Today every business needs social media.

Now there’s a book for business people who are busy running a business, but want social media results.

This social media book is sold on Amazon

Authors Warren Whitlock, Edward Philipp, and Lee Pound are social media experts and will tell you what you need to know, and who you need to follow to learn how social networking can boost your marketing results, run your business efficiently and make more money online

I’ve been using social media since the start and avoided all the systems, automation and “get rich quick” deals that have been offered.

Why.. most of them are from people that don’t get social media.

Finally, my friends here have put in all the things I asked for.. and more.

Watch this free video training series.

Find out the FASTEST way to actually make money using Social Media, while avoiding the Social Abyss

No reason to give up your mobile device.. but it’s a good time to start thinking just how annoying it is to place a call to someone.

You dial the number, they have to stop whatever they were doing and answer.

Not any more.. start a chat.. add voice and video.. on any device, anywhere.

A few kinks to work out.. but phone call from Gmail are a nice step forward

Yesterday, I posted another plea to find a person at Clear.com to talk to about this.

As you may have seen, they don’t listen to social media, and apparently have no one on staff that reads blog posts and news about them.

I’ve got another chat session from Friday afternoon’s shut down… The customer service rep was very anxious to prove:

1) The problem could be fixed so I don’t get shut down every 12 hours

2) It’s more important to follow policy than to communicate or solve a problem

After the better part of an hour, I thought were were communicating.. and I got a short paragraph telling me that I’d need to call in as there was nothing else to do. This would have been fine, but it’s exactly what I said 30 minutes before.

Then today, this started popping up.

Reluctant to go on auto-pay for a service that has never worked, I’ve seen a lot of obnoxious reminders when the bill cycles. That’s their right and almost helpful. This is a new one.

What I really hoped for was a net connection that was reliable enough to count on for most of my work, then add on mobile and phone service. I though I’d be the cool “leading edge” proponent of wireless every where. Instead, I’ve spend about 47 hours over the last year trying to get enough speed on the 6 meg and up service package I bought so I can watch a YouTube video without it stalling 3 times a minute.

Friend call me crazy for saying Clear is new, and trying to be a different kind of telco. They tell me that Sprint will always be Sprint and to give up. I’m beginning to think my friends may have a point, but will try for a while more to open a channel of communications with Clear/Sprint management.

Since I just paid for a month, and just checked the balance a couple hours before.. I was quite surprised by this one. I logged in and found that

1. I now get charge $4.99 rent on the free modem
2. there is a tax on top of what I was paying
3. There is suddenly a $2.95 past due amount

This is insult on top of injury. Likely a coincidence and small matter… but WHY would I call in and talk to them for an hour about it?

Maybe time to hook up the recorder and get some audio for the blog.. but Clear has wasted too much of my time to just call and wait on hold. I need to find someone that doesn’t mind speaking for the company.

If you know anyone that works for Clear, Clearwire or Spring, the company that owns Clear.. PLEASE tell them about this. Rather than adding to the posts with another “Clear Sucks” story.. I want

1. Resolve the billing issue
2. Get the service to work as contracted
3. Be a loud voice proclaiming that Clear is trying to listen

The future goes not to the best technology… the company that wins will be the one that learns to listen and love. I teach that, I promote that, and I live it.

Help me clear up my Clear mess.

I just saw a survey where social media users were asked:

“If you had to choose just one.. would you give up your TV or the Internet?”

80% answered that they’d give up their TV.

However, the average American watch 5 hours of TV in a day. Even those of us who only watch TV shows on a computer are watching as much as ever.

Why not keep both?  .. That’s what Google TV will do for you.

Gist CEO T.A. McCann shares the vision and value of Gist in this short (1.5 min) video.

To read more about Gist, look at their blog

Download the new beta desktop viewer  for Facebook

“If you use Facebook, you need to see this” – Chris Pirillo, Lockergnome

Get the FREE Download now – MicroSoft Facebook App

We’re adding more ways to connect with other through the social media and blogoshere.

The technology today is great… it allow people to connect, and that’s what it’s all about.

I’m tagging sites I see using tools on the blogs, and in my browser.

Today, I’m testing Onlywire.com and this button:

– The simple script

– the plain html

– The advanced button

We’re using twitter.com for micro-blogging. Short posts under 140 characters answering the question “What are you doing?”

The best use isn’t the things we post. It’s the conversations we have we real people, in real time.

I get answers for almost anything in minutes, and find out about very cool stuff.. like this

HugeURL.com

We all hate those long URL links that wrap around several lines in an email. So there are many URL shrinkers

http://snurl.com

http://TinyURL.com

http://twhirl.nl

Here’s one that does just the opposite. Put any URL in the box, click a button and get a long URL.

Try this one.. it goes to the Best Seller Authors we site