When you’re as smart and successful as Mark Zuckerberg, do you really need to become a super-polished speaker, too? Probably not. The rest of us, however, can’t afford to be average, and here’s why.

I’ve been very interested in the ham-handedness with which Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York has managed his Twitter fiasco. But even more interesting is the way the recipient of the tweet, Gennette Cordova, a college journalism student in Washington, has handled her sudden brush with the proverbial “15 minutes.”

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver, Chad Johnson Ochocinco, hasn’t let the labor dispute dilute his brand.

I don’t have the time, inclination, or energy to wrangle another 300 or so holiday cards, signatures, and stamps. Nor do I want to send the message of impersonal, mass-delivered inauthenticity. Thanks to the pervasiveness and ease of modern video technology, there is another option.

A one-on-one interview with the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Social Media Marketing,” Jennifer Abernethy.

As a celebrity media trainer, I have to watch the Academy Awards. Sometimes my clients are winners and have to deliver acceptance speeches or speak to the press about how they feel about not winning, areas I have coached them on. I also like to observe acceptance speeches, whether I worked with the winners or not, and use them as examples about what works and what doesn’t in presentation and public speaking.

Phone-based, voice-to-voice customer contact marks a swing back to the truest and most effective form of customer servicing.

Despite the technological advances in communication, there are still times when face-to-face is the best choice.

So I’m taking a stand and drawing a line in the sand. Written communication will never take the place of face-to-face. Nope, never.

I was thinking, “If I was on the other end of this call, listening to these boring, droning, disembodied voices, would I be paying attention or would I be playing solitaire on my PDA?”