“Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers.”

- Bryan Weiner, CEO, Comscore -

“You don’t need a corporation or a marketing company to brand you now: you can do it yourself. You can establish who you are with a social media following.”

- Ray Allen, former American professional basketball player -

“The first rule of social media is that everything changes all the time. What won’t change is the community’s desire to network.”

- Kami Huyse, CEO Zoetica Media -

“Social media will help you build up loyalty of your current customers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.”

- Bonnie Sainsbury, Founder and CEO of Social Media Smarter -

“Social media is changing the way we communicate and the way we are perceived, both positively and negatively. Every time you post a photo or update your status, you are contributing to your own digital footprints and personal brand.”

- Amy Jo Martin, Founder and CEO of Digital Royalty -

“Why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel, anyway? Social media touches every facet of business and is more an extension of good business ethics.”

- Erik Qualmann, author -

“In Social Media, the “squeaky wheel” gets the oil. You have to put yourself out there, to find people who will relate or even debate with you, depending on what you are looking for.”

- Jessica Northey, Multimedia personality and digital consultant -

“You can’t tiptoe into social media. You have to jump into the pool. People have a natural fear of it. But the scary part is not being there. Your customer is already there.”

- Dave Saunders -

“Right now, with social networks and other tools on the Internet, all of these 500 million people have a way to say what they're thinking and have their voice be heard.”

- Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder and CEO of Facebook -

“Sell-sell-sell sales methods simply do not work on social media unless you are a major brand, and even then, they are discovering that this is less and less effective every day.”

- Kim Garst, CEO at KG Enterprises -