To avoid falling into this trap, Smith recommends that marketers attempt to become fellow members in social platforms. She believes that marketers should actually befriend consumers and other brands to keep the social aspects alive.

Smith even wrote a book about this subject called The New Relationship Marketing, which is currently available.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

As he explains, traditional CRM is about one-way communication and getting customers to move down a particular pipeline. Social CRM, on the other hand, is a two-way communication model that allows companies to engage with consumers at any time.

Distinctively, Morgan said social CRM was the idea of “solving specific business problems as they pertain to how customer behavior and expectations have shifted. ”

If you look at factors such as how customers act, what they buy, how they buy, and what they’re willing to pay for something, you can see a shift in recent years, which is, in part, due to social media. Social CRM looks at these behaviors and helps businesses deal with this shift.

Although businesses face the same problems of loyalty, advocacy, and finding efficient business practices that they did before, Morgan said the solutions are changing. He went on to say that businesses need to look for long-term business value solutions for what they are trying to do.

According to Nichols, Ask A Ninja began as an animation project that he and Doug Sarine came up with. Finally, they decided to shoot a video of the ninja and the rest is history.

Anytime something quickly becomes a hit, especially online, the question of sustainability comes into play. So many times there are concepts that are hot temporarily but not long-term.

“To sustain anything on the Internet is just consistency,” said Nichols.

He goes on to say that by creating content on a regular basis, people will find it and the idea will then grow. Although viral content is great, he warns people not to count on it, since it is rare.

As far as advice goes, Nichols recommends making content for yourself, first and foremost, making it good, and then always trying to make it better. Incidentally, this is advice that the Ask A Ninja guys apply to their own efforts. For example, Ask A Ninja recently re-launched its web series as a daily show with new videos Monday-Friday.

Even though they have a book and an actual store full of products,  they are constantly aspiring for more. Nichols said they would like to produce up to 1 hour of content each week, and that they would also like to find more ways to take their online community and translate it into other channels.

For more on the ninja, check out their site.

However, to pull off a show of this magnitude takes a lot of work. Rick Calvert, BlogWorld’s CEO and Co-founder talked to WebProNews about what actually goes into the show.

He said one of the most important aspects involved is the content. They really strive to incorporate content that people can take away and use. In addition, they learn from what attendees have told them that they want to learn.

For 2010, specifically, one of the themes of the show was the fact that anybody could be successful online, if they wanted to be. Calvert said this would work as long as the following key factors were included:

-    You have to be passionate about your efforts
-    You have to produce good content
-    You have to be willing to work hard

Find out more about how you can succeed in this industry by checking out what BlogWorld has coming in 2011.

“Knowing where you’re going is actually irresistibly attractive… if somebody really knows where they’re going, other people want to follow,” she said.

Strauss goes on to offer 3 tips for being irresistible. First of all, she said that businesses really need to know what their customers love. Although this sounds obvious, many businesses do not do this. Once you determine what they love, give them more of it.

Secondly, Strauss pointed out that businesses should take away all the things that customers do not like. Often times, businesses have a lot of “bells and whistles” that get in the way of the customers’ wants. As a result, she believes businesses should get rid of these extra items that customers do not even want so the focus will be drawn to what they do love.

The third tip that she gives is for businesses to add something only they can add. In other words, she believes that businesses should not copy off other businesses. She said a business should be “fabulously you.” Since customers choose a particular business for a specific reason, it should capitalize on its own uniqueness in order to be irresistible.

Do you have an irresistible strategy?

As he explains, marketers need to get back to the basics. This often involves disconnecting Facebook and Twitter and backing away from the computer. When marketers pull away, they have the opportunity to think about what they want to accomplish and create a plan for achieving it.

“The blogosphere and social media has become a bit of an echo chamber… everybody now becomes a program in the same way, doing the same thing,” said Murphy.

He goes on to say that offline is an important part of getting back to the basics. It’s one thing to have an online chat with someone, but it’s another thing to shake their hand and interact with them personally. Industry events are a great way for people to build these offline relationships.

Murphy also catches us up on the FTC guidelines that went into effect last December. When we spoke to him last year, the guidelines were raising quite a stir throughout the industry. Now, however, most of the industry is accepting them as a standardized rulebook.

The guidelines, essentially, require marketers and advertisers to be transparent and disclose their relationships. Murphy believes thy have been good for the industry.

Last year, Jessica Smith wrote an article entitled “Is the Dad Blogger’s Turn Coming in 2010?” in which she essentially predicts the rise of daddy bloggers in 2010. As Jim Turner of One by One Media explains in this interview, her prediction has actually come true.

Turner credits this rise to a couple of different reasons. First of all, he believes that the role of a dad is evolving in the home. For instance, today, many dads are actively involved in the cooking and cleaning as opposed to dads in the past. In 1985, the dad did 14 percent of the home shopping. Today, however, Turner said that number is 38 percent.

He also credits this rise of dad bloggers to the recession. Many dads have lost their jobs, which has led them to a new role in the home. Each of these factors has given dads a reason to seek a new community online.

Turner is heavily involved in one such community called Dads Talking. This community began in August but has seen exponential growth in its short tenure. In September, it had already received 25 million impressions on Twitter.

Although these dads are providing a large influence, advertisers and marketers are struggling to reach them. Traditionally, these brands have primarily targeted women. However, if they would listen to what the dads are saying, they would know how to target them.

Do you believe that daddy bloggers are becoming the new mommy bloggers?

“We’re beating ourselves up behind the scenes to produce quality content in kind of a combination of talk radio and TV format using social media in a different way than mainstream media is using [it,]” he said.

