By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

Seeing someone join Twitter and watching them make the same mistakes so many others have made is often painful. I am referring to spamming celebrities in the hopes that they will get a response (and more followers, as a result). I am talking about misusing hashtags on every word in the tweet, in the hope to show up in people’s searches (and get more followers, as a result). And those are just two of the many things you see new Twitter users doing.

That is why I find myself sending people this guide at least once a day. It is a lot of reading but it covers all topics pertaining to Twitter and people seem to like it.

Having said that, I think there is one basic rule, which if followed, will give the same result as reading that guide and learning the ropes over an extended period of time. Before I get to that “rule”, let me just say one more thing. There are no real rules to Twitter, but there are definite behavioral norms, and more importantly, there are things that have proven themselves as effective methods of building an engaged network, and there are things that have proven themselves as the opposite.

So what is this “rule” I speak of? In one very simple sentence, it is “Remember who you are talking to on Twitter”. Now let me explain.

Yes, if you are strangely fortunate enough to get a response on Twitter from people like Alyssa Milano, you might get yourself a few new followers. However, in the process of “spamming” celebrities on Twitter, you are also doing something else. You are annoying your followers. Think about it. In the hopes of getting new followers, you are basically telling the people who already put their confidence in you and followed you, that they are less important to you than your hopes to get more followers.

The same thing is true for overusing hashtags. OK, you might hijack some search, but you will also annoy your users who follow you in order to get quality content and not see a # before every single word. If you are on Twitter for a long time, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The bottom line is this. When tweeting, offer value, content and speak to your audience. Be yourself, not the person you think new followers will want you to be. If you do that, the followers will come but more importantly, the followers that come will be more engaged and authentic, not people who just followed you in the hopes that you will follow back. It’s a never-ending cycle and one you should not enter.

By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

The tech space is so ironic sometimes. While pundits refuse to believe that anyone can compete with Android’s market share and are quick to dismiss Windows Phone with the claim “They are just too late to the game”, the same is happening to Google in the social space.

Google+ is under constant fire, which reached its climax with Comscore’s latest report. The data presented showed that users spend a mere three minutes a month on Google+. Then MG Siegler continued to say that “The only people I know that use Google+ regularly are people who work at Google (and Robert Scoble).”

There was of course Sarah Lacy’s post explaining why Google+ is failing, which she summarized in two words “It’s unnatural”.

Well, I was fortunate enough to spend a half an hour “Hanging out” with Vic Gundotra last week. Obviously, the majority of the conversation was about this topic exactly. Is Google+ really “a virtual ghost town” like the WSJ said or is there something these journalists and critics are missing?

Here are the questions I asked Vic along with his answers:

1:  Who is Vic Gundotra? Please tell me a little bit about your background, personal and professional as far as what led up to your current position as Senior VP of Engineering at Google.

My background? That can take a long time. I will give you the short version. My father was an electrical engineer, had his own company and I fell in love with electronics from a very young age. Then I discovered software and fell in love again.

I found it easier to program than talk to girls so I did a lot of programming in my teenage years and discovered how much of a passion I had for it. I was fortunate enough to meet Bill Gates at a very young age and then worked for Microsoft for 15 years.

My love for software and changing the world was what led me to Google. There is no better way, no better place to do that than at Google. Google is the combination of the internet, connectivity, data centers, brilliant people, and a belief that anything is possible if we work hard enough at it.

That is what makes us a special environment and a great and positive place to work. That is how I ended up at Google and got the social charter a year and a half ago. That is when I had the chance to work with some amazing people and that is how we came up with Google+.

2: I am sure you are aware of all the “negative press” Google+ is getting especially the recent Comscore report published on the WSJ. Yet, Google keeps saying the numbers are great and engagement is up. Where is the discrepancy? Is Google+ dead or is alive and kicking?

Well, the Comscore numbers differ dramatically from our numbers.  Our numbers are not even in the same ball park as what the WSJ reported. We actually told them that as well but they went with their number anyway. We highlighted many things that Comscore doesn’t measure and which they admitted they don’t measure. Mobile usage for example.

That is one problem. The other issue is that the WSJ and others largely don’t understand our strategy. If you think about how our competitors report their usage, they don’t break their product up into sections. They don’t talk about photos, events, groups, notifications, or like buttons on 3^rd party sites as different things. They just report all that as you are using their product.

What most people don’t realize is that Google+ is the next generation of Google! What we measure if you are a Google+ user, is how often do you come back to Google? Are you using the new search capability that is optimized for Google+ users? Are you using Android Market where you can +1 an app and let your friends know you like that app? Are you using Circles in Gmail? And are you using the new Google experience that we are building and is far more personalized? THAT is our strategy, the new Google! When you measure YouTube and search and Chrome and Android, Hillel, do you believe that is three minutes a month?

Obviously, you can see the huge errors. We are absolutely stunned and thrilled by our usage numbers, our engagement numbers, it’s amazing to see the continuous disbelief. But it’s ok about the disbelief because we have never seen software grow this fast and we have never seen this type of engagement. I think often the WSJ and Comscore would like to measure one little piece but that is not our strategy. You have to measure the totality of where we are using our social graph and its ok because at the end of the day we are not doing this for critics, we are doing it to make the user experience better.

I suspect you already have family members and friends who use Google every day. Our focus is on them! We want to make a simpler more beautiful Google experience. That is what we are working on and that is what Google+ is about. We really are just getting started down that road.

Young people are our fastest growing demographic on Google+; we see massive uptake. The people that use Google+ see it. There is no other way to say this. Three minutes a month is simply absurd and wrong!

It’s a simple fact. Hundreds of millions of people use Google already today! We are upgrading their experience. That is what we are focused on and it is working out quite well.

3: Moving onto mobile. Just as these critics are saying Google is too late to the social game, many think Windows Phone is too late to the mobile game. What do you think about that claim?

It is never too late! If you can innovate and push the bounds of technology, delight users with better functionality and lower cost, you can do amazing things. Technology is filled with such examples. Android for example, people were very skeptical. Other companies as well have done very disruptive things. Look at Apple! If you just innovate, you can do amazing things. We don’t believe it’s too late, otherwise we would have never built Google+.

