Question: So what happens when you have a culture at KolbeCo that really embraces helping dogs in need?

Answer: People ask for help when their dogs are lost.

A friend of ours called Saturday afternoon, very worried because his son had lost his dog, Bailey, at nearby Quail Ridge Park in Wentzville. Knowing how involved we are with dog and rescue groups, he asked: “Can you help?”  I immediately said that we would, and asked what he would like us to do.  He asked if we could share a picture and his phone number with our dog friends.

We knew where to take this request – social media.

We uploaded the picture in this post and started sharing it on some private and public Facebook Dog Rescue Groups, as well as our own Facebook profiles. We also put out some pleas for help on Twitter.

Within a couple hours the picture had been shared at over 50 sites and profiles in the St. Louis metro area. As of Saturday at 5 PM we had people searching the area.

Most of the people we have never met, but they saw the pleas and were concerned about this lost dog, and set out to help find poor Bailey. By Sunday morning, I received a message on Facebook from someone that I went to high school with. She had seen Bailey in her neighborhood! Around noon Sunday, we received the call we had all been waiting for – Bailey was home! Our friend was very thankful to us, and grateful to our amazing network of dog loving friends. Well, at KolbeCo we do have some amazing social media friends, but we also know how to get the message out quickly through social media.

So the job was not over yet. We then went back to everyone that helped us spread the word and thanked them for their help. We had to let them know that Bailey had been found. We all celebrated together, online, at the very happy ending for for a dog that wandered over 4 miles away.

My train of thought was directed to Facebook for my blog this time around. It always amazes me that many of us don’t utilize the space we are given when setting up our images on our Facebook pages, and now that there is ANOTHER “new Facebook layout” (the timeline) lurking around the corner I want to take the opportunity to remind you business savvy people to prepare yourself on the front end this time and use that space to your advantage!

The new upcoming “cover image” on your Facebook page is a decent sized space for you to utilize whether it be advertising a special, getting out contact information, or telling a visual story about you or your business. You can manipulate a picture, or you can create a custom page sized to 850px by 315px pixels and create some pretty cool messaging ideas. You can get some great ideas from Mashable here. Carpe diem!

Rarely does a night go by that I don’t lie in bed, staring at my iPhone. It used to be Twitter that had my heart, but recently I’ve been pretty obsessed with Pinterest.

Pinterest is virtual bulletin boards where you can collect the things you love. Imagine if you had unlimited virtual cork boards separated by theme like style, home, food, anything really – and over time you could collect and “pin” items to these boards as you came across them on the internet. That is Pinterest.

Not only can you “pin” items you find or create, you can follow others and “repin” their items as well. Have a friend who has great personal style? Follow her boards. Covet someone’s interior design sense? Follow their boards and learn about their inspiration and aesthetic.

Pinterest obviously has some great business applications; everyone from wedding consultants to interior designers and photographers have boards where they pin their creations and allow others to repin them, socially spreading their goods.

And if all this great stuff wasn’t enough, I found a recipe for mini-lasagnas via Pinterest…if that isn’t motivation, I don’t know what is.

Follow me on Pinterest here.

We at KolbeCo are a dog-loving bunch, and as I was reflecting on social media, I started to think about how similar jumping into social media can be to getting a puppy. Think back to when you were six or  seven and you wanted a puppy. What did your parents say? They said that a puppy was a big responsibility and that it wasn’t all fun and games. Well, social media can be similar.

Yes, a puppy is cute, but eventually, it will tinkle on your new fall boots. That isn’t the end of the world – the boots are salvageable, it’s simply all in how you react to the tinkle.

Many companies jump into social media without planning how they will react to the tinkle. I love it when brands interact with me on social media; it encourages me to become a more loyal customer and in some cases can even make me an advocate for them. When I have a good experience with a brand, I want to share it. That is what social media is all about.

What I don’t love is when brands only react to positive comments. Just like the puppy, social media can be a big responsibility. You cannot simply ignore or delete comments you don’t like; learning how to respond and shape the conversation through your postings and comments is a responsibility.

If you need help dealing with the tinkle, drop us a line. We’re pros.

I was speaking with a person that I serve on a non-profit board with. Their comment was that Facebook was losing steam. I am not sure I am seeing that. Every PR trade publication, keeps mentioning social media and how important it is to the marketing mix. I am sure for new users the excitement wears off. But ultimately, this is a tool that will be used for the forseeable future.

As our agency has been study Google Wave, we have been trying to understand how that might fit it into the marketing mix. We have been optimizing press releases since 2004 and we have been telling clients that the internet is a media outlet that entire time.

Back in Q4 of 2008 we had a client mention that they wanted to pull back their marketing efforts because of the economy. Through that discussion we had mentioned that we could cut back on a few items, but we need to redesign the website. The site was 7 years old and was not generating any leads. The new site launched in February and today the client is telling us that they can barely keep up with the leads.  Along with the site we incorporated a blog, SEM parameters, PPC & started a Facebook fan page.

What we are seeing is traditional marketing, pr and advertising is feeding dialogue into the social networks.

Another client – we launched a new website in April 2009, the traffic has basically increased 250% every month – with a few simple tactics, some traditional PR in industry trade publications, Twitter & Facebook – along with Google searches.

Ultimately – marketing is a long term program – not a short term sprint. We see social media being a marathon, not a sprint.