Why adaptive media? Because in the end the platforms and applications are just tools, and they are adaptive. They require the user to adapt to a more inclusive set of societal rules, to get back into a communication mode instead of a sales or quota mode, to relearn how to be human even in promotion or business, more. They also adapt constantly, changing almost daily. Some live in a niche (Twitter), some fall out of fashion (MySpace) or lose funding or close for other reasons (TipJoy), some grow exponentially for a while only to begin to fade away (Friendster), some seem to eat the rest of the tools alive (Google), but in the end – they are only tools.

If you call it what it is and work on changing the midset behind the use of the tools, it’s easier to create an atmosphere where you can ride out the volatile nature of the social web and find growth no matter what happens to the tools you use to do it. The social mindset isn’t going anywhere, but it will become a more connected way of living and doing business that will outlast whatever tools you use to do it. Adapt in this age of adaptive media, and don’t trip yourself up by attaching yourself so firmly to one tool you can’t float if it sinks.

POSTPONED Continuing the focus on hyper local learning and real time reaching out, we are starting Lunch and Learn sessions on some of the topics we get asked about the most. The first of these is on April 18th at Rick’s Pond View (no walk ins, EventBrite signup or email me if you need to pay cash at the door), and is a class on how to keep your kids safe online. (Hashtag #KIDSAFENH)

Also in the hyper local category is the next Social Media Breakfast NH on April 17th (no walk ins, EventBrite signup only). University of New Hampshire (UNH) has generously offered to sponsor this event. This, the third Social Media Breakfast NH, is all about education and social media. We will have two speakers, and then instead of a third speaker we’ll do an open Q&A that will allow the educators present to pick our brains and learn from us in real time. (Hashtag #SMBNH)

Another upcoming event is the next podcast: Topics on Fire, Episode 15: Inbound/Viral Marketing. That will be on TalkShoe next Sunday 4/19 at 10:00PM EDT. You can follow the call here to get a reminder when it will start sent to your email inbox. (Hashtag #TOF)Last Topics on Fire Episode was on Music and Social Media. Have a listen:

There are more classes in the lunch and learn series coming, and more events planned. Stay tuned as we keep finding ways to share knowledge with you and foster connections.

I use the link in your profile page to make decisions that your existing interaction level can’t answer. Others who are newer to social media use it to decide your trustworthiness and online value, or how interesting you are. Following someone has a bit of a cost to it as far as time – the landing page you link to in your profile let’s new followers know you are worth their time.

Many people panic when I tell them they need a link to a landing page. They don’t want to start a blog or host a web site. They don’t want to sell products online or fuss with a CMS system. They prefer more lightweight interaction online and don’t see the point in committing at that level. You know what? That is totally fine. Even so, you still need a place people can go to see another facet of who you are.

So how do you have a social media landing page if you don’t want to have a blog or web site? That’s easy – cross link to your other social media profiles, or to a social content site or social network instead.

Social content is probably the best way to handle the lack of a dedicated web site or blog. If you have a Flickr account for your photos, a Qik channel for short videos from your phone, or even something like an Utterli profile where you record your old, angst-ridden teen poetry, link to it.

If you don’t generate social content, you should. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s often free. It takes less time than a blog or web site, and it is maintained by someone else. You get a profile page in a very no fuss, no muss manner, meaning that updating feels more like play but is still effective in getting what I like to call “snackable content” out there for the masses to consume, discuss and pass along (with credit and link backs, is the hope).

If you are strictly a social network participant and have no desire (or time, in some cases) to generate any kind of social content, no matter how small, you can still make one of your social network profiles into your landing page. Just tweak the content a bit to make sure it reflects a wider amount of your personality or accomplishments, then link to the profile.

To make a FaceBook profile your landing page, you need to make the permissions on the profile public. That’s a scary thing for some people, and not without risk. If that makes you uncomfortable, you can create a fan page for yourself or your company and link there instead, thus controlling access to your private life.

