You might say Mozes is on a rock-n-roll these days.

Within just the last few weeks, Wired ran a feature on how the Palo Alto, Calif-based Mozes powers Umphrey’s McGee’s interactive UMBowl, a concert series that enables fans to shape the concert – in real time – using their mobiles phones.

And just this last week, The Silicon Valley Business Journal ran a profile on the company, which focuses on mobile engagement at live events for brand clients such as Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company and Rock The Vote, among many others.

In part three of tour May Mobile Marketing Roundtable, we get the inside scoop from founder Dorrian Porter (full disclosure: A longtime friend, client, and sponsor of this blog), on how brands are leveraging the power of mobile at the all-important "point of inspiration."

MOBILE ROUNDTABLE (PT 3): MOZES ROCKS THE MOBILE REVOLUTION

Click here to listen to: Mobile Roundtable (Pt 3): Dorrian Porter - Mozes Rocks The Mobile Revolution

(11:07)

ALSO LISTEN TO:

MOBILE ROUNDTABLE (PT 1): Julie Fajgenbaum - How AMEX Banks on Mobile Marketing

MOBILE MARKETING ROUNDTABLE (PT 2): Organic's Rachel Pasqua - Kimberly Clark, Specialized Bicycles Ramp Up Mobile Marketing

The numbers are steadily increasing but a white paper issued in August 2011 by the Society of Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), entitled, ‘The Client’s Use of Social Media and Social Networking’ demonstrated it’s still an uphill climb. More than 1,600 surveys were distributed; 160 responses received. The breakdown of firms using some form of social media was 36% engineering; 24% architecture; and 17% for construction, landscape design and facility owners.

“For many construction firms, all their work is about getting a project off the ground,” said Daryl Andrews, vice president of marketing and business development at 360 Construct, a building management firm. He added that it’s still a slow-go for the construction industry to use social media as part of their business strategy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Most architectural firms currently using social media tend to be larger, primarily due to the investment in time/labor and having the requisite skills to navigate/communicate effectively on key social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The engineering community, on the other hand, has been quicker to adapt social media. Way back in Fall 2009 (probably equates to about 50 years in tech time), CE News conducted a survey on social media and mobile devices that was sent to about 750 civil engineering firms. Slightly more than half- 51% - said they use regularly use professional networking sites like LinkedIn; 30% said they use social networking mediums like Facebook to promote their business; 20% use Twitter or blogs. Those percentages have undoubtedly increased.

“Engineering firms can take advantage of social computing tools for knowledge management, expertise sharing and information retention, which is especially critical with the pending retirement of baby boomers and incoming millennial generation,” said Brian Zeve, managing director, Microsoft Professional Services Industry. “Web-based collaboration through wikis, blogs, tagging, and other content management tools can provide firms with a whole new way of architecting knowledge and enabling input and expertise to bubble-up within the firm.”

The current social media flavor of the month, Pinterest, has exploded onto the scene in recent months and quite a few A/E/C firms are now sharing their ‘pins’ in the form of visual portfolios of previous jobs, ideas, and designs conducive to their respective business. Most A/E/C firms usually have a welter of images for key projects so Pinterest is fast becoming an attractive forum to showcase work.

So with the aforementioned in mind, here are a few examples of how a handful of A/E/C firms in the U.S. and abroad are effectively using social media:

Burns & McDonnell

Established in 1898, the venerable Kansas City, MO-based firm has more than 3,400 employee-owners including engineers, architects, construction experts, planners, estimators, economists, technicians and scientists. Burns & McDonnell plans, designs, permits, constructs and manages facilities worldwide. The company also ranks 26th in Fortune’s 2012 list of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For.’

While the 113-year-old firm has roots dating back to the 19th Century, Burns & McDonnell hasn’t rested on its laurels and has readily embraced 21st Century social media avenues.

For starters, the company maintains a comprehensive Careers Blog; recent posts have included ‘How to Establish Your Online Presence’ (see YouTube video in this post; the company also maintains a dedicated YouTube page containing numerous videos); ‘LinkedIn: 4 Things You Need to Know About This Powerful Tool;’ ‘7 Tips for Stress-Free Business Travel;’ and ‘What Recruiters See When They Read Your Resume.’ Posts are cross-linked to the company’s LinkedIn site and tweeted.

Burns & McDonnell also uses LinkedIn for recruiting - two recent posts, for instance, advertise openings for a telecommunications coordinator in the Kansas City headquarters, and a project manager-substation design, in Wallingford, CT.

The Facebook home page currently has 915 Likes; it also features numerous shared links to stories in the news that are of interest to employees, project photos, even volunteer opportunities – a recent one was for Jazzoo, the Kansas City Zoo’s largest annual fundraising event.

As of today, the company had 3,271 followers on Twitter (@BurnsMcDonnell). In addition to company-related tweets and retweets, Burns & McDonnell also uses Twitter for recruiting. Here’s one example from yesterday: #Engineering student looking for the coolest jobs? Check out @BurnsMcDCareers.

