Facebook went public, began trading at $42.05 (and then dropped to it’s original $38) per share, and it’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg got married in a surprise wedding that was supposed to be a celebration of his now wife’s graduation from medical school.

Named the 29th richest man in America, Zuckerberg now shares that fortune with the woman who has been by his side since college.

But both his personal and work lives have simultaneously gotten harder (remember your first year of marriage??). While maintaining majority ownership in the social network, the 28-year-old (and I thought I was hot stuff at 28!) must now answer to Wall Street, which means the $1 billion they made in profit last year must increase.

Just a few days after GM announced they’ve dropped their Facebook advertising (and Super Bowl advertising too, it seems), the social network must pull itself together and begin offering even more to users and advertisers (which means more changes…don’t freak out) or it will end up going the way of AOL, Netscape, and MySpace.

1. Mobile. My own speculation on the Instagram purchase last month is not because Zuckerberg thinks the app cool (it is), but because the team there has figured out mobile; something that has escaped Facebook developers. Rather than invest a bunch of time and money into creating a mobile app that works well for its users, why not buy one that already has 25 million users? It gets them closer to the one billion user mark they’re striving toward and it allows them to incorporate the picture-sharing mobile app.
2. Search. I’m not talking about competing with Google. Let Google own search; it’s the one thing they do really well. I’m talking about social search. When Facebook introduced search in the groups, I was singing hallelujah because it is now easier to find conversations for blog writing, content creation, or even just proving someone wrong. What would be really great is if they create a search for our own pages, to start. And then move it to making it possible to search, based on your own personal network. Google and Bing already do this with your online experience. Let’s hope Facebook catches on, too.
3. Sponsored Stories. This is one of Martin Waxman’s favorite Facebook money-making tools. While we all intuitively know sponsored stories are highlighted by our friends because a company has paid us to do so, he believes we’ll make purchase decisions if we see multiple friends talking about the same product or service. I agree.
4. Big Data. With nearly a billion users around the globe, think about the insights they have regarding what we like, how long we watch videos, what TV programs are popular, and how long we stay on certain sites. If they package those insights into something more valuable than what they provide now, marketers will feel like they hit the jackpot. It’s a huge growth opportunity for them, without a lot of effort.
5. Impulse Buying. Right now you can buy more fruit for your Farmville farm with Facebook credits, but we can expect this will expand to include pretty much anything we want to buy. Many big brands opened Facebook stores and then quickly shuttered them because no one was buying, but I expect this will change. We’ll soon be buying music, shows, books, gifts, and even consumables with the click of a Facebook like. A more powerful version of iTunes, if you will.

Where else do you think Facebook must grow in order to make money, keep users happy, and satisfy Wall Street?

Thanks to all of the photos everyone posted and the Facebook Timeline, Geoff Livingston and I have an incredible story we’ll be able to look back on for many years.

I’ve had lots of people ask me how sales are doing. We don’t know yet! Amazon refreshes on Fridays and, as of this writing, it hadn’t been updated.

In other news, Facebook went public this morning at $38 per share, which raised $16 billion for the company and made Mark Zuckerburg the 29th richest person on earth.

It’ll be interesting to see how they do throughout the day. I’ll definitely be watching!

In the meantime, I give you Gin and Topics.

5. Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, the book we all grew up with, but as read by Christopher Walken. He doesn’t just read the words, but also describes the pictures. Not for kids to see. It’s really, really great! Howie Goldfarb, did you send this to me? It’s great!

4. Teachers Pull Spectacular Prank. While high school students are being interviewed on video, their teachers video bomb by dancing in the background. It truly is spectacular. And the guy at about :50 has some serious moves. Thanks to Christina Pappas for tweeting it to me!

3. How Pixar Almost Deleted Toy Story. I had nightmares after watching this. Not because it’s a bad video, but it’s super stressful to imagine your entire business going down because of one minor mistake. Michael Schechter and I had a fun email conversation about it. Phew! Stressful.

2. Insults from Luther’s Works. Taken from the 55 volume set of Luther’s Works, Tyler Rasmussen created a little site that provides you some nice insults, if you’re feeling particularly good about yourself. I wish I had both the time and creativity to do something like this! Thanks to Kat Krieger for sending it to me!

1. Governor Christie Channels Seinfeld. This is awesome! New Jersey Governor Christie totally makes fun of Mayor Booker’s hands-on approach. The best part? They do the video together. Thanks to Ken Mueller for sharing it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

So I hope you’ll forgive me for introducing you today to Pat Rhoads, a man who, though I’ve been following him on Twitter, smacked me in the face (figuratively) in the comments of Spin Sucks yesterday.

