This was a great quote from Shane Ginsberg, Organic's Executive Director. Why do Brits always sound smarter and funnier? Anyway, he went on to say,brands should come to the party bearing gifts, on not come at all. Gary Golhamer from Edelman Digital followed on with the point that P&G is a very strong "listener." And so it goes, this panel is debating the relative merit of listening vs. jumping into the social media party. And if you decide to jump in, how does a brand avoid being creepy when they show up. Martin Green from Meebo makes the point …

Chris Curtin, VP of digital strategy in corporate marketing at Hewlett-Packard Co., said the company dedicates about 38% of its U.S. marketing budget in the digital space. Some of that budget belong to a project with R/GA. HP is working to relaunch HP.com, which supports 80,000 product SKUs and 130 million hits monthly. Curtain detailed some of HP's plans for the new Web site and invited HP Scientist Bernardo Huberman on stage at OMMA Social to discuss the company's plan. Information, one scarce, has lost its value, as more people post on the Internet, Huberman said. …

All media is going social, according to Rob Key, founder and CEO at Converseon. The perks give you the ability to manage large groups of relationship, from human resources to legal industries, in interesting ways. The goal, he said, will become ingraining social media in the DNA of clients. The panel moderated by Catharine Taylor, MediaPost columnist, looked at how social media agencies and ad agencies partner to the benefit of all. As mass media fragments into millions of interactive channels, ad agencies and social media agencies need one another to help advertisers connect with users. While panelists …

The panel discussion "The Odd Couple: What happens with Social Media Agencies and Advertising Agencies hook up" just turned up the first subtle thread of controversy. On one side, you've got agency representatives Cam Balzer from VivaKi (Publicis) and Brian Monahan from Universal McCann. On the other side you've got "providers" like Converseon, Buddy Media,and 360i. Maybe it's my years in the ad agency business, but I sense a little land grabbing around the term Social Media Agency. While there's collaboration like VivaKi's recently announced consortium of vendors, will the big agencies and holding companies really allow the term to …

By curating the long-tail of content focused on unique offerings, brands can become part of blog and/or Twitter discussions, create unity and build affinity with consumers, according to Dan Buczaczer, SVP, director, Denuo. "Brands have resources, money and the ability to make it happen," he said. Buczaczer said reaching consumers through user-generated content requires brands to take a realistic role, including doing it themselves, sponsoring something, and curating the long tail of content. Curating solves two problems. For the brand, it associates them with real content. For consumers, it brings them closer to the brand. Buccaneer said there …

The days of sending letters during the holidays to update friends and family about things that happen during the year has transformed into portals in social media platforms, according Angela Courtin, SVP marketing, entertainment and content at MySpace. Good morning. Welcome to MediaPost's OMMA Social. I'm here Monday morning in San Francisco with a room (standing-room only) full of your colleagues listening to Courtin talk about the convergence of social media during the keynote "How We Learned to Listen & What We Do With What We’ve Heard." As use shifts to social media it's no longer a race …

I'm glad to be huddled over a continental breakfast with what looks like a few hundred marketers all intent on being and learning "social." I'm flashing back to the first few meetings of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, when a bunch of renegades set out to start a new marketing industry around something so familiar as the concept of word of mouth. We all, but for a few shut ins, are social in our real lives. Most are now social online, with identities, profiles and passwords flung around the web. So is there an "industry" here? Will it …