Robert Scoble over at Building 43 has an interesting interview with “Allen Stern, editor of CenterNetworks in New York, offers a new idea with CloudContacts for making business cards useful”

I like the way this helps you to connect your friends and contacts with your on-line presence. For instance

After we receive the cards, we turn them into contacts you can import into your email application, you can view your contacts online and export the contacts in a variety of formats. For instance there is “where possible, one-click connect to your contacts on business social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter”

Remember when Technorati was THE place to go to find new content? Seems ages ago now, but they have just launched a new site which combines the the Top Blogs and the Top Twitter(ers) called Twittorati. And though it does that same old thing of giving the largest sites even more kudos, it is kind of cool!

Twittorati “tracks the tweets from the highest authority bloggers, starting with the entire Technorati Top 100″. It also shows the twitter profiles of all those involved in the Top 100 Technorati chart.

Twittorati also shows the most popular blogging links and the most popular links to photos. Both of which can be filtered, in fact one of the key things I like on the site is the ability to fine tune searches.

I think that as they widen out the site to include more voices from the twittersphere and blogosphere this could be a great site to find contacts and to also find the specific conversations that you are after….

Bestbuy are looking for a Sr. Manager - Emerging Media Marketing. The first point of note is how businesses are recognising the need to understand social media and how they need to learn how to connect with their consumer base.

However, the amazing part of the Job Description is found under the skills and qualifications that they are looking for

Basic Qualifications:

· Bachelors degree Liberal Arts, Marketing, Interactive Marketing, New Media, Business Administration or related

· 2 plus years of mobile or social media marketing experience at an Agency director level, strategist level, or brand interactive director level

· 4 plus years People or resource leadership experience

· 1 plus years of active blogging experience

Preferred Qualifications:

· Graduate degree
· 250 plus followers on Twitter

Although this is one advert it shows that how your social media connections are becoming a currency in the job world. Businesses recognise the worth of social media activity. Best Buy are recognising that old business techniques are coming into play…namely that a larger community is important…it makes me think is this the new style of business acquisition??

Twitter has come along way since “Dorsey, Stone and Williams co-founded Obvious which then spun off Twitter”

So much so that the Telegraph reports that the word Twitter will enter the dictionary this year. It will be defined as

“a website where people can post short messages about their current activities” and under verb it will read: “to write short messages on the Twitter website”

For a social networking package that it is at the hub of most of my web activities and the definition, though factually correct does not get the emotional side of twitter. Twitter for me is my conversation, it is my coach, my friend, my pr person, my helper…..

I think the most striking fact for me, is how quickly this word has become part of our language when in reality only a small % of the global population uses it or even knows what it is….It shows how the internet is speeding up the way we live, the way we communicate, the time it takes to create a worldwide brand.

SEOPivot have launched an interesting new way of improving your keyword search and usage. So what is SEOPivot , well the site describes how they developed the service

” We studied TOP300 Google Search results for 500 thousands of most high-frequent keywords and received information on more than 9 000 000 domains. Our report will show you all keywords, for which any URL of your domain ranks high enough to get into TOP300 Google Search results, as well as how much traffic you’ll get if you improve the position of the URL we found on interesting keyword.“

Although the free tool is limited it is worth checking out, all you do is input your domain name and it will give you the keywords in which your site ranks in the Google results. It will also give you the potential impact of moving up those search engine rankings. Interestingly for me, my most powerful keywords where my mid tier keywords not always the ones I was targetting!!

Each Friday we publish articles from around the web to help grow your social media and social networking knowledge

Andre Gomez presents How To Use Social Media Sites To Grow Your Business posted at QualityNetworkers.

Anna presents Social Media is like Building A Town posted at The Engaging Brand

Robert Alan presents Features of Effective Shopping Cart Platforms posted at Sell It on the Web, saying, “For bloggers or site owners who might want to start selling products directly from their websites, we’ve provided a list of features to watch out for when looking at shopping cart platforms.”

Entrenova presents Will social network MySpace survive? posted at EntreNova.

Paramendra Bhagat presents Netizen: InRev TwitIn Now Does People Search posted at Netizen

Ray presents Declutter Your Life By Getting Rid Of Junk Mail posted at Money Blue Book.

Ace presents Discover 5 Proven Techniques To Quickly Get More Targeted Traffic posted at Internet Marketing Ace.

Alvina Lopez presents iKnow: 100 Best Reference Tools for Your iPhone posted at Online Degree Hub.

Ace presents The Benefits Of Creating And Marketing Information Products posted at Internet Marketing Ace.

Mike Mitchell presents Website Promotion; Google Optimization services,SEO improve your websites search engine optimization position get free traffic posted at SEO Services - Search Engine Optimization, saying, “Discover why website promotion works, learn about Google Optimization services, SEO, web promotion articles and lots more”

Emma Taylor presents 100 Awesome iPhone Apps to Work and Study from the Beach posted at Online College Reviews - College Ratings.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of social networking tips and tricks using our
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Comscore reports that the country that has the most engaged social networkers is…..Russia! Didn’t see that one coming….

Mike Read, SVP & managing director, comScore Europe states “In a country as geographically large as Russia, social networking represents a way of connecting people from one corner of the country to the other. The highly engaged behavior of social networkers in Russia offers significant opportunity for marketers and advertisers seeking to reach these audiences.”

It is incredible to see that in Russia people on average are on social networking sites 6.6 hrs (and Facebook only has 2% of the market) which is basically a working day. Even if you look at the UK and USA people are networking for over 4 hrs per day. As much that I am in awe of the level of engagement, there is part of me that wonders the effect on society - and that is from a heavy internet user.

Here is the worldwide table which illustrates the

Facebook has been a true phenomenon - no doubt. When you look at the Facebook stats page it puts into context how much people want to share, how people are seeing the web as part of their real world community.

Alltop is a great site for finding great blogs and also to find people with similar interests. They have now introduced MyAlltop which allows you to “to create a “personal, online magazine rack” of your favorite websites and blogs“.

It is your chance to create your own profile page and add your favourite feeds so that people can see more about your interests and also for you to create a hub into the world of your interests.

For an insight you can check out Tony Hsieh of Zappos Myalltop page here.

In a way it is like Google Reader meets blogging  - go grab your name as (yet) another way of expressing your personal brand!

Do you spend more time on the internet? I know I do. My usage has changed drastically from purely gaining information to entertainment, communication and of course yes, still information.

Social networking has been a large part of my usage and a post over at MediaPost shows some interesting internet research

• In the past three years, the average U.S. adult has nearly doubled their daily use of the Internet as the average U.S. adult spent 2.1 hours per day online in 2006, compared to 3.8 hours in 2008
• The Internet now represents 32.5% of the typical “media day” for all U.S. adults when compared to daily exposure to newspaper, radio, TV and outdoor advertising.
• Even those who are considered heavy newspaper readers spend about as much time online today as the typical U.S. adult. According to the report, heavy newspaper readers, those who spend more than an hour per day reading, currently spend 3.7 hours per day online.  In 2006 the Internet represented only 18.4% of a heavy newspaper reader’s “media day,” but today it represents 28.4%.

The question is whether the increased usage has improved our lives or has it reduced our quality of life? In many ways the internet has enhanced my world, yet I am very conscious that the internet should not replace my real world life. I try and balance my face to face intereaction with friends with my virtual relationships. However the balance becomes harder and harder to achieve….