Sometimes, when you're the writer of a weekly social media column, you just have to thank the heavens for dropping a beautiful column idea right into your lap.

Let your nemesis wax philosophically on how the Yahoo/Tumblr deal is bad for users. Or, let her calculate the projected advertising inventory and how that will affect broader ad rates. Meanwhile, you can focus on plans that are actionable in the next 90 days.

If you're asking why I'm asking, it's because the rumor mill over at AllThingsD claims that the two have talked, so buzz about the potential of this old guard/new guard marriage has certain members of the social-media-erati buzzing, along with columnists who need something to write about.

Shed those followers that aren't providing value. Trim the content our audiences don't want. Drop the platforms where we can't find audiences. Volume does not beget volume.

For all of the smart people running around the Internet biz, it is sometimes amazing to contemplate how absolutely stupid we all are. That's quite a way to start a column, huh?

Procter & Gamble is looking to move its payment terms from 45 days to 75 days, according to the Wall Street Journal. GE pays its bills on a standard net 120 -- this one I know from personal experience. And, while there are work-arounds that are easier for larger agencies to take advantage of (like bridge payments from banks), these work-arounds are harder for smaller and newer agencies. That's not good for social media marketing.

As regular readers of this column are painfully aware, I'm a student of how, and whether, social networks are being used by the normal people who make up my non-work life. So I was curious when a guy who lives a few blocks away asked me in late March to join NextDoor, a social networking start-up that pledges to unite people online based on their geography, in private online communities.

As you're getting organized for next week, remember this if you're in charge of your company's Twitter account(s): fire up that special tweet for Wednesday at 4 p.m. Central Time, and you may just be on your way to engagement most brands can only dream about.

Most people aren't like us. They don't check social feeds every five minutes and they don't know what real-time marketing is. So, this Social Media Insider is short: In honor of Earth Day, unplug and live life the way most people do.

One week you're musing about Twitter's new music service (it launched yesterday, by the way); the next week you're wondering if social media can help catch a terrorist. If that doesn't tell you how all-encompassing social media is, I suppose nothing will.