Since that time, we’ve written a lot of social media policies for clients – and trained their employees on proper social media use in various divisions, but I still remember sitting in the board room during our initial kick off, going through questions to help us determine how much work was needed, when one answer shocked me: “We don’t know and it’s impossible to find out.”

This was the answer to the question, “How many social media accounts does the company have and where are they – who runs them?”

Now, while the answer stood out back then – considering social media was a bit of the “Wild West,” and companies were still struggling to buy into its value – I would imagine that today, businesses have a much better handle on who is representing their brand, where and in what way.

I’m wrong.

According to a report by Altimeter Group released yesterday, many of the challenges that we were navigating clients through years ago still exist. Jeremiah Owyang blogged, “Many companies have launched social media efforts with little planning. As social media spreads beyond corporate communications and marketing, business groups are deploying social media without a standardized process. In fact, enterprise class corporations (those with over 1,000 employees) have an average of 178 social media accounts and this number will only grow if left unchecked. Companies that don’t control these accounts are at risk of having abandoned accounts, lack of consistent experience, or untrained employees creating a crisis.”

Wow.

I’m shocked that the enterprise hasn’t caught on yet. How can companies be so lackadaisical about who is talking for them in a public form? How did employees feel the freedom and right to go create branded accounts without some sort of process or checklist? Are companies aware of non-affiliated accounts that have been established (read: hijacked) in their name? (One of my favorite examples I use in my conference speeches on this topic is Chapstick.) And what do these businesses do now in order to reign it all in and get a handle on smart social media for business?

Altimeter Group’s report – and pending webinar to review it – is a good start. It covers market trends, industry problems and data – as well as a buyer’s guide for some monitoring tools – but I’d like to ask one other question. WHERE IS MARKETING?

How can marketing divisions in these companies not be concerned with public discussions of their brand, company and industry – even if they are not the ones running the accounts/updates? Even if other business groups are deploying social media accounts, shouldn’t marketing – as the brand police – know this and help to manage the messages? I blogged on a related topic a few years ago – that with social media’s rise, we are all now in PR, all now brand ambassadors and customer service reps. Because of this, marketing should now – more than ever – be setting, defining, monitoring and managing those messages, regardless of which business group is using social channels. How did marketing departments and PR executives let this slide?

Are we still that far behind? I like to think not. But, if you’re working with a PR or marketing firm that hasn’t yet audited your social media presence – and provided strategic recommendations for improving it – now might be the time to find out why.

Yes, we are all continuing to learn as the industry evolves and new tools are introduced, but this is marketing 101, folks. You monitor who is saying what about your brand and where – and you put a plan together that includes some action around these conversations. There’s no excuse anymore – social media is a part of all business marketing – if not customer service, HR, business development and more. But at the very least, marketing should know about the “on average” 178 “brand” accounts – and reign them in. Reports like Altimeter’s can help you choose the best tool vendors for strategic monitoring and measurement in the future. Get the right vendors, hire the right PR and marketing partners or executives and get your employees trained right – but don’t ignore it any longer. I don’t think the proliferation of vendors is any excuse for letting your brand go wild while you try to make a choice.

8 Ways to Maximize Your YouTube Marketing Results
Rick Brooks from Flyte New Media shares 8 great tips for getting the most out of your video production and distribution efforts when posting to Youtube. Each tip is packed full of great information that even seasoned YouTuber’s can benefit from.

Could Social Media Flub Cost You $4.3 Million?
David F. Carr highlights some jaw-dropping dollar figures from a recent Applied Research survey (sponsored by Symantec) that revealed potentially negative and more costly consequences of bringing your brand to the social space.

Number of Corporate Social Media Accounts On Rise: Risk of “Social Media Help Desk”
Altimeter‘s Jeremiah Owyang shares some interesting stats on the number of social media accounts that larger brands are maintaining, along with some helpful advice for Social Media Strategists to help prevent their roles from turning into “the ever reactive sanitation role of social media helpdesk.”

15 Google+ Sites & Services for Power Users
As companies sit and patiently wait for the launch of Google+ features for brands, active users of the service with their personal accounts might like Amy-May Elliot‘s list of Google+-related websites and services compiled in this post on Mashable.

Managing elephant-sized social media blunders
Reuters small business writer Deborah Cohen shares an informative Q&A with global brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baker that contains helpful tips on managing social media blunders like this week’s “elephant hunting” video released by GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons.

