How Large Does Your Network Need to Be?

Glenda Watson Hyatt shares her experiences living with cerebral palsy to motivate and inspire others to think about how they perceive their own situation and their own world around them. She does all this by typing with only her left thumb!

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I’ll Do It Myself by Glenda Watson Hyatt

How Large Does Your Network Need to Be?

Filed under: Social Media,Work — by Glenda at 2:13 pm on Monday, February 9, 2009

Each day when I log into the application TweetDeck to connect with my Twitter community, I receive an automated message informing me how many people are now followers:

Message from TwetDeck Services at twittercounter.com: GlendaWH has 959 followers, added since yesterday 0, average growth per day 2, predictions: tomorrow 961, next month 1019

Similarly, the AWeber counter in the upper right corner of this blog indicate how many people receive my blog posts via email:

86 readers by AWeber

Watching my network and my reach grow is exciting and rewarding. Interacting with new people often results in blog post ideas or in new opportunities; for example, if we can figure out the technology, I will be presenting via video at San Antonio’s AccessCamp on Saturday, February 21st.

However, the larger my network becomes, more and more people are pulling at me and wanting a piece of me for various reasons. I try to respond to everyone, but, in doing so, I am torn away from my work and plans.

How do you manage and respond to your network so it isn’t cutting into your productive time? How do you determine how large of a network you really need? Where is the balance point?

Your suggestions and advice are most welcomed!