Some futurists predict that one day, we may not feel so compelled to post, update, check in and share as much as we do today.

But right now, the irresistible drive to publish what we’re doing, thinking and experiencing—and the social media platforms to do it on—seem to be getting more prolific by the minute. You also may have noticed your audiences are getting pickier to boot. Now, you pretty much need something new, interesting and unique to say, show or share on each social media channel you adopt (much to the chagrin of those who use handy little apps to simply spew the same thing across all their digital profiles).

This is a good thing for better, more fitting content, but it’s also causing users to have an identity crisis of sorts. The conflict is no longer just about whether to friend an old flame on Facebook. Oh no. The dilemmas of these new offerings draw out and surface the multiple dimensions and personalities that can be found within ourselves, forcing us to decide whether the reflection that social media mirrors back is an accurate one. Consider just some of the soul-searching the average social media user now has to ponder:

-        Should I let my personal and professional life mingle on Facebook and just how awkward could it get?

-        How and what do I focus on in conversations I have with my Google+ circles? Should I share with everybody?

-        Will my obsessions with unicorns and knitting be best featured on Pinterest?

-        Is Tumblr going to be about my serious professional self or completely focused on my cat?

-        Do I want to share my fondness for fried foods on Instagram?

-        What will my coworkers think when they see I’m the mayor of Spartacus on Foursquare?

-        Will my friends listen to my Spotify playlist and believe I’m hopelessly behind the times?

-        If I tweet about these things, will I confuse my followers or run the risk that my boss will see it on LinkedIn?

Here are a few suggestions to help you organize and manage your somewhat split social media personalities:

Partition out of respect, not because you have something to hide

Ok, so you mainly tweet about your profession via Twitter. Given that, it makes sense that the photos of your cat you upload on Instagram may not interest your Twitter followers. Therefore, separating the two is probably a good idea. But the idea is to look at it from your audiences’ point of view and spare them things they may not find interesting, not to try to hide anything from certain people out of fear or embarrassment about what they might see. With that in mind, however . . .

. . . If you’re worried your mother, boss, spouse, etc., might see something, it’s probably best not to share it.

Common sense rules here. It really doesn’t matter how protected you think your circles are, or how well you’ve blocked select content from certain groups of friends, someone can still easily quote you or take something you’ve said and share it with others. With social getting more searchable, and open APIs, it’s pretty foolhardy to believe online activity will always be protected from view and won’t pop up in a search somewhere at some time. Which gets us to the next point . . .

. . . Don’t be so rigid about building those walls

This may seem contradictory to the first point, but keep in mind that the most interesting folks and brands on social don’t always stick to the party line—randomness of conversation, sharing something that may not be strictly in the wheelhouse of what you mainly focus on—is simply part of the culture. So if you want to share that particularly adorable picture of your cat in the bathtub via Twitter, even if it’s outside the things you typically talk about there, do it. Just don’t do it all the time (again, respect for your connections always reigns). That said . . .

. . . It’s ok to sit on the sidelines

Just because you’re using a channel, you don’t always have to swim with the fish. Sometimes, you can sit on the banks and enjoy the stream. For example, amazing photos are shared via Instagram every day. If you don’t feel like putting your photos out there for everyone to judge, it’s perfectly acceptable to join Instagram simply for the viewing pleasure of seeing what others are posting.  Finally, as with everything else in life . . .

. . . Decide what’s right for you

Social media is awesome for people who like to discover and explore. But not everyone is comfortable revealing so much online. That’s smart, and it makes sense to be protective and cautious. Figure out what works for you and don’t feel pressured to participate just because everyone’s doing it and it’s the hot new thing. This also goes to the point of sheer practicality. Unless it’s your job, let’s face it, managing all this stuff is incredibly time-consuming, as it takes lots of care and nurturing. Therefore, decide on your personal favorites and focus time and energy there if you’d like, vs. trying to do it all.

As you try out social media tools, what are some of the ways you use them to share different dimensions of yourself with others? What are your thoughts and suggestions for how to best manage it all?

Stefanie Week: Is anyone else as perplexed as I am about why it’s taking Twitter so long to publicly introduce their ad platform? It seems like they’ve been in beta for years now (or maybe I’m just really impatient.) Mashable says that Twitter has finally introduced their self-serve ad platform… but it’s still being tested.

Sarah Biedak: Who sits and watches TV without surfing the Internet or checking Facebook? I know I don’t. According to a recent study conducted by Google, tablets have emerged as the go-to multitasking devices which has strong implications for mobile advertising.

