Get Started with Social Selling

Social Selling

What's the one number you need to know about social media and social networking? 25.

25% of time spent on the internet today is spent on social media.

Nearly 25% of Americans use social networking sites several times per day.

And more than 25% of the people in the world have a social media account. THE WORLD.

So why aren't you trying to use social media to generate leads and nurture prospects? Because, obviously, you should be. Businesses everywhere, from small firms to multinational corporations are using social media for marketing, advertising and brand awareness. But some salespeople have been slow to adopt for direct sales purposes. Understandably, it can be a bit overwhelming. Especially for someone unfamiliar with social media. But it's really just another way to communicate -- just like email (and the telephone before that). So here are some tips to help you get started with social selling:

Get Started with Social Selling by:

1. Create (and use) professional social media profiles on Twitter and LinkedIn.
2. Optimize social media profiles.
3. Seek referrals on LinkedIn by giving recommendations & endorsing others.
4. Follow at least 100 new people (20x per day) on Twitter including:
• Industry Thought Leaders
• Prospects
• Customers 
• Sales Gurus
5. Set up Google Alerts for competitors/prospects/customers/industry terms.
6. Post at least 3x per week about:
• Industry News
• Prospects/Customers
• Competitors
• Thought Leaders
• Photos when Travelling
• Sales Best Practices
• Personal Interests (20% of time is okay)
7. Join industry-specific groups on LinkedIn.
8. Add LinkedIn connector to Outlook on laptop.
9. Download LinkedIn Connected app for mobile phone.
10. Connect Salesforce account to Twitter.
11. Subscribe to industry and thought leadership blogs.
12. Subscribe to LinkedIn Sales Navigator (optional).
13. Blog (optional).

New Business Sales Daily Social Selling Routine Checklist:

1. Open LinkedIn and Twitter in browser tab (don’t close – just like email).
2. Find content to share.
3. Share general content on social networks.
4. Share specific content with prospects & customers on Twitter & LinkedIn (just like you would via email).
5. Look at who liked, retweeted, favorited or commented on your posts on LinkedIn & Twitter.
6. Review LinkedIn alerts.
7. Check on who’s viewed your LinkedIn profile.
8. Send personalized connection request to any prospects who looked at your LinkedIn profile.
9. Send personalized connection requests to any prospects you emailed thru Outlook yesterday.
10. Send personalized connection requests to people who engaged with your LinkedIn posts.
11. Follow people who engaged with your tweets.
12. Follow people who followed you on Twitter.
13. Respond to messages (just like you would email).

Top Prospect Weekly Social Selling Routine Checklist:

1. Open LinkedIn and Twitter in browser tab (don’t close – just like email).
2. Find content specifically for/about top prospects.
3. Share content specifically with top prospect (via email and social media).
4. Like and Retweet posts from top prospects.

Social Retention/Growth Weekly Routine Checklist:

1. Open LinkedIn and Twitter in browser tab (don’t close – just like email).
2. Find content specifically for/about current customers.
3. Share content specifically with current customers (via email and social media).
4. Like and Retweet posts from current customers.

Have other tips for salespeople looking to use social media to start selling? Leave them in the comments below:

Facebook, Twitter and Google+ cover photo sizes

You may have noticed my new cover photo (see above).

Well Twitter just announced its new profile page redesign, including a new "Cover Photo" feature that's their attempt to catch up with what their two main competitors -- Facebook and Google+ -- have already done.

Originally posted on September 18, 2012. Updated on April 25, 2014: Twitter redesigned their profiles again with new, larger cover photo images = 1,500 pixels by 500 pixels.

It's a way for people to express themselves beyond their profile picture and bio. But its also one of my favorite new universal features amongst social networks. Why? Because it allows users to upload a profile picture of just their face (which, by definition, is what a profile picture should be) and now use the cover photo for pictures of their dog, baby, significant other, favorite athlete, actor, team, etc.

But unfortunately, it's not that simple. While most profile pictures today are a standard square:

• Facebook: 128px by 128px
• Twitter: 400px by 400px
• Google+: 252px by 252px

...each of these social networks have different size constraints for their cover photos:

• Facebook: 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall (or 3404px by 1260px)
• Twitter: 1,500 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall (or 3756px by 1878px)
• Google+: 480 pixels wide by 270 pixels tall (or 3840px by 2160px)

So please, change your profile picture to an image of yourself, by yourself, and then take advantage of this new social network feature. But if you want to create a cover photo that meets each site's recommendations, you'll have to have 3 different images or at least 3 different crops of your image for each.

An image is worth 1000 retweets

An image is worth a thousand retweets.

The old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" was long attributed to Confucius as a Chinese proverb, but the expression was actually first used in a 1911 newspaper article discussing journalism and publicity.

The exact phrase first appears in an 1918 newspaper advertisement for the San Antonio Light which says:

One of the Nation's Greatest Editors Says:
One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The San Antonio Light's Pictorial Magazine of the War
Exemplifies the truth of the above statement—judging from the warm
reception it has received at the hands of the Sunday Light readers

Today, the phrase is a full blown cliche, forbad by journalists and newspapers around the world. But with the popularity of social media and its ever-growing reach, the context of the phrase now takes new meaning.

Today, with the constant stream of posts, blogs, and tweets, it can be difficult to differentiate and emerge from the masses. But one simple way to draw the eye to your posts, and to your account, is with images.

If the objective of every social media account is to gain followers, and the intention of every post is to promote engagement, then the best (and easiest) way to attain your goals is by adding a photo, picture, or image to everything you do. But don't just add a profile picture and cover photo (which you should definitely be doing), you should also add an image to every tweet, every blog post, and every Facebook update. You'll see your likes, favorites and retweets increase almost immediately. And before you know it, every image will be worth a thousand retweets. 

6 simple tips for social media

At a high level, social media seems very simple. Post this, follow her, retweet that, connect with him. But after you dive in, it can be a struggle to stay afloat. You quickly realize that it can be much more complicated than those simple one-click actions. It doesn't have to be.

Here are six simple tips to help you gain more followers and get more likes:

Adopt early: One of the easiest ways to gain popularity on any social media platform is to be an early adopter. Those who join early not only learn the ropes faster, but can also take advantage of the domino effect of all the other people who join from that day forward. Each person that joins a new network immediately follows every one of their friends who are already on that network. If you're not on that list, they may never look for you again.

Follow friends: You should not only follow all of your friends from day one, but also occasionally check to see if any new friends have joined. Some platforms are great about this (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest), sending you notifications any time your friend from Facebook joins. But others take a little more effort. Check your settings or search tools until you find a "Search My Contacts" button or similar link. Most of your friends will follow back, they likely just didn't realize your account existed.

Follow back: The number one rule you'll hear the most when attending networking seminars, reading social media books, or watching a live webinar about social networks is "Follow Back!" It's something I'm not crazy about (for other reasons), but it truly is the quickest and easiest way to gain the most followers and increase interactions with your posts.

Post once per day: Unless you already have over 2,000 followers, friends, and/or connections I'd advise against posting any more than once per day. Spamming people's timelines and feeds with your opinions and stories is the fastest way to get unfollowed, unfriended, deleted, and blocked. If you have more than one post in mind, save it as draft or schedule it go live the following day.

Update profile: When someone finally does find you on any social network, the first thing they will do is read your profile. Keep it short, simple, and creative. But also make it descriptive. No matter how eccentric you are in real-life, your profile should be direct and to the point.

Add profile picture: I lied, the first thing they will do is look at your profile picture. Many times, they won't even make it to your profile because they didn't even realize it was you. If you want people to follow you, replace that Twitter egg with a headshot. Don't have a professional photo? Fine. Just upload anything for now. You can worry about putting your best face forward later.


