Recently my friend Mike Scott sent me a question for his One Question Many Answers Series inquiring as to my professional goals for the next 5 years.

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Having read all the answers I came to 3 major conclusions.

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1.  I can’t take directions and didn’t actually answer all parts of the question he asked. 

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2.  I also apparently cannot spell the word “instructor”.

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3.  Almost every one of the health and fitness professionals listed had some aspirations towards learning more.  I think this point underscores what separates those who end up successful from those who are not.  Well…that…and being a ninja.

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Check out all the great answers HERE.

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Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on using Facebook for networking with fitness professionals or other enthusiasts.  Today I just want to touch the other most popular social media tool; Twitter.  While I’m not as much a fan of Twitter as I am of Facebook, I still find it great for connecting with other people you may never had met through more conventional networking.  In fact, I credit Twitter for helping me find a lot of great blogs I would otherwise never have seen.

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Here are a few thoughts regarding how to handle yourself on Twitter.

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1.  Make contact.

Along the same lines as yesterday’s post about Facebook, if you add someone, let them know who you are, where you’re from, or why you’re following them.  If someone is trying to decide whether to follow you back they might want to know if you’re just trying to jack up your number of followers by following random people.  By showing them you know who they are they are more apt to follow you back.

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2.  Don’t flood the feed.

Once someone has decided to follow you the last thing they want is to see 50 posts from you in a row.  I know a lot of people only log on once per day, but try not to drop all of your tweets at once.  If you flood someone’s screen with your posts you’re on the fast track to getting deleted.

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3.  Easy on the self promotion.

While Twitter is most certainly more of a business tool than Facebook, people don’t want to see steady links about you selling yourself, your bootcamp, and your products.  Talk about yourself and share information so people can feel connected to your personality as well.  I feel that guys like Brad Pilon and Martin Berkhan do this really well.  Maybe it is an intermittent fasting thing?

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4.  Don’t spam my message folder.

When you add some people they send you a scripted private message offering you their services or telling you to keep watching for great stuff on their feed.  Don’t be that person.  It may work for some, but I’ll delete you faster than you can blink.

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5.  Be selective on your recommendations.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it is customary for many people on Fridays to use the tag #FF to suggest to their followers the people on their list that are most worth checking out.  Unfortunately, some people don’t know how to the be least bit selective and tell you to follow everyone under the sun.  Not only does it flood the feed (which is a pain in the ass) it doesn’t help your followers to determine who is worth following and who isn’t.

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If you only have a few people to recommend, list those.  If you have a lot of people I’ve found it sometimes helps to only recommend those who have put out the best content in the past week.  The same goes for “lists”.  Make sure to discriminate.  Of course, your recommendations should always include me because I am awesome.  Just kidding.  Not really though. 

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6.  Limit your follows.

If you follow me and I notice you are following thousands of people I am not going to follow you back.  I’ll assume you’re just using Twitter for self promotion and I won’t bother with you.  This is where the point above about introductions is relevant.  If you happen to follow a lot of people, but introduce yourself personally you’re more likely to get followed back.

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7.  Use real words.

I know that Twitter has a 140 character limit, but try to limit sentences like “Ur so gr8.  I luv ur blog”.  I hate them!  It makes you sound like a 6th grade moron. 

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8.  Include a picture.

As with Facebook, if you want people to connect with you, make sure you have a picture so people can put a name to your face.  Set your profile up so that your face shows up with your tweets.

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9.  Share my stuff.

Yes, this is a rule too.  Please share and retweet my posts and articles.  Okay…it isn’t a rule.  But I’ll cry if you don’t.  Seriously.

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Those are my rules.  Yes, I stopped at nine.  So here’s what to do.  Follow me on Twitter.  Add me on Facebook (if you already haven’t).  Then let me know if I’ve forgotten any rules in the comments section below.

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PS: There is a “list” area on Twitter where you can add those you think others should follow.  If you add me I’ll send you a million dollars.  Okay…not a million…not even one really…but I will like it.  A lot.

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Those who know me well know that I’m a social media junkie.  I know that Facebook is a complete productivity drain, but I love it.  I enjoy recieving updates on how my friends and colleagues are doing, watching pointless funny videos,  seeing new articles, reading blog posts, and dropping mom jokes on my best friends’ status updates.

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That said, I feel that there are some general ettiquette rules that fitness professionals and enthusiasts need to follow when using Facebook to stay connected.  Below are just a few suggestions that you might consider.

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1.  Introduce Yourself

Many fitness people like to connect with other like-minded individuals to learn, stay in touch, or even get noticed by others in the industry.  If this is you, then you should consider that most others are as busy as you are and don’t have time to sift through your profile and friend list to find out who you are.  This can be a quick way to get declined, or more likely, you’ll end up being one of the anonymous faces that someone will pass by on their news feed.

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Next time you click the link to add yourself as a friend take note that there is a link to add a message to your request.  Make sure you do this if you want to connect with someone…or at least post a brief intro on their wall.  If you have nothing specific to say just let them know how you came across their name or that you’re a fan of their work.  Compliments go a long way.  If you have something in common (i.e., you are both totally awesome) let them know that too.

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2.  Don’t send mass group requests?

As much as I love interacting with people, I don’t want to join your bootcamp group if you live 5000 miles from me.  I also don’t want to ”like” your totally impersonal fan page.  I especially don’t want to support your random relative’s cake baking or photography page.  And my joining the group to end world hunger isn’t going to end world hunger.  Stop with this nonsense.