If you missed the blog post, The Atlantic did a piece on whether or not Facebook is making us lonely and I riffed on it. You see, I’m torn. I think the social networks open up a world generations before us never knew, but it’s also frustrating as heck when you’re at dinner with people, live and in person, and they spend the whole meal documenting your time together on Facebook or Twitter.

But Pat. Pat made me think.

Here’s what he said:

A really good example of how social media, and his blog, helped keep him going, wouldn’t you say?

But that’s not the reason I want you to follow him. The reason I want you to check him out is to see what he’s doing to heal after the loss of his wife.

Lisa Gerber emailed me and said she had online stalked Pat and spent 10 minutes sobbing her eyes out when she found his personal blog. I told her I wasn’t going to read it. And then I did. And my reaction was the same.

Missing Aimee is a blog he set up the day after his wife passed away, a week before Christmas last year. He wrote one of his first blog posts on the flight home from the trip where the accident happened, detailing what he was able to put together about the accident.

The very first blog post was written the day after it happened and you can find it here. You’ll also find Pat’s and Rowan’s (their daughter) first Christmas without Aimee, and their anniversary, and Valentine’s Day, and her birthday, and Mother’s Day.

I’m sure Pat doesn’t want you to feel sorry for him, nor does he want you to think he’s doing this for sympathy. I say this because the way he writes is not self-pity at all. But I do think the way he’s using the social web to connect with people in order to heal is amazing and strong and unbelievable.

I highly recommend you take 10 minutes today and stop by to say hello to him. I promise you, you won’t regret it.

The article begins by telling the story of Yvette Vickers, the former Playmate and actress who was found dead in her home a year after she died. Her computer was still on and, when they checked her phone to see who she might have talked to before she died, they found she called distant fans who found her via the web instead of her “real” family or friends.

Of course, this makes the assumption she knew she was about to die. The coroner later released the autopsy study that shows she died of heart disease. More likely, she was just going about her day so, in her mind, wasn’t really making her last calls to distant fans.

While her connections late in her life had increased, the article claims they were more shallow, “as has happened for many of us.” We’re extremely accessible now, but it seems we are more isolated: A contradiction in the sense that the more connected we are, the more lonely we become. “We were promised a global village; instead we inhabit the drab cul-de-sacs and endless freeways of a vast suburb of information.”

Is it the Fault of Facebook?

Facebook is closing in on one billion users, as they begin their roadshow for the initial public offering. They’re rumored to be valued at $104 billion and think they’ll raise $16 billion when they go public…the largest Internet offering in history. Last summer it became the first website to reach one trillion pageviews (TRILLION) and nearly three billion likes and comments every day.

Most of us use the social network. Many of us are addicted to it (cough, me, cough). We struggle with accepting, or ignoring, friend requests and some even obsess over who is unfriending them on a daily basis. The more we use it, the more comfortable we become with it and our boundaries change on what is acceptable and what is not.

We now live in this very strange world where we consider people we’ve never met in person real friends. When I talk about this when I speak, particularly to business owners, they just shake their heads. It seems strange we’re making friends online, with or without ever seeing them in person. Some even make the joke their kids have 250 Facebook friends, but no one to go out with them for dinner.

Are We More Lonely?

Facebook arrived when Americans seemingly are more alone. “In 1950, less than 10 percent of American households contained only one person. By 2010, nearly 27 percent of households had just one person.”

But living alone doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lonely. I was listening to Barry Moltz interview Susan Cain last week and she talked about how half of our population are introverts. This doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t like to be around people. It simply means, while extroverts get their energy from being around throngs of people, introverts get their energy from a quiet glass of wine with a friend or reading a book. Just because we don’t like to be out every night at a rave does not mean we’re lonely.

Facebook, and the other social networks, give us the ability to “talk” to people without actually having to talk to them. When clients ask us who we recommend they put in charge of a particular social network, we always recommend they start with the introverts inside the company. Social media allows them to make friends and break the ice behind the comfort of their own computer screen, which makes them much more comfortable and productive at trade shows, conferences, and networking events because they’re not meeting people for the very first time.

Solitude is Altered Forever

The appeal of Facebook, of course, is it allows us to combine distance with intimacy. I always say Facebook is my own personal stage – I use it to see which jokes, which updates, and which photo captions people will find most engaging. I use this “market research” when I write, when we work with clients, and when we create new content. But I would never actually get up on a stage and perform. It’s not in my DNA.

