Chad Stoller (left) of Organic, Inc., discusses the aftermath of purchasing social media with fellow execs and Kellogg students (Photos copyright Daniel B. Honigman)

Kellogg’s Social Media Marketing Symposium got off to a good start Tuesday, as news-types and Web behemoths alike rubbed shoulders and drank coffee in the somewhat cramped quarters of Kellogg’s 4th floor conference room.

I started chatting with Scott Skurnick of Edmunds.com, the #1 (ranked by Google) car search service about their branding experience with social media. For all of you aspiring online entrepreneurs, even the big boys are using Google as their big gun, which is equally good and bad.

“You never want to depend solely on one source, but that’s the way [the search engine business] has become,” he said. “If you lose your rankings on Google, you’re out of business.”

Edmunds is comparable to the Kelley Blue Book brand, the brand. Thing is, said Sturnick, they’re just not doing anything online.

“Brands and properties have to realize that negativity is out there, and they need to police it,” said Chad Stoller, Executive Director of Emerging Platforms for Organic. For newspapers, they’ve forgotten that they’ve always been leaders and conversation starters. Newspapers that don’t want to blog — I just don’t get that.”

“If you’re the newcomer or the advertiser to the social media party, you have to bring some beer and pizza,” he continued. “If you don’t contribute something… and give back to the community, you’re not enhancing the experience.”

The beer and pizza, he said, were upgrades to social media platforms. A MySpace plug-in that lets people see their top 24, instead of eight friends.

We can create the social media, but can we attract the 18-24 year olds?”, asked Tony Wright of Schurz Communications. My guess: No, it can’t be done. Unless there’s unique content.

More to come, folks.

Hey, all. I’ll be blogging later on about this conference the Kellogg Business School is hosting. It should be interesting, because it’s about marketing.

Here are some questions for the speakers:

1) Why have all attempts at social media done by big companies failed? (Except for, say, AOL when it started)

2) How can companies be innovative when they essentially turn into bureaucracies? (Think Microsoft, Yahoo, and maybe Google in the future)

3) How can brand engagement even be accurately measured online? Hits? Visits? User testing combined with these statistics? I think that even if McDonald’s had a cool Web site, I won’t be more inclined to go buy a Big Mac.

These are just some questions I may have, but by the end of the day, I certainly will have blogged about the conference.

Kristen Nicole of Mashable.com reports that Facebook may launch a music service on May 21.

Mashable is pretty solid when it comes to rumors, so Facebook must at least be thinking of this. How close they actually are to releasing this service is really anyone’s guess, though.

My question: Where did Kristen hear about May 21 as a release date? More on that soon, hopefully.

Check out this PC World story on what Google’s thoughts would be if Microsoft and Yahoo merged.

Not that I regret posting this or anything, but results from a recent study conducted by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda show that those who keep up with RSS feeds from mainstream media just aren’t getting the news.

In fact, the feeds are useless for people who want little more than infotainment or the latest celebrity dirt from PerezHilton. The study says that most people should just stick with Google’s “Top Stories”. Also, some news outlets may prefer to keep some coverage out of its RSS feeds.

It’s an interesting report and I suggest at least giving it a look.

According to a story in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, Yahoo doesn’t appear interested in a possible merger with – or sale to – Microsoft.

Yahoo recently signed contracts with 12 newspaper publishers to run the company’s ads on their Web sites, and these publishers represent more than 260 newspapers and the Web portal of Comcast Corp.

C’mon, Yahoo, stick to the content. You’re still have your “cool Web start-up” status. Don’t lose it by selling to Microsoft!

$50…billion…dollars. Fuhahahaha

According to a story in today’s New York Post, Microsoft may be working with Goldman Sachs to purchase Yahoo! for a whopping $50 billion dollars.

A deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! would up the combined companies’ ad search share to 27 percent against Google’s 65 percent. It would also narrow the gap in overall online ads with Google to just 13 percent, so maybe the deal’s worth doing for both sides.

MSN.com has been running in last place this whole time, but could a MSN-Yahoo merger topple the mighty Google? Who knows?

Then again, who says he’s even trying to? MSN isn’t that big a moneymaker for the software giants, who seem to be putting all its eggs into convergence and the so-called “magic box.” Microsoft may be working on the next generation X-Box, and if it buys Yahoo!, the Yahoo Music library could be an offering. Hmm…

But it’s funny how the Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is making news with this exclusive story, fresh off the heels of the announcement that Murdoch may buy Dow Jones

After gains yesterday of more than $20 a share, the price of Dow Jones stock (Symbol: DJ) has fallen about 0.36 percent today. Early today, the losses were well over 1 percent, but that could have just been a reaction to Rupert Murdoch’s announcement yesterday.

As something of a non sequitur, here are excerpts from some of today’s editorials around the Web about the News Corp. bid.

I wonder if the price will level off fully or if it will stay around $55 a share. Perhaps Wall Street investors are wondering what Murdoch knows that they don’t.

Imagine this: The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post could soon be controlled by Rupert Murdoch.

If Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. purchase Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal may get a bit racier. Here’s what it may look like (above)

According to a CNN Money article, News Corp. bid $5 billion today on Dow Jones, which isn’t up for sale.

Just think about the possibilities, though. Regular Page Six-style stories on the happenings of the hoity-toity. The possibilities are endless, as you can see in the picture. (Note: I haven’t yet installed Photoshop on my computer, so the image is really bad.)

Dow Jones – not surprisingly – employees are pissed. In a statement, the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (the union representing Dow Jones) said, “Mr. Murdoch has shown a willingness to crush quality and independence, and there is no reason to think he would handle Dow Jones or The Journal any differently.”

At least we know where they stand.

Let’s see what happens with this. I’m keeping an eye on this story.

(Disclaimer: Photo courtesy TribuneIndia.com, and it’s not a real story. I just used a random image of a stockbroker. So lay off, you lawyers out there.)