Here’s a verbatim reprint of Eric Schwartzman’s research findings. I wanted you to see it in its entirety.

For Immediate Release

Public Relations Leads Social Media Engagement at Most Organizations

Social Media Skills Now Required for Staffers, Study Shows

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 10, 2009) – Public relations professionals are taking the lead in managing the organization’s use of social media communications channels, and social media skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills when searching for and hiring public relations professionals, according to a new study.

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report, a study conducted by online newsroom provider iPressroom with support from Korn/Ferry International, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Trendstream, also identifies which new media and social media communications skills are most important to today’s hiring decision makers.
“The most commonly asked question at my social media workshops is ‘Which new or social media communications channels are most important?’” says iPressroom founder Eric Schwartzman.  “With more organizations realizing that there are tangible benefits to be gained from this type of engagement with their audiences, the importance of hiring individuals with advanced new media and social communications skills is increasing.”
Among the key insights from the study are:

1. When searching for prospective new hires, social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.
2. Public relations leads marketing in the management and oversight of all social media communications channels within organizations.
3. When searching for prospective new hires, social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.
4. Public relations leads marketing in the management and oversight of all social media communications channels within organizations.
5. Marketing leads public relations in the management and oversight of bulk email communications and search engine optimization.
6. Social networking, blogging and micro-blogging skills are the three most important social media communications skills for job candidates to have, according to public relations and marketing hiring decision makers.
7. Most organizations are considering hiring social media specialists.

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report, “Essential Online Public Relations and Marketing Skills.” is available for download free at http://www.ipressroom.com/readiness (registration is required).

Social Media Skills Influence Hiring Decisions
Schwartzman says the survey data also suggest that public relations and marketing professionals without new media and social media communications skills cannot, and will not, satisfy the requirements of today’s hiring decision makers.  To help professionals master these skills, Schwartzman and PRSA will conduct Social Media PR Boot Camps in four additional markets in 2009: Los Angeles (Aug 26 – 27), San Francisco (Sept. 24 – 25), Chicago (Oct. XX-XX) and New York on (Dec. 3 – 4).

“To circumvent the risk of obsolescence, communications professionals are seeking out new media and social media training oppor¬tunities that allow them to rapidly update their traditional public relations and communications skills-sets,” he says. “The demand for this type of knowledge is huge.”

The research also suggest a potential gap in online communications strategy at most organizations, since the channels with the greatest reach and adoption levels — email and search engine optimization — do not appear to be the most important channels in practice.
In addition, organizations do not appear to be as intent on leveraging the trust advantage of their own websites over social networking services to promote their company line.  Instead, organizations say they’re more focused on getting the word out than on using new media and social media channels to attract visitors to their own, destination websites.

About iPressroom
Online newsroom software as a service (SaaS) provider iPressroom (http://www.ipressroom.com/) was founded by social media strategist Eric Schwartzman, who also produces the award-winning PR podcast On the Record…Online (http://www.ontherecordpodcast.com), about how technology is changing the way organizations communicate, and how people consume media and information.  Based in Los Angeles, the company supports the rapid deployment of online newsrooms for businesses, nonprofits and government agencies.

#   #   #
Media Contact:
Arthur Yann
Vice President, Public Relations
Public Relations Society of America
212.460.1452

We’ve just launched an information product marketing division at Personal Life Media. We now need an affiliate marketing expert to help us sign up and manage affiliates and JV’s. We have four products launched and another dozen in the pipeline. If you understand the affiliate and JV world and want to work for a great company that provides life-transforming products, check out this role.

The sky is the limit as to where this can lead, but to start, we need a detail-oriented, super-friendly sales person who loves to enroll people in great new ideas.

You get to work with me one-on-one, account by account and I will teach you all I know about sales, marketing and business development in addition to publishing and information product marketing while we co-create successful relationships with partners.

You can live anywhere in the world, but your English must be perfect, your grammar excellent, your writing skills warm and powerful and your commitment to your responsibilities resolute.

Team PLM!

Affiliate Marketing Manager : Full Time : Contract : Base + Commission

We are seeking a self starter with a demonstrated ability to run a successful affiliate marketing program. You must be able to identify, recruit, motivate and retain successful affiliates.

Duties

Create affiliate marketing materials for products including sample blog posts and sample emails for affiliates.

Create affiliate marketing campaigns and promotions to motivate affiliates.

Identify and recruit top affiliates for each product including JV partners and publishers.

Upload and manage banner ads and affiliate assets into our affiliate marketing network site, RevShareNow.com

Manage JV launches and ongoing affiliate relationships.

Communicate weekly with affiliates to keep them informed about new Personal Life Media products, new promotional tools, upcoming promotions, and recommended best practices for promoting the various Personal Life Media products.

Monitor affiliate activities and insure compliance with company policies. Verify affiliate payment amounts and approve affiliate payments.

Conduct surveys of customer prospects to understand buying behavior and make recommendations for improving conversion rates.

Manage auto-responders and track conversion statistics from email campaigns.

Create training materials such as tutorials, FAQs, and demo videos for affiliates.

Analyze metrics such as click through rates, conversion rates, commissions per sales, total cost of sales and commission per impression and make recommendations for improving ROI on program as well as products, landing pages, and affiliate promotional materials.

Requirements
3 – 5 years managing affiliate programs
Bachelor’s degree
Excellent communications skills, both written and verbal
Fluent in English
Very reliable broadband connection
Direct experience with affiliate software such as Post Affiliate Pro preferred.

About Personal Life Media
Personal Life Media (PersonalLifeMedia.com) is a multimedia lifestyle brand producing digitally downloadable content. The company publishes 40 weekly audio shows (podcasts) and companion blogs and is an eBook publisher of direct-to-consumer online information products targeted to consumers interested in personal and professional growth.
PLM provides a technology infrastructure of automated platforms for podcast and information product publishing to serve experts who deliver motivational programs, talk shows, virtual workshops, downloadable training systems and support programs via blogs, audio, video and eBooks.

The currently available titles include:
Talk Show Tips – 72 Show Host Secrets

Naturally Slender Quick Start – Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Speak Up With Power and Influence – Achieve More Confidence
Expand Her Orgasm Tonight – 21 day Program for Partners

Qualified individuals may send their resume to “jobs at personallifemedia dot com”.

Having known and worked with Susan Bratton for nearly ten years and I can not endorse her highly enough. Susan is incredibly bright and polished, but she’s also is fun to work with and always on the cutting edge of marketing and technology. Susan is and incredible mentor and partner. She fosters an amazing atmosphere that’s full of energy and creativity. I highly recommend working with Susan! – Heidi Kadison, former employee, Excite@Home

I wanted to write a quick note to let you know that it was a pleasure working for you while at Excite@Home.  You are one of the most strategic and eloquent leaders I have met and consider you to be my most influential mentor.  You can move mountains with your words and build powerful teams with your management acumen.  One of the most connected people in the industry, I welcome any opportunity to work with and/or for you in the future. — Brendan O’Brien, VP & GM, Digital Media Group, ISM Entertainment

New M&A Report from John H. Doyle II: Managing Director & Founder, Peachtree Media Advisors, Inc.

Web aps and mobile had most significant growth. Social media had largest decline in M&A deals.

John Doyle II, Peachtree Media Advisors

Here is a 2009 Mid Year Digital Media M&A Report summarizing digital media transactions in the first half of 2009.

Click here to download.

According to John:

“Although the first half of the year was lackluster for digital media M&A when compared to the first half of 2008, keep in mind that interactive media deal-making did not fall off the proverbial cliff last year until Google missed their numbers in July 2008 and the infamous Sequoia presentation.  At that point, everyone in the digital media sector felt susceptible to the effects of the economic downturn (previously thinking it was a newspaper/television problem).”

“On a relative basis, we expect the extreme opposite case for deal-making in the 3rd and 4th Quarters of 2009 versus 2008 because of the heavy drop-off in the latter part of 2008.  Expect a significant increase in the next two quarters versus the same two quarters in 2008, which is a good thing.  Only note that the steep gains are due to the drastic fall off in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2008 when the following headline appears “M&A Increases 400% in Q4 2009 versus Q4 2008!”

Listen to John on DishyMix.

John Doyle, Peachtree Media Advisors on Digital Media M&A, 2008 Capital Raises and Social Media Co’s Out of Biz

The most exciting new area (to me) of social media marketing, or as @ShivSingh, my latest guest on DishyMix from Razorfish likes to call it, “Social Influence Marketing,” is mining the clusters of connections to identify new prospects for products and services.

Similar to the concept of behavioral targeting, marketers and researchers believe that if they target the friends of an existing customer, they will find “birds of a feather” prospects for their goods.

There are a number of companies using social graph data including Lookery (my interview with Scott Rafer, CEO), Media6Degrees and UNBOUND Technologies . These data mining and ad targeting companies are leveraging your data: the things you “fan” on Facebook,  your personal profile information, your network of connected friends (and god knows what else!) to find new prospective consumers connected socially to you so they can market products to your friends if you are a customer.

UNBOUND Technolgies can take a marketer’s existing customer list, compare it to their database of all known LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users and come up with a rank order list of who, among their existing customers, are the most influential. If a brand has a Facebook “Page” (Fan Page), they can map the most to least influential fans, based on number of social connections.

Here’s an article from Business Week that gives you some idea of how important this data mining of social graphs is to the social net companies and marketers.

Learning and Profiting from Online Friendships

These next two images are very telling. These are my Affiinty Map and my Influencer List from UNBOUND Technologies.

First you can see, of my 3,200 Facebook friends, what the top Celebrities/Public Figures, Brands, Bands, Services et cetera are of the people to whom I’m most connected.

If I were a brand (I’m certainly trying to be!) doing co-marketing promotions, it would be brilliant to partner with Guy or Seth or Arianna or the IAB or 212 in NY.  My friends and friendsters (virtual friends) would be more likely to pay attention to my messaging if I were to co-create something with other public figures, associations or brands about which they care most.

In this list from UNBOUND Technologies, you can see who in my network are the most influential. If Joe Jaffe, Charlene Li or Mike Webb were to promote DishyMix, for example, their followers would be most likely to be interested in my work and they have the biggest reach.

If I give Unbound Technologies my professional contact database, they can also match it up with the premier social networks to give me an even better rank order of those people I know who are most connected in the social sphere. Even if I’m not directly connected to them now, I’d know who I should approach to friend to continue to widen my network more proactively.

Just replace Susan Bratton with your brand and think of the efficiencies and implications. What comes to your mind?

And here is this week’s DishyMix. Perfectly timed to talk about Social Influence Marketing with Shiv Singh of Razorfish who has been thinking about social network theory since grad school at the London  School of Economics & Political Science.

Shiv Singh, Razorfish on the Social Influence Marketing, the Portable Social Graph and Friendsters

I’ll be in London/Cambridge as a “Traveling Geek” and we’re having a TweetUp, sponsored by The Conversation Group and NESTA.org, to which I’d like to invite you.
Here is the invitation:http://www.eventbrite.com/event/366118069

The half price “friend of geek” (that would be me) discount is good until the 26th June.

More here about the Traveling Geeks.
http://travelinggeeks.com

Please let me know if you are coming. I’d love to see you there!

Twitter bird photo credit- Creative Commons MatteoPenzo.

Bernie interviewed me today for his terrific show, Find & Convert.

Bernie’s Show       Bernie’s Blog        Find and Convert in iTunes

He asked me a number of questions in advance of the interview and I thought I’d blog the answers here.

Who is Susan Bratton and what does she have her hands in now?

I’m a CEO, Publisher, Blogger, Podcaster, Speaker and Author.

DishyMix is my weekly podcast and companion blog. My coverages ranges from brain science to new gadgets to landing page conversion to the future of the social graph.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Personal Life Media, an aspirational company and next-generation publisher focused on providing virtual, fully downloadable content experiences.

Our mantra is “frank talk and deep discussion for your personal life.”

We publish 40 podcasts, companion blogs and are launching 15 new information products I call “ebooks with benefits.”

Our first info products to market are, Talk Show Tips, Speak Up with Power and Influence, Masterful Techniques to Overcome Anxiety and Fear, Naturally Slender Quickstart and a 21 Day Lovemaking Program for Couples. We have another 10+ info products in production.

Top shows on Personal Life Media include:
DishyMix, Inside Out Weight Loss, Expanded Lovemaking, Buddhist Geeks, Living Dialogues, 3 Digital Photography Shows, The Diva Cast, The New Man, Just for Women, Philosopher’s Notes, Tantra & Kama Sutra and Sex, Love & Intimacy.

What is my high level view of social media marketing?

I view social media as being in three categories, Listening, Appvertising and Participation. Shiv Singh of Razorfish really helped me gel my concept of these buckets and his DishyMix interview is coming in June.

Listening is getting the most traction with Participation second and Appvertising third.