Just because MySpace has lost its luster recently doesn’t mean it isn’t a great landing page, especially if you are a band/musician. The custom URL feature makes it easy, and you can upload links, content, videos, commentary and more with ease, keeping your content interesting for visitors from other sites, like Twitter.

Don’t overlook some of the lesser known or niche social networks either (iMeem, Strands, MOG, LinkedIn or even sites like FriendFeed). However you choose to get another side of your personality or your company out there, that link in your profile is key to getting more response to your social media activity. Layers are vital. Show yours off.

Original post: Topics on Fire is on its 14th episode. I’m so happy at the support it receives from people, and pleased when I hear that you all learned something from an episode, or just plain had fun. So far the two most popular episodes have been Part Two of the Gender Gap and Social Media/Technology and the New Year, New You episode.

Tonight we talk about one of my favorite topics, music and social media. I am honored to have long time friend and musician Flint Mavis as one of our panelists. He has one foot in each side of the equation as a MySpace account executive and session guitarist in Los Angeles. He has been heard wailing his axe in several bands over the years. Also joining us is new friend Joe Marrapodi from Get Rare. You all may know Joe best as friend and manager to Pete Yorn, but through Get Rare I had the pleasure to get to know Joe recently before the WERS 60th Anniversary show in Boston. Carla Lynne Hall will also be on our panel. She is a musician and music blogger (Her blog is Rock Star Life Lessons) and someone I connect with frequently on Twitter. A champion of indie music, she has loads of great advice for musicians looking to make their way online. Piano rocker Matthew Ebel will be on as well. He is known for using social media and the internet to book gigs and sell his music direct to his fans. The other panelists will be announced closer to the start time.

I hope to see you all there! It’s on TalkShoe at 10PM Eastern Time tonight, 3/29.

Like it or not, the iPhone boasts the best platform and App store for mobile social media and networking.  A couple worthy mentions should go to Google’s G1, and maybe even Samsung for its latest batch of TouchWiz-equipped handsets.  

Working from that assumption, I’d point out that iPhone sales have soared recently, even considering the fact that AT&T, a carrier not known for its shining quality, is the only service that can claim the iPhone.  The mass adoption of the iPhone coupled with the success of the Apps store is making the iPhone the best platform for real mobile social networking to occur.

As I’ve said so many times before, there’s quite a ways to go before we reach true mobile social networking.  But, if you believe as I do that the iPhone will most likely be the platform to boast true mobile social networking, you’ll have to agree that a couple of updates announced yesterday certainly go a good way towards brining true mobile social networking closer.

First up: push notifications.  The iPhone (and iPod Touch) will now automatically receive application updates even if the app in question is not running.  You might be thinking, “Well, gee, why didn’t they already have that?”  A very good question.  

Now that apps can receive updates automatically (that is, without a user having to open each individual application, such as Mail, Twitterfon, Loopt, Facebook, MySpace, etc.), users will be alerted of updates to their different social accounts real-time.  Being aware is a huge tenet of social networking, and having your apps note updates displayed as they come in without having to update each app individually will help users streamline their online social activity.  

Second: maps access inside other apps, and turn-by-turn directions.  I consider both of these to be big steps towards advancing mobile social networking.  Loopt, perhaps the best mobile social networking aggregator app out there, allows users’ locations to be visible to other Loopt users on a map.  What better way to help users connect with each other on-the-go than to provide mapped, turn-by-turn directions to activities or your friends?

Let’s say you’re in the city.  Your friend updates her status on Facebook, raving about this band that’s about to play live in a venue across town from you.  You aren’t familiar with the quickest way to get there, so you open Loopt and use your current location and your friend’s location to generate turn-by-turn, GPS-rendered directions, which get you there before the second opening band comes on.

I can’t say as to whether the Loopt team has any designs on integrating the functionality I just described, but my point is the technology is there, and it is now possible.  Talk about a very real way to bridge your online social presence with your real world social life.  THAT is what mobile social networking is about.  

