links for 2009-04-16

Many companies still think of Facebook or blogs when they hear "social media." Here are 13 approaches and my assessment of their value and cost.

A few days ago I was implementing breadcrumbs in a website I’m working on. Not that I sincerely believe every site needs this, but on some occasions and to some users breadcrumbs are practical. Anyhow, it gave me the idea to write an article about it because it’s been a while since I last wrote about anything CSS-related. The one I’ll share with you is a very simple one. It uses only one simple graphic. The rest is basic CSS styling with an unordered list as HTML code.

It’s striking how two people can look at the same thing and see something entirely different.

A gun, for example.

I’ve talked with a number of Americans buying weapons — lots of them.

And I took a few shots with an AR15 semi-automatic weapon.

Open any Internet marketing or social media blog and somewhere you will find the phrase, “Social Media is a conversation.” Yet even with this message being repetitively bashed into our heads, some people just don’t get it. While this problem isn’t unique to Twitter, let’s use the popular micro blogging service as an example.

A presentation is a precious opportunity. It's a powerful arrangement… one speaker, an attentive audience, all in their seats, all paying attention (at least at first). Don't waste it.

An overwhelming majority (88%) of marketers in a recent survey say they are now using some form of social media to market their business, though 72% of those using it say they have only been at it a few months or less, according to a social media study by Michael Stelzner, sponsored by the upcoming Social Media Success Summit 2009 (via MarketingCharts).

StumbleUpon, the content discovery site that was acquired by eBay in 2007 for $75 million, has "returned to the ranks of an investor-backed start-up," according to a company release.

A handful of Silicon Valley investors, including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners and August Capital, put up the cash to free StumbleUpon from the internet giant.

Skype will be spun off in an IPO early next year, eBay announced Tuesday, acknowledging that the internet telephone company the auction giant acquired three years ago for $2.6 billion was a bad fit.

"Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum," eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement. "But it's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential."

AT&T and Apple are in talks to extend their exclusive U.S. agreement to sell the iPhone through 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people "familiar with the matter."

Neither Apple nor AT&T would comment, but in a recent interview with the Journal, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson acknowledged that his landline business is dwarfed by wireless, which will become the company's focus.

If you’ve ever raised the hackles of the Internet trolls before, then you’ve had the “Narcissist” word hatefully tossed your way. According to the trolls, the infraction of talking about yourself too much is worse than any other.

Just how much time DO you spend on Twitter?

Who are you following that's not following you back? Who's following you that you're not following back? Find out!

If I’m going to tell companies that content marketing is important, I should probably give my thoughts on how to make it useful. I’m thinking about blogging, podcasting, shooting photos, making video, and all the other tools social media allows us to use to tell stories (not market). In my ideas, I give you nuggets of what matters to me in media making, and what I believe will matter to your prospective audience. Not your customers, per se. Maybe this is for internal audiences. Instead of thinking B2B vs B2C, just think “human.” These are elements I feel humans want.