Top Companies Still Bashful About Social Media Presence
Frank Reed, managing editor for the Marketing Pilgrim, starts off a new blog series with this entry that highlights a recent Ad Age report that revealed less than half of Fortune 50 companies promote their social presence on their corporate homepage.

Report: Social Media Worth the Time
There’s no doubt that executing a well thought out social media strategy takes time. However, you need to stick with it and be consistent in order to reap the rewards. Inc.com‘s contributing editor Courtney Rubin shares some interesting stats around this topic and small business.

Getting real about social media budgeting
This post from Rich Karpinski on BtoBOnline suggests that Salesforce.com‘s recently announced acquisition of Radian6 might be a turning point for marketing teams to really focus on their social spending, and he provides highlights of last year’s Altimeter survey from Jeremiah Owyang to show what an aggressive social budget looks like.

Understanding the Social Media ROI Cycle
The 60 Second Marketer‘s Jamie Turner shares some excellent insight into Social Media ROI and the various phases of a social campaign via this guest post on Mashable.

Lessons From a Corporate Insider: Dream Big, but Think Small
Leading the charge to convince corporate communications of the benefits of moving into the the social space can be a tremendous challenge. This post from Mark Ivey on MPDailyFix.com provides some good tips, along with a personal experience story direct from Mark. As an added bonus, additional advice from the community continues on in the comments section.

Proof of Life: 4 Reasons Why B2B Marketing Lives On
MPDailyFix turned up this other great pick by way of this Pro-B2B post from Carlos Hidalgo who shares “our reasons why B2B marketing is still alive and kicking.“

Expand Your Social Media Mix: Twitter Alone is Not Enough
This excellent post from Jeremiah Owyang hits the nail on the head by urging readers to add a little more “steak” (more substantial content) to their social media mix. Several social tool alternatives are shared to help get you away from focusing on Twitter as your primary content sharing vehicle.

Why the digital agency will never die
In this iMediaConnection.com post. JetSet Studios CEO, Russell Scott shares his take on why digital agencies are here to stay and how the “story” is at the center of it all.

Well, if you follow me on Twitter and were on this weekend, you likely heard about my recent experience with Toyota and specifically, McGee Toyota in Hanover, MA. It wasn’t pretty. So here’s my haiku for you based on my weekend – if you’d like the full story, read my blog post about the experience – and why it’s crucial for your sales team to understand that customer relationships are way more valuable than customer deals.

Toyota was wrong
Happy customers tell friends
Angry ones tell all

Now that the negative one is out of the way, here are two positive ones – because happy customers should share loudly, too.

Jet Blue I love you
Thanks for TVs and smiles
You get customers

Ideeli is cool
They sell lovely things to me
And they engage me

Follow the brand haiku to Bryan Person and his tribute to Nike, and see more haikus from those amazing marketers by watching Twitter for the hashtag #brandhaiku.

Thanks for the fun, creative and great idea – and invitation – Aaron! Readers, if you have a brand haiku, please play along in the comment section and on Twitter.

Social Media Lessons from the Big Brands: Intuit Edition

18 Use Cases That Show Business How to Finally Put Customers First
In this MPDailyFix guest post, Jeremiah Owyang shares a great set a use cases to help companies “scale to keep up” in the rapid-paced world of social media.

Social Media Marketing: Are You Spread Too Thin?
Its not too difficult to get carried away trying out the latest and greatest social media tools and platforms. Before long, you find yourself swamped trying to keep them all updated. Fast Company Expert Blogger, Rich Brooks, shares advice – hint: keep focused on business goals.

Do You Have a Social Media Disorder?
Noah J. Nelson from YouthRadio.org notifies us of several new (and very humorous) “personality disorders” that have surfaced with the rise of social media in this reprint on the Huffington Post.

The Truth About the Average Twitter User
Mashable co-editor Ben Parr shares the hard facts about Twitter usage from a recent study by Barracuda Networks.

Customer Data via Twitter
Adam T. Sutton from the Sherpa blog recently interviewed Craig Greenfield, VP, Search and Performance Media, Performics, where they discussed how his team uses Twitter. The result was six takeaways that show how Twitter contributes to the Performics team’s success.

Privacy is dead, and social media holds smoking gun
Mashable’s Pete Cashmore guest posts on the CNN Opinion blog with this piece on how social media is changing the face of privacy.

Your Company May Own Your Tweets, Pokes, and YouTube Videos
Jermiah Owyang discusses content ownership between employees and companies and includes an attorney’s perspective on the topic.

