I recently received a direct message on Twitter from a new follower that promised if I clicked on his bit.ly link that my business would explode with social media. Explode ? Really? pose this question to you – has your, or your client’s, business exploded because of social media? Have any of the big, major, plenty-of-cash-to-spend brands seen explosive business growth as a result of their social media? Oh, check out Pepsi to answer that question.). As recently as a year ago social media was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Today it is being shoved down our throat. Probably. MORE >>

won’t go into the detail, you can read the “open letter&# blog here. There is a thread threatening to take over the Starbucks Facebook page. self-admitted loyal Starbucks customer wrote a very long, rambling letter complaining about homophobic behavior she witnessed among Starbucks employees. know, in the blogosphere there is no way to know who is writing truth and who is scamming. am not accusing the above writer of being untruthful. am assuming that within the confines of their diatribe there are nuggets of truth. Starbucks should be making the same assumption. SMThree. MORE >>

I have not posted for a while because, well, because I just didn’t feel like writing another blog about some meaningful event that was transpiring in the Social Media “verse” I decided to spend more time reading that writing and came to the conclusion that when it comes to Social Media – there’s a lot of bullshit out there. First, let me state that I do believe that Social Media is useful – even necessary – for businesses and non-profits. Hence, all the bullshit. However, it is only a part of the plan. Social Media is the tail, not the dog. MORE >>

I subscribe to a ton of blogs on Social Media. It is a blog post from Richard MacManus which you can read here. It takes me several visits and loads of time to clear my Google reader every day. As a result, I’m a headline scanner. Grab me or lose me. This one grabbed me: Why Color May Be The Next Twitter. will admit that I do not use this new “ Color &# app. However, there were two points raised in this post that kind of startled me. Proximity – It seems this new app works best when you are physically close to other people. Whatever happened to eye contact? MORE >>

Seems you can’t find a blog or an advice column that doesn’t stress the importance of content in your social media strategy. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – Content is King. Even though this has become a cliché the underlying truth is undeniable. So, how do you generate, create and post this regal content? One technique that has been making the rounds is the content calendar. The concept is simple enough – pick a theme for each day and focus your content around that idea. As I wrote about here , it is a great way to organize your thinking process. MORE >>