Clients often ask how they should get into social media. They're thinking about if and how social media can impact their bottom line.

The first place they should look is inside their organization and make certain their company's personnel policies outline appropriate social media use.

Anyone can set up a blog, Facebook, or Twitter account in a matter of minutes. And then there are thousands of forums and opportunities to

Social media is emotional. It's personal. It functions in real time.

In short, it runs counter to all forms of marketing regulated industries have used for years. The social media guidelines from most regulators (whether FTC, FDA, FINRA, etc.) are still in development. This leads to a lot of:

"The regulators won't let us."

"What if we interpret the guidelines incorrectly?"

"We

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

As you know if you've read the case study or some of our other blog posts, we're working on the Red White and Food campaign, which advocates allowing retail food stores to sell wine. Our client is the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association.

We're in our third year of reaching out to the public, making sure they know about the issue, and encouraging them to participate by contacting their legislators,

Despite multiple uses of the word "social," Social Media Club Nashville's February event, an ice cream social at Tasti D-Lite, wasn't just a party. In addition to meeting other people who are working in social media, we heard from Tasti D-Lite's director of information and social technologies about how the New York-based frozen yogurt chain is using Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to engage its loyal fan

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

Atkinson Public Relations has had the good fortune during the last two years to work on a campaign advocating the sale of wine in Tennessee food stores.

To date, Red White and Food (we are all about consumer choice) has attracted more than 21,000 members, generated hundreds of positive media clips and blog stories, and secured favorable editorials from every major newspaper in the state.

Social media has been significant to our

CEOs at all our client companies have asked us, “What should we be doing with social media?”

The answer to that question has many dimensions, including culture, industry, available resources, industry regulations, etc.

We don’t have all the answers. At the same time, we understand the importance of exploring the issue. Atkinson Public Relations has created the CEO Guide to Social Media to do exactly