With the advent of the iPad, mobile Internet devices are shaping up to be the the hottest tech story of the year. Frankly, I’m over the hype, so I wanted to know what the everyday reality is for tech-savvy folks around the office. What devices are worth their weight? What do they have, and what do they want?

I quizzed a few tech-forward CMDers to find out what’s in their bags and on their minds, especially when it comes to tech trends. The results yielded some popular apps and devices you might want to bag for yourself.

Dean McBeth, power user

It has to be good to go on two wheels in order to make it into Dean’s Chrome bike bag. Here’s the tale of the tech tape for this digital strategist. Watch out Sun Tzu.

ASUS Eee PC netbook (We hear Dean’s been doing a lot of cloud computing lately.)
HP Elite laptop
Sony camera
Microsoft wireless mouse
iPhone
Clear WiMAX dongle
Moleskine (“The original PDA”)
Iron Maiden Blu-ray Flight 666 DVD (on loan from Patrick Anderson)

If you were trapped on a desert island, what could you not live without?
A solar-powered laptop

What was the biggest trend in mobile Internet devices in 2009?
One word – DROID

What is your prediction for the mobile technology space in 2010?
It’s all about the iPad this year.

What do you wish you had in your bag?
I can’t tell you my first answer on the company blog, so how about a solar charger.

Whose bag would you like to peek in and why?
Lance Armstrong’s – he always has the latest cycling gadget.

What feature should all the folks out there be sure to get in their next mobile device purchase?
4G

What is the best app you’ve downloaded in the last 30 days?
Foursquare

Erik Sebellin-Ross, multimedia maestro

Erik’s flair for online trendspotting comes across in his social media consulting, and his Timbuk2 commuter bag holds multiple options for staying connected and storing media.

HTC TouchPro2 Windows phone
iPod Touch
Nintendo DS Lite with ScribbleNauts and Gunstar Superheroes
Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000
Monster Cable Beats by Dr. Dre (translation: expensive earbuds)
SD card adapter
Moleskine
Stabilo left-handed pen
Handfuls of USB drives and game cartridges

If you were trapped on a desert island, what could you not live without?
My iPod touch

What was the biggest trend in mobile Internet devices in 2009?
Proliferation of social networking apps

What is your prediction for the mobile technology space in 2010?
Bigger screens and longer battery life – the iPad will set a new standard for interactivity on the go.

What do you wish you had in your bag?
No surprises there – an iPad

Whose bag would you like to peek in and why?
George Clooney’s – “Up in the Air” got me thinking about what people like him carry around.

What feature should all the folks out there be sure to get in their next mobile device purchase this year?
The ability to install apps – feature phones are so 1990s.

What is the best app you’ve downloaded in the last 30 days?
Eucalyptus, the e-book reader that connects to the Project Gutenberg database

Tracy Johnson, the minimalist

Associate Creative Director Tracy makes it a three-fer for Moleskine journals – the only common element that runs through all three bags in our straw poll. Count on Tracy to have insightful recommendations up her sleeve, if not in her teeny Overland bag.

iPhone
Earbuds
USB drive
Moleskine and colored pens

If you were trapped on a desert island, what could you not live without?
My iPhone

What was the biggest trend in mobile Internet devices in 2009?
More apps than ever before

What is your prediction for the mobile technology space in 2010?
More quality, less quantity – we’re past the stage of gimmicks and the next cool thing. We’re all waiting for the devices that actually make our lives easier.

What do you wish you had in your bag?
Unlimited battery supply – I have every gizmo I could want and I upgrade eagerly, but when it comes to battery life, I have to plan my use. I hate that.

Whose bag would you like to peek in and why?
The guy who writes the Museum of Modern Betas blog – he’s searching the globe for new apps, so I want to know if he actually embraces them.

What feature should all the folks out there be sure to get in their next mobile device purchase this year?
Touch-screen capability

What is the best app you’ve downloaded in the last 30 days?
Momento – it aggregates your social media posts into a daily journal you can add content to.

So, what’s in your bag?

Over the years, printed newsletters have been popular vehicles for communicating company news and information directly with customers and employees. Today, many clients ask us if newsletters are still relevant in an increasingly digital world.

In short, the answer is “yes.” They’re not dead, and here’s why: company newsletters have been redefined, and can be leveraged across new platforms to expand their reach and cross-communicate in various channels. That’s a big payoff and great ROI on content that otherwise would have been sequestered in a printed piece. If you plan strategically, today you can get more bang for your buck out of newsletters than you ever could before.

