Either your customers already use social networking tools or you have an untapped, online audience. So get out there and network on Facebook, MySpace, and any of the other popular destinations. But do it on your own terms with whatever feels right; everyone can see through a business trying to co-opt new media. Here’s how to make the most of one of the current favorites, Twitter.

Be yourself. Twitter lets you post blurbs of up to 140 characters; it’s good for a quick note about what you’re doing. But you can also use it to build buzz within a fanbase by referencing things that aren’t quite public. (Or let customers track your sales.) People will follow you on Twitter if they think you’ll reveal news first, and that audience is likely to blog about it somewhere.

Connect to Customers with Twitter – Business Center – PC World.

You’re in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others?

Imaging techniques help scientists look at the basis for principles of social psychology in the brain.

Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images.

A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the “oops area” becomes extra active, while the “reward area” slows down, making us think we are too different.

“We show that a deviation from the group opinion is regarded by the brain as a punishment,” said Vasily Klucharev, postdoctoral fellow at the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in the Netherlands and lead author of the study.

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At first blush, “ARTiculation” looks like a free-form poetry slam driven by some well-intentioned young performers. But don’t be fooled. “ARTiculation” is a sharp, smart, funny, and fearless evening of stories and comments told through spoken word and music, delivered by five powerhouse performers and one DJ, all of whom surprise and enchant with their unadorned honesty and lyric dexterity.

Joining words and music in power and light

GERMANY OFFERS OBAMA DEEPER PARTNERSHIP

By Frank-Walter Steinmeier

In a letter to Barack Obama, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier offers the US president-elect a “new dimension of
cooperation” in trans-Atlantic relations. He foresees the US and Europe standing shoulder to shoulder and says Germany will “step up its contribution” to help create a stable Iraq.