Social Media Is Like a Cocktail Party

"Social media is like a cocktail party.  Don't be a jerk and don't talk about yourself all the time. Don't try to make a sale before you get to know someone."

This is a fantastic analogy (and good advice for both social media and actual cocktail parties).  Additional digital marketing advice touted in this Forbes articles includes:

Companies should blog more often.  Silence is a missed opportunity to communicate directly with stakeholders. My company is guilty of this.  We started a "market update" blog that was published weekly, and we managed to keep this up for a few months.  But consistency takes up resources, and we diverted those resources elsewhere.  We know we have to start it up again, but I always find an excuse to avoid starting.

Most digital communications aren't visual enough.  Every PR student should take a course in graphic design so you can take full advantage of digital possibilities.  Guilty as charged here as well.  We have very little design expertise on staff, so we need to consider bringing talent on board or hiring an outsourced consulting firm to support our marketing efforts. 

You have to mix paid and earned media.  Organic reach alone isn't enough anymore, and the lines between paid and earned are blurring.  Both need to support each other.