Lisa Barone of Small Business Trends writes that not every company is suited to engage in social media and even those that are, may not necessarily be ready to do so. In her latest posts she provides readers 6 Ways To Tell If Your Social Media-Ready.

The telephone provoked many of the same worries that more recently have been expressed about online social media explains Perri Klass, M.D. in the New York Times article Seeing Social Media More as Portal Than as Pitfall.

Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers sits down with early achiever and one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs to discuss social business and lessons from her youth in Social media success Rx: “Be a little crazy” via CNN Money

Social Media and Content Marketing: A One-Night Stand?
Lee Odden from the TopRank Online Marketing blog guest posts on Clickz.com with this look into why B2B marketers should consider mapping out a social content plan instead of creating and publishing individual, non-cohesive content-based campaigns.

Putting Content in Context
MarketingProf‘s Ann Handley expands on the power of content after an inspiring trip to the recent (and first-ever) Content Marketing World conference in Cleveland. She also includes a great video that opened the event and really puts “content into context.“

Re-evaluate b2b social strategy to reach tech buyers
BtoBOnline.com‘s Charlotte Woolard shares an informative Q&A conducted with Forrester‘s Kim Celestre that reveals how technology marketers need to look beyond thinking that social networks are (the) strategy.

Andy’s Answers: How Mattel used social media to build excitement around Hot Wheels’ record-breaking stunt
Toy giant Mattel has been putting a loy of money into social this year and their recent “Fearless at the 500” campaign drew quite a bit of attention both online and off. Andy Sernovitz from Smartblogs.com highlights some of the big ideas behind the campaign. Mattel’s Betsy Burkett and Gretchen de Castellane can be seen recapping the case study here as well:

Social Media And The Modern Startup
Fast Company Expert Blogger Aaron Arnold explains how “social media allows early adopters to share the experience without the risk of being the entrepreneur creating it” via his own personal experience.

Social Media Policies: Let’s Talk About What You Should Do
Creating a social media policy for your organization can be a tricky task. Its almost like you need to be controlling without being controlling, right? Most organizations base their policies on telling employees what they can’t do when it comes to using social media. This GigaOm.com post from Mathew Ingram suggests trying to create a social policy with a positive stance, and he provides a few suggestions on how to do so.

Video and Social Media Marketing: Getting C-Suite Executives To Lead
Getting executive level buy-in for social marketing campaigns can be difficult – even more so if you want the executive to be physically involved with the project. David Murdico from Supercool Creative shares some helpful tips in gaining their support and participation in this article on MediaPost.com.

How Barbie & Ken Were Reunited by Social Media
Mashable‘s Erica Swallow began writing about Mattel’s social campaign to reunite Barbie and Ken earlier this year, and I selected her initial post as a Persuasive Pick back in January. This week, she follows up with more detail about the campaign and shares the results of its success.

Image Credit: RambergMediaImages

Four Reasons Your Brand Should Avoid Facebook

The Less-Tangible ROI of Social Media
We all want to ensure our social marketing efforts are matching up to the boss’s expectations for the investment, so it can help to set goals and be tracking the less obvious benefits to your brand. Danny Wong shares his thoughts with the Huffington Post about the hidden ways we are making an impact that will demonstrate campaign value to the C-Suite and build a better understanding of its potential.

Brands That Have Mastered Content Marketing
Are you infusing your marketing strategy with content? What kind of content are you producing, and how does this tie into your marketing strategy? In one of this week’s iMediaConnection posts, Rob Rose shares his insight and explores best practices from content marketers including Kodak and Hubspot. He stresses the importance of thinking of content not as a tactic, but as a new way of shaping your entire strategy.

Does Social Media Transparency Matter in the Real World?
Before you decide on your social media transparency strategy, take a look at the questions Debra Ellis proposes on Social Media Today the real value of transparency. Are you guilty of over-sharing? Will sharing too much information take away from your competitive advantage? Does it help to leave some things to the imagination?

Seven Common PR Sins to Avoid At All Costs
Seems like simple PR 101, but some PR reps still break the rules of engagement with the journalists they try to pitch. For those starting out in their careers, Ragan.com offers a good checklist from Amanda Marsh to keep by your desk — and a good refresher for the rest of us.

