Jeremiah’s weekly digest of the social media world is always a great read, and can save time crunched execs from having to fan throughout the blogosphere for info. This week’s top story is MySpace will adapt to challenge Facebook’s rise to prominence.

Our man on the West Coast Brian Solis has an excellent discussion on how news can be broken using social media tools as opposed to the old web 1.0 days of media tours, embargoes and news releases.

Shel Holtz discusses the incredible amount of social media conferences popping up these days. There’s no lack of good networking and great information to be had.

Events happen quicker using social media channels. Qui Diaz discusses the blogosphere/social network world’s reaction to the San Diego wildfires.

Marshall Kirkpatrick discusses five ways not to engage in blogger relations.

Rohit Bhargava chats up seven things companies can do to better engage their agency. Really good tenants for any consulting relationship.

The Gates Foundation has been using a wide variety of social media tools to get the word out: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube videos. The goal: Change perception of Generation Y towards education issues for the forthcoming presidential election. The results?  More than 80K YouTube views, significant community development on Facebook and MySpace, and 4,000 information kits ordered.

Kyle Flaherty brought us this Social Media Case Study: CMP’s TechMash. This was a micro campaign targeted at a very small community.  What I liked about it was that it used a variety of social media tools to produce an actionable result: with direct access to more than 100 people to attend the TechMash show next year. Kyle’s goal is to continue this effort and garner 400 by spring time.

Yesterday, Todd Defren wrote up another example of a social media news release from Eurekstar.  Lots of juicy links in here, photos and even an embedded video.  The SMNR has viral enablers with email, tags, etc.  In short, the ability to “easily re-purpose and broadly share this news” is what makes this news release form so exciting. It would be great if Todd came back and amended the study with some coverage or resulting posts.

All three of these case studies are permanently linked to on our case studies tab. If you have a case study you would like highlighted here, email me at geoff [at] livingstonbuzz [dot] com.

PRSA Launches a Conference Blog - Five Reasons to Launch a Blog - A breakdown of the five reasons to launch a blog: Influence policy, reinforce an image, support customers, give advice and educate (Communication Overtones).

The Myth of Evil Corporations in Social Media - A discussion that dissects and dismisses the general negative attitude towards companies in social media (Chris Brogan).

Restoring the Faith in Popcorn - An excellent example of crisis PR at work in the blogosphere (Conversation Agent).

The Participation Ethos - The mindset organizations need to embrace to be successful in social media.  Pre Blog Orlando session write-up.  The post mortem will be here (Buzz Bin).

Part of participating in social media is sharing. Bloggers such as Todd Defren are rightfully calling for us to share more practical and successful social media case studies.

So, last week, I dug up a few case studies I had been saving as my own best practices guide and shared them at my main blog, Communication Overtones. This included one I had written up as well.

But it didn’t seem like enough. Geoff and I came up with the idea to start a running list of social media case studies here at “Now Is Gone.” It is the perfect venue to share and share alike. So you might notice the bright, shiny “Case Studies” tab in the top right corner. And selfishly, we can take a look at some great best practices on a regular basis.

So, consider this post a “call for entries.” Write up your case study on your blog and let us know so that we can link to it, and while you are at it, turn it into a pdf and send it to Jen McClure at the New Communications Review, where you can find a growing list of case studies as well. Better yet, enter the Excellence in New Communications Awards, which are due on September 28, 2007.

In a comment to this thread on David Jones’ blog, Brendon Hodgson made a comment that really resonated with me:

I also tend to think there’s way too much punditry out there and (still) not a lot of crunchy doing (for clients, and for ourselves)…I’m feeling less inclined to read those who talk, and focus more of my time on those who ‘do’….”

So, let’s show off all of that crunchy doing!

tags: Case+Study, Case+Studies, PR, Marketing, New+Media, Social+Media

Some of the more interesting links in the past week:

In part one of a two part series, Josh Hallett chats up companies’ dependence on individuals as blog personalities, and the corresponding impact on brands (Hyku).

General Motors has launched a social media-enabled newsroom for its European operations (PR Squared).

Burying bad news or negative posts doesn’t work. The negativity always wells up again, making the company look bad. Best to focus on good work and transparency (Seth Godin’s blog).

Procter & Gamble are exploring a hybrid show format a la caveman for cable. A unique approach to content generation that again demonstrates the old forms of promotion aren’t working (Copywrite).

Facebook is about to become SEO friendly (Inside the Marketers Studio).

A lot’s been happening in the blogosphere in the past weeks that may be of interest. Here we go:

A&P had a bad reaction to some employees’ YouTube video.  The result is causing more negative publicity than the original video (Shel Holtz).

Dell2Direct is looking to evolve its social media effort (Buzz Bin).

More from Shel. A discussion of Delta’s corporate blogging effort.  The lack of hoopla indicates that corporate blogging has hit a tipping point.

Jeremiah Owyang delivered a primer on using Twitter (Web Strategist).

Smashing magazine gave a great overview of what makes a good blog template.

Business and Blogging discusses what’s your blogging ROI?

An analysis of the Johnson & Johnson lawsuit with Red Cross, and the J&J blog (BlogHer).

The CIA is going to adapt new media with its own social spy network, A-Space (Buzz Bin).

Measuring Success: The Impact of Social Media and Viral Video (Communication Overtones) - Entry discusses measuring outcomes versus output in a social media campaign.

Pro PR discusses ethical social media marketing — White Hat verus Black Hat — or a focus on short term marketing sales versus community building.

Beware of Facebook Frenzy, a discussion of some  possible marketing pitfalls within Facebook that companies should consider (Buzz Bin).

Chrysler has a new blog coming, and this interview reveals some strategic insights (Diva Marketing Blog).

B2B expenditures on social media are likely to exceed B2C social media initiatives (Conversation Agent).

The America Red Cross is using Twitter to communicate with constituencies (Twittown).