Here are five tips to keep in mind to set your company up for newsletter success:

Content is king. No matter what form a newsletter takes–printed or email–content is still the most important element. Develop stories that help, encourage, and inform the audience with timely information. Expand the content out beyond just you and your company to include industry trends, case studies, and tips that readers can benefit from. The best content is brief enough to engage those with short attention spans and not too self-serving. As the news media shrinks, this approach is an opportunity to tell your story directly to customers.

Plan, plan, plan. Organizing a successful newsletter takes planning. The first step is setting a purpose for your newsletter. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish for all the effort and expense. Next, establish deadline and publish dates to keep everyone on schedule, and evaluate timing to coincide distribution with trade shows, product launches, or other timely opportunities that can support the brand message. This has proven to work for both printed and email newsletters.

Leverage social media. Newsletter content makes great fodder for a company’s social media channels. For example, post newsletter stories on your website and distribute links via a Twitter account to your audience. Or post on Facebook and ask customers to comment. By doing so, you reinforce your message and get more mileage out of your efforts. Social media is also a rich environment for gathering content. For instance, we use one client’s Twitter account to conduct quick survey polls using SurveyBob on industry topics and run the results in the company’s quarterly newsletter.

Appoint an in-house publisher. CMD works on newsletters for several clients and the most successful ones are those that have a single, internal contact who acts as publisher. Our experience shows that bringing too many people into the newsletter process is like inviting too many chefs into the kitchen. Everyone has an opinion and the end result usually isn’t that good. Plus it never goes out on time.

Survey says. Have you asked your customers recently what they want to read about, or do you just think of story ideas that sound interesting? Remove the guesswork and survey your audience about stories, frequency, distribution method, etc. You can’t give them what they want if you don’t know what it is. This step could save you time, money, and improve your odds of positively connecting with customers.

As communicators, we read and write a lot of content. In fact, I’ve heard that the average consumer takes in 30 GB of content per day, so I can only imagine how much more is read by professional marketers. (This is what I tell myself so I don’t feel so bad for not reading every “must read” book and white paper out there.) But, over the holidays, I got caught up on my booklist by reading one of the most talked about marketing books of the year–Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

The book focuses on the value of trust in online communities where transparency is king, communication tools are endless and efficient, and cynicism among consumers is at an all-time high. Through online research, the book states, “We are currently living in a communications environment where there is a trust deficit. As a society, we no longer have confidence in advertising. We are hostile to those who appear to have ulterior motives, even if they’re just selling themselves.”

So how do you break through the clutter and gain the trust of your key influencers and audience? The book’s authors outline six characteristics of Trust Agents, including:

1. Make Your Own Game: Be a game changer and stand out among the crowd.
2. One of Us: Belong to the communities where your audience belongs. Talk like they talk. Read what they read. Spend time where they spend time. Engage in conversation with them without selling something.
3. The Archimedes Effect: Leverage the Web to extend your power, reach and influence.
4. Agent Zero: Build and maintain your network to give you greater access and opportunities. We’re way beyond the point of creating relationships by passing out resumes and business cards.
5. Human Artist: It’s a consumer’s world and the buyer is always in control. The good ol’ Golden Rule has never been more important for online etiquette. This section also has an awesome quote–“In social media, human is the new black.” It’s not the tools–it’s the relationship that matters.
6. Build an Army: Use your relationships and built-upon trust to gather a mass movement. A collaborative group can always accomplish more than an individual alone.

The biggest takeaway I gained from this book affirmed the social media approach we take at CMD: listen to audiences before joining the conversation and defining the strategy. A conversation is a two-way street–you can’t shout your marketing messages and expect your audience to engage with you. Rather, you have to listen to what they’re saying and respond where you have the expertise to do so.

Have you read Trust Agents? I’d like to know your thoughts about the book, and if you have any other book suggestions to add to my ever-increasing list.

Social media can be a dream tool when the digital seas are calm and customers are singing praise far and wide across Twitter streams and Facebook walls. But what about when a crisis hits and the once-beloved social media channels turn from a lovefest to a battleground for disgruntled customers and fans? Recently, my alma mater Texas Tech University faced this very situation.

