the person sharing too.

Nice post ;-)

I've been thinking a lot about this stuff.

I think the important thing is to consider who is on the receiving end of each platform.

Facebook - I have a few hundred true friends, a few hundred people who befriended me because they kind of know me from playing a show or something, a bunch of old childhood friends and teachers, and family members. That's a pretty general audience, so I also keep it on the light side. Funny videos, etc.
I also don't link to any of my blog posts on my Facebook (personal) page...unless it's not specifically all about me or my music.
I have a Facebook fan page where I post a link to each of my blog posts (2x/week). That audience is interested in my music.

Twitter - the audience there is brought together by common interests, beyond just interest in ME and what I'm doing. We're interested in each other. I do link to my blog posts when they come out, but in keeping with the idea of Twitter = local bar, I keep the "me" talk to a minimum. Just enough to be involved in a conversation.

I don't get a lot of emails other than family and friends and I would really rather have emails! That doesn't bother me. Twitter bothers me. Facebook---about to get back on since I am moving and want to keep in touch with some friends here.

Flickr---I blind dump things but I also pick and choose. It started as a way to share albums with friends and family and now I used my best photos for my blog. I don't see Flickr as a 'real' photographic medium other than some light critiques and friend making. I think it would have to change its format to get what I know many photographers want out of it.

Blogging...I have a difficult time making it one particular theme because I want it to be my journal. Sure it'll be about trips and photographic expeditions but then I used it for my little rants and raves and mindless stuff, too.

the only problem with using Twitter and cutting back on e-mail is that you have to be following that person for them to send you a direct message. if someone has a question they don't want to ask in front of the whole world (maybe they want to be anonymous?) they can't send you an e-mail anymore because you've talked about how you're ditching that medium mostly.

for me, cancelling my Twitter is my #1 priority - not very personal, and if i want to change the world one hand-knit at a time, personal is the name of the game for me. so i'm sticking with e-mail.

the blog is my #1 share device, coupled with my Google Feed Reader. i share ridiculous amounts of other people's stuff with my GFR, and then share my own stuff on my blog.