Snow Architects

Located in Liverpool, United Kingdom, Snow Architects is a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Chartered Practice; projects range across the board – residential properties, apartments, restaurants, hotels, mixed-use city center developments.

The firm utilizes a wide variety of the most popular social media tools – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter; posts photos/videos on Flickr, Vimeo and YouTube. The company’s director, Dave Cornett, is also using QR codes and Augmented Reality (AR) to help with practice development.

“We’ve been using QR codes in our printed brochure to link to additional information on the website, such as videos or additional photographs of the project,” said Cornett.

Cornett’s enthusiastic about how AR can be applied to architecture.

“We’ve done some image based AR and 3D models to show clients; they’ve been impressed when I pull out my iPhone and guide them through their building,” said Cornett.

He added that the company has also been looking at geo located models – these are superimposed over a phone’s camera as you look at the site.

“We’ve had a lot of Twitter interest in this worldwide, which is something I didn’t expect. The main disadvantage right now is that there isn’t a single app which can do all the things I would want to so it’s a case of switching from app to app,” said Cornett.

Cornett said that social media has helped increase brand awareness for his practice.

“Most people have actually now heard of us when we go to industry events in Liverpool and Manchester; we have also had job enquiries via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook on the back of a tweet or status update which jogs someone’s memory,” said Cornett.

Martell Home Builders

The Moncton, New Brunswick construction firm is one of Canada’s largest home builders.

The company made the plunge into social media because of a key problem – customers didn’t know where to find them when they needed them. So Martell resolved this by adding a ‘Where’s My Contractor’ feature on the web site which lists Twitter accounts of the firm’s managers – this way clients could see what they were doing and know how to find them. The web page is also connected to a Google Map API (application programming interface), which puts a stickpin on a map, making it even easier for customers to find their contractor.

Martell’s Twitter page is popular – to date, @martellhomes has 12,495 followers and the company tweets about a half-dozen times each day on a wide variety of topics – some recent tweets (with links) have included: ‘21 ways of turning pallets into unique pieces of furniture;’ ‘Top 10 ways to add value to your home;’ and ‘What tool can you not live without? 14 must-have tools for new homeowners.’

The company has an extensive YouTube archive – there are currently 79 videos for viewing covering a wide expanse of helpful homeowner-related topics. Some of these include:

• How to fix a door latch
• How to adjust or replace a shower
• Maritime energy solutions

While the jury is still out on whether social media is generating billable projects, it’s definitely helping the A/E/C industry connect with the public and ultimately may lead to new collaborations and clients.

Jing Liu, principal of Brooklyn, NY-based Solid Objectives-Idenburg Liu, an architectural design firm, believes social media will gain momentum across the A/E/C divide over time but with a caveat:

“Younger people who are in their 20s are very much in touch with the technology,” said Liu. “Online there is so much information, however, that I don’t think people completely trust what they read. They need to get know you personally before they give you a project.”

Stay tuned.

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Every new Twitter user eventually figures out that that it's better to have more followers. However, upon first joining Twitter, you probably followed as many influencers as you could. Eventually, this tactic backfires. Following too many accounts is a red flag for potential subscribers. Instead, optimize how many people you're following and how many are following you by unfollowing accounts. Unfollowing to get more followers is a counterintuitive, but effective, tactic no one talks about.

Evaluate Your Follow Score

To demonstrate how the concept works, we can reduce the follow relationship to a simple, numerical Follow Score. It's calculated this way:

For example, if you were following 200 accounts and had 2,000  followers, your Follow Score would be 10. A Follow Score of 2 or higher is acceptable.

@NylonMag, a fashion magazine, is following 219 accounts  and has 460,649 followers. Nylon's Follow Score is an exceptional 2103. Judging from the follow relationship, the average Twitter user likely concludes @NylonMag's tweets are compelling, since almost half a million people are willing to subscribe to the content without being followed in return.

In contrast, @cspenn has a low Follow Score of 0.99. He follows 53,186 people, and 52,651 people follow him. If you were deciding whether to follow @cspenn, would you trust that all his 50k followers subscribe to him for the quality of his content? Would this affect your opinion of him before you even read his tweets?

The ideal Follow Score varies with follower count. Start with a goal of 2 and work up from there. To get there, brands may need to unfollow “inactive” fans — people who were followed as a reward for an old Retweet or Reply. This works for individuals too — they may have to unfollow strangers, idle accounts, and distant acquaintances.

Skew Your Follow Score in Your Favor

Because it’s common knowledge that users often try  to win followers by following each other, almost everyone (including average users) will have extra followers. Users, therefore, expect your Follow Score to be higher than 1 — you shouldn't be following more people than your number of followers.

