Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.

With the advent of radical and accessible technology, each one of us, for the first time in history, is creating an influential mark forever - we are all mini-digital celebrities and heroes to someone.

Increasingly, consumers don't search for products and services. Rather, services come to their attention via social media.

You're talking about a younger generation, Generation Y, whose interpersonal communication skills are different from Generation X. The younger generation is more comfortable saying something through a digital mechanism than even face to face.

It's about listening first, then selling.

The power of social media is it forces necessary change.

With the growing reliance on social media, we no longer search for news, or the products and services we wish to buy. Instead they are being pushed to us by friends, acquaintances and business colleagues.