The new rules of business-to-business marketing & PR
David Meerman Scott’s keynote from the Business Marketing Association’s annual conference has been made available online for the first time. Pop some corn and settle in for 45 minutes of great B2B marketing information.

Gaffe by Tweet: Top 10 Social-Media Slip-Ups Musicians, movie stars, professional athletes and now, even politicians are flocking to Twitter. Some use it well. Some don’t. Newsweek shares 10 slip-ups from the political camp.

Social Media for B2B
Socialnomics author, Erik Qualman gives some insight and advice to B2B companies looking to wrangle their social media strategies… by reviewing the way B2C’s have been doing it.

The new PR: Nimble Twitter responses make grass roots easy (or hard)
Sarah Gilbert shares a few stories showing the importance of listening, responding and acting quickly to customer comments on social media channels.

How Customer Support Organizations Must Evolve
Along the same lines of the previous pick, Jeremiah Owyang expands on how customer service organizations must evolve and adapt to survive the rapid changes in customer communication. Slides from Jeremiah’s recent presentation on the topic are included in the post.

The Forgotten Social Media Tool
With so many social networks and platforms to utilize these days, it’s easy to forget the countless bulletin board systems out there that still have incredibly active communities covering limitless niche topics. Robert Quigley brings bulletin boards back into perspective with this post on MediaBullsEye.

How to Use Social Media: An Interview with Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic
Guy Kawasaki shares this interesting interview (via Amex’s Open Forum blog) with Lee Aase of the Mayo Clinic on how they have been utilizing social media.

My Top 10 Sources of Content Inspiration
Being able to generate a continuous stream of content for blog posts comes naturally for some. For others, it can be a torturous process. Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch shares 10 places where he finds inspiration for writing a plethora of great content.

Report: Companies Should Organize For Social Media in a “Hub and Spoke” model
Many companies diving into the social media space are still trying to figure out what department actually “owns” social media. Should it be part of an existing internal group or is a re-organization in order? Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang shares three different models of company organization that can be found in his latest report.

It seems there are a lot of opinions out there about what PR is doing wrong or failing at, but very often these complaints are hollow – there aren’t specifics around what companies would like to see more of other than “media coverage.” So how can we as an industry improve? What do you think PR professionals could do better or differently? If you’ve got an opinion on the subject, here’s what we’d love to hear from you:

- What do you think PR professionals most need to improve or change? (We’d love to hear perspective from journalists, business owners, CMOs and VPs, branding and social media experts, etc.)

- In what areas would you like to see improvement? Media relations? Social media? Messaging? Strategy? Crisis Communications? Pitches? Writing? Thought leadership? Other?

- What is PR doing right these days?

- If you work with a PR agency, have they delivered what they promised when you hired them?

We’d love for you to leave your comments here or, if you’ve got a lot to say but want to keep it private, feel free to email me at chris[at]perkettpr.com or fill out our online questionnaire. If interest is high, we’ll gather and analyze the feedback and share some additional insights on how we think PR can improve the problem areas. In any event, let’s stop saying PR is dying. Let’s talk about how it’s evolving.

Thank you in advance!

So without further ado, for your viewing pleasure check out what some of this year’s SXSW Interactive attendees had to say for themselves. I am sure you will recognize a few of your friends and hopefully have a few laughs along the way.

A special thanks to everyone who participated and shared their two (and sometimes more) words and thanks for all the memories. See y’all next year – SXSWi 2010!

Disclaimer: The video quality and lighting varies slightly due to the ‘extreme’ shooting conditions of SXSW. :)

Translation: This was my first attempt and I didn’t lug around all the lighting and sound equipment with me for these impromptu shots, so some responses were a little more difficult to see/hear, but you get the point.

Music: Dan Tharp, Guitar Suite I – Movement I and II
Camera: Kodak Zi6 HD

Turning your feed reader into a powerful monitoring dashboard
I’m a big fan of using Google Reader to aid in some of my social media/brand monitoring efforts. Mack Collier from the Viral Garden blog shares some tips and techniques on how he uses it in conjunction with Bloglines.

5 Ways To Find & Acquire Customers On Twitter
These days, the economy forces businesses to get creative when trying to finding new clients. Brian Norgard writes this guest post on the ShoeMoney blog to share five ways you can use Twitter for finding new business.