The higher your Follow Score, the greater impression you give of being worth following. A high Score can indicate that people are willing to follow you even if you don't follow them back, implying that your tweets are  high quality. Exception: when using the Twitter channel as part of your CRM system (like @ComcastCares and @BofA_Help), you may need to follow people to allow them to send direct messages. Consider designating a separate channel for broader company news, product updates, and other tweets.

Follow a Realistic Number of People

Twitter users expect each other to read the tweets of people you follow. Users also expect brands (and brands' social teams) to use Twitter similarly. And from experience, Twitter users know it's impossible to keep up with too many accounts.

A brand with 400 followers can get away with a Follow Score of 2 by following 200 accounts. But a brand with 30,000 followers shouldn't be following 15,000 accounts. Not even the most dedicated social media team can keep up with a stream of 15,000 accounts.

Following everyone you meet isn't plausible. I recommend following no more than 200 accounts. Few would expect @cspenn to keep up with the tweets of 53,186 people. By our guidelines, Mr. Penn should unfollow at least 52,986 people to strengthen his brand perception.

Polish Your Profile in 2 Easy Steps

1. Calculate your brand's Follow Score, and unfollow until the score is above 2.
2. Don't follow more than 200 people.

If you've tried this and found success, I'd love to hear your story in the comments.

PS My use of @cspenn as an example is no criticism of what he tweets — I only think his Follow Score could be improved to his advantage!

In part two of the May 2012 GEN WOW Mobile Marketing Roundtable, I ask Rachel Pasqua, executive director of mobile marketing at New York City-based Organic about her upcoming book Mobile Marketing in An Hour A Day, and her insights into Kimberly Clark's plans to merge its social media and mobile marketing initiatives. 

Along the way, we'll hear about the future of mobile apps and wearable computing at brands like Specialized Bicycles, and much, much more.

MOBILE MARKETING ROUNDTABLE (PT 2): ORGANIC'S RACHEL PASQUA - KIMBERLY CLARK, SPECIALIZED BICYCLES RAMP UP MOBILE MARKETING

Click Here to Listen to: Mobile Roundtable Pt 2: Rachel Pasqua

(9:55)

ALSO LISTEN TO:

MOBILE ROUNDTABLE (PT 1): Julie Fajgenbaum - How AMEX Banks on Mobile Marketing

If your prospects can’t find you at the Google search box, then it is well worth your time to optimize your content, keywords and entire web presence for organic search. And you want to because more than 1 billion Google searches are performed every day; 85% of those searchers are most likely to click on the organic side (left-hand side) of the search results.

Getting to the top of Google’s search results requires ongoing commitment to optimizing your entire web presence.

Here are five SEO tips and tactics that will help you improve your search engine rankings, increase eyeballs to your online store and impact sales.

1. How do you rank now?

Before investing any time in SEO it’s best to understand how you currently rank for the keywords that you want to be found for. Accurate SEO rankings are challenging to obtain because Google personalizes search results for everyone.

If you go to the Google search box and search on your own product, it may appear as though you are #1 because you’ve likely searched on the keyword before and Google is personalizing the search for you. However, a prospect searching for your product for the first time might see your website or product page ranked #7.

SEO ranking results are also different by country. So if you’re located in France but trying to be found in Google.com, it is almost impossible to understand your actual SEO ranking.

Gaining insight into your true, unskewed, non-personalized SEO ranking for a particular keyword phrase requires access to an SEO ranking tool.

2. Closing the keyword gap.

The keyword gap is a concept I use to describe the fact that your prospects are most likely using a different keyword to find your products and services compared to the keyword you would use. For example, if you are selling “gizmos” your prospects may actually refer to them as “gadgets” in the Google search box.

Closing your keyword gap is about understanding how your prospects and customers are searching and adjusting your keyword strategy to match their intentions.

The only way to close your keyword gap is through keyword research. Studying your website analytics as well as talking to your customers are two great ways to get started. (Download: Getting Your Keywords Right Workbook)

3. Continuous content.

A strong SEO strategy starts with a continuous commitment to content. Content is at the heart of SEO. Without content, you’ll never be found in Google. Keep in mind that Google loves fresh, relevant content.

Start with evaluating your website and deciding if you think the content throughout your site could be improved. How do you take what you learned in #2 above and work those keywords into your content?

A regular blogging strategy will also boost and help maintain high SEO rankings when the content is optimized for the keyword phrases you are attempting to rank for. Brainstorm blog topics in advance. Think about stories about your products, the clients that love them, how they use them, etc. Post your blog content on your blog site and also Tweet it, Facebook it, YouTube It and Google+ it.

4. YouTube; YouBeFound.

YouTube is the second busiest search engine only after its parent, Google. Once you close your keyword gap and have great content, putting in the extra effort to publish video content on YouTube and optimizing it for search will really pay off.

Not only will you be found when a prospect searches directly from the YouTube search box, but YouTube results can also be embedded in the Google search results page. This increases the likelihood of you occupying multiple rank positions in Google for your product. Who doesn’t want that?

Ensure you have sufficient links back to your website from the video page and reference the keyword in your voice over. And remember, your videos don’t have to be fancy or expensive.

