In social media we talk so often of solving problems. Dealing with trolls. Managing content. Handling nights and weekends. Yet rarely do we discuss dealing with our success. And successes happen all the time. The individual you help on Facebook. The retweet by an influencer on Twitter. The video that gets picked up by an industry blogger. So, how do we note, celebrate and commemorate the good moments? Go out to a bar? Have a nice meal? Buy some new clothes?

Last week was the week where no one had trouble communicating about the #sharknado; this week was the one where no one could get their communications right. At some point, I can only hope we'll get better at matching the swiftness and accuracy with which we can communicate completely fictitious tornadoes made of sharks, with swiftness and accuracy when it comes to stuff that actually matters. We're not there yet. With that said, here's this week in bad messaging:

Please, God, save me from writing about the #sharknado. But I must. For if ever there was a Twitter-nado, it was last night, because of the beyond-awesome movie on Syfy called "Sharknado." For the uninitiated, the movie featured the entirely plausible premise that a tornado could contain hundreds of sharks - and that they would wreak incredible havoc on the streets of Los Angeles.

Last night, instead of staying in a hotel room in Southern California, I hiked three miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and camped on a mountaintop with not another soul within a three-mile radius. During those six miles of round-trip walking and the time alone on the mountain, I came up with two ideas to drive my agency business, solved a creative challenge for one client, and established two core ideas for future columns. For me, walking and isolation spur thought. However, not everyone has the opportunity or desire for mid-week camping. What everyone does need, though, are moments to …

Social media is exhausting. New platforms and tools are always popping up. And real-time marketing, coupled with consumers' expectations of instant responses, means an always-on state of readiness.

Despite the surging popularity of the term, "real-time marketing" isn't anything new. Street teams do real-time marketing as they adapt their approach to what's happening in front of them. Public relations teams do real-time marketing when responding to a crisis. Most good social media teams have been doing real-time marketing for years. Sending out well wishes to disaster-stricken zones. Posting photos from live events. Responding and engaging with fans. However, real-time marketing can't be done without proper planning. There are a few ways we've learned over the years to ensure success with real-time social media marketing.

Please, please don't tell me you are shocked that the government has been scanning the Internet for intelligence about who among us has the capacity to be very, very naughty. You, Social Media Insiders, most of all. Given the oversharing that goes on routinely among us every day, weren't we just begging for this?

For two days this week, I was surrounded by zombies, killer cars, fantastical warriors and polo-shirt-wearing businesspeople. It's truly a surreal world at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, where everyone from Xbox to Disney to Chevy showcases their products. It's also a fascinating look into social communities.

The news of an 18% staff reduction at Zynga isn't a harbinger of the decline of casual gaming. It's a warning about being the right type of expert. Zynga proved itself to be a Facebook expert and a desktop casual gaming expert. Not a social gaming expert. Therein lies the problem with much of the strategy, training, discussion and thinking around social media. People mistake "social platform" expertise for "social engagement" expertise.

My Spotify is on a Pearl Jam jag, so I'd rather be listening to that, but instead I'm listening to the interview that Tumblr founder David Karp did last night with Charlie Rose about why he sold to Yahoo last week for $1.1 billion. This is what he said: "It was a company with a legacy, doing exactly the same kind of stuff that we're hinging our business on, which is really creative brand advertising."