Marc Meyer, this week's Blogger of the Week, is Director of e-commerce and interactive marketing for Emerson Direct, a Naples, Florida-based marketing and communications company that focuses on direct response. About two years ago, he says, he noticed that social media and social networks were having profound effect on people and organizations by providing a platform for a quicker more efficient way to communicate and get their points and opinions heard.

"From that first impression, I did what everyone else did in our business, I jumped in with both feet and made mistakes first and asked questions late," he says. "But one of the most important things I did is Iead the book Naked Conversations by Scoble and Israel and and a light went on. I decided right then and there that I was going to start blogging."

Meyer says he started Direct Marketing Observations for a number of reasons.

"Primarily it was a great way to communicate with customers and clients to be. Next is was great for reputation management and Lastly it was way for me to stay ahead of the curve and to network with my peers and learn from them."

He says he realized that once companies began utilizing social media for brand management, branded communities and so on, that it was imperative that he know everything he could about best practices and the things that the thought leaders were doing in this nascent industry. From those experiences and connections has sprouted the voice and theme of his blog in its current state.

"I'm amazed what it has done for me personally, as my initial goals for it had nothing to do with personal branding," he says. "But that's exactly what has happened. The brand that is me has received a lot of attention. I know that sounds funny but that is a residual effect of Web 2.0--we're all brands. Don't you think? Not that I mind but was not prepared per se for the slipstream effect that the blog has created for me personally. But if it allows me to evangelize something that I've become very passionate about, then so be it. I can live with it."

For his company, Meyer says, his blogging has increased the number of phone calls and emails from companies that want to work with Emerson and also "added some respect and legitimacy to who we are and what we do, which we are certainly grateful for." His advice for company bloggers: "If you're going to blog on behalf of your company, brand or business, be prepared to work hard, be passionate, be forthcoming and be consistent."

Where is the social media movement headed?

"What we may see is too many social nets and not enough time to engage in them all," he says. "Even with aggregation software to help us, we can only spread ourselves so thin. We become the proverbial, "just stopping in for a cup of coffee don't have time to chat social network user". I also think that we will see a move towards more vertical markets and channels. My last thought on this will be more of a paradigm shift to mobile social. Since the one thing that we can all count on that each of us has is a cell phone. Mobile social nets might make the best sense, but we'll see. Look for search to play a larger role as well in social nets."

Things you may not know about Marc? He was a TV quiz show whiz in New Orleans, he has a "few" tattoos, he is the defending champ of his fantasy football league, and has a couple of wicked smart kids.