Maybe you have multiple accounts and want to consolidate. Maybe you want to practice good social-media citizenship and release a useful-but-unused username back into the wild. Maybe you witnessed a mob hit and have to go into witness protection. Stuff happens.

Whatever your situation, Twitter makes deleting an account a fairly painless process.

1. Go to Twitter.com and log in.
2. Click the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner and select Settings.
3. Under the Account tab, scroll down and click Deactivate My Account.

And that’s pretty much it. Your content will usually be removed from Twitter within minutes (although it can sometimes be a few days).

But it’s not gone forever…at least not yet. If you smack yourself in the forehead at some point in the following 30 days and wonder what you’ve done (ahem, Nicki Minaj), all you have to do is log back in. Your account is immediately reactivated.

Facebook is still fiddling with some of their new Timeline settings… most recently to the size of the profile picture – that tiny spot in the lower left of the cover photo.
Originally, the profile picture was 125 by 125 pixels. Now it’s 160 by 160. For best results, Facebook app developer SkandNet tells AllFacebook.com that users should size their graphics or photos to 180 by 180 and let Facebook automatically resize it to the magic 160 by 160.

SkandNet has constructed a handy template to show the most effective resolutions for Timeline images (click to expand). Remember: it’s never too late to tinker with your Timeline!

How do we organize all that information into meaningful categories for our online communities? That’s the eternal question of the content curator, hearty souls who sift through mountains of material to find those bits that are more relevant to their audiences.

Beth Kanter, a content curator for nonprofit organizations, defines content curation as a three-part process: Seek, Sense and Share.

“Finding the information or “seeking” is only one third of the task,” she says. “Making sense of the information is just as important. Sense making can be a simple as how you annotate the links your share, [or] writing a blog post using the links or [by] summarizing the key points in a presentation.”

“Finally, the sharing – is about giving the best nuggets of content to your audience in a format that they can easily digest and apply it.”

This is not always an easy process, but Rohit Bhargava of the Influential Marketing Blog argues, it is critical for the future of the Internet.

“The future of the social web will be driven by these content curators, who take it upon themselves to collect and share the best content online for others to consume and take on the role of citizen editors, publishing highly valuable compilations of content created by others,” he writes. “In time, these curators will bring more utility and order to the social web.”

Essentially an online bulletin board that allows users to “pin” photographs, videos, recipes and other bits of information to “pinboards,” Pinterest has actually been around since 2009. But only in recent months does it seem to have hit that critical mass to become the fastest-growing social media site…ever. In December alone, it logged more than 7 million unique visitors.

The site is beautiful: clean, pretty, easy to use. “It’s about finding something that’s interesting to you and sharing it,’’ said David Gerzof Richard, a professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College (and Pinterest user). “It’s stupid simple to use. You don’t have to write anything. It’s essentially eye candy.’’

Most of us can get behind anything that allows us to waste time looking at pretty things online, but as with any social media platform, the question for professionals is: how do I use it?

While nothing like a consensus has yet to emerge from marketers, there’s a strong feeling that those without a strong visual hook will have limited success.

“Pinterest is well known for having a demographic of 18-34-year-old, upper-income women from the Midwest – if that’s not who you sell to, then Pinterest may not be for you,’’ explains Darika Ahrens, interactive marketing analyst with Forrester Research. “I’d ask, can you afford to be playing with pretty pictures when there are other, more urgent, interactive marketing priorities?’’

A diverse group of non-retail businesses are certainly giving it a try. The University of Pennsylvania Career Services is taking a unique approach. The Paducah Bank in Kentucky recently started a board. So has the Salt Lake Tribune. Sweepstakes marketers are taking a hard look at the possibilities. Human resources professionals wonder how it might become a way to recruit new employees.

Even if Pinterest isn’t right for your business, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get in there yourself. MediaBistro argues that the site is a beautiful medium for personal branding, giving you a new way to promote your work, establish yourself as an authority, showcase your personality, and even share your resume.

So jump in and start pinning. If nothing else, you might find some great recipes.

The new format will give Facebook pages a whole new look, new tools, and new administrative controls. But there is no doubt that it’s going to take some getting used to for small businesses used to the relatively limited options of the traditional layouts.

There are so many new facets to Timeline that there’s no way to cover them all at one shot. Instead, we’ll look at the pros and cons of three formatting tools that most of us are likely to use in our social media marketing.

THE COVER IMAGE

The new Timeline pages are dominated by a 851 x 315 pixel image at the very top of the screen. “Because the image so dominates the design of the page,” says John Jantsch at Ducttapemarketing.com, “make sure you send a very strong visual image with this real estate.”

However, over at Convince & Convert, Jay Baer argues that this is “a burden, not an advance” for many business owners who might not have a stockpile of images to draw from or don’t have a business that lends itself to a strong visual.

And cover images are not without restrictions. Facebook terms of service prohibit using the space for promotional messages or “calls to action.”

THE PIN & THE STAR

With the new format, you’ll have the option of “pinning” any story or item to the top of the page for up to seven days. The “Pin to Top” option will give give business users a potentially powerful tool to keep short term campaigns front and center in visitor’s line of sight.

Starring an item doesn’t hold it at the top of the queue, but it does allow you to emphasize an item. The new Timeline pages lines up posts and updates across two columns; starring an item will make it span both columns, giving it a visual “pop.”