When news spread that the university had fired Mike Leach, the beloved, eccentric head coach of the Red Raider football team, Texas Tech fans, students and alumni stormed the university’s social media accounts to find answers, voice their opinions and vent their frustrations. What fans and high-paying students and alumni found, however, was that the university’s athletic department had locked its Facebook wall, was deleting fan-generated notes and comments, and had suddenly abandoned its regularly active Twitter stream.

Eventually, every company or organization will face a crisis or issue that plays out in the social media world. How you respond says a lot about you and your brand, and how committed you are to social media success. CMD counsels many of its clients on crisis preparation, and here are five tips that can help your organization face a predicament in the age of social media (Red Raider Athletic Department: Are you listening, yet?):

• Prepare
  • Do you have a social media crisis communication plan? Start by revisiting your existing crisis plans—do they include the use of your social media accounts? Spend time to develop messaging for each of your crisis scenarios and draft Facebook posts and Tweets so that your first communication during a crisis occurs within minutes, instead of hours or days. Are there prominent bloggers or Twitter users that can disseminate important information to target audiences during a crisis? Include them in your crisis plan. Also, assign a team member(s) to monitor and administer your social media accounts. In the case of Texas Tech, new Tweets and Facebook wall comments were coming in by the hundreds each hour—there needs to be a person dedicated to monitoring these conversations.
• Listen
  • An essential aspect of social media is listening—especially when a customer or fan is expressing a concern. What are the key issues your audiences are focusing on? What type of action are they calling for? Take this opportunity to let your customers and fans know that you not only hear their concerns, but you are taking them into consideration when planning your next course of action. The insights you gain from listening will help shape additional communications during a crisis as well as improve your communication plans in the future.
• Contain the conversation
  • People can be downright rotten at times, and unfortunately, the worst often comes out in the midst of a crisis or dispute. While you might not enjoy the name calling or what’s being said about your organization, it’s important for those conversations to occur in the appropriate space and that they don’t extend the reach of the crisis to unrelated digital properties. Don’t lock your Facebook wall or blog comments section, because detractors will simply find another place to voice their criticisms and these actions can add significant fuel to the fire. In the case of Texas Tech, the athletic department’s decision to lock its Facebook wall spread the flame war to the university’s general fan page, which is moderated by a separate office on campus and opted to remain open. Like Texas Tech’s general fan page, foster a place for open, two-way communication on a space that you control and are able to track. Also, keep in mind that your social media accounts should maintain the right to delete vulgar content; but don’t delete a comment because it states a point of view that you don’t agree with—after all, disagreements are simply human nature.
• Respond
  • Social media—especially Twitter—is all about what’s happening now. Your social media accounts will soon be, if they’re not already, the first places people visit when a crisis breaks. Become the main source of news by offering valuable information, such as insights from key executives on how they are taking steps to solve the issue. At the onset of a crisis, a post as simple as this could suffice while your team listens to the conversations and develops a forthcoming plan of action, “Hi all, we understand your concerns and we are here listening. We are taking everything you have to say into consideration and you will be the first to know when we plan our next steps.” Other actions include adding more robust content in the form of videos, additional information, updates, etc. to help balance the ongoing dialogue and achieve search benefits for your side of the story. For particularly influential detractors, determine whether it’s possible to take the conversation offline by offering to talk through their concerns or misgivings directly—person to person.
• Research
  • Research is essential to effective public relations. In the days and weeks following a crisis, track the conversations across your social media channels. Where did most of the conversations take place? What was the key issue that users focused on? Use this information to see what messaging was effective or what key events triggered a shift in your audience’s tone. This is also invaluable when modifying your current crisis communication plan to fit the behaviors of your target audience.

On the last day of 2009, I found myself reading Erick Schonfeld’s post on TechCrunch, “We all live in public now. Get used to it.” It made me think of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, especially after I read a reference in that post to a new word coined by some folks, (and that Stowe Boyd is fond of), “Publicy.” You know, as opposed to privacy.

Social media experts need to stop making up words. Now. But I digress, dear reader, I digress. This post is actually about Facebook’s recent move to block the Suicide Machine from doing its job. I think they just wasted their time and energy. Read on to get a glimpse into my thought process on this one.

The virtual suicide barrier and George Clooney

Suicide Machine makes it simple to erase your online presence – except from cached search engine entries of course – in case you want to make a clean break…or start over. This reminds me of George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air.” The movie is the story of a man ready to make a connection. He does, but then it goes sour and he’s left with nothing. Remind you of any social media platforms you know?

