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I’ve been watching some interesting debates going  on lately about oversharing on Social Media sites by some people and the reaction that it provokes in others.

A lot of the most recent discussions have focused on the sharing of location, the safety and privacy issues that these tools bring to the forefront. However, location tools are not the only place where this perceived oversharing takes place.  Jill Hanner who is based in NYC and does promo work for Ford has shared in a video about her experience of sexual harassment in the workplace. She presented a very reasoned case and I have to agree that this type and any type of bullying whether in real life or online is awful.

Jill recently also posted video and pictures of herself in a bikini. Now she is a very beautiful woman, she is young and there is no reason why she shouldn’t be proud of her body. However, when she posted the picture of herself in her bikini to her Facebook page one “friend” questioned her for doing so, pointing out that she had remarked on harrassment and was now inviting it by posting alluring pictures of herself. Other “friends” were quick to jump to her defense pointing out that a woman should not be considered to be “inviting” harrassment or any other form of unwanted attention simply because of the clothes that she wears.

Poppy Dinsey posts a daily picture of her outfits everyday on her Posterous blog. Recently she was on vacation in Spain and so her daily pics often showed her in a bikini. Poppy is an entrepreneur based in London, England.  Again should she be judged for sharing revealing pictures of herself?

The real question comes from what we consider to be professional. Is it possible for the modern business woman to post these pictures and still retain the same level of professional credibility as those that don’t? Does Social Media encourage and invite people who are already fairly open in real life to be even more so with the distance that technology affords? Are these young women, and I don’t mean just Jill & Poppy but others who also regularly share pictures of a more revealing nature inviting “judgement” more than just a woman who wears revealing clothes to the office?

There is no “dress code” for the internet, however,is there a double standard at play here. I would definitely lose not only credibility but reputation if I were to post pictures of me in a speedo. Ok, agreed a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m in my forties and hardly have an adonis like physique, however, even if I did look like the Old Spice guy would it be appropriate? Would people feel I had shared too much?

We broke this news on our Facebook Fan page yesterday (come & “like” it) and today we announce it to the world. We have officially expanded our operation to Latin America by opening an office in Mexico City, Mexico. The office and the Latin America operation will be run by Fernando Braojos – you can read about him on the About Us page.

I’m extremely excited by this news, we have already executed one project in Mexico and are in the process of signing more clients as I write.  This is a major step for a company that only celebrated its two year anniversary at the beginning of this month.

What next?  Over the next year we will continue to expand our operations across the US & in Latin America. Our next obvious target is Europe and I am looking at various options for partners in London with which to gain a foothold there. There also a couple of individuals on my radar who I think would be an awesome fit for the IncSlingers team so we will see where things go from here.

Speaking of awesome individuals, our other major news is that Aronado Placencia of Startup Lucky has joined the IncSlingers US team as Creative Strategist – again you can read about him on the About Us page. Aronado will lead our sales & marketing efforts in the US. Seeking new clients that are looking to partner with real communicators who will ensure that their message is delivered.  See why Aronado decided to join IncSlingers in his video.

Last week Fast Company launched the Influencer Project. A simple concept, add your picture, send the link to your page out to your network, see how many people click the link. Apparently this offended many of the Social Media glitterati. With posts a plenty telling Fast Company how their project was flawed, how getting people to click a link is no indication of influence. How they were measuring Ego, how they weren’t measuring anything. How the real influencers wouldn’t even bother with their stupid game and so the results would be pointless.

Of course they did all this by doing what? Oh yes that’s right, posting links to their posts and asking people to click on it! Where do they think their influence came from? Did they just wake up one morning with all these fans and readers and subscribers, nope they produced good content (definitely key) but then they had to do the donkey work of promoting that content. Which online means putting the link out there and telling people why they should click on it.

Every time a popularity contest comes around, be it the Mashable awards, the Shorties, or whatever a whole section of the Glitterati get their undies in a bunch over it. It so happens I have a theory on this, it’s called… Low Self Esteem. You see the people that get most concerned about this are the ones that can’t fathom why they are already popular. They suffer from fragile ego’s and a certain amount of paranoia and worry that it will all just disappear if someone else becomes popular.

I know this sounds very condemning of me. The reason I can take this stance is quite simple. I suffer from the same concerns as well. I understand that we all get a little paranoid sometimes and worry that our good fortune might just evaporate, that someone somewhere is smarter, better, sharper than us (actually I know for a fact that they are).  However, telling a company like Fast Company, you got it wrong is not the right solution. See the opportunity in this project. I’m already discovering people who I had no idea existed before that have got some good things to say. The blogosphere is too big for us to know everyone. We find a “jerk circle” (thanks to Jason Falls for that term) and we stay in it. We know the people we know and we stick with them.

So instead of simply writing the Influence Project off as lame, why not take a second look and see what you can actually get out of it.

Oh and my Influence Project link is fcinf.com/v/byxg

A lot of individuals are making use of the ability provided by many of the Social Media tools to cross post to multiple platforms. This was a much needed feature for Brands as they wanted and needed to maximize their investment in Social Media, they have limited resources and for the most part they are trying to gain ground rapidly.

I actually recommend utilizing these services for many of my clients, in certain circumstances and usually on a case by case basis. However, as an individual I shy away from them. The biggest difference between building a personal brand over building a product brand is that its, well, personal.

Individuals who are using these services are flooding the revised Facebook stream with their Twitter comments, they are also filling their FriendFeed stream, Plaxo and several other places as well. The analogy that comes to mind to me when I see this is that these people are like someone invited to a party who only knows one joke, they then move from room to room at the party telling each new group the same joke repeatedly. Soon everyone at the party has heard the joke, but still they keep telling it.

The person that was once funny, is now annoying. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Personally those people who are feeding their Twitter stream to Facebook and don’t share anything original on Facebook get “hidden”. I’ve already read your Twitter post on Twitter I don’t need to see it again on Facebook.

The point is this, if you are trying to build a personal brand, spend some time being personal. If you can’t think of something original to say on one platform or another that’s ok, better that you say nothing that simply repeat yourself.