I know most of you reading that title are saying, "Duh;" however, it's an important reminder.

As someone who has managed corporate social media channels for the last NINE years (yes, I started with a corporate MySpace page), I often get wrapped up in the business goals and numbers surrounding social:

* How many fans and followers do we have?

* How many net new names are we getting from our efforts?

* How many clicks to the website did social deliver?

While all of those are important, I got an email today that made me sit back and reflect. First I thought, "Why am I getting an email? Everyone should message me in the community."  Then, I put my Gia Lyons-esque rant aside and got excited.  The simple note made me remember why I created my first social marketing program in 2006.  I wanted to have a true connection in real-time with my audience.

You see, I started off in Public Relations.  I graduated with a B.S. in P.R. No joke! Then, I spent years ghostwriting for state and local politicians, phone pitching the media on behalf of companies like HP, and leading crisis communications drills for large energy companies. While all of these things were exciting, I wanted a more direct relationship with the "public."  The emerging social channels gave me that.

The social media landscape, however, changed in the last few years.

• There are only a few key social media sites, which are driven by data collection and ad dollars.
• There is more noise, spam, and negativity posted than ever before.
• There are a 8,224,925 people claiming to be social media experts on LinkedIn (myself included).

Why do I bring this up? Because I want Jive customers and employees to remember the best parts of being a company that "gets" social marketing.  We have to use social to build connections with customers, partners, employees, and prospects; share interesting information; and just be f'in cool. We also have to know that the social world is complex and sometimes nothing beats a face-to-face meetup.

So, I want to thank the folks internally at Jive and Rona Fouche at PWC for sharing the note below.  It made my day.

There was a power outage in the Phoenix Data Center and Rona Fouche from PwC said she first heard about it on Facebook by following Jive.

IMHO, social marketing is about truly about sharing the right information to the right people at the right time!