As I noted the other day, Twitter isn’t the Holy Grail of marketers. Despite all the brouhaha, it’s just one piece of the overall online marketing communications puzzle.

This morning, I log into my Protopage tech page and see a headline from iMediaConnection: “How Social Media Can Resurrect Your Brand’s Reputation.”

I think to myself, “that’s not right, a brand’s reputation is what it is based on providing a good product or service at at good value, with solid customer service to go along with it. If your brand’s reputation sucks because you’re lacking one or more of those elements, no amount of Twittering is gonna help it.”

So I click to read the article and … dead link.

Maybe they’re reworking the article because they feel the word “resurrect” in the headline doesn’t play well a day after Easter. Maybe they thought twice about the ideas in the article and just decided to pull it down. Whatever the case, I hope they put it back: I’d like to know how a brand that’s gone to seed can get its groove back through social media.

Takeaway for marketers: If your brand’s gone to seed, you probably want to make a few significant changes before diving into the social media warters, otherwise it’s bound to get pretty ugly.

Over on iMediaConnection, Rodney Rumford has a good article for anyone looking to start using Twitter as a marketing tool and not just a social distraction. The 7 Marketing Mistakes To Avoid On Twitter include “Using it as a push marketing channel,” in which Rumford gets to the core of how marketers need to approach Twitter:

When you have people follow you, they follow for a reason. They have effectively “opted in” to hear what you are publishing and sharing. Focus on adding value and giving them what they want. Use this channel as a way to communicate industry news and trends — insights that are valuable to your target audience. Interaction is the key to building influence on Twitter. Share openly and don’t only talk about your services. Find a way to mix it up and be interesting and human in your interactions.

Takeaway for marketers: Twitter isn’t the Holy Grail of marketing that all the buzz might lead you to believe. It’s one of many, many online marketing and communications tools. If you’re going to use it, though, use it wisely.

The Financial Times reports that “advertisers in the U.S. are bracing themselves for regulatory changes that they fear will curtail their efforts to tap into the fast-growing online social media phenomenon.”

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, “bloggers who get free products and then endorse them on their blogs would have to make it clear they got the products free.”

In one respect, this is good news. Bloggers should absolutely be transparent in their writing about products and services.

What may not be such good news, though, is that as legal site Lexology reports, the FTC is suggesting that “advertisers and endorsers be jointly liable for false or unsubstantiated statements in endorsements.”

So if a company makes 1,000 samples of its product available to 1,000 bloggers, the company could be liable if one of those bloggers makes a statement that is “false or unsubstantiated.”

Of course, the very specific legal notion of “false or unsubstantiated” could be at significant odds with the freewheeling casual and personal tone of voice exhibited by so many bloggers.

Complete text of the FTC’s notice of proposed changes can be read over here. Public comments on the proposed changes, including statements from the DMA and the Public Relations Society of America, can be read over here.

Takeaway for marketers: Keep a close eye on this one.

Over here on LOHAD, I’m sorta the Kathy Griffin of bloggers. But even though I’m on the D-list, I occasionally get pitched by products and services who want me to give them some pixels.

A new Web service emailed me recently. I ignored the pitch. They sent a follow-up the other day and received my out of office response:

I am traveling on business Wednesday and Thursday (March 25 and 26) and will be checking email as often as time, meetings, and BlackBerry access allows. Sorry for any inconvenience, and I’ll be back to you as soon as possible.

To which they responded:

Thanks for getting back to me. We’d love for you to share the news about [redacted] to your readers. Feel free to use the information and buttons on the news release at [redacted]. If you do post, let me know. I’d love to share the link with my team.

Ummmmm … yeah, that autoresponse really says, “I’m interested! You bet I’ll cover your product!”

Takeaway for marketers: If you’re pitching your product or service to a blogger, at least have the courtesy of speaking to them one on one … and be cognizant enough to realize when they’re not paying any attention whatsoever, or you’re likely to look pretty foolish.

Is social media an industry? Mashable asks the question … and the conversation that ensues from readers makes for some fascinating reading.

This comment from Aaron Richard is notable: “Anyone who claims to be a ‘social media expert’ is no such thing. Being able to use Twitter is not a ‘skill.’ Knowing how to communicate with an audience or an individual *is*.”

I think there’s a lot to that. I recently read a comment on another social media article (don’t ask me to find it; the Web is lousy with them these days) that said something to the effect that no one can claim to be an expert in an area that is changing so incredibly rapidly.

Indeed, there’s no way to definitively master the world of “social media” (which is coming close to jumping the shark and becoming a buzzword of the worst kind). It’s more about being in the game and figuring out what’s appropriate for the brand, task or product at hand.

Takeaway for marketers: If you’re not in the game, get off the bench, already. Social media isn’t any sort of silver bullet, it’s one more screwdriver in the marketing communications toolbox. Use it wisely.