Do you want to improve your tweet-cred?  Then this is the list for you.  You have probably used most of these Twitter abbreviations when texting or when instant messaging, but hopefully there are a few gems in here that you can add to your arsenal of abbreviated Twitter speak.

@ = Reply to username

AFAIK = As far as I know

bc or b/c = Because

BG = Background (referring to their Twitter background) …continue reading Twitter Dictionary-the most popular Twitter abbreviations

It’s been awhile since my last “Funny Friday” and let me tell you, this one will give you a chuckle and a half.  For other delightful funnies, go to the Humor section.

This post is originally from Shane Nickerson, who is an executive producer of Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory show on MTV, called the 46 Stages of Twitter.  I thought Shane’s post was brilliant so I decided to revise his original post with his consent.  The original 46 became what this list is now – The 85 stages of Twitter.  Holla if you’ve experienced one, any, all, or none!  Reply to me @shinng or comment below.   This should be amusing… …continue reading Funny Friday: The 85 Stages of Twitter

We have all heard of the objections in using social media.  That’s great and all, but how do you respond to these objections.  Direct Marketing Observations listed the top 45 objections.   There were some repeats so I revised the list, expanded it, and included comments on how to respond to each objection.   Comment below or @ me on Twitter and let’s continue to evolve this list to help others start engaging.  No more excuses! …continue reading 30 top objections to social media and how to respond

This is a guest post from Matt Cheuvront and is part of the Guest Blog Grand Tour over at Life Without Pants. Want to learn more about Matt Cheuvront & see how far the rabbit hole goes? Subscribe to the Life Without Pants RSS feed & follow him on Twitter to keep in touch!

Ok, you caught me. Busted. I’m kind of a Star Wars nerd. There’s something about the lightsabers and intergalactic battles that is just so damn cool. And in a world full of analogies these days, why don’t we tie the connection of being “one” with the force as being “one” with your consumers and community audience.

Here are seven things you NEED to be doing with your blog and Social Media “force” in your epic struggle against the “noise” and “clutter” from the Dark Side. …continue reading One with the Force: Tapping into your consumer’s psyche and becoming a thought leader

I’ve had the pleasure of being on both sides of the fence.  On one side, my former boss was not a proponent of social media because of the difficulty in measuring ROI.  Bottom line, did the social media efforts translate into dollars.  On the other side of that fence, my current employer, Marketwire, is a big believer in social media and the benefits that social media produces.  This post focuses on the former.

Convincing your boss and selling social media should be approached with a plan.  Most importantly, you must genuinely believe in social media and its benefits.

How to sell social media to your boss …continue reading How to Convince and Sell Social Media to Your Boss

Are you kidding me with this?  Nike does yet another brilliant ad.  This time featuring rappers KRS-One and (one of my favorite rappers) Lupe Fiasco.  This time, it’s an all out (MVpuppets) Christmas rap battle.  Let’s touch mics gentlemen muppets and keep it clean.

Santa = KRS-One
(smack talking reindeer) Blitzen = Lupe Fiasco

Blitzen calls up Santa with some smack talk, “I hope y’all ready to get served cuz beating Blitzen is gonna take a miracle cuz last time I checked this wasn’t 34th street.”

Lyrics to Santa’s response to Blitzen…I can’t believe I just wrote that. (if you see any corrections, comment or tweet me) …continue reading Reindeer versus Santa Rap Battle with Dunking on Reindeer Lyrics

This SES Chicago recap will cover the last two sessions of Day 2.  This recap includes “Igniting Viral Campaigns” and a sponsored session named “Social Media Strategy”.

My recaps will include some useful tidbits that I picked up during day 2 of SES Chicago.  Tweets were made from @marketwire as well as my personal handle @shinng using the hashtag #seschi and #rt2eat.  So what is the meaning of the latter hashtag?  Well, the creative marketing team @marketwire wanted to give back for the holiday season so we decided to take advantage of the Marketwire presence.  For every ReTweet of our tweets that include the hashtags #seschi #rt2eat, Marketwire will be donating $1.00 per RT for a max contribution of $500 to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

SES Chicago Session – Igniting Viral Campaigns …continue reading SES Chicago Day 2 – Igniting Viral Campaigns; Social Media Strategy

December 1, 2009 is World AIDS Day and Twitter has temporarily changed its branding to the trademark (RED).  World AIDS Day is observed the 1st of December every year to raise awareness of AIDS.  The 2009 theme is Universal Access and Human Rights.

…continue reading Twitter Raising Awareness For World Aids Day By Turning (RED)

Online Marketing is serious business.  People are talking social media statistics and providing links to serious news about social media, SEO, blah blah blah.  Well, it’s Friday and time to laugh off the stress.

These are some of the funniest Facebook mistakes that I’ve enjoyed courtesy of the sources listed at the end of this post.  It never ceases to amaze me how idiotic some people are.  For more, go to Lamebook, a site that posts the funniest and lamest on Facebook.  Sure you’ve seen most of these, but it never gets old.   Have one you want to submit? Contact me.  Enjoy these golden nuggets… …continue reading Funny Friday: 9 Funny Facebook Mistakes

Thanks to Mashable for linking back to my post via – Breaking: Rollout of Twitter Retweet Feature Has Begun [PICS] with over 2,600 reactions causing the post to be a top trending post!

Just to cover the basics for you noobs, a retweet (RT) is when a user reshares an interesting tweet usually verbatim.

Example: I tweet under my personal account (@shinng), “This new Retweet feature looks interesting.”  Anyone of my followers can retweet by “crediting” me for my tweet by inputting, “RT @shinng This new Retweet feature looks interesting.”

So going back to the breaking news: Much like the Twitter Lists, the ReTweet feature will be rolled out in phases.  Luckily, one of the accounts I manage received a beta invite. …continue reading NEW Twitter ReTweet Feature