1. Be transparent – Do not post as someone else, especially as a customer just to appear like someone’s interested in your company and/or product. Disclose your true identity and intentions.

2. Never fight, provoke, flame or offend – In short, be courteous! Act like your meeting your other half’s parents for the first time. This will not only make you ensure that you put your best foot forward but will help you avoid any potential lawsuits.

3. Inform/Educate – Do not promote. Though sales is your end goal leave the hard selling techniques to the other marketing methods you are currently employing (ads, your websites, etc.) and use your social media account to simply drum up more awareness of your products/services and company.

4. Don’t insert links in forum posts – Allow the signature to act as a link. The only exception is when someone asks specifically for a link or for information wherein a link is needed in order to give complete info.

5. Don’t respond to post more than 3 months old – Exceptions are posts that have been revived by someone looking for more current info on the same subject.

6. Don’t answer a question that has already been answered unless you can honestly add something useful – Enough said.

7. If you are posting as yourself or your own web personality, do it from home – I guess this part is more of a reminder for employees who tend to abuse their office internet access. It doesn’t have much to do about your behavior in social media sites.

Knowledge is power, so google yourself, and if you don’t like what you’re seeing know that with a tidbit work you can do one of those “extreme” (on subtle) makeover thingys with an arsenal of social media tools:

1) Start a blog–This may come as a surprise to some folks, but there are still people who do not have blogs . If you don’t have a blog and if you want to have some control over your online reputation you need to get one. You don’t need to go all problogger on it and post a million times a day–just get a few pages going. By setting it up under a domain that is your name (www.yourname.com) you have a good chance of your blog ranking well when someone Googles you.

2) Get some colleagues to suggest you for Wikipedia– Of course you need to be somewhat notable to be accepted as a wiki , but if you are you might want to give it a shot.

3) Publish a HubPage. Here’s a great article on how to get your hub on Google’s first page.

4) Create a Squidoo page. Having your name be part of the domain name is a plus. See Guy Kawasaki’s Squidoo page? Check the domain name he created. Actually this is a great page, with lots of info about him, videos, links to blog posts and his Wiki. Emulate him as closely as you can.

5) Write an article for ChangeThis. A very cool place to express ideas. From their website:

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. We’re on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds

Was that so hard? All of these things are free (with the exception of buying the domain name for your blog) and require minimal effort, although of course you will see more results if you regularly update your blog and your Squidoo and Hub pages.

It goes without saying–Be sure that the info you’re publishing reflects well on you and accurately shows your best side, your accomplishments, your intelligent thoughts on issues, and your creative ideas. The idea is to take some control over your online destiny or to create a well-thought out web presence that will put your best foot forward.

Source: Seth Godin

Photo Looking Good Originally uploaded by Hulalulatallulahoop

Yeah, that’s right–I bet when you signed up for Digg or any of the other social media joints that you just threw together your profile using minimal brainpower (I did too )

Well, Brent Csutoras over at Search Engine Land is preaching about how to create a smart social media profle, and he is totally spot on.

Here are some great digger profile tips, comin’ at ya:

1) Mask or No Mask? When you sign up for Digg, you’ll be asked to create a Username that will be associated with all of your submissions and diggs and comments. Choose it carefully. You can either use your real name (ex. JoeSmith), or create a unique handle that will allow you to be anonymous in all of your activity in Digg (ex. frogmaster).

Brent recommends that if you’re using Digg for marketing, that a wise thing to do would be to create a username that would allow you to be anonymous.

2) Make your user name easy to say and remember. Don’t try to get all fancy and come up with a name that no one can pronounce or recognize. Choose something catchy, like “MrBabyMan” (now that one is hard to forget! )

3) Choose an avatar that works in all sizes. I’ve made this mistake before–a photo that looks good blown up big is not necessarily recognizable in tiny size. On Digg, depending on the page you’re viewing the avatar will be one of 3 sizes. Be sure that the avatar photo you choose looks good in all of the sizes. You get extra bonus points if your avatar is reminiscent of your user name.

4) Be mindful of what you’re linking to–variety is important. Many people use Digg and other social bookmarking sites for marketing purposes, but you’re not really supposed to only promote your own and your friends own stuff. You’ve gotta mix it up and share a variety of links from a variety of sites or else your profile will lose some of it’s power, since it may look like you’re using it for personal gain.

