If you read Now Is Gone, you are probably trying to figure out social media for you company. I’d like to do three virtual activities in May to help you. One idea is a webinar on participation or content creation.

But what would make sense for you? A BlogTalkRadioathon? An online chat? Let me know. We’ll make it happen.

Would you sit next to your brand at a dinner party? No, not your personal brand…your company. Was your brand on time for your dinner date? Does your brand have good table manners? Perhaps your dinner party date talked the entire night and didn’t let you speak a word. Would you go out on a second date? Ponder these questions and many others asked in the latest Brandjunkie Survey.

According to survey results, people chose Apple to be their ideal brand dinner party companion.

Apparently, for brandjunkies, the most desirable characteristics in a dining partner are sex appeal, intelligence, sense of humor, celebrity status, and of course taste—both on a literal and figurative level. Picture Steve Jobs wearing Victoria’s Secret but smelling like Chanel while drinking a Coke on Comedy Central (all mentioned as responses).

Brandjunkies are also, well, economical—but at least honestly so. Many chose to bring brands that would pay the bill, from American Express to Oprah. Our readers also seem to enjoy plenty of booze with their dinner, as these brands made the guest list: Absolut, Bacardi, Black Label, Budweiser, Ciroc Vodka, Dom Perignon, Guinness, Heineken, Jack Daniel’s, Johnnie Walker, Kaapzight Wine, Laurent-Perrier, Moët, Mont Blanc, Smirnoff, and Tanqueray. Cheers!

On the surface, such questions may appear ridiculous, but not when you consider your brand equity is dependent on being an integral part of your customer’s social lives. No surprise that Apple took the cake as being one of the most desirable and sociable brands overall.

Consider energizing questions on your next survey. Too often the questions asked are corporate speak and do not explore the link between human behavior and your brand. Instead of basing your SWOT analysis on stale pain-points, consider answering the BRandjunkie questions of your brand and analyze. Shift the context of how you view your brand equity.

In, Who Is Talking About Your Brand, Jay Deragon summarizes the shift of branding into the social mediasphere, "Brands have two choices: deny the process, or engage in it. Now consider how much social networking and related emerging technology has created the phenomena in which the masses are becoming connected with influence. Your brand is largely influenced by what customers testify as to its quality, responsiveness and ability to identify personally with the customer, people."

As an aside, I found the answer to this survey question the most revealing of customer perception, What brand do you think is truly (going) "green"? Answer: NOBODY. Ouch. Doesn’t Al Gore have $300M invested in a global warming ad campaign?

The title says it all.

Maybe a blog isn’t right for your company.  Maybe you don’t have anyone in-house who can step up and be the voice for the firm, the agent of engagement.  But you do need a blog policy, pronto.

Cisco is now in hot water because one of its employees was running an anonymous blog tracking so-called “patent trolls.” When a site is official and transparent, there is no confusion about loyalties or the source of information.  When employees are engaging in underground behavior, their actions can be tied back to you down the road.  That applies to sites they run, administer, or even participate in commenting.

Sun, Yahoo, IBM, and many other companies have publicly available policies.  There are many other resources available to help you craft one.

You may never have a corporate blog.  But you have employees who do, and they comment on things that interest them.  A clear policy can be the firewall that keeps your corporate interests out of the flames.

(Ike Pigott regularly writes at Occam’s RazR)