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I’ve got two large conferences coming up in the next two months and I’m busy planning so I can get the most out of these opportunities possible.

The first conferences is South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi)and although I’m not speaking at this one I’m still very excited about being there. Why? Are you kidding? This is one of the hottest conferences for Film, Music and Interactive media around.. Even though I am attending mostly the interactive portion of the event it’s an amazing opportunity to learn about the film and music industry and get to know a lot of my interactive and social media friends at the same time..

The parties at this thing are legendary, but honestly (really) I’m not much of a party animal so a lot of my events entail actually going to the panels, coffee, dinner and good wine, or a glass of fine single malt with friends and conversation.

The second conference is the Nonprofit Technology Conference put on by NTEN. This is my second year presenting at this one and I’m really excited. I can’t quite explain the energy you get from being surrounded by over 1,000 people engaged in non-profits of every stripe, but I guess I’d sum it up as inspiring. The stories you hear from these people are passionate and engaged and everything a good community demands. You leave feeling like the most important thing you can do is work for social good and that’s something that is deeply important for me as an individual and for my businesses.

Besides speaking I’ll be participating in the Day of Service program, and if you are going and haven’t signed up yet get your butt over there now and see how you can help. Even if you don’t have technical expertise to lend there is definitely something you can do by volunteering a few hours to help a non-profit organization.

So, what’s my agenda for both conferences?

Promote the Social Media Coaching Center to consultants and companies who don’t have time or resources to train all of their clients/staff on the applications and skills they need to know to effectively execute their social media strategies.

Learn, learn and learn some more. This is what I do for fun. Expect posts and videos to follow on the Coaching Center as well as this blog.

Meet people who can hire me as a social media coach, need implementation like Wordpress installs, product demos, web sites or in-house training on social media apps or are looking for a speaker for their own conferences or workshops.

Promote both of my books. Social Media Success! and the very soon to be released Social Media for Nonprofits that Beth Kanter and I pulled together just in time for NTC by crowd sourcing ideas with people who work in nonprofits and social media.

I plan to focus more on listening than talking and helping than selling. If you’re going to be there let’s connect. Email me at janet @ JanetFouts.com, ping me on Twitter @JFouts or call me on my cell 415.990.3991 and let’s make some plans.

Oh, and I’m also planning on looking for a saddle for my horse, so if you know of a good saddlery in Austin let me know! Yeehaw.

Whether you are an amateur blogger or a professional blogging for a company you need to clearly understand the FTC’s rules for bloggers or suffer the consequences.Like up to $11,000 in fines!

Scary? Well it’s supposed to be, but quite honestly if you abide by good old common sense and treat people honestly in the first place this probably won’t be that big of an issue.

That said I’m not a lawyer, so downloading the rules and reading them for yourself is a very good idea! Here’s a link to the code FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR part 255 (PDF)

Here’s a quick summary of the high points

• If you blog about a product that was given to you to review, you are an affiliate for or you are paid to review in any way you must disclose that information clearly. This includes but is not limited to: ad revenue, testimonials for individuals or products, banner ads for the product “conveniently near” the post you wrote.
• If your blog is sponsored by anyone you must divulge this clearly. No writing about laundry when your sponsor is, say… Clorox, without divulging that fact.
• If you are in any way compensated by the company or parent company of a product you write about. You must disclose it where the reader can clearly see it.

Really when you think about it this isn’t as big a deal as it sounds. It may mean the days of free swag are gone, but then again probably not. Magazines and newspapers have been dealing with this for years as have TV and radio. If we want blogging to be recognized as a professional industry we should be happy to be categorized with the rest of the publication industry.

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Cathy Taylor moderated this panel at OMMA Social in San Francisco a bit ago and I found myself in a discussion with Michael Lazerow about which is more useful to a brand- “a million followers without any idea of what you’re going to do with them” or a “kick ass strategy with zero”?

Michael says “I’m of the opinion that having a million followers and fans with no idea of what you’re going to do with them in the future is the single best thing you can do from a marketing perspective….Would you rather have a million people on your email list or a kick ass strategy with zero..”

I’m of the opinion that a good strategy will reward you with engaged and active followers, and I don’t want to hang Michael out as the “bad guy” here.  Buddy Media does  great work  and I actually showcased their SeaWorld – Busch Gardens Facebook app for this panel.

The question remains a big one and I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Would you rather have a million followers with no clue what you’re going to do with them or a kick ass plan and no followers (yet)?

