Sep 1, 2010
ClickZ, 9/1/10
Does anyone else lament the commoditization of “friend” amid our socially connected, digital lives? I can like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your e-mail program and join your community.
But that doesn’t mean I want a relationship.
And that is a problem for marketing and sales people. There are lots of ways for people to connect with brands, but there are not many actual connections. Consider these stats from a national e-commerce retailer with a social forum on its website:
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Aug 31, 2010
MediaPost, 8/31/10
According to a study presented at a Pivot Conference (in partnership with Extra Mile Research) entitled “Marketers’ Current and Future Use of Social Media,” 63% of marketers are already investing in social media marketing, and of the 37% that are not currently investing in social media marketing, 62% are planning to invest, including 46% who plan to do so within one year.
Other key findings include:
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Aug 30, 2010
Ad Age, 8/30/10
The role of a “chief listener” evokes images of fuzzy sweaters, chamomile tea and sitting around with a patient ear. Instead, try sifting through unstructured data and building complex queries.
“We get about 300,000 new mentions of Kodak every month and we don’t censor the comments or videos people create about our company,” said Beth LaPierre, Kodak’s chief listening officer, a role that’s just starting to crop up in a few major marketing organizations and involves decidedly non-touchy-feely tasks. “I’ve spent the past five months defining how we handle those data via technology and tools.”
The big task? Data mining — and figuring out who needs the information.
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Aug 30, 2010
Fuel Lines, 8/30/10
Does your agency have a social media strategy for your social media efforts? Most agencies have jumped on the bandwagon but appear to be shooting from the hip with no strategy or measurements in place.
Ad agencies and companies are going about social strategy backwards, by first concentrating on the tools and technologies instead of focusing on what they want to achieve. My understanding of social media and how to monetize it was greatly expedited because my rifled focus on applying it for new business.
A survey conducted by marketing firm Digital Brand Expressions found that 78 percent of client companies responding to their survey said they use social media, but only 41 percent said they have a strategic plan in place to direct their social media efforts.
Other key findings from this survey that should be of interest:
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Aug 30, 2010
Technorati, 8/30/10
Computing giant IBM has rolled out a new page on their website for “Getting started with social media.” Although an unlikely source for social media tips and advice, it appears IBM hopes that taking a proactive approach will ensure they and their partners have their bases covered when it comes to new social networks, marketing and social policies.
The site offers a brief overview of social media, followed by several PDF documents teaching the basics and how-to’s for social media:
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Aug 30, 2010
Social Media Examiner, 8/30/10
As early as 2008, networking giant Cisco was well along in its social media evolution. Back then you could find the company on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Yet something was missing – the hard business case for social media. Like most companies, Cisco knew it was benefiting from social media, but it couldn’t prove it.
The launch of a new router using only social media would provide the proof Cisco’s marketers were seeking.
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Aug 29, 2010
Acsellerant, 8/29/10
Success in B2B social media marketing is like success in every other endeavor. It requires thought, planning, time and effort. Your social media plan must:
1. Include input from Sales. If you haven’t already, align Sales and Marketing. You can’t afford not to. Sales should be immersed in the conversations taking place with prospects offline. That information is critical to success in migrating, extending and amplifying those conversations online.
2. Be no longer than six months. You can’t plan beyond that. The conversations you need to be having with suspects, prospects and leads is influenced to a significant degree by the environment. Things change in a hurry. Your plan should define how you’ll adapt, not predict the future.
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Aug 27, 2010
eMarketer, 8/27/10
Social media is becoming an even more integral part of the marketing landscape. According to a June 2010 survey by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 72% of US companies said they had a social media strategy.
The three companies surveyed 457 US marketers and managers; 52% of respondents were in the publishing, media, advertising and marketing industries.
The figure is one of the highest percentages yet among surveys that queried marketers on whether they had a social strategy.
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Aug 26, 2010
ClickZ, 8/26/10
With every passing day, it seems social media becomes more engrained in the media strategist’s daily work life. Whereas not long ago our interest in social sites was limited to the advertising options these sites afforded our clients, they are now garnering consideration on a deeper level. Buyers are collaborating closely with social media strategists to create campaigns that cover all key online touch points, and to ensure that the campaign concepts they help to devise and the placements they negotiate extend to consumers on social media sites.
The most challenging part of this newfound relationship is determining how best to correlate one form of advertising with another. Marketers have tried numerous approaches, from using online ads to promote their social media presence to employing social media to promote their site presence online. The one rule of thumb that media strategists should follow is this: the approach you adopt should be motivated by your ultimate objective.
Here’s how some major brands have used their media buys to support their social media marketing efforts – and vice versa.
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Aug 25, 2010
WebNewser, 8/25/10
TIME.com announced its 50 Best Web Sites of 2010, naming five apiece in 10 categories: Music and Video; Sports; Family and Kids; News and Info; Financial and Productivity; Shopping and Travel; Health and Fitness; Games; Education; and Social Media.
For the complete list, please see TIME.com, but its descriptions of its five winners in the social-media category follow:
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