One thing is for certain. The whole thing has given the restaurant chain a whole lot of press, and over the past month, the company’s social brand has been on the rise.

Was stating its views on the matter of same-sex marriage a smart decision on Chick-fil-A’s part? Tell us what you think.

Social media ad platform Optimal has released a list of the top performing brands on its Optimal Index for July. As a spokesperson for the firm explains, “The Optimal Index is an independent valuation tool to help determine the relative value of a brand’s current audience on Facebook by combining fan counts, engagement statistics and global fan valuation.”

“Interestingly, amid recent controversial comments made by members of its executive team, Chick-fil-A added 524,238 new fans in July, and more than 550,000 people discussed, liked or commented on the brand in the past week,” the spokesperson said.

Here’s the list. As you can see, Chick-fil-A cracked the top ten:

Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page currently has over 6 million fans. That’s about a tenth of what rapper Marshall Mathers (the most popular guy on Facebook) has.

These graphs from PageData tell the story pretty well.

The comments from Chick-fil-A took place in the mid-July, and you can see how the Page’s popularity has steadily risen since then, as the discussion continues around the web. Imagine what the monthly numbers would look like if the controversy began at the beginning of the month.

Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy was quoted as saying that he and the company as a whole are “very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.”

The company later issued the following statement via its Facebook Page:

The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.

Wednesday became known as Chick-fil-A appreciation day, which turned out to be a pretty big hit for the company, with the company claiming a record-setting day. Millions of people turned out to support the restaurant chain, and their beliefs.

Of course, the controversy also led to National Same-Sex Kiss Day At Chick-fil-A on Friday, which in addition to the turn out for beliefs on the opposite side of the equation, has still served to draw more attention to the brand.

There’s no question that Chick-fil-A has alienated a large amount of customers, but even still, the company appears to have put together a pretty loyal audience, and thousands of people (and climbing) they can push their messages (and offers) to on a daily basis, through Facebook alone, not to mention the additional brand awareness the company has managed to spread.

Some analysts have advised against businesses publicizing any political views, as to avoid alienating customers. It’s hard to say what kind of long-term effects this whole thing will have on Chick-fil-A’s brand, and how much it will ultimately affect the company’s bottom line. In the short-term, however, no matter how many people it has turned against it, the whole thing has clearly gotten people more interested in Chick-fil-A, and they’re selling a whole lot of Chicken. From my understanding, that’s their main goal.

Do you think businesses should publicize controversial views and risk alienating customers? Was Chick-fil-A smart to do so? Has the whole thing affected whether or not you will eat at the restaurant? Let us know in the comments.

Advertisers can tap into existing communities on their websites, Facebook fan pages, Twitter, and Google Plus. GutCheck recruits and qualifies all the respondents, and gets them from a variety of places, that way you can even make comparisons between fans and the general public.

WebProNews and Abby Johnson were able to catch up with GutCheck CEO Matt Warta for an interview via Skype, and he was able to tell us about Instant Research Communities and how they’re helping brands adapt and thrive in the online arena. In the video featured above, Warta explains to Abby how GutCheck is able to cut through the noise of social media, extract the key information, and identify the actionable items. It’s helping brands make decisions about advertising in a way that has never possible before.

Back in late March, GutCheck previewed their Instant Research Communities at the the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) 2012 Re:think annual conference in New York. Warta attended the conference and spoke at the kick off of the event.

GutCheck CEO, Matt Warta comments on the company’s Instant Research Communities:

“We hear our customers say every week that they want the ability to conduct online market research and get quick feedback from a group of target respondents, with the promise of engagement over time. But these same customers are facing budget and time constraints and traditional communities aren’t working for them,”

“GutCheck believes that traditional communities can be much more svelte from both a cost and speed perspective and we think Instant Research Communities are the answer.”

Despite GutCheck’s innovative methods and real-time feedback, they present a surprisingly affordable solution for those who want to maximize their performance. While there are many other competitors, few can access such a broad perspective in such a short amount of time.

