Conversations opens doors online and in social spaces. While Jim Morrison’s mantra might have been “ People are Strange ”, I love people. They intrigue me. Their dreams, frustrations, pursuits and actions fascinate me. Their stories fuel and inspire me. However, reading and seeing from a distance is a spectator sport and not my cup of tea. prefer a more direct contact sport – conversation. Conversations can come in different shapes, sizes and varietals. Not every conversation is like an award-winning wine. My friend, the amazing Shel Israel, says it best. Image credit: klaudia jurewicz. Ending. MORE >>

Today’s guest post is written by Ken Mueller. m a technical moron. That sound you hear is Gini yelling, “A-freaking-men!”). spent 13 years in NYC, and part of my job was helping radio stations set up live broadcasts from our facility. Their tech people would call me and ask technical questions. would spout off a few specs, and quite often this was enough, until they started asking deeper questions. Then I had to admit that I was merely parroting what my tech person had told me. knew enough to be somewhat helpful, but it didn’t take long to realize I had no clue what I was talking about. MORE >>

Leading up to Facebook’s f8 conference today, my biggest concern about the rumored new “Read. Watched. Listened” buttons was that Facebook was becoming more and more superficial in its interactions. This was especially the case when compared to the deep interactions and engagements found on Google+ (which suffers from the problem of not having nearly enough people on it to sustain those deep conversations, but that’s another post). But Timeline beautifully solves this problem in two ways. But because ALL of it shared as a feed, the whole becomes available and accessible, and thus interesting. MORE >>

Social media professionals are a fascinating bunch. Sit with them and you’ll realize that there are at least 4-5 different disciplines represented. In my immediate circle, there are those with PR, Marketing, Tech and Software backgrounds, Web and SEO, wait, I’m not done.Journalism, Digital design, and I even know someone with a scientific background. That’s an awful lot of talent wrapped up into one type of marketing. Why are there so many distinct backgrounds in social media? Because social media is new (Twitter is only 5 years old!), Creative Commons by PSD. MORE >>

It’s Facebook question of the week time (clap, clap, clap)! The question, this week, comes from Rachael Seda. She asks, “Do you think selling through free content is the new way of the world or will it change in the future?” ” It’s a pretty interesting question and I hope I answered it correctly. did not answer if content will always be free, but whether or not it’s the way to generate leads and new business. You can watch the video below (or click here ) and see if you agree…or not. Tell Rachael what you think in the comments below. MORE >>