Third: data tethering.  Yes, that sounds quite lame in comparison to what I’ve detailed above, right?  Though I’m all about having everything you need in the palm of your hand, the fact is we just aren’t there yet.  Failing those advancements, there’s not much better than whipping out your Macbook wherever you are at and doing some surfing or social networking when you’re out of WiFi range.

 If mobile social networking still isn’t quite realized (and I’d say that it certainly isn’t), then why not use your familiar and powerful, computer-based social networking tools wherever you’re at by tethering your iPhone’s data to your laptop?  It’s social networking made mobile, is it not?  A bit cumbersome, but it fits the description.  

There you have it: three updates to the iPhone that will further the cause of mobile social networking.  

P.S. – If you weren’t aware, Loopt isn’t just limited to the iPhone…it’s available on the G1 and Blackberrys, just to name a couple prominent handsets.

The Wall Street Journal delivers the skinny on tomorrow’s meeting of great minds, noting that the agenda contains a discussion about the new changes coming to Facebook and a segment dedicated to answering user questions about Facebook etiquette.  The first part deserves a big “meh.”  Not that the changes aren’t welcome…just that I really don’t see how productive or insightful (or even lengthy) a discussion on that topic can be on the Oprah show.  But then again, she is a talented woman. 

The second part, however, just makes my skin tingle with excitement.  Now, I would never claim to have the expertise of Oprah on the matter, or even the site’s founder, Zuckerberg, but I think the topic of Facebook etiquette deserves a little face time.

I’d like to suggest three premises at which all Facebook users should begin.  First off, it’s important to note that Facebook etiquette rules are not the same as those of Twitter, and certainly not the same as those of MySpace, Youtube, FriendFeed, or any of the other numerous social networking and media sites.  Second, you should know that the rules aren’t set in stone.  In fact, they evolve just as frequently as Facebook receives updates and facelifts, if not more frequently.  Third, if you try to hard to fit in, you’re going to stick out.  Facebook is fun, so don’t make it a tedious task of imitating those you consider to be popular users.  Facebook is a wave, and it’s better to enjoy the ride than to swim against it.  

I’ll be taking some time later to detail more etiquette principles for Facebook, but here’s one:

1. Do not be a creeper!

It’s acceptable to “creep” someone’s photos, wall posts, videos and notes, meaning keeping tabs on others without them knowing.  Really, it’s fine.  College folks joke about creeping all the time…it’s accepted.  It is something else entirely to leave little creepy (note: creepy is different than creeping) notes on people’s statuses, send friend requests to the friends of someone you’re creeping, poke people that aren’t your friends, and generally make it aware that you are actively maintaining a greater interest in someone than they are taking in you.  There’s creeping, and then there are creepers.  Get it straight.

Anyone else have Facebook rules of etiquette to share?

Related post: So Your Parents Found You On Facebook, Now What?

I may make light of the problem a bit but it really can be an issue from all sides. Even the most tight-knit families are fraught with history and tensions that never really go away, and have a pile of minor slights that have had time to build up over the years between siblings, cousins, parents and more. One friend has horror stories of her parents airing their grievances from their divorce on her profiles. Another’s mother was upset at the photos she saw of her “baby girl” at a party online and didn’t speak to her for weeks. When these worlds collide it can cause lasting friction if not handled well.

The first thing for all sides to remember is that most social sites give you a way to control who sees what. Use these settings! Don’t be afraid to limit or block a relative (or anyone for that matter) who has trouble with the concept of personal space and privacy. If you want to try laying out what you expect from family members online before resorting to that, that’s fine too, but that may not be enough for those with no concept of how public their comments are making your private history.

The next thing to remember on both sides of the fence is to respect where someone sets their boundaries. If your family member takes the time to say to you “Hey, it makes me uncomfortable when you “friend” people in my life you don’t even know just to keep tabs on me”, or “I use this particular network for work, and I don’t want to tell this group of people this much about my private life, you’re putting me in an awkward position when you comment” then stop doing it, whatever it is, or accept the fact that you may get blocked or limited for your persistence.

