The below video captures Clara Shih’s talk on the Facebook Era at BizTechDay in San Francisco this past weekend. She says, “understand your target market and do your social graph homework.” Key takeaways:

• She dives into connections online and what they mean, how to understand how Facebook and Twitter are changing people’s behavior, expectations, and relationships – and what that means for your business.

 Her insights unveil how real companies are succeeding at sourcing leads and engaging customers on Facebook.

She also addresses how you can do more with less, and how to better leverage the power of your networks to improve your productivity on and offline.

Ben Parr of Mashable stressed the need to engage in the social web if you hope to succeed as a small or large brand at this weekend’s BizTechDay in San Francisco. Key takeaways include:

1. Go to where your customers are….and more and more people are hanging out in social networks….on the social web.

2. Don’t let someone else tell your story. The key thing to social is that YOU can tell your story directly.

3. Great ideas solve two problems: a problem that affects people – “if you think that you can just build it and they will come, it’s BULL,” Ben says. The second problem you can solve is distribution and social media is a distribution channel, an ultimate one.

4. Lastly, he says, “if you think of social media as tools, then you are a tool. Social media is about people. Social media is about communication. Social media is about engagement.”

Bottom line, in order to build a remarkable brand, you have to build a channel first and engage that channel in interesting ways and often. A video clip of the last part of his talk below.

Southwest Airlines was a sponsor and exhibitor this year at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. Christi McNeill from Southwest Airlines talks to me about their social media strategy, why she blogs and tweets and how they use social media tools as a company. Their social media team is only two, but they’re active with over 1 million followers on Twitter and in the top ten in travel for ‘influence.’

The Blog World Expo closing ‘talk show’ panel included Rob Barnett, Adam Corolla, Penn Jillette from Penn & Teller, Cali Lewis and Jeff Hayzlett. What’s their secret? Why do they blog? What do they tweet? What is happening with new media and how does it impact them? Listen to hear what these five illuminaries and entertainers think. Says Penn, “Twitter is one of the most intimate ways we can communicate today.” The video is in three parts: Part I, Part II and Part III.

Listen to a drill sargent’s life and why the U.S. Army showed up at BlogWorldExpo to promote and talk about army life. Jonathon is one of the many bloggers who is telling his story. He writes about his trips, including the feelings he has when he is on the ground. Andre Dean also talks about his ‘stories’ as well as why he blogs. Have a listen.

Asks Barry Moltz in a session at BlogWorldExpo last week entitled: Feeding Your Addiction – How to Create and Market Your Content to Drive a Professional Speaking Career, “What’s Your Bio, What’s your Brand and What’s Your Promise?” And then, ultimately what’s your platform going to be? Below is a clip from his talk.

At the Jenn-Air booth at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas last week, celebrity chefs talk on social media, how they started blogging and how it has had an impact on their careers.

Take a meander through the BlogWorldExpo show with me so you can get a sense of its energy and who some of the players, sponsors and exhibitors are. Oh yeah, and you can see Scottish blogger Ewan Spence juggle amidst the crowd.

For an art exhibit at the Tate Modern in London, artist Ai Weiwei covered the Turbine Hall with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Each of the seeds were made by 1,600 Chinese artisans.

Bubbalon demoed at the latest VatorSplash in San Francisco. More than just a rating site, you can give a ‘score’ in real time about people, places and things, as you experience them, including the ability to rate a venue, store, cafe or restaurant as you check into Foursquare.

You can even write a review about something. Bubbalon asks people to share their feelings, and gives them the ability assign an emotion in addition to a 1-100 point score. Bubbalon’s “SMART CONNECT” feature is built to recommend “Bubbalonian connections”, based upon similarities in ratings and feelings. Listen to the video below and Todd Hamilton and Alex Galkin from Bubbalon will tell you more.