The Atlantic article goes on to say, “The real danger with Facebook is not that it allows us to isolate ourselves, but that by mixing our appetite for isolation with our vanity, it threatens to alter the very nature of solitude.”

We never take a break. Human beings have always created elaborate acts of self-presentation. But now we do it before we get out of bed and right before we plump our pillows and close our eyes for eight hours. Yvette Vickers’s computer was on when she died. It stayed that way for a year and no one noticed she wasn’t commenting or participating in the conversation.

I don’t know. I’m torn. In one sense, I think Facebook feeds our need to be social and in the other, I wonder if all this technology and accessibility really is making us more lonely.

What do you think?

I keynoted at Social Slam, took Mr. D to Vegas for his birthday, and co-keynoted (with Jay Baer) at Counselors Academy. And, on top of all of that, Marketing in the Round came out and, those of you who pre-ordered it began receiving it this week and sent in pictures (which we’ve posted on Pinterest).

But I slept for eight hours last night so I’m beginning to feel myself again. Just in time for the big Chicago book launch party on Monday night (are you coming??).

It’s supposed to be a glorious weekend in the Windy City so I’m going to go put air in my bike’s tires and fill my water bottles.

And you? You’re going to check out Gin and Topics.

5. Nebraska Name Changes His Name to Tyrannosauraus Rex. I saw this headline and had to click through to see if it was true. Turns out, it is. The guy’s given name is Tyler, but he thinks T-Rex is “cooler.” So there you have it.

4. Most Absurd Things Seen at Gym. My dear friend Rusty Speidel knows what makes me laugh…and this is definitely one of those things. Check out the woman sitting on the treadmill on a chair. Perfectly priceless!

3. Harvard Baseball Does Call Me Maybe Cover. Holy. Crap. I laughed so hard at this. Stick with it. It’s not the same moves all the way through. Thanks for this, Deb Dobson. You made my day!

2. Dear Tom Peters. I know this isn’t my typical Gin and Topics post. And everyone knows I have a huge brain crush on Mitch Joel (aka my social media husband). So I want you to read this post he wrote about a week ago. It’s his second in a serious of “love” letters to people he admires. It’s an idea all of us can shamelessly steal.

1. If You Do Your Timesheet, We’ll Give You a Beer. For those of you in a professional services business, you know what a pain it is to enter your time. When I spent my time at Fleishman-Hillard, time entry was always a battle. This is a great video JWT and Casa put together to incentivize employees to fill out their timesheets. Freaking brilliant!

Have a great weekend everyone. And happy birthday, Lisa Gerber!

But it’s her birthday today so I figured you wouldn’t mind.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LISA!!

Lisa Gerber is our chief content officer. She runs all of the guest posts here at Spin Sucks, which is no small job. She also began doing client work in January and now leads three of our biggest accounts.

About 18 months ago, I was shopping at Nordstrom (and then Sephora) and I called Lisa. I was venting that I needed some help with content on both Spin Sucks and this new project I wanted to launch (which you now know as Spin Sucks Pro). I told her I needed someone who I really trusted. As I stood on the corner of Michigan and Grand, in the dark, she said, “I’ll do it.”

Um, what? The job was in Chicago and she lives in Idaho.

I’ll do it.

So she packed up and moved to Chicago for nine months. Every month she flew back to Idaho for a week. And I watched her put on her happy face the week she came back from home.

It began to kill me inside a little bit every month. After all, she was my friend first and colleague second.

And then our circumstances changed. I went in to the office one day, after a week of traveling, and found Patti Knight (my work husband) was the only one sitting in our 2,500 square foot space. I decided right then and there some things were going to change.

We went completely virtual and Lisa got to move back home to her husband and dogs. And skiing and ice skating and mountain biking and hiking (lucky girl!).

Now she’s flipped her time. She spends a week a month in Chicago and the rest of the time at home. But, other than missing the occasional glass of wine together, it’s as if she’s still sitting in the office next to mine.

If you don’t already know Lisa, she blogs here every other Wednesday, and you can find her on Twitter, Google+, and she manages (with Molli Megasko) our company Facebook page.

Stop by and tell her happy birthday. It is today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LISA!!

P.S. Every time I see this photo of Lisa, it makes me laugh. Props to Sean McGinnis for taking it. And that’s our good friend Joe Hackman in the background. Hi Joe!

When Abbie Fink asked me how it went, I said, “It’s really fun talking Pinterest with 30 PR girls (and three guys).”

Because, as we all know, I LOVE PINTEREST!

