In this new series I’ll introduce tips that will help you leverage social media platforms to the fullest. Don’t expect it to be easy because it’s not.

It’s all about interaction and I don’t mean “Check out my new product X, it does this and this and this and it’s awesome LOL!” Because that’s a load a bullshit and doesn’t work. You see it everywhere — people spamming their product like everyone should use it. Well those people are doing it wrong. Propaganda is for the website.

Twitter and Facebook are categorized under overly used and mis-understood term, “Social Media.” What is so social when you’re blabbing about your product?

Interact with your users and you build your brand. Chances are they already know about your product, but aren’t using it because you spam crap like this: “Check out my product – it helps you open jars that are hard to open!” Stop talking about your product and start making friends and building relationships — it goes a very long way.

Instead of spamming make friends with people even if they aren’t your customers. Chances are they’ll warm up to your product if you become friends with them. Humans are also likely to recommend you or your product it to a friend because they feel a connection. Think about it, if your best friend ran a landscaping business and your neighbor needed his lawn cut, who would you tell him to call?

Build connections with people and stay connected with them just like you would meet people at a bar, school, or the office. Talk about the same things and be personal. No body wants to talk to a billboard for a reason. It’s not easy and it takes time, but this is how you begin to build a long living brand.

Stop spamming and start making friends.

Today Google has launched “Friend Connect,” described as a tool to make any website “social.” The entire concept removes the “garden walls,” which lock a user’s account into one particular website. Imagine having only one account for the internet. You log into Facebook with the same username as you would with iLike, a social music website. Instantly you can share music with your friends on facebook because the two sites are connected through Google’s Friend Connect. Your friends are not just on Facebook — they’re on the internet.

Account portability sounds amazing. Now anyone, with the right technological background, can start a website and incorporate anyone using Friend Connect — instantly a huge social network. However, this causes a huge security threat.

Instead of your Facebook account being compromised because your password is “123″ your “internet” is compromised. Every website that uses Google’s Friend Connect has now been compromised and you’ve just become a pink-sparkling-fairy on Facebook who likes Celine Dion, not that I have anything against her but seriously, Celine Dion?. I couldn’t think of anything worse.

Web 3.0 has been defined by many bloggers, both professional and grammatically incorrect like myself. However, I believe that Web 3.0 is indeed account portability. While some may argue that OpenID, a service that allows for one username/password across the web, may be web 3.0. OpenID is Web 2.5. It’s a step in the right direction, but you only keep your username and password across the web. Web 3.0 is different because it allows you to keep all your data across the web.

If Web 2.0 is Ajax and the uprising of social networks then Web 3.0 makes the internet a social web.

What do you think about the next step in the internet’s evolution?

Further Reading:
How Google Friend Connect Works