Twitterville Notebook: Jeremiah Owyang
Shel Israel continues his Twitterville series of posts by interviewing Jeremiah Owyang on the topic of personal brand.

Do You Have the ‘Four As’ To Be a Thought Leader?
Dana Vanden Heuvel writes this guest post on Marketing Prof’s Daily Fix to share the four “A’s” you might need to be a thought leader in your industry.

Community Managers Must Deliver ROI: Commandments For Surviving a Recession
Jeremiah Owyang provides sound advice to Community Managers on how to step up their game, provide continuing value and (most importantly) help keep their jobs in these tough economic times.

Are we really ready to move beyond Social Media 101?
Many of us in the PR and Marketing space have been teaching the basics of Social Media for quote some time now. Some might think its time to elevate those teachings to the next level. However, LiveWorld’s social media evangelist Bryan Person shares some incite in this MediaBullseye.com guest post on why that’s not the case and advises those who teach to “keep beating the drum.”

How Lisa Genova used social media to turn a self-published book into a NY Times bestseller
Best selling author David Meerman Scott shares an abbreviated version of fellow writer Lisa Genova’s success in using social media to propel the promotion of her book “Still Alice” all the way to the top of the charts. Her complete success story and many others can be found in David’s latest book entitled “World Wide Rave.”

Podcasters report their top 3 podcasting tips (Part 1 & Part 2)
Marketing consultant Devon Dudgeon shares TONS of podcasting tips in this two part post. The tips were submitted by seasoned podcast veterans around the globe and are aimed at those who have been thinking about getting there own podcast off the ground.

Why blogs matter
“Q: Who reads blogs? A: Journalists”; Shannon Paul delivers another thought provoking post that shows why blogs might just be the ultimate tool in your social media arsenal.

Image Credit (sans modifications): Jade Gordon

Being a social media guy and new media creator, I naturally saw some great potential for using these new features as part of a future client campaign. Coincidentally, the opportunity to do just that came about a few days later for our client TeleMessage and their TeamText campaign – geared toward educating consumers (specifically teens and tweens) about the ability to send text to landline.

The result is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style video dubbed “Jenny’s Dilemma,” in which the viewer can choose from one of three different endings to the main story. The correct outcome features a call to action that directs the viewer to a landing site for additional information related to the campaign.

Other examples that use the new annotation functionality include a trivia question from Val’s Art Diary (as featured in Jeremiah’s post) and a racy (mildly NSFW) “choose your own adventure” campaign for the Samsung Instinct mobile device called “Follow Your Instinct.”

It should be interesting to see how marketers integrate this new YouTube functionality into their campaigns moving forward. We hope that you’ll take a look at our submission to the interactive video genre, and let us know what you think!

A List of Social Media Marketing Examples
Peter Kim launched an extremely valuable list of brands that are currently using social media. He invites readers to contribute to this ongoing list via the comments section where he’ll integrate submissions into the main post on a periodic basis.

Making the case for social media in PR
Shannon Paul knocks another one out of the park with this great post on stepping back from the hype of social media tools and getting back to basic communication.

Social Punishment: The “Bozo” Feature
Every once in a while Community Managers need to deal with “troublemakers” within their online communities. Jeremiah Owyang approaches the subject by suggesting the “Bozo” feature as potential solution. Be sure to dive into the comments section for a good discussion on the topic.

A fresh take on the browser
One of the most blogged about topics this week was the release of Chrome, Google’s new web browser. This post on the Google blog started the avalanche. Continue the reading from these Techmeme links.

Facebook Connect: OpenID Without the Email
Nick O’Neill from the SocialTimes.com blog shares his view on Facebook’s recently announced “Facebook Connect” initiative that was announced at this week’s F8 Facebook Developer’s Conference. Audio of the Mark Zuckerburg Keynote is also available in a separate post.

What ‘Facebook Connect’ Means for Corporate Websites
The topic of Facebook Connect continues with this great post from Jeremiah Owyang that discusses what this new offering from Facebook might mean to corporations.

What are the five strengths of a Community Manager?
Many of last week’s picks centered around the topic of community. Here’s another good one to add to the bunch written by Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist & Chief Blogger at LinkedIn.

A Guy Walks Into a Bar…
Scott Monty reaches out to the Twitter community in search of answers (punch lines) to the question “How many social media experts does it take to change a lightbulb?” The humorous replies are featured in this post.

Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industy
Jeremiah Owyang provides an excellent list of social media case studied revolving around the automobile industry.

