Since joining Twitter in late-2008, I’ve been fairly selective about who I follow, which explains why my follower-follow ratio is so high. It’s an approach based on quality over quantity – picking people who offer interesting and different perspectives rather than letting the “parade” get too busy or noisy.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been as disciplined with Facebook and LinkedIn.

My personal Facebook account is a chock-a-block with friends, colleagues and people I’ve never met. From the start it was meant for business, which meant that, until recently, I pretty much accepted anyone as a “friend”. My LinkedIn account isn’t has messy but still not has focused as should be.

To get my “social media house” in order, I’ve decided to adopt a more pragmatic, disciplined approach in 2010. Despite the temptation to follow more people, I’m happy to have about 300. It seems like a reasonable, workable number so I’ll add some people and unfollow others to keep things in order.

On Facebook, I’ve got a two-pronged attack. First, I’ve stopped accepting people as friends unless as I really know them. I have also created a Facebook Page for my company, ME Consulting, which is where my “fans” (that word seems so strange) can exist.

LinkedIn, meanwhile, will be a place where I’ll nurture a network of people who I have met (personally or digitally) or done business with. I’m not going to accept invitations to connect from people I don’t know.

I realize there are two schools of thoughts when it comes to social media networks – one suggests building as wide a network as possible because you never know where the next connection or opportunity will come; while a second involves being selective about who you follow, add or connect with.

Right now, the latter seems to be a more comfortable place to be because it marries the best of the “analog” world where a personal network consisted of real people, with the realities of the digital world.

What’s your approach to social media networks?