As part of our weekly strategy session this week, Anne Swanson—client, collaborator, and sister—and I watched a streaming video recording of the keynote address of the 2011 Social Media Success Summit. SMSS is an online conference that’s billed as benefitting small-business owners, corporate marketers, and social-media users who want to use social media to take their businesses to “a whole new level.”

Last night’s keynote, “The Future of Social Media: A Forecast Based on Research,” featured Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang. The presentation seemed to be slanted toward the stakeholders responsible for social media activity in corporate environments, but Owyang’s message contained some useful strategies for small businesses, social-media consultants, and nonprofits as well. His main message contrasted two possible paths for social-media efforts—getting caught in a reactive “social media help desk” scenario or implementing a proactive approach he called “achieving escape velocity.”

To reach escape velocity …[more]