“Ding!” … Sorry, if I seem … “Ding!” … distracted, I’m participating in … “Ding!” … the #DomoSocial experiment. I resisted social media … “Ding!” … until Josh’s challenge because … “Ding!” … I didn’t want to lose my … “Ding!” … productivity. Now I am social on Twitter, … “Ding!” … Facebook, … “Ding!” … Klout, … “Ding!” … Pinterest, … “Ding!” … FourSquare … “Ding!” “Ding!” “Ding!” (thanks Ned) … and a tidal wave of other social network sites. I must admit that I am #addicted (just clicked on TweetDeck) and less productive! In fact, … “Ding!” … I feel like a dog from a Pavlov experiment … “Ding!” … or Up … “Squirrel!”

I am committed to battle through the experiment and regain my productivity. I value and prize my ability to focus and be productive. My goal entering the #domosocial experiment was to become more effective and this is what I have learned: Social media is about not being distracted.

Distraction #1 — While searching for my sister-in-law on Facebook, I learned there are many women with the same name. In addition, a majority of them like to take their clothing off for pictures. These imposters were certainly “fakes” and I did not want to be distracted. I quickly learned to use social media to be real.

Distraction #2 — After logging a lot of time and energy over a week to raise my Klout score from 10 to 24, my true reach (grain of salt here) is only 11! Really? I spent all of that time and I only affect 11 people. One word: LOL! I realized that “klout” comes with time and sincerity. I was being “fake” assuming I could spend a week socializing and then return to productivity. Social media is about being me (the real me) over a long period of time. This will earn me respect, which is better than klout!

Distraction #3 — At the start of week two, I clicked on klouchebag.com. I read the site (laughing heartily) and put @BrianPilati to be measured. WHAT? A 50! It appears I am neck-in-neck when it comes to “Retweet Abuse” and “Social Apps”. Again, I was being “fake”. My first mistake was I connected all of my apps to Twitter and from Twitter to Facebook. My Facebook wall looked like a war zone. Who was going to spend any time reading 100+ posts a day? My second mistake was not having anything “real” to say so I allowed others through re-tweets and social apps do all of my talking. I realized in order to be “real” I had to limit my social posts and make my words count.

Distraction #4 — My grandma told me that a “watched pot never boils” but a hyperactive social media life will make a cellphone vibe. I was being distracted all the time. Don’t these people ever work? Step one, I returned to all of my social media sites and turned off the notifications. The next step was to turn off the sound on my computer then TweetDeck’s sonar was no longer a temptation. My productivity started to become real again. I also hope that other people connected to me are more productivity because I am not “Dinging!” them every 5 seconds either.

I am still recovering from a week of over socializing. I am determined to turn social media into an uber-productive platform for me. It will just take a concerted effort to be the real me.