As a marketer I strive to keep up with the growing trends in the marketing world, so I’ve ventured out into the Twittersphere. Twitter is one of the dominant and fastest growing social media sites around today. By no means do I claim to be a Twitter expert, in fact a Twitter novice is probably more accurate, but I am learning and have developed a fondness for Twitter.

Yes. You should have a social media brand position. And yes. You should establish yourself as the thought leader in your industry. And yes. You should utilize your online presence to drive traffic to your site to sell your products and services. But you’re not going to achieve ANY of these goals if the only thing you’re posting is:

Every week on Wednesday, our agency gathers in the "Jigsaw" (pictured above) for lunch and a training session…in the great words of the Culps, we “roll up a fatty of fellowship and fun” in the spirit of learning! I would like to share a few tidbits from our agency training last week...

Okay, let’s get this out of the way right up front. I’m no social butterfly, and I’m certainly no social media expert. Indeed, I’m one of a dying breed – those curmudgeonly misanthropes who view social media with skepticism and a healthy tinge of paranoia.

We've had several conversations lately with organizations that want to change the way they sell their product. That's a great idea in theory as one can save buckets of money with an online model. The dilemma with these specific companies is that they want to change the way they sell,

I married into a family of huge hockey fans. They held season tickets to the Blazers games for more than 10 years, having anywhere from 10 to 14 seats each year, some of them on the glass. And of course, they all had matching Blazers jerseys with their names on the back.

Twitter might just one day own the digital realm. This seemingly benign application wields great influence for digital connectors, offering instant connections with a select group, to deliver messaging and news on a moment’s notice. But wait – that’s not the best part!

Stop everything! Don't even read the rest of this wonderful marketing instrument. Rather, go online, pull up your Facebook account, and stare at your page. Now, develop a strategy for social media for your organization. At the very least for Facebook.

Tired of hearing about how the next big killer application is going to turn your business into a gold mine and make life easier for you? Yes, we all know that mass media habits have changed and that we're now a wired society, dependent on our computers and smartphones for information.

Although many of you have started experimenting with social media there is one thing you must know before you continue. People don't really want to hear about you, not all the time anyway.

Recently, a campaign that VI was involved with, was the subject of critique in a local blog. The blogger, whom I find quite entertaining on occasion, took their information from a newspaper article announcing the public campaign. Unfortunately, they misread/misinterpreted the article and made some wrong assumptions. =As such, they criticized the effort and reported their data as factual. You might imagine how many persons who follow that blog decided to chime in. Most of them assuming the incorrect information was fact and posting their own reply (read: Pile on). Of course, the creative product eventually took some hits. We felt compelled to reply with the accurate information, but declined to address the creative comments – as this is a subjective product and we didn’t see the merit of debating it.

Social media vehicles are certainly changing the way we go to market. The ability to push and receive information can be invaluable to a brand. However, the opportunity to make a sale shouldn't be lost on the brand.