“Though parents often have concerns about letting their teens use social media Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, a new study by University of Virginia psychologists suggests that well-adapted youth with positive friendships will use these sites to further enhance the positive relationships they already have.”

The reason this is so interesting is because I don’t really think it JUST applies to youth. I think it’s safe to say good relationships you have as an adult can be carried over into the social media realm. And, if that’s OK with you, why can you use it to grow your business? Good people hang out with good people and when you give them a good experience, maybe they can be your customer? Isn’t that kinda the whole point of social media done “the right way”?

Check out our Phoenix search engine optimization company or read the original article here.

Mashable.com has an interesting post about Facebook friends and your brain:

Ever heard of Dunbar’s Number? According to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, it’s the cognitive limit to the number of people you can be friends with. The number is 150, meaning your brain can only handle that many friends, and — shockingly enough — it also applies to Facebook.

When I read about this stuff, it always brings me a back to that Malcom Gladwell book. I think they even borrow some examples from his book as well. Either way, it’s still pretty cool to see Dunbar’s stuff getting applied in a social media situation since that’s all the rage nowadays with internet marketing types.

Of course, you can still use a Fan Page or Group on Facebook to grow your business if you know what you’re doing. Even it you don’t, just create one and invite a few people. It can’t hurt and it’s free. Or, if you want to have someone from our company help you out, check out our Phoenix search engine optimization here.

Reputation Management Wars
It seems like everybody’s working on a reputation management system to help SMBs get a handle on how they are being presented on relevant sites across the Web. Merchant Circle, Marchex, GetListed, Palore have all either rolled out or announced efforts in this area.  Expect to see big publishers and SMB ad sellers like ReachLocal, Webvisible, Yodle, etc. try to figure out how they can play in this space to create more value for advertisers.

I’m hoping to get an invite to Beehive personally as it looks pretty sweet. It would help me manage all my client campaigns pretty easily. Check me out if you need Phoenix SEO…or any SEO really.

Online social networks such as Facebook are being used to express and communicate real personality, instead of an idealized virtual identity, according to new research from psychologist Sam Gosling at The University of Texas at Austin.

“I was surprised by the findings because the widely held assumption is that people are using their profiles to promote an enhanced impression of themselves,” says Gosling of the more than 700 million people worldwide who have online profiles. “In fact, our findings suggest that online social networking profiles convey rather accurate images of the profile owners, either because people aren’t trying to look good or because they are trying and failing to pull it off.

Original story here

Stands to reason in my opinion. Most people aren’t there to disguise themselves and live out a fantasy life or anything. They just want to connect with people. It’s that simple.

If they wanted to ‘be someone else’, they just join internet properties where that’s the whole idea eg World of Warcraft, Second Life, etc.

The internet just enables people to do something simly “human” and that it to *connect*.

Do that with your prospects and they become customers. Do that with you customers and they become fans. Fans rave about you and bring more people like them to you. Basic math.

Learn more about connecting with your market or getting with prospects when they’re searching for you with my Phoenix SEO company.

The key may lie in the motivation of Internet users to email that content to their social network, say researchers from Ryerson University and Simon Fraser University.

….

They studied what they call ‘e-mavens’, people who spend a lot of time online, know intuitively what the next big idea is and spread marketplace information via electronic platforms, such as email.

….

Dempsey and Ho identified four potential motivations that may guide an e-maven’s behaviour. First, the need to be part of a group. Second, the need to be individualistic and stand out from a crowd. Third, the need to be altruistic and fourth, the need for personal growth.

See original story here (Advertising Message Gone Viral? Thank Altruistic, Yet Image-Conscious Internet ‘E-Mavens’)

Yep. And, the best way to grow your campaign is to figure out what would work for spreading type purposes and then keep a running list of these “e-mavens”. Now you know what works and they can feel ‘in the know’ as well.

Find out more about how my Phoenix SEO company can help you with stuff like this.

Twitter 2.0

OK. So, I Twitter (chadConnects) and I know there are a bunch of different Twitter tools and such out there but I hated having to Google something each time I thought of a Twitter idea someone might have already programmed. So, I just made this list and decided to share it in case it’s helpful to anyone. It doesn’t have the same boring ones most Twitter lists have.

