The criteria for staying active in social media can be defined and interpreted in many different ways. This leads me to the foundation first, contribution. The frequency at which we contribute, dictates the level of our activity and inactivity in social media.

Measuring an individuals level of activeness can be based on the mechanisms we use for participation:

Communication:

• Blogs
• Micro blogging
• Presence applications
• Message boards
• Social networking sites

Collaboration:

• Wikis: Wikipedia
• Social bookmarking
• Social News sites

Multimedia:

• Photo sharing
• Audio sharing
• Video sharing
• Life streaming
• Podcast

I was curious to hear what applications people use to contribute and stay active in social media. On Friendfeed I asked, “What are the social media applications you use the most?”

Top applications used among commenters:

• Friendfeed
• Facebook
• Myspace
• LinkedIn
• Google Reader
• Disqus
• Del.icio.us
• Twitter
• Plurk
• Flickr
• Brightkite
• Last.fm
• Stumbleupon
• Wordpress
• Youtube

I stay active in a multitude of ways. These are the core applications I use. Some are linked to my services, so you can judge for yourself how “active” I am.

Creation:

1. Blog (wordpress powered)
   

Discovery:

1. Google Search (blog & web)
2. Google Reader
3. FriendFeed Google Shared Room
4. Toluu
5. Wikipedia

Bookmarking:

1. Diigo

Discussion:

1. Disqus
2. GTalk
3. FriendFeed

Distribution:

1. Google Reader
2. Twitter
3. FriendFeed

Networking:

1. Facebook
2. FriendFeed

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