In the real world, you have different circles of friends. You have friends you talk crap with. You have friends you talk nerd with. You have friends you talk both nerd AND crap with.

In the real world, when you talk crap with your friends, you do so in your own little corner whlie you are hanging out. You don't generally have friends throwing shit while in your living room in the presence of your mom and dad or family. This way, in the normal world, your crap or your friend's crap conversations never make it into your parents' home.

So why does facebook insert your or even worse--your friends'--crap conversations into your parents' newsfeed?

I got a call about an hour ago from my Mom. A friend of mine had posted a profile picture. I commented on the picture, a pretty innocent one even if you ask my mom. My mom, who recently joined facebook, saw my comment on my friend's picture in her newsfeed. She proceeded to click on it. And then click next. And next. And BOOM. Before she knew it, she was staring at a picture of a half-naked American Idol winner, a former profile picture my friend had set.

Though there are many ways to slice this one, such as educating my mom to not confuse my own pictures with my friends, there is a very specific flaw here: facebook should not show your comments on your friends' posts to your other friends--unless they are mutual friends.

If Jim and I are friends, then a conversation between Jim and I has no place in my Mom's newsfeed who has zero context about the nature of my friendship with Jim. 

Apparently I am not the only one with this gripe. In fact, facebook allowed you to have this before removing it at some point in 2008-2009. There is a whole thread here with a whole lot of people concerned about it:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=69178204322&topic=12981

A recent response to my ad on craigslist:

Hi need help developing a iPhone app, at a good price because lately it got really easy to build application for iPhones with the apple xcoding program but I just dont have the time on my hands to do it, so I need someone that can build a iPhone game app similar to angry birds, it is a slingshot app, I have all the details let me know how much would it cost me to build a app like that

--

I average 2-3 similar emails a day for folks seeking facebook clones, twitter clones and now...angry birds clones. Initially I thought I'd explain to the prospective clients how much effort there really is in hope that perhaps we can agree on the scope and get some work done. Useless! I've found almost all people seeking clones of x sites to have very little idea about what they really want and very little to no budget. I guess the latter is GOOD for them because if they did have a budget, they'd probably waste it on something the delivers little value and no return.

...award goes to Vodaphone India:

Other in this series:

and

I went, I communicated, then what? Last month I was in a sales meeting. For an hour, I went back and forth with the potential client. We discussed small details and big. As the meeting came to a conclusion, I felt pretty good I had put our best foot forward by communicating exactly why we are a great deal for the client.

Just as I am about to get up to leave, I ask the potential client for the biggest reason keeping him from doing the deal right now. His response shocked me. Our entire product and pitch were meant to address the very objection the client still had. Even worse, there was no sign that the client simply did not believe me. All signs pointed at the client simply never "hearing" or "comprehending" my pitch(!).

I had completely flubbed the pitch! 

That day I learned three lessons I always remember when deliberately trying to communicate a message:

Lesson #1. "I think" can go take a hike! 
I thought I had communicated my intended message. I thought I said the right words and got the right signals from the client. I no longer try to think what the other party is thinking.

Lesson #2. People haven't understood you until they ECHO what you wanted them to understand. 
Now when I am done delivering a message, I make sure to ask for an echo. Let's say you have just met someone who has no real opinion of your company. And your job is to communicate that your company is completely focused on giving individual attention to clients unlike the big firms.

At the end of your pitch, how do you confirm the client heard and understood what you just said? You can throw a question like "what is your biggest concern about our company?". If his biggest concern is that your company may not be able to give one-on-one attention, you haven't communicated shit! At this point, you must STOP any attempts to have the client make a decision. And you must go back and once again communicate all the reasons the client should pick you...and then confirm that he understood those reasons as you intended.

Lesson #3. First you communicate, then you persuade
When you communicate, you are simply INFORMING a person of an idea in a matter of fact way. You have communicated successfully if the other person ACCURATELY understands your ideas as you intended him to. After a person accurately understands your proposition, you now have a shot at persuading him. 

All persuasion ends with someone making a decision in favor of or against another piece of communication. If that very communication is miscommunicated, you've shot yourself in the foot before the other party even has a chance to decide.

The share stats on Rihanna's latest track(What's my name) shows the following:

• 1M shares  on Facebook, 
• 12,500 shares on Twitter and 
• 1,375 shares on Google Buzz.

Proportions relative to facebook:

• The song was shared 1.25 times on twitter every 100 times it was shared on facebook
• The song was shared 0.14 times on google buzz for every 100 times it was shared on facebook

Let's assume Facebook's base valuation is 35B. Using the Rihanna Formula, we get the following valuations for twitter and google buzz:

• Twitter's worth: 40B x (1.25 / 100) = 500M
• Google Buzz' worth: 56M

umm..