Anyone who has ever set up a Twitter or Facebook account knows setting it up is easy, but knowing what to do once its developed or whether you should even have such accounts to begin with is much harder.

In today’s Social Media Monday article in The San Diego Union-Tribune, NST’s Director of Social Media Teresa Siles explores ways to build a strategy before launching yourself or your brand into the social media space.

If you want to learn more about how to strategically think about your social media presence, join us for the San Diego Social Media Symposium, Friday, Jan. 28 at San Diego State University’s Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center.

Janet Elk gets coveted NST Tiki Token

… Janet Elk! Each week at our weekly Monday morning staff meeting, the NST Tiki Token is given to one staff member who has done an extraordinary job the week prior or who may need a little extra support in the coming week. Whether for a job well done or for a little bit of encouragement, the weekly tradition of the Tiki Token dates back many years. The Tiki Token winner from the week prior designates the new recipient of the token. This week’s recipient is our interactive director for her great work with the NST holiday card that not only wishes our clients, partners and agency friends a happy holiday season, but also shows our support of the San Diego Food Bank and the Union-Tribune (client) Holiday Food Drive. Janet didn’t stop at creating our holiday card. She also put together a fun video showing how we deck the halls at NST. Kudos, Janet!

Each week, NST will announce the Tiki Token recipient.

From the best screw up in news media to how to double food production to feed the hungry, in case you missed it, here’s a sampling of information shared this week by the gang at NST:

Some believe there is an entire generation that has never dialed a 1-800 number. Where are these digital natives and other web-savvy consumers going to air their grievances? http://bit.ly/eOevmS

A website called Regret the Error, which follows corrections, clarifications, apologies, and trends in the world of journalism, has some fun each year by picking its annual “Error of the Year.” http://bit.ly/evL4kZ

Given the state of the U.S. economy, the recent news of the growing number of those losing their jobs and uncertainty in Congress about extending jobless benefits, we may be facing something bordering an epidemic of hungry, needy families. http://bit.ly/fpE0ds

To adorn the office of his new Brooklyn apartment, Saif Ahmed chose a truly one-of-a-kind piece of art. He bought a kit from online retailer DNA11.com to swab some of his cheek cells, and then mailed the sample to the company. http://on.wsj.com/ihisRi

With the launch of Places, Facebook began allowing businesses to merge their Page with a Place they’ve claimed. While there are some advantages for businesses focusing on generating foot traffic to a single physical location, merging has important disadvantages including lost functionality (at least for now). http://bit.ly/evygtK

To have success as a PR professional, as with all professions, it is essential to keep up with the latest news and techniques in the industry. http://bit.ly/ejS2hs

We’ve all been hearing about Facebook’s new promotions guidelines, and here they are http://on.fb.me/a0XuTZ.

We’re getting uncomfortably close to the day when there won’t be any surviving vets of Pearl Harbor or WWII.  The history books just don’t capture the heroism of hearing these stories from the mouths of grandfathers. http://bit.ly/ewtq91

Everybody loves viral videos. That’s why they’re “viral.” Ad agencies have been trying, in their own way, to replicate the success of viral videos to help their campaigns get exposure and new fans. http://on.mash.to/ggG72D

Nationally, 37 million Americans receive some sort of emergency food assistance, and that number has increased 46 percent in the last four years.  Given the state of the U.S. economy, the recent news of the growing number of those losing their jobs and uncertainty in Congress about extending jobless benefits, we may be facing something bordering an epidemic of hungry, needy families.

Here in California, food banks are currently moving 100 pounds of surplus or unmarketable fresh fruits and vegetables each year from farmers to needy families.  The objective is to get to 200 pounds per year, and I’m chairing a state Board of Food and Agriculture initiative to double the current amount of food going from farmers to needy families. Check out this California Farmer article on how we plan to get there.

And in the spirit of the holidays, The San Diego Union-Tribune (our client) is leading an aggressive food drive campaign to collect 1 million pounds of food.  Chicken of the Sea, another client of ours, helped kick start that campaign with a 1,000-pound product contribution.  Here’s how you can help: http://bit.ly/hKh083.

The changing media landscape.  We’re all grappling with it these days, from consumers looking for trusted sources of information to content producers (old school outlets to the bright shiny object outlets) to brands, marketers and the PR gang alike looking to engage consumers.

There isn’t a magic pill or bullet, other than the realization the game has changed and staying on the sidelines won’t just make benchwarmers of us, hoping for a call from the coach to rush the field and show our mettle – it will just make us obsolete.

“If you want to stay relevant, you need to be there,” said Rob Hopwood, Internet content producer and social media specialist at SignOnSanDiego, at our inaugural San Diego Social Media Symposium when talking about how The San Diego Union-Tribune is delving deeper into social media. (Full disclosure, The U-T and SignOn are a client.)

Being there, Hopwood points out, involves exploring the full gamut of social media tools at our disposal, not just throwing up a Facebook or Twitter page.  He, and just about every panelist, drove home the clear message that social media is more than the creation and execution of a couple hip, in-the-now shiny objects and more about investing the time in identifying where your consumers are in the social media spectrum and listening to what they’re saying and want from your brand.

And that’s precisely where most fail – not just in social media, but also in communicating and marketing to consumers, period.  Consumers have too powerful of a voice to be ignored, and the days of only spewing pre-fab messages to them are not waning, they’re dead.

Even old-school journalists are starting to do the same.  In frequent sidebars and small talk with consumer and industry reporters, we’re finding journalists are getting more deeply involved in social media.  They’re spending the time learning what their readers, viewers and listeners want from them, and taking that knowledge back to their editors and producers with compelling arguments on what stories to tell.  They’re using Web analytics to measure their traction, and they’re building their own individual brands while serving the over-arching brand of their employer.  They’re not waiting for their execs to figure out how to monetize the use of Web and social media content, but instead proving the value of these tools (and creating personal job security).  They’re being relevant by being there – listening, experimenting, learning.

The more often old-school journalists strap up in this new playing field, the more balance we’ll see in news reported in social media outlets, and that will only protect their relevancy.  SDSU Professor Tim Wulfemeyer, another panelist, quips that while bloggers and citizen journalists spout off with little verified information, the “legacy media” – as he calls it – will continue to have the wherewithal to vet and verify, even in the age of using social media to reach people.  He also notes that the new FTC guidelines on disclosure will even the playing field – “Like legacy media, social media is all about credibility,” he said.

And that credibility comes with listening to your audience and building a relevant experience that is meaningful to them.

For more insight from the symposium, read “It’s About Genuine Consumer Experiences,” check out the panelist videos and peruse the tweets.