Gary Rubin: Sometimes, you just need to read a story that makes you smile and tip your hat to the journalist assigned with telling the tale. Or tail.

Bill Fisher: From Mashable: With the recent announcement of Google+ brand pages, many companies – and their agency partners – are wondering “We’re already active on Facebook and Twitter. Why should we bother with yet another social media channel?” While on the surface Google+ brand pages can seem like just another Facebook with a fraction of the user base, there are a few unique elements that are absolutely worth considering.

Julie Yamamoto: From the Harvard Business Review, What I Learned Building the Apple Store.

Melissa Lion: As a knitter, I’ve been spoiled by Ravelry, possibly the best database ever. As a cook, I’ve been disappointed by communities and databases for food. The sites either seem clunky or the recipes have been reviewed by so many people with different tastes than mine, I can’t trust the ratings. So I was very excited to explore Food52. The creators hoped to build the first community-sourced cookbook, but it’s evolved into a community of fellow food lovers and home cooks.  And it’s the home to the All I Want for Christmas Peanut Butter Cookies.

What did you read this week?

Erik Sebellin-Ross: Microsoft scores major nerd points from me for producing a somewhat realistic view of the future of mobile & desktop technology in this video. The video is marred only by the lack of personal jetpacks, a clear indicator of the inevitable dystopia we’ll all have to contend with.

Stefanie Week: Are tablets truly the future for news media? A survey by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism gives a pretty interesting look at how tablet users are consuming news on their devices.

Darcie Meihoff: One of my favorite sources for thought-provoking business strategy articles. An example of a recent one I thought was particularly good and relevant is from the Harvard Business Review: 5 Reasons Companies Fail at Business Model Innovation.

Sarah Biedak: I’m reading about Klout’s new scoring system. Interesting to observe the evolution of influence rating. I have never put much stock in influencer scores from grading sites, but that could change. Excited to see how the other players in the market respond to Klout’s update as their actions will likely result in improvements and additional options in the user rating realm.

Julie Yamamoto: Cavemen want efficiency too – from VMware.

Anita Marks: A New Musical Duet for Social Media – Twitter has hired a former record label marketing manager to handle music partnerships for the company’s Content and Programming team.

Melissa Lion: Ready to occupy the digital space? Well, you can follow the Twitter account @OccupyKlout. Or you can occupy any URL here: http://occupytheurl.com/. What are you occupying?

Ben Samples: After watching this TED Talk about how gaming can make the world a better place, I was very interested to find this article showing how Mashable has integrated gamification to increase reader engagement. I’m very interested to see future applications of game mechanics used to influence behaviors – hopefully in positive ways.

What did you read this week?

With thousands of headlines and tips being shared on Twitter alone each hour, we think it’s helpful to share our favorites – the articles and blog posts that really stood out this week as being most relevant, interesting and insightful. Browse the list and then tell us about your favorite article this week.

Darcie Meihoff: I liked this Ad Age blog post, The Demographics of Social Media, because I’m a stats junkie.  As anyone who follows me on Twitter can tell you.

Sarah Biedak: For your Friday reading pleasure: 40 Tried And Tested Twitter Tips For Newbies, Apprentices And Pros. There are a lot of solid reminders and new tactics to consider.

Erik Sebellin-Ross: MediaBistro takes a look at the results from Twitter’s Promoted Offerings. Looks like they’re still in the early days…

Melissa Lion: The Internet has been accused of killing many things – print, attention spans and grammar seem to be its most mourned victims. Byliner.com is positioned to stop all of this murder and mayhem. I hope. Byliner features long-form journalism in individual doses for a small fee and, according to Byliner, they’re easily read in a single sitting. Head over to Byliner.com to check out Jon Krakauer’s exposé on Greg Mortenson or William Vollman’s non-fiction essay on post-earthquake Japan.

Gary Rubin: RIP, Blippy. This social network site that shared credit card purchasing information never made any sense to me, so this comes as no surprise. But apparently it was attractive enough to some VCs to raise more than $12 million and earn an unbelievable valuation north of $46 million at one point. Easy come, easy go.

Julie Yamamoto: Will your Klout score get you better customer service? Possible.

Stefanie Week: Where are all the dad bloggers? Mommy bloggers seem to be a dime a dozen these days but the dad blogs haven’t seen the same appeal. Although from what I can tell, they may be a pretty small community but they certainly have an engaged audience.

Ben Z Samples: Is your newsroom catering to the new pedigree of digital journalists? A new study shows that it’s probably not.

