“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.

Why Should They Care? – Danny Brown explains what a brand needs to do in social media, a space in which many brands are trying and saying the same things.

Key Takeaway: Making consumers care comes down to understanding what the brand can say that consumers will also care about. Brands can say a lot, but the key is identifying the relevant intersection of what a brand has to say and what has value in the lives of consumers. Both elements must exist. That’s the only way a brand will prove that it deserves consumer attention.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Digiday breaks down the challenges Facebook has with proving the value of its advertising.

Key Takeaway: Are Facebook ads effective? Are Facebook ads ineffective? The answer to both questions is sometimes. Facebook is losing the PR battle. Brands have been burned. Brands are skeptical. They don’t trust Facebook, and I’m wondering if the time is coming for Facebook to take a pro-brand stance.

Stop Skipping Strategy to Get to ROI – Danna Vetter outlines the necessity of establishing a social media strategy before determining ROI. He states, “…giving yourself no real direction or the accountability of a strategy, your channel has a high probability of dying a very public death, joined possibly by a hallow Twitter egg, months or years of inactivity, and, oh yeah, the company name.”

Key Takeaway: ROI cannot be an afterthought. It also can’t be a question that’s raised before a strategy is in place. What’s the ROI of Facebook? That question gets you nowhere if you don’t know what you hope to get out of Facebook. Determine the return you desire, and then evaluate your ability to deliver that return.

Small Business and Social Media Stats – AllTwitter featured an infographic on the impact of social media on small businesses. Stats including 73% of small business use social media and 81% of small businesses plan to increase their social media efforts make a good case for going social before being left behind.

Key Takeaway: Social media has evened the playing field with businesses. Both large and small businesses have opportunities to beat each other. Large businesses can appear to be smaller and more personalized, while small businesses can take their ability to deliver customized, expert information to their customers on an ongoing basis and at greater scale.

The Social Media Bubble Didn’t Pop – Mitch Joel puts perspective on CNN’s article regarding the popping of the social media bubble. He explains that social media is a blanket term that encapsulates very different kinds of companies, that businesses are looking in every corner to be social and that social media is very, very young. There’s time to evolve.

Key Takeaway: Social media has been classified by far too many as a “silver bullet” of sorts. It’s not. As Joel points out, the hype may be dying down. Expectations are being tempered, but the excitement is still there. That’s where we should be. Let social do what social does well, and don’t put it on too high of a pedestal.

“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.

Facebook Selling Relationships, Not Impressions – Ben Elowitz lays out how Facebook’s long-term value isn’t in selling impressions. It’s in selling relationships, something no other platform can contend with.

Key Takeaway: Facebook is in a unique position. It has value. It has resources. It just hasn’t figured out the right way to package it. Facebook’s been trying to sell what everyone else is, which has put it in a position that really undervalues its true potential. Facebook has the potential to show how brands can build sustainable relationships with customers online.

Create Experiences – Danny Brown breaks down the experiences marketers can deliver to consumers that deliver value. Storytellers that people care about leave listeners with an impression that sticks with them after the story’s been told.

Key Takeaway: There are a lot of pundits out there (I’ve been guilty of it) who say you have to create great content for people to follow and care. To which you think, “Oh great! That’s what I was missing. My content just wasn’t great.” This blog post breaks down what ‘great’ really means for the end user: it saves time, it’s exclusive, it’s participatory and so on. It doesn’t just tell you to create great content. It defines what great means.

Be Recommendable – Brian Solis, one of my favorite social media thought leaders, outlines the importance of word of mouth and online recommendations, from both a brand and personal perspective. This doesn’t just happen. It’s the result of strategic planning and consistency.

Key Takeaway: A brand is only partly shaped by what it says it is. The rest is shaped by its actions and what others have to say about it. All brands (people and products) need to understand the story they have to tell, how they live it and how others can help them tell that story. We no longer control the channels. We have to trust and empower others to do the talking for us.

So You’re Delegating Social Media – Who to delegate social media marketing to and how are questions sure to come up when using social media, and The Agency Post gets tips from experts across the industry.

Key Takeaways: Many of the tips are ‘must dos’ like know what you’re asking, build a social media strategy and master the corporate voice, while others are certainly worth considering but should be customized based on your business needs and objectives. Ultimately, it comes down to what a business can handle and the best way to manage customer relationships.