This week we officially launched the new Social Local Media Continuous Advisory Service (SLM CAS for you acronym junkies). Thanks to the hundreds of you who joined our kick-off webinar yesterday. One of the topics we covered in the webinar was how to measure ROI from social media campaigns (always a good thing). This week we also talked about how tricky it is to meet customer expectations through social media and how you could start a new local business using just Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and Google. Just to show you the power of brands and social media, that particular post got more traffic than all others combined. 🙂

Here’s what else we uncovered this week in socialsphere:

Things Brands Shouldn’t Do on Facebook
Lisa Barone is one of my favorite marketing writers and her piece on 6 Things NOT to Do on Facebook as a Brand has some great tips for how you should approach your FB strategy. “You know other reason it’s good to have a plan for your interactions? Because when you leave it to chance, it tends not to get done. And then your page dies a pathetic social media death.” And any article that uses the phrase “pathetic social media death” is a must-read for me.

About Us Pages Are About Social
DuctTape Marketing has a nice piece about how About Us pages are turning into “social beasts.” John Jantsch provides a list of tools that you can use to socialize your Corporate Info page.

How Social Commerce Brings Facebook Success
Sarah Kessler doesn’t think there are a whole lot of Facebook commerce success stories, but she manages to find three. They include BabyAndMeGifts.com, Livescribe and Ettitude. The short, but sweet, profiles provide insights into what worked for these companies. Social commerce plays a big part in all.

Seven Million and Counting
Touting the influx of users flocking to check-in, Foursquare now counts more than 7 million user IDs, which means the service will hit that many registered users in the coming week. Leena Rao tells us the significance of the milestone and why the user-to-ID ratio doesn’t quite match the actual number of accounts.

‘Localizers’ Attract Local Players
Digital game companies looking for growth in foreign online markets have begun to rely on local customs to appeal to the local markets. Douglas MacMillan explains these social media game makers call themselves “localizers.” It’s a trend by U.S. game makers to take advantage of foreign opportunities in virtual goods, a market ThinkEquity estimates will reach $6.1 billion worldwide in 2011.

Location, Location, Location
Generating foot traffic means leading consumers into local stores from online recommendations and reviews that offer relevant information or global positioning systems in mobile phones. Some marketers would call that nirvana. Omar El Akkad calls it location-based services through Urbanspoon, Deals, Foursquare and others. He provides tips and details from some of the highlighted campaigns that companies launched. Some were successful, others not so much.

Playing Games
Grey Area, a location-based social mobile game developer in Helsinki, Finland, secured $2.6 million in venture capital funding led by Index Ventures, London Venture Partners and Initial Capital. Founder Ville Vesterinen explains in a post the company is gearing up for a launch in the United States. Shadow Cities, the company’s first game, launched last year in Apple’s Finland App Store.

Where Europeans Spend Time Online
Providing an overview of key trends in Europe, comScore released the 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review based on data from December 2010, according to Business & Leadership. Europeans spent the most time searching online, followed by social networking and directory sites. The study outlines market penetration for smartphones, search sites and social media sites.

How to Avoid a Social Media Lawsuit
Lou Dubois describes the most common laws businesses break pertaining to social media. With location-based services like Foursquare and GoWalla becoming commonplace, Dubois details developing a clear employee social media policy. He also provides insights into copyright and trademark infringement rules, Federal Trade Commission advertising and full disclosures, privacy and illegal developments.

How to Choose Affiliate Programs for Social Commerce
Peter Cervieri talks with Sabir Semerkant, who describes how he created and grew an affiliate program for his social commerce start-up focused on the vitamin industry. The two also discuss goals and benefits behind an ad retargeting strategy.

BTW if you would like your article to be included in my weekly wrap-up, please contact me at Local SEO Guide.

Twitter Avatar of the Week (Courtesy of twit.pix.ly)

Cause of the week: Pleasanton Parcel Tax