Rather than talk to the room from slides, I had written down 16 ways to use Pinterest for PR and I walked around the room asking for examples for each.

I began the discussion by reminding everyone that using Pinterest is not a strategy. So I remind you of the same. These are fun ideas for using Pinterest at work (and feeding the addiction), but they should be used as part of a larger marketing or communication strategy.

I now give you those 16 tips.

1. Think visually first. Duh. It’s a site full of images. So, while I really do love Pinterest, if you can’t tell your story visually, it’s not the right place for you to spend time. An example we discussed yesterday is the Department of Transportation. While the group did come up with a few ideas their communication pro could use, all-in-all there isn’t much exciting about photos of asphalt.
2. No blatant promotion. We like to see a nice balance between your own boards and boards that highlight others. For instance, for our client Frank and Eileen, we have boards for their women’s and men’s shirts, but we also have inspiration boards.
3. Provide visual customer stories. We’re storytellers, which means we also need to know how to tell our story visually. The Chicago Bears do a nice job of this because they not only give you things to buy (clothes, merchandise), they tell a story of their history through photos.
4. Pin interesting things happening in your industry. And also invite others to contribute to that board. I am a contributor to a social media board and also to Meta Pinterest – Insights & Resources. This allows you to keep up on trends, statistics, and resources without doing all of the work yourself.
5. Think about your events, publicity stunts, and news conferences. About 10 years ago, I was in New Orleans for the first time. We were launching Over ‘n Out Fire Ant Killer. In order to tell a story and drive interest from TV stations, we created a New Orleans style funeral, complete with a singing minister and mourners, for the fire ant. I did a search and found some images so I may still pin them…10 years later!
6. You can pin videos. Most people do not know this, but you can pin videos. I started a Facebook question of the week board, just to see what would happen to views if I did. Turns out, a good number of people (in the top 10) come to our YouTube channel from Pinterest.
7. Put the “pin it” button on all of your web properties. I need to take this advice myself. I use Chrome so I have the “pin it” bookmarklet in my toolbar. Because it’s so easily accessible for me, I forget not everyone has the same. Just do it.
8. Articles, stories, and blog posts. Even though it’s a little bit self-serving, pinning articles, stories, and blog posts about your company also helps out the person who wrote it. You get to highlight some of the stuff others are saying about you and they get the benefit of increased traffic. Whole Foods does a nice job with this with their Favorite Books board.
9. Ask employees to create boards. Just like you want employees involved in your other social networks, ask them to create boards on the business page that showcase their talents, hobbies, and families (if they’re so inclined). Just make sure you have a couple of sentences in your social media policy about what’s cool and what’s not on Pinterest.
10. Blogs and websites you admire. I’m going to use Frank and Eileen as the example here again because I think my team does a nice job with this. They’ve pinned bloggers they love, based on the industry. So, for instance, they don’t have technology or social media bloggers pinned. They’ve pinned only fashion and clothing bloggers.
11. Best practices. I do this for my speaking engagements. Anytime I read something, or hear someone speak, and think, “Ah ha! I need to include that in a presentation,” I pin it. You can do the same for best practices you’d like to incorporate into your business world.
12. Key journalist’s stuff. This really goes hand-in-hand with tips eight and 10, but you can separate bloggers from journalists. The nice thing about pinning the work the reporters in your industry do, they can see who is driving traffic to their sites and so begins a relationship.
13. Trade shows and conferences. Just back from Counselor’s Academy, Martin Waxman introduced Sharypic to the group, which is a photo sharing site for conferences. I’d like to see a mash-up of Sharypic and Pinterest for PR pros. The conference will use Sharypic to combine all of the photos everyone at the conference tweets and you’ll pin the ones important to your boards.
14. Change descriptions with SEO in mind. This one drives me crazy. How often do you see a photo on Pinterest with the caption, “This is so cool!” What the heck is it?! People don’t search, “This is so cool!” They search, “Extra kitchen storage.” It’s easy to change the description. Make sure you do it so what you’re pinning is easily found.
15. Make sure links work. There is nothing more frustrating (on Pinterest, at least) than clicking on an image to buy it or a to make it and not finding the URL that has more information. If you’re pinning things that are going to drive back to your website or blog, make sure the links work!
16. MEASURE your efforts. It wouldn’t be a Spin Sucks blog post without measurement, now would it? One more example out of Frank and Eileen, because I have easy access to their analytics. In April, Pinterest was their number eight driver of traffic, which represents three percent new visitors. Of that three percent, 83 percent bought a shirt, representing $2,670 in revenue. Not too shabby for a few images on a cool new social network!