Watch live video from richreader on Justin.tv

By the way, big thanks to Rich Reader for videotaping this event. Rich does a lot of these as a public service and we all appreciate his efforts. Unfortunately the demand on bandwidth at the Nikko that day was pretty fierce so the stream is a little choppy.

I’m working on a new project and if you work with nonprofits and social media I’m asking for your help.

I was talking with my wonderful publisher Mitchell Levy about how much I like working with nonprofits and the challenges nonprofits face in getting on board with social media and understanding how it all comes together–much less getting their management on board. Nonprofits can benefit so much from this stuff, but adoption and a real understanding of what to do can be a challenge.

Being a publisher, Mitchell thought I should write a book and he’s right. But I’m not the only person who knows how to help so I am reaching out to people who live and breathe this stuff too. The amazing and wonderful Beth Kanter stepped up to help, as did Geoff Livingston and Holly Ross. We put our heads together and came up with a plan.

If you work with a nonprofit and social media lend your own knowledge to the book. It’s going to be written as a crowd-sourced effort by all of us.

The idea is blindingly simple. Answer 1 or all of the following 10 questions. Each answer must be in 140 characters or less. Email them to me with your Twitter address and a subject line reading “My Contribution to Nonprofit Tweet!“. Please note that we can’t include URL’s and sales pitches aren’t appropriate. Just good useful and actionable information please.

We will pull together all of the “Tweets” and publish 140 of the best in the book.
(working title is: Social Media  for Nonprofits Tweet:140 bite sized ideas to engage in social media for nonprofits)

Note* Because of the number of tweets people are sending quotes are not connected to names. All quotes will be anonymous, but  contributors get a thank you in the book with their name and twitter handle, thank you’s on my blog and through Twitter,  a copy of the ebook and the thanks of all the nonprofits who benefit from your experience.

We’ll be giving away copies at the upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference in April as well as offering it for sale online.

Here are the 10 Questions:

• What can social media do for my organization?
• How can I convince the nay sayers that this is worth our time?
• How do we measure social media engagement?
• Twitter best practices
• Facebook best practices
• Forums and groups
• Managing volunteers
• Creating evangelists
• Fundraising
• Social media efficiency

If your answers are used in the book you’ll be listed as a contributor and have bragging rights to say you’ve made a difference!

Now here’s the kicker.

Friday February 26th is the last day we can accept submissions. So don’t waste a minute. Put on your thinking cap and come up with some Tweets. Then email them to nonprofittweet@janetfouts.com by Friday the 26th.I’ll email you back to let you know if your contribution is in the book and when it’s published and available on Amazon.

How else can you help? Spread the word. Tweet a message with the hashtags #10ntc #nptech to let people know. This is a crazy short deadline but I know we can do it with your help.

When I was asked to participate on tonight’s panel for Bay Area Women in Film and Media I was excited. I love films and particularly indie films. To have an opportunity to not only meet women working to create their own film and media projects but to help them learn how to use social media is just awesome.

So how can independent film-makers really use social media to their best advantage? Here are few ideas I’ll share tonight.

Cross-platform storytelling
In order to get your message to as many people as possible you can leverage sites like MySpace, Facebook and even Twitter. Give your characters their own accounts and create personalities around them. Look to the success of TV show Mad Men whose characters have huge Twitter followings, or Dean Koontz’s character Odd Thomas on Facebook.

Financing
Create a way for your fans to micro-donate to raise the money for production or marketing. In return maybe they get a button on their Facebook page or web site to show off and continue to share with their friends.

Crowd-sourcing
Need a writer or feedback? Crowd-source your ideas and let the fans write part of the script. You can guarantee they’ll promote that to their friends too.

Blog
Don’t build a web site. Build a blog. It’s got better SEO and is easier to update more often with clips, images and maybe a journal of the process of putting together your film. Don’t forget a way for people to donate money to help. Let them participate.

Share early and often
Share photos from the shoots or clips of the film on Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and MySpace before the film opens to stimulate interest.

Learn from what other film-makers are doing.

• Four Eyed Monsters
• Lost Zombies
• Lance Weiler
• IndieGoGo

Who else is doing interesting stuff with social media and film? Please share your links and comments below so we can all learn more.

Of course you do. We all know people who are “still deciding” if social media is worth the time and investment. Or maybe they know it’s worth the time but they don’t know where to start.