Twitter With Other Media:

VisualTwitter: Twitter asks ‘What are you doing right now?’. With this service, you answer with a picture.

Twiddeo: Twitter meets video. Twitter updates with Video. Upload from the web, your cameraphone and record from your webcam.

TweetCube: File sharing for Twitter.

Kazivu: Post videos from everywhere. Create and customize channels and Share them with your friends in Twitter and Facebook!

TwitterCal: Tweet your Google Calendar. Add events from any Twitter tool.

Pikter: Share photos.

TinyLoad: File upload through Twitter. Uses MegaUpload, Rapidshare, FileFactory, DivShare.

URL Shorteners:

Tweetl: URL shortener especially for Twitter.

LinkASA: URL shortner that has the added benefit of being able to getting a preview page and/or add a tag to make things easier to remember.

Phweet: A Phweet is a shortURL that makes conversations and conference calls possible between Twitter friends and across other social networks. You can send or receive a Phweet on the web, on a SIP phone, or on your mobile phone.  And you can share who you are talking to in real time without having to reveal or exchange phone numbers or other identities.

LinkBunch: Lets you put multiple links into one small link which you can share over IM, Twitter, email or even a mobile phone SMS.

Twitter Aggregators:

Twitterfeed: Feed your blog to Twitter

Feedtweeter: It focuses on getting your Plurks to Twitter and the other way aound in a sane way, but it (should) work with any RSS feed.

iStalkr: social feed aggregator.

WhereIsMe: Basically, a web identity aggregator. It takes all the places you do things on the web and centralizes them for you to show off.

YoName: What’s yo Name? People search across social networks, blogs, etc.

Twitter, You, & Someone Else…

Who Should I Follow: Twitter friend recommendations.

TweetWheel: Find out which of your friends knows each other with a cool visual representation.

DoesFollow: Find out if this person follows that person.

JustTweetIt: Find other Tweeters with similar interests.

Twellow: Twitter search directory.

TwitDir: A Twitter directory

Twitter Meets ….

Twitzon: Where Twitter meets Amazon

Twiggit: Twitter meets Digg. automated service that lets your friends on twitter know what articles you digg.

Tweetbeep: It’s like Google Alerts for Twitter. Put in a keyword or website, and get emails when others tweet it.

ToAnswer: It’s like Yahoo Answers for Twitter. A mashup that will help you get your questions answered quickly. Follow ToAsk & ToAnswer. From there, just ask or answer.

Twitter Tools for your Website:

JQuery Feed Menu: It’s for having one feed icon but letting users choose which one they want….including Twitter.

Escaloop: A badge you can put on your site that will automatically compile an ordered list of all your latest activity on bunch of social networking sites like Twitter.

Feevy: Display content from other blogs at your website with just one simple html tag…including Twitter updates.

MyTimeZoneIs: Mytimezoneis allows you to easily share your time zone with your friends or visitors to your website. Set your time zone from your Twitter account and display it on your website with their easy to use widgets.

TwitterCounter: Does what it says on the tin. Plus, you can add a little badge to your site that shows how many followers you have.

Real Time Feeds:

Cursebird: Get a real time feed of people cursing on Twitter.

Twitspy: Real time Twitter public timeline.

TwitScoop: What’s hot on Twitter right this moment?

TwitBuzz: Buzzing links & conversations.

Tweetmeme: What things are hot right now on Twitter.

TwittEarth: Live Tweets from all over the world. Shows up on a Flash globe of the earth.

Phones & Stuff With Twitter:

TwitterFone: Send message to Twitter with your voice. Send Tweets by dialing a local number and speaking your message to TwitterFone.

TwitterMail: Send an email to your own personal Tweetmail address and have it post to Twitter.

EmailTwitter: allows you to post Twitter updates and retrieve your Twitter timeline via your cellular phone or other e-mail enabled mobile device, without incurring SMS fees.