When I say learn to use the privacy options on all of your social networks, I mean it. Even Twitter, the most basic of social networks, offers a way to block people. FaceBook offers ways to limit what people can see, group friends and family into types or block people, and it is customizable on a friend by friend basis, which is a nice touch. FriendFeed even allows you ways to block or put people in groups. Whether you get social on a business network like LinkedIn or a fun network like MySpace, take a minute to get private and set boundaries both verbally and virtually. Your relationships with those around you may be the better for it.

What should the offending person do if they get blocked? Nothing. If you get blocked, don’t make a public scene at all. It may come as a shock, but that behavior is what got you blocked in the first place. If you must comment at all, do so privately, and respect the answer you get when or if you are told why the decision was made. After all of that, if you decide to give each other a test run and allow all comments and interaction in the social media arena, here are some tips to possibly avoid a need for blocking or limiting in the first place:

1) Parents: friending your kid’s friends, whether you know them or not, to keep tabs on them is only acceptable when they are a minor and you are looking out for their safety. Once they are an adult, even if you don’t think they act like one, you need to back off and give your kids some space.

2) Kids: know that there are repercussions far beyond your parents being online for some of the things you post to your profile. Not only is your mom looking at your cleavage shots, so is your future boss, future husband (or maybe not, depending on those pics), clients, future kids and everyone who knows how to use Google. That limits the amount of indignation you should feel about comments you get, since you did choose to put that out there into the public domain.

3) Follow the person’s lead. If they were on the network first, look at how they interact, read what they post. If they are reserved, act accordingly and be reserved on their wall! If they are more personal, feel free to loosen up a little bit. If they don’t seem to have time to play games, don’t bombard them with game and application invites, etc.

4) Family secrets are never ok to post. ‘In jokes’ are not the same as secrets – those are often fine. But commentary on past poor judgements, nekkid baby pics, all of that should be left for emails, letters and the family photo album on the coffee table.

5) Keep the internet a no-nagging zone. Nudging, poking and messaging incessantly when your family member does not respond right away is not appreciated. They are probably busy. Relax. It’s the internet – it’s not going anywhere – they’ll get back to you in time.

6) Resist the urge to critique your family members choices. Often a social network profile is simply a sketch of person, not the whole person. If you think they are being inauthentic, tell them offline, not on their wall or comments. You may be surprised to hear the reason behind their holding back a bit of their private self if you open an honest, offline dialogue about. And think of it this way, you may learn something new and cool about that person in the process, just by being considerate.

If you have story to tell about family social media interaction gone wrong (or right – I have found some long lost relatives online and enjoyed getting to know them, myself), please tell us your story in the comments. Do you think I forgot a pointer? Tell us that too!

This post inspired by a Twitter conversation earlier today between myself and @PurpleCar

Of course, now that I have an Apple Touch device, my first move was to jump on the Apps store and look for all the mobile social networking applications I could find.  I have to say, I was a little disappointed.  There just weren’t the plethora of applications I expected to find.

That isn’t to say I didn’t find some great tools.  First off, the Facebook app for the iPhone and iPod Touch is simply stunning.  It is far superior to its counterpart for Blackberry.  If I wasn’t already a Facebook junkie (and I was), I’m probably a lost cause, as it will now be fused to my hip in waking and sleeping.  

I also found a fantastic Twitter platform called TwitterFon, a FREE app that, in my opinion, bests any offering I’ve seen thus far either for mobile phones or computer platforms.  You’ll probably hear me harping on “free” for quite some time, as I’m sure there are many great mobile apps available for all mobile phones, but it seems some developers feel the need to charge for their creations.  I’m all for paying for apps that are well-developed, but there aren’t any trial opportunities for many apps that could be very good…in that sense, developers lose out because many won’t be willing to pay for something they’re not sure of, and consumers lose out because they’re more apt to stick with free apps than apps that might very well be superior. 