4: I am not sure if you heard but the invites to the iPad3 event were just sent out. What do you think about this new category of devices and Apple’s dominance? The iPad sells in one quarter more than all of Android tablets sold ever. Can anyone really compete?

Well this goes back to what we said before. Innovation can come from anyone. As long as you keep innovating, the right things will happen in terms of consumer demand. Now we are just focused on making Android better. It is a strategy that worked for us in the beginning with the first years of Android. We sold a relatively low number of Android devices that first year but we never gave up. We kept focusing on what we thought the consumer wanted and the numbers took care of themselves in time.

I think the same thing will happen in other spaces we will continue to work with out partners of the entire ecosystem, application developers, hardware developers, and if we just keep innovating and making Android better, I think everything will work out in the tablet space as well.

5: The story goes that Steve Jobs told Larry to focus and drop many of Google’s products that are not related to its core business. Is that something Google simply ignored or implemented differently than Apple? How do you explain Google’s “lack of focus” with products in so many different unrelated spaces?

Well I think anyone would give a lot of consideration to advice they got from Steve Jobs, he was a man of great wisdom. Sergey answered this question beautifully at Web2.0. Google used to have a philosophy of let a thousand flowers bloom and then at some point you realize it is time to curate a bouquet. We are at the stage of our career, our development, our growth that we are now creating a bouquet. To pick a few things and do them unbelievably well.

Our goal is to make those products exceed user expectations when they see a Google brand on a product. That may mean doing a fewer things better. Certainly if you look at Google+, you see that focus, that unbelievable attention to the product, attention to what people are saying about it, and how we iterate and improve and ship a new build of Google+ every single day.  That epitomizes the kind of focus we want on our products.

6: OK, clearly Google has laser focus on product development but how do driverless cars and augmented reality glasses fit in with Google the advertising company, Google the search company, and Google the mobile company. In fact, what kind of company IS Google?

Well that is a great question. I think you will see Google double down its focus on its core areas including search, advertising, mobile, Chrome, YouTube, and social, among a few others. While that is more than three areas, it is not 50! Those areas are what we will focus on and what will get the attention of the leadership team.

Of course, we will always have crazy research projects where we have a chance of changing the world if we get them right. We are large enough to have some of those things but we acknowledge that they are not core. They are not the things we are going to focus on every day as a company. Android, YouTube, and our enterprise business for example are doing incredibly well and they demand our focus.

There are also projects that don’t get our attention anymore and that we should stop doing. Time will tell.

7: Sorry to make the comparison too often but as two of the leaders in the tech space, the comparison to Apple is only natural. While Apple won’t generally release a product that has a screw sticking out a millimeter too much, and strives to perfection in all its products, Google repeatedly releases half baked products, gets user feedback, then updates the software on the go. What is the thought process behind that strategy of releasing products that are not 100% ready for the market?

Well first of all, we are striving to release higher quality software than you have seen from us in the past. Having said that, software is very different than hardware. Particularly with Google+, we release a new version of Google+ every single day. That would be like Apple updating your iPhone hardware every day. So when you ship hardware that is going to be with a user for two years, you better make sure it is great.

With software, when you know it is gong to change, why not make it change every day? That way you can respond to user’s bugs, feedback, and deliver innovation. It’s a continuous service delivery model. That doesn’t mean that the software you are delivering to users every day should be crappy, it should be great. Users should expect it to get better.

Going back to Google+, if you remember when we started Google+ and released it to field trial in June, it blew our mind how many people wanted it, our models were much smaller at the time. We also heard feedback from users. They wanted games, they wanted business pages, they wanted pseudonym support, and we heard that feedback.

By building the software we are able to add those features, we were able to reprioritize our engineering efforts. As for your core point about shipping and iterating, yes, but you should ship beautiful software, not junk.  That’s what we aspire to.

8: One last question: What do you say to the claim that “Google is evil” with the Google Plus Your World and the privacy issues?

We understand there will always be critics but what we care about is our users. Our users have to love our innovation. We monitor that very closely. We constantly hear stories about users who are just delighted and excited by what we are doing. They demonstrate that by coming back and using our products. So we are a company that is laser focused on, not critics, but users. We measure that carefully and based on that we continue to make improvements in our products.

Just wanted to thank Vic and his staff for granting me this interview, trust me, it was not as easy as you might think, the man is busy. So thanks for your time, Vic and like i told you, looking forward to meeting you sooner than later.

By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

As I spend more time on the social Web, some enlightening facts become apparent daily. For example, I know I hang out on Twitter and Google+ way too much, but most normal people do not. I know, it is hard to believe, but some people have lives outside of Twitter and Google+. What that means is that when I share a blog post I wrote, a cute picture, or any other type of content on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or any other platform, there are going to be many people who do not see that content.

These people are either in another time zone, doing something way more important than reading my tweets or scanning Facebook, or who knows, maybe they have completely lost it and totally disconnected for some quality family time. I know, that is just nuts.

What that means for someone who is trying to distribute their content as widely as possible, is that the only way to achieve that is to post things more than once. I realize that for the people who ARE online most of the day, this can be annoying, seeing the same article appear in the feed more than once. A possible solution is using different texts when linking to the article.

If you are a blogger or just anyone trying to get the word out about something, tweeting or sharing it once will generally have very limited reach. By definition, because of the different time zones, many members of your audience will not see that post, unless of course, they start backtracking when they wake to see what they missed. Here is a little secret, most people don’t do that and if they missed it the first time around, they will never see it.

Taking it one step further, due to the nature of these social platforms, your audience today won’t necessarily be your audience tomorrow. What I mean is that new people follow, circle, friend, and connect every day. Just because I shared a picture six months ago on Facebook does not automatically ban that picture from ever appearing in my feed again.

Having said all that, this whole “sharing the same article or picture multiple times” thing requires moderation and creativity. Sharing the same post five times throughout a 24 hour time period is obviously overboard. I think two times is totally fine with seven or so hours in between each one. If the post is important to you, and you really want to get as many eyeballs on it as possible, three postings is not the end of the world. Again, just my opinion.

