There's a new social media kid on the block - and she's already the most popular kid in school. What's her name? Let's just say she's gotten a lot of Pinterest lately.

Just this week, we announced the winner of our third annual youth marketing case study competition, the GennY Award, which went to Kellogg for its "Eat. Share. Prosper." campaign targeting college students with a one-to-one social giving initiative. Finalists included Wattpad and Sony Music Canada for the "What Makes You Beautiful" transmedia fan fiction campaign introducing One Direction to North American audiences; Alloy Media + Marketing and Puma for the "My Day My Life" video campaign focused on women's soccer; Barnes & Noble College Marketing and Norton Symantec for its multifaceted "Allow/Deny" campaign; and Campus Solutions and Summer's Eve for …

We've known that kids like their parents and have a close relationship with them. In fact, their parents are friends, even confidants. We've known they are smart and brought test and achievement scores up. We've known school is cool and being a "good" kid is even cooler. We've known they have "dates" to play with their friends and they get a trophy just for being on the soccer team. We've known they are optimistic, confident and happy. We've known they weren't rebellious in the way their older siblings, Generation X, were. In short, we've known they are more "High School …

A recent "New York Times" article shed light on a very interesting comparison: conversation versus connecting. Often we hear about and/or have discussions about contacting versus connecting, but this one feels new. Since when has conversation been considered different from connecting?

Nearly every month this year, we've heard about some small social network that's the next big thing. Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and others have been making headlines in 2012 for their rapid growth and popularity with Millennials. Social media is splintering. Facebook has dominated the scene for years, but lately it's being eclipsed by the buzz around niche networks.

USA Today recently shed light on a study published by the American Psychological Association that analyzed two surveys, University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future and UCLA's American Freshman, both of which position Millennials as more focused on ourselves than anything else. While there is some truth to this, many of our moms told us the "S" on the tag in the back of our shirts is for Special versus Small; perhaps the cultural shift in young adults requires further review through a different lens.

As consumers have embraced social media, brands have tried to get in on the action ... especially if Millennials are an important audience for the brand. Consequently, many marketers are increasing their social media budget to the point that some studies say nearly 18% of marketing budgets will be devoted to social media within the next five years. But why?

Once again, Apple had everyone all a-flutter last week with the announcement of the "resolutionary" new iPad. Given all the additional focus on tablets lately, it's a good time to hone in on what we know about Millennials and tablets.

The Internet is a dangerous place. When Millennials go online, they risk running into cyberbullies, thieves after their identities, trolls lurking in the comments sections of webpages... Even on social media sites, where they're surrounded by their "friends," they can occasionally feel harassed. And for all the social aspects of being online, the web can be a little narcissistic. Some people only seem interested in tweeting about what they're doing and only want to hear opinions in line with their own.

Historical plans used to include messaging for above-the-line (mass) and below-the-line (not mass) communications. Sometimes, depending on how the person you are speaking with perceives it, even through-the-line (gasp, what, both!?). Now, it's just about the line ... period. Do you have a line of communication with your audience? How are you using it, and what story does it tell?