Welcome to Socia Media Friday! Here are some quick shots to energize your social mind.

Are you using QR Codes? More and more people are incorporating these square squiggles into their messaging strategies. Here are 5 examples of very cool QR marketing applications.

We've talked about some of the on line Social Media tools for analyzing the effectiveness of your brand. Klout, Twyla and Hootsuite can all give you useful insights. Here are 5 spreadsheets that can help, too.

Just how effective is Facebook as a marketing tool? A growing body of research is asking that question. Some voices are wondering if anybody is really listening to what we're saying. At MSUAA, we believe that Social Media can be an effective engagement tool. But it's just one of them. 80% of our members still sign up using paper. And I still get more feedback about our magazing and radio campaigns than I do via our Social Media networks. When we asked members what their favorite social network was, the majority said "Face to Face". But in the long term, the concept of interaction on line is here to stay. In 2012, we'll be offering more multi-media applications than ever before.

When I was a Comcaster, I had the honor of working with Frank Eliason on the company's groundbreaking on line customer engagement strategy. Frank has become a rock star in that space and is about to publish his first book. "At Your Service: How to Attract New Customers, Increase Sales, and Grow Your Business Using Simple Customer Service Techniques" is available for pre-order at Amazon.

Want more stuff like this? Follow me via @MSUScottW on Twitter for timely links to interesting ideas. And visit Dave Isbell's excellent Spartans Helping Spartans blog for timely advice on how to super charge your Spartan Career.

Scott Westerman is the Associate Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Executive Director of the MSU Alumni Association. Write to him via wsw@msu.edu.

"Leaders overseeing innovation efforts inside their companies need to be careful of mistaking passion for competence. The philosopher George Santayana defined a fanatic as someone redoubles their effort when they have forgotten their aim. We've all encountered the innovator who keeps pounding the table, insisting that his vision is right despite mounting evidence (and bills) suggesting otherwise."

That's the wisdom HBR's Scott Anthony shares in his article "Don't Confuse Passion With Competence".

Anthony posits that, "Passion only matters if it leads to an innovation that delivers impact, whether that impact is measured in revenues, profits, improved process performance, or something entirely differently."

As all Spartans know, at the end of the day, it's all about the results.

"Personal brand building is impossible if you’re not using the right words!" 

Roger Parker, writing in Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Blog suggests checking out Wordle.net "a free online software application that creates word clouds, like the example shown, that you can use to make sure you’re using the right words to build your personal brand."

The first piece of advice I give to every student group I talk to about Social Media is that whatever you say on the Internet is etched there, in stone, forever. Future employeers, co-workers and significant others will be able to see it. So when you post anything... watch your language.

As careers in Social Media continue to proliferate, more and more Spartans are asking how to find out where the best jobs are. Onward Search Social has created a Media Jobs Salary Guide, providing, " a comprehensive look at the best job markets, the most in-demand job titles and salary ranges for social media professionals in the top 20 U.S. cities." The free guide can help you as your strategize how to take your social media career to the next level. Download it here.

If you're considering starting your own blog, it's a worthwhile exercise to think about the key dimensions that make a blog meaningful, readable and popular. Douglas Idugboe shares his "The 7 Fundamentals of Successful Blogs" over at smedio.com. They include Quality, Quantity, Audience, Size, Marketing, Impact and the ever more important Search Engine Optimization. I would echo these and add Dynamic (meaning updated as important things happen), relevant and interactive. People like following blogs that have meaning for their lives. They want the latest up-to-date information. And the best commuincation strategy to build a fan base is Engagement. Be prepared to interact with them and your content will improve in both value and reach.

Want more stuff like this? Follow me via @MSUScottW on Twitter for timely links to interesting ideas. And visit Dave Isbell's excellent Spartans Helping Spartans blog for timely advice on how to super charge your Spartan Career.

Scott Westerman is the Associate Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Executive Director of the MSU Alumni Association. Write to him via wsw@msu.edu.

MSU graphic artist extraordinaire Dave Giordan shares his trade secrets on how to draw Sparty.

I recently travelled to Dallas to meet Flint native and MSU alumnus Tim Whaley (Advertising bachelor's - 1981) and hear about his innovative Glass Recycled operation.  Tim and his team "upcycle" glass into luxurious counter tops and other products.  Tim tells his story in this video.

Mike Gruszynski and I had the pleasure of traveling to Dallas recently to visit with Flint native and MSU alumnus Tim Whaley, who is the founder and CEO of Glass Recycled.  

Glass Recycled turns glass bottles and discarded porcelain fixtures into products. They turn post-consumer and industrial glass into countertops, flooring and landscape materials. By mixing crushed glass with an epoxy resin, they’ve created over 400 sparkling terrazzo designs. If they don't already make the one you want for your home or office, they can create a custom design.

"We're all about taking land-fill bound materials, like glass and porcelain, and recreating it into hard-surface products like countertops and reusing the glass we throw away every day," Whaley says.  "We call what we do "up-cycling."

Tim has his cool product in several place at his alma mater.  Tim's creations are in the lobby of Spartan Stadium, the men's locker room in Breslin Center, the Chemistry Building and the new Recycling Center.

In this photo, Tim is holding his latest Spartan creation - the new Spartan helmet; it's a gift for Tom Izzo that Tim gave me to bring back for Tom.

We're working on a video profile of Tim that we'll post in this space as soon as it's ready.  We'll post it in this space as soon as it's produced.

The sustainability-focused Greening of the Great Lakes radio show is a collaborative effort between MSU and News/Talk 760 WJR.  It airs on WJR every Sunday evening at 7 and around the state each weekend on the Michigan Talk network.  Segments from the show also air on AM 870 WKAR and 88.9 FM Impact Radio.

Tim is scheduled to lead off our January 22 show.  You can hear the conversation now via our partners at MLive.com.

"Sustainability in our eyes is all about getting companies to recognize that the products they use can be recycled and reutilized and their costs reduced," adds Whaley.