Also, if you are sharing a photo, I try not to post the same picture more than once every few months, and even for that I get slack.

Here is the bottom line. When you see someone sharing their blog post more than once throughout a day, don’t think of it as spamming and annoying you. Think of it as “This person just contributed something by creating a post, sharing a picture, or just passing along good content. No reason they should not spread the wealth to as many people as possible”.

The reason I am writing this post is because I intend on sending it to people every time someone comments on a funny picture that I share “This is so old. You posted this five months ago”. To that person, take a look at how many retweets, +1′s, or Facebook Shares the picture got and understand that obviously, many other people enjoyed it and never saw it before. No need to comment on the picture if you have seen it, just move on.

By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

Now that we established that everyone needs a blog, the question remains, where does one start? Well, there is the platform and topic you choose, of course, but those are topics for another time. Before writing a post, or perhaps once you finish writing the post, you are going to have to choose a title wisely. Why does the title matter? Well, the tweet below says it best.

@HilzFuld well, most people actually read the title only nowadays, so it could be interesting

— Luca Filigheddu (@filos) February 21, 2012

The title is super important because at the very least, it is the reason people will click through to read the post, and in some cases, as the tweet says, it is all they are going to read. So how do you decide on a title? What are some of the factors that make a title successful and what are some things to avoid?

Before I jump in, let me just say that the following advice is based on my personal experience from four years of blogging. I never did a scientific study on blog titles, nor have I quantified any of this. I have learned over the years what generates clicks whether you are sharing the post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, sites like Reddit, or anywhere else.

One more thing. As important as a title may be, there are many other factors that contribute to the traffic a blog post attracts. Pictures, videos, the actual topic, and many others, but again, the title is the first impression, and we all know what they say about first impressions.

Keep it Short or Lose Me

This probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone but as technology advances, people’s attention span decreases. I have spoken about this before but if you take a step back to examine the patterns of the Web and technology in general, you will see a clear path of uber-laziness. First there were sites with a lot of content. Then blogs with a little less. Then Twitter with limited characters. Now it’s about Pinterest and other visual services with close to zero text.

Generally speaking, the shorter and clearer your title, the more prone people will be to click through. I am not going to give a concrete number of words for a title, but I will say that your readers do not have patience for a long and confusing title. Think what the point of your post is, think about the audience and what will pull them in, and based on that, write your title. But please, keep it short!

Prime Real Estate for Keywords

I do not plan on going into the depths of SEO, and to be honest, my knowledge in the field is basic. Having said that, someone smart once told me that the Web is like the restaurant industry. First and foremost, your restaurant needs a sign on the front to let people who are walking by know what type of joint you are running. That is the equivalent of the title of your site. Not to be confused with the title of a post.

Then there is the menu, the actual food, or in this case, the content. The title of a post is the equivalent of the dishes that appear on a menu. Just think about your last five dining experiences. How did you decide what to order? Either someone recommended a certain dish (incoming links to your site) or you browsed the menu and based on its content, chose one dish that spoke to you. That is your blog post title right there.

As for the keywords in the title, as I said above, you have limited real estate and you need to get the point across, so choosing what words you use in the title is going to directly affect the post’s SEO on the one hand, and the number of people who “order that dish” on the other. Like I said, the guy who told me this was pretty smart…

Your Blog Post CAN Go Viral

Here is the thing with the Web, it should never be underestimated. You never know how far a post you write will reach and how many people will potentially read it. The process of writing a title should take that into account. For example, with very few exceptions, I would not use the word “I” or “Me” in a title. Why not? Because that means it is a personal opinion or something that is true for you, and you only.

In that case, when you share the post on Twitter for example, people will hesitate to reshare it, no matter how much they enjoyed reading it. The post is about you, not them. By them forwarding (retweeting) a post called “Ten reasons I love ice cream”, they are basically changing the meaning of the post because you wrote the reasons YOU love ice cream, not them. OK, this is getting confusing, but I hope you get the point.

You want to write a title that will appeal to as wide of an audience as possible and that will be able to go viral by means of the social web. That means you shouldn’t include words most people are not familiar with and you shouldn’t include anything that will prevent your reader/follower/fan from forwarding the post on. The words “I” or Me” are just two examples I would try to avoid at all costs.

Sorry, but Lists Work

OK, I am well aware that this point is going to annoy a lot of people. Why? Because so many blogs figured out long ago that lists generate clicks and have taken full advantage of this fact. People who spend a lot of time on the Web are already getting so sick of lists that the very sight of a title starting with a number will mean one thing. The only thing they are clicking is the big X in the corner of the browser.

@HilzFuld would sound more like you if it was “10 things you should think about when titling a blog post”

— David Shai Applbaum (@dsappl) February 21, 2012

Then there are the other 99% of people who do not blog and who are not spending every waking hour reading blogs. Most people like structure. They like to know that your blog post is split up into a certain number of points and they like to know it from the get-go. Let them know that the post is a list and you will see more people clicking through.

Obviously, the master of lists in the blogosphere is Mashable and many other bloggers like to joke about it. Having said that, the results are in the numbers and Mashable has more traffic than almost any other blog on the Web, definitely in the tech space (obviously, there are other factors to this success, not just liest). Like everything else, this should be taken in moderation and if every post is a list, well that won’t work either.

OH: “What top 10 story did Mashable do this morning?”"It was ‘Top 10 Mashable Stories This Morning’.”

— Carolyn Penner (@cpen) February 18, 2012

Conclusion

I am going to sum this up despite the fact that there are many other pointers for writing a blog post title, such as the power of asking a question, offering the reader a unique benefit (How to posts), and making the reader thing directly from the title (a contradiction of some kind).

If you take one thing away from this post, remember this. When writing a title for a blog post, put yourself in the shoes of your audience and you might even consider asking people around you if this is a title that will draw them in.

If you or the people you ask would click on such a title, then you are good to go. If they, even one of them, are confused by the title you chose or just don’t find it interesting, spend the time to write a better title.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how delicious the food is, no one will be tasting it if the description on the menu does not draw them in.

