Lena West over at InfoWorld is preaching to the choir when it comes to widget applications in the world of social media. For as long as I have been looking into the world of social media I have tried to find the utility in programs instead of just adding application to add them.

Knowing a thing or two about social media application development, Lena’s words struck a chord with me that not only helped me smile, but proved that I wasn’t the only one out there who had these thoughts on social media applications:

1. Refine your social media strategy.
2. Visit and post comments to other, complimentary blogs.
3. Examine your social media metrics.
4. Develop an editorial calendar for your social media efforts.
5. Work with a social media expert to make sure you’re getting it right.
6. Just take a deep breath and chill.

Point 5 is by far the most important point; speak with an expert on how best to use a social media tool. I have worked in PR/Marketing for years and I can’t think of a company that would enter any kind of media/marketing campaign without consulting an expert, social media is no different.

Don’t think for one second that just because and application you create is going on Facebook that the item you create isn’t a direct extension of your brand and your public voice.

I also agree with point 6, chill. Social media is here to stay, it is not some flash in the pants fad that you are going to miss the boat on. Relax, take a deep breath, drink some coffee (if you’re the coder) and develop a widget that people will like to use.

Many of you out there have your own opinions on social media widgets and I would love to hear them. Let me know what you think.

The Toronto Star just published an article focusing on a police injunction and a gag order. The sum of the article is that traditional media had been issued a gag order, a legal decree silencing the media for a short period of time based on investigations integrity, revolving around the death of a young girl named Stefanie Rengel.

Gag orders are a tricky thing in the world of journalism. Typically journalist want to be the first to break a story, especially a sensational story of 14 year old girl getting murdered by two other teen age girls, the problem arises when minors and crucial information is involved in the case. Nine times out of ten a journalist will agree to remain silent for a period of time if the police request it, but some times legal action is needed and a court can issue a gag order.

The issue focused on in this case is that the death of a minor can not be released with out permission from the child’s former guardians. While traditional media did not release the name of the slain girl, several Facebook tribute pages sprung up.

Legally the police can not take action unless the families file a formal compliant. Since the pages are ‘tribute pages’ I highly doubt the parents will complain. This case however is another example where bloggers, facebookers, and web publishers need to be aware that they are entering the world of public communications and there are many legal ramifications to that.

I grew up in NY and PA, my father was a NYC police officer and when he retired we moved to PA. Living in this area I was exposed to skiing, something I never actually did, but saw plenty of cool guys do it. Ever winter all the cool kids would break out there cool skiing jackets that happened to have years of lift tickets attached to the zipper of the coat. One look at the coat and you knew two things, this kid was cool and they skied.

You might be asking why is this important for networking and marketing, well the answer is simple… Where is your lift pass? At a recent launch event I picked up a small key chain from a company called Utterz. The key chain was a small cow that had ‘be heard’ written on it, genius, almost.

The Utterz cow is a great lift pass, I gave it to my girl friend who promptly put it on her keys where it will die I am sure. It will have a great life, a few people might even ask what it is for, but it still isn’t as effective as the lift pass. Why you might ask, because it still isn’t attached to her phone. The lift pass worked at saying someone was cool because it was directly associated with an object that was needed to conduct a cool activity.

What is your lift pass, well that really depends on what you do. Most people have a generic lift pass that they hand out at networking events, their card, but the successful lift passes are ones that separates you from the herd. Maybe its your twitter account, maybe its a custom ring tone that you can send to people, or maybe its your blog. The point is what ever you decided to make your calling card it has to say, “here is my lift pass and you are cool if you have it.”

If you have a cool lift pass let me know, I love hearing about neat things people do to market themselves.

I got my start in this business working in Public Relations. I attended a fine school for PR and worked several jobs in PR ranging from PR Firms to a stint at the Pentagon as a Communications Specialist. One thing I learned about PR is that many start-ups have some ill conceived notions of why and when to use PR.

I recently had a conversation over the phone with a friend of mine in NY about a start up he was launching and I offered him some free advice.

1) PR is not free marketing:

Many times start ups envision PR as a way to get free marketing. In fact PR is more expensive than marketing and offers no guarantees about exposure. A TEAM of PR profesionals can work for weeks with little to no results. Nine times out of ten a start up is better off purchasing some very targeted ads instead of spending thousands of dollars trying to get one newspaper placement.