I’m on a panel for the Social Media Club 2/16/10 in San Francisco called “Everybody’s Doing It*, So Why Don’t We?” (the *it is social media).

The idea behind this panel is to show how people are using social media in the real world. We’ll take about real use-cases and the challenges businesses face in engaging. We’ll also talk about success stories and what strategies made them successful.

Panelists:
Violet Blue @violetblue is a Forbes “Web Celeb”, notorious blogger (Laughing Squid) , high-profile tech personality and one of Wired’s “Faces of Innovation.” She is regarded as the foremost expert in the field of sex and technology, a sex-positive pundit in mainstream media (CNN, The Oprah Winfrey Show) and is interviewed, quoted and featured prominently by major media outlets. Violet has many award-winning, best selling books and is the sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. She headlines at conferences ranging from ETech, LeWeb and SXSW: Interactive, to Google Tech Talks at Google, Inc.

LaSandra Brill @LaSandraBrill is a social media enthusiast, avid blogger and marketing innovator. As Senior Manager of the Service Provider Digital and Social Media Marketing group, LaSandra Brill shapes Cisco’s marketing strategy to include a mix of social media marketing techniques leveraging Web 2.0 technologies. At Cisco she is known for building and executing the social media strategy of one of the top five product launches in company history.

Janet Fouts @jfouts is a seasoned entrepreneur, social media coach, author and speaker. She co-founded Tatu Digital Media in 1996 and has been active in online community and web strategy for over 15 years. She shares her knowledge through her blogs, the Social Media Coaching Center and her book, “Social Media Success!” is now available on Amazon.

Erin Robbins @texasgirlerin has been working in the technology industry as a communications and marketing professional for the past decade. Her work has included companies such as Cisco Systems, Adobe, Opera Software and ShareThis and has taken her around the world implementing new technologies and working with users. Erin is currently Director of Marketing and Communications for Realty World NCA, delivering technology integration to real estate professionals. She is the Social Director for the Social Media Club of San Francisco and Silicon Valley for 2010 and has contributed articles to Bay Area newspapers. Erin holds a degree in communications from North Carolina State University with additional studies in English, business and sociology. In her spare time Erin likes spending time with her bulldogs and training for various sporting events, most recently including the New York Marathon. You can contact Erin on Twitter and on Facebook.

The panel is moderated by The A-List podcaster, Jennifer Lindsay @jennifered. Please feel free to contribute by tweeting in your questions before the event to @SMCSFSV

So, send your fence-sitters to Social Media Club SFSV: Everybody’s Doing It*, So Why Don’t We? Tuesday, February 16, 2010 from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM. They’ll have an opportunity to mingle with some of the bay area’s top social media advocates and really see what all the fuss is about!

It seems like every day there’s something new at Google and everybody shouts it to the roof-tops as the “next big thing”. And why not, they’ve built themselves a pretty attractive set of free applications to make our lives easier, right?

Google just announced “Google Buzz” a Twitter/IM/graphical email browser application that hangs out with your Gmail account and lets you know what your contacts are doing, share images, videos publicly or privately. You can get comments on your videos sent right to your Gmail account. Even on your phone through the mobile version of the site. I’ll save the long list of bells and whistles for the video below.

Should you rush out and get to Buzzing? Honestly it depends on how much you use Gmail in the first place. If you use it a lot and want to be able to share and browse shared content through your email client you probably will use it. If you don’t then you might want to just sit back and watch for a while. Google Apps, iGoogle, Google Wave, Google Buzz, no matter how you look at it Google is doing some things that could be game-changing. And they also seem to want to be the center of the universe.

Sometimes social media applications just move too fast-even for those of us who are addicted to watching them. A good example are the augmented reality apps for mobile phones. I’ve been sitting on a blog post comparing FourSquare and Gowalla–two of the top players in the space–but I never get it done because every time I turn around there’s new news! Now there are several new apps in the same space and it keeps on growing. In fact, a new site launched just to keep track of some of it at YouAreHereApps.

For me, Gowalla is a personal favorite. Not only is it more accurate from a GPS point of view but it’s graphically richer and that just suits my web designin’ heart. I like the idea if exchanging tokens, creating trips for others to follow. Foursquare is just so…style less. Gowalla is warm and fuzzy and that makes it more fun for me.

Foursquare is bigger in user base and more business oriented in my opinion. The ability for a business to make special offers when you get nearby is huge, and other augmented reality apps should make this a focus.

