As for the embedded HTML, I’m delighted that you allow it here in comments, as I think it really offers an opportunity for a deeper and richer conversation. Bloggers who disable embedded HTML – or any HTML whatsoever – consciously or unconsciously render the conversations rather one-sided. One of my favorite examples of full-featured HTML support in comments – including buttons for inserting bold, italics and even strikethroughs – can be found on the blog of another friend, Dan Oestreich, who writes about Unfolding Leadership.

For your blog, without the buttons, you have to manually insert them, so here’s the preceding sentence with the embedded HTML disembedded:

“One of my favorite examples of full-featured HTML support in comments – including buttons for inserting bold, italics and even strikethroughs – can be found on the blog of another friend, Dan Oestreich, who writes about Unfolding Leadership.”

I was momentarily struck by the timidity [aversion to anything that might be considered "shameless self promotion"] of this otherwise self-confident man [a faculty member]. But then I was reminded of an odd paradox of academic life: Faculty members are expected to become world renowned in their disciplines and well respected within their institutions, yet are also expected to avoid appearing to be self-promoting or, worse, boastful. In fact, many professors overcorrect by adopting a false humility—feigning, for example, not to want a particular award, honor, or position when the exact opposite is the case.

…

Clearly, some people have confused the important work of promoting your ideas and research with a kind of fatuous promotion of self. Promoting yourself (“Look how great I am”) is different from promoting your scholarship (“Here’s what my research has discovered” or “Here’s what I’ve been working on lately”). Central to the research endeavor is the desire to disseminate the results of your scholarship widely, and while interesting or groundbreaking research will certainly reflect well on the researcher, the focus should be on the former.

I recently wrote an irritation-based blog post – the commoditization of Twitter followers – in response to some blatantly self-promotional activities I’ve witnessed in the Twitterverse. Nothing I’ve seen you post anywhere exhibits any of the practices I rant about in that post … and, as you can see, I also like to insert references to things I’ve written in places where I think they are relevant (and potentially useful).

I’m glad you are not abandoning social media entirely, and I hope you will continue to promote the book in ways – and places – that can add value … and that you will continue to tweet and blog about other people, places and things that are relevant to consequential strangers!