I woke up on a random morning last week and did what I always do – Fed the cat, made coffee, stumbled towards the shower, and eventually, sat down at my desk, and launched Chrome with the five tabs I’ve programmed to open at startup. Two of those tabs are Facebook. Facebook.com, and my (I hate this term) “like page.” I go through the people in my network, then look at any posts or comments on the “like page,” and respond accordingly. This is a daily thing. I do it every morning, whenever morning happens to fall in the part of the world I’m currently in. This morning, though, something was different. I’d been invited to try Facebook’s new “Timeline” [...]

The following story is entirely true. More importantly, I swear on my entire professional reputation and all I hold dear to me that the story below was in no way staged, planned in advance, or in any way faked. This is real. And most importantly: This is AMAZING. When my alarm clock went off at 3:30 this morning, I knew I was in for a long day. I was catching a 7am flight out of Newark to Tampa, Florida, for a lunch meeting in Clearwater, then heading back to Newark on a 5pm flight, getting me in around 8:10pm, and with any luck, to my apartment by 9 or so. We all have days like that, they happen from time [...]

Here’s the top ten things that need to die a quick and painless death on Twitter. With your help, we can kill them. 10) Please vote for my company X every day for the next 14 days to win Y! Thanks! 9) Anything that ends with the words “Please RT!” 8) #fb. Wanna post on Facebook? Do that. This right here? This is called Twitter. Different mediums, different message. 7) Anything passive aggressive. Got something to say to someone? Man (or woman) the hell up, and just say it to them. The world doesn’t need to know about your issues. 6) Checkins on Foursquare from any place other than a place that a) has an a-list celebrity b) has you [...]

With the rumor that Twitter is going to create their own photo sharing/hosting platform within their own walls, it’s time for businesses to start getting serious about using photos if they’re using Twitter. The following are best practices on how to do just that. Know your audience. Before you even look at taking photos and posting them to Twitter, you have to ask yourself the most basic of questions: Is your audience on Twitter? According to eMarketer, only 20 million Americans visited/used Twitter last month. While that’s a decent number, that leaves a few hundred million potential customers choosing to get their information in other ways. If you’re not finding them where they are, all the best practices in the [...]

I was going to call this article “All “Social Media Experts” need to go die in a fire,” but I figured I should be nicer than that. But my title stands. If you call yourself a “Social Media Expert,” don’t even bother sending me your resume. No business in the world should want a “Social Media Expert” on their team. They shouldn’t want a guru, rock-star, or savant, either. If you have a “Social Media Expert” on your payroll, you’re wasting your money. Being an expert in Social Media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make [...]