TwitterIM: Update your Twitter account on MSN. Twitter via Live Messenger or ICQ, automatic TinyURL replacement, & will automatically strip out automessages.

Moblf: Access websites on mobile via SMS text messaging. Get SMS updates about what your friends are doing.

HelloMyNameIs: E is a service that integrates all your existing social services into an E•ID, which you can share with anyone in the real world. To exchange E•ID’s, you just need an internet-enabled mobile phone like an iPhone or Blackberry. When you exchange your E•ID’s, E makes sure your contacts get added to your other social services like Netlog, Twitter,Last.fm, Soocial, automatically.

Twittd; Use an instant messenger to Tweet. (Skype, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Jabber/GTalk, Yahoo Messenger).

Dial2Do: Basically voice to Twitter tool with more. Use it to send email or SMS messages, record remidners to help you remember things, and listen to your favourite internet content.

Twitter Organization Tools:

Tweet Party: friend grouping and messaging for Twitter

Twinfluence: Analyze your Twitter influence

The Mattinator: If you want to Tweet once and have it post to multiple Twitter accounts, this is the tool for you.

Tweader: Ever see all the @ replies and have a hard time piecing it together? Use this and see the whole thing in a nice row. See the conversation in a nice linear format you can read.

Twittulry: A service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them on Twitter. It’s basically like Digg for Twitter. Each time that you send a link to your followers on Twitter, Twitturly takes a note of it and applies your vote to that URL.

TwitterNotes: Take notes anywhere using Twitter.

Weird & Cool:

Twistori: Real time Twitter art. This is the first step in an ongoing social experiment, based on Twitter.

Minific: Short fiction with a Twitter twist. Share your short bursts of creative spirit. Just tweet an extremely short (~131 characters) story and add the tag #minific at the end.

Foamee: Tracks who you owe a beer to. (or coffee). Follow ioubeer and/or ioucoffee. Then, send an I.O.U. to a deserving recipient. You get a page over there to keep track of everything and can stamp drinks as ‘Redeemed’ when you want.

Notified: Never miss your fav TV shows because it notifies you. Let all your friends on Twitter know what TV show you‘re watching or about to watch later on with a personalised message right on your Twitter page.

CommuterFeed: A free service that lets you post reports on traffic and transit delays in your local area using Twitter or Pownce.

Measure or Track On or With Twitter:

Twitter Grader: Get a grade based on the power of your profile.

Twitly: Organize your followers into groups

Twitzu: Ever wanted to do invites on Twitter. Create an event, broadcast it, and then get an RSVP.

TrackThis: Track your packages over Twitter. Just send a quick direct message to trackthis and they’ll send you a direct message any time your package location changes.

Tweetrush: Aims to provide estimated stats on Twitter usage over a period of time.

SiteVolume:  Find out how many times a word is mentioned on Twitter, Digg, MySpace, Flickr, or YouTube.

DivVoted: Lets you vote for your favourite sites with Twitter. Great for showing off your latest designs, or checking out other peoples votes for inspiration.

TwittAd: Supposed to give Twitter users and advertisers the opportunity to meet for product placement & website promotion on your Twitter profile.

Twittaholics Anon:

Twiddict: If Twitter is down and you still want to Tweet, you can use this site. Strictly for addicts.

Twitabit: A simple way to communicate that stays up when Twitter is down.

Bonus Suckfest Twitter Tool:

Utterli: Don’t really know what the heck this does and their tagline is terrible and vague. They have a video that explains they do cross posting with Flickr though! (sarcasm). WTF?!

Extras (updated 11-11-08):

TwitterRel: Easy way to find people who might like stuff you like. Could be used as a marketing research type of a tool but could also be used to find people you don’t actually know but might be kinda cool.

Twuffer: Finally! I knew someone would do this so it was only a matter of time. Basically, you can schedule out your tweets to go out at a set time interval. Like an auto-post Twitter schedule of sorts.

FutureTweets: Basically, the same thing as what I just wrote above.

StockTwits: If you’re into the stock market, then this niche Twitter tool my be for you. It’s basically like Bloomberg for the small guy.

