Brett Greene's blog

The announcement that Goldman Sachs invested $500 million in Facebook, giving it a market valuation of $50 billion sent ripples across the media.

Add This, the social sharing widget, recently released the trends in social sharing they documented for 2010. It's not surprising that Google had more growth than Facebook, but did you expect Stumble Upon to have more growth than Facebook?

As a proponent of personal branding, I was schooled this week on how it isn't always a good thing.

Last week I laid out the Top Five Elements to Your Social Media Marketing Strategy.  As important as it is to utilize all of those elements, their reach is limited without the secret sauce we'll look at today.

Many people and companies open social media accounts and think that simply broadcasting comments about what they're doing or what's great about their company means that they're participating in the social web.  Fundamentally, this is participating, but it's far from effective engagement.  If you care enough to invest time and money into having an active social media presence, then it's important to get your strategy right.

Do you remember life before fax machines, email and searching online? Do you remember making an appointment to see your doctor to get an opinion without being able to Google professional and everyday opinions on your computer first? It's like a movie you watched years ago with a plot that's vaguely familiar but has no relevance to your current life.  That's how you'll think of the current web versus the social web that's expanding daily.

 Before you read the full story, I want to start with the fact that Vonage gave me great customer service, but getting there was an unnecessary adventure.

Whether you have heard about social CRM or not, you need to understand it if you own a business that has customers.

The larger a company is, the more it may feel it has to protect itself.  This is a valid first reaction, but don't let it keep your company out of the conversations that could be building your brand.

 The Gap wanted to look like a more forward leaning company so they hired an agency to redesign their logo.  The new logo was active for almost a full four days before Twitter and Facebook users tore it to shreds.  Gap went back to the old logo so fast that the new logo hardly had time to be noticed offline before entering the annals of history as the logo version of New Coke.