I discovered the secret to invisibility recently while attending a convention in another city. I've kept this information to myself, until now, in hopes I could figure out a way to cash in on it.

Unfortunately, those clever folks at Facebook, Twitter and the other social media venues on the Internet have also figured it out -- and perfected it far beyond anything I could hope to do. So, there's no point in keeping my secret any longer.

I made my discovery in a cab line behind two young women on their way to a party. One of them had her eye on a guy who was going to be there. And she was quite graphic in describing to her friend what she had in mind for the end of the evening. She closed out the description by pulling her form-fitting stretch pants away from her waist to show her friend -- and me as it turned out -- the thong underwear she intended as a treat for this guy if he went along with her plans.

Out of Mind, Out of Sight

She wasn't trying to flash me. I was simply invisible to her. Sigh. I think it had something to do with the grey in my hair. To her, I was out of mind and, therefore, out of sight. I thought about telling her how much I appreciated the show. But I decided that was probably a bad idea. If I'd shown any sign of interest in what was going on, I'd have instantly gone from invisible to creep (or worse).

I was still trying to figure out how to turn my newfound knowledge of invisibility to some useful purpose when I realized Facebook and Twitter are much farther down that path than I could ever hope to be.

I regularly get invitations to be friends on Facebook with professional contacts who share pictures that are anything but business like. Some are enough to make a guy blush.

And I know way more than I want about the social lives, dating and political preferences and daily activities of these people than I really want to know.

All a-twitter: Nose picking on the Internet

Most of the information is pretty boring. Or silly. But some of it's a lot more revealing than I suspect the people sharing it on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter realize. They may intend to share it with their closest friends. But the rest of us are are part of the conversation just as I was in that cab line. Do they really want all that personal information floating around the Internet for all of us to see? It's the electronic equivalent of those people you see picking their noses while driving. I'm not sure they realize you can see both ways through the windshield of a car.

Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have made it possible for all of us to become unseen voyeurs peeping in on the private lives of people we know from church or work -- or barely know at all. In fact, with a little surfing, you can see what the friends of your friends are saying, which means you can tune into some pretty personal information about complete strangers. Creepy.

This is not to say Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the rest aren't useful. Facebook and YouTube, in particular, are becoming powerful public relations and marketing tools. Most folks still seem to be trying to figure out how to use Twitter, but it's having an impact, too.

My car insurance company, Liberty Mutual, has used a stream of social media hits for more than a year to keep their "responsibility" campaign alive. For example, they created three videos to be placed on social media sites. That led to 84,000 online video views, which led to 631,000 Web site hits and 4 million blog and social media impressions -- which, in turn, led to 4 million online impressions and 2 million print media impressions. Not bad.¹

And National Public Radio ran a story recently about a street vendor who serves Korean and Mexican food out of a truck in Los Angeles. The owner is using Twitter to alert customers to the location of the truck, menu changes and the like. Twitter has transformed the business into "the hottest place to eat in Los Angeles" with people often standing in line for more than an hour to buy their food.

Blogging is done primarily by college-educated males.² Facebook and Twitter are changing that by adding more women to the mix. That's a good thing. It should add some civility to the conversation.

Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go Tweet. Or find a cab line.