I know a lot of my readers are also social media gurus and social networking ninjas, so please feel free to post your other tips in the comments section as well:

Ten reasons to not follow back

Every social media ninja and social networking jedi says the same thing, "Follow Back!" I disagree. Here are ten reasons why:

1. First, just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you should. If Johnny jumped... well, you get the point.
2. Second, it is okay to follow back, just do not do so blindly. Read their profile and last 3 tweets to see if you have anything in common.
3. Just because someone is following you doesn't mean you have the same interests. 
4. There are people out there who follow-unfollow just to gain followers -- so you could end up following people who actually aren't following you back.
5. You can't legitimately interact with your audience if your timelines and feeds are flooded with thousands of new posts every minute.
6. Social network influence algorithms like Klout's take your ratio of follows to followers into account when calculating your score -- having more followers than people you follow will improve your score.
7. Most social media gurus follow a lot less people than they have followers -- so they're not even following their own advice.
8. The only way to know if someone is worth following is by seeing the number of followers they have (the most interesting people have the most followers), so if we all followed back how would we know who to follow to begin with?
9. If everyone everywhere followed everyone back what would be the point? The greatest thing about social media is being able to create niche social networks with those of similar interests.
10. And lastly, by not following back, you're doing your part to put an end to this endless cycle. We have to start somewhere.

Can you think of any other good reasons not to follow back (I struggled with the last 2 if you couldn't tell)? If so, add them to the comments below:

The best Twitterers are Marketers

There's no denying, the best accounts to follow on Twitter have the most followers -- that's why they have the most followers (and if you disagree, please, keep reading). But what you don't realize, is that every one of those people are selling you something. It's true -- even if it's not obvious.

Let's start with just the people YOU follow. There are your friends, your family, and everyone else. An everyone else is selling you something.

Take the list of the top 10 people on Twitter with the most followers (this does not include corporate brands, which, obviously, are trying to sell you something):

1. Justin Bieber: @justinbieber - 39,673,026 followers
2. Lady Gaga: @ladygaga - 37,703,992
3. Katy Perry: @katyperry - 37,075,529
4. Barack Obama: @BarackObama - 31,982,994
5. Rihanna: @rihanna - 29,756,835
6. Taylor Swift: @taylorswift13 - 28,329,970
7. Britney Spears: @britneyspears - 27,372,412
8. Justin Timberlake: @jtimberlake - 20,778,620
9. Shakira: @shakira - 20,773,482
10. Ellen DeGeneres: @TheEllenShow - 19,301,628

They're all trying to sell you something -- mostly music. And even when it's not as obvious as that, they're still selling you on the idea of themselves as musicians, politicians, or celebrities. Their selling their own personal brand.

And then there are the corporate brands. Common sense tells you they are trying to sell you something, but you wouldn't know it by reading their tweets. There is no mention of "Buy this" or "Try that" -- just simple content marketing and engaging conversations. And that's why they're the best brands on Twitter:

1. YouTube: @YouTube - 10,259,054 followers
2. Twitter: @twitter - 8,856,790
3. Twitter en español: @twitter_es - 8,480,198
4. CNN Breaking News: @cnnbrk - 6,923,605
5. TwitPic: @TwitPic - 6,615,838
6. UberSocial: @UberSoc - 5,826,875
7. The New York Times: @nytimes - 4,700,907
8. NBA: @NBA - 4,525,421
9. Google: @google - 4,465,778
10. E! Online: @eonline - 4,267,255

Brands and Twitter are all about content marketing. The best brands -- whether personal or corporate -- are the best content marketers. They post interesting tweets that are relevant to their followers. By doing so, they promote their brand. That's why they have the most followers. And that's why all the best Twitterers are marketers.

SEM, SMA, CPC, and the holy grail of marketing acronyms: ROI

So many acronyms. But only one matters: ROI.

And when calculating your return on investment (ROI) on search engine marketing (SEM) or social media advertising (SMA) spends, the only acronym that can prove ROI is CPC (cost per click).

How? 

CPC is directly correlated to ROI.

Let me explain.

Over the past year I've been advertising on all the major platforms, and here are the results:

• AdWords: $0.54 CPC
• Facebook: $0.08 CPC
• LinkedIn: $2.00 CPC
• Twitter: $0.21 CPC
• YouTube: $0.41 CPC

What does all that mean?

For my dollar, Facebook is hands down the cheapest advertising platform at just 8 cents per click. But just because LinkedIn costs me 2 dollars for every click doesn't mean it's wasted money. In fact, the advertising platform with the highest average CPC is likely your best spent cents. 