Clooney’s character provides an example of his philosophy, where he likens carrying everything you own and everyone you know in a backpack. He points out how heavy that must be, then asks you to consider the one or two things you would take out of that pack and keep before setting it on fire. This is an exercise we all run through every now and then…or should, anyway.

And now, my point

Let’s look at the kind of person who may want to cancel a Facebook account:

• The Abandoner: “I haven’t logged in or done anything in months or read email updates. I’m just going to shut it down.”
• The Victim: “I’m the target of cyber bullies and need to get some space.”
• The Changer: “I’m going to switch to <insert social network here> and ditch Facebook.”
• The Peer-Pressured: “All my friends are switching to <insert social network here>.”

I can’t imagine a world where any of these user types would be stopped in their tracks by Facebook’s move. Especially considering how easy it is to deactivate your profile:

1. Log into Facebook
2. Click Settings (top right)
3. Click “Deactivate” under “Deactivate account”
4. Tell Facebook why you are deactivating your account

Then again, this step might be enough for some people to say “to hell with it” and go watch a surprised kitten video. Facebook would know best.

Bonus: A conspiracy theory!

Newspapers and magazines have long dealt with the suspicion that they’ve padded their readership numbers in order to demand higher payments from advertisers. I’m guessing Facebook may be doing something similar: Every single user, active or not, helps Facebook attract advertising dollars.

The year 2009 will undoubtedly go down as the year that Twitter exploded onto the communications scene. With so much attention and interest, Twitter gave us a new and interesting way to engage in two-way conversations with people, clients and customers, as well as take advantage of a plethora of off-shoot companies built to service the microblogging site. Also, due to Twitter, breaking news that was usually delivered 45 minutes or more after an event is now delivered in a mere 45 seconds.

To help our clients keep up-to-date on Twitter best practices, the CMD Earned Media team has presented numerous Twitter how-to seminars over the past year, guiding and showing how to use the channel strategically and addressing the basics of getting started. (See our earlier blog post on our Twitter 101 session for local Portland media.) We recently held a seminar for our CMD colleagues to offer insight and best practices to those who wanted to learn more and get started. The session was spirited and full of interesting questions, including these five:

Q: I’ve set up a Twitter account, but really, why should I be on it?
A: We all use social media to communicate in various ways. Some people use it to keep in touch with family and friends. For business-savvy users, you can listen to what is being said about your clients, research your competition, find recent news pertaining to an industry and connect with media and people who share common interests. If you’re interested in what others are interested in, then Twitter is for you.

Q: What type of information should I list in my profile?
A: It’s important to note that all information on your Twitter profile is searchable, which means that what you tweet will show up in real-time search results based on keywords that you use. Make it easy for people to find you by listing the company you work for, your current location, occupation and interests. Now that Twitter search results show up on Google and general Web search, it’s more important than ever to ensure that what you’re twittering is relevant and interesting, and not just a space-filler, i.e. “I’m eating lunch.”

Q: How do I develop followers or find people to follow?
A: There are many ways to develop followers. For example: using Twitter’s search bar, doing a Google search, or using one of our favorite free tools, www.twellow.com. Twellow is like the Yellow Pages of Twitter – with over 12.5 million profiles listed, you can harness your following/followers by looking up your favorite hobby, the industry you work in, location and more.

Q: What if I accidently share something on Twitter that I did not want to?
A: As we like to remind our clients, once you send a tweet, it technically lives forever in the “twittersphere.” Sure, Twitter offers the ability to delete a tweet (when you hover over your update when viewing your home or profile page, you’ll see a trash can at the end of the update), but there is no way to prevent it from ever not turning up in search results. When in doubt, re-read what you’re about to tweet to make sure you’re comfortable with the message.

Q: Can I update multiple social media channels at once?
A: Yes. We are busy people, and managing different social media profiles takes time. If you are interested in integrating both your Facebook and Twitter profiles simultaneously, visit: http://www.ping.fm/ (another favorite tool of ours). Also, LinkedIn has recently been enabled for Twitter updates, so your tweets can appear in your network updates section.

Questions? Tweet us @CMDPortland. We’re here to help.

Thank you.