Listening: New companies like Unbound Technologies, a next generation Neilsen Buzz Metrics, is focused on opportunities around the social graph and social influence marketing. They create a list of the most influential individuals for any given brand and then provide an “affinity map” of the other most-influential people and brands related to that single, key influencer. This is fantastic for outreach, prioritization of influencers and joint promotions to important clustered audiences.

Taking behaviorial targeting to a new high with the inclusion of social graphing is Media6Degrees. They offer ad targeted based on social graphing. I also need an update on Lookery who is aggregating social media data across social networks to use for ad targeting. My interview with Scott Rafer of Lookery is here.

Appvertising is being well handled by ClearSpring, Gigya and RockYou! as well as SocialMedia.com and ContextOptional. Brands who create useful aps or sponsor useful aps for their target consumers are brilliant players at a high-level of sophistication in the social influence marketing sphere.

Participation is certainly evident in Facebook Pages. Here’s my DishyMix Fan Club where I give away all kinds of goodies to my listeners.  Also popular and smart are consumer generated content experiences like HP on YouTube described here in my interview with Daina Middleton and the darling of the moment, corporate Twitter accounts like this one.
What is the biggest difficulty in Social Media Marketing?

I believe in larger organizations, it is around internal ownership. Should social marketing be part of marketing, corp comm, where? In smaller organizations, I see the problem being one of overwhelming choice. Where do I start as a small business with limited resources?

Also, tracking and ROI still being figured out. Here is a great presentation on social media ROI.
http://www.slideshare.net/yongfook/social-media-roi

Lee Odden (the wonderful soul who connected Bernie and I in the first place through his superlative Top Rank Online Marketing Blog  and I talk about integration of web analytics and social media analytics in this interview I did with Lee at SXSW for the #Community Powered project. Emphasis on real time data. The data that you can collect through something like a social media monitoring tool, like Buzz Logic, Collective Intellect, Radian6, married with web analytics, like Google Analytics, Omniture, Web Trends.

Lee Odden and Susan Bratton on Web and Social Media Analytics

Podcasting? How did you get into it? What is the current state of podcasting and consulting your crystal ball on podcasting’s future.

Podcasting is still a nascent market.

The beauty of it is that anyone can create an audience of raving fans. (and in my ebook with benefits, called Talk Show Tips, I teach you how to empower your raving fans with the tools they need to help you grow your audience.)

If you are articulate and like to talk more than you like to write, audio may be better for you than blogging. And with transcripts, you can have the best of both worlds.

For video, the bar is very high on production quality. Make sure you are adequately resourced before pursuing.

Commercial podcasting is a very smart solution for brands who have deep knowledge to share with their customers and prospects.

The ADM (Association for Downloadable Media) is working on ad models, audience measurement and consumer attitudes toward sponsorships of podcasts.

It’s a greenfield opportunity for sponsors. Integrated social media programs are key. You must leverage the hosts’ social media influence.

There are two excellent video clips on Volomedia’s blog about Podcasting Metrics and Podcast Advertising and Sponsorship that Jeff Karnes and I just presented at the eMetrics Summit.

My presentation is at Slideshare.com about some of my best programs from TrustedID, Holosync’s MeditateFree.com, Better Sex Institute, Lensbaby, Accuquote and Audible.

http://www.volomedia.com/blog/2009/05/shows-on-the-go-with-jeff-karn.php

http://www.slideshare.net/SusanBratton/podcasting-metrics-and-sponsorship-ideas

Finally, Talk Show Tips: 72 Secret ‘Master Host’ Techniques will teach anyone how to land big name guests, prepare for their show, ask killer questions with my easy question-generator mini-course, create and manage a facile show flow, conduct professional in-interview techniques and learn a dozen ideas for using social media to radiate your show and help your fans promote your show for you.

What is your DishyMix podcast and blog business model?

I’m very fortunate to have sponsors who underwrite my show to reach my valuable, sophisticated audience of marketers, agency pros and digital media mavens. DishyMix is sponsored by Isobar US Carat, the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summits, adtech conferences, Trusted ID, Upstream Habitat and Audible.

Who are some of the most memorable guests on DishyMix?

I’ve created a blog post to wrap up my Top 10 Favorite DishyMix Guests.

DishyMix: Success Secrets from Famous Media and Internet Business Executives

And Coming Soon! Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock on his newest tome, Revolutionary Wealth and Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone on his newest angle, Who’s Got Your Back?

In preparation for my blogger junket to London and Cambridge with the Traveling Geeks in July, we met with Nokia this week. They are outfitting us with N79 phones and all the new Ovi Maps 3.0 technologies.