For the past few years, I’ve wondered what’s next, post-Twitter. Location-based sharing has yet to set me or anyone else on fire and if I had a nickel for every social networking site that I’ve had the mild enthusiasm to namestead on but never return to, I’d have a million nickels. Or maybe a few hundred nickels. Like ten nickels. I’d have fifty cents.

My point: there’s a new social networking site that I LOVE LOVE LOVE. LOVE! It’s Instagr.am.

On the surface it doesn’t look like much. Maybe a newfangled twitpic with filters. But if there’s anything that screams THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA, it’s this site. Here’s why: Instagram is the first site that lets you create something on the site and then share it with your friends. Is there another site that you can use to create in the cloud and then share in real time? Tell me if I’m missing one. Nicely.

With Instagram, you can share two ways—you can follow people like you do on Flickr, but unlike Flickr, you can also use Instagram like you do Twitter and watch the feed of your followers’ pictures flow past.

Instagram also lets you share your photos on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, and Foursquare. Imagine a whole Tumblr blog with your Instagram pictures! How cool and fun! And also back away from the Internet because I’m going to do that! No. You can do that too. I guess.

Instagram is fairly limited. It’s only available for iPhone users, and you can only use their filters and it seems to me that you can only access your feed on your phone. But like Twitter has shown us, creativity thrives within boundaries.

I’m having a lot of fun with Instagram. I think if there are more social sharing sites that let you create with their tools and check out what your friends are creating in real time, plus allow you to share your creations with your communities on other social channels, I say bring it on.

These are some of my Instagram pictures. Are you checking out Instagram? If so, what do you think? And hey—add me! I’m melissalion.

And given the volume of job seekers out there, it must feel like swimming upstream. Our recent job posting at CMD drew many candidates, but only two made the final cut for interviews at the agency. And of course, there can be only one who is hired.

These days, it seems like the planets have to align in order for both parties to find the right fit. Are you feeling that way, too?

This happens to be on my mind because Melissa Lion and I are going to speak to bloggers at Portland’s WordCamp in September about translating their skills into the workplace. It occurred to us that we shouldn’t work from our assumptions about job hunting in this environment. We need help from you—the bloggers and job hunters of Portland—so that we can directly address your very real concerns.

If you’re in job search mode, what’s weighing on your mind? We want your burning questions, especially the ones from bloggers.

• What did you really want to ask that hiring manager, but didn’t bring up for fear of objections?
• Have you been in a situation where you and the hiring manager had very different expectations?
• Have you had a good experience lately? What made it good?

Leave your question in the comments section here, or if you can fit it in 140 characters or less, we’ll take it on Twitter too. The really juicy questions we’ll take with us to the WordCamp discussion this fall. We’ll also let you know where to catch the live stream of our Wordcamp session if you’re not able to attend in person.

OK, let’s have it. We want to hear your top questions for hiring managers.

Melissa Lion: Will Condé Nast be able to pull up out of print media’s death spiral with a new revenue model? The New York Times article, Condé Nast Is Changing Its Blueprint, explores the possibility.

Sarah Biedak: Facebook has launched Facebook Questions, a Yahoo! Questions-esque service. This could be useful for seeking community feedback and research.

Darcie Meihoff: I have two favorites this week. Have you considered inviting a guest blogger to your blog? Get some helpful tips from HubsSpot’s recent post. I credit @DaveAtNorth for this one: a 14-page article from The New York Times, The Web Means The End of Forgetting, explores how your digital past is never forgotten and can haunt, or help you. Enlightening and a little frightening.

Erik Sebellin-Ross: New Forrester research shows that Foursquare doesn’t have a big enough user base to warrant its use in marketing efforts. Outside of major cities, sure . . .

Stefanie Week: Content is king, but only if it’s free. A new USC survey shows that zero percent of those polled would pay for Twitter. I think I’d have to agree.

Julie Yamamoto: Mashable reveals how to send an audio tweet.

Julie Ma: Having a case of writer’s block? Clarabela Media’s post, Nine Sites Every Freelance Writer Should Bookmark, will get anyone’s creative writing juices flowing.

This post goes out to all the technology marketers who, like me, are drowning in a seemingly bottomless bowl of acronym soup. You know who you are—diving into your DMs, composing your CTAs and issuing the occasional OMG.

Acronyms are formed from the initial elements in a phrase, and are pronounced or spelled out as new words. Thanks to the EM team at CMD, here’s a short list of strange and ponderous ones, as well as a few acronyms commonly used in business situations. Think of them as pepper in your next PPT—just don’t overdo it.

