The 5 most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Social Media this past week:

• Cisco’s Old Spice Guy clone doesn’t pass the smell test
• Say goodbye to the era of new stand-alone social networks
• Twitter “mood maps” take America’s emotional pulse
• 25 ways to make your corporate blog shine
• How a great landing tabs gets Facebook users hooked
  

This post is by SmartBrief’s Doris Nhan.

Last month, SmartBrief senior editor Mary Ellen Slayter attended the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in San Diego and sat down with Laura Stack, founder of Productivity Pro, to discuss how to avoid an obsession with social media while maximizing its benefits for your company.

Stack likens an addiction to social media to an obsessive-compulsive disorder, where one feels compelled, without reason, to constantly check social-networking sites. Just how do you stop social-media overkill, yet maintain a balance with workplace goals? (read more…)

If you work in word of mouth and social media, you’re in the trust business.

It’s this trust that earns you the respect and recommendation of your fans — and it’s where all great word-of-mouth and social-media programs begin.

In my recent BlogWell presentation, I shared a few of the fundamentals on how to earn trust:

• Never pay for love. When you pay for an endorsement, it tarnishes not only that referral — but every future one afterwards. When fans know you sometimes pay for love, it’s hard to trust any of your recommendations. (read more…)

Almost every day we see talented, creative individuals do amazing things in social media. With so much yet to discover, the brands that do the most testing and exploring are continually the ones who lead the way.

In her recent BlogWell presentation, Molly Schonthal explained how Nokia has created a culture that embraces social-media exploration. A few big takeaways from her discussion:

• Test in your own sandbox first. Nokia has extensive internal social-media tools and channels that allow it to test new platforms and types of content before taking them to the outside world. (read more…)