CrossTech Media asked Stearns join The Pulse Network after his long tenure in traditional media was cut short. Although he was let go from the Fox affiliate in Boston, he believes the move was actually a positive direction for his career as opposed to a negative one.

“What I’ve learned in the past 10 months compared to what I learned in the last 10 years is exponential,” he points out.

Just like any other online media provider, The Pulse Network has its fair share of challenges including hosts, content, talent, and the marketing of it all. But according to Stearns, “The challenges are ridiculous, but there are opportunities that come along with all of them.”

Learn more about The Pulse Network and their programming by visiting their site.

As Deb Schultz, Partner with the Altimeter Group, tells WebProNews, all these companies are addressing the issue completely wrong. They often forget what the social Web is all about – ongoing connection and conversation.

When companies create a policy, they need to think about a variety of factors including their employees, their role in the marketplace, and the type of connection they want to have with their customers. Schultz also adds that they need to realize that social media policies aren’t written in stone. Instead, she recommends that they be viewed as experiments that will change over time.

She gives 3 basic pointers for companies trying to create a policy:

1.    Realize that it’s going to change
2.    Start small
3.    Be simple

In addition, she believes that companies should incorporate examples and case studies for the employees to be able to identify with them.

Schultz told WPN that IBM is a perfect example of a company that has created an effective social media policy. Interestingly enough, IBM let its employees create its policy.

“If IBM can have an internal process, then anybody can,” she said.

Ultimately, if a company applies these tips, it should be able to create an effective social media policy.

In order to build meaningful relationships, he recommends that people apply the Golden Rule – treat others the way that they want to be treated.

“People want to be treated like they’re human,” said O’Keefe.

Although he uses the example of the relationship between a musical artist and a fan, these principles can be applied to any social media relationship. He suggests that people be considerate by taking time to respond to others and by retweeting other people.

In terms of keeping the relationships and turning them into communities, O’Keefe says that people must offer something of value. This value could be in the form of content, the environment, or just something unique.

Are you building and keeping meaningful relationships?

As Relationship Marketing Specialist Mari Smith explains, many of these Web icons, if you will, make a name for themselves by being very personable and by giving away free information. In order to make a profit, she suggests that these personalities turn their knowledge into the product.

“The monetization part comes from whatever you have given out for free,” says Smith.

In other words, people need to take the content they have built and expand it beyond free information by creating products both virtually and physically. Smith believes that people should do this gradually.

For example, start with a free webinar on a topic showcasing your expertise that proves your value, and also include an offer at the end. Based on the response of this offer, people then have the opportunity to develop a customized product, event, or even a series of programs to further intrigue their audience.

What challenges have you faced while establishing yourself as a brand?

Sutton says users of TriOut can see their friends recent activity on Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook. Users can also use TriOut to check in with Foursquare and Gowalla without having to open multiple applications.

Sutton said he believes in location-based services because it brings people together in their community and is hyper-local.

In the future, Sutton said he sees location-based services as being an add-on for marketing a business and another customer service/communication channel.

Garrett said the key to making a blog successful is to know what you want out of it and to know what your audience wants out of it. You need to tap into what your audience is passionate about to have a successful blog.

Make your blog authentic and be focused along with being passionate.

Garrett believes content is important but its the readers who are the most important. Your blog should serve your audience.

To get your blog content out there, it’s all about networking and communities.

To make the move to becoming a professional blogger, Garrett says if you have a 1,000 regular subscribers you have enough traction to try and go to the next level.

“To me, it’s awesome. Awesome makes a great blog,” he says.

As he goes on to explain, blogging began as an outlet for people to talk about what they were passionate about. However, over time, it has changed. Today, many people feel like they have to have a blog and focus a lot of their attention on click-through-rates, ad placements, and keywords.

“Nobody looks at a post and goes, ‘That was a pretty bad post, but it was really keyword rich,’” points out Stratten.

When these components are the focus, the passion is gone. He believes that people need to get back to being passionate about their blogs. When the content is passion-driven and awesome, people will spread it.

Although social media has made this sharing capability easier, people still need to make sure their message can be spread. Stratten is quick to point out that social media doesn’t change message. Many people are fooled into thinking that the secret ingredient is social media, but it’s not.

“Social media doesn’t change anything. Social media only amplifies things,” he says.

Since mobile is the future, people need to make sure that their content can be spread on mobile devices and via social media on mobile devices. Stratten says it is mandatory that people take this step toward mobile.

Have you lost the passion for your blog or website?

The first mistake that people make is a matter of frequency, or more specifically, a lack of frequency. Many people only produce a couple of videos each month. As a result, the audience doesn’t know what to expect, and the video producers are not able to learn from their mistakes.

If you have a video strategy, Startzan says that you have to consistently produce video to learn what you’re doing right and wrong and also, to determine what the community wants.

The second mistake that people make in videos is that they don’t understand their target market. This is a big mistake because, if you don’t know your target market, then you can’t give them what they want.

“You only have once or twice to make an impression on people,” he says.

Starzan points out that you need to capture your target’s attention and make them feel like they have benefited from your video. By doing this, the audience may potentially share it with their friends and become loyal viewers.

Thirdly, people make mistakes in the distribution of their video content. The idiom: “if you build it, they will come” is not true with online video. Starzan says that people often get so caught up in the creation of the content that they often forget to let the audience know about it.

Funny or Die, specifically, focuses on building up their distribution channels through social media, newsletters, search, and its blog in order to get as many people to watch their videos as possible.

As for the future of online video, Starzan tells WebProNews that mobile and applications will play a large role. He goes on to say that content producers need to make sure that they are optimizing their videos for mobile apps.

Do you find these areas of video to be challenging?