Martin Brossman, success coach, speaker, trainer and author incorporating social media training, (www.pronetworkingonline.com)uses my profile to demonstrate how to add video to your LinkedIn.com profile. To see this in action, head to my LinkedIn profile here and click on "View Full Profile".

Businesses are discovering social media and are trying to determine its value by associating a return on activities. This is not an easy task. Social media is a channel for marketing but not marketing in the traditional sense. Social media is a two way street. You have to contribute and participate in this community. You cannot push ads like you do in a magazine or on a TV. There is a different behavior needed here. It helps you build a community of for your customers to connect with each other. It is sort of like people sitting in a restaurant. When someone orders the special and a nearby table sees how good it looks when it is served and the look on the patron’s face when they taste it, that person will order the special too.

It’s about perspective, the strategy and solving problems.

For the past few years we have seen a rise in interest related to social media. More and more individuals and businesses have been trying to figure out what it is. Individuals have been using it to communicate with friends and colleagues. Businesses have begun to use it to reach out to their customers and prospects. As more and more businesses get involved with using this form of communication it is imperative that they understand what they are getting into. At this point, social media is more than an infant; it is a toddler that can have some serious temper tantrums. So let’s keep in mind that most people want to do the right thing, they just don’t know what it is.

With literally hundreds of emerging Social Media related communities populating the internet on a daily basis, you almost always find a handful of organizations attempting to forcefully tap into the traffic, reputation, and resources of those communities.

Now please don't misunderstand my true message in this blog post. I truly believe in the core benefits of social media branding and marketing, such as "viral" and "grassroots" marketing, but I do not agree with marketers that take the "Guerrilla" part of "Guerrilla Marekting" too far, and ultimately turn their campaigns into more of a blitzkrieg type of "warfare marketing" campaign.