I learned this the hard way–when I first started using Digg, the number of blogs I was reading was not that many. Basically I was just reading my friends blogs. I was showing a friend of mine that I had added his post to Digg, and when he looked at my list of links he said, “Uh, you might want to fluff your links out a little bit.” So, to avoid a false impression don’t link to the same sites over and over and don’t submit your own stuff. Just share the post with some friends and if they like it they’ll Digg it.

5) Participate on a regular basis. Kind of scary, but Digg is watching ya and keeping track of everything you do and when. Brent says:

Digg sorts friends by recent activity and tracks the last time you logged into your account. All your recent submissions, diggs, and comments are also logged in the recent activity section of your profile. Make sure that you log in to your account as much as possible and perform various actions to keep your account looking fresh and active.

6) Your stats will show if you’d be a good friend. Yup, your user stats are on display for everyone to see. People who look at your profile can see how many articles you’ve submitted, how many stories you dugg within the last 30 days, what categories those stories were in, and the number of total diggs your account has. From looking at your stats, people can judge how good a friend you’d be or if you’re only in it for yourself. If your stats show that you’ve submitted 50 articles and have only dugg the articles you’ve submitted yourself, you’re looking at bit self-centered there . So, when you’re participating in Digg, be mindful of what your stats are revealing.

7) Add friends authentically. Don’t go on a massive friend adding campaign–it doesn’t look authentic. If you add a whole bunch of friends at one time, then those friends will be able to see how many people you’ve added and they’ll be on to ya. So, choose your friends mindfully, and add them in reasonably small batches or one at a time.

Grow your profile naturally over time. Digg will get suspicious if your profile balloons up with 500 friends overnight, so don’t do that! Just take your time, work on your profile a little each day, and add friends who you would really like to have as allies on Digg. Patience is a virtue, and your hard work over time will be rewarded. Pretty soon you’ll start to be viewed by all as a solid Digg citizen.

Can I get an “Amen”? Very wise tips. I have made a lot of these mistakes myself, and I’m truly thinking about re-working the way I do my profiles. Live and Learn.

Photo digg glitter tattoo

Anyway here’s a quick guide on the other social media sites you should be paying attention to and pouring some effort in based on the country/region your business operates in. Please note that both the map and the table is from Scott Monty’s blog. Visit the blog for the interactive map.

According to Saitz their latest product, called Windchill, was developed as a solution to difficulties encountered by companies developing products that have teams that are globally distributed. She also says that, “Product development has always been about collaboration and these technologies can take product development to a much higher level,” and that, “The combination of social computing with product development is the emergence of an initiative that we call social product development.”

If social product development seems very revolutionary right now Rob Gremly, executive vice-president of PTC, says that it is actually how the status quo of the work environment in the future. Gremly said, “Social product development is the next step in the evolution of how people work together. The idea that social product development was ever considered to be a new and revolutionary model will seem inconceivable to the next generation of engineers who have grown up with social networking as a normal vehicle for information sharing. Organizations that are able to harness the power of social computing in their product development strategy will quickly outpace their competitors with greater operational efficiency and ultimately better products.”

So make sure you aren’t left behind and start harnessing the power of social product development in your own business.

The social media aspect of Google wave is that a couple or a group of people can communicate online pretty much the same way they communicate in normal conversations. No waiting for other people to type in, easy to add people in the wave, editing previous statements, and so much more. It’s a bit like Twitter only much better.

Since Wave is still in the works though we’ll have to content ourselves with watching the developer preview, which I’ve embedded here for your pleasure. Enjoy!

1. which social media platforms most people use; and
2. what people use these platforms for.

The answer to first question is quite obvious since the popular platforms right now are undoubtedly Facebook and Twitter. The second question also has obvious answers inlcduing the usual reasons such as personal reasons, networking, etc. What is less obvious is the numbers how many people use the different social media platforms for the different purposes.

To answer these two questions you can go to polldaddy and answer these two surveys:

Which of the Following Social Media Accounts Do You Use Regularly (Weekly+)?

Why Do You Have Social Media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.)?

So far the poll hasn’t generated enough votes to be thoroughly representative of the entire population of social media users but its a good place to start. If you are serious about finding the answers though I suggest that you take into account not only the popularity of the social media platform but the specific use of most users in that particular platform and how these facts will work best with your social media marketing strategy. Remember that the poll asks the use for all platforms as a whole rather than for each so don’t go jumping to conclusions. However, it is still a good idea to look into the polls to at least help give you a framework in which to gather specific target audience info and analyse what you get. I also suggest tuning into Seomoz blog since randfish has promised apost with his analysis and opinions on the poll results later this week.