Why?

As long as you've fine tuned your ad copy through A/B testing and honed in on your target audience with the right keywords (and any other targeting criteria available), the platform with the highest CPC is also the network with the largest, most-active population of people you're trying to reach. It's also the network where your competitors are advertising. That's why it costs so much to engage with them.

But every industry will have different results. So which platforms are you advertising on? And which has the highest ROI?

Top 10 ways to connect with millennials

If you're looking for a way to connect with the millennial generation, social networks are the best source to find those "kids" and build meaningful relationships with them. Try interacting with them via:

1. Facebook: With over 1 billion active users and more than 42 million pages with 10 or more likes, Facebook is the perfect place to connect with MBAs. Your company/product/school should have its own Facebook page that millennials can “like” and get daily updates on relevant news and events. By creating an official Facebook page, you can easily reach a self-selected audience who is actually interested in what you have to say.
2. Twitter: Twitter is a proven marketing tool and an effective outreach device. Many companies have a presence on Twitter. And some even have multiple accounts, including an entire product-oriented presence. Millennials are already using Twitter to communicate, research, promote and personally brand themselves – you should be doing the same for your company's/product's brand. Take a moment each day to tweet about something relevant or interesting.
3. LinkedIn: Where Facebook is considered a more personal space, LinkedIn has been defined as the “professional” social network. Use LinkedIn to connect with working millennials with money to spend. You should not only create a LinkedIn group for your company's employees, but also create subgroups for each product's users/experts to better connect (and stay connected) with your customers.
4. Google+: Google+ is the fastest growing social network ever, already with 90+ million users. And it’s critical to Google’s new “social” search algorithm. Create an customer-facing company “page” now and start adding your customers, users and fans to your “circles” (Google+ pages are different than personal accounts in that you can’t add people to your circles until they’ve added you). Once your Google+ page has been created you can advertise it to millennials just like any other social network.
5. YouTube / Vimeo: Videos are 53 times more likely to appear in search than text webpages. So if you are trying to connect with millennials organically through search, YouTube might just the best way to do so. Need content ideas? Try helpful tips from users or how-to videos for your products.
6. Blogs: You are probably already blogging, but if not, you should be! A blog is the easiest way to get information on the internet for your audiences to find. And comments on blogs are the easiest way to start a conversation with those audiences. If you don’t already have a blog built into your website, you can start one for free on Blogger or Wordpress. Then start posting any news or commentary that you think millennials might find interesting, relevant and timely. Your company's blog is also a great way to promote your new products to millennials doing research on the web.
7. Instagram: This photo sharing network is an easy way to post a picture worth 1,000 words. Find the most artistic person with an iPhone or Droid in your office and create an account on Instagram for your company. Post pictures of goings-on around the office, product details, or people using your products to pique interest in your company. Instagram is the new Flickr.
8. Pinterest: Pinterest is the hot new social network, and it’s dominated by women. Create some boards around “Women", “Fashion”, and “Style” to connect with the female millennials.
9. Foursquare: Make sure your company is available for “Check Ins” on Foursquare. It’s an easy way for millennials to advertise for you by showing their friends where they've been and leaving tips for future visitors/customers.
10. Tumblr: It’s the new way to blog. The best Tumblr blogs have a niche theme, so pick something simple like “Our Customers” or the newest internet meme and twist it to something your customers might find interesting or funny.

For more information on connecting with the millennial generation, please contact me.

25 Twitter Do's and Dont's

Unlike Facebook and many other closely monitored social media outlets, Twitter is a lawless community where anyone can post anything. And while some people take advantage of that wild-west-ish world for spam and other unruly or exotic calls-to-action, many of you are just looking for some general guidelines to tweet by and/or tips for growing your network. For those of you that fall into the latter category, here are twenty-five do's and don't for Twitter:

DON'T...

