Working with large global consumer brands on Facebook I am reminded daily that success on social is all about community, not about clicks. This is particularly true when it comes to a successful advertising strategy on social.

Here’s an excerpt:

Every single fan has the potential of helping a brand create authentic content, and Facebook’s engagement-driven advertising products are designed to amplify great content. It’s that powerful triumvirate of owned media (the page) encouraging the content to be created; to earned media (the fans responding, sharing, participating); to paid media (the brand amplifying those conversations and interactions to a wider audience). Without the first two, the third is just a one-to-many, reach-oriented broadcast message. And it will resonate less authentically on social platforms.

 Article written and placed for ClickZ: “Advertising on Facebook Is About Community, Not Clicks.”

This month, we released a White Paper that documented our best practices when it comes to social engagement apps on Facebook.  You can read the results in this article published on ClickZ — “10 Ways to boost Engagement on Facebook with Social Engagement Apps,” and download the Social Engagement Best Practices White Paper here.

Article written and submitted to ADOTAS.COM, reviewing how brands did at the Olympics for their serious marketing sponsorship dollars. In the four years since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Facebook has grown from 100 million users to close to a billion —what a difference four years makes. So, how have the Olympic sponsoring brands taken advantage of this immense new global audience? In 2008, there were two ‘levels’ of brand sponsors at the Olympics — the eleven TOP Partners (Acer, Atos, Coca-Cola, Dow, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung and Visa) who are reported to have paid an average of $100 million each to buy the world-wide marketing rights over a four-year cycle, covering a Winter and a Summer games. And, about 40 other sponsors spending from around $15M to $60M each for more limited rights. (You can view a full list of those sponsors, and their contributions, here.) Read the whole article here.

Article written and placed for Friend2Friend in iMediaConnection today, covering social media lessons for travel marketers. While websites catering to the “wisdom of the crowds” have shaped travel decisions online for well over a decade, social media sites such as Facebook represent much more powerful opportunities for marketers to reach and engage with new travelers. In fact, today it’s often trusted recommendations from our Facebook friends (via their Facebook news feed) that make us aware of a destination in the first place. And, when it comes to sharing stories about one’s favorite vacation spot, “like” often turns to “love” (i.e., purchasing airplane tickets and booking hotel rooms). Read the whole article on iMediaConnection here.

Another article written and placed this week. Very delighted with the result — on Techcrunch, as the first opinion piece of the day. “Every vote counted on Super Tuesday. The results coming down to the wire, with Mitt Romney narrowly beating Rick Santorum by only 0.8% in the Ohio primary. While some may argue that the issues elevated Mitt above the rest, as a social marketer I can’t help to wonder if social savvy determined the winners and losers…” Read the whole article here.

This article written for, and accepted by, on VentureBeat. While sports fans eagerly await who will win the 2012 Super Bowl and look forward to diving into chips and a Frito Pie or two, marketers are eager to see who the winners (and losers) are on the social media front. Clearly big brands want to make sure their (estimated) $3.5 million investment for a 30-second spot pays off, but how do they go beyond the 100 million audience to cultivate new and engaged fans via social media after February 5th?

Here are a few suggestions on what marketers can learn from the success of sports engagement on social media.

Your fans have shifted to social…Refresh your playbook

Social media is changing how fans cheer on their teams. At the time of the 2006 World Cup, Facebook was still limited only to college and high school students. But then everything changed in 2010. At the South Africa World Cup, where viewing parties, mobile app badges, continual tweets from players, and live streams on social networks inspired a growing community of fans to share with socially-inspired sports fans around the world.

Games were watched worldwide in record numbers (19.4 million people watched the US vs. Ghana game). Twitter reported that the Women’s World Cup soccer final scored a new record with 7,196 “tweets per second,” the most tweeted moment in Twitter history. And number 2? Brazil’s elimination from Copa America! Social vuvuzelas were heard all over the world (and not only on those incredibly annoying vuvuzela mobile apps). Read the full article here on VentureBeat.