For me, Facebook is a way to make personal connections. To stay in touch with old friends, make new friends, to be entertained, amused and interact intimately on emotional levels. For this and other reasons, I don't "like" many businesses on Facebook. The ones I do like are smaller, independent companies whose products or services I want to keep tabs on, and those that tend to have more to gain than loss by injecting a little personality into their posts.

They know Dr. Keith Smith on Capitol Hill. They know him in Canada and in Blue Cross boardrooms around the country, too.

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Back in the day - five to 10 years ago - companies used to spend $1.5-2.5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot in hopes it made enough of an impression to be the office water-cooler talk the next day.

Outside of many high profile crisis communications efforts, possibly no public relations campaign has been so large, and so successful over the past four decades than that of the Super Bowl.

JWT Intelligence, who’s in the marketing research business, issued it’s 2012 forecast that showed continued economic uncertainty, new technology and the idea of shared responsibility would drive emerging trends this year.

I used to be a big Macintosh computer fan. I still am, to some degree. But lately, I've been wrestling with the "new" philosophy of Apple. To me, they're different than the company I originally fell for.You see, I love the little guy - the individual/company that succeeds despite overwhelming odds.

I'm rather disappointed in the public relations industry. 2009 should have been a banner year for PR. With the emergence of social media as a major tool for marketers and the notion that publicity potentially comes at a lesser price than other marketing disciplines (including advertising), PR firms could be replacing ad agencies as the communications leader among clients. But it's not.

Should you find yourself with a smaller marketing budget and need to prioritize your efforts, start here:

Once considered a stepchild in the marketing world, public relations may be the most powerful tool available to marketers today.