ecosmo

I’m somebody who can, uh, go on. At length. About nearly any subject. Ask anyone who’s taken one of my classes… or read one of my blog posts once I get on a roll.

So I can understand why I’ll get the odd “TL;DR” in response. And I try not to take it personally; instead, I look on it as a reminder to pare my text down, murder my darlings and generally indulge myself a little less.

The second-most important thing about social media is talking to people. The most important thing is to know whom you’re talking to. We can’t have a conversation about “authenticity” or “realness” or any other airy social media concept until we understand that there are people listening on the other side of that megaphone, and that’s very nice of them to do. In order to get something out of social media, our listeners have to get something out of listening to us.

To give them what they want, it helps to know who they are. With the integration of Google+ into search, Google’s social network will become an increasingly important part of the Web. By Google’s count, it has 90 million users already. If you want to have a presence in Google search, active participation on Google+ is a good idea. I tested a tool for understanding the Google+ audience today and found some interesting insights.

Argh! What was that video called? Was that on Twitter or Facebook? Where did I save that article? Who was it who made that joke about the Edsel? Do you find yourself asking these questions often? As we get wrapped up in more and more Web services, things tend to get disorganized.

We’ve got inboxes over here, inboxes over there, boards here, there, tweets, docs, posts and shares. It’s almost too much to keep straight. Fortunately, there are little helpers out there. I’ve found two I love, and I’ll show you how to use them. One is free, the other is in closed beta, but there are invites below! If you’ve got other suggestions, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Plink has just announced a Facebook Credits loyalty program in partnership with fast-food chains Dunkin’ Donuts, Quiznos, Red Robin and Taco Bell. Users earn Facebook Credits by joining Plink and logging on with their Facebook credentials and credit or debit cards. Like any loyalty program, the more people purchase, the more Facebook Credits they’ll rack up. Members will be able to use their accumulated Facebook Credits at 25,000 locations nationwide.

Over half of all devices at this year’s CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show, were Internet connected devices. Nearly 60% of those were non-traditional computing devices such as TVs, car devices, refrigerators and washing machines. In fact 90% of the TVs at CES were Internet-enabled.

As more and more devices in your home get connected to the Internet, the user experience becomes increasingly important. It’s hard enough to use your PC sometimes, let alone fiddle with the remote on your Internet connected TV! So over the coming months we’ll be exploring the world of User Experience design (a.k.a. UX design). We’ll be interviewing UX experts and reviewing products that get it right - and some that get it wrong. We’ll start by looking at how the user experience of televisions is becoming more interactive and what this will mean to your TV consumption habits.

That the Web has revolutionized music is not exactly a news flash, but most people typically think about that in terms of music consumption. iTunes. YouTube. SoundCloud. Spotify. Group listening sites like Turntable.fm. Recommendation engines like those of Pandora, Last.fm and the Echo Nest. Now voice-controlled Internet radio apps are coming pre-installed in new cars. There’s no doubt that they way people discover and listen to music has changed radically, and will continue to do so.

The Internet and mobile technology are beginning to have an equally significant impact on the creation of music itself. Extremely powerful recording, DJing and sequencing software is making its way from laptops to tablets and smartphones, for example. Now, the way people learn to play music in the first place is changing as well.

Social media is no longer the uncharted territory it once was, but it is still not impossible to catch the eyes of the masses and become an overnight sensation on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Google+. Is there value in achieving name recognition in social media? And, more to the point, what defines a social celebrity? Is it followers? Reach? Name recognition? We put the question to you directly.

What does it mean to be ‘famous’ on social media?

We asked and culled your responses from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and presented them back to you with Storify. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.

If you think you’re different on Facebook than you are in real life, you’ve got some explaining to do.

A 2011 study from the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Psychology called “Manifestations of Personality in Online Social Networks: Self-Reported Facebook-Related Behaviors and Observable Profile Information” published in the academic journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking found that Facebook users are no different online than they are offline. The study also revealed strong connections between real personality and Facebook-related behavior. Social and personality processes, the study says, accurately mirror non-virtual environments.

A post by Kevinjohn Gallagher on “no longer recommending WordPress” to his clients has gotten a bit of traction lately. While there’s legitimate criticism to be leveled at WordPress, Gallagher’s isn’t (for the most part) it. If you’re approaching WordPress with the expectation that it’s the be-all and end-all of content management systems (CMSes) you’re going to be sorely disappointed. And frankly, I hope WordPress never tries to fit the ridiculous list of requirements that Gallagher tries to saddle it with.