DISQUS

Loic Le Meur: Why I follow thousands of friends on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and Seesmic

  • steven scemama · 1 year ago
    Amazing
  • Corvida Raven · 1 year ago
    You have too much time on your hands, or too many friends :) Great ways to network though. You made me think of setting up a separate facebook account for my online friends.
  • tanguy · 1 year ago
    wow, long time I haven't been on your blog Loic, but more than 4000 friends on fb... on my own account, I only accept ppl I have met on real life (pretty cautious from a privacy point of view), and I want to stay in contact with - so I just stay under a reasonable 300 contacts.
    I even don't put my blog link on it... (which I should maybe do).
    Keep on though, & enjoy your afternoon
  • Scott Goldie · 1 year ago
    www.fblocalmail.com may help you with your Facebook messages. It's a desktop app that lets you send and receive Facebook messages via any email client. Loic, please send me an email if you would like a free license or any more information.
  • Loic Lemeur · 1 year ago
    thanks Scott, I would love to try that, can you send one to loic at seesmic dot com ?
  • Frederic · 1 year ago
    Salut! I'm attending Startup Camp at Moscone Center. Seesmic was one of the first startup mentioned by Matt Dickman (VP Fleishman-Hillard) as having a very successful media launch.
  • jensbest · 1 year ago
    well I think this friend-overload is just the tip of th iceberg of us (all) playing around with all the web2.0-stuff enabling us to use our cognitive surplus which was sucked in the last decades by TV. It all comes down to the point that we not yet found the way (and the sense) of all this interaction.

    Well, yeah, the traditionalist will come up with a ton full of schlau comment like e.g. the one of Konrad Lorenz that one human cannot have 1000 friends because of.....(well something like social overload, i have to look up the exact phrase) anyway

    it is not about having 4000 friends like friends you meet regularly or friends you meet occasionally but have a always quickly renewed deep understanding (mostly 'cause of gone throw hard/very enjoyable times before) - no it is about being connected on a more personal base than watching a talk show can bring to you, it is about THE FEELING about sharing some common, partly divergent opinions and/or wishes.

    So, there comes the "danger" of misuse, but this web of friends, web of trust has (i am totally convinced of that when even not totally clear) has a inner control mechanism to avoid mass manipulation.

    cloud of noise, well yeah, again an analogy from old TV-times - but web2.0 will not be a online version of the Jerry Springer Show, because the web from its beginning (remember the netiquette-thing?) had a control mechanism which was/is held up by the people.

    The only actual disadvantage at the moment maybe is that group/common decision making in online social communities is a bit...........slow. But that's just because we didn't yet analyse/develop tool and mechanism which support the optimal OUTPUT out of all this "clouds of noise.

    justmy2cents

    PS: for more on liberating of the collective cognitive surplus watch the spech of Clay Shirky on Web2.0 Expo SF few days ago: http://blip.tv/file/855937

    PPS: oh, and one way Web2.0 makes the world better can be found on the website I am proud to be a part of: www.betterplace.org
  • Daniel Ha · 1 year ago
    I love the "Most of this is crap" label. Beautiful!
  • shafqat · 1 year ago
    Loic, you now have one more friend on twitter! I think its quite impressive that you take the time to attempt to follow all these people (note, I said attempt because I dont think it's physically possible). Despite all the reasons against, you have chosen to try and that's what counts. To be ahead of the wave, you have to be far into the ocean first.
  • Daniel Ha · 1 year ago
    I love the "Most of this is crap" label. Beautiful!
  • Loic Lemeur · 1 year ago
    thanks Shafqat.

    Daniel, yes, hilarious isn't it?
  • Dan D · 1 year ago
    This type of thing would be a problem for me. I already find it hard to balance my time between working on my company and following industry news, which I think is def important to keep up with. I'd be interested to know how you and others divide their time.
  • jensbest · 1 year ago
    sleep less, eat healthy (and less), have an understanding woman, still play with the kids, delegate, delegate, delegate, speed reading, improve typing skillllllssss, enjoy every moment offline, focus on the moment, drink less (only good wine e.g.) be both stringent in time management AND allow free flow moments, stop watching TV, be openminded and all ears, but decide quick where to listen, when read a book go offline (even don't take notes online), read the final chapter of (non-fiction) book, when outlook there is interesting read the derivation and finally find a damn ending to your looooong comments (have to remind myself sometimes, sorry)

    oh, and i forgot - for following your industry news use www.netvibes.com and read 15 site in the same time than 5 before
  • Stketcher · 1 year ago
    I agree with you Loic. Has I try to establish my online brand or my online reputation I follow all the people that follow me on Twitter and FriendFeed, it makes a two way conversation possible. I think is really important of a blogger to try and establish a relationship with its readers, that makes for a great community.
  • lmc · 1 year ago
    i think it is great that you have the wide community - i love the friends and contacts i have made online, they are an incredibly valuable community to me both online and face to face. i realized a few days ago as i sent off birthday cards that my three closest friends in real life are people i first met online in 1985/1986.

    i have only posted one seesmic video but love the idea and will get busy soon! thanks for your active participation in the social networking online world - i love to watch what you do.
  • Nico Lumma · 1 year ago
    wow, loic, that's a lot of interaction, don't you get totally distracted and tend to neglect other things? I would if I'd have so many conversations at the same time...
  • JKE · 1 year ago
    Oh this also reminds me of Clay Shirky's speech the other day...... interaction and getting to learn a few things - instead of taking this "you've got too much time"-criticism too serious + being constantly misunderstood when it comes to justifying online activities.

    Maybe your family is the best judge on this. As for online stuff though, just look at Seesmic and where is has been half a year ago.
  • Tobbi · 1 year ago
    Respect, that's much work to handle :D
  • Scobleizer · 1 year ago
    Loic, this shows why you're the master of things social. I posted this to the World Wide Talk Show, aka FriendFeed.
  • Loic Lemeur · 1 year ago
    Thanks Robert! But I was seeing Seesmic as the World wide talk show ;)
  • Alex Hammer · 1 year ago
    This is fascinating. I also like Facebook chat - the immediacy of it - and thought that it might be more utilized by others than it appears to be. The organizing function that is going on around social media continually raises the bar in regard to how much information can be processed by others, and thus how much will be.
  • xavierv · 1 year ago
    that leaves little time for actual work...
  • charlie · 1 year ago
    Loïc, these tools were made for folks like you. But, for folks like me, fewer is better. Tonight, I just ditched a load of 'social' networks that just weren't adding anything to me. I stuck with the ones I use often.
  • dave · 1 year ago
    thanks great post