weeks - 2:07 pm on Sep 30, 2010 (gmt 0)

I'll come back to this thread later, but I read this morning with my coffee this article. The press, like everyone here, is struggling to get their hands around this. This is about Linked In, but it makes some larger, basic how-to points as well.

From the NYT:
[nytimes.com...]

For any company in the social networking business, it is not easy living in the shadow of Facebook and Twitter. With 500 million users connecting with friends, trading photos, videos and articles, or whiling the time away on social games, Facebook has pretty much locked up the field. For its part, Twitter has carved a solid niche for those interested in broadcasting their thoughts 140 characters at a time. But with its unabashed utilitarian bent, LinkedIn has built a presence in social media.

One point: To make this work, you have to say something NEW or at least different. If you're selling pizza, you cannot just keep saying, "great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza great pizza."

That might seem obvious to you, but you'd be surprised how that is a shock to many. SMM is work. And, quite frankly, it's creating problems for a lot of the less sincere, less honest, less caring, and especially less talented folks playing around on the web. SMM is a positive thing.