First and foremost is that today’s youth aren’t as hardwired as I expected to pursue and adapt the latest technology. I was surprised to see that fewer kids than I anticipated were attached to a social channel. Facebook was the primary platform of choice for social communication, and a few students selected personalized channels such as Instagram or Pinterest. Additionally, I was surprised that more kids were not putting their arms around these channels to get a foot in the door for their upcoming career.

Have you ever wondered why printed magazines are still in business? Well, after the train wreck I just went through trying to register for an online contest, I too cannot imagine. Well done Hearst Corporation for destroying my loyalty in your Popular Mechanics enterprise. Meh.

Pour a steaming mug of hot cocoa and drop in a handful of marshmallows, kids! It's that special time of year when Justice takes a look at the many facets of branding, marketing, social media, cultural trends and related offshoots, and tries to sound smart by prognosticating on what we can look forward to in 2013.

This is an interesting subject for me to approach, for it has to do with me personally as well as countless people I feel extremely close to. We are increasingly a society that reaches for pharmaceutical assistance in order to maintain “normality.” About a decade ago, midway through my career, I reached a point where I thought something was wrong with me mentally. Years later I learned this was the result of long-term stress, anxiety and cumulative decision-making that is so prevalent within the world I call my career.

There is still a great gap between social storytelling and social media. It’s not nearly as wide as the gulf on Facebook between conservatives and liberals. But it’s a gap nonetheless. The marketer in me says that if I get too far down the storytelling path, the “call to action” for my client may be overlooked within the content. However, social storytellers would say the application of a defined message from an external source could corrupt or misalign the audience’s attention.

When people first construct a “personal brand,” the last thing they're concerned about is juggling the content, data, monitoring and associated analytics that come along for the ride. Personal branding sounds like a great idea on the surface. It allows you to control ownership of your voice, create thought leadership and add credibility to your professional outreach.

You’re producing an upcoming conference, and you have a thousand items on the to-do list. Layer on top of that a budget and needs assessment to go along with the thousand tasks. Reality check: You need to sacrifice a few darlings on your list. Prioritize based on the wants and desires of people attending the event. Your main concern should be the owners of the butts that occupy all those folding chairs. They even supersede your the wants and desires of sponsors. This little detail often seems to escape the novice event producer.

You wanna be one of the cool kids in the marketing lunchroom? Then you damn well better have a blogger outreach program. This is a micro-PR concept in which you research popular bloggers within the context of the client you are trying to promote. More often than not, you want to share a product or service with the blogger with the intent of getting a positive review or mention.

I was incredibly fortunate to participate as a VIP blogger at the recent Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2012. The event was a virtual Who's Who of social media, business, technology, distribution and enterprise experts at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resort in Orlando Florida.

Ah, yes – the freedom of being a freelancer. The carefree life of the consultant. The pain-in-the-ass clients who pay late. With the exception of ravenous otters gnawing on your extremities during a dip in the ol’ swimming hole, nothing sucks more than waiting for an invoice to finally be paid. Sure, patience is a virtue. And politely standing by without making waves will maintain a good client relationship.

Just like your mom when you came home with that first tattoo – I was shocked when I saw the blog post from Cathryn Sloane entitled "Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25" Shock is the only possible reaction to this story, which advocates that social-media professionals over the age of 25 can’t possibly have a clear understanding of the medium.

So you intend to hire a social media professional. You come to the point in your marketing where you understand that you have too many social channels, too much conversation occurring and too many metrics to follow to make any sense of it. Consider this a measurement of your marketing growth. Five years ago, to staff for this position seemed ludicrous and something that you would just train for internally. Now we see that this isn't simply a necessity within your business, but an opportunity to serve your customers in a much better and engaging way.

If you asked Donald Trump to describe his business like a board game, he would probably compare it to Monopoly. Then he would buy your mother and tattoo “Trump” on her forehead in bold, gold letters. You and I are a bit more cerebral about our industry – which is why I compare media relations to chess. It takes strategy, finesse, a little luck and some art. Sadly, I’ll probably never meet your mom, because she won’t be caught dead in the bars where we hang out.

I joke about everything, having said that, I also want you guys to have as much 'actionable tactics' as I can muster. Therefore, here's the biggest brain-dump I could put together on the 'hot as a firecracker' social channel of Pinterest. So let's give birth to this thing and move along!

Something immediately pops into your mind when you hear the term “social media. But your definition might differ from that of your boss, or your neighbor, or Seth Godin. The fact is that social media is far more nuanced than most people realize. This topic is near and dear to my heart, and I’ve been preaching about it for the last year – "social business."

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the University of Central Florida's COMM DAY, which is a personal-development event for students transitioning into the real world. I was a little concerned that they just wanted me for the “after” example in a before-and-after comparison, but it turned out the whole thing was legit. The students from UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication were a fantastic audience, and even a slightly older dog like me learned a few things.