By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist. Google + Circles has finally provided sharing in the way that most people want. Even Google may not realize the avalanche of changes it has started, though. Google’s implementation of Circles will usher in  a new paradigm for sharing: one where we no longer focus on where we want to share but instead focus on who we want to share with. The current state. Right now, when you share content you pick the network you want to share to. You click a Tweet or Retweet button to share to Twitter, click a Facebook Like, etc. to share across multiple sites.  MORE >>

How do you know if you’re a social media expert? Unlike Google AdWords, there isn’t any certification for social media. There’s not a test to take that’ll tell you how good you are. There’s a low barrier to entry. Create a free account and voila!, you’re on social media (on a side note, that’s why there’s a lot of costly mistakes made). So we thought we’d compile the top ten reasons you know you’re a social media expert: You have more than 6 social profiles – Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Flickr, FourSquare. You subscribe to Mashable. You have a blog. MORE >>

Every blogger wants more traffic. How to get it? The key is a balanced strategy of search engine optimization (SEO), social media, syndication and guest posting. So where does blog traffic come from, and how does this change over time? Looking at data from the Webbiquity blog, several trends are apparent. This B2B blog isn’t necessarily representative of all blogs of course, but the trends likely aren’t much different for many business blogs. Six conclusions that can be drawn from this graph: It takes time to build a blog audience. Patience is a virtue, and persistence is rewarded. MORE >>

The other day I read a good post in AdAge (written by Michael Scissons) on some really important insights that he and his firm found after digging deep into Facebook data. One of those insights in particular struck me: Local pages drive 36% better results. “…the data shows that local Facebook pages perform 36% better than global ones. Success is driven by great organizational empowerment at the local level, relevant local content, local media support and presentation in a tone of voice relevant to the targeted local market.&#. with a solid strategy of course!]. MORE >>

Rebecca Denison is an outstanding, bright young professional and one of my favorite Twitter friends. She also happens to take exception with some of my musings on Klout and influence.  You know … I STILL think she’s bright! In the spirit of balanced debate I encouraged her to write a guest post.  Here we go … Recently Mark wrote about the ins and outs of Klout , complete with some great insights from one of the co-founders.  It was a great look at the score and all of the work that goes into it. Klout measures tweets, retweets, popularity and the like. Klout measures numbers. MORE >>