Signal-to-noise management using #GoogleReader, #Posterous, #FriendFeed, #Twitter, #Buzz, #Facebook, #LinkedIn, #Flickr

I am trying Google Reader and/or Posterous as social media broadcast hubs.

In order to manage the network noise I might cause, I do not want to repost everything everywhere. This is emerging as a strong social networking faux-pas. But sometimes I might want to broadcast some items beyond the bounds of one network. TweetDeck could do this for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn (still don't know if I care about LinkedIn). But, not for Buzz or FriendFeed, which are where the people I am currently interested in following are posting and commenting on the posts of others (note to TweetDeck: catch up).

There are two kinds of items I might want to share across the boundaries:

• Things I read and comment on
• Things I think and try to work out in writing

I accept that these categories are blurred. The main difference is that the first will definitely have a link and the second might not have a link.

Items with links can be handled by GoogleReader's "Send To" settings (thanks to David Andrews for pointing this out) but not perfectly

If I select Posterous as the Send-To target and also have Posterous' "autopost" turned on, the item goes to Posterous, Twitter, FriendFeed and (if it is a picture) Flickr. Does it also go to Buzz? This is not clear. So, I tried using a current item from The Next Web, The Social Media Cheat Sheet (http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/03/07/the-social-media-cheat-sheet/) and the answer appears to be no. "Sending To" does not appear to send to Buzz. Although, commenting on an item, sharing an item and sharing with a note all do send the item and comments to Buzz. But, not to anywhere else. Another issue that arises via this route is that "Sending-To" Posterous strips out most of the attributional metadata from the post. Worse, if the item is originally discovered via a feed proxy you will have no idea who originated it by following the link to my Posterous. (Note to self, remember this when posting via Posterous.) However this vector does have the advantage of posting to  several places at once.

Alternatively I could choose to send to FriendFeed and allow FriendFeed to do the dirty work of spamming. Or, Twitter and consume Twitter in my FriendFeed. Then we are back into the high-noise scenario, but at least people who use FriendFeed could turn off my Twitter feed.

If you simply use Send-To from inside Google Reader you have to send to several services separately, and then, if you want it in your Buzz, you have to comment on the item again.

This could go on and on.

For now, I think I will share my Posterous to Twitter, and Friend Feed for thoughts like this. And, I will selectively repost interesting items to Buzz and elsewhere via Google Reader.

Posted via email from George’s posterous