A new study from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science called “Who Gives a Tweet: Evaluating Microblogging Content Value” has unveiled what we like to read, and what we don’t like to read, on Twitter. I have to say, the results aren’t all that surprising.

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Georgia Tech launched a site asking for anonymous feedback from people like you and me in exchange for rating their tweets. Users had to sign in to their website and rate 10 tweets before getting any feedback on their own tweets.

Luckily for these researchers, their project went viral. Sites like Mashable, TechCrunch, and CNN wrote about their study. The analysis of the study was taken from data received between December 30, 2010 and January 17, 2011. They had over 43,000 responses to work with. Here’s what they found: Continue Reading

I love a good infographic, and this one created by Jobvite (view full infographic post or view it at full size) is really cool. It shows how Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter help people find work.

This research looks at how people are using social media to look for and find work. Facebook leads the pack, with 44% of job seeking activity followed by LinkedIn at 26%. Are you a ‘super social’—someone who is highly active in social media circles with more than the average number of contacts? Twenty-eight percent of you found their last job through social networking, and 85% of you did so on Facebook.

And my mother thinks you can still find good jobs in the daily newspaper…

This infographic doesn’t just look at the millions of unemployed workers, it also takes into consideration the 61% of Americans (sorry, foreign readers) who are currently employed but are open to a new job. Continue Reading

Chris Brogan is the author of the new book, Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything.

As a Google+ skeptic (heck, I’m skeptical of all new social media) I was interested to learn more, so I sat down and watched this video where Michael Stelzner of Socialmediaexaminer.com interviewed Brogan about how Google+ can help small businesses.

As a freelancer, you are running a small business—a very small business that probably includes just you. And you should think of yourself as a small business when it comes to representing yourself both online and in the real world. If you are thinking about creating a page on Google+, you might want to watch the video for yourself (or check out Chris Brogan’s book)—here are some snippets and take-aways from Brogan’s interview:

“Most small businesses are approaching [Google+] thinking, ‘I just figured out Facebook, why are you doing this to me?’ First off, no one is doing this to you. Sorry, technology is always adapting, you have to adapt with it. We all don’t still have car phones, we have mobile phones, it’s the same thing.” —Chris Brogan

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I have yet to adopt the new Facebook Timeline interface. I don’t want to. I’m comfortable with using Facebook the way it is, thank-you-very-much. When I found this post on mashable about how to revert back to Facebook classic, I knew I wasn’t alone in wishing some things would just stay the same.

I know I probably sound like a curmudgeon to you, but honestly, when things I use on a constant basis—like Facebook—go through an “upgrade” it’s all I can do to not pout. They say they are making their product more user friendly, but all change has a learning curve. I’m a busy freelancer, if I don’t have to learn new things I’m fine with it.

I know that I am going to have to use Facebook Timeline in the near future—there’s no getting around it—but I’m not sure I really like the new look. For one thing, I have to scroll down just to see my friend’s status updates. I don’t really care about having a great big photo at the top, either. I think it just takes up valuable real estate.

“We want to design a place that feels like your home. Where you tell story online is very personal. You spend a lot of time curating it. We want to make timeline a place you’re proud to call your home,” Zuckerberg said of the Timeline at the f8 conference. “It’s a completely new aesthetic for Facebook. It gives you the ability to curate all your stories so you can express who you really are.” —huffingtonpost.com

I don’t want Facebook to feel like my home! I want to have an actual life that doesn’t involve a computer or Internet. I want to be able to enjoy a family meal without someone updating their status, or watch a movie without checking wikipedia for “factual”  information. I’m also not all that interested in “expressing who I really am” on Facebook. That’s not what I use it for. Continue Reading

Did you happen to see the Google logo on the search engine’s homepage yesterday? If not, here’s what it looked like:

Did you try to look something up on Wikipedia only to see a black screen? You can thank SOPA for both of those blackouts.

SOPA, which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, is an anti-piracy bill that is working its way through congress. It was introduced into the House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, and, if made into a law, would allow U.S. law enforcement, as well as intellectual property holders, to sue foreign websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Think about how the Chinese government can order blocks on websites…that could be the right of the U.S. government if SOPA passes. Continue Reading

It’s the beginning of a new year and you have decided to get serious about marketing yourself as a freelancer. Congratulations—that’s half the battle.