We are all familiar with branding and what branding can do for a company or its products, but less often do we ask what it can do for us. Just like any ad campaign, your social media profiles can promote you and present you in the best possible light. The challenge is, to get the job done.

Linkedin has provided an eight item list that will help you develop and refine the brand that is you. While it is a challenge to distinguish yourself from the competition, it can be a lot easier if you take advantage of tools at your disposal.

Linkedin says to start by asking yourself the following questions:

* How would your colleagues describe your strengths?

* On what issues are you the go-to person in your organization?

* What do you know more about (web design, compensation plans, marketing to baby boomers) than most people?

Once you’ve defined your personal brand, it’s time to showcase it to recruiters, bosses, customers and others who may be assessing you. Here’s how LinkedIn can help:

1). Be authentic. The best personal brands are genuine and honest both in person and online. It can be tricky to showcase your personality on the web (you might love puns, but those don’t go over well on a professional profile), but it’s possible with a bit of effort. For instance, if your personal brand includes a balance between your detailed accounting skills and your friendly personality, your LinkedIn profile can include both your technical credentials and the fact that you belong to several networking groups. You can also ask former and current colleagues to write LinkedIn recommendations highlighting this combination.

2). Create a distinctive LinkedIn profile headline. Your headline is your brand’s tag line. It’s the first — and possibly only — description of you that many people will see, so make it count. Go back to the words and phrases your friends and colleagues used to describe your uniqueness: “IT support manager and trusted Mac expert” or “Experienced admin assistant who never misses a deadline.”

3). Be consistent. Make sure your LinkedIn profile, resume and all other elements of your personal brand are consistent. While you can go into more extensive detail on LinkedIn and perhaps be a bit more personal on Facebook or Twitter, all of your job titles, dates of employment and specific accomplishments need to match up everywhere they appear. Consistency is important so as not to confuse people or send mixed messages about who you are and what you want in your career.

4). Increase your visibility. If you have a great personal brand but no one knows about it, then you won’t benefit much. Increase your exposure to people in your network by including your LinkedIn profile URL on your business cards, your resume, other social media sites and anyplace else people are interacting with you online or offline. You can also build exposure by consistently updating your LinkedIn status. Tell people what projects you’re working on, what conferences you’re attending and what books and articles you’re reading. Remember that your brand is not just who you are; it’s what you do.

5). Build your strategic brand association. We generally think highly of people who keep good company, so building your LinkedIn network simultaneously builds your personal brand. Connect on LinkedIn with trusted friends, former colleagues and classmates, industry leaders, vendors and other professionals. And don’t be shy about asking your contacts for introductions to people in their networks. Strong brands are always growing.

6). Regularly add to your knowledge. Another way to showcase yourself and your brand is to have an expert level of knowledge about your industry. Be well read on topics you care about (For example, LinkedIn Today can help), answer relevant questions in LinkedIn’s Answers section and follow important companies in your field. For instance, if your personal brand includes your interest and knowledge in special education, follow and share news about developments in this field so people think of you as a valuable resource if they need information on that topic.

7). Share your expertise in LinkedIn Groups. The Groups you join on LinkedIn contribute to your personal brand by indicating where your interests and skills lie. For example, if you want your brand to include a strong knowledge of manufacturing in China, then people will expect your profile to feature groups related to Chinese manufacturing. Inside these groups, you can also showcase your brand though your activity. Every comment you post and question you answer is an opportunity to market yourself and your skills and to build your brand.

8). Give generously. Finally, helping others is a crucial — and enjoyable — way to build your personal brand. Give advice, volunteer your skills, share client leads, write recommendations, agree to informational interviews and congratulate people on their successes. When people know they can rely on you, they remember you and recommend you to others.

Practice makes perfect:

It’s not easy building a personal brand, but if you have values and interests you legitimately want to promote, it should become second nature once you get the ball rolling. Like everything in life, it gets easier the more you do it.