Down the rabbit hole into the land of social media
Mvelase Peppetta shares an entertaining comparison between the various personalities you’ll engage with in the social space and the classic characters from the Wizard of Oz, via this post on Memeburn.com.

The Reports of B2B Marketing’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated
Dianna Huff continues to wave the flag in support of B2B marketing – providing some great links to proof points that it truly is NOT dead.

Which Social Media Sites Are Most Beneficial?
Lisa Barone share the results of a recent Adology survey (via eMarketer) that shows which social sites were seen as most beneficial to small businesses. Make the jump to see the results.

Many Brands Don’t Track Social Media Conversations
The fun with “stats” continues with this post on MarketingProfs that shares the results of a survey from Alterian that revealed nearly one-third of marketers surveyed have little or no understanding about social conversations around their brand(s).

Ten Useful Hacks to Make Things Happen
Valeria Maltoni updates her popular “Ten Useful Hacks” post from last March, with this post that will help “make your distractions disappear so you can meet your goals.” It’s a highly informative post that I definitely recommend. Click it now…before you get distracted!

6 Ways to Lose Customers, Credibility And Friends On Social Media

B2Bs Tap Social to Boost Search
This eMarketer post highlights a recent study showing that B2B marketers are finding positive results from their online social efforts, but not all are following through with proactive monitoring – and as a result, might be leaving additional opportunities on the table.

Google’s Schmidt taking small steps into social
People’s anticipation that Google has been secretly working on a monster social platform to challenge the likes of Facebook was brought down a few notches after Google CEO, Eric Schmidt‘s,  Zeitgeist 2010 conference presentation.

Debunking 5 Myths About Content Marketing
You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king” on more than one occasion, but regardless of how many times it’s said, companies still feel overwhelmed with the idea of creating new content (consistently) for publishing on social platforms. This post by ConversationAgent, Valeria Maltoni, clears up five misconceptions that often come with the territory in content marketing.

What people are saying about upcoming Twitter redesign
Paul McNamara from NetworkWorld‘s Buzzblog shares various perspectives from notable industry voices on this week’s interface redesign announcement from Twitter. Here’s Twitter’s official promotional video for the redesign – including a glimpse of the interface towards the end (if you missed it earlier).

Image: respres (via Flickr)

Making the real-time Web relevant
The future of online search includes getting information in “real-time.” This CNET post from Tom Krazit gives a great overview on the new direction in search and the struggles that search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing are working through to provide information as it happens.

7 B2B Social Media Tools you haven’t heard of
This SocialMediaB2B.com post from Adam Holden-Bache provides seven new tools that are worth checking out. I’m impressed to finally come a across a list of tools that are all new to me!

10 Tricks For Getting Inspired to Write
Have you officially launched your blog, but have found it difficult to continually come up with fresh ideas for creating content? This Copyblogger post by Jonathan Morrow provides great tips and techniques for writing inspiration.

Will It Blend? – iPad
The long-lasting popularity of BlendTec’s “Will it blend” videos continues with the demise of a shiny new Apple iPad.

Nike Censors LeBron James Dunk Incident; Creates Needless PR Fiasco
Nike takes the heat as they learn a lesson about transparency – the hard way.

Blogging Truth: No One Likes Your CEO
Lisa Barone from Outspoken Media serves up this fun and entertaining post about why your company’s CEO might not be the best person to write the corporate blog.

Since When Are Blogs Not Social Media?
Brian Clark from Copyblogger reminds us that the blogs were the original form of social media and still hold tremendous value in your social media strategy.

Life after 80, or what World of Warcraft can teach you about marketing mastery
Christoper S. Penn channels your “inner-gamer” with this fun look at how World of Warcraft compares to marketing strategy.

How P.F. Chang’s Uses Twitter to Be Awesome
Word of Mouth Marketer, Andy Sernovitz shares this inspiring interview that she shot with Kelly Morehead of the restaurant chain P.F. Changs. Their innovative use of Twitter is a story that B2Cs’ can learn from.