1. DON'T Complain about work. 
2. DON'T Tweet about religion.
3. DON'T Tweet about politics.
4. DON'T Be afraid to express your opinions.
5. DON'T Be too personal or negative.
6. DON'T Repeatedly post the same link or tweet. 
7. DON'T Abuse trending topics or hashtags. 
8. DON'T Over sell your own stuff.
9. DON'T Over share your own stuff.
10. DON'T Post more than one #FF per Friday.
11. DON'T Use corporate rhetoric and jargon.
12. DON'T Exceed five tweets per day. 
13. DON'T Post a picture you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper.
14. DON'T Post similar messages over multiple accounts.
15. DON'T Say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face or to a TV camera.
16. DON'T Publicly mention and thank everyone who follows you.
17. DON'T Follow someone today and unfollow them tomorrow.
18. DON'T Send automated/scheduled tweets and replies. 
19. DON'T Just post a URL with no supporting text.
20. DON'T Follow more than 25 new people at once.
21. DON'T Follow hundreds of people at once and remove all who don’t follow you back.
22. DON'T Send a canned direct message whenever someone new follows you or your company.
23. DON'T Make your account settings private.
24. DON'T Be guilty of the self-congratulatory retweet.
25. DON'T Forget to reply to mentions.

DO...

1. DO Complete your profile.
2. DO Add a picture of your face or logo.
3. DO Have a sense of humor and be funny.
4. DO Follow hashtags (#) when attending events/webinars.
5. DO Collect people’s Twitter names just like you do phone numbers and email addresses.
6. DO Create hashtags (#) for your own events.
7. DO Promote new tools/resources.
8. DO Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
9. DO Follow thought leaders and bloggers in your industry.
10. DO Follow people your followers are following.
11. DO Follow people suggested in #FF (Follow Friday) tweets. 
12. DO Make your Twitter usernames easy to find.
13. DO Make your tweets useful resources so people need you.
14. DO Interact with those people you follow who don’t follow you back yet.
15. DO Use the “Favorites” feature as a list of testimonials.
16. DO Link to your own resources/articles as well as others.
17. DO Direct Message people instead of sending them an email.
18. DO Develop relationships with reporters, bloggers and other media people through Twitter.
19. DO Respond to concerns people tweet about you, your company or products.
20. DO Use your company account to update customers as well as prospects.
21. DO Be sure to follow back everyone who follows your Company Account.
22. DO Integrate your Twitter efforts with your other marketing initiatives.
23. DO Follow the celebrities you’d want to be friends with, the newspapers you read, the products you use, the restaurants you eat at, the designers you wear, and the athletes you root for.
24. DO Tweet at your favorite celebs and people you don't personally know.
25. DO Follow @RyanPratt ;)

Mention or direct message me if you have any questions, comments, additions, or concerns.

Rebranding in the 2010s: The Netflix slash Qwikster debacle

I've experienced this myself -- when a company I worked for briefly split in two and became one company with two websites. It was a difficult decision, and even more difficult transition.

There are the obvious complications that come with re-branding a business: new logos, new colors, new business cards, new letterheads, etc. These are the same problems transitioning companies have dealt with for years. But today there is so much more to worry about.

Today, rebranding businesses have to consider the transitions in the digital world as well. 

There's website domains. Is your URL available? Or how much is it going to cost you to purchase it from that squatter?

There are SEO effects. Sure 401 redirects will combat a complete domain swap. But all the work you've done creating inbound links from other highly-ranked websites; all the research on META tags, keywords, and descriptions; and any positive effects you've received from social search (SPYW) is as worthless as having a Facebook page with zero "likes."

Which leads me to the biggest issue -- and the one that eventually put an end to Netflix's rebranding fiasco -- is the question of what to do if your handle isn't available on the social networks?

Just as there are domain squatters for URLs, there are Twitter and Facebook handle squatters. As soon as it becomes apparent any social network is the "next big thing" and opens itself up to business and companies, users sign up and sit on social network names. Heck, I'm not even squatting and I have 27 Twitter accounts and 13 Facebook usernames. But unlike URLs which have democratic companies monitoring and maintaing these domains (i.e. GoDaddy), social network handles are a ruleless wild west for name-squatting cowboys (and cowgirls).

