Even in a challenging economy, the social media and interactive marketing evolution marches on. The movement to a society dominated by the online, broadband, and mobile world continues. You can see this change happening when firms like Amazon.com continue to grow and thrive in what some consider one of the worst economies in decades. You can also see it in the investments firms like P&G, Wal-Mart and Target are making in their eCommerce and interactive marketing efforts.

Here are some interesting articles, events and happenings:

• Fun With Sharpies by David Meerman Scott is a fun and interesting look at the Newell Rubbermaid Sharpie Blog based on a discussion I had with David in early January, 2009. A lot of credit for the success of this blog has to go to Susan Wassel our lead Sharpie blogger and Sharpie Tweeter (@SharpieSusan).

• The Uni-Ball brand has also started experimenting in the social media ecosystem with a Twitter Avatar (@UniBall_USA). The Uni-Ball brand also launched a powerful advertising campaign and YouTube Channel.

• David Meerman Scott also wrote an outstanding piece on the social media efforts of the US Air Force – US Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment. The chart provided in the blog post is an outstanding tool that can be easily adapted to the private sector. It is great to see a Federal Government organization being so progressive in this area.

• I also had the pleasure of speaking at the University of Georgia, Terry School of Business on social media and interactive marketing. I discussed how Newell Rubbermaid interacts with consumers through these efforts, career search opportunities and the challenges that are out there for branded products and services in the ecosystem. Kathryn Moore ran the Terry School of Business Marketing Club event. She is a 2nd year MBA graduating in the Spring and would be an outstanding hire for any company looking for a smart, agressive marketing communications professional. I highly recommend her. I also had the pleasure of meeting and listening to the keynote speaker, Sandy Carter, Vice President of Marketing with IBM. She is a well respected leader in Social Media Marketing and has written a book “The New Language of Marketing 2.0, How To Use ANGELS To Energize Your Market” and has a very popular blog: Marketing 2.0: From A Whisper To A Scream.

I am looking forward to a very bright 2009 in the social media and interactive marketing ecosystem. There is a lot to be excited about.