By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

The day started like any other. I woke up at 4:30 AM, turned on my iPhone and launched Flipboard. Like I do every morning, I expected to read about some new startup that got funded, some new technology that was bought by an industry giant, and possibly some new privacy issue that made the press overnight. You know, the normal stuff.

By @benln and @sivanco

I was utterly disappointed to discover that not only were those topics not the main news I encountered, but all the blogs that I read daily were discussing the most ridiculous internal blogging drama I have ever seen. I’ll slow down and give a little background.

Last week, one of my favorite apps, Path came under some serious fire when a user discovered that the app was “secretly” uploading the user’s address book to its servers. The tech world went nuts. I thought everyone was overreacting as I wrote in detail here.

Well, since then, Dave Morin, the founder of Path publicly apologized and deleted all the data. Many quickly forgave and moved on. Not the NY Times. Here is where things started to get messy. Two of the members of Crunchfund, the fund started by the founder of TechCrunch Mike Arrington, who also recruited the TechCrunch writer, MG Siegler, loudly voiced their opposition to the Times article. Of course, Crunchfund invests in Path, which was expected to make things even uglier. You know, defending the company you invest in might be interpreted the wrong way.

Well, today, the ugliness and drama reached a whole new level. If you are still here, you must like drama, in which case you are going to want to read Dan Lyons’ post about the whole story here and MG’s downright nasty response here.

If you read those articles, which you should if you want to understand the context of what I am about to write, then you must have come away with the same feeling I did. Namely, “get over yourselves, all of you”.

OK, here is my take, which I have been thinking about for months and this story just became my trigger to verbalize. Tech bloggers, sit down, this might sting. You are a blogger. Not a rocket scientist, not a famous actor, not a talented athlete. A blogger. Anyone can start a blog for free in ten seconds. What have you done in your life that gives you the stage to trash other people, not respond to “normal” folks who address you on Twitter or by email, and define the rules by which all online journalism, yes ALL, even the NY Times and the Wall St Journal should be conducted?

You have a lot of traffic? Here is me slow clapping for you three times. You have been dedicating hours upon hours of your time for years writing about a topic that is very hot and will naturally attract eyeballs, this says nothing about you.

Here is the thing. I was very on the fence about writing this post but at the end of the day, the reason I blog and the reason you should all blog is for the readers. It is for your own voice. It should not be for page views, it should not be for prestige, and it should not be for influence. Those things are bundled with the package of becoming a well-known tech blogger, but when you stop writing for your readers and you start writing for any of those things, you have made a wrong turn.

With all this new drama surrounding tech blogging, the authors are not writing about tech and they are not writing for their readers. It has turned into a few tech bloggers writing about other tech bloggers for… wait for it… tech bloggers. Yes, no normal people care about all this drama.

To just address a few points in the crossfire, let’s start with Dan Lyons’ post.

Dan, by starting your post talking about how jealous you are, you were practically begging MG to write about how irrelevant you are. Bad move. Moving along, the personal attacks on Arrington and Siegler were completely out of place and they basically diluted your level of credibility throughout the whole article. You know, like the kid who has nothing to respond in an argument so he turns to personal name-calling and shouting. Bad move #2.

Moving along, by basically making the claim that Mike and MG are nothing more than bullies who have no talents, well, you are making a fool of yourself. While Arrington is one problematic dude (he blocked me on Twitter and I have never exchanged a word of dialogue with him), he built an impressive empire. MG, according to most tech experts is a talented writer and analyst. Based on his latest posts/rants, he might have some anger issues he has to deal with but he knows his stuff. You should have taken the high road. Even Arrington did something very uncharacteristic and took the high road.

Well, as expected, MG took the bait and attacked. He, as usual, raised some valid points, but spoke mainly out of clear frustration, which had him so worked up that the post, similar to yesterday’s was filled with typos. Now why does that matter? I’ll tell you why. I told MG about his typos but not only did he not respond, but my tweet to him was not worth a “Fixed” or even a “Thank you” . You know why? Because I am not a Techcrunch writer nor do I have 30 million monthly readers.

This is the fundamental problem with the world of tech blogging in its current state. In one word? Ego! A whole lot of it. In MG’s post about the blogging world, he comes off very condescending and egotistical. Which is ok, but some of his points are just way off. He talks about expertise. MG might know Apple inside and out, but what exactly makes him an expert on whether it is ok for an app to steal my address book without permission? His main argument? Path is not alone, others do it too. Do I really need to even address that? How does that make this story any more ok? Two wrongs…

In the most recent post, or should I say “attack”, MG wastes a lot of real estate on talking about how “irrelevant” Dan Lyons is. See? That is the issue right there! Irrelevant? To who? To your elite tech blogging club? Seriously, normal people don’t care about this stuff. MG lashes out at Kara Swisher of AllThingsD and says she is a bad writer. I am not even going to go near that but suffice to say, Kara is one of the last tech bloggers who I would even use the word “Journalist” to describe. The rest are quickly become more like Paparazzi.

MG often responds to people who throw accusations at him that he is protecting a company or an entrepreneur because he invested or they are his friend with “My points still stand.” Yet, in his attack on Dan Lyons’ post, he did not even address any of Dan’s points. Dave Morin of Path said the app does not store my contacts, which was true for Path 1. But then in Path 2, Dave goes and uploads my data to his servers? OK, not a lie but not exactly honest either. Nothing to add, MG?

I can go on for hours about all these posts as well as the ReadWriteWeb response, but then I would be missing the point. A lot of these tech bloggers really have to get a reality check. Joshua Topolsky, who has created one of the best tech sites on the Web, TheVerge, will not, despite many attempts talk to “normal people” on Twitter. The CEO of Twitter, Alyssa Milano, actors, athletes, politicians, they all engage, but Joshua Topolsky can’t waste his time saying thank you when I pay him a compliment. MG, while he is way better than Topolsky, replies to his little inner group including Gabe Rivera from Techmeme and the rest of em, but talking to normal people? Na, not worth his time.

Now, maybe I am being over sensitive here but I just dont get it. How long does it take to write 30 characters when someone asks you a question? The thing is, when you let your blogging go to your head and independently decide that you are God’s gift to the internet, then why should you respond to a blogger with only a few hundred thousand readers? It is beneath you, right?

