Atkinson Public Relations usually recommends that companies encourage employee use of social media tools. With a few caveats.

One would be: Don't do it if it's illegal.

TEKsystems is accusing a former employee of wrongfully contacting former clients and co-workers through LinkedIn. The company claims she violated non-compete and non-solicit contracts after starting a new job -- and left evidence on LinkedIn that proves

BtoB magazine had an excellent Q&A in its Feb. 8 issue about the impact of emerging media on direct marketing. The panelists included Bruce Biegel, managing director, Winterberry Group; Adam Christensen, manager-social media, IBM Corp.; Michael Mendenhall, CMO, Hewlett-Packard Co.; Laura Ramos, VP-principal analyst, Forrester Research; and David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and

Ann Handley is the chief content officer for MarketingProfs, an educational community of more than 350,000 marketing professionals.

Social Media Examiner has a great interview with Ann about how her organization manages employees' social media use.

A couple of the highlights:

• Personal stuff isn't bad. It can humanize a brand. As long as it's relevant.
• It's important for companies to tie social media

In the late 1990s, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers introduced the concept of "mass customization" in their landmark book, The One to One Future.

Their premise was to create systems that combine the cost efficiencies of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization to create ideal solutions for a client.

Our client Pinnacle Financial Partners has applied this principle to great success and