Maria and Jorg, the Berlin-based team working on both Ovi Maps for the phone and OviMaps online portal maps.ovi.com showed us the next generation of mapping.
If you’ve been impressed with Google Maps, Ovi will blow you away.

Ovi Maps has 3D, satellite and terrain views as well as weather info and more. You can go to the Ovi Maps portal site and map out your routes and then sync that to your phone. The ability to use web-based software first and then sync to your phone makes this mapping experience extra powerful.

You can find an place or search for restaurants or any business in a particular area. You can get driving and walking maps. The Tom Tom and other nav systems are definitely threatened by Ovi Map’s real-time directions via the speaker in your phone. Your Nokia phone becomes a Tom Tom, with real time, turn by turn directions for your car or for walking. There is traffic information and a speed-limit voice warning system, in case you don’t have a wife. The GPS positioning is FAST. The phone records your real time walking path to make sure you stay on the route.

You can save all your personalized searches too. The only thing you need to know to use Ovi maps that’s different than Google is that you have to put in your macro location first, then go granular in your searches. You can’t type Malmaison Hotel, London. First you have to choose London, then drill down to Malmaison Hotel. That being said, Ovi has mapped the globe – 231 cities and even better, an average of 30 landmarks per city.

The 3D Landmarks Ovi has created are gorgeous – like this image of the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. The mapping graphics are a next generation of design. Pop into a new city and pick a walking route near the 3D landmarks and you’ll see the best of that town. Nokia has also done a content deal with Lonely Planet and Michelin and is building out more content.

I’m looking forward to trying this phone and all the mapping capabilities out for my trip to Amsterdam in June and the #Traveling Geeks UK trip in July.

I’ll report back my real usage experience instead of my demo notes soon.

Email today from Warren Pickett. If you are interested in speaking at events in Australia, read on!

As I’m sure you’re already aware, the ad:tech events are part of a global series that include conferences across Europe, Asia and Australia (www.ad-tech.com).  We may also be aware that we partner globally with the iMedia Summits as well (www.imediaconnection.com).

The ad:tech and iMedia brands are growing significantly in the Australia market and so we wanted to make sure you’re up to speed with the speaking opportunities that are open for you.  If you or someone in your company is travelling to Australia or looking for an excuse to travel within the next year, you should also consider speaking at one of the forthcoming events in Sydney:

iMedia Brand Summit
September 7-9, 2009, Hunter Valley, NSW

The 2009 program will be framed by the question of how to market effectively in tough economic times: Where and how to innovate, how to understand the changing consumer in terms of products and marketing channels, and how to strike a balance between long and short-term marketing needs. We’ll also address social networking–how to build a robust strategy and how agencies should look at changing their model and skills offering to better serve their clients.

See www.imediaconnection.com.au for more details

Email Lucy James, Content Manager to express your interest in speaking at the iMedia Brand Summit 2009.

ad:tech Breakfast Briefings
Various dates throughout 2009, Sydney

ad:tech has a great reputation for delivering high-quality content and networking to marketers in Australia and New Zealand and to quench the demand for more more more, ad:tech Sydney has launched a series of Breakfast Briefings. Themes and topics vary according to what’s happening in the market and who is speaking at the briefing but the intention is always the same: Bring industry leaders to share their perspectives on the most pertinent industry issues.

See www.ad-techbrain.com.au/adtech-breakfast-briefing for more details.

Email Lucy James, Content Manager  to express your interest in speaking at one of the ad:tech Breakfast Briefings.

ad:tech Sydney 2010
March 16-17, 2010, Sydney

The #1 event for digital marketers—in 2009 the key areas for debate included how to truly engage and connect with your audience; successfully harnessing the opportunities in mobile marketing and social networking; and exploring strategic and technological advancements that can improve marketing ROI. The focus is on hearing from majors brands and in 2009 case studies included Nike, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Vodafone and Xbox. Expect more of the same in 2010 as ad:tech extends its presence throughout Australia.

See www.ad-tech.com/sydney for more details.

Email Lucy James, Content Manager to express your interest in speaking at ad:tech Sydney 2010.

If you’re interested in any of these opportunities, please email me Warren at ad-tech dot com or my colleague Lucy (lucy at ad-tech dot com).  We look forward to introducing you to our global team and working with you further throughout 2009-2010.