The moment Netflix announced they were rebranding their DVD mailing service as Qwikster people jumped on net and blew up search engines with the term "Qwikster" -- which inevitably lead them to find a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking Elmo who already owned the Twitter account for @Qwikster. It was major flaw in C-suite's plan for Netflix. Something you'd expect a company as successful as Netflix to have thought of. But they didn't. And they soon lost the quickdraw gun fight with Jason Castillo (aka @Qwikster) who's since cleaned up is act a bit -- changing his profile picture to a crest and washing his mouth out with soap -- but not before single-handedly putting an end (and some bad PR) to the Netflix / Qwikster debacle. And...

Friend Me, Like Me, and Subscribe to Me

Facebook has rolled out yet another update, and this time it is directly taking on Twitter in an even more obvious and confrontational way. You can now "follow" on Facebook.

One of the best things about Twitter was that you could "follow" people without having to "friend" them. It was a simple yet fantastic feature that Facebook couldn't offer. In order to "follow" someones status updates, likes, and shares on Facebook you had let them follow yours. And typically, this wasn't an equally interesting two-way street. Typically, one person is a better "Facebooker" than the other. And typically, one person ends up regretting the "friendship."

But now, you can "subscribe" to people on Facebook.

With Facebook subscriptions you can quickly and easily follow someone's Facebook updates with the click of a button. There's no accepting, no de-friending, and no two-way connections. It even allows celebrities to open up their personal Facebook profiles to the public.

But Facebook didn't stop there, they also quite quickly and reactively stomped out the one flame Google+ had to offer -- circles. Google+'s circles allowed you to create lists of people to share specific content with, thereby sparing your other connections from being "spammed" with content they didn't care about. With the new Facebook subscriptions and revamped lists feature, you can now not only post to your "friends," you can also post to public, family, close friends, or any self-defined list of people you'd like.

Facebook's latest update has changed everything, and firmly protected itself against its competitors. It was a brilliant move to secure its foothold as the present and future king of the social networks. It has improved every person's experience on Facebook -- from power user to stalking Grandma. Because now, you can not only friend me and like me, you can now also subscribe to me.

The personification of the marketer

It has become glaringly obvious over the past few months that people do NOT want to be marketed to. They hate it. They call it SPAM.

SPAM is defined by Wikipedia as "the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately." And those who create this electronic spam is defined as a spammer.

But today, consumers define any advertisement that doesn't openly declare itself as such as spam. And the same goes for marketers and advertisers. Just think of all the examples of people angered and upset over marketing, advertising, and hidden promotions lately:

• Tweets from people you don't follow on Twitter
• changes to Facebook to improve profitability
• ads on Hulu despite it being a paid service
• ads in iOS apps on your iPhone and iPad
• Season 5 of Mad Men cutting two minutes out of each episode to make room for more commercials

So what CAN marketers do to promote their products and services? The answer lies in interesting and relevant content.

Marketers must now be thought leaders, advocates, and gurus in their industry. They must have interesting insights. They must be informative and enlightening. If marketers want to be persuasive, they must be people -- not products.

10 things I hate about Twitter

I hate when someone I follow on Twitter...

1. Still uses the now-ancient "RT @twitterhandle" to retweet someone instead of just hitting the Retweet button.
2. Puts a period before an @mention because they want the whole world to see what they're talking about (not just those people who follow both of you).
3. Makes me click on the link to find out I'm completely uninterested.
4. Automatically posts every check-in on Foursquare and GetGlue.
5. Has an entire conversation with a friend on Twitter instead of just texting or calling them.
6. #humblebrags -- though they are funny when they're unknowingly retweeted by @humblebrag
7. Has a profile picture of anything other than their own headshot.
8. Just tweets a link with no supporting text
9. #pitytweets
10. Tweet thieves who repost original, funny, or interesting content without mentioning the source.

Liar, Liar, Posts on Fire

I'm just saying what you wish you could: she's not really a ________ and he didn't actually ________. In order to ________  you have to ________ and you did not.

So why do people insist on lying on social networks?

It starts with the fact that everyone lies. In 1996, a UVA psychologist published a landmark study that revealed an ugly truth about humans: Everyone lies. In fact, on average, people lie at least twice every day.

