Today I presented to a group of Utah business teachers from the Alpine School District. My presentation was focused on three possible scenarios teachers could use when utilizing social media in the classroom.

The main problem I focused on was how the school district blocks most social media websites on their networks. There are very real and obvious reasons why schools are aggressively not allowing these sites (which I highlighted a few). Yet, it is apparent that the collective “we” is becoming more and more dependent on digital communication and schools are beginning to have discussions on how to safely inject social media into their curriculum.

I have been rather quiet here on MyMarketer. It’s not that I have given up on blogging or all the beauty that goes along with it. Rather I have my head somewhere else.

Back in November my wife introduced me to an amazing website—Pinterest. Unless you live under a rock you have heard of Pinterest. If not, you can check out my collection of tutorials that shares anything you want to know about Pinterest.

Anyway, in January my longtime friend and online pr expert, Janet Thaeler, and I decided to dive into Pinterest and understand how businesses can utilize the tidal wave of traffic that it generates.

“It’s all about people.” ~Mike Davidson

Michael Stelzner, the genius behind SocialMediaExaminer.com and other ventures, just announced what he calls the Networking Clubs. The basic idea behind his idea is having an online forum that is honed in on social media.

Before you leave a comment flaming me about how you already belong to 29 social media groups on LinkedIn/Facebook/Google+/DigitalPoint/WarriorForum/WickedFire and so forth, let me share five reasons why I think Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs are different and better.

“I don’t want you with me! I don’t need you! I don’t need anybody! With my strength — my power — the world is mine!” ~The Incredible Hulk

As a kid I loved all the super hero comics, and now, thanks to Hollywood, I can relive them through the movies. Yet, it is even more fun when cartoonist Caldwell Tanner from the College Humor fame turns Internet companies into these same heroes and villains.

Below you will see heroes like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and several others showcasing their unique Internet powers. Unfortunately, I feel that Caldwell has left out some important heroes/villains and some iconic Internet sites. If I were an illustrator I would add them, but alas that is not one of my super powers.

“I am convinced that we are in a terminal process.” ~E. P. Thompson

I found this list on SocialFresh.com which helps you diagnose if you are addicted to Social Media work. Quite enlightening.

A while ago, I wrote a post about how social media itself is more addicting than porn, but I never thought to take into consideration the addictive nature of those who create it. This is most likely because I am among the ranks of these deeply troubled souls!

Today is dragging for me so I thought I would post a little humor that my little brother has been emailing me (my type of forwarded emails Ü). Hope you enjoy! ~Paul W.

“The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.” ~Susan Sontag

“You’ll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea.” ~Earl Nightingale

Like most of the Internet marketing world I signed up for G+ (a.k.a Google+ or Google Plus) right when it came out. I played with it for a few days, tried out different features, and then mostly forgot about it.

I still get notified when people add me to their circles, but I haven’t really engaged with the new social toy since its first launch. However, the below video makes a strong case on why I (and others who use Google products) should take G+ more seriously.

Yet, I still have to wonder if G+ will really live up to its hype, and what will happen if it doesn’t. There are plentiful Google initiatives which have met their demise over the years due to the lack luster of their services. Such Google products like:

A fun infographic from breakingcopy.com on deciding exactly what social network you should post to.

Clever thoughts bubble up constantly, but what’s the right venue for all of them? Now you can consult this handy graphic to help make those hard choices among Google+, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Dilemma solved!

“Like at Halloween: I knew I’d arrived when I saw people dressing up on Halloween as my character.” ~Jane Badler

Saturday my family and I went to a Halloween party/dinner. However, at 1pm we were still having troubles trying to decide what to go as. A few web searches showed that there are some ambitious and creative people out there when it comes to Halloween costumes.

This got me thinking, and I started typing in Internet marketing costumes ideas. I was surprised (and probably shouldn’t have been) to see that marketing geeks truly show their love for their industry come Halloween. Below are the top family friendly costumes I found that will bring out the web geeky kid in all of us.

The same little blue bird has been Twitter’s mascot for over four years. During that time Twitter has not made any official statement to whether or not their bird has a name. Some people have taken upon themselves to come up with names on their own. Such as David Lanham, of Iconfactory, who named the bird “Ollie.”

However, there is a tweet from the Twitter account which refers to the blue bird’s first name as Larry.  Interestingly enough, Larry quite possibly has a middle and last name as well.