I am one of those people that frequently walks around with a soundtrack playing inside my head, and during the holidays it usually involves Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole crooning about snow or jingle bells. It might involve grandmas getting run over by reindeer, or the female sensation du jour imploring “Santa Baby” to “hurry down the chimney tonight,” but just as often it’s Handel’s “Messiah” or Silent Night. That’s the best explanation for what I am about to attempt, so please bear with me.

While my esteemed colleague and good friend Justin Huntsman is putting together a thoughtful summary of our 10 best blog posts of the past year, I thought I'd try to set the themes from that same list to the “12 Days of Christmas.” Let’s take the karaoke approach to this and keep that tune in mind as you read this aloud starting with the 12th day:

On the 12th day of Marketing, my true love gave to me:

Twelve Deb Orton interviews,
Eleven new Twitter followers,
Ten thousand Facebook “Likes,"
Nine skills for marketers,
Eight hundred FLOWERS as a customer, (actually 1-800-FLOWERS. Poetic license here, so keep singing)
Seven steps to measure
Six elements of getting the right people,
Five trust agents,
Four metrics definitions,
Three reasons to pay attention,
Two tips from the CIO,
And a great community of followers!

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!