Back to this ridiculous and childish drama. Bloggers: move on and start doing your job. MG, you say you love technology? Then write about it. Or invest in it. But stop wasting your time and my mornings with drama about bloggers that only bloggers will read.

All this has actually been very discouraging to me and my personal blogging. When I feel like stopping, I tell myself that there are still hundreds of thousands of people who read my content so I will continue writing for them, My readers. Remember? The people who are behind the page views? Yea, time to put them as your priority and not all the other irrelevant and melodramatic things you have been focusing on. <rant over>

By: Hillel Fuld

OK, feel free to categorize this post in the filing cabinet of rants because I am writing these words out of utter frustration of watching close friends and relatives turn into full-fledged internet spammers. No, they are not trying to sell me Viagra, but they might as well be! I am talking about friends wasting my time trying to convince me to “Like” their Facebook page, which if I would oblige, would not only be completely spammy, but it would also be completely ineffective. Let’s take a step back…

While I will reference Facebook business pages throughout this post, I am not in any way implying that the very same annoyances and guidelines do not apply to tweets, shares, +1s, or any other kind of social media promotion. They do! And they all have to stop!

There is of course a direct correlation between the number of friends/followers/circles a friend has on the various platforms to the amount of requests he/she receives to promote their friends’ content.

In some cases, the request is a legitimate one. I write, tweet, and post about tech. If we are friends and you have a technology startup or have developed a truly innovative technology, feel free to ask me to “Like” it. I will be happy to in nine out of ten cases.

If, however, you sell jewelry, women’s wigs, nursing ponchos, art, or anything else not related to my interests, please PLEASE do not ask me to “Like” your page, tweet your content and share your products. “Why not? Don’t you call yourself a friend? Why can’t you help me out?” Ahh, the million dollar question I get a hundred times a day.

The answer is yes, I do consider myself a friend and no, I will not do what you are asking because your assumption is that doing so will promote your cause, it won’t!

Here is why I am being such a ____:

 Let’s Think About What you’re Asking for a Second

So why do you want me to like your page or tweet your content? I am assuming it is because I have built an extensive and loyal following or network over the years. I am assuming it is because you want to drive eyeballs to your brand or win some contest by getting all my friends to like your comment or post.

So let’s break this down for a second. You want me to take this network, which I spent years building and spam them by promoting a cause, which is in no way connected to the reason they so loyally follow or read my content?

You, of course realize that when I like that page, it will then show up in the feed of all my friends, that is why you’re asking what you’re asking. Apparently, many of you have yet to figure out that when I like a page, I am not just adding a number to the likes count. I am actively promoting that brand/cause. Now if I spent my time on Facebook sharing and promoting totally random content without any goals, then I would be happy to like away.

If, however, a person either works in the field of online marketing, is trying to build an audience that will turn to him/her for expertise, or is trying to brand himself as a source of information on a certain topic, do they really want to be liking every irrelevant page sent to them by them friends, relatives, and acquaintances? Remember, by liking this page, that person is putting up a billboard on the front of their house that they endorse this product or brand. But is that the reality?

The next time you ask me to like your page, please make sure it is somewhat relevant and if not, please do not be offended when i decline your kind offer, ignore the request, or unfriend you in some extreme cases… I will leave you with the question “Don’t YOU consider yourself a friend? How can YOU ask me to spam my friends?

Thanks. Moving along…

Does it Even Work? What Will you Accomplish?

Let’s play a game. Let’s assume for a second that I am willing to promote anything you ask me to. I am willing to take advantage of my friends and followers to promote your wigs, despite my audience having zero interest in your space. Will it work?

Well, put yourself in the place of my friends. I share my articles about tech and on occasion (ok, a little more than that), I share pictures of the food I am about to inhale. You have gotten used to it by now. Five posts about tech, one post about food…

Then one day, you are minding your own business reading your Facebook feed and low and behold, Hillel Fuld liked a new and upcoming jewelry designer. What will you do? Click on the page? Like it? Or, will you ignore it knowing it is either spam (the real kind, as in my account was hacked) or me trying to promote something for a friend or family member? I don’t know about you, but I am ignoring that crap.

But, wait, there’s more. Ever hear the story of the Boy that Cried Wolf? Great. Then you know what happens when I share post after post promoting something I am being asked to. When the time comes for me to promote my own cause, my own blog posts, or my own company, you know who won’t be clicking, right?

So, not only are you not achieving your goals by asking me to like your irrelevant page, you are actually directly causing harm to my goals and preventing me from achieving them. Did I say thank you yet?

In conclusion, nothing good has ever come out of spamming your friends and family asking for likes or tweets. You might win that contest in the short-term but you are actively contributing to the deterioration of your friends’ ability to generate clicks, traffic, as well as integrity.

More importantly though, you are taking an active role in undermining the fundamental principle of social media and online marketing. Is that what you were aiming to achieve? If not, stop asking me to like your completely irrelevant Facebook page or tweet your completely irrelevant blog post. Thank you in advance.

By: Hillel Fuld

OK, maybe the title is a little dramatic, not EVERY single human being needs a blog, but if you are reading these words right now, then yes, you need a blog. I’ll explain.

If you are reading this blog, chances are you are someone who works or hangs out on the Web. OK, if you just dialed into the internet with your AOL connection and just happened to stumble upon this post from a Yahoo search, then no, this post is not for you.

If, however, you are part of the other 99% of people between the ages of 15-50 who realize the Web is where all the cool kids are hanging out, then start a blog. Right now.

Here’s why:

Your Business Card/Resume

Yes, people still give out business cards and still send CVs, but it won’t be long before that stops. Your blog is going to become who you are very soon, and in my case, it has been years since I gave anyone a business card. If we meet and you are interested in learning more about me, twenty seconds on this blog, or this blog, or this blog, will give you everything you need to know.

I write about technology, but you should write about whatever topic interests you and excites you. Whatever you do, start the blog for the right reason, which is passion. I have heard many people say “But I am not passionate about anything”. I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that. Every person has some topic that gets them going. Whether it’s tech, fashion, movies, food, gossip, or any other topic, there is something that interests you in the world. Forget how competitive the niche that you choose is, offer your own unique angle on the topic and start writing.