There’s a lot of discussion over who is really using the apps, inflated numbers etc., especially in the case of Booyah’s MyTown App. Which seems to have come out of nowhere with a huge user base.

I think recent developments at Foursquare are going to keep them at the top of the pile and because more of my friends are using it I will too. Remember when some of us abandoned Twitter for Plurk’s quirky interface just because Twitter was crashing? It didn’t take long before we ended up back on Twitter. Some of that was because Plurk was just too…Plurky, but it was also because all our friends were still on Twitter. Foursquare still has the largest user-base and unless some of these other games really get an edge I think Foursquare will remain the platform of choice.

Anyway, here are just a few of the recent updates in the augmented reality space.

• Foursquare teamed up with Bravo TV to award special badges related to shows on Bravo (Top Chef, Shear Genius, REal Housewives to name a few) and real-world locations.
• The true Foursquare addict can now sync their iCal calendar with their check-ins.
• Yelp updated their iPhone app with the ability to check in, leave reviews and chat.
• LinkedIn’s App now allows you to look for other LinkedIn users near you and share contact info from your phone.
• Gowalla now allows you to create your own “trips” to share your favorites with your friends and bookmark spots you want to visit on the web site.

Here’re a few of the augmented reality apps I know of : Yelp, Stalqer, Rally, Causeworld, Gowalla, Foursquare and Booyah. Tell me which are your favorites and why you like ‘em in the comments!

gen⋅er⋅al⋅ist   [jen-er-uh-list] –noun a person whose knowledge, aptitudes, and skills are applied to a field as a whole or to a variety of different fields.

I consider myself a generalist, especially when it comes to social media. Why? Simple. I’m a social media coach. It’s my job to have a macro view of the tools, strategies and platforms available to my clients and not keep all my focus on one thing. Not even social media itself.

In fact, social media may not be the best tool for every single situation. it’s one of many tools you might use in your marketing and customer relationship strategy, but it’s possible it doesn’t fit with your style of business or your needs. If that’s the case, I put on my on-line marketing hat and help you find the tools that WILL work for you. I’ve got a lot of experience in web development, SEO and a number of on-line marketing strategies, so it’s pretty darn likely I can come up with something both do-able and successful in a given situation. I can also help you roll with the punches if you find yourself in over your head and you need to streamline or need a recovery strategy.

Sure I have my favorite communication tools and I love to play with the new ones as they develop and grow. Still, I need to restrain my personal views about particular tools in order to serve my clients well and help them find the right direction. Maybe some of these tools will find their way into the program at some time in the future. Maybe not.

I generally take a staged approach just to keep the whole thing from being too overwhelming. It’s almost always easier/better/faster to learn one method or tool at a time and then move on to the next when you’re comfortable with that. It also makes for a more sustainable campaign. After all, you are in this for the long haul right? Nobody plans for their business to be a flash in the pan so why would your marketing program be one?

If what you’re looking for is somebody who can talk in-depth about your business goals, skill-sets and time constraints and recommend a set of tools to start with, keep on top of new opportunities and train you or your team in how to use these tools, then I’m your social media coach!

I know there are a zillion people telling you where to donate your money to help in Haiti right now. There are some scams to be sure, but there are also a lot of organizations on the ground in Haiti now doing good work and they need our help.

We’ve all been moved by the outpouring of support and I was particularly moved by what my friend and client Cat Cora is doing to help. Cat is the founder of Chefs for Humanity, a humanitarian aid organization she founded as a reaction to the tsunami in 2004. Now, reacting to another disaster Cat is donating $10,000 of her own personal funds and asking you to help in any way you can.

100% 0f donations will go directly to Chefs for Humanity’s partner organization- United Nations World Food Programme, which is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against hunger. Not one cent will be taken from your donation to pay for the cost of this fundraiser, Chefs For Humanity and Cat Cora will take care of all the administrative costs.

Wanna learn more? Download the press release on this initiative and go to Cat’s blog and read about events to raise funds like this one at Scott’s Seafood in Costa Mesa? Contact Chefs for Humanity with ideas on a fundraiser in your own restaurant, or just go ahead and make a tax-deductible donation directly to Chefs for Humanity!

Can’t donate?

Help us by Tweeting this link to spread the word. Help @CatCora and Chefs for Humanity raise $1 Million in 1 Month For Haiti! http://bit.ly/7VdxYG.

