Social Media (or any other form of Marketing and Communications) won’t save a bad product, brand or service.

This may seem like an obvious statement out of the gates, but it is something that many brand managers don’t really wrap their heads around. If you love the TV show Mad Men (and who, in their right mind, doesn’t?) the subtext of the early days of advertising (and something that kept happening until very recently) was the ability for a brand to engage with a Madison Avenue type of advertising agency to help them turn a coal into a diamond. The germ of mass media advertising was about creating an allure or desire for products and over-selling them. Making them seem and feel bigger than they really were.

Social Media changed all of that… and more.

While advertising still works on creating this perceived desire, things do change when all voices (the brand, the advertising agency and the consumer) have an equalized platform. Any one individual with a gripe or with something nice to say can get to the top of the search engines or have their online social network share their story (in places like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc…) so  brands, products and services have to be able to deliver. In fact, with customer reviews (or peer reviews) individuals can affect a sales outcome right there where the “buy now” button lives.

Ultimately, your brands, products and services have to hold up to this very simple adage: “it is what it is and it does what it does.”

It’s great if it can do more (but if it could do more, you would probably say so in all of your marketing and communications), but it really doesn’t have to. So, when you use words like, “better, brighter, faster, 20% more, 40% off, etc…” you can disguise the true realities of the marketing initiative in the small print. Social Media is forcing companies to do away with that fine print. Seth Godin wrote brilliantly about how brilliant brands are the only way to go in his seminal best-selling business book, Purple Cow. While being remarkable should be every brand’s lighthouse, the conversation around what it takes and those who have actually done it eludes the majority of companies. Most companies still do make regular products for regular people (in fact, if everyone was able to create a Purple Cow, how would we know? We would probably need a phrase for something that is more remarkable than a Purple Cow – Purple Panda anyone?). Seth’s right, we need to get there, but most brands are falling woefully short of those purple pastures.

Many of us are finding knowledge resources and networking opportunities in new places. My top professional development resource is now Twitter. It used to be my Google Reader but now my Twitter friends act as a filter (or curator) by sharing the best blog posts they’ve read about social media, association management and other topics that interest me.

I’ve first met more social media and association friends via blogs and Twitter than I have in real life. When I finally met some of them face-to-face it was more like a reunion than a first meeting, and the real life encounter definitely strengthened our relationship. However, there are many whom I’m still eager to meet in person and that desire drives many of my decisions about the events I choose to attend, both locally and nationally.

More and more associations are wisely nurturing online communities using social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The word ‘nurturing’ is key as a good community doesn’t just develop without care and feeding. Let’s jump ahead and imagine that you have developed an online community by providing valuable and interesting content (both yours and member-generated) and a platform for conversation and connecting. Now what?

Why not organize, or support and encourage your members to organize, face-to-face meet-ups for those who participate (or lurk) in your online communities? Have a Facebook after-hours, or a tweet-up (meeting of Twitter followers) or a LinkedIn meet-up. Give your members a way to strengthen those online relationships outside of your regularly scheduled programming.

Locally, Link Appleton and Link Greater Green Bay are doing a great job of this on LinkedIn. Check them out…

Starbucks’ Vice President of Brand, Content and Online, Chris Bruzzo, is on stage at the Mashable Media Summit today and he just revealed that last year’s Free Pastry Day was a whopping success, driving more than one million people to stores.

As we noticed, activity on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook became electric on the day of the event as the free pastry news spread in digital form. Bruzzo’s credits fans with the idea to use social media to drive new business, and his remarks confirm that the swell of social media activity drove customers to visit Starbucks stores in droves.

Bruzzo also speaks to the success of the company’s Tax Day green initiative to get customers to bring in their own tumblers in exchange for free coffee, which — like Free Pastry Day — was primarily promoted online via their Facebook Page. Also, the company’s MyStarbucks Idea has generated more than 80,000 ideas and Bruzzo credits Product Manager Brad Nelson for helping them tap into the power of Twitter.

Right now there’s no big brand better embracing social media than Starbucks. The coffee retailer has managed to dominate on Facebook, made news as the first company to offer a nationwide Foursquare deal, and was selected to try out Twitter’s Promoted Tweets ad platform before other advertisers will have the chance.

Though banks are uncomfortable with the concept, many are essentially in the retail business. In my area of the Southeastern US, Bank of America and Chase have a retail delivery network akin to quick-serve restaurants, pharmacies, and gas stations. There seems to be one on every corner.

Considering the current expansion of branch networks (mostly through merger & acquisition), it makes sense that a more engaging brand personality would be good for business.

That said, it was a refreshing surprise to read an article in US Banker’s May issue describing how North Shore Bank was experimenting with Foursquare and other social media channels to create brand awareness in the communities it serves.

The $1.8 Billion bank based in Brookfield, Wisconsin has a tech-savvy e-Business Coordinator, Tim Gluth who decided to contact the “mayors” of the bank’s 44 branches and offer them a $5 Subway gift card for their patronage. “Patronage” could be a stretch as the bank did not ask if the mayors were customers of the bank, they simply acknowledged their mentions of North Shore online to say “thank you”.

Mr. Gluth found the “Mayors” on Twitter and Facebook and made contact initially through those channels. The promotion was greeted with surprise and, from this perspective, was successful in establishing customer engagement. The bank has since carried on to sponsor local Tweet-Ups in support of the minor league baseball Timber Rattlers.

Social media people love them some grading tools–you know, the kind that show you what your Twinfluence or Twitter grade are, or how popular your blog is, or even how good your Foursquare “mojo” is.

So naturally they’re all going crazy for Vitrue’s “Social Page Evaluator” which allegedly reveals how much a Facebook page is worth…