The purpose of giving gifts like candy is not just to keep us from having to sleep on the couch on Valentine's Day.  It's an important element in building a relationship.  A true gift comes free of expectation of receiving anything in return, including an email address or web registration.  In corporate social media, this means setting aside a small portion of the budget to entertain your audience, like in this video positioning an $80,000 router as the perfect gift for your Valentine.

Laughter makes a wonderful gift that is remembered, and while some marketers feel that humor doesn't work in B2B, here are a few examples that prove them wrong. If your brand simply doesn't have a funny bone, sharing knowledge and access to experts are approaches also appreciated and rewarded.   If you're looking for other ideas on how to create content that is received as a gift, I'd recommend Content Rules, by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, and New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.  I'll share some ideas as well at SXSW.

Happy Valentine's Day.