Also, I installed the Yelp! app to my iPod Touch.  Though it’s far from perfect, it’s a nice addition to anyone’s mobile device as it offers great search and localizing functionality for finding activities, restaurants and businesses in your area.  Today I searched for Starbucks, and found one 1.5 miles away; when I clicked “Google Maps” to get directions from my house, Google didn’t know the location existed.  Luckily I already knew where it was.  The point being, it isn’t perfect but it’s better than not having it.

And yet, I still find myself less than enthused with the current plight of mobile social networking.  Why?  Because, dear friends, the mobile social networking world is in serious need of multiple cross-platform social aggregators.  By cross-platform, I mean available with every major cellular carrier in the U.S, and by social aggregator, I mean a platform that ties in most of the best and most popular social networking and media sites like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and others.  Though it’s all well and good to update each application separately, it just isn’t time effective to type out the same message for all your different services. 

I was surprised to find no evidence of a FriendFeed application for the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Though it isn’t my favorite computer-based aggregator, I think it would be a huge hit on mobile platforms. I’m familiar with what is currently the most widely-used aggregator for the iPhone, Blackberry, and other platforms — Loopt — but I find it lacking.

It does seem to be a perfectly fine social locator that integrates Facebook and Twitter, but if that’s it, there’s certainly a lot of room for improvement.  If you can use it, give it a try and see whether it fits your needs.  But it isn’t the be-all end-all to me.  

There are options, and mobile social networking has certainly come a long way from where it was even a couple years ago.  But competition between developers, and more so carriers, has effectively stunted the growth and restricted the adoption of universal mobile social networking.  For now, the best offerings seem to be available on the iPhone and the G1 (T-Mobile), and some of Samsung’s latest phones with the TouchWiz interface have some interesting (albeit limited) social applications.  For now, Facebook and Twitter seem to be the two big platforms, and your best bet is to find an app that suits your needs for each of those platforms.

One of the benefits of social media as a medium for business communication and the promotion of artists, musicians and more is how cost effective and far reaching it is. Increasing your social leverage leads to a variety of tangible and intangible benefits for any company. It’s easy to see the external benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction, improved customer service, benefits to how your customers and potential customers perceive you, indirect sales, the ability to drive traffic to your web site or to the web sites of your company’s favorite causes or collaborators, corporate growth potential and so much more. It is harder to see that part of the cost efficiency lies in finding ways to use what and who you already have within the company to the fullest.

If you are a firm with a massive staff load in the tens of thousands, or a legal firm, government body or hospital with special privacy concerns, then yes, you should hire one person to handle your social media campaigns. Those scenarios require more focus than the average company. If you have a company with a few thousand employees, a medium or small company, or are an entrepreneur running a micro business, you should start to look at your entire staff as your marketing and social media department.

It is common business practice to monitor or restrict time spent online, to throw road blocks up against social sites like FaceBook, MySpace and even LinkedIn. My question to every company is why limit your business and your employee growth in that way? Blocking your own success at the firewall is not going to get you anywhere. All employees have down time. Everyone gets a little bored at work sometimes, even the busiest CEO or freelancer. Why not tap that down time and boredom? With the proper training and a few simple guidelines worked out with your employees, your legal or management team and your social media consultant, every moment of boredom could be turned into fun for your employees and indirect inbound marketing for you.

Every person has a network. Whether they are talking to their network about plans for the weekend or about you, your company name and link shows up in the work section of every social profile they have. This means that every interaction could be drawing eyeballs to your business. With a little training on how to effectively add in references to your company, to offer assistance appropriate to their position in your company, and other options, you could have your company’s online presence amplified to reach the networks of every employee (and their networks’ networks) in a very short period of time.

With that kind of social leverage at your fingertips, why aren’t you using it?

CNN reported that on Facebook, arguably the most popular social networking site for college students and young people, Obama claimed 2.4 million followers, where John McCain pulled up the rear with a meager 624,000.  Obama’s own site was significantly more social in content, and John McCain’s team did make an effort to replicate some of the functionality Obama touted for McCain’s own site.

There is one point that I will not contend with Sanchez, that being that the GOP (and the Democratic party) should work towards reaching the young and old through social media. Social media is here to stay, and it would nothing less than irresponsible to not maintain a presence on networks and sites like Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, Twitter, Friendfeed and the like.

