This is the last of 3 posts covering updates, thoughts and ramblings from the past 3 weeks.  The first update can be found here the second one can be seen here.

1. I’ve had 7 conversations in the last 3 months, with large brands, all around 1 topic no one seems to want to talk about: Facebook is a “frienemy” and they’re driving many organizations to rethink how close they want to partner with Facebook. For example a few weeks ago many companies realized that their 3rd party (e.g. Hootsuite) published posts were performing horribly all of a sudden. Facebook and Hootsuite denied the situation existed. To compensate for the reduced reach, companies were investing more in Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories” advertising platform. The folks at Read Write Web did some digging, gave the situation more attention and then all of a sudden Facebook released an announcement indicating they were fixing their platform to send more “signals” to 3rd part publishing tools. Sounds shady to me. In 2012, the question I’ll be asking my team, my agency partners and any new potential partners is “help me create a 3 year exit strategy for Facebook.” More to come on this topic.
2. Here’s 3 iOS apps to check out: Oink, Ness and Super Retro.
3. I’ve been investing more time of late, into tumblr. Though it often gets lumped together with other blogging platforms I see it a little differently. Tumblr is for the “lazy” blogger. It’s great for bite size content. I think that’s why it excels for companies that are heavily dependent on photos. I’m going to give it a serious whirl for the next 45 days and then come up with a more formal POV.
4. A piece of advice to folks in “sales”…especially for social software and services: please do your homework. It’s not hard to Google, “head of social media walgreens” and find out who to contact. Spamming 50 people at my organization is the quickest way to get de-prioritized. It’s lazy, unprofessional, annoying and creates a lot of extra unnecessary work for me.
5. I’ve been attending iMedia summits for years. They’re the best conference for interactive/digital marketing and media professionals. I’ve attended the summits as a client and as an agency representative. I’m excited to announce that I’ve been asked to facilitate the Marketers Only Sessions at the iMedia Brand Summit February 5th – 8th in Coconut Point Florida. If you’ve attended a previous summit and have thoughts or recommendations, please send them my way.