Incorporate these habits into your daily life and your social pages will eventually become a true reflection of who you are and what you care about. Others will take notice.

Now, Facebook is helping marketers on the site with its “measuring success” series of blog posts. Today on the Facebook Studio blog, the company is revealing the results of a small study it conducted into brand engagement. From the blog post:

To better understand what makes a successful Page post, we recently conducted an internal study to discover which topics generate the most engagement. The study shows that speaking about subjects related to your brand is the best way to generate engagement. While the conclusion may not seem surprising, since your fans liked your Page because they like your brand, understanding how post topics relate to engagement can help you improve your content strategy and identify the best content to promote through Ads and Sponsored Stories.

Their study separated posts by brands into three categories: messages about the brand, messages related to the brand, and unrelated messages. Splitting the posts into those categories also enabled Facebook to determine what marketers should do to derive different outcomes from their posts. Facebook states that posts related to the brand, but not specifically about the brand, were the “sole universally significant predictor of all types of engagement.”

As for what works for each type of engagement aside from brand-related posts, Facebook had some tips on that too. If marketers want the posts to be widely shared, Facebook suggests using media such as photos and videos in the post. Getting users to “Like” a post is a matter of giving readers a “clear call to action.” In other words, requesting that the reader “Like” the post. Generating comments is most easily done by asking questions in a post.

Small, common sense, tips to be sure, but ones that could help your brand grow on Facebook.

Yesterday on the Microsoft Deveveloper Network “Building Windows 8″ blog, Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live division, published a post authored by Chris Jones, a vice president of Microsoft’s Window’s Live group, that provided some of the reasoning behind this decision. Jones states that although Windows Live services are successful, their branding doesn’t fit into Microsoft’s vision for a fully connected, cloud-centered Windows 8 experience. From the post:

Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt “bolted on” to the experience. This created some amount of customer confusion, which is noted in several reviews and editorials. The names we used to describe our products added to that complexity: we used “Windows Live” to refer to software for your PC (Windows Live Essentials), a suite of web-based services (Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger), your account relationship with Microsoft (Windows Live ID), and a host of other offers.

Since Microsoft now thinks there is an expectation that a platform will come with communication and sharing apps, Windows Live accounts will now be called Microsoft accounts, and will be used across all Microsoft cloud services in much the same way that Google uses Google Accounts. Users can log into a Windows 8 device using their Microsoft Account, and will then be automatically connected to the services that were previously “Live” branded such as Hotmail, Skydrive, and Messenger. Microsoft Accounts will also combine billing from services such as the Zune store, Xbox LIVE, and the Windows 8 app store. A Microsoft Account can be connected to social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well.

As for when the switch to Microsoft Accounts will take place, Jones said, “We’ll be rolling out the change in nomenclature from Windows Live ID to Microsoft Account over the next several months across our product line. There are still some areas we continue to work on such as migrating your account (credit cards and purchase history) from one market (currency) to another if you’ve connected your account to services such as Xbox LIVE.” Microsoft has also prepared a video about the pending changes, narrated by Jones, which you can watch below.

As a whole, I think this is a good change for Microsoft, and one that has been a long time coming. I know I’ve always been confused as to what my Windows Live account is connected to other than my Xbox billing. What do you think? Will this consolidation help Windows users, or will it turn out to be even more of a confusion when users switch to Windows 8? Leave a comment below and let me know.

(MSDN blog via Business Insider)

Branding experts are saying Apple may be in the same boat with the iPad. The product has come to represent the epitome of the tablet PC. So much so, that people may refer to any similar product as an iPad from here on out.

Brands fight for this kind of recognition all the time, and it comes with both good and bad consequences. Brand recognition is the obvious plus. Most brands would kill to become a household name like Apple, or the iPad. But the drawback is brand deterioration. With the name iPad being used for every tablet computer, customers can develop negative connotations about it, simply by the name being associated with a less quality product.

