What Part of the Word Publishing Don’t You Understand?

By Tim Berry

Warning: this is probably just a waste of time, but still, I was curious, then fascinated, as I read Investigative Journalist Claims Her Public Tweets Aren’t ‘Publishable;’ Threatens To Sue Blogger Who Does Exactly That on Techdirt. My first reaction: It’s publishing. Look up the definition. Published and not publishable are opposites. It’s an interesting story, though,... Read More »

Q&A: Who Do I Follow For Business Twitter

By Tim Berry

(Note: This is my post from smbplans.com, where I posted it yesterday. I was asked to repost it here.)  Here’s another good question I received from my Ask-me form on my Timberry.com website: If I’m trying to build my Twitter presence to support my [omitted] business, who should I follow? How do I find them?... Read More »

25 Ways to Look Dumb on Twitter

By Tim Berry

There was an interesting post on the Constant Contact blog over the weekend: 25 Things That Make You Look Dumb on Twitter.  Some of my favorites: Too much self promotion Automatic direct messages Spelling errors Special mention for “tweeting without a strategy:” Never tweet just for the sake of tweeting. Take some time to decide why... Read More »

New Game: Social Media Snooping vs. Social Media Cleansing

By Tim Berry

The other shoe dropping: Business Insider posted This Company Will Expose All Your Most Embarrassing Online Moments a few days ago. It’s about a service company that helps employers by doing a social-media online background check on a potential employee. It was more than two years ago that I first saw a business plan for... Read More »

OK Maybe I Communicate with Logos … But Are They Friends?

By Tim Berry

Social media seems inherently about people, to me, not companies. It’s like a conversation, sort of, but one that has publishing mixed in, so it’s an amplified, recorded conversation. Do you agree? Isn’t this what’s happening on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn? But there are companies there too. Do we engage in conversation with companies? Perhaps,... Read More »

My Recommendation About Your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

By Tim Berry

A couple of weeks ago I was in a classroom full of entrepreneurial MBA students, as a guest speaker, answering their questions about me and Palo Alto Software and bplans.com, this blog, and so forth. When they asked me how I managed my online self in social media, my response went something like this: I... Read More »

5 Rules for Kindergarten Friends and Twitter

By Tim Berry

Not long ago I was driving a five-year-old grandson to kindergarten when he asked me how to make friends. That’s ironic because networking is hardly my strong suit, but he doesn’t know that. And I guess that’s what kids expect grandfathers to know, so I really wanted to help him. I tried. It sounded like... Read More »

Social Media Business Reality Check

By Tim Berry

I took a one-hour flight over the weekend and ended up talking to a smart business owner — she has a bakery in a small town in Oregon — who doesn’t have any Web presence. What’s really cool is that her business, as she described it, is doing just fine. She makes a good living,... Read More »