Many of us use facebook today for business. One problem, however, is that the unavoidable mixing of business and personal posts can add a lot of noise to your facebook feed.

For example, applications like FarmVille generate automated posts that can become quite annoying when all you really want to do is keep up with your friends' activities.

Fortunately, there's a simple answer:

• Mouse over an offending post in your facebook feed. In the upper right corner of the post, the word "Hide" appears.
• Click "Hide" and you get an option to hide all posts from the person (which you don't want in this instance) and an option to hide all posts from the application itself.
• Click on the option to hide the application, and you're all set.

One of the problems with facebook, of course, is that you don't know about this option until you happen upon it. Hope this is helpful.

I did a guest post today for Linda VandeVrede's PR Strategy Blog about the value podcasting can bring to social networking.

Linda, as you may recall, was my guest on Episode 20 of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer. She's an accomplished author and expert on modern-day PR.

In the post, I talk about the way podcasting can fill the need for content created by the social media channels that link us all together today.

The explosion in Twitter and Facebook by communicators of all types has created a desperate need for compelling content. In today’s world, you’re only as exciting as your last tweet or status update. But a steady diet of retweets and promotional items can put your audience to sleep.

Wishing all of our friends a happy holiday season and a great 2010!

(Click on image to view larger size.)

More than 9 of 10 companies in the Inc. 500 (91%) now use at least one social media tool.

That's up from 77% in 2008.

Think about the implications of this, which comes to us from a new study cited in Inc. magazine.

While experts have been vigorously debating the value of social media to business, major companies have been flocking to it.

Of the six social media categories covered in the survey, the one that continues to be the most familiar to Inc. 500 companies is social networking, with 75 percent saying that they are "very familiar with it."

Of those sites that currently comprise social networking, the top choice among the Inc. 500 was Twitter, which is used by 52% of respondents.

There’s an intriguing article in a recent issue of Advertising Age about the growing number of marketers who are directly engaging consumers through original content they and their agencies are creating.

In particular, video is identified as an increasingly popular way for marketers to get their messages directly to consumers and other influencers. Production and equipment costs have become more affordable, and opportunities to post the finished result are growing exponentially from YouTube to Facebook to web sites and blogs.

While it’s still valuable for clients to be featured in magazines and newspapers -- it's hard to replace the implied third-party endorsement value -- it’s good to know that marketers and agencies have exciting new options.

Reporters are embracing a new tool to put their stories together: The Tweet

A study has found that 70 percent of journalists are using Twitter to assist in reporting, according to a post on Journalistics. That's up from just 41 percent last year.

A big part of this shift has to revolve around journalists having less help to do their jobs, while being required to produce more content across various formats in near real-time. Journalists have no choice but to use these tools to find sources fast – and in some instances – crowdsource suggestions, tips and interviews.

For communicators the implications of this are obvious: Posting on Twitter can lead directly to reporters. And isn't that worth it's weight in gold...

Reposted from Unpolished Thoughts

I just had the unfortunate experience of coming across two interesting tweets from two interesting publications ... only to find them password-protected.

What on earth is the point of doing that?

In the PR world, companies will sometimes put password-protected links on their "In The News" pages. However, this serves a purpose. It shows who's covering them. And given the price newspapers and magazines charge for online reprints, I really don't see a way around it.

But for a publication to post a password-protected link to ITS OWN CONTENT? That's ridiculous. If you want to show folks how good your work is -- in the hopes of getting subscribers -- make the articles public. You don't have to make the whole site public. Just the stories you want to promote.

Reposted from Unpolished Thoughts

Absurd. Ridiculous. Totally nuts.

How on Earth, you might ask, can a Tweet be too long? By definition, Tweets are limited to 140 characters. Isn't that about the length of a single, longish sentence?

Well ... yes. Tweets are limited to 140 characters. But my point is this: 140 is too long!

At issue is the sought-after RT, or retweet, through which an individual Tweet can begin to go viral in the Twitter community. A retweet can bring fame to an account with just a handful of followers. It can bestow prestige and credibility. It is Nirvana for Tweets.

Reposted from Unpolished Thoughts

Film and literature tell us that the most powerful love is the bond that strikes out of nowhere. A bolt of lightning.  Ka-Pow!  And they lived happily ever after...

This is my second Posterous (I use the first for iPhone photos).  And after a few weeks I've concluded that Posterous is the perfect companion for Twitter.  Like Adam and Eve.  Bogey and Bacall.  Sid and Nancy.  Eh ... well, you get the idea.

Folks sometimes ask me how frequently businesses should tweet per day for optimal results.

The answer, according to one expert interviewed on {grow}, is either every 31-60 minutes or every 2-3 hours.

Again looking at the clicks per tweet, the optimal space between business tweets to attract the most clicks is either 31-60 minutes or 2-3 hours. Tightly packed tweets just don’t appear to attract as much attention as tweets with more space between them. I’m not certain what causes the dip in click activity for tweets between 61 and 120 minutes but I suspect it has to do with missing prime Twitter activity time on the East and West coasts (we may look into this in a later post).

I recommend checking out the entire post if you're interested. There are some great bits of information.