It’s a Catch-22 (Ironically, most people use that term without thinking of the book by Joseph Heller). Brands want to be a household name, but they don’t want to become so popular that the name loses all association to the company. How often do you ask someone for a Band-Aid and immediately think of Johnson & Johnson? Or ask someone for a Kleenex and think of Kimberly-Clark? Both of these names are trademarked, but rarely do they carry any significance for the company they represent when spoken about in daily life.

And there is really no way of stopping it. Once a term catches on, you cannot control its growth. You can’t make people stop using iPad to describe other tablets.

The biggest problem for these companies, Apple included, is if the name becomes so commonly used that they legally lose the trademark. At that point, any company can use the name as they please, on packaging, advertising, anything.

Bayer lost the name for aspirin in the 20′s. B.F. Goodrich sued, and lost, to protect its trademark “zipper” around the same time. Otis Elevator Co. lost “escalator in 1950. Thermos LLC lost “thermos” in 1963. Imagine that, losing the branding of your company in the process.

Some companies love the attention this kind of generic name use brings about. Experts say Google has greatly benefitted from people saying they are going to “Google something” when referring to conducting a web search. And it is uncommon for someone to say they are going to Google something, and then get on Yahoo or Bing.

For good or bad, it seems that Apple is going to have to deal with this kind of recognition. So far they have done so without losing their brand. iPod is commonly used when referring to an MP3 player of another origin, and most people readily associate iPod with Apple. The company has yet to encounter legal troubles over the iPad name (in America anyway) and the case in China does not involve the generic use of the word. So far they have continued to dominate the tablet market, accounting for 73% of the estimated 64 billion sold worldwide, and with new and more popular versions coming out each year, it doesn’t like like that’s going to change.

That’s the advice from ProBlogger founder Darren Rowse. Your content has to engage the reader, and you have to build a community of people that respects your style and looks to you for more than just simple information.

“Content plus branding plus ads plus seo plus marketing plus link bait plus design equals successful blogging. Not necessarily. What I found to be true is that it’s really where the heart and the smart come together.”

Here are some key tips for blogging from the heart:

• Passion: “If you want an engaged readership you need to be engaged with your readers and your readers need to be engaged with each other.”  Successful blogs have writers and an audience that are all truly interesting in the topics they cover.
• Tell Stories:  This is all about being unique to your readers.  When you tell stories to your audience, it creates engagement.  “Write the type of posts that create memories with your readers.”
• Build Community: Remember, everyone can provide information.  Do something more.
• Inspire People: “When you inspire, something amazing happens on your blog. The inspiration can motivate your readers. Inspire people first, then inform.”
• Be Personal:  A good way to build you brand is to bring your own life into your blog.
• Be Playful
• Be Yourself
• But remember to be useful.  “If you can help people solve their problems, you are blogging from the heart.”

Blogging from the heart is important, but it’s not everything. It’s about being smart.

“I began to hear a spectrum of disillusionment. People think that if you blog from the heart, good things will happen to you. But blogging from the heart is not enough.

If you want to be a business with your blog, treat it as one today.”

To do this, Rowse says you have to define what “success” means to you. You have to have a plan for what you want your blog to achieve in one year, in five years, and beyond. You have to focus on branding, which can be thought of as “what you want people to say about you when you’re not in the room.”

How can you grab an audience and keep them? It’s about “hooks.”

“How are you going to make readers stick to your blog? It may mean some sort of social media. Perhaps the biggest hook is email or Twitter or rss or Facebook or Flickr. What do you want your readers to do? We know that if we can get people to subscribe to our email and signup for our Twitter or Facebook, then we have them hooked.”

In the end, don’t be afraid to try new things.

“Experiment, test and tweak. I am constantly trying new things. I had this crazy idea of trying to write 31 posts in 31 days. It had a very positive response. We then put this together in an e-book, which was our first product. We have now sold over $300,000 worth of our e-books.”

