Reading Roundup: Everyone Hates Your Ads Edition

1. Meet the new media ad-based pay model dilemma, same as the old media ad-based pay model dilemma.

Why has Google Plus failed to make a dent in Americans’ social media habits? According to the terrific tech writer Alexis Madrigal, it’s because Mountain View got its approach to social completely backwards. In The Atlantic, he prescribes a solution based around embracing the corners of the Googleplex that users adore but the company ignores.

If G+ is on nobody’s agenda, Facebook has the opposite problem. The din surrounding its IPO—and subsequent share price plummet—is inescapable. Chalking up a $100 billion valuation has a way of intensifying the spotlight, particularly from those skeptical that you can sustainably monetize a service devoted to checking forgotten birthdays and posting grammatically catastrophic rants inspired by Fox News.

Business reading roundup, week of May 11, 2012

Between freelance (or more lasting) gigs, I find myself with a heap of time to read. So I’ve decided to start collecting a few items that sparked my curiosity in the business pages around the web. I’ll try to update this every Friday or so, offering my perspective on around five stories from the week that was.

Top 21 rejected social media job titles

Gurus and ninjas and rock stars, oh my.

I’m not sure what it is about social media that attracts so many colorful job titles. Maybe it’s viewed as something “young people” use, and the head honchos think all us Gen Yers still love to play pretend in the backyard. Or maybe social media’s a domain where all the head honchos are Gen Yers and really do still love to play pretend in the backyard.

Either way, it’s not as easy as you might think to come up with flashy new appellations. You’ve got to strike a careful balance—hip and imaginative, yet credible and professional. Also, you want to avoid any insinuation that your job description involves murdering your clients. (I’m looking at you, “social media assassins.”)

With that in mind, here are 21 business cards you shouldn’t print anytime soon: