New Year’s resolutions should apply to your online world — not just your offline life. Building on our earlier post, here are some more ways to apply traditional resolutions to your digital lifestyle.

Get organized. Do you find yourself overwhelmed by all these social media tools? Not sure how to keep up? You just need a little help getting organized. If you’re not already a user, start with FriendFeed — a very useful tool that aggregates all your web activity in one location. Plus, you can easily track what your contacts are up to. If you can’t keep up with your Twitter account, Brian Solis compiled a list of the top 10 Twitter tools. Our favorites? TweetDeck and TweetBeep. Even Facebook can help you be more organized and productive. Try out the groups feature or the calendar syncing tools.

Get a better job. Whether you’re actively searching for a new job or just want to strengthen your network, take advantage of the relationship-building aspects of social media. Make new contacts and get to know key executives at companies that interest you. Also, leverage your network. Who do your contacts know that might be able to help you? (For example, check out how Sarah Evans is actively using her online community to help a virtual friend find a new job.)

Reduce stress. There are two main ways to reduce your online anxiety. First, you just need to accept that you can’t control everything. Social media has opened the floodgates — giving anyone a platform to speak about you and your company. That’s just the way it is. Once you accept that, you’ll be able to develop a plan to engage and respond appropriately. Second, find ways to relieve your burden. For example, if you know that next month will be very busy — preventing you from blogging as often as you like — look for guest bloggers to contribute valuable content. Also, Chris Brogan suggests keeping a log of potential blog topics for those days when you can’t think of anything better. He even offers 100 ideas for interesting posts.

Volunteer. “Socia media for social good” is one of my new favorite phrases. Together, we can harness the power of the Intenet to really impact people’s lives — and you can help. Here at Costa DeVault, we’re donating time each month to help the Coalition for the Homeless incorporate social media into its marketing efforts. What can you do? For starters, help raise awareness by embedding your favorite charity’s Cause application on your Facebook page. Recruit others to join groups that you support. Participate in Blog Action Day. You can also donate money. Powered by the generosity of the Twitter community, Tweetsgiving raised more than $10,000 to build a classroom in Tanzania.

What are your New Year’s resolutions and how do they translate online?

So, around this time every year, people start coming up with their New Year’s resolutions. Eat healthier. Work less (or more). Be a better friend or spouse. Take a vacation. But, New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for our “offline” lives. In this always-on, always-connected world, how do resolutions translate online?

Lose weight. Surely, you can stand to “trim the fat” in Twitterville, on Facebook or even with your LinkedIn account. Unfollow or unfriend people who aren’t adding value to your world. Don’t follow someone just because they follow you … or because they’re an influencer and you think you have to. Follow people who offer insight, engage in conversation and are open to learning.

Stop smoking. By now you know smoking is bad for you — just like you know that auto-direct messaging a new Twitter followerer is bad. But, some of you still do it. Make it your mission to stop smoking (i.e., stop spamming) in 2009.

Spend quality time with family and friends. Online translation: Spend more time with the people that matter in your life — personally and professionally. For PR people, bloggers and journalists, there’s #journchat. Whatever your industry, get to know the movers and shakers and thought leaders. But, also develop relationships with the rising stars and “behind-the-scenes” players. Take advantage of tools that help you add a personal touch. For example, Peter Shankman once said he spends a couple minutes every morning wishing his Facebook contacts a “happy birthday.”  It may seem like a small gesture, but it shows that you care.

Be helpful. On LinkedIn, join groups, answer questions and recommend smart people. On Twitter, help people who need assistance. Take an “open source approach” and make 2009 the year to share your knowledge. Remember, sometimes you have to give to get.

That’s just the first four. Check back on Monday for four more New Year’s resolutions to help your online life. And, feel free to add your own in the comments.

As our company ventures into more work involving social media and online brands, we have been making an effort to read everything on the subject that we can get our hands on. And, yes, that includes books. Admittedly, it seemed ironic for me to be toting around a hardback to learn about the future of what is going on online.

“Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World” by Don Tapscott challenges many of the stereotypes about millennials (those currently between 11 and 31 years of age). What I was most interested in was confirming what our staff has come to believe is an inevitable shift in our industry: that the interest in social media as the latest tool in communications was not a passing trend, but rather the way it is and will be in the future.

The most compelling case for this position came from Tapscott’s analysis of population and the Baby Boom Generation. There are now 77 million Baby Boomers, born 1946 to 1964, making up 23 percent of the U.S. population. Net Geners, or millenials, consist of approximately 81 million people born from 1977 to 1997, and currently make up 27 percent of the US population. This echoing effect, as it has come to be described, represents the largest swell in population in our nation’s history, and it stands to reason that what interests them is going to impact the way we do everything.

Tapscott points out that where Boomers passively watched television in their free time, Net Geners have grown up with the Internet – interacting and changing content and incorporating online tools into their lives. His look into Net Geners’ interests and tendencies, further reinforces a very different set of expectations – not only of themselves, but also of the brands they chose to align with. Some companies have taken notice and incorporated this change into their online brands and tools that speak to their customers. Many have not and are hoping it’s just a fad. If they’re wrong – it is going to take them a long time to catch up.

TechCrunch today put journalists and other news organizations on notice with Death to the Embargo.

We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch. Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We’ll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we’ll just do whatever we feel like right after that. We may break an embargo by one minute or three days. We’ll choose at random.