5. Socialize your online store.

According to both Google and Bing, social signals now account for 8% to 10% of their organic search algorithms. Your social media presence now matters to SEO! This means that Google is evaluating the volume of social signals that are being produced by your web presence.

A social signal can be a Twitter tweet or retweet, a Facebook Like or Share, or a Google +1. Here are a few tips to help increase your social signals:

• Ensure you have the social sharing icons on every page of your website. Not just the home page, but every shopping cart page. It is about providing your shoppers with endless opportunities to click the Like or Share or Tweet button.
• Incorporate Facebook into your site wherever possible. For example, add a Facebook Fan Box to your web pages as well as the Facebook Comments App to your blog.
• If possible, add your customers to your Google+ Circles and follow them on Twitter. They may reciprocate and retweet your product tweets or share your content in their circles.
• SEO Your Business Facebook Page. There are even more tips and tricks available in this SEO Your Business Facebook Page How-To Guide.

All this “SEO stuff” may sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Take it one step at a time, spend an hour per day figuring it out and it will pay off. SEO results do not happen overnight, but they do happen. It is a never-ending process but one worth investing in.

Social Media emerged on academic radar with the 2008 study, “Social Media Usage Soars--UMass Dartmouth Finds,” it was considered the digital equivalent of the campfire. Students gathered on it, told tall tales and interacted for entertainment.

Today, Social Media is considered a critical element of campus bonding, cultural inculcation and news and, it's not just for campuses any more. All things online are critical elements in business and other strategies today. Businesses adopted this stance when they found out the impact of the internet by angry customers with the publication of Peter Blackshaw's seminal book,  "Happy Customers tell 30 people: Unhappy Customers Tell 3,000"

Colleges understand the critical importance of online social media. This is why usage of these communications conduits has increased so rapidly. It is also why online universities stress Social Media in their course offerings as well as their class work and activities. According to the Social Media Usage Soars According to UMass Dartmouth in 2007- 2008, 61 percent of those responding stated that they used at least one form of Social Media. Within a year, that number was up to 85 percent. The latest study (2011) reveals that 100 percent of colleges and universities are using social media in some form. This usage seems to naturally follow not just the explosive growth of social media by businesses, but also the growth of online education.

With 6 million students enrolled in online institutions and growing at 10 percent annually, this is the fastest growing area in education today.Sloan Consortium report about online education Within the select field of online education, the professors themselves appear to advocate using online Social Media.  Online Faculty Practice What They Teach is spurring greater usage of the Social Media within the online schools themselves.

In California, both online and offline schools are heavy users of all forms of social media. On the Studentadvisor.com list of the Top 100 users of Social Media, California Schools captured seven spots. These users included even small select schools like Biola College, a Christian Bible school which is hosting a Digital Media ministry aptly entitled, Becoming Social  Media  Savvy Without Losing Your Soul.  UCLA’s football coach  sent out a   broadcast  text to football players instructing them to clean up their Facebook act.   While the notion of telling a bunch of jocks to get on their computers and clean up their websites   seems far-fetched to those used to the notion of “dumb jocks,” this is par   for the course for the  generation born since 1980.  Even the least capable  among them has been using a cellphone longer than they have been driving.   Social Media Use Among Millenials

If someone walks into a party and takes his pants of and swings them over his head, wears a toga, or does a dance with a lampshade on it'll be memorable. Or in the case of Jim Belushi, wearing a toga and smashing a guitar:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What's interesting is the next morning, you'll probably just recall "some crazy guy doing something crazy." You won't know his name or anything about him. Everyone remembers Belushi doing crazy things in Animal House, but who remembers his name was Bluto, or anything about him?

In contrast, how many parties have you been to when everyone leaves having met the soft spoken, brilliant artist, businessman, or college student. Maybe this person made a clever point over dinner, or just circulated in an easy fashion listening and chatting intelligently about the ideas and events.  Perhaps, he or she was a guest speaker who was invited to say a few words between cocktails and dinner?

The next morning, you turn to you wife or husband and recall this Memorable Person by name. You maybe even Facebook message the Memorable Person with ideas social or business. The Pants Taker Offer  - he's just a crazy story you tell. You don't need to take your pants off to make an impact. And in fact, if you're remembered for doing so, no one knows who you are, and no one would think of reaching out to you.

Large interstitial ads, push downs, and skins are the crazy guy at the party.  You kind of know something happened that was jarring but not much else.  This is why typical display advertising only has a brand lift (increase in favorability or purchase intent as a result of seeing a banner) of say 30% at best.

In contrast, Social Advertising, can see lifts that are multiples higher:

We've seen similar results in our work with GE and Virgin, among others.

What's amazing is how soft-spoken this social messaging can be.  A small icon saying, "Post by Brand X," or a Twitter feed or even just a Facebook post.  If the content is produced by the brand and exemplifies what the brand aspires to, no one misses who the message it from.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Jump to 3:35 to see ad great Lee Clow explaining this phenomenon)

It makes people love and respect the soft-spoken thoughtful brand - there is no reason to wear a toga.

