TweetDeck is a definite lifesaver! Can’t imagine following more than a few folks on Twitter without it. Love how I can have multiple columns to follow various streams.

I think people see Twitter and Facebook as time sucks because it’s really easy to loose focus when you’re using them (especially Facebook with all those apps… Petville once took up a lot of my time – luckily I realised fairly swiftly and got rid of it!).

However, the time it takes just to do a quick update/keep up with what’s going on is minimal – I’m learning to try and save the distractions until I’ve got time to enjoy them, although as a serial procrastinator, that’s quite hard to do!

I’d agree with your point above too – I hate it when you’re following someone on Facebook and Twitter, and their updates are always the same on both. It just makes it look like they’re making generic posts regardless of the platform.

It might help to turn off the notification (that tweeting in the corner of your screen). Go to “Settings” and then “Notifications” and then set accourdingly. I had to do the same. It was far too distracting. The “shiny” wears off with some use ;).

I do find it to be a time drain, personally. In theory I should be able to spend a few minutes a day on social media but in practice it’s a big black hole that sucks away all my free time. It’s like a drug that I sometimes try to quit but it always calls me back. I won’t go so far as to say I get the shakes when I go through withdrawal, but I have a hard time getting back out once I step into tweetland or facebookworld. I love your posts about using it to streamline. Now if I could just gain the willpower…