Life online can be a lot of fun, particularly when you stay in touch with friends, associates and others you have met during the course of training or sharing some common interest.

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Linkedin and many others are highly valuable services that, while very user friendly, are absolutely tremendous consumers of time that will leave you wondering where the day has gone.

You login to catch up on some tech news or resources and exchange a few ideas with associates and the next thing you know, its bedtime. Minutes become hours and you’ve likely not accomplished anything other than the socializing aspect of things.

As a blogger you simply cannot afford unlimited periods of time hanging out, as your main focus must be on content production, keeping your site fresh and up to date. So with this in mind, you have to be cognizant of just how much time you spend networking because it is so easy to get caught up in the flow.

I established a blogging policy that does not provide for social site visits during periods that my blogs have not been updated, thereby ensuring that I handle my business issues first.

The online life is very much like real life in that, there are certain priorities you must have to maintain success. In real life you’re not really interested in going out on the town when there is work you know you have to do, so you just as well act like you know.

When I am social networking I make a concerted effort to be productive by checking in with my blogging friends and associates, techies and geeks. These are all folks like me, who love technology and have a common goal of building something profitable and sustainable online.

Additionally, there is the sharing of all that I have learned in my many years of internet usage. It’s a funny thing, but no matter how long you’ve been involved with computer technology, you are always learning something new as the development of technologies continues to evolve.

This is not without a price however. Time, which is more precious than money, just accelerates like crazy online. The fact of the matter is this; cyberspace is truly another time zone.

A few tips for managing your social networking activity.

• Remember your goals

Goals should always be broken down into tasks that will add up to the end result when completed one by one. If you are behind on your tasks, then you probably don’t have a lot of time to invest socializing online.

If your goal is to generate 5 articles each week to post to your blog and you’ve only written 2, then ask yourself what the hell you’re doing out on Facebook playing ONO or killing time looking at someone’s photos.

• Schedule your networking activity

Most busy people (me included) use some sort of time management tool to stay on top of the many things that must be accomplished during the course of each week. Make social networking one of these tasks and schedule a slot of time for this activity. When the time has expired, it’s time to move on to your next item.

• Maintain a focused strategy

Each time you log in to one of these sites, you should know your intent in advance. If you plan to exchange some information with a particular group of contacts, be certain to accomplish this first. It is easy to get distracted and end up doing something you had no intention of getting involved with during that online session.

For instance, Linkedin is a network of professionals and you may have scheduled a time to meet some of these folks online to have a discussion on a project. This is no different than any other business meeting, so be where you are suppose to be when you are suppose to be there.

• Identify your best times to be productive

Some people are more productive at certain times of the day (morning vs evening) and you should know what’s best for you. Once identified, use your best productivity time for the most important tasks and save the social networking for another time period.

• Avoid these sites during work hours if employed by others

If you work for a corporation or small business, be certain to check your employer’s policy with regard to accessing social networking sites. Many companies have forbidden this activity altogether for the very reasons that we’ve already identified, they are huge killers of time.

• Utilize an overall strategy for building you brand

Engage in only the number of social network sites that you can consistently update. Spreading yourself too thin around the internet can be counter-productive as you will end up with several sites that are outdated, making you look non-professional.

If you only have time to interact on 1 site, that’s fine. Identify a core group of contacts and friends and regularly provide updates and interact with them.

• Create some boundaries

You do not need to establish a relationship with every person that comes your way (sorry webcam girls). Like real life, surround yourself with like-minded individuals who can lend something to your overall development and growth.

If you are a CSS programmer you may find little in common with the do-it-yourself home improvement types, other than performing some tech work for them. In terms of educational growth, they’ll have nothing to add to your niche.

The bottom line is that staying organized and productive is imperative to your overall growth, so spend your social networking time with those who can share in the experience and provide you with something of value as well.

Be guarded and aware of the amount of time you put into these sites, as they are all somewhat addictive.

Internet junkies like me, while spending a lot of time in many places, have developed a highly efficient way of interacting with the thousands of people we share our online lives with.

Watch out for the “shiny objects” that the internet has to offer, as many of them serve as little more than distractions that will keep you from your overall goals.

On the other hand, if it is your intent to simply kill time because you have nothing else productive to do, than social networking sites are just the place for you.

If you’d like to keep in touch with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, to name a few.

How do you interact with social networking sites and what strategies do you employ to manage this activity?