The effects of social media on marketing and branding have caught many CMOs off guard. Just five years ago, it was conventional wisdom that social media would quickly peak and fade in importance. Then two years ago, CMOs found themselves scrambling to launch Facebook fan pages and Twitter streams, trying to catch up with consumers who appeared to be migrating in droves to social networks and smartphones.

While the 30-second TV spot has held its own, the evolution of social media marches on. It continues to grow, and is entering its third stage of evolution. It is now becoming the focal point for consumers and citizens to form strong links and communities centered around shared values and common goals to persuade corporations to participate in building a better world. A few brands have caught on with cause-conscious marketing initiatives like the Pepsi Refresh Project, Starbucks' Shared Planet, Walmart's Sustainability Index, Nike's Livestrong partnership, and Procter & Gamble's "Clean Water Blogivation" effort, to name but a few.

Social media represents a significant and permanent change that CMOs must embrace. Disingenuous efforts to fast track your social-media footprint simply by stockpiling "fans" will not only prove ineffective but will backfire. Savvy social-media customers know when there is no authentic commitment to engage with them.

The key today is CMOs must shift their strategies from trumpeting their brand as the "celebrity" (with all attention directed inward on themselves) to being the chief celebrant of their customers' community. This shift entails rethinking many fundamental elements of your marketing strategy. Here is a step-by-step strategy for brands to build customer engagement by leveraging the evolving tools of social media.

1. Define Your Core Values. Rethink how you want to define (or redefine) your brand. What are its core values? Its purpose? The answers should not be framed in terms of admirable but empty promises, but authentically humanistic values that are constructive and shareable within your brand community.

2. Get Leadership Buy-in. As CMO, you need to facilitate the adoption of these values throughout the company. It starts with getting buy-in from your CEO, and must extend down through the leadership and management ranks. You cannot let the inertia of the hierarchical organization become a stumbling block.

3. Align Employees Around the Values and Purpose. Your employee base is your first line of loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising for the brand, so you need to ensure that your brand's support for social cause resonates with them. A powerful way to do this is to invite the CEO to craft a video message or contribute to a blog especially for employees. Also, promote employee volunteer activities and celebrate the good works they do on their own time within the company culture.

4. Celebrate Your Customers, Not Your Brand. This step is one of the hardest for CMOs who have built their success on traditional broadcast thinking. It involves transitioning from a push to a pull strategy, from "me first" to "we first" thinking. One of the key shifts here is to share the brand's storytelling with your customers. You must invite them to co-author the stories your brand is telling and allow them to be partners in the distribution of content about your brand. The guiding principles of a pull strategy are as follows:

• Recognize that your story is now your community's story.
• Lead with listening rather than talking about your own brand.
• Start treating customers as living, breathing people with concerns about the world.
• Invest time and energy in building relationships as well as making profits.
• Expand from a sales focus into a service mentality.
• Become a day trader in social emotion by constantly monitoring your brand's reputation.

5. Focus customer service on engagement. Be mindful of the social footprint of your customers and see them as partners in disseminating your values rather than as purchasers of your products.

What ever happened to the mashup?

It seems like it was only a few years ago that we were breathlessly talking about mashing up Flickr photos with Google Maps to create something entirely new. But now when we talk of mashups it's seemingly only to describe music, like DJ Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk whom mixes-and-matches hundreds of pop songs at a staggering rate.

The answer, simply enough, is that the mashup has become woven into the fabric of the modern web. Now, instead of talking about mashups, we talk about APIs, apps and cloud computing, all of which are rewiring the internet and have the potential to dramatically change the way brands connect with consumers.

At this point, most of us have at least a passing familiarity with APIs. Popularized by developers for platforms like Facebook, Flickr, Google Maps, Twitter and their ilk, APIs are a set of rules that allow applications to interface with services – essentially allowing these applications and services to "talk". But more importantly, APIs allow publishers – and brands -- to reach far beyond their own web properties to distribute data, content or services. For example, Google's robust Maps APIs have been widely credited in helping that service become the top mapping utility on the web.

While the popularity of APIs have blossomed squarely in the realm of developers, the sheer size and growth of their success is making the savviest marketers take notice. In 2010 there were 2,647 publically accessible APIs according to the Programmable Web. In fact, more than a thousand APIs were created last year – more than double the number of APIs that were added to the Programmable Web in 2009. More impressively, total APIs are up 20-times since 2005. No wonder mainstream brand like Tesco and MTV are getting in the on the action, with their own APIs.

Here's a look at some of the most promising players and marketers tapping into APIs today:

Etsy: For retailers, creating and maintaining an API translates into growing their virtual storefront far beyond the dotcom. Amazon has done a masterful job at this, as has eBay. But Etsy, a new ecommerce upstart that specializes in vintage or handmade items, has made the most of this strategy to grow rapidly thanks in part to its robust developer outreach program. The payoff has been huge – an astounding number of Etsy applications are now in wide circulation, with some like Etsy On Sale and SoopSee , a personal website creator, winning raves.