You have a lot of work ahead of you, and I found some tips in this article by Steve McKee for businessweek.com that will help you avoid some pitfalls. I’ve taken these tips and turned them towards the freelancing crowd, so you can make quick use of them. Continue Reading

I’m fairly new to the whole LinkedIn thing. I’m on it, but I haven’t really been using it to my advantage. I get updates from my Alma Mater’s LinkedIn page each week, but I usually throw that email right in the trash. Is LinkedIn just another social network I have to pay attention to? I decided to take a closer look.

Recently I have been logging in more to my LinkedIn page. Some of the most interesting articles I write about for this blog I have found through LinkedIn. And this article, about connecting on LinkedIn, I found…wait for it…on Linkedin.com! Here are some tips from that article to consider before connecting on LinkedIn…

Connect Wisely

Like any new thing I try, I like to follow the rules—or at least try to figure out what they are. Seems the rules for connecting on LinkedIn are a lot like the rules for connecting on Facebook—only connect with people you actually know. Many people who use LinkedIn to broaden their professional network are connecting to people they have never talked to. Why? Continue Reading

Dave and Carrie Kerpen started their marketing company, Likeable Media, after they created a buzz selling sponsorships to their New York wedding. They raised $100,000 for their wedding and $20,000 for a charity.

The couple, who both had marketing backgrounds, were asked by so many people “what’s next” after their wedding promotional stunt that they started their own company, which today has offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Mexico City.

Dave appears in this video on Inc.com talking about how he got started as well as sharing some tips on what makes someone good at social media marketing. While I wish there was less “wedding” and more “tips for 2012”—as the title suggests—I did like what he had to say about the kind of person who excels at social media marketing.

The most successful person in social media is the same person who is the most successful person at a cocktail party. —Dave Kerpen

Dave has a few fantastic tips that are worth considering in your freelance business…

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Social media marketing is one area of marketing that some organizations question, especially since the true impact of social media marketing can be elusive.

With all the changes to the way social media marketing takes place, businesses are reasonably concerned with whether or not social media marketing is worth the hassle?

To be fair, we all know social media can work. But is it worth the effort compared to other marketing methods, such as web banners or even more traditional approaches like postcards.

To answer this question for your website and business you have to take a long, hard look at your goals.

Social media does one thing better than any other marketing media: it generates word of mouth. If this is the best way for you to sell your company and the most efficient for driving traffic, then social media will be well worth the effort.

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Is it just me or does it seem like everyone is rolling out new technology this time of year? Facebook has its Timeline, Twitter has a new interface, YouTube has bought a company to help license music, and LinkedIn has partnered with Cvlynk to simplify and accelerate profile sharing.

And we can’t forget Google+ Pages for businesses—one of the more talked about changes for one of the world’s most talked about businesses.

When Google+ was originally launched, it didn’t offer business pages, and people were hesitant to join. What could Google+ do that their Facebook business page couldn’t?

John Haydon, founder of Inbound Zombie, a social media strategy firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offers these differences in his story for The Huffington Post.

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Did you know that November 23, 2011 was National Freelancers Day in the U.K.? This year marked the third annual NFD, which was launched by PCG—a trade association and support network for freelancers.

On Wednesday, November 23^rd, St. Luke’s in London was host to leading industry experts who debated key topics on flexible working and varying workforce trends. The entire day’s activities were designed to assist freelancers in building their business for success.

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The Associated Press has recently forbade its writers from expressing their opinions on Twitter, including implied opinions in retweeting posts by others. This has caused a bit of an uproar.

Many journalists and other media-industry observers on Twitter responded to the AP’s edict with scorn and derision, as detailed in a Storify roundup of some reactions. New York Times media writer David Carr, for example, simply said: “Good luck with that.” National Public Radio’s Andy Carvin—a pioneer of using Twitter to report on breaking news events such as the Arab Spring revolutions—said the policy was “an homage to lawyers” and suggested that he had no intention of following such a rule. Someone else said the AP was now just “hiring robots.” –Businessweek

The AP is worried that when their reporters retweet, they are sending the message that what is being said is an endorsement and a sign of approval. Many journalists have tried to deal with this by including the verbage “retweets are not endorsements” in their Twitter bio, but since such disclaimers in a bio are rarely seen by viewers, the AP isn’t accepting this. Continue Reading