Share it with your networks.

Make a YouTube video and tell people why and how they can help. Whatever you can do to spread the word will help.

Stamen Design is a boutique design firms in San Francisco that consistently leads the pack with innovative displays of data. I’ve admired their work for many years and they’re famous for creating unique ways to view live data as it happens–like the groundbreaking coverage of the Whitbread Cup way back in the ’90s when founder and creative director Eric Rodenbeck was at Quokka Sports. The team brought real time images of the race from the sailors point of view. The visuals were stunning and gave users a real-time perspective with maps, tracking graphics and images.

It figures they would be one of the first to come up with a creative way to show the data pulled from social media listening tool Radian6 for Friday’s VH1’s Critic’s Choice Movie Awards to display the Tweet stream of celebrities in real time in a gorgeous display complete with a timeline so you can browse the data from different points in time. Sure, it’s a small scale project compared to the Olympics and the America’s cup, but it’s not about that. It’s about showing data in digestible and entertaining formats.

Who else is doing design like this? I’d love to see more.

Recently I’ve been testing quite a few geo-location “games” and none of them  feel better for playing than Causeworld. Causeworld launched an iPhone and Android app in December that allows you to “check in” at merchants and collect “karma points”. Points can be donated to a number of worthy causes ranging from feeding the hungry and giving clean water to caring for injured animals or planting trees.

It’s also a pretty good way to find shops near you you might not have found on your own. As you move the app refreshes ad locates shops and services near you to visit. When you are at the shop you can check in and collect points. Usually you have to be pretty close to the actual location to check in, and not every shop may be represented, but overall it’s been pretty close

The whole thing is made possible by a grant of $500,000 from Kraft Foods and Citibank. You don’t have to buy anything, just checking in as you go about your day is enough to collect karma points and donate them to the causes of your choice.

One charity just added to Causeworld’s donation opportunities is the Red Cross, which has tagged the funds for relief efforts in Haiti and Shopkick, the builders of the app are kicking in a matching donation.

So, what are you waiting for? Chip in and start collecting karma to send to causes you care about. It’s just as fun as Foursquare and other geo-location games, but it has the added bonus of giving back to the world.

Causeworld also has a Facebook page where you can see the latest news.

Photo of Beth and her adopted kids

Today is Beth Kanter’s 53rd birthday, and her one wish for her birthday is this. She wants 53 of her loyal friends and followers to help raise money for some Cambodian kids. I think it’s actually the third year in a row she’s done this, and she’s never been shy to use a presentation or a post to move her audience to action for change. Over the years she’s been responsible for thousands of dollars going to the Sharing Foundation. On her birthday she’ll also be teaching as part of P.O.S.T. -Power of Social Technology, a Stanford graduate course on social good and asking the students to participate, so watch for their tweets today with the hashtag #Beth53! and re-tweet or share them.

This year she’s already raised considerably more than her target goal, and it’s a testament to both those of us who appreciate all of the many things Beth does for non-profits pitched in whatever we could, as well as how she understands how to put her social media networks to work.

For those of you who might not know who Beth Kanter is, it’s a good bet you’re not a non-profit, or if you are, you haven’t been participating in social media for very long. Beth has been offering her seminars, presentations and hands on knowledge of social media across the country and on-line through leading edge sites like the Nonprofit Technology Network, and she’s working on a new book for Wiley with Allison Fine tentatively called “The Networked Nonprofit“.

I’ve met Beth and her family and we run into each other at conferences occasionally, but I really feel I know her from her social media posts. She’s a no-bull get down to business kind of woman who offers up real useful information that organizations can put right to work. Want to get to know more about her? Follow some of the links above, go read her blog, her resource wiki, or follow her on Twitter. I’m sure it won’t be long before you have as much respect for her as we all do.

Want to participate in Beth’s birthday wish? Click the link to send this tweet to Twitter. Happy birthday #beth53! Let’s send 53 Cambodian kids to school: http://bit.ly/beth53

That guest post from Michael Martine on how to pitch bloggers was intended mostly as tongue in cheek, but it’s amazing how many emails I get about it! So I decided to give you some straight-up talk about really pitching bloggers. The first tip is; it’s not a with a standard press release! Really, do you think bloggers have time to wade through a press release? We get tons of ‘em every day, why are we going to pick out yours as the one we read?  I hate to be cruel, but if I don’t know you and you don’t get me with the title I’m probably not going to even read the email past the first line. Surveys say you’ve got 6 seconds; make it good.

