There are two questions that come up in my line of social media pr: 1) What do we do if someone says something negative about us online and 2) how do we measure it?

Marketers are terrified of these two questions and with good reason; something negative said under the cloak of online anonymity has the potentional to spread faster than an electrical fire through a a block of matchbox houses and real, agreed upon reach measurement are the things that successful programs and future marketing budgets are based on. Brands within public corporations have to make their numbers - they have stockholders to report to. They don't have the luxury of operating in silo's or aborbing risk with surplus cash somewhere else - that's a CEO decision. And a mighty one to make.

As marketers, we are at point where we must sink or swim. We know that many of our target consumers and brand loyalists are living online - we have data to prove that. We see mobile handset sales, so we know they own mobile social media - but how are they using it? What are their competancy levels? Where is it going?

There are many X factors. And there will be for some time to come. This is the new frontier, and like the wild west, there are some already there at the forefront, staking claim and quietly getting rich, not telling anyone else for fear of letting the secret slip and losing marketshare. What the established know and some of us in the realm know, is that there's room for more - it's up to us to get to the frontier and drive our stakes in the ground.

No, there isn't a roadmap yet. There will be missteps.

Measurement is not accurate. New forms of measurement are evolving. Much like a product can be negatively reviewed in mainstream media (MSM) and other outlets may pick up that story, the same may happen in consumer generated media (CGM) - the smartest, savviest of marketers will accept counsel on how to manage and in some cases leverage those outcomes. Life will go on.

More than anything, social media is a living, breathing medium. Constantly evolving, more rapidly than broadcast or print ever did, and that's part of what what makes it so exciting to me. The constant challenge to keep up and evolve with it.

A presocratic once said, "You can never step in the same river twice." That man was true to his words, I can only imagine his thoughts on social media. He'd have to say them twice as fast, just keep up with it.