So there you have it. A nice big list of things you can do on Pinterest.

What else would you add?

Dear Facebook fan, see image to the left.

Just a couple of days ago, I was perusing through my personal Facebook stream and a friend of mine posted pretty much the same question.

Dear Facebook friend, see image to the left.

Actually, what I commented is exactly what the image says (even the “the end”) and Jennifer Windram thought it was funny enough to create the image (thank you, Jen!).

In 2001, I joined an advertising agency to help build their PR department. The first few months were really exciting because the account managers were introducing us to their clients and we were providing a new service. Super fun and lots of immediate work to do.

And then.

The creative guys kept bringing their pretty new ads and asking me to “do some PR” around them.

Um. No.

Here’s the thing. There is a time and a place for news releases. But running them verbatim on your blog or linking to them through your social networks is not the place. Just like wanting journalists to write a story about your pretty new ad is a hopeless desire.

Social media, content, blogging…this whole digital place we live in is about engagement and intelligent conversation and community building.

It’s not about you. It’s about them.

It’s about your customers, your employees, your board, your prospects, your community, and even your competition.

By posting your news release on your blog or social networks, you’re making it about you. And there is only one person in this entire world who cares about you as much as you do: Your mom.

So, unless your mom is your only customer, it’s time to think about how to make your digital presence about those who do buy from you.

I’m off to New Orleans tomorrow for the annual Counselors Academy.

Jay Baer and I are co-keynoting (the brain child of Martin Waxman), which I’m really excited about! If you’ve ever seen Jay speak, you’ll know he’s going to make me look suuuuuper good in front of my peers.

We’re doing something kind of fun and different: We’re interviewing each other on stage. Hopefully there will be video of it that I can post here next week.

In the meantime, check out the fun stories we’ve complied for you in this week’s Gin and Topics.

5. Hungry Lion Eyes Baby. This might be the cutest thing I have ever seen. I mean, it’s kind of scary and mean for the poor lion, but you’ll laugh. Trust me…and Ken Mueller, who made sure I saw it.

4. Kids Sing Bohemian Rhapsody. This is so full of win and Todd Lyden knew I would love it. If I had kids, I would teach them Queen songs and video them singing while we drove to school. LOVE THIS!

3. Dentist Pulls Out All Her Ex-Boyfriend’s Teeth. This is not a video, but if you missed the story earlier this week, it’s a must read. A dentist and her boyfriend broke up…and then he went in for his appointment a few days later. She clearly was still angry with him. Let’s be real…we’ve all wanted to do something like this to an ex. Not that it’s OK, but you know. When Nancy Davis and I had this conversation, she pled the Fifth.

2. Dog Serves as Bike Lock. I don’t know how I feel about this. I never lock my bike up outside and I never leave Jack Bauer sitting outside alone. To leave them both outside, with JB watching the bike? I don’t know…but Deb Dobson thought you should voice your opinion. But the dog getting on the back of the bike?! SUPER cute.

1. Airplane Lavatory Self-Portraits. As much time as I spend on planes, Ken Mueller thought I’d appreciate this. And appreciate it, I do! In fact, I may do this and start sending photos of myself back to the ground next time I’m at 35,000 feet.

After following one another on Twitter for quite some time, it was fun to finally see her. It was too brief.

But one thing I discovered about her then and have seen her demonstrate it every day since then: She really cares about our industry.

She does digital and social media for Mall of America (a job I can’t decide is really cool or super scary – I mean, people everywhere!). I don’t spend much time on mall websites (I’d rather kill myself than go to one, especially the world’s largest), but I’ve spent some time checking out the work Lisa does and, well, I’m impressed!

Get this. They have a blog. The mall has a blog, where Lisa and her team update multiple times a day. They have things you can buy for less than $100, a pick of the week, and events happening at the mall. Talk about some ideas you can steal from them – they are using content to interest their audience that also features their vendors. Pretty stinking cool!

They have Twitter, Foursquare (where The Food Network has left a tip!!), YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest (I LOVE PINTEREST!), and a newsletter. Their digital presence puts most businesses to shame.

But you know what I like best about everything they’re doing online? They are engaging with their fans, followers, and connections.

Lisa is at the forefront of this and you can tell, just by reading the streams, she knows what she’s doing and she spends time on the social networks personally. A distinction so important because it’s difficult to execute digital programs without having done it for yourself.

She’s one of the good guys. She knows what she’s doing. And she’s really nice, too.

So check her out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and her blog (even though she hasn’t update in several months…it’s still really good content).