Social Media Roundup: Chad Ochocinco's Relationship Woes

These days, public figures are closer to the masses than ever -- thanks to a wave of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (sorry, MySpace, few know you still even exist) facilitating direct interaction between celebrities and fans.

Of course, this level of unfiltered communication has its dangers, as many in the public realm have learned the hard way. Privacy barriers are broken down and suddenly what seemed like a harmless tweet or status update becomes major news -- just ask Redskins tight end Chris Cooley who accidentally tweeted a photo of his junk when he was tweeting from his, shall we say, personal library. He's certainly not the first to slip up like this and undoubtedly won't be the last.

But the power of social media can be also harnessed for good. Chad Ochocinco has several times offered to take fans out to dinner when the Bengals are on an away game, and Tiger Woods answered his fans' questions for a few hours via Twitter. Athletes use the medium to promote charities, food drives for the holidays, contests for giveaways and generally allow a look at their true lives without the PR filter.

Since there are so many people out there riding the Twitter and Facebook waves, FanHouse will try and sort them out in the weekly Social Media Roundup. We can't track them all, but he's our first effort of counting down the week's 10 best Tweets and Facebook status updates in the Social Media Roundup's debut.

10. Michael Vick's words of advice: If anyone knows a thing or two about dealing with and overcoming troubles, it's Vick.

9. Braylon Edwards' facial hair withdrawal: A beard serves many purposes, both to keep your face warm and preserve leftovers around the holidays.

8. Tiger Woods presents the other side of the bearded dilemma: Right there with ya, Tiger.

7. Chris Cooley opens pottery gallery: Your team is a disaster. Maybe you should pick a day job and go with it.

6. Justin Bieber devises strategy for Miami Heat: The Heat are on a 12-game win streak, but at least the Biebster got a retweet from King James.

5. Deion Sanders spills the cold, hard truth: Though I'm pretty sure Alcatraz is a tourist attraction now, Sanders could be on to something about preferential treatment of QBs.

4. Jeff Hardy lays the Twitter smackdown: I had no idea that such unfiltered anger prevents space bar functionality.

3. King James' nonsensical tweet: I can gather no context from his previous and following Tweets, so I'm only left to assume that the King is a Jersey Shore fan.

2. Chad Ochocinco and Travis Outlaw make nice for the holidays: Both are kind gestures in a time of giving, but I'd like to see photo evidence of Ochocinco's shovel job.

2b. Travis Outlaw's gesture is greatly appreciated by the children, I'm sure. Always good to see professional athletes acting like role models and giving back, especially around the holidays.

1. Chad Ochocinco drops relationship knowledge: A tough question that men and women have been searching to find the answer for years. With over 3,000 likes and 1,000 more comments, Ochocinco's pondering of life's most head-scratching dilemma tops our list.

Got something you think I missed? Hit me up on Twitter @csesno