Follow Chad Keffer on Twitter at @AppMonkey1

I am a social marketer who uses social media. If that statement confuses you, then read on. I’ve found that working in the realm of social marketing many people don’t quite understand what it is and generally think it is the same thing as social media.

The following guest blog was written by Greg Collins (@Greg_Collins). Collins is a Chartered Retirement Specialist at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. You can find him and his PJC Group at http://fa.smithbarney.com/thepjcgroup.

Watch the LIVE conference below. So much is changing on Facebook, beginning right now.

Over the past two decades, VI Marketing and Branding’s fans have always discussed our content throughout Oklahoma City, but, until social media, we were unable to narrow down those VI “ambassadors".

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 have been asked (and participated) in numerous social media speaking opportunities. This is not to say I am headlining major conventions or anything, but speaking to groups and participating on panels on the workings of social media. 

How did we take a subject that is not overly sexy and convince a community to become consumer advocates for said subject? The answer was an eight-week multi-faceted marketing campaign called the “YOUtilities Challenge” and created by VI Marketing and Branding for Colorado Springs Utilities.

The highly anticipated Google+ business pages launched yesterday and the world wants to know How is Google+ different than Facebook?

Reactive.

This past weekend, we bid a grand farewell to the let down that was Google Buzz. If you are unfamiliar with Google Buzz, just imagine any successful and engaging social media platform like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ but take away the “successful and engaging" part and presto…www.buzz.google.com.

These past few months the technological capabilities offered to enhance social media have exploded.