by Jamal Cromity, North Carolina Chapter, Information Technology and Leadership & Management Divisions

Being future ready will enable you to adapt to using tools that improve communication and help you develop new work flow paths. When using social media, the path to making successful community connection is not always certain. While you may have a desire to use one or two networking tools consistently, you will hear about another tool that sparks your interest which can also cause feelings associated with “information overload.” With so much information available from a number of directions, it becomes difficult to discern and synthesize people and services.

….Step back, take a deep breath, and be more determined to move forward. Follow these steps:

• Continue to you use the one or two services that work for you
• Through status updates or blog posts, schedule time to post either daily or weekly
• Read and reply to others you follow or are connected with

Your community connections will grow over time.

Here is a tip…

For personal or as an enterprise competitive intelligence site, those using tools such as Facebook and Twitter can consider converting these micro blogs into a newspaper format using Paper.li to help improve the way you discern, synthesize, and share information from the community connections you make.

In the image on the right is a paper I created called, “The Co-Lab Tribune” to help review post sent via links by those I follow.

Jamal Cromity has worked in the information industry for over 15 years. He is currently a UX Specialist for ProQuest Dialog and is Associate Editor for the New Review of Information Networking. Jamal holds an MLS from NCCU , an MBA from NYIT and is PM (Project Management) certified. He has received awards and honors from many associations including ALA, SLA, NCSLA, and NCLA.