On the other hand, if I already know and respect you I’ll read it and I might pass it along to someone else or give you feedback if it’s not a good fit for me right now.

See the difference?

Find out who I am
What are my interests and what do I usually talk about? Read my bio (better yet, read my book!)

Read my blogs and see if they are a good fit for what you want to pitch. Did I just write a post about something similar? You might want to wait a while to pitch me again.

Reference a recent post or Tweet when you connect so I know you’re at least paying attention.

Don’t pitch–engage

• Comment on my blog- and not as a sale pitch. Say something authentic and relevant. Add to the conversation and share it with your connections.
• Follow me on Twitter and/or FriendFeed and support me by re-tweeting or commenting in a discussion there. Be a valuable member of my network.
• Join a Linkedin group or forum that relates to your goals and engage in conversation there. If I’m a member, engage me through the network with a comment or a message about what we are discussing. Don’t pander. Have a point of view.
• Email me with a question or information about something I’m discussing. (Not about you.)
• Be interesting. Be somebody I want to know more about.
• Once we have a relationship you could even call me, though honestly a good Twitter pitch is more likely to get through.

Finding the right bloggers
It’s always a good idea to avoid broadcasting into the wind with social media and never more so than when you’re trying to attract people to write about you. So why not narrow your search with some good oldfangled sleuthing?

Do some searches and find out who is talking about your space. Are they on your side already or do they need education? Have they written something recently you can comment on or share with your network? Scan the sites like MyBlogLog and Google Blog Search to find bloggers interested in your area.

Is there a competing company or marketing agency that is well known in the space? Who are they talking to? If they sound open minded (read not paid) they may be interested in your product too. TALK to them before you pitch them.

What’s in it for us?
A stellar example of rousing a crowd to write for you is Blog Action Day. It’s basically a big pile of non-profit organizations banding together toward a common goal.

In 2009 it was climate change. They encouraged bloggers to write a post related to the cause and all on one day. In return the bloggers got exposure, an opportunity to voice their own message to a huge audience and even be featured on the partner sites and the Blog Action Day site. over 13,000 bloggers participated in 156 countries, viewed by over 18 million readers. Now that’s action! As a result all of these bloggers have pride in ownership of the event and are still blogging about the partner sites. Win-win all around.

Did I mention there were no tchotkes involved? Sure I’d love an Apple Tablet to test out and I promise I’ll blog it’s wonders to the heavens. I already know it’s going to be fab and I WANT one! On the other hand, a gift certificate to a Las Vegas buffet isn’t getting me to write about you at CES. Honestly, I’d rather read a good pitch from somebody I know than get a box of goodies in the mail anonymously. How many logo-emblazoned Slinkies does a girl really need anyway??

Bottom line? Just like in the “old days” of press relations, it’s the relationships that are carefully nurtured that will pay off the most. Possibly in ways you can’t forsee. Shortcuts may work on occasion, and you might get lucky with a blogger who needs a story right at the moment you send off a press release, but will they really put their heart into it? I don’t think so.

This week after the holidays is generally a little languid business-wise and I like to take some focused time to reflect on how my business has evolved over the last year and where it’s going next year. I do a lot of house-cleaning and organizing which really clarifies for me what my real focus has been and always generates a ton of ideas that either fell by the wayside because of “real work” or random thoughts morph into something really interesting.

This year as I sift through tons of communications I find there are quite a few people who have influenced me and my work in a number of ways and I want to share a few with you. These are not all celebrity social media folk (OK some are, but with good reason). These are people who really have taught me a thing or two about business, community and just plain being a good person. I only list 10, but there are so many more I could add. Read their blogs. Follow them on Twitter and you’ll see what I mean.

Liz Strauss
Liz is a respected speaker, consultant and blogger who uses her blog as a gathering place to talk about business, life and marketing effectively. Her blog looks at business holistically and you’ll be a happier business person for following her and reading the posts from Liz and her frequent guest posters.
Blog Twitter

Tommy Landry
Tommy’s Twitter stream is so packed full of useful links that he is one of the people I re-tweet the most. His posts are often links I would not have seen otherwise and he’s turned me on to some very interesting news sources and blogs. He’s also a good community member, sharing and giving as well as promoting his followers when they post useful information.
Twitter Blog