SnapTweets: Share your Flickr photos to Twitter. Two big social properties joined at the hip.

JigTweets: Basically, it lets you post pics, locations, sites, feeds & videos to Twitter. It’s kinda a little bar that sits in the upper right hand corner of your Twitter page and has a bunch of links so you can post these various types of things.

TweepleTwak: Keep an eye on Twitter followers and monitor trends in friend gains and declines across the twitterverse. Twitter Analytics anyone?

Twallow: Auto follow people on Twitter. You basically just type in a few keywords. When people type in those words, you automatically follow them.

TwitPay: Want to tweet someone money? Use this.

TweetStalk; It’s a way to follow someone without them knowing you’re following them.

Twittertise: Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of branded communications with your customers. You can schedule your communications on Twitter and using URL tracking technology measure the effectiveness of your traffic driving techniques on the platform.

TwitterImage:  Custom Twitter Backgrounds. It’s actually pretty awesome.

TweetAnswers: Ask a question and then get answers. It’s a community effort.

TweetGrid: Create a Twitter Search Dashboard that updates in real time. Kinda weird but innovative.

SplitTweet: Manage multiple Twitter accounts.

TwitterMagnets: Magnetic poetry & Twitter…you know…like that stuff on your fridge.

GroupTweet: Lets you and the gang to send messages via Twitter that are instantly broadcasted privately to only the team members.

MrTweet: Mr. Tweet looks through your extended network to help you build effective relationships on Twitter. Stuff like this:

• Which are my followers I should be following in return?
• Who are the influential people I should be following?

Definitely read the whole post but here’s the parts I was most interested in:

“How Radio Can Use Social Media To Remain Relevant, Win Back … – Here is the big secret about Radio, listeners want to hear what THEY want to hear. That is why the broad channel format on Sirius and XM is so appealing. Pick your genre of music and there it is, commercial free . . . but still you have but still you have to wait to hear the song you want to hear and you rarely know what is coming next.

Enter social media.”

So, I’m not a radio DJ (thank god) but I have been a DJ for about 15 years for events (wedding, barmitzah, ba-mitzfah, frat parties, class re-unions, etc) and swing dances. My alter ego is DJ Slam. I’m the guy in the picture who’s actually DJ-ing and not screwing around. You may not know this but I have a strong passion for Lindy Hop and have been doing it for about 10 years now. Traveling the US taking workshops, teaching workshops, DJ, dancing, etc. Until May, I ran the first succesful 21+ swing dance club in the greater Phoenix area having won local awards and whatnot. Club Red Swing.

Now, if you cared to notice I used past tense in that sentence becasue I’ve since closed it down and now do special events exclusively. Big stuff. Namely, on Sept 16th I have a band coming from London to play the club while I DJ the band breaks. The #1 Swing Band In The UK. The Jive Aces.

I’m going to take Dave’s idea and put it into action. I’ll be tweeting both of my sets as I DJ. If you want to find out what bad-ass jazz & swing from the the 30s & 40s (with some soul on the side) sounds like, tune in by following me on Twitter.  These guys are so crazy they turn on the lights, have sword fights WITH their instruments WHILE they’re playing. I figured, if they’re doing something crazy, so will I!

You can help me DJ…

Also, if you’d like to “hear” a tune, be sure to Twitter me back that particular evening and I’ll do what I can to work it into the set. It’ll be like you’re twitter dj-ing, or twdj-ing, or tweeterdj-ing or something… (let me know if you have a better made up word than that because it’s not coming to me) We’ll use the meme #Slam.

I’ll be interested to see how this little experiment goes and if I piss a bunch of my followers off becasue they don’t like getting updates on awesome swing and soul songs….

At the very least, you have iTunes open and fill out your music collection with stuff you can dance around in your kitchen to.

PS Thanks Dave for the great idea. I have a following already but this really just allows me to take it from club to club or state to state with my iPhone

PPS Incidentally, I pretty much just use my iPod and iPhone these days to DJ. I used to haul around records & tapes, then I moved to laptop and iPod, and now I’m just iPhone & iPod. It’s all fits in my pocket and you can’t beat that!