We all know the age-old “If a tree falls in the woods…” question, but in the age of social media an equally important question is now being asked by the masses: If you’re in a relationship and it’s not documented on Facebook, does it even count?
We all have friends who record their entire relationship through social media channels—whether through constant tweets proclaiming their love for their romantic partner, frequent wall post declarations of love, or pictures posted of flowers or [...]

Around Valentine’s Day 2011, our thoughts immediately turn to…social media. Well, why not? Social media is linking people in more ways than we can imagine and changing every day. It’s driving trends across all kinds of sectors and all parts of real life. But what are the new norms of love online today? Are there any universally accepted virtual behaviors that are contributing now to a cultural e-dating code?
Euro RSCG Worldwide, the parent company of [...]

There’s a certain set of consumers who don’t just passively consume goods and services; they proactively seek them out, help to produce them and help to propagate them. Alvin Toffler coined the term Prosumers in his 1980 book The Third Wave to label people similar to the leading-edge consumers we were studying at Euro RSCG Worldwide, the parent company of the PR agency I head up. When we started using the term later, it [...]

It has been a while since we’ve heard people talk about “the death of advertising.” A few years back, the birth of social media and interactive marketing had ad watchers sounding the death knell, but we now know that although advertising (and media in general) has changed, the ad biz has certainly not disappeared—and is not going to.
But what is emerging and shaking things up is a new creative class of people who might not necessarily work within our industry [...]

Because Hillevi Lausten did a fantastic job this summer, she will keep on writing “The Week in Social Media,” while I’ll develop a social media–related topic every week. So let me introduce you to the spinoff of “The Week in Social Media,” called “Social Media Focus.” Have a good read!
“The next wave of communication and brand creation and building is all about location. This is what will make the ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ worlds come together and it will be lots [...]

Originally posted on huffingtonpost.com.
Would it be an exaggeration to say teenagers are running popular culture? We don’t think so. And, if anything, we’re willing to up the bet. Take a look at teenagers today—their habits, their purchasing power, their mastery of media—and momentarily suspend your belief in the stereotypes or hollow assumptions about them. What you’ll uncover is a group of people who are changing the world of marketing, altering communications, inventing new lexicons and adopting still-embryonic innovations.
The teens of [...]

Originally posted on eurorscgpr.com/blog.
During the protracted health-care debate, it quickly became clear that the media put a premium on accessing information: Even C-SPAN, the cable industry’s nonstop outlet for televised government affairs, had to challenge the Obama administration to open the doors to the process. In the meantime, Americans would have to make do with the networks—Fox News, CNN, The Washington Post and other major media outlets—to get the juice on health care.
Just as the media seems to be at [...]

Originally posted on huffingtonpost.com.
Every generation assumes it has been handed the world’s problems because the one that preceded it didn’t quite master the agenda. In the rebellious 1960s, the baby boomers demonstrated noisily against established powers and ideas. But in the case of today’s energetic and engaged 20-somethings—the Real-Time Generation—I think assuming responsibility isn’t as much about disappointment in prior leadership (although there’s certainly cause for that) as it is about the power of the new tools. Thanks to the [...]

This is the first in a series of three.
We just finished conducting one-on-one interviews with some of the brightest minds in the social Web. Here are some of their insights, which we shared with our general managers yesterday in Paris. Check in tomorrow for more of what these leaders have to say.
B.L. Ochman, president, Whatsnextonline.com:
“For big corporations, this stuff is still very scary…. Anyone who is a consultant must tackle fear.”
“A lot of companies should take their websites down, because [...]

The numbers are impressive: Facebook added its 300 millionth member in September, and the site accounted for 58.6 percent of all U.S. visits to social networking sites in September, an increase of 194 percent over the year before. Twitter is taking off even more dramatically: That site has 20.8 million members and received 1.8 percent of all U.S. visits in September 2009, up from 0.15 percent a year earlier—that’s a growth rate of 1,170 percent. And that doesn’t even count [...]