“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter social media marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Going Local With Social – Clara Shih of AdAge writes about how brands can make their social efforts succeed at the local level: aligning internally, claiming social-local pages and empowering employees at the ground level.

Key Takeaway: Success in any social effort, whether it’s local or something else, requires the fundamentals. Shih’s article lays out three key steps that any brand should do for any effort. You have to have internal alignment, your social properties accounted for and employees able to deliver on the promise you communicate through social channels.

Consumers Rely on Reviews – eMarketer shared the results of a study showing that consumers trust brands that offer reviews more than brands that do not. In fact, “84% of respondents felt that brands needed to prove themselves trustworthy before they would interact with them or other information sources.”

Key Takeaway: A brand’s word isn’t enough anymore, and making reviews hard to find means consumers will probably just look elsewhere for what they need versus making a purchase without question. Brands are being shaped by what others have to say as much as they are shaping themselves, which means embracing consumer reviews will make a brand stand out from the crowd and build trust with existing and potential customers.

The Power of Social Data – A new algorithm has come out that’s able to use Twitter to predict whether or not you’ll get sick in the next eight days with 90% accuracy. The algorithm comes from researchers at the University of Rochester after analyzing 4.4 million tweets with GPS information over the course of one month.

Key Takeaway: The amount of data we’re generating is staggering. If we can do this with the flu, imagine if we could use social data to predict when someone will run out of a product, allowing us to proactively reach out to them. That’s just one example of the power of social data and why listening and analyzing is essential.

Twitter’s Bold New Path – We’ve discussed Twitter’s recent lockdowns on its API on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn regularly on the Brave Ad World podcast. AllThingsD breaks down some of Twitter’s latest moves, the reasons why and the path ahead.

Key Takeway: Nothing in this space can be taken for granted. Brands that invest too much in one platform will find themselves scrambling when and if that platform changes as some Twitter app developers are right now. It’s important to be both wide and deep when it comes to social media investment.

It’s difficult to say with absolute certainty what Twitter’s future holds. It’s burned some bridges with developers but at the benefit of becoming a more attractive advertising platform. However, users have been accustomed to their third-party apps. If Twitter cuts them off, there may be some backlash.