And so when I'm asked, "is there enough branding?" I point to the data.

The data shows, you don't need to wear a lampshade online to be noticed and remembered. And in fact, if you do don the toga, the results are pretty clear - when was the last time the guy who twirled his pants was remembered by name, respected, or asked to lunch.  You're jarred by the crazy behavior, but that's about it.

The way to behave at a party for the long term is pretty clear, and on the social web, it's just the same.

When most people think of social media, Facebook is the first thought to cross their mind. Facebook seems to have taken over the world of social media. What once started out as a site for college students to connect has now turned into a social media monster. But contrary to popular belief, Facebook isn’t the only contender. This infographic presented by The Seo Company highlights the state of Facebook and other social media websites in 2012.

So other than the book of faces, what’s going on with other social media sites? Well, if you haven’t heard of Pinterest you are completely out of the loop. For those who may not know, Pinterest is basically a virtual pinboard. You can pin pictures to different boards you have created and keep all of your ideas and inspiration in one place. Pinterest was named the Best New Startup of 2011, a title I’m sure Facebook once held. It also referred more business than Linkedin, YouTube and Google+.

Speaking of Google+, President Obama held the first all-virtual interview with U.S. citizens using G+ Hangouts. Pretty cool, although Google+ has not gotten as popular as many expected it to. Todd Wasserman of Mashable found that the average person spends 3.3 minutes on Google+ compared to 7.5 hours on Facebook per month. It seems as though Facebook is still the top dog, but will it last forever?

View the infographic below to find out more about the state of our beloved social media websites.

The State of Social Media 2012 by The SEO Company

The Olympic games start on July 27, 2012, but the race to game the social ad strategy has already begun.

For the Beijing Summer Olympics, NBC alone sold over $1 billion worth of advertising, and online publishers took an estimated $100 million in revenue. Social advertisers take note: the 2008 games happened before social advertising really got going. Even in early 2010, social advertising was just gaining a foothold, and the 2010 Winter Olympics saw advertisers foray into social efforts.

This year, they're going all-in. The role of social in promotion of the 2012 Games will be huge.

Earned Social Campaigns in Full Swing

Earned media campaigns on the Olympics began earlier this spring, at the 100-day mark, with names like Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola taking up the social torch for their promotions.

On Facebook, Samsung is encouraging people to follow more Olympic athletes with an owned social play: an interest graph app called "How Olympic Are You?" As part of the self-titled “US Olympic Genome Project,” the app analyzes how well connected people are to athletes for this year's Games. (How is it interest graph-related? It analyzes people’s connections to Olympics influencers, similar to how some social ad companies analyze people's interests based on who they follow.)

Of most interest to advertisers using the interest graph, the Games have set up an Olympic Athletes' Hub to help people follow all their favorite competitors on social platforms like Twitter and Facebook, extending the earned reach of Olympic messaging to as many people as possible and strengthening interest graph links between influencers and fans.

Brands Seek to Maximize Social Sharing

The main focus in the paid media approach as reported by several outlets is on generating a maximum number of shares.

Alex Craddock, head of North America marketing for Visa (always a major Olympics sponsor), says (emphasis ours):

The biggest challenge, I’ll call it an exciting opportunity, is with social and the importance of social in orchestrating your content across those multiple platforms. We have a lot of experience on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and are harnessing those experiences to make sure “Go World” delivers a great user experience.

The goals are around engagement and sharing. We have a multitude of different metrics we track. It’s hard to find one metric that we’ll be able to track on a day-to-day basis. It’s the level of sharing and engagement that will drive the level of success across “Go World.” We focus on three key metrics, views of the multitude of videos, the “likes” that we garnish for our Facebook page and the variety of consumer content and the cheers themselves.

But how best to encourage engagement and sharing? Since London 2012 organizers seem to be discouraging homegrown shareable media, brands and organizers must reinforce opportunities for fans to share officially sanctioned media. The best way to do that is with paid social media: make it easy for fans to share your content in social by presenting it in a social context.

Paid Social Campaigns Ramp Up

And paid campaigns for #London2012 all things Olympic have already begun, with brands like Visa and Sega stepping up first.

Visa launched its huge "Go World" campaign, which includes a Facebook wall dedicated to fans’ cheers for athletes (similar to Gillette’s Facebook greeting card for Derek Jeter on 140 Proof in 2011) and paid promotion of the Twitter hashtag #VisaGoWorld.

Earlier this year, Twitter promised Olympics organizers that they wouldn't allow non-sponsors to squat the #London2012 hashtag for Twitter’s promoted products. That promise appears fulfilled so far: Only Sega, a London 2012 sponsor, is currently tagging along to Olympics momentum on Twitter to promote their latest game releases. Search Twitter for “#London2012” today, and you'll see Sega is promoted at the top of the results.

