In my book, that will always be one of my favorite words, and I think it will increasingly become social media users favorite as well.

Let’s face it – we’re all a little worried about potential business contacts seeing our score from mafia wars or those Saturday night “I only had one drink” photos.

The solution?  Pseudonym.

If you already have a nickname, you’re halfway there.  Create public profiles under your nickname and friend only your friends.  The tough part will be un-friending your friends from your professional profile, but at this point they should already be part of your “exclusive” personal profile.  And if they’re not, well, maybe you’re not all that close afterall… Some friends you may want to keep in your professional profile as they can be your “personal brand ambassadors” (more on them below).

Now, you have two profiles and can relentlessly use them for their purpose.  You’ll find that you’re more likely to friend that geeky club, post the news article on your field of interest and best of all, when your friends tag you, they’ll be tagging your pseudonym.  When you play those internet games, fill out surveys on they type of person you’ll marry or do whatever else is thought up to entertain us through our work days, your activity will be under your personal profile, free from scrutiny of your nosy coworker.

Best of all, you can focus on using your professional profile for personal branding.  Updating your network on your activities, business ventures, related news, special offers, publications, and etc.  And, now that your friends in your professional profile are genuinely interested in your professional ventures, they will be all the more likely to share your posts, acting as your personal brand ambassadors.  Hello free marketing.

If all of this doesn’t motivate you, just think, having both personal and professional accounts can also be a public service action.  You could be aiding in decluttering your coworkers news stream all while maintaining privacy.

So go have fun finding your pseudonym and be sure to add me to your list of professional friends.

-Nicole Hess

As marketing agencies learned how to market to women, teenagers and techies, soon enough the Hispanic community will be recognized for its purchasing power.

But why hasn’t it begun already? Let’s begin with some numbers.

According to the 2007 US Census, at least 34 million in the US speak Spanish and another 16 million of these speak English “less than very well”.

So where are all the tweets in Español? Dell may have made an unbelievable amount of money tweeting its deals in English but what company wouldn’t want to earn even more money with a 140-character advertisement in Spanish? (Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million From Twitter) With the rising purchasing power of Hispanics in America, who would opt to ignore this potential client base?

Here are a few tired arguments that may give some insight to why an entire demographic is being ignored in the social media scene.

• Hispanics are not online.

This is an argument of circular logic error. If a Spanish speaking Hispanic has nothing to read or view in their language, why would they be online? Think about it personally. If tomorrow you awoke to find that many popular Internet sites were in Tagalog, everything from tweets to Youtube videos to product websites, how often would you go online?

Another part of this argument is the “getting online.” Gone are they days when you needed an expensive computer to get online, which was a barrier for many low-earning Hispanics.

Today there are many options for getting online, from eMachines costing under $300 to using a cell phone.

Hispanics have the tools to be online, but aren’t been drawn by anything, which leads us to argument two.

• Marketing to Hispanics is complicated.

While there are many dialects and regional differences among Hispanics, there is a common thread of basic life values, appreciation of life, family and friends that unites the Hispanic community. Many advertising companies understand this and have created commercials that feature family happiness instead of the products great price or incredible features.

Watch about an hour of Unvisión, one of the top Spanish TV networks, and you’ll get a general sense of the life values that tie most Hispanics together, whether they speak Spanish or English. Thus, when you’re thinking of creating online videos featuring your product or services, think of creating one targeting the Hispanic community.

• My business (non-profit or organization) does not offer services in Spanish so I don’t need to advertise in Spanish.

First, are you sure that you don’t have an employee or two that can aid customers who speak Spanish? I don’t mean a full conversation about the embargo or immigration policy, but basic communication. Secondly, Spanish speaking individuals need services just like everyone else, from tire changes to coffee and clothing, whether you advertise your services in Spanish or not, you may already have customers who don’t speak much English – because “two coffees to go” may be all that you hear from them (as well as 50% of your clients).

How does this apply? When you post events on Facebook and Twitter about your bakery offering discounts on blueberry pies, post it in Spanish too.

• My competition isn’t doing anything in Spanish.

This is actually one of the greatest mistaken ideas and the rationale behind this argument can apply to the three aforementioned arguments. That is to say, one thinks they don’t need to take action because nobody is out there to receive the action. Well, even if you don’t believe Hispanics are online (even Spanish speaking Hispanics) someone is going to figure out how to draw them there.

Someone, perhaps your competition, is going to start tweeting away in Español, keeping their website functioning in Spanish, and having marketing that speaks to the Hispanic community, both in language and values. Hopefully you are there when they arrive.

-Nicole Hess
Online Media Consultant

Twitter is already about half as popular with only about one-tenth as many users.

Thus, as its user numbers begin to rise it has the potential to surpass Facebook for sharing information.  Not to say that twitter will be more popular, Facebook has significantly more uses than twitter, from picture sharing to mafia wars playing.

In the Silicon Alley Insider’s chart of sharing, one thing to note is that this chart represents those who used the website or publisher’s method to share, specifically using the widgets made by AddToAny.

Using the publisher’s widget for sharing is also important for considering its only 11.1% share in sharing.  Personally, I much rather send a link through my own email by the ol’ cut & paste method, so I don’t have to type in my friends’ email address by hand.

This article seems to be part of a larger argument that says email is no longer a preferred way to share information.  Recently, I’ve heard way too many experts discuss email as a dying method of exchange, not only in sharing, but in marketing as well.  While I do understand there have been recent abuses of the email blast function – sorry MoveOn.org but I haven’t opened an email since the election last year – and Facebook allows for easier ways to see what’s up with your friends, email is still incredibly useful. 

It’s just that email blasts have earned the reputation of being like a needy ex-girlfriend/boyfriend.  People don’t want to be bombarded by weekly requests for action or hear the same story yet again.  But when the email offers something truly new or interesting (and not tweaking of the old) say an event centered on my favorite activity, I’m not only reading the email, but I’m going to the event and taking friends.

Still, in regards to information sharing, email still scores highly, especially in the professional world.  While AdToAny widgets may not be used, people are emailing links every day to coworkers, clients, old clients to remind them you’re still interested, and so on.  In many companies there are actually staff personnel relegated to creating weekly or sometimes daily email blasts of links for client, based on the clients request or particular field.

Also, let us not ignore the role of instant message services.  I’ve done projects with a few companies that were significantly less than tech-friendly and yet one of the standard means of communication between employees was through instant messaging.  Whether it was finding the boss’ interview with the Wall Street Journal or developments on a project in Peru, if we found it online – we shared it through messenger.  Again, just like tracking information sharing through email, tracking the rate of information sharing through instant messaging is difficult, if not impossible due to laws protecting privacy.  All we can say for now is that in sharing information, social sites are proving to be a recognized medium and growing in popularity.

What will the future of social sites look like?  My guess would be that social sites which appeal or center around specific interests or needs, Emily’s list for recommendations, delicious for bookmarking, will grow in popularity and use, but not necessarily compete with Facebook for staying in touch with friends or twitter for sharing information.

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