That’s where Facebook’s Lists become very helpful. If you group similar people together in a list, you can easily view news from only those sources, providing better context, more quickly, with more of the posts you actually want to see.

First, let’s create a list. Click “Friends” from the left column on the page. Then, near the top right corner of the main column you’ll see the button “Create A List.”

The first step is to give your list a name.

Next, pick the people you want to include in this list. For my “Cincy Network” group, I’m picking all the local people I’ve met at networking events. But you can also pick relevant pages, so in this case, I’m checking a few feeds that will keep me up to date on what’s happening in town.

Now when you want to check your feed for only that group, just click the “Friends” link in the left column, and the name of the group just below it. You’ll see a news feed you can quickly scan, knowing the context for everyone who appears on it.

Creating Friend Lists has another benefit as well. Say your friends from high school aren’t interested in industry-related links you’ll post for everybody else, or maybe you’d like to share some personal pictures with only your family and closest friends.

As you’re filling in a post on your wall, click the privacy pulldown menu (the padlock) and select “Custom.”

The next menu asks who should see the post. Select “Specific People.”

Start typing the name of your group, and a selectable group name should appear below the box. Save this setting, and your post will only go to members of your Friend List.

Like many things in Facebook, using Friend Lists can be a little cumbersome. It would be nice if it were easier to use. For example, the names of your Lists could show up in the privacy pulldown menu to save two steps. But once you get used to it, you can get more out of your Facebook experience by categorizing your connections.

Getting the Like Button Code

To put the Like button in my sidebar. I took a screenshot and measured it to find out my theme has a sidebar that’s 250 pixels wide.

First, I visited the Facebook Like Button page to get the code. I put my blog’s main URL in the box, along with a width of 250. You can set a few other options such as whether or not to include pictures and which of the 6 available fonts you’d like to use.

Clicking the “Get Code” button brings up two text boxes with code to insert the Like button on your site.

The first box is an iframe. It’s a little simpler, in that you only need to insert one bit of code instead of two. But it’s worth the extra step to get the XFMBL code in the second box. This will do a better job of scaling the box vertically to match how much content is actually in it. The iframe code can leave a big gaping hole in your sidebar if you don’t have a long list of fans.

Using the Like Box Instead

If your blog already has a Facebook Page, people who “Like” your blog can automatically be added there in the way that used to be called “fans.” So they’ll get updates from your Facebook Page, and your existing fans will show up immediately in the box.

In that case, you want the Like Box. Adding the Like Box is almost exactly like adding the like button, but it has a few more options. Just go to the Like Box page to get the code instead of the Like Button page above. In the end, this is what I decided to do, so that’s what you’ll see in my current sidebar.

Putting It In Place

Next, it’s a trip to the widgets page. This is located within your blog at wp-admin/widgets.php and can be found in the side navigation under “Appearance.” Drag the “Text” widget from the “Available Widgets” over to the spot on the Sidebar where you want it to appear. A box will pop open for the text you want included. Choose a name for the box and paste in the code from Facebook.

And Finally…

Now there’s just one step left. In order for the XFMBL code to work, you need to pull Facebook’s javascript onto your pages. You do this by adding a big chunk of code known as the Facebook JavaScript SDK. (Click that link to get the code).

The javascript command may take some time to load, so I recommend putting it in the footer of your site. That way the rest of your page will load without waiting for the Facebook SDK. To edit your blog’s footer file, go to the Editor under “Appearance.” ( /wp-admin/theme-editor.php ). From there, select the Footer (footer.php) from your theme files.

Now paste the Facebook JavaScript SDK code into your footer just before the tag, so it will be the last thing to load on every page.

Just hit the “Update” button to save the changes to the footer, and you should now see the Like button showing up on your blog’s sidebar!

Did you know it’s easy to remove these updates from your timeline, without disconnecting from your friends? Just find one of these posts and click the “Hide” link that appears on the right when you mouse over it.

Facebook will then ask you if you want to hide the person or the application. Click the name of the game.

Success! You’ll now no longer see updates on the games your friends are playing on Facebook, and you’ll see more links, photos and status updates instead.