“But I don’t write well!”. Then there is yet another reason to start a blog. There is no need to share it right away. Write for yourself, improve your writing skills and articulate your thoughts. I did that five years ago with absolutely no plans of monetizing the site, branding myself, or driving traffic. I just had thoughts on mobile, so I decided to jot them down.

If you follow me online, you know the result. I now guest post for sites like Mashable, Gigaom, Business Insider, and many more. All my social media activity started five or so years ago when, one day, I just decided to start writing my thoughts down. Do it, you will thank me later.

Your Voice

Whatever topic you choose to write about, as I mentioned, make sure it is something you are passionate about. The number of other sites that write about that topic should not be a concern for you. This blog that you are going to start right after reading this post, is yours. It is your voice, and there can be ten million other sites writing about the same topic, but none of them have your voice.

While the competition out there should not be something you take into consideration when starting your blog, your consistency should. If you are going to do this, and YOU ARE going to do this, you need to go all in. You need to be prepared to take this seriously because again, this is going to be your future home on the worldwide web. So  updating your new and awesome blog once a month, or even once a week, ain’t gonna cut it.

I know this sounds scary but it is not. I write two to three blog posts a day for the past three years and I realize not everyone is as passionate about anything as I am about tech, but even if you post a video, which takes 20 seconds, or a 100 word post, which will take you 10 minutes, the key is consistency.

If you want a concrete number, I would say aim for a post a day. Why? Because then people know to come by every day and see what you shared with them today. Because then, your content database will grow so much by the end of one year that your SEO will already start driving you traffic.

I will give you one example. Over a year ago, I wrote this post. Now, a year later, that post is on the first page of Google results for the word “Instagram”. The traffic is astronomical. That is one of many examples of posts I wrote that drive me traffic long after they were written.

Write as many posts as you can and you never know what post will drive you thousands of readers even a whole year later.

Your Branding

At the risk of sounding egotistical, I think my case is important for anyone who is looking to brand themselves online. And by the way, again, if you are anywhere near the internet, you should want to brand yourself online, at least to a minimal level that when someone searches for you, they immediately know who you are.

Like I said, I started blogging one day five years ago, for no apparent reason, besides the fact that I had what to say on topics of mobile technology and the Web. Now, after five years of consistent blogging, I am widely and (ridiculously) considered an expert on topics of mobile and web. I do think I know a thing or two about these topics, this is not false modesty here, but I never had any official training on these highly technical subjects. All I did was write a blog.

Yet, I have been quoted on CNN, TechCrunch, Mashable, TheNextWeb, and many more as an “expert”. I  have interviewed industry shakers such as Scoble, Mossberg, Kawasaki, Gary, and so many others. I even have my favorite childhood actress reading my content regularly.

At the end of the day, all this happened from that one ordinary day, in which I just decided to start blogging. It used to take thousands of dollars and a marketing agency who specialized in branding to single-handedly create a brand,  now it is free and it takes ten minutes a day.

Just Do it!

As I write this post, I realize I have so much more to say about this topic. I also realize that my point here is somewhat controversial and many will think I am nuts, but I truly believe that a blog is an incredible medium and platform for any human being to build themselves up and communicate with an audience. If you are going to take my advice and start a blog, you can use WordPress to author it if you plan on taking it very seriously. If, however, you want to be able to jot down your thoughts with no bells and whistles, Tumblr might be for you.

The one thing I will say is that you can ignore this entire post if you plan on taking the “Facebook approach” to blogging. What I mean is that many view Twitter and blogging like Facebook, that they go in once in a while, check out what’s up, and leave till the next time. While blogging does not take long, most of the time, it requires a certain level of dedication and consistency, as does Twitter.

If you are going to attack this project with the dedication it deserves, you won’t see the results in a week, month, or even a few months. I would say, for the sake of giving some sort of concrete prediction, that if you go at this for a whole year, every day, or at least 5 times a week, you will start seeing serious traffic and begin bearing the fruit of your labor. Now, go get blogging!

By: Hillel Fuld

OK, this is just getting ridiculous and I waited long enough to write this post. Technology moves fast, I get it, but there’s fast, and then there’s the pace at which the world of social media has been moving over the past few months.

To be honest, it is in no one’s best interest to keep this up, not the companies behind the various platforms, not the advertisers who use these platforms to promote their brand, and most definitely not the users of these platforms.

Allow me to take a few steps back and make a disclaimer. I am fully aware that I am what’s known as an “Early adopter” and I feel the compulsive and illogical need to try every new toy. When I say toy, I don’t mean a new phone or gadget, that goes without saying. I am referring to the new type of toy, a.k.a “social app”, a.k.a “social network”.

I have not tried them all because that would literally be impossible assuming eating and performing other bodily functions are still a priority in my life. I have, however, tried every single social app/platform that has gotten even a hint of traction among the tech community. Let’s take a look at what I am talking about here.

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, those are the no-brainers. Then we have Foursquare (should be part of the no-brainers?) Path, Instagram (Apple’s App of the year for 2011 by the way), Oink, Stamped, WhatsApp (well, it is kind of a social network if you think about it), Dapsem, Batch, Mobli, Color and Chime in.

Those are just the ones that come to my mind and by the time I finish this post, the list of social networks I have joined in the past year will have doubled in my head, but let’s leave it at these.

Mind you, when (almost) every single one of the above networks launched, it was named “The next big thing” by at least one if not all of the top tech blogs. I know, I know, just because TechCrunch says it is a hot app and the company raised $40 million does not mean I have to try it. Well, actually, ii kind of does. Put aside the fact that as a “tech enthusiast”, I don’t exactly like the thought of waking up one day to discover that everyone who is anyone is on some new network I never heard of and I am missing all the fun.

There is that other thing called work. I work in this space, the mobile, social, Web space, that is. I have to stay up to date, and besides, if we have learned anything from the tech industry in the last few years, it is that early adopters set the trends that the “normal folks” then follow. It happens nearly every time.