However, it's likely that we'll see paid social campaigns around the Olympics by non-sponsors too. What are your thoughts on the strength of buzz around the Olympics? Is now a good time for brand advertisers to make a push?

Vanessa Naylon (@vnaylon) is a Creative Strategist at 140 Proof.

In advertising, they say your message is competing with not only every other ad, but all the messages your audience encounters.  In a world of 140 million Twitter users and 300 million tweets a day, that’s a lot of competition, so what you say and do counts.

Big brands such as @Chevrolet, @ESPN, and @NakedJuice have done a great job building a Twitter following, but it doesn’t take a big team and millions of dollars to get attention on Twitter.  Start small, focus on quality, and execute a solid strategy based on what the most successful brands are doing.

Here are ten big brand strategies that anyone can employ to build their following:

1. Polish your image.  Big brands pay attention to the visual impact of their pages.  Use a high quality photo or illustration for your icon. Imagine it in the context of other users' feeds. Will it stand out — in a good way? Customize your background with something that fits you. Use a large image or a tasteful pattern. Check out Themeleon or Pixelgirl Presents for ideas.
2. Follow fewer people than follow you.  Successful brands don’t join Team Follow Back. If you're following more people than follow you, unfollow a few people. And optimizing your Follow Score by unfollowing will put your content in its best light and help you attract more followers. We recommend following no more than 200 people on Twitter at any time — keeping up with more is virtually impossible and makes you appear disingenuous.
3. Tweet regularly but not too often.  Big brands don’t deluge followers with hundreds of tweets or too many posts about extraneous topics.  Use an app like Buffer to space out your tweets, and when you have a lot to say, blog it and tweet the link.  Post links during the week and keep tweets mellow on the weekends.
4. Keep tweets neat and tidy.  This is something many companies get wrong – the idea is to provide useful content, not search bait.  Don't use too many "social media marketer" tricks, like hashtags, jargon, or trite polls. Tweet conversationally. @TheRock uses hashtags, but he does so with self-conscious humor.
5. Tweet more than you retweet. Choose your retweets carefully, and don’t excessively retweet praise of yourself. If you’re excited about all the great feedback you’re getting for something you’ve done, simply say that to thank your fans.
6. Stay positive.  Big brands typically emphasize positive things and never go on a stream of consciousness rant.  When necessary, present thoughtful criticism but keep it professional. 
7. Stay real-time.  People can tell when your account is on auto-pilot or you’re just tweeting the news of the day. Live-tweet occasionally, comment on what’s happening now, and share photos, to remind people a real person is tweeting! Yes, sometimes that includes tweeting about what you had for breakfast, no matter what some people say. 
8. Return replies.  Thank and acknowledge people who give you positive feedback. Follow up respectfully with people who give you negative feedback. Take a look at @Starbucks for examples of how a brand deals with feedback, good or bad.
9. Promote your content. Advertise your Twitter accounts and content on LinkedIn or Google. Promote specific content or create a custom "follow me" message with a why-buy, and drive to a follow intents page to make following easy. And of course put your Twitter link in your email signature, business card, and on your blog or personal website. For some people, the Twitter link is more important than the web address or phone number!
10. Make your account public. Have you noticed that no brands go huge on Twitter with private accounts? Making a private Twitter account is like setting up a mailbox and putting a padlock on it. Let’s get through some hard truths. Twitter is not a private journal. There’s no reasonable expectation of privacy on the Internet anymore (so 1996). Your employer and your family can and WILL find you eventually. But if your account is private, fewer interesting people (read: potential friends, co-conspirators, and employers) will find you. Go public. The weather’s fine.

Finally, make sure to evaluate your profile occasionally — if a stranger were looking at it right now deciding whether to follow you, what would they think? Would they think you're too aloof (you don't respond to people)?

Things people look for:

• GOOD TWEETS (funny, interesting, or helpful)
• Regular, but not too frequent, tweeting
• A few replies every so often
• Whether you actually read other people's tweets (if you follow 2,000 people, no one will believe you have time to read all the tweets)

In a SoHo Lab, HuffPo Mafia rekindles the old magic

A story not only about how corporate dysfunction is killing the creative spirit, but also about how easy it is for the creative thinkers to find a different path. Like water running downhill.

Via @Britopian

GM Cuts Facebook Ad Spending, But Ford Steps on the Gas

Clearly GMs move wasn’t the last word on this issue. But what’s hidden in many of the articles I’ve read is that GM is still pouring a lot of money into Facebook content creation. They may have come in with a bad direct response mindset thinking they could spin Facebook ads into gold, but the fact that they’re still spending considerable sums on their Facebook pages content shows they aren’t anywhere near giving up on Facebook.

Via @Aerocles

Facebook’s Purchases May Hint at Its Future

This really demonstrates the challenges so many large companies are having keeping up. Companies like Facebook are foregoing much of the typical legwork around acquisitions, playing things more from the gut. Of course, the story isn’t over yet, but in the meanwhile, with Facebook able to make large acquisitions like Instagram quickly, it’s making things difficult for their less-nimble competitors.