Best Buy & Sears: In a similar vein, both Best Buy and Sears made early efforts around APIs with interesting results. Best Buy recently made news by creating an in-app API that allows for fully functional commerce. Sears, the oldest retailer in the U.S., released a range of APIs that expose the company's ecommerce catalog, highlight most popular items and showcase deals.

The North Face & Oakley: Both The North Face and Oakley have taken a different tack by employing partner-driven APIs to reach consumers in interesting ways. The Northface created the Trailhead iPhone app for hikers by utilizing data from EveryTrail.com and the Snow Report for skiers. Similarly, Oakley created its Surf Report utilizing data from Surfline to provide surfers with weather forecasts, swell directions and more.

Twilio: One of the most popular APIs of the past year is from Twilio, a company that uses cloud services to enable companies to create voice and SMS applications. Marketers like Sony Music are starting to find innovative ways to put the technology to use. The company ran a unique phone and SMS campaign to promote the new album for its heavy metal band Lamb of God. Tapping into Twilio, the company enabled consumers to access phone calls with recordings from band members providing samples of their music. As one might expect, a robust ecosystem has sprouted up to support the development, deployment and documentation of APIs.

The Programmable Web boasts an excellent repository of APIs. It catalogs all publically available APIs charts popularity, and publishes news around performance -- it even has a home for the "mash-up." Other companies have also risen up to aid in the deployment of APIs. Joyent, for example, provides the infrastructure and services for marketers like Gilt Groupe as does apigee. 3Scale is another player that powers APIs from Wine.com and Skype, while MindTouch helps companies document their APIs for easy developer adoption – and to better reach end consumers.

In the not too distant future, most marketers will find that to thrive in our new application-driven world that the "killer app" just may be the API itself.

Over the last couple of years I've offered up a few thoughts on resolutions your agency should be making to remain competitive in the coming year. Here's this year's installment. Be sure to let me know what you think about them in the comments.

Stop screaming and start whispering.
Consumers are tuning us out. They're fast forwarding through our commercials, blocking our online ads and opting out of our digital campaigns. Why? Because they can. Because we give them no good reason not to. So in 2011, maybe try shouting at them less and whispering in their ear a bit more. It's sexier, more pleasing to the ear and just might make your clients more money.

It's all about the 4A's.
Well actually, I think it's going to be all about the fourth A: Awareness leads to Attention leads to Activation leads to Advocacy. If you really want to grow brands in the future, it's not going to be enough to make the sale. You're going to need to cultivate a tribe of advocates that will welcome the opportunity to sell the brand for you.

Embrace color.
I had a client once that said everyone should have a color. His was purple. Everything he hand wrote was with a purple Sharpie. He felt that it helped him stand out in a sea of blue and black. Do the same with your agency. Ditch the traditional beige that most agencies paint with and go with a bright orange or deep purple. It matters not what color you choose, but choose one. Establish a point-of-view and sing it loud and proud.

Own it.
One of my buddies made a resolution to play golf once a week -- on a weekday. He can do that because he sells tires. So, like anyone that sells a product, he's making money even when he's not in the office. We in the agency world could stand to learn a lot from that example. This year focus on building a few platforms, ideas or products that you license or sell versus just trading agency time spent for client money.

Get social.
I don't mean just learn what social is all about. Though that's a pretty good idea if you're not up to speed yet. I mean actively leverage the space, tools and approach of your social-media brethren. Spend some time on LinkedIn, Twitter or even Facebook. Meet people, get to know them a bit and then get out of your office and get on a plane and go meet those people face-to-face, even if it's just for lunch or beers. As one of my first bosses told me, people do business with people not agencies. I've never forgotten that and you probably shouldn't either.

Forget recipes. It's all about the Chef.
Sure we all talk about it. Heck we even quote it: "My assets go down the elevator shaft every night." But the truth is, we don't walk the talk. Our industry still doesn't seem to invest as much in training and education as we should. We under-staff accounts in a quest for profitability and we continue to treat employees as interchangeable. We need to stop that and stop it right now. This is a people/idea business. Without the very best idea people our business dies. It's really that simple in my humble opinion.

So stop talking recipes and start talking chefs. Find your best ones, invest in them and let them become famous. Then go find the great chefs at the other restaurants. You know the ones that really should be a head chef but right now they're serving as some other guy's sous chef. Hire them and give them their own restaurant. Then watch the magic begin.

So that's what I think should be on your to-do list this year. But what about you? Agree? Disagree? Or do you have your own list of resolutions you've made? Let me know. I'm all ears.