Update: It gets even better. (Thanks to techpp.com) Not only can you keep games and other apps out of your Live Feed, you can also exclude them from your Notifications. When a notification appears in the lower right of your screen, mouse over the upper right corner of the item to see the “X” appear. Click that, and you’ll be invited to hide all notifications from that application.

Google’s Next Wave in Internet Communications

Google Wave is a highly collaborative mix of email, shared documents, instant messaging and more, with elements of blogging, social media, photo sharing, project management and issue tracking all thrown in.

The technical aspects of this new tool are very impressive. Not only has Google built its own interface for Wave, but they are releasing an extensive open API that allows developers to access Wave as a communication protocol within their own web-based applications.

If you’ve ever shared a document via Google Docs or a WIki, you’ll immediately grasp the workflow. But Wave starts as casually as an email. It then becomes easy to branch off into a multi-threaded conversation all bound together by the glue of the wave. Clicking individual paragraphs allows you to respond to only that point. Adding new users gives them access to the entire conversation.

Taming the Document History

Such a dynamic framework could easily become confusing, as conversations outgrow their original intent. Mike Elgan at Computerworld seems ready to dismiss the entire project for that reason.

After bouncing stuff back and forth, and after people comment on various parts of the thread, adding commentary at the top, bottom and middle of the original message, clarity about what’s old, new, moot or relevant seems unlikely.

Addressing that concern is where Google created one of the product’s most innovative features. By using the “Playback” function, users can see the entire history of the wave, step by step. Playback can show the progress of the entire conversation, or can be filtered to show only actions of a selected type or by selected users. If you’ve ever been added to an email thread after more than two people have chimed in, it’s not hard to imagine how much more quickly you’d be caught up if playback were available. It’s also a big step towards clarity when compared to most wikis’ “version history.”

Extending Wave’s Reach

The open, extensible nature of Wave means photos or text you attach there can be automatically published to your blog, and updates in either place are immediately reflected on the other. That immediacy translates when collaborating with others, too. As you make edits or type new information into a wave, anyone else who is sharing that document at the same time can see you typing even before you hit enter, for a high-speed workflow similar to instant messaging.

The product is still in its infancy, and won’t be released to the public for some time. Still, there’s considerable enthusiasm about the developer preview. TechCrunch gave a positively glowing review of its vision and ambition.

Opening Web 2.0 to Customers, Partners, and Even Machines

Without releasing Wave into the wild, it’s difficult to predict what forms it will take once real users begin to work with it. The demo video gives an excellent picture of the kind of interaction that’s possible between human users. But the potential for a revolutionary transformation of workflow comes in the ability to let non-human applications and processes join the conversation. Dion Hinchcliffe at ZDNet imagines Wave giving IT systems like personnel, customer and resource management a seat at the Web 2.0 table:

Literally while participants are busy typing and collaborating, a wave can be receiving support from back-end systems such as HRM, CRM, ERP, and so on to provide data, context, and other just-in-time support. Many businesses could benefit enormously from seamless business data integration such as customers, orders, and so on, never mind the deeper possibilities of contextual business processes leveraged directly in the collaborative activities of workers.

A Perfect Fit with Google’s Long Term Strategy

From a strategic standpoint, this gives Google the potential to claim an entirely new space in internet information sharing. Compared to search, maps and email, where they took existing systems and improved upon them, Wave represents an entirely new collaborative model.

Jordan Golson at Salon accuses Google of climbing to “new heights of arrogance” in what he sees as purely a vanity project.

I’m sure Mr. Golson thinks his pragmatic view is a better way to do business. But he ignores Wave’s contribution to Google’s overall goal to own all the information on the internet, and doesn’t see how powerfully Wave could contribute to that effort. Boiling Wave down to its potential for immediate revenue generation is short-sighted at best.

By providing free services like Gmail, Maps, Docs, Analytics and Earth, Google extends their reach into the way people think about Google’s integration into the internet. What’s more, they encourage users to load their servers with information which those users are then dependent upon Google to retrieve.

