A clever headline every now and then is nice, but if you look at your blog and find that every post’s headline is nothing more than a vague pop culture reference and/or shout-out to an inside joke, it is a disservice to your readers.

Your headline is especially important if you are only sharing a partial snippet of each post in your RSS feed; if I subscribe to your post and can’t tell what it’s about from the feed headline, why would I click on it? I probably won’t. Same goes for the short teaser to the links you’re sharing on Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook.

I’m not advocating “link baiting.” I’m tired of seeing cute/funny/pithy headlines that in no way explain to what the heck it is people expect me to click on. Pointless blog headlines are an epidemic these days; I’m not clicking on those posts…and I’m unsubscribing from those feeds. Read More…

There’s a whole lotta Twitter and Facebook phishing going on and I’m freaked the heck out that my peeps will get hooked.  Some of them already have. I’m worried; is my enthusiastic go forth and micro-blog! approach part of the problem?

When used correctly – communications tools like Facebook, Twitter,  blogs and RSS feeds can make you more productive and just plain better at your job.

But just like any good relationship, there should always be a little mystery between you and the interwebs.

DATA:  Do not give your entire self over to the Facebook Info tab, your blog or a Twitter account. It’s great for the internet to know your profession, favorite music, thoughts and opinions – but don’t hang your home phone number, home address or the year of your birth out there for the whole world to see. Every time I see someone who has literally filled out every. single. line. on their Facebook profile I cry a little.

PASSWORDS: As for the web’s little friends — those ridiculous Facebook applications and “helpful” Twitter tools — they certainly don’t need access to your passwords. It’s not that I don’t want to join you on the Oregon Trail or in the Auburn wave, it’s that I don’t want my account hacked.

PHOTOS: And Lord knows the web can’t be trusted with those sketchy digital photos of you and your friends in Vegas. You already know how I feel about that one.

What I’m trying to say is get comfortable with social media, but don’t sleep with it. If you give it all away, you’ve just empowered some moron to take advantage of your trust.

Just this morning a friend forwarded me an email he’d received touting a Twitter service scam:

…In fact, once you start taking advantage of Twitter.com using the proper tools and techniques you might be pleasantly surprised by the number of paying clients that you will have from Twitter as well as the people that they refer to you…I am prepared to offer you our service for only $199 a month and you get a full 30 days to try out our service to see just how great it is…

Keep in mind: if it sounds too good to be true, it’s spam.

I’m sure this dude will get a few takers, especially among folks who are newbies or are intimidated by social networking sites.  He’ll either run off with someone’s money, or he’ll just spam the crap out of folks until someone figures him out. Either way, he’s a crappy malicious person.

Feel the same way about this guy and the 20 batrillion idiots like him who will bait folks to porn or some get-rich-quick scam:

Don’t get me wrong — I’m still a technology advocate.

Should you Twitter? Absolutely! Should you Facebook? Indeed! Share, connect, engage and voice your opinions online – but proceed with caution and as a vigilant protector of your personal data.

As much as I love seeing folks get comfy with technology – I loath the thought of some jerk taking advantage of it. It’s a tangled web out there, folks. Please be careful.

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Oh, Google Analytics! Because of you, Feedburner and (the new love of my life) StatZen, I am able to obsess over site traffic, referrers, clicks, attention, subcribers and (rejoice!) how folks actually find FlackRabbit!

There are the obvious ways people get here. Like yesterday, when KamiChat re-tweeted my Twitter about her post. Within an hour or two, lots of new and fabulous eyeballs and RSS subscribers landed here (Thanks, sister! Welcome new folks!)

And then there is the way of the Google Keyword.

Here’s my favorite one:

Sure, some folks find FlackRabbit by Googling flack, public relations, Twitter is Useless and the like. But this guy took the road less traveled by. And you know what  they say about that. Welcome, kind Google searcher!

Second keyword runner up is:

"Margie Newman blog pictures Nashville"

No, this one isn’t funny at all, but it is interesting. No worries, Googler. You may find the great and powerful Picalicious here. But hurry! Only 29 days left to soak in the picture-a-day goodness.

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Geek bloggers often ask what productivity tools readers can’t live without. Here are mine:

1.iPhone – I don’t really have to explain this one, do I? The iPhone is the wind beneath my itty bitty wings.

2. GooToDo.com – Next to my iPhone, this electronic ToDo list is the tech love of my life. Add and check off a task from any where; forward it an email and it will create a task for you; set reoccurring ToDo’s like “write column” or “pay mortgage” or “blog.” I seriously would lose my mind without it AND it saves paper.

3. PageOnce.com – PageOnce bills itself as your Personal Productivity Assistant. It ain’t lie’n. PageOnce is a secure, one stop shop for all of your online financial, travel, utility and social accounts. You can even put the PageOnce app on your iPhone (and Blackberry, if you must) for instant, password protected access to all of your accounts.

4. Google Reader – I’ve got everything from client Google Alerts to local news to Perez Hilton in my Google Reader. I can get all of my news, blogs, Facebook updates, etc all in one place. Can’t beat it.

5. Social Networking Sites - Believe it or not, I get a great deal of research done via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. And since my Twitter account updates my Facebook status, I look a lot more engaged in that social networking tool than I actually am.  Call them time wasters if you like. I can honestly say these communication tools make me better at my job.

What are your top five?

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