As we take the next couple of days to spend time with family and friends this Thanksgiving holiday, we want to say thank you to our clients and friends of CMD. As we all know, it’s been a challenging year for many – both personally and professionally. Through it all, we’ve battled to create more from less, set the bar higher under some pretty extraordinary circumstances and pulled together as a team to not only survive, but thrive. We’re grateful especially to our clients, our partners and everyone on the CMD team who work together each and every day to help make us all better, tougher and wiser. We wouldn’t be here without you…literally. You’ve kept us inspired to reach beyond expectations and we are thankful for the opportunities as well as the challenges, and for all those times we’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s together. Because of you, we are confident that there will be many more successes and plenty of excitement ahead of us going into 2010.

So from our “agency family” to yours, Happy Thanksgiving. Above is a little video and some pictures to share with you how we celebrated Thanksgiving this morning here at CMD – thanks to our very own account services team for always taking good care of us, including getting up bright and early to prepare a fantastic breakfast for the whole agency!

- CMD

More than anything this year, the 2009 International PRSA conference hit some emotional nerves that have been sparked by an industry in the midst of a complete and utter transformation.

There were flashes of brilliance and forward-thinking from leading innovators ready to speed toward the new era. There was also denial, filtered through the lens of disbelief. There were those just now coming around to realize the industry they’ve known for years is undergoing a change that is deep, permanent and real. The collective question overall: how will this change the world we’re living in and how do we get prepared?

Time and again, every presentation involved the idea of challenging the norms of the past. But in addition, it was striking that some fundamental truths remain self-evident. Here’s my own perspective on the various conference presentations about which traditional PR and marketing ideas still have solid legs and which are being demolished right before our eyes.

Live by new rules…

Turn over your brand.
The days of one company, one agency defining what a brand or a product means in isolation are over. A brand is now made up of collective thoughts and opinions from the public - people increasingly engage and express opinions about who you are and what you do. Be ready to embrace and empower those who are inspired by your brand; and work just as hard to listen to and win over those who are not.

Change your idea of the traditional agency model.
If your agency hasn’t recognized that the one-to-many model is crumbling right along with the old icons of the mass media, proceed with caution. No longer are traditional lines being drawn between PR, media, digital, advertising, etc. Today, it’s more about listening, strategy development, content creation, community builders and recruiters with small, nimble, knowledgeable strike forces that go after and build relations with influential audiences using the latest techniques, not the big, mass mentality. If your agency is still thinking in the old silos and the lines aren’t crossing, it’s time to blow up the model.

Remove strict boundaries.
It used to be that PR results were clippings, shared in a book that gathered dust on the shelf of the marketing head’s office. That’s how companies determined how we were being talked about. No more. Share of conversation, Web analytics and real-time reactions and opinions are going on between real people; they need to be captured, analyzed and shared with business decision makers including R&D, management, marketing – even legal and HR. Direct consumer feedback is readily available and it’s not just about metrics for the marketing department, it’s about strategy setting for the entire organization.

Focus on content and context.
Quit thinking short-term “campaigns.” Today, it’s about creating movements that empower your customers, encourage them to take ownership, inspire them to engage with your brand, help spread the word to others and get results. They don’t start and stop, because the conversation really never starts and stops. Be ready to engage consistently, offer ongoing value and work to keep building.

But keep the old…

Listen up
Again, listening is the most valuable tool marketers and businesses have today. Good PR and marketing initiatives have always been based on research. The good news is, it’s easier than ever to tap into what customers are thinking real-time about brand, services and marketing initiatives.

Make strategy paramount
It is as it always has been. Marketing without a strategy is garbage – a complete waste. Strategy helps you be relevant, reach the right people and engage in ways that are meaningful and generate results.

Be tactically selective
This goes back to marketing 101 – this step comes third not first. Good tactics are the meat of any plan, but launching the latest tools, rushing headlong into trying to do it all just because it’s new, shiny or available, without taking the first two steps is just plain silly.

Put measurement into practice
More important than ever, this is what it’s all about. Did we turn the dial? Did we have an impact and meet our goals? Luckily, it’s also easier than ever to measure in more meaningful ways, and then refine the strategy and re-engage.

For me, this year’s conference was great reinforcement for the direction CMD’s Earned Media team is going, and it’s reassuring that we’ve not only embraced the latest thinking, ideas, tools and techniques, we’re also staying grounded and true to principles that are the basis for exceptional results.

