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.

If you're a digital integrated marketing professional who isn't thinking 50 percent mobile deployment, then you are already behind the curve. Anything less and you’re acting like that last printer in town who refuses to utilize InDesign because he’s absolutely certain Quark will finally version out a better product. I get it. There are only so many hours in the day. And thinking about or learning about ONE more thing means taking time away from the “important things.”

WARNING! - If you don't live in the haus of marketing I'd respectfully advise you skip this post because it will bore you to tears. Ahhhh, guilt free. Remember that thing you keep talking about in meetings but you never do? No – I’m not talking about doing more cardio. Although that’s not a bad idea.

Don't go at it alone Integrated marketing requires more than one channel. That's where the "integration" comes from – duh. Look at your advertising campaigns like a theatrical performance; everyone plays a part to tell a much larger story.

I get a lot of questions frequently that seem to pile up. In the "social" aspects of what I do professionally it seems that there are no concrete answers. Everyone answer is vague and tirelessly noncommittal. Instead of trying to chip away at each one, I took a big stab at aggregating as many as I could think of and putting a bow on em'. I know the deck seems needlessly massive but I think there's some great takeaways in there no matter what level you're at.

I'm very excited. I woke up to find this morning that my webinar, that I presented yesterday, made the cover of slideshare! We've admittedly created a nice body of good content here. I'd highly recommend you sift through the decks of your specific interests, give em' a look and give me your feedback! Enjoy!

I still hear people say 'well I'm not sure if my social media efforts are creating enough traffic to my website.' To that, let me say this: Stop worrying about having every friend, fan and follower use your website as some epicenter of truth. This is ineffective thinking from today forward. Social media is not a direct connect to sales. It's not "buy now." It's "have you heard?" and the thing that people seem to forget is that while pushing product is fine, loyalty to that product/brand/service is going to maintain a long-term customer and make you more money over time.

There are some critical decisions that needs to be made that can effectively make or break a rogue campaign before it even starts. Are you going to be transparent to your user that you're advertising, or not? They both have there pros and cons that break down very simply.

Clients will talk a good game about wanting to be cutting-edge with their thinking, how they want their new campaign to be something that people will remember and be 'award winning' but when it comes right down to it, most clients are too risk-adverse in a depleted economy to push the envelope because of fear--