So many people, including myself, have asked me (I mean I ask myself this question daily), how the heck I am supposed to keep up with all these networks? I mean, the world of apps is moving just as fast but that is different. An exciting app is released, I try it, like it or don’t, then close it and either delete it or use it again in a few months time. Social networks require time, energy, thought, and dedication if you want to succeed.

The answer is, I don’t keep up. I fall behind daily. Now, I know what you’re saying to yourself (again, I am kind of a prophet.), “who cares if you fall behind? What harm does that cause you or anyone else?” Good question, I thought you’d never ask!

Well, since the basic premise of social networking (I hate that phrase more than words can describe) is relationships and engagement, I need to be able to tell someone on Twitter that their recent Instagram photo was awesome or that they need to get more sleep based on their recent Path activity. Well, I don’t need to, but that is the name of the game in this space.

So what are we going to do? Are we (and by we, I mean us psycho social media and technology junkies) doomed? Are we setting ourselves up for failure? Well, possibly, but in reality, there is a simple solution to all of this.

If you got this far in the post, then you are a loyal reader and you deserve to be rewarded as such, so here is a million dollar secret. If you create the app I am about to describe, you WILL make it big and I won’t even ask for a cut of it.

Someone needs to create the all-in-one social app. What do I mean? Well, almost every one of the networks mentioned above has an API, which means other apps can tap into its network. That is how I post pictures on Foursquare from Instagram and share a thought on Twitter from Path. On this front, Google+ is falling behind, but the full Google+ API will be out momentarily…

Why is there not one app that will enable me to upload all the content types Path supports, which includes photos, videos, text, music, location, people (tagging), and current status? Once I choose what to upload, I then decide which network to share it with! But it has to have all of them integrated.

I mean some things are relevant for my Facebook friends, and others are relevant for my Twitter followers. Some things I only want to share on Instagram, and others only on Path. When I “Oink” something (yes, that is the name of the app. I can’t make this stuff up), why not be able to share it with my Stamped community or my Linkedin connections? It just makes so much sense.

Now, it is true that many if not all of these platforms are competing with one another, but let’s say it as it is. Facebook and possibly Twitter aside, each and every one of these networks are losing more than they are gaining by not joining forces with the other networks.

Of course, the problem with such an app is that new platforms are introduced daily and to stay relevant the developer of this all in one social app would have to stay up all night every night in order to keep the app up to date. The way I see it, either this developer and his team drive themselves nuts over keeping this app up to date, or millions of people like myself and (let’s be honest, you too if you are reading this post) lose their sanity by trying to tread water in the wild waters of social media. I think we have a clear winner. So, someone please make that app pronto!

Of course the other possible solution to this social media headache is to forget it all, and actually live my life instead of tweeting about it, but c’mon, that is just crazy talk!

By: Hillel Fuld

Twitter, as a company, has made its share of mistakes over the years. These include implementing its own retweeting system that makes it significantly more difficult to see how many people retweeted you and who they are (not to mention the fact that when I use the Twitter retweet, I can’t add my two cents to the original tweet, it all kind of defeats the purpose), the Twitter URL shortening service, which seems to break more links than it shortens, or many others. But the good news was that with all these issues, I always had Tweetdeck to fall back on. Then Twitter bought Tweetdeck.

Wait, let’s back up a little for those of you who are not familiar. Twitter, as I am sure most of you know, is a microblogging service that allows you to share short updates of 140 characters with your followers. You can also add links to external articles, photos, videos, etc. Except, contrary to what all the hype might lead you to believe, Twitter is just the foundation for an entire ecosystem of applications that use the Twitter API (not going to explain that term, feel free to read more about what an API is), it is not the end, just a means.

So there is an entire world of Twitter developers out there from Windows applications such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic, Web apps like Hootsuite and Twimbow, iPhone apps like Echofon and Tweetlogix, and Android apps like Twicca and Twidroyd. Other platforms also have their share of Twitter apps including Ovi (Gravity), Windows Phone, Playbook, and the list goes on. There are of course apps that are available cross platform and the leading name in that category is Tweetdeck.

I have been using Tweetdeck for years, since pretty much day one, and I have recommended it to hundreds of people. Not only is Tweetdeck the best Twitter client on PC and Mac in my opinion, but the team and especially Richard Barley, who was the Community Manager till recently, is super responsive and professional.

Like I said, then Twitter bought Tweetdeck, which at the time was good news since, as I mentioned, I love the team and thought they deserved the acquisition. Many commented over the past few months that Tweetdeck updates, which were a frequent thing until recently, had slowed down. All that did not matter as far as I was concerned because Tweetdeck still blew its competition out of the water. Until now.

Tweetdeck recently rolled out a new Tweetdeck for Mac and PC, which came on the same day that Twitter released a new Web UI and a new app for iOS. The interesting thing about the new Tweetdeck is that it is native, as in a regular application like Office, Skype, or any other software you download to your computer. Until now, it is was an Adobe Air application, which is a pretty buggy and resource hogging technology. So, I was optimistic.

Then I tried the new Tweetdeck and all that changed. The interface is different, the options are gone, the customization abilities are missing, and overall, the experience is far inferior to its predecessor and even other competing applications. That makes me sad, especially knowing that this is the only choice moving forward and the old version will no longer receive updates or support. I used the new Tweetdeck for a few minutes then went back to my old version and have not looked back since.

The following are four ways that Twitter is effectively killing off Tweetdeck as the industry leader in Twitter applications:

 1: No More Old School Retweets

With the new Tweetdeck, there is no more retweeting someone the way people used to in the good old days. Not to get too technical here, but in the old Tweetdeck, you can press Retweet and a tweet is automatically generated with the letters RT and the person’s name before their tweet. In the new Tweetdeck, you can only use the native retweet option, which as I mentioned above, is problematic, to say the least.

There is also a “Quote tweet” option, which essentially adds quotation marks around the original tweet for you to add your two cents. Now, essentially the quoting option accomplishes the same thing as a retweet does, and some might say I am arguing semantics here, but this, to me, is a classic case of “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”. Retweeting is one of the things that made Twitter to enjoyable and viral from day one, I just don’t see why Twitter felt the need to go and change the way people retweet each other. Do you?

