Are corporations looking to spend more on social media or less? Plenty of brands are still sitting on the sidelines looking in at social networking sites and user-generated content, but how many are going to start investing in it as part of their marketing strategies?

Two recent surveys give conflicting answers. First up is the rosy view of the third annual Online Customer Engagement Report, produced by online publisher E-consultancy and digital agency cScape, which took a look at how a degenerating economy will affect customer behaviour and psychology. It says that more businesses are going to invest in social media as a way to focus on customer engagement, though fewer than half said they actually had a strategy to do so.

Of those who said they had a strategy, 41 per cent said they are monitoring online product and service ratings and reviews, 37 per cent are interested in user-generated content and about 36 per cent are looking at blogging as an option. More than one-third said they were making advertising on social networks a priority too. Micro-blogging tools such as Twitter also showed an increase, but still trail the pack with only seven per cent of respondents saying they’re using them.

Meanwhile, a survey by Epsilon said that marketing executives aren’t actually turning to social media in the droves we expect. More than half of the respondents showed little interest in incorporating social networking sites into their marketing plans. Only 35 per cent said they were very or somewhat interested in doing so. Only 10 per cent said they are using Facebook and MySpace in their marketing.

The results of these surveys are a bit of a head scratcher. The lessons that marketers should be learning are these: if their markets are engaged in social media (and most are), then they should be, AND if they’re not using the technology available to engage their customers, they’re missing a great opportunity. My view is that social media is a way for companies to take a step back to the intimacy they had with their customers before they all migrated to mass media advertising. Advertising will remain a tool, but word of mouth will always trump it for effectiveness.

Techcrunch is the kind of publication that makes newspapers and magazines turn pale with fear. The daily blog on all things tech is read as gospel by millions of followers (I’m one of them). Not surprisingly, that makes it a target of PR firms wanting some publicity for their clients. Last night, it looked as though some of those firms touched Techcrunch’s last, raw nerve.

Over the past few days Techcrunch has posted a couple of tweets taking on public relations people for promising embargoes, then breaking them. Presumably that means a PR firm promised Techcrunch an advance look at some news in exchange for the promise of delaying its public release. Who knows what happened, but Techcrunch last night tweeted on Twitter “I declare war on PR firms. More nonsense today. We’re publishing a list.” And then later: “we are literally under attack from the PR world. This is going to make a fascinating post.”

Since we don’t dwell in the tech space much, we’ve never had the opportunity to make them angry, so I’m fairly sure we’re not on that list .  But this episode certainly raises an interesting series of questions for media and PR firms. My rule of thumb is always to take the high road when dealing with reporters and bloggers. Don’t over promise, never lie and make sure you’re an honest broker with all your contacts. My experience tells me that is the path to good relationships. Sounds like some PR folks got a little over anxious and burned a very important contact. Not good.

I don’t mean to absolve Techcrunch here though. The declaration of war was way over the top. The sweet sanctimony and self-importance makes me roll my eyes. Public relations people, like myself, are vital for news organizations to do their jobs. Techcrunch is a leader in its space, without a doubt, but I wonder if the Wall Street Journal or the Economist has ever declared war on PR firms in general and posted a blacklist. And besides, even if Techcrunch is angry and put out, it doesn’t need to say it out loud… as I told my nine-year-old the other day: you don’t need to vocalize every single thought that comes into your head. That’s bad PR.

By the way… for those of you who don’t know about Twitter and how it can be an integral part of your next communications program, check this out.

Follow me on Twitter here.

I love my job, because it often puts me into contact with some extraordinarily bright people. Yesterday was a case in point when I attended CREED Seminars‘ “Educating with the Middle in Mind” conference at the Radisson Hotel. CREED is a new client of ours and the conference reinforced why I am so glad to be working with them.

The conference attracted about 450 teachers and school administrators from across Canada. There was a buzz of excitement from the participants because CREED’s speakers are among the most highly regarded in their field. All of them were focused on helping our teachers deliver a higher standard of education … and for me, that is the best possible use of our collective time and resources.

Our job for CREED to develop a media relations program for their conference and their speakers. We were pleased that CBC Radio jumped at the chance for an interview with keynote speaker Dr. Todd Whitaker. It’s somewhat disappointing that speakers of this quality didn’t draw more coverage from local media, as it’s a rare instance that we have easy access to people like this all at once… but that is a digression into the sometimes mercurial world of ‘what makes news’.

We’re continuing to pursue media coverage for CREED’s speakers by direct outreach to long lead trade parenting and education publications. Judging by the quality of the stories we’re pitching, I expect we’ll be successful with media that focus on these issues.

We’ll be pitching the story, for instance, of Dr. Sharon Faber, an expert in improving literacy rates in our schools. If a child isn’t reading and writing well by the time he or she enters the middle years (Grade 5-8), then that child is in big trouble of falling further and further behind, and becoming what we euphemistically call ‘at risk’ (shorthand for drug addicted gang members).

She offers some excellent insights into how to reach kids and help them become literate. For example, often the curriculum our schools follow is based on content that has no relation to the lives of our most disadvantaged children. We need to help them learn to read using their own vocabularies. Once engaged and once these kids have the tools to read and write, then they also will have the skills to learn and expand their horizons and thrive.