Every industry has its own vocabulary.

“ANFO” was lingo I learned in my first PR agency job, writing a monthly column called “Shot Rock” for Pit & Quarry magazine.  My account was a commercial explosives business that had been spun off from DuPont, and ammonium nitrate was a mainstay for blasters.

At UPI, articles we promised to write for newspapers were called “skedders,” because they were scheduled ahead of time.

PR Newswire loved to refer to its clients’  heifers.  It was newsroom lingo for “HFR — Hold for Call.”  Nothing to do with cows.

So when I took on my first operating role since leaving PRN, I expected that I’d have to learn a new vernacular.  Context Optional, where I’m vice president, strategic accounts, has developed many of the most popular branded applications on Facebook. Clients include Clinique, Target, OpenTable, Microsoft and the U.S. Census Bureau.

I’m no newbie to Facebook. But it isn’t until you look beyond your “wall,” “news feed” and “live feed” that you realize how damn confusing the platform can be for anyone — let alone a brand — trying to harness the power of the medium as a way to attract and engage fans.

Facebook does have a sales team to work with deep-pocketed consumer brands.  Often, though, CMOs want to do more than advertise to create a tighter bond with online consumers.

That thirst for engaging content has created a nice business for the select few who understand the always-changing technical underpinnings of Facebook and the rules concerning user privacy and best practices.

The fact that Context Optional has earned the coveted “Facebook preferred developer” label is just a starting point.  It’s my job to bring my new colleagues’ API-driven creativity to those marketing and PR pros charged with attracting and retaining fans and followers, and to do it in a manner that achieves business goals and is culturally acceptable on Facebook.

So I’m learning about the differences between canvas applications and apps that live on tabs.  I’m diving into Facebook “boxes” and trying to understand why they are about to be discontinued.  And just when I was starting to forget about the investor relations profession’s nightmare transition to the financial reporting language XBRL, I am told that Facebook code is written in FBML.

Luckily, the fans of Einstein Bros Bagels don’t have to worry about any of that to get a coupon for a free bagel and schmear.  All they have to do is click on the “free bagel” tab.  My new employer has handled the back end integration with Facebook to make this special offer work.  My guess is that the fan base will soon be well north of today’s 22,000.

The 548,000 fans of Chanel were awarded this week with the option to download screensavers that display the time with two vividly recreated J12 timepieces.  Budget-wary teens were given a fun set of viral “Stop Me From Spending” tools.  Still other soon-to-launch apps are aimed at Valentine’s Day, the Vancouver Winter Olympics and even a mobile phone texting competition.

Needless to say, I am having a ball working with brands to creatively earn the right to have a relationship with consumers on the Facebook platform and beyond.  Just forgive me if I don’t yet know the difference between a poke and a nudge.

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(Note:  I remain an active board member at dna13.)

“Take a penny leave a penny” is a welcome sign at cash registers.

Sadly, I’ve seen far fewer of these spare change jars as retailers would rather weigh my pockets down with 97 cents of change rather than giving up 3 cents that could go toward rent, workers, utility bills and suppliers.  The recession has clearly made even once-generous businesses of all sizes into penny pinchers.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see this week’s innovative corporate social responsibility campaign from Pepsi.

In the first test of the philanthropic power of the GPS-based social network Foursquare, Pepsi is pledging 4 cents to the not-for-profit Camp Interactive for each point earned by Foursquare users.  The campaign encourages more iPhone , Blackberry and Android  users to “check in” with Foursquare all around town, all day, knowing that the pennies will add up.

What does Foursquare get out of the deal?  Thanks to a good cause and a deep-pocketed sponsor, Foursquare will experience a supercharged rate of entries to its database from users who log in their favorite hip bars, restaurants, coffee shops, health clubs and other venues.  In fact, I just added the New York Public Library’s new Grand Central branch to Foursquare (that’s 4 cents more, Camp Interactive).

Harnessing the excitement of consumer technology will continue to set innovative brands apart in 2010.  A few years ago another Pepsi brand, Dorito’s, was among the first to stage a YouTube-based contest for the funniest amateur ad, to be aired on the Superbowl.  Since the advent of inexpensive mini camcorders, like Cisco’s Flip and Kodak’s Zi series, it’s become affordable even for charities in third-world countries to create engaging content for global audiences.  (Nokia sponsored a contest around the crowd-sourced translation of those videos for the charity PlanUSA.org)

It took just one visit to the website of Camp Interactive, the Bronx-based youth program that mixes technology with outdoors activities, to see  another creative CSR linkage to another Fortune 500, Chase.

Unlike Pepsi’s decision to spend 4 cents at a time, Chase made its budget clear at the outset: $5 million.  Through a very smart Facebook application, the bank is using crowd-sourcing in a very different way.  Facebook users are rallying support for their favorite charities, and Chase will divvy up its $5 million based on that input.

The San Francisco-based social media agency Context Optional worked with Chase and is also behind super projects that highlight socially responsible programs for Toyota Prius, Target and ToysRUS.

As print and broadcast spending slows, CMOs appear to be channeling more resource into their community-giving outreach via social media.  Working with the New Jersey firm S3, coffee and tea maker GoodEarth is pledging 50% of its profits to charity through the end of February. The larger, Nasdaq-listed  Green Mountain Coffee, which uses the platform JustMeans for its responsibility program, is extremely active and global, making loans to hurricane-ravaged growers in Mexico and sponsoring river cleanup efforts closer to home.

With mass media atrophying and consumers refusing to be swayed by spin, it will become increasingly critical for organizations of all kinds — small and large businesses, associations, NGOs, political candidates, celebrities, etc. –  to demonstrate their commitment to doing good.  Professional communicators tuned into best practices will be far more likely to win new business, promotions and a seat at the table in this new paradigm.