How Users Are App-ifying The Web, With or Without Publishers

This app vs web story has been an interesting one, and as the article points out, it’s not shaking out the way either side thought. Another example of how lowering production and startup costs add constant forks in the pathway of technology.

Via @bradberens

What the Web Could Learn From Dawn of TV

Despite the relative recency of mass communications, it’s remarkable how cyclical they are. Mobile is following so many of the same routes Web 1.0 took. This article draws the parallels between online video content, and the early days of TV.

Via @learmonth

Facebook giveth, Facebook taketh: A curious case of video apps

Whether or not you saw the NY Times article about Facebook’s ability to predict the future of apps, this is a good alternate view.

Via @mcarney7

Twitter Campaign Donates Your Unused Characters

Another example of advertising seeping into every nook and cranny it can find.

Via @mashable

Twitter verified accounts are used to denote the authenticity of certain pages on Twitter. The verified badge helps users identify that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s Tweets (or at least officially ghost-tweeting on behalf of a legitimate source).

Beginning primarily with the rise of celebrities’/politician’s use of Twitter, verified accounts then spread to other categories such as news outlets, companies and more. Confirmation that the account is being run by who it says it is.

Digital Trends recently reported (highlighted? exposed? uncovered?) that the verification process is tied to a monthly advertising fee. While this policy and the manner of its implementation are stirring up some debate, what does this mean for your brand?

I doubt that Twitter is going to make The White House account, or a celebrity like Kim Kardashian, pay $5,000/month…they create a draw for others to use Twitter. But for companies and brands on Twitter? That now seems to be another story.

A verified account may not be necessary for every business, but if your company feels it’s important to have verification, yet doesn’t have the budget for that monthly charge, the best things we recommend you can do is:

• Update your posts often
• Stay consistent with messaging
• Interact with your followers regularly
• Monitor your name and keywords, both in account names and in post messages (You should be doing this anyway, whether you run a Twitter page or not)

By making sure that your social media efforts are forging connections and conversationswith your audience, the verification will be inherent with or without a checkmark badge. Otherwise your brand is at risk of having someone literally take over how others perceive your Twitter presence.

That said, the demise of all other digital-based advertising at the emergence of this social channel is poppycock. I have often noticed that the digital experts in our space lack a historical view of advertising. The digital VC community—which has zero media and advertising expertise, but that invests heavily in digital companies—exacerbates this.

Dynamic new media and emerging communication channels often see meteoric growth. A leveling off always follows growth, as the channel finds its rightful place within the media mix of any advertisers’ plans. All you have to do is look back at the emergence of search marketing and you can see the parallel. It was not so long ago that it was proclaimed that display, at the hands of search, was dead. That proclamation was nullified, of course, when Google re-invested in display with the purchase of DoubleClick.

We can delve into history and find countless examples of new media coming of age, such as: broadcast television, cable television, etc. We can track their meteoric rises and their plateauing as they find their rightful place in the media mix. That’s not to say some media channels don’t suffer—changes in content distribution models do create disruptions beyond maturation, as we have seen with digital content vs. print and satellite radio vs. terrestrial.

In the case of social media, we are bound to see continued growth as marketers find new ways to leverage the channel. Does that mean the death of all other forms of digital advertising? Highly unlikely.

Leverage Your Newsletter for Blog Content

If you have a company newsletter, you have ready-made blog content. Take a few moments to review past newsletters. If you have access to analytics, pull content from your most popular articles and repurpose it. A skilled copywriter can create several blog entries from each article for a later publishing date. In the interest of efficiency, consider scheduling blogs to be published in advance.

More Blog Shortcuts for Content Updates

So you have the most engaging blog in the world and you want the masses to know it? That’s great. Blogging and social media are perfect together. By linking your blog to your Facebook or LinkedIn accounts, your social content will update automatically with every published post.

It’s All in the Application  

It is important to regularly update your social media profiles. Try simplifying your content strategy with applications. Are you constantly schlepping from tradeshow to conference? Then the Events application on Facebook or LinkedIn could be a win-win. Not only will you be updating your content, you’ll be keeping your contacts abreast of your whereabouts.

Applications can also make you seem more interesting on a personal level. The personal could impact the professional. For instance, the LinkedIn Reading List app allows you to recommend books to your connections. While it may be tempting to just list industry material, don’t be just another business wonk. Don’t be afraid to include The Hunger Games. Let connections know that you’re more than your job.

The creative, conversational, and relationship-building aspects of social media are what most of us consider to be the fun stuff. But in order for social users to see your creative, conversational, and relationship-building sides, they need to be reminded that you’re out there. That’s why updating and revising content, especially on your profile, is essential.