Michael Brito
Michael is one of those social media superstars who never got the ego to go with it. He’s generous and giving (as witnessed by his Silicon Valley Tweetup which donates to non-profits every month) and he wrote a post just like this one on his own blog. It’s clearly the time of year we all reflect on those who have helped us grow!
Blog Twitter

Sarah Browne
AKA the Guru of New, Sarah has been my partner in several ventures and she’s a savvy brand builder, marketer and businesswoman. She’s been a great soundboard for concepts, co-conspirator and supporter of a number of non-profit causes. Our history as colleagues goes waaay back to the early SFWOW E-list days in early 1997 or so.
Blog Twitter

Aaron Strout
Aaron is another of those generous people I would never have known if it wasn’t for Twitter and as one of my first Twitter friends he really showed us all the way to represent  as a human being through social media. He also wrote the foreword for my book, Social Media Success! for which I am endlessly grateful.
Blog Twitter

Alyce Lindquist
Alyce and I met on Twitter, then connected again through the Social Media Club where she is now president of the Silicon Valley and San Francisco chapters. Alyce is a very smart cookie and somebody who should be on your radar.
Twitter

BJ Wishinsky
BJ is the online community program manager for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. Without her I wouldn’t have found this amazing org for technical women and gotten involved as an advisory board member. BJ is a font of knowledge for women in tech as well as online community and she’s built the Anita Borg community into a vital resource for women interested in tech.
Twitter Web site

Michael Martine
Michael helped me work through a huge Wordpress project a few years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. He’s a no bullshit kinda guy, and I collect tons of links to information and tools from his tweets and loads of blogging advice from his Twitter stream and his coaching blog. Subscribe to his newsletter and you’ll not regret it.
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Louis Gray
If I was going to pick one social media superstar to follow it would be Louis and I’d follow him on FriendFeed and his blog. Louis finds new apps and toys faster than anybody I know and his reviews are always thought provoking. You’ll spend loads of time discovering new toys though, so be warned! His blog subtitle speaks volumes to a geeky early adopter and Mac addict like meself. “Silicon Valley Blog for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and Mac freaks.” If you want the low-down on what’s new, follow Louis.
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Bill Johnston
Bill has such passion for online community it just plain warms my heart. He’s the chief community officer for Forum One Communications and his chops in community go back as far as mine do (that means old-skool people). His work with the Online Community Report and the Online Community Roundtable is absolutely wonderful. If you truly want to understand what makes community tick, listen to Bill and read these reports.
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Many people seem to think if they have a big ‘ol following on their favorite social media networks they’ve attained a level of social media success. While it may get you some search engine love and people may click on the links you send out, if you’re not actually engaging other users in conversation it’s a pretty damn shallow relationship don’t you think? You might as well be sending out direct mail messages. “Spray and pray” is just as effective in social media as it is in snail mail. Sure, you’ll get your message in front of a lot of eyeballs but do they read it or chuck it in the bin? Broadcasting is not engaging. That may work for information services like the BBC and CNN and fan updates like @mikeroweWORKS but it really doesn’t fly when you are trying to actually have a conversation with potential customers now does it?

On the other hand if you’ve actually had a chat with someone or met them face to face they are much more likely to at least read your carefully worded prose and take action on it. An engaged customer is going to participate, feel ownership and loyalty that just another name on a list doesn’t.

As far as social media goes I’d like to point out that re-tweeting other peoples messages without reading them, “me too” posts or sharing information without direct references is still broadcasting. If you want to support a recent blog post by one of your connections try something like this: ” Hey @DaveFleet I liked your review of Trust Agents. But I think there’s a big need for basic SM info too. That’s why I wrote Social Media Success!” (Personally I love Dave Fleet and he’s really got a handle on social media, but I think those of us who do this for a living forget that there’s a large part of the world’s population that’s totally confused by social media and how to get started. That really is why I wrote my book too.)

The idea with social media is to be social. Reach out to other people and engage them in conversation. Hopefully luring some new voices into the discussion as well and engaging them too. Ask people what they think. Challenge politely and add data to back up your argument. Recommend people to your network, whether it’s reading their blog post or hiring them to solve a problem. If someone in your network posts a question try to answer it for them. Even if you’ve got to Google for the answer. If you’ve got a blog ask connections to guest post their thoughts on a particular topic.

Ask questions. People love to help, especially if they can easily answer you. Ask a question that you’re pretty sure your network can answer. Then thank people for their help. Make a note to repay them sometime with an answer to one of their questions, a comment on a blog post or share a link to their posts or services. Reciprocity is what makes social media work.