2: More Clicks, So Many More Clicks

Using the new Tweetdeck, it’s as if Twitter gets paid per clicks. The most basic functionality, that required one, maybe two clicks in the old Tweetdeck, now require for or five, sometimes, even more. Retweeting someone for example was one click to prepare the tweet and then Send in the old Tweetdeck, now requires anywhere between four and five clicks depending on whether you want to retweet or quote.

Adding or removing someone from a list is the same story, only a whole lot worse. There is no option anywhere on the UI of the new Tweetdeck to add someone to a list, unless I am missing it, in which case, we have another problem… You have to click the person’s profile, click Lists, and… yea, even this doesn’t work. It seems Twitter forgot to add list support in the new Tweetdeck… Which brings me to my next point…

3: Screen Real Estate

One of the best parts of the old Tweetdeck was the fact that you were able to see all your feeds at first glance without even clicking once. I had seven columns open at any given time on my 24′ display. Why seven? Well, I have my Twitter account and I manage the Twitter account of Appboy and inneractive, that’s three. Then I have my direct messages column and three columns for my favorite Twitter lists. I follow over 8,000 people so Twitter lists make it possible to stay on top of the relevant updates and people without getting lost in all the noise.

In the new Tweetdeck, you can have a max of four columns on your screen with the fifth column displaying a huge arrow to scroll right and see the rest of your columns. To that I say, why?? An entire column for an arrow? That prime real estate could have been utilized by Robert Scoble’s Twitter list of tech influencers and instead it is populated by an arrow? That is what’s called a design flaw that is a deal breaker.

4: Follower Count on Tweets

With the old Tweetdeck, you could configure that under every tweet, the app would display that person’s follower count. It was a useful and unique feature to have. It is gone in the new Tweetdeck. Why was it useful? Not because you should judge a person by their follower count, that is just crazy talk. The reality is that with so much spam being sent daily on Twitter, you need an effective way to separate the real people from the bots.

A profile picture is one way and nine out of ten times, a profile without a picture is a bot. Follower count is also an accurate tool. If someone follows a thousand people and has zero followers, there is something very wrong. Generally speaking, there is a correlation between follower count and the amount of time a person spends on Twitter.

Before you cut my head off, I am well aware of the amount of spammy tools that builds up follower count without the need for any engagement on the part of the user. When a person uses those tools, I will discover it in a matter of seconds by looking at their tweets, but when someone has a totally unproportional follower/following count, I am not even clicking through to see their tweets. Like I said, it was a useful feature in the old Tweetdeck. Any particular reason Twitter had to kill it?

Here is the thing, there are so many more issues with the new Tweetdeck to add to this list, but do I really need to go on when you  have a perfectly fine old Tweetdeck to resort to? Yes, the lack of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare support in the new Tweetdeck is a problem, but I didn’t even get that far when basic functions that I do a hundred times a day are not possible in the new Tweetdeck.

Combine all that with the fact that Twitter rolled out a new Web UI on the same day as the new Tweetdeck came out and you have one less reason to ever open Tweetdeck.

Sad but true, and something we see far too often when big companies buy small ones. Unless things reverse themselves, Tweetdeck is on its way down and with all the problems with the new Tweetdeck, it is taking the fast road too…

By: Hillel Fuld

Truth be told, I kinda love putting these posts together, it helps me feel productive by seeing exactly how many posts I have written in the last week or month. The fact that people keep telling me they love them and use them as a resource to catch up on all the technology news they missed, well that is just the icing on the cake.

Anyway, here you go, folks, some of the most exciting tech news of the past ten days as told through the posts I have written on various sites:

Google

Android Dominates the Market… IN MOBILE MALWARE!: Many doubt the reliability of these numbers, but if they are even partially accurate, Google better get their Android act together.

Google Music Launches With the Cloud, Social, and Artists in Mind: Should iTunes be worried? Well, no, because software doesn’t have emotions, but that aside, Google Music looks pretty promising.

Google Updates iOS App and Brings the Mojo Back to iPad Search: Pretty sure this is the nicest Google iPad app out there. What a UI!

Apple

8 Valuable Lessons Steve Jobs Left as Part of His Legacy: This is my first book review ever and I wrote it just as I started reading Steve Jobs’ biography for the second time. Nope, not kidding…

Dominos Launches iPad App/Campaign, Fulfills Every Kid’s Dream: This app will amaze you, watch the video.

Mind-Controlled Siri: Maybe A Hoax, but Kinda Makes You Wonder: Real or Fake?

Seven of Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s Craziest Pranks: Wow, Jobs and Wozniak were quite the trouble makers… I guess you gotta be to change the world they way they did!

Amazon

It Was Inevitable: A Side by Side Video of iPad vs Kindle Fire (and a surprise): The Kindle Fire is spreading like wild fire (pun very much intended) but the question everyone is asking is, how does it compare to the beloved iPad? Watch this video to find out.

You Knew it Was Coming! The Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire Drop Test (VIDEO): Oh, come ON! You know you love to watch drop tests!

Samsung

New Samsung Ad Takes on Apple Fanboys and It’s Hilarious: Great advertising work by Samsung but wasn’t it once illegal to directly attack your competition in ads?

Microsoft

Windows Phone Marketplace Has Experts Modestly Optimistic: While many industry experts are putting their eggs in the Microsoft basket, the world’s largest software company has its work cut out for it if it is going to make an impact on the mobile space the way it did on the PC market.

Rovio

Angry Birds Are Everywhere, Even on The Simpsons: The Angry Birds phenomenon, as I like to call it, has gotten so ridiculous lately, these birds are EVERYWHERE.

 Angry Birds Comes to Life: OK, games, toys, cakes, pizzas, that is all fine. But Angry Birds in real life? Really?

Facebook

HUGE! Facebook and Skype Join Forces (Again) to Make the World Even Smaller: This is pretty big news as far as global communication ad video calls are concerned.

 Random

The Power of Words: A Video Every Human Needs to Watch: One of the most powerful videos ever, highly recommended.