At the risk of looking like a n00b, here goes …

1337: elite software developer, abbreviated from code

AR: action requested

BOM: bale of materials

BTS: back to school

COB: close of business

CTA: call to action

EOD: end of day

EOW: end of week

KPI: key performance indicator

MBO: management by objectives, pronounced IM-BOH

KTHXBYE: OK, thank you, goodbye

OOBE: out-of-box experience, pronounced OO-BEE

RT: retweet

SMB: small and medium business

SME: subject-matter expert, with the unfortunate pronunciation of SMEE

TAM: total available market

VAR: value-added reseller

WW: work week

When in doubt, don’t strain yourself. Consult the handy Acronym Finder or the Urban Dictionary.

OK, did anyone have an aha moment? WDIM—what did I miss?

Next up, observations on onomatopoeia in #hashtags. (JK, folks.)

It’s the retweet that says you like what someone else has said. The personal reaction to a post that signals you’re listening. The random DM to a stranger to respond to a question or share a piece of information you think might be helpful. And when something bad happens, owning up to it and apologizing. Simple stuff, which unfortunately can also be pretty easy to overlook.

A recent example is one of our clients who had a not so great experience with a reporter. After stewing about what went wrong and owning up to how it could have gone better, they wondered whether it was worth reaching out to the reporter personally, to help clear the air. Even though it was a few days later, that’s exactly what they did. Yes, especially with the time that had gone by, it would have been easier to ignore it, move on, and take the chance that maybe the reporter would forget about it. But in the end, respect and courtesy won out, to the benefit of a stronger long-term relationship.

So many brands make major investments, coming up with massive cause-related campaigns. Certainly, those efforts are incredibly powerful, as well. But they don’t take the place of ongoing common courtesy and respect. After all, at the end of the day, isn’t that how we all want to be treated?

What favorite random acts of kindness have you seen, or experienced yourself, recently?

Well, that’s the only way I love it. I have a hobby of glancing at the clicks supremely influential users get, and I long ago came to see how important having a strategic growth strategy really is. After all, Twitter success isn’t about the number of followers you have, it’s how many of them interact with you. I’m shocked to see how some users, with follower counts in the hundreds of thousands or millions, get clicks in the hundreds, or low thousands. Their followers aren’t invested! What a waste of everyone’s time.
The shining paragon

On the other hand, here’s an example of an account with overwhelming influence—@cwgabriel, one of the daring duo from Penny-Arcade. Gabe announced on his website that he had created a Twitter account in February and hit 40,000 followers instantly. His bit.ly clicks routinely see tens of thousands of clicks (here’s just one example) and he is awash in @ replies. His audience adores him, and you can bet he isn’t wasting his time when he fires up Tweetdeck.

What’s heavier, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?

I’ve managed quite a few Twitter accounts in the past couple of years and I’m really starting to appreciate the value of an organically grown and cultivated account. The followers are genuinely interested in what you are sharing, and that makes chatting with them a pleasure. But for every account I’ve helped to carefully grow, there are many I’ve inherited that were built with an emphasis on growing followers, and damn the torpedoes. If you’re working this way…

1. Follow hundreds of people.
2. Wait a few days for them to follow you back, then un-follow everyone and start over.
3. ???
4. Profit!

…you’re doing it wrong.

OH MY GOD I DID IT WRONG! What do I do now?

Writers have a saying: “Sometimes you have to kill your babies.” I know you’ve spent a lot of time building up your following, but I’m afraid the only thing left to do is prune it back and do things properly. It will hurt…but we can make it through this! Follow these steps and you’ll be set straight:

1. Make a list of your followers who you’re certain are valid targets.
2. Go to Twitter Karma and log in with your Twitter credentials.
3. Wait for Twitter Karma to do its job. Yes, it takes a long time, depending on your number of followers, the time of day, and the whims of the gods. If it fails, start from scratch.
4. Checkmark the boxes of all the people you are sure aren’t valid targets, then DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR WORK.
5. Purge the list.

Aargh, okay I’m done—what now?

There are a ton of ways to grow your following legitimately. My favorite? Go to WeFollow, search for a tag that coincides with what you are trying to promote, and start following everyone on the list. The beauty of WeFollow is that people list themselves voluntarily—so you can bet, for example, anyone you find under Chefs cares about chefs, cooking, and food.

What about you?

What’s your preferred method of growing a legit Twitter following? Sound off in the comments!