(Also posted to SteveOuting.com)

"Social marketing" (aka, "conversational marketing") online means engaging in public conversations with consumers/customers, and responding to questions -- and problems. On YourClimbing.com, where we've done a number of product giveaway promotions with Joby for its Gorillapod bendable camera tripod, Joby had a chance to demonstrate the proper technique -- and aced the test.

Here's what happened: We'd given away a bunch of Gorillapods as prizes for the site's "Post of the Week" contest. Recipients had posted a bunch of complimentary comments and reviews of the gadgets. But after having the tripod for a few months, user Woodchuck07's Gorillapod broke (that's him in the photo before it got busted) -- and he posted a note about it to the site.

I made sure Joby knew about this, and then Joby's Joel Melamed posted a note on the comment thread offering to replace Woodchuck's broken tripod with a new one. Melamed also offered an explanation of why some people occasionally have problems (putting a large camera on the small model of the Gorillapod).

I thought this was a brilliant example of a new kind of rapid-response online marketing that increasingly is required of companies these days. People are talking about your company online, and you need to keep tabs on those conversations. When a problem like this pops up, company representatives can step in in an appropriate manner and either explain themselves or rectify the problem.

If Melamed hadn't stepped in, some damage could have been done to the product's reputation.

The lesson should be obvious to product and brand companies: Keep tabs on online conversations so you can respond when it makes sense. Sadly, few companies have figured out how important this is. Bravo, Joby!

The Internet has degraded the impact of traditional product advertising. The availability of consumer reviews of products online means that people can look to others who have experienced a product to make buying decisions.

A global Nielsen Internet survey confirms that new fact of life. The company surveyed 26,486 Internet users in 47 markets around the world and determined that word of mouth is the most powerful selling tool.

From David McCallum, global managing director for Nielsen's Customized Research Services:

"The recommendation of someone else remains the most trusted sources of information when consumers decide which products and services to buy. ... Furthermore, given that nothing travels faster than bad news -- with estimates that reports of bad experiences outnumber good service reports by as many as 5:1 -- the importance of responsive, high quality customer service is yet again highlighted."

Nielsen's research confirms the urgent needs for companies to become more "social" online. You might want to check out our white paper, Enabling the Social Company, for advice on how to do that.

Anatomy of an Interview Gone Wrong, in which an NPR correspondent breaks down what went wrong in an interview.

These kinds of "behind the scenes" stuff can be very compelling. I would love to see an interview with Apple's iPhone product manager about the challenges of designing a device that dozens of other companies have tried and failed at.

Facebook took the lead in the social networking wars when it opened up to third-party applications. MySpace resisted, which has allowed Facebook to catch up. But now MySpace has finally announced that it will open its platform to outside application developers.

We've been expecting this. We already advise publishers and brand companies, when they develop a social media/social networking strategy, to come up with Facebook applications that support the overall strategy. (The Enthusiast Group can do this work.)

I write a monthly column for Editor & Publisher Online, and recently wrote "What's Your Facebook Strategy?"

Now we'll all have to think about MySpace applications. (Some should do double duty on Facebook and MySpace.) But the MySpace demographic is younger than Facebook's, so developing MySpace applications isn't necessary for everyone.

The New York Times today has an insightful story about marketers shifting from traditional ad buys to becoming new media companies: "The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life."

Nike is the showcase example. The sports giant is pouring money into useful online social tools that runners come to willingly to use, and thus are exposed to Nike brand messages while getting value from visiting the sites.

As a follow-up to our popular Enabling the Social Company, we decided to focus on one of the most difficult problems faced by nascent community sites: how the heck do you motivate users to post?!

Steve offers up nine tips here (pdf), and we invite you to submit your own tips to our Facebook discussion forum devoted to the topic.

Cell phones represent great promise for grassroots media. Most of us carry around with us phones that have a camera feature, so we're always ready to snap an image when something good comes up. Cell phone users represent an army of "citizen" content creators.

Alas, cell phone photo quality has been poor, albeit improving. But something happened on YourMTB.com (an Enthusiast Group website) that makes me think there's hope for phone photo quality.

The YourMTB "Post of the Week" is the photo below. I learned from the photographer that he snapped it with his cell phone!

OK, it's not crystal clear; you can tell it wasn't taken with a Nikon D80. But until he told me the truth about the picture, I assumed it came from a digital camera.

Especially given that the flying biker is moving pretty fast, that's not bad for a phone!

Should a celebrity guru who makes a living doling out advice open up by getting into social media? You bet.

Martha Stewart, as has been reported, is launching a new website, called "Marthapedia," that will adopt a certain style of social media.

Here's an interesting idea from the Indianapolis Colts and the team's new social networking initiative:

They've created an "AT&T Fan Photo Gallery" and ask Colts fans to post a photo of themselves showing "Colts pride" at each home game.

The AT&T sponsor connection, of course, is that they want people to use their camera phones to send in the pics from the game.

Best photo as selected by the Colts gets: a phone call from a Colts player!

OK, personally that doesn't do much for me, but if you're a serious enough fan to participate in the Colts social network, you'll probably think that's way cool.

This is a great example of an organization with a passionate customer base utilizing its celebrities to interact with its enthusiasts. We've noticed how powerful that can be on our homegrown sites like YourClimbing.com, which has as "enthusiast-in-chief" Katie Brown, a famous pro climber and former world champion. Folks on that site seem to really love that they have the chance to interact with a climbing celebrity.

So if you've got some celebrity star-power in your organization, get those people involved in your social media initiatives!

What I'm reading when I'm not playing with Facebook working.

Meatball Mondae (#1)
Seth Godin: "Just as technology propelled certain organizations through the Industrial Revolution, this new kind of marketing is driving the right organizations through the digital revolution."