The top public relations campaigns from Oregon were on display last night at the PRSA Portland-Metro Chapter Spotlight Awards. This annual event serves to recognize strategic initiatives that produce great results, and we’re proud to say that our Earned Media team picked up four awards during the course of the evening.

These awards showcase the reasons behind why we’ve transitioned from CMD’s Public Relations team to the CMD Earned Media team, which better describes our approach for seamlessly leveraging both social and traditional PR practices. To us, earned media is the attention, reputation, credibility and awareness that is earned organically by non-paid means through the value of the information and the merit of the interaction you have with the audience/public. That includes a strong combination of solid PR thinking and the ability to tap the latest opportunities social media presents. It embodies our commitment to remain on the forefront of emerging trends in communication while continuing to deliver great results.

Thanks go to our clients who work day-in and day-out as our partners in these campaigns and allow us the freedom to concept solutions to meet their business objectives. Here’s a brief recap of CMD’s work that received 2009 Spotlight Awards:

JELD-WEN Contest Scares up Terrifying Utility Bills – Spotlight Award

Situation
With rising energy costs and a growing interest in environmental concerns, energy efficiency is top of mind with homeowners.

Strategy
The CMD team created the JELD-WEN Scariest Utility Bills Contest to tout the importance of home energy efficiency and find a real-life example to prove that efficient windows and doors can help homeowners save money.

Results
The contest was wildly successful, nearly doubling the contest objectives and earning placements in publications including the Chicago Sun Times and Houston Chronicle. The U.S. Department of Energy even expressed interest in using JELD-WEN’s contest winner as a case study of its own, positioning JELD-WEN as the expert on reducing energy costs.

Be sure to check out this year’s Utility Bill Bailout Contest. It just might win you new JELD-WEN ENERGY STAR qualified windows and doors and an appearance on an upcoming episode of the nationally syndicated show, “Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford.”
http://www.jeld-wen.com/bailout/

JELD-WEN Lighthouse Campaign – Spotlight Award

Situation
JELD-WEN Windows and Doors needed to raise awareness and directly link its products with reliability, a crucial factor for homeowners, builders and remodelers when considering which windows and doors to purchase.

Strategy
The CMD team created a campaign that helped JELD-WEN walk its reliability talk and prove product performance by helping restore highly visible landmarks, America’s lighthouses, which also face some of the toughest climate conditions in the world.

Results
The campaign has helped build JELD-WEN’s image of reliability, created strong product performance proof points, and generated millions of media impressions, all while fostering tremendous goodwill.

The CMD Earned Media team also received two Award of Merit honors for “An Exploration into the Digital Frontier for Intel and Lenovo” and “Building the HealthCareGoesMobile.com Virtual Community.”

SEMpdx (Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland), an organization CMD has partnered with, recently hosted a sold-out social media panel discussion. CMD’s own Ken Muraoka, media buyer, served as the paid media expert on the panel, where he discussed the role social media plays in media buys.

Muraoka argued that social media isn’t about conversion, it’s about engagement. He discussed the mismatch in expectation and reality that often accompanies traditional paid metrics when social media is included in a media campaign. Often companies will continue to measure the success of a campaign by looking for increased conversion and click-through rates when social media is added, but the real value lies in the increased conversation social media creates between your target and your brand.

Muraoka also worked hard to dispel the myth that all social media is free, and reminded attendees that, in order to effectively add social media to a campaign, social and paid elements must be complementary. For example, you can make social and paid media work together by placing paid spots on sites and channels that are also conversation hubs for your brand. It’s also important to maintain a unified message, and voice, in both paid and social media efforts.

To see Muraoka’s entire presentation please see the video below, and visit SlideShare to take a closer look at his PowerPoint slides.

Other panelists included Christopher Mike of Rocket XL, Hallie Janssen of Anvil Media, Kevin Tate of StepChange, Kent Schnepp of EngineWorks and Scott Hendison of Search Commander.

Each panelist delivered their top tips for running an optimized social media campaign. The key takeaways of the night were:
• Know your brand and set reasonable social media expectations; if you’re not Coca-Cola, you’re not likely to get 1 million Facebook fans
• Use search-friendly keywords everywhere you enter content (e.g. Facebook profile, Twitter Bio, Usernames, etc.)
• Facebook fans and group members are the new “cold call” list; engage with your fans and group members to create meaningful relationships
• Tools can be your best friend as you manage your reputation online. Check out FriendFeed and COcomment for one-stop social media account management