Today I am grateful for my friend Sara Wilson, who is a fantastic writer with a very curious mind. Following is an exerpt of an interview she did with me on how the franchise industry is using social media (I’ve changed to businesses here for purpose of reaching a larger audience).

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, believes that, as long as employees abide by a general code of conduct, they should be free to establish their own social media presence. “I don’t advocate companies maintain control of social media, just like they shouldn’t maintain control of e-mail, phone calls, and what is or isn’t said at a cocktail party at a trade show,” says Dietrich. “If there is an online code of conduct, training, and a toolkit given to all employees on how to get started and where to spend their time, social media will work the way it’s supposed to — by allowing customers, employees, and stakeholders online access to the people with whom they do business.”

Read the entire article on AllBusiness.com.

It’s a holiday weekend and I’m taking today off, too. Four days of Gini time to cycle, hike, and be with my family and friends. But what that means to you is I’m going to be lazy with the blog today and tomorrow.

But don’t stop reading! Today is a link to the interview I did with my friend Paul Segreto, CEO of FranchisEssentials. So I did work on this; I just did it earlier this week and it’s still pretty informative, if I do say so myself.

Talking PR, Franchising, and Social Media.

As always, I welcome your thoughts, additional ideas, and criticism. Have a happy holiday weekend!