Could this be the proof that we needed that Han shot first? Check out my twitterstream just now.

Today I read a blog post by Dave Rosenberg on Facebook and how much money they are making from the sale of virtual goods. Some estimates have come in at $34.5 million of how much Facebook users have sent on virtual goods.

Virtual goods. That’s right, fake goods that you can buy for people and post in their profiles. But this line is what caught my attention:

“The vast majority of Facebook gifts are bought from the first screen of gifts in the directory–almost 80 percent of the total sales come from the group of the first 20 gifts. This points to the self-reinforcing nature of popularity (the crowdiness of crowds rather than the wisdom of crowds) when popularity data is made public.”

This “crowdiness of crowds versus the wisdom of crowds” is a very important concept to think about as it pertains to e-commerce, blogging, and establishing power users in social networks.

People like to follow the crowd. In the Facebook example, the most popular products rise to the front and this prequalifies the selections for those who are not as decisive. The thinking may be, “well others like these products so I should too.” When strategic levers are in place, marketers can leverage this phenomenon to create great results. Read more…

So far in my brief 10 months of Twittering I have gained friends, business contacts, and even clients. Every one has heard of the “elevator pitch”. You know, the 2 sentences or so that describes what you do quickly and succinctly to potential clients, employers, or investors.

But the proliferation of social networking for business, use of mobile devices and instant messaging, it may be important to shave down those elevator pitches to 140 characters or less.

I believe you should be prepared with a Twitter-style elevator pitch for you or your company. Mine is below. What would yours be? Leave it in the comments and feel free to list a link to your business and a contact number as well.

I’m a direct marketer, creative director, and blogger with a focus on identifying, engaging, and driving action to your profitable customers

P.S. Bonus points if you do it in exactly 140 characters.

You know who took a major beatdown yesterday was Richard Cheese. You know Richard Cheese, the performer who takes popular hard rock songs and performs them as lounge numbers? Well, I didn’t know about Mr. Cheese until yesterday and what I heard about him damaged his reputation for me for life.

It all started for me yesterday when I received this post from Chris Brogan in my Twitterstream: “Wow, what a Dick: http://tinyurl.com/5ukavm (One less fan here.)”

Now I’m not going to talk about whether or not Chris Brogan cheapened his brand by calling someone a “dick” but what I am going to say is for a well-respected leader in the social media space, this name calling is sure to influence.

Like I said before, I had never heard of Richard Cheese before but even before I clicked the link, I was pre-disposed (based on my respect for Mr. Brogan) to making judgement. Read more…

How sweet is this? Take that creepy toy from our childhood and mash that bad boy up with Twitter and a text-to-speech program and voila! a Twittering Teddy Ruxpin. This is a great example of a company making something so cool to people that they don’t care it is financed by corporate dollars. Sponsored by Verizon FiOS, this mashup is corporate publicity stunts done right.

How 2.0: Make a Twittering Teddy Bear from My Home 2.0 DIY on Vimeo.