However I opted to step aside and let it pass me by. (Traffic schmaffic.)

When I look back and consider my time in social media in 2009, it’s not the cool marketing tools I’ve experimented with, the great content that I’ve consumed or even the new business opportunities it has created — it’s with complete humility that this anti-social curmudgeon confesses (with uncharacteristic optimism and utter embarrassment at my public display of “joie de vivre”) it’s the people I’ve met and reconnected with that made my 2009 brighter, more interactive, more professionally rewarding and, even, more entertaining.

So as I look at 2010, I hope to continue to experience all of the spectacular and unexpected side effects social media, social business and social networking put before me each and every day.

We are all of us so much more than the sum of our work and it is the people with whom we work that make the work itself more pleasant…or unpleasant.

Social business provides more consistent, personal and direct access to people we like — people we want to be around and work with — which can bring greater value and meaning to how we spend our workdays.

If you’ve interacted with me here on this blog, on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, meetup.com, blip.fm, slideshare.net, at a local Panera, at a conference, at a seminar or event, through email, on google wave, by phone, at one of my presentations, on a sailboat or through Social Gets Local… I just want to say thank you.

You have enriched my life — online and off.

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For businesses in social media, when you operate as though your bottom line isn’t always at the top of your list, you’re giving people a good reason to return to your brand, time and again.

I’d say that’s an investment worth making.

Learn more about metrics that make sense in social media in today’s fileshare by yongfook: Social Media ROI.

Pay attention to your fish, people.

Without further ado, you can view these slidedecks below or on SlideShare.net. (Storyboard #1: Social Media Marketing and Storyboard #2: Social Reef)

Enjoy.

If you haven’t made a commitment to learning how to use an RSS feed, do it now. Right now.

If what I’m hearing on the streets is anything to go by, there are a lot of people out there who don’t know what an RSS feed is, let alone how efficient it can make your web browsing, information gathering and content management. (Not to mention the power it can put behind your networking efforts!)

Fear not! I’m here to answer your RSS SOS.

Without further ado, I’ve put together this little RSS “How To” and “Why Should I?” Guide under a Creative Commons‘ BY-NC-ND license which enables you to download, share and redistribute this work (unaltered) at your discretion.

Click here or on the image above to download the full PDF presentation, or view it online at SlideShare.

Oh, and if this tutorial doesn’t get the job done, by all means, walk right out of your home or office immediately and find someone who can take a few minutes to sit down and show you how valuable a tool this can be.

Final thoughts? Enjoy and befriend the feed. Trust me, it’ll be well worth your time.

If you have any questions, you can always find me on twitter @usegraymatter. (Which reminds me to add that if you are using twitter, believe me when I tell you that twittering without tweetdeck is like riding a bike with one eye closed and without the benefit of handlebars.)

You can follow John Sheridan on twitter at: @JohnSheridan

So here we are. For all the web to see.