In each of these projects, Google opens new doorways for users to interact with information on the internet. And in each case, Google holds the keys to the door.

When that is the overarching goal, a few salaried workers’ time spent on a project like Wave is a minor expense. Finding a revenue model to make each project self-supporting is the kind of short-term business model that most other companies would use. That approach would stifle innovation and detract from the long term focus. That’s the reason most other companies are not Google.

Learn More About Google Wave

To learn more about Google Wave, the video of the Google i/o presentation is a great place to start. There’s also an excellent collection of articles at Mashable.

What do you think about Wave? Is this a tool you’re excited about trying? Do you think your answer reflects how entrenched you are in traditional email, or how comfortable you are with multiple points of presence, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others? I’d love to get your comments below.

A lot of it is really good. It’s exhilarating how immersive and potent these tools are for reaching out to one another. That excitement has inspired some very smart and talented people to give away tomes of valuable wisdom.

But where the best advice can work wonders for your company’s PR, Marketing or Customer Service, there are no real rules for individuals. Unfortunately, this leaves the door wide open for half-baked and even mean-spirited “experts” who try to bully others into following their own invented code of conduct.

One of the most famous cases is the “Cisco fatty.” If you’re not familiar with the story, Connor Riley (@theconnor) interviewed for an internship at Cisco, and upon receiving an offer tweeted:

She quickly got a nasty response from @timmylevad at Cisco. And her tweet was widely publicized as an example of abject stupidity and naiveté concerning social media.

Except she hadn’t even applied for the job, and it turned out to be outside her professional field. Her tweet was meant as an inside joke to her very small audience of followers who already knew she’d be turning it down. It’s easy to see how a Cisco employee would not be amused, but @timmylevad unleashed a public castigation in an effort to enforce his own rules on how Twitter should be used.

Ms. Riley herself makes a particularly cogent observation about how someone with 45 followers, all of whom she knows in real life, may treat Twitter differently than someone with over 500.

If that’s the way TIm Levad wants to maintain his Twitter feed, that’s great for him. Depending on his goals for the platform, it may be exactly right. What I’d like to see quashed is the idea that anyone has the authority to tell anyone else what their approach should be, particularly if the rules they are trying to impose are an effort to move people towards more sanitized and less human communication.

Jeffrey Zeldman is a legendary designer, blogger and independent publisher. His work has long been a guidepost for standards-compliant design, and his website A List Apart is a voluminously rich resource for anyone who makes websites. Due to his well-deserved internet fame, nearly 21,000 people follow @zeldman on Twitter.

Recently, Zeldman was scolded by a Twitter follower who expected more “value” from his Twitter stream. In this critic’s farewell email, he accuses Zeldman of letting his “ego take over,” because he dares to tell jokes and give his reaction to movies he’s seen.

In response, Zeldman rightly refers to A List Apart, his blog, and his free downloadable books where the disappointed unfollower can get the “value” he seeks. But he vehemently rejects the “mass-media channel” approach to Twitter. Jeffrey Zeldman is a real person, who has every right to use Twitter to connect with people and build relationships as a human being, and not just as a name-brand for web standards.

All the best advice for companies in the social media sphere seem to point toward more human communication and away from monolithic press release broadcasts. To push individuals in the opposite direction runs counter to the best of what social media has to offer.

That brought back fond memories from bygone days. I could almost smell the D-76 soaking Tri-X in a mysterious bath, while I enjoyed the darkness and the isolation, giving birth to my creative vision.

The truth is, I never had much interest in photography before college. My dad was a professional photographer, but it wasn’t until I saw the job posting for the Publicity Office at Adrian College that I ever asked him to show me how it was done.

We went through two rolls, from shooting to processing to printing in his basement darkroom. I sent in a few prints and got the job. So I headed off to freshman year armed with minimal experience and my dad’s aging Mamiya.

Soon I graduated from PR’s tiny closet in the history building to the full size darkroom of the college newspaper, where I’d push 400 speed film to 1600, bringing out that week’s basketball games and swim meets in glorious grainy detail. The halftone machine was probably bigger than my dorm room, with a loud vacuum pump to hold the wax-resist paper where my shots would be reproduced in thousands of tiny dots.

