I’ve caught some flack in recent weeks from friends for my growing addiction to Empire Avenue. It’s an addiction to which I am only too happy to admit I have. I’ve experienced a lot of mental discomfort over spending a lot of time on a service that may or not be beneficial to the other...

With the popularity of Twitter and Facebook and with their constant stream of information, it’s only natural that a lot of use get our “breaking news” from such sites. A message can spread on Twitter faster than CNN can get the story, write it and post it. This happened recently with Wyclef Jean (of the...

On the first official day of spring we have more to celebrate than wonderful weather. We can also celebrate the 5th birthday of our beloved Twitter. The first tweet was posted by co-founder Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006 with the message “inviting coworkers”. Now the ever growing and popular 140-character messaging service has well over...

My trip to New York City to speak at the Twitter140 Conference in June, 2009 was one of the most fun experiences I have had in my years of working in social media. I had recently started my job at Village Voice Media at the time, and was sent to represent the company in the...

An axiom is a declarative statement about reality. Merriam Webster calls it a “an established rule or principle or a self-evident truth.” There’s something about these things that makes them among the best tweets. I guess I just enjoy reading insightful statements by people. Honestly, when I see someone write axiomatic tweets, that causes me...

The following post first appeared on the site Focus.com at this link. It’s a great site and I am going to be an ongoing contributor. In all the years I have been involved with news organizations, whether they be radio, TV or print, most of my bosses haven’t been very internet savvy. In recent years...

I have spoken recently about using pictures in your tweets to engage people and build followers. Including pics with your tweets keeps people up to date on your life, and actually adds value. It’s fine to say that – but why is it true? Over a long period of time, if people know they have...

I’m starting here what I would like to think would be an ongoing case study in how to build fans and followers on Twitter, through the use of pictures in one’s tweets. It’s good enough to tweet compelling articles and other content  from third-party sites through your tweetstream. It’s good to allow people to see...

There has been a lot of talk all over the internet about the wonderful development at SF Weekly, the San Francisco alternative weekly newspaper, where Alexia Tsotsis is arriving Monday after her sojourn at LA Weekly to become a web editor in the City by the Bay. I am super excited to get to work...

We’re all hearing a lot about how Twitter and YouTube are playing a role in Iran, and in the future of the Middle East. Let’s get a good look at the numbers that back it up so far. According to social entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whitmore: People wrote 2.2 million blog posts about Iran in the...