Even though social media has been around for a decade, for many companies it still feels like the “Wild Wild West”. Although maturing, the path to becoming a true social business by fully embracing disruptive technology seems just as challenging now as it did a few years back. According to the latest 'The State of Social Business 2013' report by Altimeter Group businesses are still unsure about the role social media plays for their enterprises, beyond just using it for marketing and communications.

How I see it though is that even when it comes to marketing and comms purposes social media is still a nascent area for companies, especially for small businesses.

For those struggling to embrace social media, here’s where the CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations – the UK professional body for PR practitioners) comes to help.

Just last Friday the CIPR’s social media advisory panel (#CIPRSM) revealed an updated version of its Social Media Best Practice Guide. It’s a 30-page free document that covers core principles of social media and offers advice on dos and don’ts, planning, legal and security considerations and measurement.

My previous blog post about the psychology of social commerce was inspired and pretty much directed by one of the chapters from Brian Solis’ latest book: “What’s the Future of Business?: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences” (#WTF). I mentioned there that I was going to share with you my impressions from the entire book and this is what this post is about. (To see how his other work and books have inspired me, check out this blog post here too.)

Brian Solis has a way with words. His thoughts are so brilliant and well put that I find it extremely difficult to rephrase them (bear in mind, I am not native in English), so I’m never happy with the outcome. Which is why I chose to share with you my favourite quotes from his book. I hope you enjoy them! And please do tell me which ones are your favourite. Feel free to suggest more in addition to the list I’ve compiled! :)

Here we go:

Over the weekend I went to visit my friend in Stuttgart, so while on the train I finally got to read Brian Solis’ latest book “What's the Future of Business?: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences” (abbreviated as WTF – cool, right?). Of course, I read it in one go and I felt inspired by it as I have with each and every his work. Before I share with you my impressions about the book though, I would like to show you today just one particular thing I found absolutely fascinating – an infographic explaining what drives shopping decisions.

In chapter 12 of WTF, Brian Solis argues that to design experiences and trigger emotions brands have to have an understanding of social sciences and the psychology of engagement in order to make sense of the attitude and behaviour of their target audiences.

To help us develop that understanding of “the A.R.T. of Engagement (actions, reactions, and transactions)” Brian Solis presents a rather interesting infographic by TabJuice that was inspired by Robert Cialdini’s work about the Six Principles of Influence and visualises six common brain triggers that influence consumer’s shopping decisions.

You already know about my recent research into sustainability and my passion for fashion, so today I am going to introduce to you an impressive initiative by Greenpeace that aims to tackle one of the most pressing challenges the Earth is facing – water pollution. And because I am a shopping maniac (a pretty bad one as a matter of fact…) I thought this post will make other “shopping queens” think where exactly they spend their money during their next shopping spree because fashion is not just about glamour.

What’s the issue?

Toxic water pollution is extremely harmful to our planet and us as species. No surprise there. But where does that pollution come from? Obviously from the manufacturing of various products, but it is especially the booming fashion industry that has a stake in it.

The following video

Believe it or not, social media has been around for over a decade. Considered just a fad at the beginning, it has invaded our personal and professional lives to a massive extent. Still, the biggest difficulty for brands and people working in social media is to understand its rules. The sheer advice in the form of articles and blog posts available on the Internet doesn’t make that ‘mission’ particularly easy.

We read and hear all the time “follow the trends (e.g. visuals and infographics, Pinterest and Instagram)”, “do that, don’t do that”, “focus on that, ignore that” – oh my! Checking out a few of those articles in a row doesn’t really make it clearer; you get even more confused.

Therefore, when I came across the infographic you can see at the end of this post I was yet again impressed with the power of visuals and how they manage to transmit a number of messages in a quick and easy to understand, yet creative and fun way. Well done to Jeremy Waite for compiling the rules and creating the infographic!

The truth is though,