Today, I sat down with Dan Zarrella over a virtual cup of coffee to get the inside scoop on his upcoming release, The Social Media Marketing Book.

With Christmas just around the corner and 2010 election season coming down the pike, you'll want to fetch a copy for your loved one's stockings or for your campaign headquarter bookshelves.

Dan calls himself a social media and viral marketing "scientist," and frankly he's got a reputation on the interwebs as being the go-to person on Twitter analytics and social media research.

Here's what Dan had to say about his new book, about the future of the Internet, and what's on his Thanksgiving table this week -

In 140 Characters or Less - why should our readers read your book?

Its a practical, tactical hands-on introduction to social media marketing.

Who is this book written for? Is it a back-to-the-basics beginner's guide?

People new to marketing, or to social media who want to learn how to leverage the new social web for their business or brand.

Also, if your son or daughter is spending way too much time on Facebook or Twitter, buy them this book and maybe they'll turn their obsession into a career in a fast-growing field.

What do you want people to take away from this book?

Which technologies are right for their needs and which aren't.

There are a set of spoken and unspoken rules in every community, platform and technology online and as marketers it is key that we strive to understand the culture of the group we're trying to reach.

What technologies + social media platforms do you cover?

I explored everything I could really think of as potentially useful: blogs, Twitter, social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace), social media sharing sites (Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare), social news and bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious), forums, review sites (Yelp) and even virtual worlds like Second Life.

And I talk about strategy, measurement and monitoring a bit as well.

Tell us about the future of politics + the Internet. What will be the concept to master for 2010/2012?

I think in politics as well as web marketing in general my big "prediction" for the next year or so is augmented reality, but not just in the virtual reality sci-fi way.

The real power of social media starts to blossom when the space between the web and the real world closes.

Starting with Tweetups and Foursquare type apps and driven by the ubiquity of powerful smart phones, the real world is going to be important again.

Turducken or Tofurky?

Well, my fiancé is a vegetarian, so at home, probably tofurky, but I was actually having this conversation today and what I want to see is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken stuffed with a lobster (I'm a New England boy). I guess it would be a Turduckenster.

Here is the video trailer for Dan's new book. Its tagline? Don't get outsmarted by your competition:

After a week in sunshiny California, I am back & my bloglines is full. Thanks to Phillip Copley for taking over The Second Cup reigns while I was away enjoying some great Santa Ynez Valley pinot.

WhiteHouse.gov Goes Drupal

WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software, as the AP alluded to in its reporting several minutes ago.

Want More Clicks? Tweet Less.

Tweet Much? Don’t Expect a High CTR. New data I’ve been working on seems to indicate that the more frequently you Tweet links, the fewer clicks you’ll get.

I’ve been working towards a statistical model of how an individual makes a decision to ReTweet a specific Tweet and in that process, I came across an interesting problem: before someone ReTweets something, they have to notice it. If you’re anything like me, you’re only able to actually read a small percentage of the total activity in your friend’s timeline, which means that very few of the Tweets I’m technically “exposed” to ever even have the chance of being ReTweeted.

Tapping Into Your Organization's Data

I’m at the CIO Perspectives Forum here in DC today, and I participated in an interesting lunch discussion.  This discussion focused on how organizations can better manage the content that they generate.  There were several interesting issues brought up – of which a few I’ll mention below.

First, what constitutes information that an organization needs to archive and classify?  While it is clear to save memos, proposals, spreadsheets, database, etc., what about instant message conversations or company-related tweets?  If these are worth managing, how does a company capture such data and place this data into place with more traditional items?

FYI: I'm now Meghann Olshefski and my new email address is MeghannOlshefski at gmail dot com - Please feel free to send Second Cup tips & GOP tech story ideas to the new email address.

For GOP, Revenge is Tweet

Congressional Republicans may be struggling to communicate a coherent message above the angry din generated by town hall protests, Rep. Joe Wilson’s scream and conservative talkers, but a new study finds it’s not for lack of tweeting.

Nearly twice as many Republicans as Democrats have accounts on the social networking platform Twitter (101 compared with 57), and the GOP dominates Twitter usage by an even wider margin, according to a report released this week by the Congressional Research Service that analyzed two weeklong periods in July and August.

Report: Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get ReTweeted on Twitter

If I wanted make sure this post did not go viral--according to the standards put forth by Hubspot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella in "The Science of Retweeting"--I could promote it on Twitter by posting something like this:

was bored watchin the game on tv and saw this thing about RTs...made me lol after i had really bad stomach cramps

Note the lack of punctuation, the use of of slang and abbreviations, the limited vocabulary, and the awkward overshare--all traits that Zarrella can now definititively say would turn Twitter users off. How? Because the avid Twitter-er and author of the upcoming The Social Media Marketing Book spent nine months analyzing roughly 5 million tweets and 40 million retweets (which are usually symbolized with an "RT" on Twitter). He noted when they were posted, which words they used, whether or not they included links, and more. 

Who Has the Most Twitter Clout in Congress?

Wondering which Members of Congress have clout? Not the kind that gets legislation passed or stopped, but the kind that turns heads online? Well, with the help of our friends at Klout.com, we've taken a look at 81 Members of Congress who have been active Twitter users over the last year, and the results may surprise you.

Right now, according to Klout's analysis, which weighs 25 different variables in assigning a score to a Twitter user, no Member of Congress has more Klout than none other than  Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina.