In this episode, Steve talks about how PR agencies are embracing and owning social media by developing in-house solutions and strategies for their clients, how social media enables brands to speak with consumers on a person-to-person basis and why knowing what your brand wants to accomplish with social media is your first task when developing your social strategy.

Steve Rubel is the SVP and Director of Insights for Edelman Digital. He studies global technology, media and online trends and shapes them into actionable insights and marketing communications strategies. In his role, Rubel has served as senior strategic advisor to Edelman clients such as Dannon, HP, PepsiCo, Zagat, Unilever, Microsoft and many others. Rubel supports the account planning processes, intellectual property development and the firm’s innovation and business development efforts. He is a member of the Edelman Digital senior leadership committee. Prior to joining Edelman in 2006, Rubel worked for 15 years in a variety of marketing communications positions in corporate, non-profit and small/mid-sized PR firms. Most recently, he spent five years at CooperKatz & Company where he pioneered the use of blogs as a marketing vehicle for clients such as the Association of National Advertisers, simplehuman, and Vespa. Steve’s writings on emerging technology have been called must-read by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNET, PC Magazine and Forrester Research. In addition, he is actively followed by more than 34,000 on Twitter, writes a bi-weekly column for Advertising Age and is often sought by the press and as a keynote speaker. Rubel has been named to several prestigious lists, including: PR Week’s 40 Under 40, The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25, PC Magazine’s 100 Favorite Blogs, Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100.