Posterous is another uber-easy microblogging site that’s worth a second look if you haven’t yet considered it. And, if you’re in the PR profession, you can find a ton of subject matter-worthy blogs on the site.

Check out this great summary of PR-friendly Posterous blogs, courtesy of PRDaily.

Hoo boy, have I been out of touch on my blog page! Sorry about that folks, but let’s just say business has been booming. I feel very lucky to be benefiting from new opportunities during still-sour economic times.

Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of explaining these days about how best to use social media (namely, Twitter) to your brand’s advantage. PR Diva Deirdre Breakenridge explains pretty cohesively the basic steps to getting started in a helpful post.

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As I Tweeted tonight, my newest blogging gig is one in which I attempt to convince the world that I’m a parenting expert.  Ha!

Yes, that’s right, I’m the new DC parenting blogger for a semi-new site called TodaysMama. Check it out here.

And do come by and visit often!

.. now what do you do with it?

Many businesses and nonprofits struggle to understand how to use Twitter effectively to promote their products or messages. This isn’t surprising.  Twitter is such a rapidly evolving medium, it’s still defining itself every day.

But when it comes to developing trust and brand identity on Twitter, the answer is quite simple.  Organizations would be wise to follow the rules of basic human relations, says Steve Rubel in this interesting post, “The Jay Leno Rule of Social Media.”

If you want to get people to care about what you’re selling, you have first to get them engaged by being informative and/or entertaining. In short, you need to get us interested in what you – a brand, an NGO, an individual – have to say beyond your domain. Such pathways to engagement include stories, humor, links to interesting information, ideas, questions and participating in other discussions (e.g. Follow Friday, etc.) Then, once you get us hooked, it’s easier talk about what you want to sell us. We’ll be more receptive.

This isn’t rocket science. In reality, it’s human relations 101 – but it’s something a lot of companies forget. After all, most marketers focus on themselves and what they want to say.

Rubel notes that companies like Mint do this well by building credibility through a helpful financial blog.

While the concept may be simple, the effort will take time – lots of it.  But, judging from Twitter’s continued impressive growth, if organizations are willing to make the investment, the payoffs could be huge in the long run.