How did we get to this point? TechCrunch deals with PR people who “email a story to us as many as 20 times, and call every TechCrunch writer on their cell phones repeatedly. If we say we won’t write a story (which is most of the time), things often turn nasty.”

Sounds to me like we have a communication problem. According to TechCrunch, some PR people have “morphed into vultures” who will do and say anything to get a story published. Meanwhile, journalists are caught in a “race to the bottom” – pressured by a “competitive marketplace and decreasing advertising sales.”

Yes, there are some bad PR people out there. (Journalists, you have to admit that you’re not all perfect either.) But, just like there are excellent journalists who take the time to research stories and investigate real news, there are also good PR practitioners who simply want to help their clients communicate better.

Journalists: Continue to work with the good PR people. The ones who respect your time, deadlines and limited resources. PR pros: Be considerate of journalists. Understand that they are being forced to do more with less.

Also, keep in mind, there are two sides to every story. Just check out #journchat – a weekly discussion between PR pros, bloggers and journalists. Every Monday, these very people – who TechCrunch would lead you to believe are totally at odds with each other – engage in a fast-paced dialogue about important communication issues. This Monday they covered pitching tips, advice about navigating new media and general commentary about journalism.

#Journchat is real communication designed to break barriers and eliminate frustrations. As we all face mounting pressure from clients, readers and advertisers, maybe the goal should be to figure out how to work together instead of just ignoring professional standards and common sense rules.

While Facebook — and, to some degree, MySpace – continue to be the most well-known social networks among non-early adopters, Twitter is actually the fastest growing network, according to a recent report by Nielsen. As a result, this communication tool is receiving massive amounts of press coverage – including articles in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. This increasingly important social network is becoming a place to conduct business – as discussed in yesterday’s “Twitter for Business” webinar from Duct Tape Marketing (@ducttape) and Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan).

The speakers suggested thinking of Twitter as the Chamber of Commerce for the online world. That makes sense, when you consider that participating in Twitter is similar to attending a networking event roughly the size of a large city – say Los Angeles, population 4 million. But, don’t be overwhelmed. Jumping in opens the door to “virtually” endless benefits and possibilities for your business. For example, if you want to know what your online reputation is, chances are people are tweeting about you. Have a question you need answered ASAP? Ask your followers to get real time answers.

But, like any community, there are “cultural rules” that must be followed. As Chris Brogan put it, Twitter is similar to “offline” relationships – requiring commitment and consistency. He suggested Twitterers adhere to these three guidelines:

1. Don’t be rude
2. Don’t be boring
3. You have to give to get.

As the speakers explained, social media – including Twitter – is a key component to the future of business development. And that’s something we can all use a little more of in this economy.

Did you know the average worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year? Think of the trees we’re killing just so people can print e-mails (yes, people still do that) and massive PowerPoint presentations (sadly, everyone does not follow the 10/20/30 rule yet.)

We need a paper cut. (No, not the painful kind. The environmental kind.)

Here at Costa DeVault, we were amazed by that staggering number. So, we’re launching our own test to see if each person really uses approximately 190 pieces of paper a week. Starting today, our PR department is tracking every sheet of paper we use. Printer paper. Notepads. Envelopes. Notecards. Post-its. (That’s the one that will send us over the top. For these purposes, six post-its equal one full size page.) We’ll give consumption updates here and on Twitter.

How much paper do you use each week? Feel free to join us in this paper challenge. Leave your updates in the comments or tweet us your paper usage.

Twitter-aholics — and even Twitter newbies — are probably familiar with Guy Kawasaki. After all, he has more than 32,000 followers. Today Guy found himself in the middle of a controversy about how to appropriately use Twitter.

In case you’re not familiar with Guy and his projects, he is an original Apple guru turned venture capitalist. One of his many projects is Alltop, billed as an online magazine rack complete with “all the top stories.” (Get it? Alltop?)

Guy uses Twitter as a marketing tool — not an outlet to vent about traffic jams or the long line at Starbucks. I personally experienced his Twitter marketing twice yesterday. I tweeted about the fact that Alltop might be my new favorite online tool, and within minutes, Alltop’s chief evangelist responded back to me. Then, just a few hours later, I received a direct message from Guy himself showing me how to tweet directly from Alltop when I find something that might interest others.

Today, a blogger complained about the fact that Guy and Alltop use Twitter as marketing tools — sparking quite the online controversy … and raising an interesting question. How should companies use social media tools to engage customers? Businesses are forced to walk a fine line between spamming customers and actually engaging them. Some tips:

• Identify Twitter goals. Do you want to raise awareness about an issue? Network with people in your field? Push a product or service? Figure out what you want to do before trying to do too much.
• Remember that Twitter is a communication tool. The Twitter universe seems to be accepting of corporate interaction — especially when the company engages in real dialogue with followers. (See Zappos and Whole Foods for examples.) If you’re not communicating — and just advertising – you’ll quickly become known as a spammer. People will ignore you.
• Listen, listen, listen. Listen to what other people are saying about you, your company and related issues. Understand their perspective before trying to insert yourself into the dialogue.

Each user needs to set their own “rules” to effectively use Twitter.  Just remember, it’s a relatively new tool. There isn’t a “one size fits all” way to use it. The good thing is that it’s a community — and a rapidly growing one, at that. So, if people don’t like how you’re using it, odds are they’ll let you know. If you’re listening, you can adjust. Check Alltop’s Twitter page.

How do you use Twitter?