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3.  I don’t want to join your farm, gang, or anything else.

In fact, if you invite me to join your Farmville village I’ll raid your farm and cut up all your cows into tasty steaks.  That’s right.  And then I’ll start a group to allow all my Facebook friends who hate Farmville to come and eat the virtual steaks too!  I should also mention that you aren’t a superhero or anything else that a Facebook quiz tells you.

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4.  Don’t poke.

Facebook “poking” is so 2008.  Get over it.

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5.  Don’t drop F-bombs all over someone else’s wall.

Post them on your status if you wish, but don’t go on my wall and make my family’s eyes bleed with profanity.  That is not to say that I don’t swear…but please let me choose when to offend and alienate my own family.  

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6.  Don’t be a hater.

I know a lot of people in the industry talk about being professional and politically correct on their Facebook.  I, on the other hand, feel that if you come onto my Facebook then you’ll see me as I am.  I’m not about putting up fronts and pretending I’m someone I’m not so you might see some inappropriate content that contains vulgarity or is not suitable for work.  However, if you make a racist comment, openly slam gays, or anything similar you are deleted.  Don’t be a bigot!

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7.   Include a photo.

If your facebook profile doesn’t include a photo of you how on earth do you expect people to connect with you?  Just sayin’.

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8.  Watch what you “like”

If you “like” one of those applications that talks about how so and so got revenge on his ex girlfriend that includes a photo of a scantily clad woman everyone will know you’re a perv.  Yes, we know why you clicked it you pervy bastard.

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9.  Limit the Quotes

Have you ever noticed that the people who put up motivational quotes all the time are the most miserable people on the planet?  Quotes are okay, but not every day (hey…that rhymes).  If all I wanted to do was read quotes I’d look them up myself.

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10.  Learn to spell.

Seriously.  If you can’t spell you need to spend more time in front of a dictionary than on Facebook.  People will overlook the occasional typo or spelling mistake (we all make them).  But if you kant spel moste ov tha wurds in yur sntence thn yu neede to sorte that owt.

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So that’s my summary.  Go friend me up.  Introduce yourself.  And then drop a comment below to let me know which rules I’m forgetting.

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PS: It is also a rule to share all of my posts (like this one) with all of your Facebook friends.  Seriously.

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The other day I mentioned my friend Eric Cresseys soon-to-be-released product Show and Go and asked you guys and gals if there were any questions you wanted addressed?  Sure enough, the great question below came through in the comments and I was able to ask Eric to comment.  Check it out!  (PS: I love having cool peeps on my email contact list.  And yes, I LOVE name dropping.  It gives me an inflated sense of self worth…which is awesome!  )

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Question:

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“While I have no doubt it will be chock full of his usual excellent content, as a natural amateur bodybuilder who has been seeing phenomenal results with my programming (and also paying plenty of attention to minimizing the potential deleterious effects of training primarily for show with less emphasis on go), I am wondering just how much there is to be gained from this product, since I have so many potential resources on my current “wish list” and far fewer dollars to spread around on that front.

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My initial thoughts are that this product will still be more go with better-than-average show, as opposed to maximum show with a good dose of go (which is what I have always been after, as beyond general health, I have no major concern about how much go I possess).

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Can you separate Go from Show?”

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 Eric’s answer:

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“It’s a great question, and here’s my take on it.

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From reading your inquiry, it sounds like things have gone well for you and you’ve got a fair amount of experience.  If you’re calling yourself a bodybuilder, I’m going to assume that you’ve got at least a few years of training under your belt.

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If that is indeed the case, you’ve got a nice luxury upon which you can fall back: it’s tougher for you to detrain (as compared to a newbie).  Additionally, while it isn’t a “luxury,” you have a smaller window of adaptation (and de-adaptation, for that matter) in front of you.  I gained 50 pounds in my first year of lifting, but nowadays – even though I’m five times as strong as I was then – if I can go up 3-4 quality pounds a year, I’m thrilled.

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What does that mean in the context of this discussion?  You can get away with trying new things over eight weeks (or even 16 weeks) to see how they work for you.

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Likewise, with your level of experience, you can borrow bits and pieces from new resources – and in the case of Show and Go, it might be some new exercises, a novel approach to fluctuating training stress, comprehensive mobility warm-ups, unique self-myofascial release strategies, some new options for metabolic conditioning, innovative loading protocols, or any of a number of other things.

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As for separating the “Go” and the “Show,” it’s virtually impossible.  As we’ve seen from some great writing from the likes of Chad Waterbury, Christian Thibaudeau, Charles Poliquin, and a lot of high level powerlifters, getting stronger is really important for getting bigger.  It’ll set the foundation for future success – and I know that for me, my gains skyrocketed when I switched to competing in powerlifting as compared to just rolling with “traditional” hypertrophy training – although I know that won’t be the case for everyone.

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All that said, there’s a money-back guarantee, so you really don’t have anything to lose.”

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All great points from EC!  And before you go, make sure to check out his new video on Mastering the Squat with the ever handsome model Tony Gentilcore.

A couple weeks ago on StrengthCoach.com I called out the masses to defend the current practice of using interval training for fat loss.  As a result, a great discussion followed and I think everyone took home some great information.  I was also asked by my friend Chris Kelly to share some of my thoughts on intervals.

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Check our discussion on his blog HERE.

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PS:  Yes ladies, I think he’s single.