Blog Topics for Business to Business Customers
Coming up with a steady stream of topics for your corporate blog is sometimes not an easy task. This can be especially challenging in the B2B space where topics can be rather, well…dull. Chris Brogan help ease the process with several good suggestions.

H&R Block Social Media Programs Success
Jennifer Jones from PodTech interviews Paula Drum, VP of Marketing for H&R Block on their use of social media tools and the success that they’ve had. Be sure to check out all of Jennifer’s other excellent interview podcasts as well.

Must-Read Books for the Social Media Marketing Newcomer
This post on the Ignite Social Media blog touches on 9 “must read” books for those diving into the social media space.

Social Media FAQ #5: How Do I Talk to my Executives about Social Media?
Jeremiah Owyang continues his excellent on-going Social Media FAQ series with this post which contains advice on convincing your executive team why social media may be important to your business.

Building Community in the Enterprise
ACDSee Community Manager, Connie Bensen, visits the topic of community in the enterprise by recapping the main points from this week’s Forrester webinar presented by Rob Koplowitz. She provides an excellent summary for those who weren’t able to catch it live.

Make a Professional Podcast on a Minimal Budget
If you’ve considered starting a podcast for your company but have been overwhelmed with the technical aspects, then this post from SocialMediaTrader.com will help ease your anxieties a bit. The whole process is really easier than you would think. Our client Mzinga has been turning out great interview podcasts for a while now. Feel free to check them out at http://www.wearesmarter.com

FaceBook In Reality
I’ll wrap up this week’s set of picks with some humor. If you use Facebook in any capacity, you’ll appreciate the humor in this YouTube video from idiotsofants.com and BBC’s The Wall.

Have a great weekend!

I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day
Mike Arrington from TechCrunch.com (like you didn’t know?!) shares some perspective on the future of social networking on mobile devices. Mike has demoed the future and it could involve an iPhone. Make the jump to read more.

Social Media Networking and ROI: How to Maximize Value and Minimize Cost
Maki from the DoshDosh blog breaks down the hot topics of Social Media measurement and ROI. As most in the field will agree, the returns you’ll get out of networking via social media are not direct and immediate. However, Maki shares some ways to maximize your efficiency.

Forrester Marketing Conference Day 1: Understanding Your Customers Through Engagement
Since endless budgets for attending conferences rarely exist, we can be thankful that folks like Jeremiah create posts like this and share the experience virtually with lots of New Media goodness.

My Interview with three 8th Graders on the Future of Social Media
If you still think that your company doesn’t need to start participating on Social Networks, then take a look at this video clip that Jeff Pulver captured during a Social Media Breakfast in Tel Aviv, Israel. These kids are your future customers and employees!

Going viral with YouTube
Jiannis Sotiropoulos of the Pandemic Blog dives head first into how YouTube differs from other social networks in terms of content submission, friends, popularity and going viral.

Seesmic Acquires Popular Twitter AIR Client Twhirl
Seesmic and Twitter fans have a new reason to be giddy. Seesmic’s acquisition of the popular Twhirl Twitter client will bring about the perfect blend of video and Twitter messaging. It will be interesting to see if this merge brings more business use to the current, primarily social use of Seesmic.

How to Come Up with Topics to Write About On Your Blog
Are you a blogging business professional? Do you find it difficult to generate a steady stream of topics to blog about? Uber-blogger Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net shares a great video demonstrating one of the techniques he uses to generate ongoing blog topic ideas.

Writing Effective Blog Posts
Now that you’ve watched Darren Rowse’s video from our pick above and have your topic to write about, check out this short post on the techniques social media-master Chris Brogan uses to craft his daily posts.

The Ultimate Top Ten List For Small Business
Lela Davidson from the Business Pundit blog compiles a great list of links to “Top Ten” lists for small business. The linked topics include “Top Ten Marketing Blogs,” “Top Ten Best Presentations Ever,” and “Ten Tips For Time Management in a Multitasking World.”

Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Facebook
Guy Kawasaki taps “I’m on Facebook – Now What???” co-author Jesse Stay for a list of ten Facebook power tips. There are many good nuggets here if you’ve been hesitant to use Facebook for social networking as a business professional.

How to Deal with Internal Stakeholders
Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang continues to pump out amazing posts and this one is no exception. In this post, he shares many tips on how to leverage the power of your company’s stakeholders (internal customers) to maximize your social media and web strategy efforts.

Thats all for this week. As always, let us know what you think and happy reading!