THE BRANDBUILDER BLOG — From Linda Zimmerman, in response to Is Your Social Media Director Qualified? "One point you made in the video I’d like to highlight. You mentioned Frank at Comcast who has taken his knowledge of customer service and social media and meshed them together. This is key. EVERY professional needs to understand social media in their own context so they can *interpret* it into their profession and job. This by the way should be part of a social media director’s job – educating..."

ADWEEK — The rise of social media has been met with thousands claiming expertise in the area. The skepticism this engenders in longtime marketing pros is best captured in a popular animated video called "The Social Media Guru." The clip shows a know-it-all, lightly credentialed "expert" dispensing little more than buzzwords and common sense to a bemused client. Despite the easy laughs at the expense of self-proclaimed experts, big brands are on the hunt for help in figuring out their approaches to connecting with consumers on Facebook, providing service on Twitter and instituting internal social media guidelines. Because it can touch everything from communications to marketing to customer service to product development, social media has created a muddied playing field that some see as ripe for creating agency opportunities...

SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP BLOG — We at Social Media Group know how hard it is to find a good match between client needs and provider capabilities. Especially for marketers new to social media, it can be very difficult to know what the right questions are and qualify potential social media professional services companies. So we have developed a comprehensive Social Media Request for Proposal (SMRFP) template to make things easier for companies looking for the right social media partner. The questions cover company background, strategy, reputation management, measurement, monitoring and more. The template asks many tough questions, but a competent social media partner should be able to answer most of them...

ADVERTISING AGE — Ads involving consumer participation were the big award winners last year, according to the Big Won 2009, a global report that ranks the world's top creative work by awards won across all media. Of the top 10 campaigns, only one, DDB, London's print work for London department store Harvey Nichols, is a traditional media campaign. The others are all ideas that rely on consumer input, including Tourism Queensland's "The best job in the world" from Nitro; T-Mobile's "Dance" by Saatchi & Saatchi, London; and brewer James Ready's "Share our billboard" by Leo Burnett, Toronto. "This is the big seismic shift in our business," said Patrick Collister, a former Ogilvy U.K. executive creative director who compiles the annual report...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — One of the big concerns about using social media for business and marketing is time. Social media activities do pose a risk of drawing you in and taking up a huge amount of your day just interacting with people. Add that the technology is changing all the time. It can seem impossible to keep up with all the tools, software, techniques, etiquette, and social media best practices. It’s hardly surprising that people are looking to social media consultants, agencies and contractors to take on their social media activity. But should you? Let’s explore this...