Several years later, I aim a point and shoot camera at my kids without a thought about aperture or shutter speed. Not only is there no film to process, but my pictures automatically appear on my hard drive through the magic of an Eye-Fi card. It’s a very different world.

This nostalgic reverie actually has a point to it.

That was the beginning for me of some guiding principles I’ve carried with me through my whole career. Something like this:

1. Identify opportunities where not a lot of people have the requisite skill.
2. Learn new skills quickly, and don’t worry about perfecting them before you get started.
3. Keep moving forward, learn from your failures but don’t be afraid of them.
4. When better methods and techniques come along, don’t cling to your old skill set just because you put time into developing it. Embrace the new.

When desktop publishing replaced light tables and X-Acto kinves, I was ready to go along for the ride. When the web started gaining popularity in 1995, I got a Macintosh Performa and a “Teach Yourself HTML in a Week” book.

It took me until Dreamweaver 3.0 to make the leap into WYSIWYG editors, but then i didn’t look back and jumped with both feet into Flash development.

Now, I’ll still hand-code some html once in a while. I’ll put together a swf when it’s the best way to accomplish something. But I’m not married to those techniques. If there’s a faster, easier way to do something, I’m ready to learn.

This is why I feel at home in internet marketing, online development, and social media. The landscape is always shifting. This is an industry that rewards flexibility, adaptability, and a passion for learning. The most successful people in this sphere are those who move quickly, learn quickly, and waste no tears on the skills and techniques they leave behind.

If you ever use flowcharts, org charts, wireframes, or similar diagrams to communicate your ideas, LovelyCharts makes it much less tedious to put those documents together. If, like me, you’ve ever used Illustrator, Fireworks, or (God help me) Quark to draw a diagram or flowchart, this is for you.

Of course there are powerful and perhaps even more flexible charting applications out there. But if you don’t use them often enough to justify their cost or learning curve, then this web-based tool is the answer.

A free account should do almost everything you need to create an occasional flowchart or diagram. You can save the result as an image file to use however you like. Premium accounts add extra features like version history and collaborative tools.

I don’t know if I’d say there are any secrets contained in the article, but it is a well written common sense look at building relationships with your customers using Web 2.0. 

Here are the main points they make:

1) Don’t just talk at consumers– work with them.

Web 2.0 is about transcending the one-way flow of information. A company blog may put a human face on the brand, but it doesn’t engage the consumer in the same way that a real community can. Encouraging your customers to talk to each other about your products is a fast, cheap and honest source of feedback that goes beyond what a survey or focus group can provide.

2) Give consumers a reason to participate

Some companies provide actual rewards in cash or products, but often the community itself is sufficient incentive. The key is to make it useful, well-moderated and see that the best contributors are recognized for their efforts.

3) Join the conversation outside your site

Consumers will talk about  your brand and your products on other sites. Many successful companies monitor Digg, Del.icio.us and individual blogs for mentions of their products, and seek to engage users in conversations about their experiences and opinions. 

4) Resist the temptation to sell sell sell

Members of online communities participate with the expectation that their ideas and opinions will be heard, not to become recipients of a one-way sales pitch. Through their participation, they’ll affirm your brand’s value better than you could anyway.

5) Don’t try to control it

Communities won’t always speak of you the way you want them to, but if you listen, you’ll find valuable feedback. Try to shut down negative opinions or dissent and you’ll shut down the entire community.

The article seems short on recommendations for how to proceed with this information. They encourage organizations to find employees who have a strong background in social networking in addition to traditional marketing expertise. They also encourage experimentation since no one solution works for every company.

If you’re trying to steer your company into building relationships with your customers using social media, this article may provide a useful lever for discussions with management decision-makers. There may be more insightful articles on the topic, but the fact that this one appears in the WSJ gives its citation instant credibility in the board room. Their recommendations are mostly right on track, and the case examples may help your upper managers to visualize how it may work for your customers.

Read the whole article (free for a limited time) at WSJ.com