Today, it's even easier to lie. With communication methods becoming less face-to-face and more pre-meditated, a lie can be carefully crafted and revised before unveiling it to the world. Plus you don't have to worry about being caught scratching your ear, crossing your arms, or looking up and to the right.

Typically, people lie to attract the opposite sex. "I'm a doctor." "Just got back from France." "Just sold my Mercedes." And a social network is just a beefed up Match.com dating profile. So why would you expect any different? Have you seen the "documentary" Catfish?

Lying on Dr. Twitter's Couch

At a quick glance there are currently 7 tweets out of my 50 most recent that is either a pity-begging complaint about one's life or hidden stab at an unnamed "friend."

Why is it people insist on lying on this social couch and spilling their guts to an audience of strangers who don't care? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Just as we don't care what you ate for dinner or what time you woke up this morning, we also do not care that your boyfriend is a douche and your girlfriend is a slut. I know you are reaching for someone or something to pity you. I understand you're upset and lonely. But pick up the phone and call your family or text your friend.

And posting something for the sole purpose of making your ex jealous is awfully immature. Not there's anything wrong with that.

#WelcomeToTwitter Trick

I just stumbled upon a nifty little Twitter trick for all those marketers out there running multiple Twitter accounts in the same field or industry. You can now create a list of similar Twitter accounts and include #welcometotwitter in the description, and then when someone follows you they will also be recommended to follow the other accounts in your #welcometotwitter list. This is particularly helpful to help you grow a fledgling account if you have a similar account that is more mature and popular.

#howfamousareyou?

Twenty years ago the only way to tell how famous you were was if you were recognized on the street. Ten years ago you would estimate it by the number of Google search results for your name. Three years ago your popularity could be directly correlated to the number of friends you had on Facebook. Now there is a true test. Twitter, and your number of followers, is now the ultimate ruler to measure fame. And like anything, there are ways to cheat the system, but the"hanging chad" here can be removed with a simple formula: Followers / Following = Fame.

If you flunked algebra, try these:

• Klout
• Tweetreach
• Twitalyzer
• Booshaka
• Peerindex

#hi @friend

Some people seem to think Facebook walls and Twitter mentions are a new way to have a conversation with friends and family. But social networks are not a communication tool to replace text messaging, emails and phone calls. And it certainly isn't an instant messenger. So please stop publicly replying! If you want to say "hi" to your friend, text them. If you think the world cares about your drunken memories from last night or needs to know your plans for the party tonight, they don't. And please stop the social network Happy Birthday wishes! If you don't have their phone number to text or call them, they probably won't care if you forgot their birthday.

I Don't Care What Joe Ate for Dinner and When Jessica Went to Bed

The typical argument by those few people who still haven't joined Facebook or Twitter is just that: "I don't care what Joe ate for dinner and when Jessica went to bed." And they're right! But that also just proves they're nay-sayers. Because just as there are some socially inept people on the web, as there are in real life, most people now understand that social networks are not a daily diary of your doings. We can blame Twitter for that - always asking "what are you doing?" when it should ask "what are you thinking?". But even better than that would be "what are you thinking that the world should know?". The world does not want to know that you ate a ham sandwich for lunch. And they certainly don't need to see a picture of it. But they might want to know that you had the best black forest ham and swiss on this side of the Rhine at cheap local deli named Brother's Grimm just off Main Street downtown. That is what social networking is for. That is it's purpose. And that is the reason those nay-sayers should join.

Google + Does Not Equal Twitter + Facebook

So Google+ is the next big thing in social networking. But then again, so was Google Wave, and Google Latitude, and Google Buzz. So will Google+ actually catch on? The numbers unequivocally scream YES! It only took 1 month to become the fastest social network to reach 25 million users (it took Facebook about three years to attract 25 million visitors, while Twitter took just over 30 months). So jump on the bandwagon and grab your seat, but you can probably get off at the first stop and head home to Facebook or Twitter for a few months until you'll need another ride. Because right now, it's basically marketers and men that are the power users, and until your actual friends and family arrive, it's just a place to get spammed.