A Good Profile

The whole Google Plus experience begins with the profile. If you spent more time and creativity in making your Facebook Page cover account, do the same with the profile as this is the key here. Start right and put your best foot forward. Check out some pictures on Google Plus now for more ideas. When you appear in the steams of people, what they see is a thumbnail. This is where you should make a great impression. Make a very engaging and entertaining introduction. Your introduction should make people want to add you to their circles. The good thing is Google Plus lets you add links in the introduction so take advantage of it. Add as much links as you can.
8. Add your industry or business name as a “Spark”. Google Plus has a new feature and it is called Sparks but this feature is not yet fully developed. I think this will tie up into search results soon but for now use it like a Google alert. Set up Sparks for the name of your company name, your name and the terms of the industry. Sparks can also be used to follow industry.

One such item is how organizations incorporate social elements into their e-mail marketing campaigns. This is relevant as organizations that leverage both e-mail marketing & social channels tend to receive better results for their campaigns according to a report from Vertical Response. This strong correlation can be further amplified by fine tuning the social enablement of the actual messaging.

If you review branded e-mail marketing campaigns you will see inconsistency in how social sharing is enabled. The goal should not be to drive awareness that the channel exists, but to create frictionless sharability of the content and in some cases to also provide relevantly targeted messaging based on the users social graph data.

There are multiple buckets that brands across multiple verticals fall into when representing social connectivity via e-mail.

1) The Social Chicklet - Many brands follow the rule of just adding a socially enabled chicklets to the top or bottom navigation of communication. While paying homage to the brands owned channels, the actual engagement on this style of placement is lower than other methods.

Playstation as well as a majority of brands that reference social channels in this manner go with the approach of simply providing visibility into the fact that their channels exist. There is however a missed opportunity to share the message itself or specific content segments that are worthy of sharing.

2) The Social Call Out - The second level of integration takes the social chicklet & applies a direct call to action that is specific to the desired channel. This at the very least calls out to the user that a certain action needs to be taken that may drive additional value to the user.

In the example below, Fandango provides specific calls to action on what they would like for the user to do with the referenced social channels. FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook

Here are other examples from Eddie Bauer which leverages the facebook share call to action, Macys & Red Envelope.

3) Socially Enabled Content - Xbox deploys a strategy that not only calls attention to their specific channels but also the ability to directly share the content of the e-mail, they also take special care to socially enable each individual content block for maximum sharability.

4) Socially Centric Communication - Some brands have invested efforts to provide communication that directly highlights their social channels and how users can benefit from engaging directly with their channels. The benefit to this approach is that individuals consume different types of information across different channels. By highlighting the benefits that their social channels provide, they are potentially driving the user to action to associate with the brands owned social channels. It is also possible to track the organic growth associated with the call to action to test the impact of the campaign as some brands e-mail databases triple their current fans/followers, etc...

Below is an example from CORT that highlights an individual receiving value and drives a targeted message about a potential value exchange from engaging via their social channel.

Pizza Hut dedicated an e-mail message touting the value of becoming a member by leveraging their current network size, teasing with potential exclusives.

5) Socially Relevant - One of the bigger opportunities for brands is associated with the adoption of social sign on & leveraging open graph data to drive highly targeted recommendations and communication. In my recent post I wrote about the benefits of social sign on and open graph.

From an e-mail standpoint, the ability to pull in relevant open graph elements to further drive socially enabled gifting, such as birthday reminders and socially optimized wish lists come to forefront. These principles can then be applied to driving socially relevant and targeted messaging to drive a user to take action on behalf of either themselves or their closest friends.

Example of how Old Navy could further socially enable a post purchase e-mail

By taking the time to consider how to truly socially optimize e-mail marketing, a brand can truly capitalize on the permissive nature of their users to share their content vs. vaguely eluding to the fact that the brand has social channels.

On a final note, socially enabled sharing when it comes to retail shopping experiences are key across the prime millennial & gen x targets when it comes to point #3 below.

Follow Tom Edwards @Blackfin360

Banishing Short-Term and Shiny: A Look at Vail Resorts

This is how everyone should be thinking about digital marketing.

Via @ClarkKokich

Your Company Has Social Media Nailed. Now What?

An excellent series of questions to ask after you’ve reach the first level.

Via @RichardLevick

Facebook to Brands: You’re Posting Stuff Wrong

The subjects brands post about is the key to engagement. That’s why text analysis is the key to knowing what works on Facebook.

Why CMO Tenure is so Short

This has long been a known problem for both clients and agencies, and it’s interesting reading what some of these industry leaders have to say about it.

Via @emarxe & @djgeoffe

Facebook Dominates Mobile Social Networking

Facebook’s big story to me has always been the amount of time and frequency with which people use the site. Now it looks like that same behavior is tracking over to mobile. And to think they bought Instagram to better succeed in mobile.

Via @JackMarshall

Ad Account Guy Gets Man Lessons

I like this because a lot of people want to publish content, but aren’t sure what to write about. This guy found a way to get over that hump.