We have been hearing that if you want to earn or do business today, the money is in online advertising. This covers areas of advertising towards the Internet market as well as earning from online advertising. But while many enjoyed ease as far as earning from advertising programs like Google Adsense or affiliations with companies like Commission Junction, it looks like you have your work cut out for you especially if you are a new player in the online market.

Perhaps a different approach would be in order. Would you bank on image-based ads or text-link ads. Of the two, text-link ads has become the key towards success. But this would depend if you are able to hit and make use of the hot words over the web today. Many bloggers and content writers are creating a lot of content online these days but the riddle behind it all is knowing what words to use and relate them to the topics you want to blog about.

Also, add to the fact that telecommute jobs are saviors for people who have no jobs at the moment. All laid-off workers are looking for some form of income-generating scheme and whether they sign up with online companies or start their own online advertising revenue program, they can find the right one on the web with the right marketing approach.

I find this easy to believe! The news content that social media produces is very different that information a reporter would find by doing old school offline research. Blogs as sources are attractive to journalists because:

* Information is easily and quickly located– All you have to do is a Google search

* Blogs give journalists ideas for interesting story angles–there are many bright and articulate people in the blogosphere who are writing about topics they’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

* Blogs can reflect the opinions of locals within the community–Information found on a blog not only tells the journalist what the blogger thinks or has observed, but it also lets him/her know how the community that reads that blog is responding. When you’re doing research on a topic, sometimes the best and most thought provoking information is in the discussion within the comments. Blogs provide information about opinions from the community through the post and through the reaction of the blog’s community.

* Blog content can provide more human, emotional insight into the facts of surrounding a story–There was a time when journalism was just about presenting the “hard, cold facts”, but those times have passed. Not only do we want the facts, but we want to know how the news is impacting the people who are in the midst of it. It’s the human story part of the news that tends to catch our attention.

It’s really interesting to see how mainstream journalism and new media are intersecting. I have been amazed at how often I am contacted by journalists wanting a quote about virtual entreneurism who have found me through my blog on virtual business. I’ve probably been contacted half a dozen times in the last year, and I know I never would have appeared on any journalist’s radar screen if it were not for my blog.

What about you guys–Have any of you had any personal experience with being a “source” for mainstream journalism?

Source: Conversation Agent

No longer can anyone use the excuse “I didn’t vote because I didn’t have enough information about the candidates.” The truth is the information we have is bubbling over.

Which candidates are the most tech savvy?

Well, Barack Obama and John Edwards both hopped on the Twitter bandwagon immediately (although Edwards hasn’t updated in 2 months–you gotta keep it up, John!). Both are using their tweets to share brief ideas, to give updates of where they are appearing, and to point their followers to videos of their appearances.

Do they have an edge over their fellow candidates who are not taking advantage of Twitter’s power?

Think about it–Obama presently has 6,663 followers and Edwards has 4,306. These are citizens who are basically saying “Let me get to know you over a span of time. Let me see what you have to say on a daily basis for several months and get an idea of what you stand for.”

Both Obama and Edwards have virtual followings who are willing to listen to them every day, as many times a day as they would like to communicate with them. That is a HUGE advantage over other candidates who feel so far away, like they’re so polished and unreachable that we don’t feel any great connection to them at all.

John McCain and Barack Obama both have created sites that allow for social networking, allowing users to create a blog, add friends, create groups and neighborhoods, sort of like a mixture of Facebook and MySpace.

So, who is running the most tech savvy campaign? Well, Obama seems to be the one who’s taking advantage of several social networking outlets and making and effort at frequent contact with his followers.

Does this make a difference in terms of votes won?

I think it will for me. I am very much the type of person who needs to feel a personal connection with the candidate in order to stand behind them. Issues do matter, but I also have to feel like I can relate to the candidate on some level. Candidates who are using Web 2.0 to their advantage have a much greater chance of winning my vote, since I can feel like we’re hanging around the virtual water cooler everyday via Twitter and Facebook and such.

What do you think–will the social networking efforts of this year’s candidates make an impact on who you vote for?

Source: Profy

Photo Philo Northrup on the soapbox