I’m curious, as you know, in the interplay between human psychology and social media, so I wanted to share some research with you about social networks and loneliness.

Sparked from this article, this post will deal with being highly socially networked, but still experiencing loneliness.

The research cited is interesting, because it finds that there is a whole group of behaviors (including happiness, smoking, and obesity) which are seen as “contagious” within your social network. This means that the behaviors and attitudes of those in your social network have direct impact on your choices in these areas.

Read the rest of this post »

Yes, Facebook is a fun way to keep in touch with your buddies and family and to reconnect with people you’ve lost contact with.  AND, it’s also a powerful marketing tool if you use it right.

Some people choose to set up a private page for just family and friends while creating a separate page for business.  I’ve chosen to blend the two on my “wall” so that potential clients/customers can get a feel for who I authentically am.

I’m in the process of creating a “fan page” specifically for my business (watch for a contest announcement in March!).  I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned with you.

Read the rest of this post »

GeekSugar, one of my favorite geeky-yet-girly sites, introduced me to WebMii, a fun way to identify what information about you is available on the internet.

If you’ve got a social networking account – and who doesn’t these days?! – WebMii runs a simple search that gives you a rundown of how much of your content is accessible to the masses on the web right now. It can also show you if anyone else with the same name is showing up as part of your historical internet record.

WebMii is great for those of you who want to monitor and reduce your online presence by limiting what strangers have access to online, but if you’re looking to become an Internet superstar, WebMii will also give you a PeopleRank score to show how visible you are online.

Take a look and make a comment below about what you learned…

Twitter is a great marketing tool. Many people might make the mistake of thinking that it’s only for online businesses, but Twitter will bring a ton of business to a local brick and mortar shop.

It takes a bit of work to turn your Twitter page into a marketing machine, but there are a number of ways to accomplish just that.

Get familiar with Twitter. There are a number of resources available online which teach the basics.

Who are all these people following your Twitter page? Followers are users that like your content and want constant updates. The more followers you gain, the better your marketing. You’ll want to target followers who are both interested in your business and live in your area. Twitter gives you tools to target these users.

Read the rest of this post »

If you’re like me, you’re getting dozens of new “friend” requests on Facebook every day.

At first, I quickly friended every random request, without even thinking about it. Then, I finally started being a bit more selective about who I let in…

Now, people on Facebook usually fall into a couple of different camps… You might be a quantity person, who has thousands of friends – or you might be a more discerning quality person, who carefully considers every friend request.

I guess I fall into the “quality” category. I’m not saying that there’s a right approach or a wrong approach – that’s a personal decision. But I don’t want to be known as a Facebook Ho! I’m not looking for a Facebook one-night-stand! Hey, that’s just me. I’m not gonna let just anyone into my Facebook family!

Read the rest of this post »

Forget climbing to 6 digits on Twitter, and ditch the “approve anyone and everyone” policy on Facebook.

If you’re like most people who’ve followed that advice, you’re probably looking at a bunch of strangers who crowd your Facebook wall with Blingee postcards and spam you with Mafia Wars invites.

Resist the urge to go for the numbers.

The word for this year: Micro

Of course you need to build a network, so don’t misunderstand this as an invitation to have a network of 3.

Read the rest of this post »

As you may know, I spent some time in November gathering responses to a 10 question social media use survey. The need for this survey grew out of the success of the Future of Social Media webinar Denise Wakeman and I held this past October.

After the webinar, we realized that many people still had questions about using social media effectively to build influence, credibility, and visibility. The two areas that participants asked about very frequently were content creation and syndication. People seem to be wondering what kind of content, and how much content to produce, and then, also, how to distribute their content most efficiently across the social media platforms.

Read the rest of this post »

I just read about this new service, Boarding, which helps stranded travelers connect with each other. To access the service, all you need is a public Twitter account.

To use the service, all you need to do is send a tweet that uses the hashtag #boarding and the airport code of where you are currently stranded. (Usually, this is a 3 letter code that defines the airport. You can get a list of airport codes here)

Anyway, so when you send a tweet like #boarding BWI, that means you’re stranded at Baltimore Washington International Airport. You’ll get a reply message that lists up to 100 other people who have tweeted the same thing within the past few hours.

Once you get this reply, you can @ message any of the people who might be in the area and suggest a spontaneous tweetup for coffee and conversation.

I think this sounds like a lot of fun, and I plan to try it the next time I’m in an airport longer than I’d like to be.

Most of us know that social networking is the place to be for online marketing. As entrepreneurial moms, we have to balance how much time we spend on this with our family obligations. So, the question becomes, “Are you using it effectively as a lead generation tool?”

At my recent Metromom Online Success Telesummit, I spoke with Nancy Marmolejo, a mom entrepreneur and a Social Networking Strategist. She has some magic secrets for turning social networking followers into fans and those fans into leads and I want to share them with you.

Nancy calls it the social media impact cycle. Here’s how it works for your target audience:

Read the rest of this post »

Google search is going to start looking different in the next few months, as Google has signed a deal with Twitter.com to start indexing tweets.

Similarly, Microsoft has signed deals with Facebook and Twitter to start indexing updates in the search engine Bing.com.

These changes mean your wisdom won’t be shared just with those in your immediate tweetstream or newsfeed, but could, perhaps, be listed in the search engines and archived for the world at large.

Read the rest of this post »