As advertising strives to stay on the cutting edge of creativity, agencies have started to look beyond the typical skill sets to decipher whether or not someone can fulfill their creative needs. As a result, many creatives have found themselves on the answering end of the ambiguous question, "So, what else do you do?" It's a question that often comes off as an insignificant conversation filler. You're a copywriter who spends your spare time entertaining the masses with your witty Facebook statuses—isn’t that enough?

In a world where everyone who reads thinks they can write, every creative needs to be able to differentiate themselves. Hence the question: what else do you do? This question isn’t meant to diminish your ability to create good advertising. It’s a way for an agency to gauge your range as a creative individual. Creative directors realize that a person who hasn't created a groundbreaking campaign is not necessarily incapable of doing so.

Advertising continues to adapt its messages to live in various mediums as communication evolves. As a result, traditional campaigns have been stretched thin across non-traditional mediums in hopes that the digital components will do the heavy lifting. The strain on conventional messaging has created a need for concepts that go beyond the formulaic structure of strategically sound campaigns and tap into ideas that are strong enough to thrive within traditional and non-traditional mediums. That being said, agencies aren’t looking for just another person who can execute the requirements of a creative brief. A good amount of agency time is spent on the hunt for creatives who can do more than just make advertising. In other words, they want a creative person first and an ad person second.

But where do extracurricular activities play into the whole creative process? Innovative ideas usually come from good insight and a fresh perspective. These elements stem from unfiltered creativity, embraced daily by creatives who are inspired by the sheer randomness of everyday life. This blurs line between the creative ideas you produce at work and the unique things that make you creative.

So if the question, “What else do you do?” comes up, think of possible answers as ways to give your alter ego a little credit for the creative skills that can be brought to the office. By "alter ego," I mean the awesome things people do on the side that are part of their creative make-up. You may play the tambourine in an indie rock band or make cookies shaped like dead celebrities. Depending on the agency, the weirder a person is, the better. These are the type of random things that lay dormant during office hours, but can actually be tapped into during any given concepting session.

Are you doing enough to stay on your toes as a creative? If not, what else could you do to set yourself apart from the other creatives who might walk into the interview?

Facebook now drives more Web video traffic than any other Internet property other than Google. Most video is consumed during the week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But people watch longer videos on the weekends, with the lengthiest Web-video sessions happening via videogame consoles rather than PCs or mobile devices.

Those are some of the findings from the latest Online Video and the Media Industry Quarterly Research Report jointly issued by the online video technology firm Brightcove and the analytics company TubeMogul. The companies said they pulled video-usage data from close to 2,000 news and entertainment sites during the third quarter of this year.

Among the more interesting findings was that Facebook now refers 9.5 percent of all video traffic (meaning that Facebook links to a whole lot of videos, not that the site necessarily hosts those video views). Previously Yahoo held the No. 2 slot in this category, according to Brightcove and TubeMogul’s data. However, both companies trail Google by a huge margin, as the search giant accounted for more than half of all video referrals in Q3 (though that number was down versus Q2, when Google drove over 60 percent of views).

Interestingly, while Web users are doing a lot more video sharing with friends via Facebook and other social sites, a lot of that socializing appears to be happening at the office. The report found that video usage peaked on Wednesdays during Q3, though average minutes per view spiked on Fridays.

Yet when users want to lean back and watch longer pieces of video content—it happens mostly on the weekends, the report found, on devices other than computers. Game consoles, which are increasingly being connected to the Internet and TVs, averaged 2:45 minutes per viewing session in Q3, found the report. Web video sites came in second with an average session of 2:27 minutes per view.

Scholastic knew it had an existing community of fans in teachers and parents — but it didn’t have an established platform to reach and connect with them. When a communication crisis arose over misinformation, Scholastic saw an opportunity to bring this community out.

Using Facebook, Ivy Li, Morgan Baden and their team at Scholastic launched a simple, yet vibrant community that is creating real results: These fans are placing 29.8% more orders than non-fans — and spending 7.6% more on each order when they do it. And more importantly, they have the ingredients to support a long-term, loyal base of brand ambassadors.

In their recent BlogWell presentation, Li and Baden shared the details behind how they’re doing it. A few of their big takeaways:

• Introduce your new community to existing customers. Scholastic leveraged its existing list of loyal e-mail subscribers by giving them the first look at their new Facebook community. With a simple giveaway, it was able to generate some early excitement that got things off to a fast start.
• Give them a reason to keep coming back. Scholastic’s editorial strategy for Facebook is to share exclusive content, behind-the-scenes details, expert advice on children’s books, advanced previews and general book buzz.
• Keep promoting and supporting your community. Scholastic’s fan page continues to see steady growth because it continues to promote it to new fans and customers every chance it can — for example, it is even promoting it on their shipping boxes.