Bill Bourdon reacts to a May 2010 Fast Company article by Ben Paynter on the proliferation of social media tools and how major consumer brands are using them to build customer loyalty.

We were pleased to announce this week the addition of CoreMedia of Hamburg, Germany and StepStone Solutions of the U.K. to our expanding client roster of national and global brands.

Behold the April Fool’s Day edition of the Bateman Buzz Meter (technically #4), our semi-regular ranking of recent newsworthy events based on PR and Social Media effectiveness.

This post is the first in a new series debuting on Bateman Banter called: “The New J-School”, a semi-regular examination of the evolving nature of journalism in today’s digital age.

Take a look at our holiday video card featuring a very special rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas performed by the amazingly talented Gale Bradley Singers. Its a parody of what we can only call “Silicon Valley values” at a time we can all use a good laugh.

Is Facebook’s usefulness as a social media and marketing tool beginning to lose its cache? As PR practitioners, how do we best advise our clients which social media tools are right for their business and for how long? Bateman Group’s Lisa Melsted shares her insightful personal observations and goes out on a limb with some predictions of her own.