However, implicit to Sanchez’s article is the suggestion that if the GOP can match the Democrat’s technological savvy, they can swing a large group of young voters in the party’s favor. I respectfully disagree.

Let us consider the example of Facebook’s role in identifying each candidate’s young constituents during this latest election. A total of 3.24 million Facebook users responded to the survey, an impressive number to say the least. Though there is no way of truly knowing (without getting insider private information directly from the Facebook team) the ages of every single survey participant, I think it is fairly safe to say the majority would belong to what we would call the “young” vote. Millenials, Gen-Yers, or whatever we are called, our age group showed up in a force much larger than has been reported of previous elections.

But I don’t think that McCain or Obama’s involvement in Facebook really swayed many young voters one way or the other. After all, what exactly, aside from joining groups like “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack),” or “1 Million Strong for McCain/Palin ’08,” can Facebook users do to really participate and show support? I write notes from time to time, but I don’t think Palin has stopped by to read and appreciate my comments.

Youtube is more dynamic in gauging support for political candidates, in that the campaigns can produce videos to reach Youtube users, and those users can actively demonstrate their support (or dislike) for a certain candidate by responding in videos of their own. Still, the candidates themselves can’t really participate much beyond being seen in videos.

Twitter might be said to be an exception to my previous examples of candidates’ inability to connect with supporters. Barack Obama (or his right-hand team) was fairly active on the micro-messaging platform, which is more than McCain can say. However, and I say this from both being a young voter and from being surrounded by an entire campus of fellow young voters, many college-goers don’t deviate from their time-consuming addictions to Facebook and Youtube, with some still frequenting MySpace (though, for what reason I have no clue). Twitter is definitely on the radar and used heavily by those of us who love everything social media, blogosphere and internet, but we aren’t the majority. Suffice it to say that from where I stand, Obama was reaching a slightly different group than the college-going young voter on Twitter for the most part.

So, if each candidate’s participation in the most popular social networks was limited, and there was still a significant amount of support from young voters, it must be seen that the support was largely volunteered by those supportive youths, not in response to the direct involvement of each candidate.

From there, we must ask ourselves exactly why the number of constituents for each candidate was skewed so heavily in Obama’s favor. I think the answer is simple: as cliche as it sounds (and is), young people want change and believe that they (assumedly alongside Mr. Obama) can achieve it.

There are two parts to that equation. First, it is no secret that as people age, they tend towards more conservative stances. Colleges are typically the most liberal institutions, and it is visible in the mentalities of students. Being liberal is popular in college. That is because we are surrounded with fellow liberals who tend to look badly on conservative stances.

In addition, I would argue that the needs and motives of young voters are best catered to by the Democratic party. Obviously, those interests like social welfare programs, lower loan and tuition rates and minimum wage tend to give way to more conservative interests as young voters graduate and start accumulating wealth and assets of their own.

The second contributor to the political leanings of young voters, in my estimation, are the mediums through which young voters get their political information. As I previously mentioned, that includes the influences of those professors we see from day to day, and also various media channels. What college student does not enjoy the entertainment of “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” or, dare I say them, “South Park,” and “Family Guy?” If you think that those last two shows don’t play a part in the way the young voters of America perceive the government, you would be oh so wrong. Every one of those hugely popular “college” shows influence the minds of young voters, and it is safe to say those shows are far from conservative. I won’t say that basing one’s political opinions on the incredibly skewed political stances of those media outlets is wise, but to each their own.

So, as much as it would be nice to paint a picture of proper social media usage being the key to victory for the GOP with young voters, I think it will take a far sight more to win the minds of that coveted demographic. In fact, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the GOP as it currently stands, comprised of neo-conservatives and moderate-conservatives, will never really serve the immediate interests (as they will see it) of young voters. But then, this country was never intended to be controlled by two parties that are more apt to scratch each other’s back than cater to the interests of the people. Maybe it is time for a drastic changing of guards…