2) Do you even need PR:

PR builds public awareness through 3rd party creditability; this can be accomplished through Analysts or Media Relations. If you are not trying to sell the world about how great you are don’t worry about the media as much as the public. Targeting the public can often generate more ROI in the first few years of a company than any review in a paper can.

3) If the press is a must, KNOW YOUR PRESS:

When I worked in PR everyone one in DC wanted to get in the Washington Post. I often said asked why and came to this conclusion, narcissism. Everyone wants to boast that they got the Post and show it around the office. Who cares, sure the Post reaches everyone and there grandmother, but if you’re not selling to my grandmother why waste the time and target her. Trade publications and target media can give you much great ROI than the carpet bomb that is the major print media.

4) Manage your expectations:

One thing I love about start ups is the passion. The men and women who work in start ups give there all and believe more than anything that their product or service is the best in the world. Realistically you are not selling sliced bread or reinventing the wheel. If you reach out to a journalist or an analyst and they say your service is junk, don’t fly off the handle and think they have no idea what they are talking about. The reason you reached out to a journalist is because you wanted their opinion, why ignore it because you don’t agree with it. Reliaze you will have to win people over and SHOW them why you are great.

5) Choose a firm with care:

Realize that no two PR firms are the same, if you choose to hire an outside PR firm do your research. Some PR firms just push press releases, which is a fine service if that is what you want, others that are more expensive offer costly advice and council; great if you intend to use that advice. Look for past clients of a PR firm, talk to them and really understand the PR firm before you sign the dotted line.

While none of this advice is set in stone they are some simple things to consider before launching into the world of Public Relations.

I’ve been spending a lot of today working on my overall strategy for Social Times and it has increasingly become apparent that video is going to play a big role. I read Robert Scoble’s article about Mogulus.com and immediately got excited. I immediately went over to the Mogulus website and checked out their service. I have to say it’s pretty impressive. I watched their demo video which was equally impressive. All of this got me thinking about these new tools and the impact on traditional media. You can be located anywhere and break news, stream a show or do anything related to the various channels that you end up managing.

These tools are creating a revolution. I could ultimately reproduce (in low quality) an alternative version of CNBC’s Squawk Box by inviting professionals in the financial industry to login to the service and speak live via the web. Instead of talking about financial issues, we could instead discuss issues related to the social web. Ultimately such a show could be reproduced for any given topic. That’s the benefit of the web. So is this part of the social web? Of course!

The social web involves anything pertaining to communication among individuals via the web. Video is definitely one form of communication. Loic Le Meur’s new startup, Seesmic, is a great example of communication via video. Seesmic is ultimately the twitter of video. There are obviously a number of other video services on the web but the latest ones have got me thinking about how they are not only changing the face of media but also changing the social web. Are there any cool new video services that you’ve been taking advantage of?

Today, Bebo announced Open Media, “a radical new vision for social media and entertainment that gives media companies free and open access to Bebo’s 40 million users worldwide and the Bebo community free and open access to thousands of hours of premium entertainment content from some of the world’s best known media brands.” These brands include “CBS, MTV Networks, BBC, Turner, ESPN, Yahoo!, Next New Networks, Crackle and more.” As I posted this morning, Compete.com published statistics stating that Bebo had 2.83 million active users last month.

This new partnership by Bebo emphasized the continuing trend of social networks merging with mainstream media. This trend began when News Corp. aquired MySpace over two years ago. MySpace has been focusing on launching exclusive shows and Bebo has been doing the same. While it appears that Bebo and MySpace have been the primary players in this space, Facebook has been signaling their intent to enter the space as well with the launch of their new Pages service.

While Facebook just entered the media space, the Open Media service is Bebo’s entrance into the viral distribution space. According to the press release, Open Media “allows users to store and curate within their personal profiles their favorite music and video content; and virally distribute that content throughout their ‘friends network’ and the wider Bebo community.” This viral distribution comes from Bebo’s alternative newsfeed feature that is displayed on a user’s personalize homepage.

As more people spend time on social networks, look for them to build similar patterns as television networks. Myspace, Facebook and a third network (Orkut or Bebo) will end up being the primary distributors of content (similar to NBC, FOX, CBS and ABC). The smaller social networks including Hi5, Friendster and LinkedIn will become the equivalent of cable access channels.