For a site that is often purported to be all warm and fuzzy, full of social enthusiasm and community they don’t seem to get the idea of community and camaraderie very well at Facebook. First there was the privacy policy debacle, then there was the whole thing about not using contests to grow your Fbook friends list and a bunch of other rules about what you can and can’t say about Facebook.=. In the latest post from the social media giant this morning, Facebook announced what they call “New Tools to Control Your Experience”. The whole thing smacks of Big Brother breathing down your neck don’t you think?

According to Fbook, the privacy settings are now “simpler” and there will be a tool to set the privacy levels on every post you make (doesn’t that seem simpler?)

Shortly when you log in to Facebook you’ll be asked to make choices about opening up parts or all of your Facebook updates to be publicly visible. You can set these levels yourself but it appears the default will be public. This means that for every post you’ll want to click the little lock icon in the bottom right corner and set your privacy settings for the post.

Minors however will have tighter settings so that anything they make “public” will stay within Facebook and any networks or groups they’ve joined through the site. Minor information will not be released to the search engines.

All in all I get it. Sure, I want my profile to be public so my friends and business associates can find me, but hey, I’ve got a lot of profiles out there to get that info across. Do a search on Janet Fouts and you can find me. I, like a lot of users kept Facebook to my close friends and the business folk I really like and want to know more about on a personal level. Now how are we supposed to deal with these new anti-privacy settings? Don’t tell me privacy is dead. I know that, but a network where we could have a semblance of control seemed like a nice (if naive) idea.

I dunno. After all, the service is free. Should we have a right to whine about it all? Where’s the line here? What do you think?

I’m hearing it all over. People are maxed out on social media to the point they question if ANY of it has value. In many cases it’s simply because they stretched themselves too thin in the first rush of social media frenzy.

You know what I mean. You find one network after the other and each seems to be an important cog in your marketing wheel. Then something spins off one of those or promises to help combine 1-2-3 networks into one manageable stream and before you know it you’re drowning in social media accounts.

Most likely there wasn’t a strategy to how you jumped on this bandwagon either, so you may have forgotten what the point was. Oh yeah, it’s all about communication right? Well yes, it is, but with whom and for what purpose?

Really. You have to step back and identify all this stuff before you dive in or you’ll be burned out before you know it. Why? Because you’ll be running twice as fast as you have to. If you start with a strategy for who you want to reach and find out where they are participating first you’ll be way ahead of the game and you won’t have to charge blindly in without knowing what or who you’ll encounter.

So what should you do first?

1. Figure out who your target market is. All the usual demographics apply but you can go deeper. What does your market want to talk about? If they could talk to you what questions would they ask? Where are they asking those questions right now? What do you know that they need to know too?
2. Now figure out what you want to say to them beyond a sales pitch. Do you have information that can help them run their lives or their businesses better? Do you have information that is important to the industry at large regardless of if they buy your product or not?
3. OK, now you’ve got the who and what you need to say. Use some listening tools like Social Mention, Google Alerts, Twitter search etc and find out where there are conversations around the same topics going on. Don’t make assumptions. There very well may be a group of people you need to talk to that are already having very focused discussions on a forum or network that you’ve never heard of. If you immediately assume that there aren’t any quantum physicists on Facebook you’d miss a very focused group of over 9500 people!
4. Once you’ve identified networks where people are talking, narrow your sights on two networks. Start participating there and see if you really need to branch out later.

With this kind of focused strategy you very well may find you’ll have conversations with fewer people, but you’ll talk to them more often and the relationships will be deeper and richer for both of you, and you’ll get more value out of it than a thousand shallow connections.

If you truly are burned out on social media go ahead and take a break. Re-stock what’s important and look at where you’re participating. Thin out the networks or tools that aren’t working for you. Pay attention to the ones that are and don’t worry about the rest right now. You’ll be better at truly engaging if you’re able to stop for a moment and actually have a conversation and it’s more likely to turn into something valuable.

I’m not really all that big on this annual prediction stuff, but a conversation on our Blog Talk Radio show last night sucked me in. Just a little.

What are going to be the big changes in social media for 2010?

I think we’re going to see a shift from creating strategies and marketing plans to actually implementing them. Enough talk, enough prosthelytizing. What are we really going to do? How are we going to measure it? How will we make it happen? What will we do differently?