Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter, with favorites

Here's just the shot you need to get yourself to the weekend: My weekly share of articles, tips and reads I found on Twitter, where I'm @dontgetcaught. This week, we're starting to see lots of year-end compilations, more data reports and the usual mix of crazy stuff. At the end of the post, you'll find details on two workshops you should be attending in early 2012:

• Get out the yardstick: No less a source than All Facebook blog thinks FB may be over- or under-estimating these 6 things, a unique take.
• Let's be careful out there: In the blogger-v.-journalist considerations, see this: A judge fined a blogger $2.5 million for not being a journo. 
• Gr8 staffing? This Edelman survey says more than half of our legislators are using Twitter. Tellingly,  it's a survey of lawmakers' staffers, who are probably doing the work. So why the fancy title? Then again: 3 Congressional aides were fired for tweeting not wisely but too well.
• Amen, brother: Despite what some newspaper policies say, retweets aren't endorsements and editors shouldn't inhibit them, says Steve Buttry. 
• Yours is on here, somewhere: Here are the most popular Twitter hashtags of 2011. Comes with a handy list of hot topics of the year, too.
• We love updates with fancy infographics, physics, and shoes: In this case, here's a nice update to my earlier post on digital consumers of science news. Scientific American reports on web traffic patterns of those who went to science-related web pages, and where they went next, from a study by URL-shortener Bitly. For example: Check physics page, then check fashion page. Seriously. I'm predicting the Jimmy Choo Boson next. 

You heard it here, first, last week. Now the details on my two forthcoming workshops:

• Your 5 best social media resolutions for 2012 is a lunch-and-learn session on January 10. For just $30, we'll feed you lunch, plus data on where audiences are headed, and give you tips and ideas to get more consistent, frequent and effective in your social posts. Registration closes January 4, so sign up now--seats are already filling for this session.
• Be an Expert on Working with Experts, a one-day workshop, returns on February 1. Designed for communicators, fundraisers and others who work with policy wonks, scientists, or any subject-matter expert, this workshop will help you understand their default behaviors and communications styles, then work with them to achieve your goals when you ask them to speak or face non-technical audiences like reporters, donors, legislators, or just the folks in marketing. Some participants have come in teams to ensure they reinforce what they learn. You'll get lots of insight, tactics and materials you can use again and again when coaching experts or just convincing them to participate in public outreach. Registration for this session is $300 if you register by January 11, or $350 per person thereafter, and registration closes on January 25.

On the "experts" workshop, lots of communicators ask: Should I go, or should I send my more junior colleague? Based on my own experience, I peg this workshop at both levels, so that there's plenty for the experienced communicator to reflect on--and a good start for those just starting out. This workshop is full of the thing I wish someone had told me before AND during my long career getting experts to communicate with public audiences...

Please share these workshops with your colleagues and I hope I'll get to see you at one or both sessions. Now: Have a weekend! And thanks, as always, for reading.

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