Note: Free research“The Global Online Media Landscape: Identifying Opportunities in a Challenging Landscape,” from Nielsen below.

A FoxNews.com story entitled:

Are You a Twit If You Don’t Want to Twitter?

stated, “a recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 45 percent of Americans in all age groups are enthusiastic about socializing via computer and mobile devices. Meanwhile, 48 percent are indifferent to Internet social networks, overwhelmed by gadgets or often avoiding Internet use altogether.”

The other side of the enthusiastic adoption of social media is the large group of people who have actively opted-out or who aren’t even interested in leveraging social networks online.

Though this Fox article reviews social media fatigue, when I look at the @Plan Profiling Report index numbers for Gen Y (18-24), I see that they index at 473 for”Publishing/Updating Blog,” the hover around 400 for “Online Games” and “Web Page Building/Updating,” and they index over 300 for “Social Networking, Last 30 Days,” and “Have 2 Social Networking Profiles.”

Gen Y are three times more likely than all online adults 18+ to participate in social media. @Plan deals strictly with the online audience. For me, when doing research, they are the only market about which I care. My products are all virtual – podcasts and now we are launching our online book/workshop publishing business, so if a prospect is not already online, I would never target them.

As well, Forrester’s “The State of Consumers and Technology: Benchmark 2008″ report shows that “GenYers love social and media activities but are less likely to shop online. Gen Y indexes at 242 for “visiting social networking sites.” I think the reason they are less likely to purchase online is because they are still learning, at their tender age, to be good consumers. They need to touch and feel, and they have more energy to go out shopping as a form of entertainment. They are also not yet having babies, unlike their GenX counterparts. GenX parents need online shopping as a way to save time, unlike the GenYer’s.

I assume other marketers (not the cpg’s with huge consumer budgets, but other online business owners like me) are focused only on the online addressable audience. And these online consumers are indexing at three times the norm for social media. The only other things they care equally or more about are online gaming, downloading music and blogging. I need to carve my mind share out of that set of competition for the Gen Y’s time and I need to reach them through these activities. Social media seems the natural place to not only market Personal Life Media’s offering, but to find those who are influential in recommending media and books to their friends.

Here is “The Global Online Media Landscape: Identifying Opportunities in a Challenging Landscape,” created by the team at Nielsen Online and authored by Charles Buchwalter,  Senior Vice President, Research & Analytics. It was given to all full-conference registrants at ad:tech last week. You can click here to download the full report. Some interesting facts include:

• There are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to those sites.
• In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73 percent.
• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

There’s an interesting chapter on Social Media in this Report. I asked Charlie his opinion on whether social media or “social influence marketing,” (my new favorite term) is an overhyped opportunity for marketers, just getting its legs or something that will be a small but effective part of the marketer’s tool box.

Charlie and Susan at ad:tech’s Chairman’s Reception 4/21/09

Here’s Charlie’s opinion, based on years of watching market dynamics.

Charlie says, “despite the tremendous growth in social networking, many are wondering if it is little more than the current hype popularized by the Gen Y crowd.” “While technology is allowing social networking to take root and flourish, it’s a technology that innovatively puts people and relationships with people first.”  “And because of this, savvy corporate marketers are discovering more natural, authentic  and meaningful ways to communicate with their customers.” “My gut: we’ve only witnessed the very early stages of how this phenomenon will transform the marketing landscape.”

Get your copy of the report here:

Report: Social Media And Video Site Engagement Reshapes The Web

At SXSW, I met my long-time idol, Bert Decker. Bert runs Decker Communications, a speaker’s training organization. Getting “Deckerized” changed by life. I used to be so afraid of public speaking, now it jazzes me like little else. I attribute much of my professional success to my ability to speak to large groups with confidence.

Bert has been on DishyMix and I have promoted his book, “You Have to Be Believed to Be Heard,” widely to my friends and compatriots.

At SXSW, Bert noted that panelists were monitoring Twitter to get audience feedback during presentations and panels. This behavior is not confined to the social media mecca that is SXSW. You’ll find panelists at ad:tech and other events doing the same thing.

I interviewed Bert about this phenomenon to get his opinions. Listen here to Bert Decker’s advice.

Susan Bratton & Bert Decker

And below is my complete DishyMix interview with him. If you are a public speaker, or want to be, this is a great interview, chock full of relevant and actionable advice.

Bert Decker on The First Brain, Transforming Your Personal Impact and The Decker Grid