How would you define a social business? Please share your opinion.

According to Michael Brito, the Senior Vice President of Social Business at Edelman Digital, a business that uses social media to communicate with their customers has a social brand but is not necessarily a social business. In his recently released book Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization, he explains that a social business has a strong social infrastructure.

“It’s the difference between the internal communications versus the external communications,” he said. “An organization cannot have effective and meaningful conversations with customers unless they are having effective and meaningful conversations with each other.”

Brito went to say that a social business involves more than a business just “saying” they believe in social. The business has to actually demonstrate social behavior and create a social culture within the business. Brito told us that it should start with the leaders of the company. For instance, if the executive team practices social behavior, then it will extend naturally to the other departments.

Another way a business can truly become a social business is by knowing which departments to delegate social actions to. More often than not, social is handed off to the PR or marketing departments. However, Brito believes that it should be everyone’s job that wants it. He did point out that a business should have a specific governing team that creates policies and makes sure that everyone doing social is communicating with one another.

Also in regards to policies, Brito told us that a business should have a policy in place before the business begins branding with social media. These policies help businesses convey what employees can and can’t do on social sites.

“The policy is going to help guide the behaviors of the organization,” he said. “It has to be built around trust.”

Incidentally, Deb Schultz, a partner with the Altimeter Group, spoke with us last year at the BlogWorld Expo and offered some advice for creating a social media policy. She said that businesses have to remember to keep the policy simple and understand that it would be changing over time.

Once a business has incorporated a social infrastructure and a social media policy, this is when it should actually begin social branding. Although it’s easy to create a Facebook page or Twitter account, marketing with social media is not necessarily easy. The biggest challenge for many businesses is simply the amount of time it takes to do it effectively.

Interestingly, Brito told us that if a business cannot add any value to the conversation, it should not waste its time doing it.

“If you can add value to the conversation in a way that’s going to add value to either your customers, or analysts, or journalists, or people who are interested in your products, then that’s where you have the opportunity to create some really compelling content that’s not just pushing your brand or pushing your products,” he said.

On a side note, he also pointed out that businesses should not forget about Google and the power of search. He advises brands to create content that will help them own real estate on the search engine.

So, do you have a social business or a social brand?

WebProNews is partnering with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. BlogWorld takes place November 3-5 in Los Angeles and includes speakers such as Michael Brito. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

GroupMe is one of the leading apps of this type.  Today they announced via their blog:

Today, we’re thrilled to announce another awesome feature of the GroupMe platform-Featured Groups. Starting today, we’re partnering with five amazing brands to help them connect with fans and bring some exciting, exclusive benefits to GroupMe users. They’re like private fan clubs for the things you love.

Since people often times forms groups based on events, bands and TV shows, GroupMe decided to specifically target those tendencies.  Users can create their own messaging groups or join larger groups centered around these featured topics.

The first five featured groups are: Bad Girls Club, America’s Best Dance Crew, Bon Jovi, Bonnaroo and Coachella.  There are incentives for joining a featured group instead of simply creating a normal group and talking about these featured things.  Group members will have access to insider information and promotions.  For example, America’s Best Dance Crew groups will be provided with insider blog posts, behind the scenes videos as well as the chance to chat with some of the actual crew members as they will join specific fans’ groups.  Coachella fans will be the first to know about any lineup changes and Bon Jovi group members will be automatically entered in prize giveaways.

This begs the question, GroupMe users are regularly chatting it up about Bon Jovi?  Is GroupMe trying to target the aging 80′s fanatic demographic?

Although the jury is out on the buzz that can be created by Bon Jovi, there is great potential for GroupMe users to have some fun interactions with other bands, shows, films and events in the future.  There is obviously great potential for money to be made as well.  It would be interesting to know what GroupMe will charge to put something on its featured group list.  And how much marketing will be allowed to members of the featured groups?  Brands will have to strike some sort of delicate balance between no marketing and inundating users with T-shirt discount offers.