These are useful tools, but as Jantsch notes that “for small business, having to now not only figure out what to post to Facebook but also what to star and pin creates additional editorial calendar pressure and complexity that many are unprepared or under resourced to tackle.”

MILESTONES

Called “Life Events” on personal pages, Milestones allow business pages to highlight key moments or items dating back well before joining Facebook. In fact, you’ll be able to add items back to January 1, 1800.

To add a date, users will simply click a small icon at the top of the Milestones column and fill out information about dates, places and events. You can also upload photos or graphics sized to 845 x 403 pixels.

This particular tool may be more useful to larger “legacy” companies with long histories to promote. But clever small business marketers will probably be able to figure out some unique ways to use the Milestone function.

THE 30th ISN’T FAR AWAY…

The change happens on March 30 whether you’re ready or not, so it’s a good idea to start now. Facebook is allowing users to start formatting their Timeline page now, without immediately going live, so it’s a great time to get in there and play.

For some great examples of how companies that have already switched to Timeline are using cover images, pins, stars and milestones, click here.

With the arrival of brand pages, businesses have joined the head-scratching. Not only do social media managers have to figure out how to use it, they have to calculate its value. Some reports estimate that, while Google+ has an impressive number of registered users, the “average” user spends just three minutes per month on the site.

But the consensus in new media circles is that businesses should carve out their presence on Google+ and see where they can take it.

Josh Lloyd, chief technology officer of ShopVisible says in Forbes that businesses should be on Google+ “if for no other reason than its Google.”

He argues that “for businesses, especially businesses selling goods online, the smartest and easiest step you can take is to implement the magic “+1” button everywhere on your site and every product listed on your site.” This will move you up in search rankings and visibility, broaden your consumer appeal, and give you the potential to “upsell, cross-sell and just sell.”

At BusinessInsider.com, Amy Porterfield says that “Hangouts are one way Google+ could become indispensable; they provide a level of connection and support Facebook just doesn’t offer, setting your business and team up as a go-to source of information and value.”

Businesses could use these real-time web gatherings to hold live Q&A sessions, do product demos, training sessions, customer service help desks and other live events.

Social media guru Chris Brogan, who is so taken with Google+ that he wrote a book about it, argues that it’s also a great tool for collaboration and engagement. By creating a circle of coworkers or colleagues, for example, groups can easily share information, ideas, or hook up in Hangouts.

Less than a year in, it’s impossible to see where Google+ is going to go. It’s the Wild West of social media, a virtual land with few guidelines and fewer rules. Because of its integration with Google’s many other tools, it has the potential to develop into, in Chris Brogan’s words, the “communication backbone” for business. Those that jump in early will be best positioned to reap the rewards.

As always, this was a group effort: Alex Smith and Courtney Miller were instrumental in the technical and design aspects of the site, while Barbara Dozetos managed the overall project and Heather Michon assisted with content.

We hope you’ll check out the Crop site, and follow them on Twitter and Facebook. More importantly, we hope you’ll make the trip up to Stowe and sample what promises to be a premier dining experience.

Most Facebook posts have a line at the bottom, printed in blue, giving you the option to Like or Share the item.

When you click the “Like” button, it’s like giving it a thumb’s-up. The original poster and that person’s friends can see that you liked it, but that’s about it.

The “Share” button is much more powerful. It re-posts the message to your Wall, where all your Facebook friends can see it. It gives you the chance to say something about what you’re sharing. It’s a great opportunity to spread the word about important issues.

So, if you want to alert the maximum number of people, use the Share button!

With the single click of a button, you can get the word out to all your Facebook fans and friends…and they, in turn, can pass on the information to all their fans and friends.

So, how do you start this chain reaction?

Just share.

Say you’re surfing a site and an interesting item catches your eye. Look around the page to see if the site provides you with a share button.

For example, if you wanted to share this It’s My Life video from PatientChoices.org, all you have to do is click the little “Recommend” button above the video:

(This is how the button looks a little closer up)

And it will show up on your Facebook page like this:

Other pages use a “Like” button, rather than “Recommend”

(Clicking a Like button often pops up a box where you can add a message to the post before you post it. Or you can just click “Post to Facebook” without a message)

And voila, it appears on your page:

You can also share information you find on Facebook. Look at the bottom of a post, and you’ll see a Share button.

A box will pop up, giving you the option to add a comment before posting it to you Facebook wall:

This is what it looks like once it’s posted on your Wall:

So there you have it…the basics of sharing your interests with your friends on Facebook

Next: What’s the Difference Between Sharing and Liking A Post on Facebook?

“The WBON organizers had heard from their membership that they wanted a useful social media presentation. They didn’t want to do another 101,” says Dozetos. “So I built my presentation with an eye toward showing the attendees that the concepts behind a good social media presence are not rocket science.”

“I wanted them to see that they could take a step back and figure out what’s right and what wrong. I also wanted them to take away a sense of the real power in good social media marketing so they’d be inclined to take it seriously for their businesses.”

An audience of around 85 was on hand to discuss the pros and cons of the social media sites of three brave volunteers: Mary Catherine Jones from Voice-Over Vermont, Elizabeth Warren from Otter Creek Awnings and Paula Diaco from Sign-a-Rama Vermont.

“The best part was toward the end, when I could tell they were getting the message – some of the attendees started finishing my sentences for me,” she says. “It was really gratifying!”