Social Media Information

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are some of the key social media information and trends to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

Social Media Users Want to Be Heard
…from eMarketer 12/17/09
Here’s some valuable data for brands with an online community, whether a public network like Facebook or a private niche community site. In short, consumers want to be heard. In terms of user generated content, this is important to keep in mind.
 
10 Rules for Increasing Community Engagement
...from Mashable 12/16/09
Here’s some excellent advice for marketers looking to enhance user engagement with their community. Many of these tips go back to the need for social media users to be heard as noted above. We agree with all of these tips especially: cross promote with existing social networks, empower your users through UGC, profiles, and recognition, make it easy and interact.

Three Best Ways to Use Social Media 
…from the Wall Street Journal 12/16/09
This article offers three good tips for small businesses looking to participate in social media. The best tip in our estimation is to identify your goals and how social media will help your business achieve them before you jump on the bandwagon.
 
Future Differentiation of 'Social Media' from Collaboration
…from ZDNet 12/14/09
Consultant Oliver Marks begins this insightful article with the following words…”Social media seems to be becoming even more of a hindrance to the successful application of 2.0 technologies to solve specific business problems as time goes on.” Need we say more? A good read.
 
Turning Our Customers into Colleagues
…from HuffingtonPost 12/14/09
We love learning about the strategies employed by social media marketing leaders such as Dell. In this piece, Dell’s Manish Mehta compares Dell’s social media thinking to that of a “mom and pop” shop. Interesting…and effective.
 

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are some of the key social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

You Cannot do Social Without the Support of the Organization
...from ConversationAgent 12/9/09

This most excellent post from Valeria Maltoni, sheds light on the emerging role of the community manager, what skills and experience are necessary to truly succeed in this role. Good insight and advice for anyone thinking about

More expert marketing predictions for 2010
…from iMediaConnection 12/10/09

This piece offers some future predictions from an expert panel of vendors and practitioners.  Highlights include location-based campaigns, syndication, content ad media, and more.

How to measure social media marketing ROI
...from Thewisemarketer.com (subscription) 12/09/09

Social media ROI is a hot topic in the marketing world, and the phenomenon is already changing the way the world looks at itself.

Untapped Opportunities for Online Communities
...from MarketingProfs.com 12/10/09

In addition, most brands lack a cohesive strategy for integrating their online communities with each other and other social media initiatives, ...

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are some of the key social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

HP, Goodby Scale New Heights
…from AdWeek 11/18/09
This campaign is very cool (and we’re not just saying that because we’ve worked with both HP and Goodby on a couple of very cool projects ourselves). Goodby and HP are rolling out a campaign in January that sends celebrities trekking 19,340 feet up Kilimanjaro. How? Read the article for details.

Starbucks Rings in the Holidays With Big Social-Media Push 
…from AdAge 11/18/09
It seems Starbucks is the latest brand to cut back on traditional advertising in favor of more digital marketing and social media for its holiday push. From online ads to partnerships with Pandora and Flickr, the company is trying several new methods to connect with its consumers.
 
Inside Coca-Cola’s Social Media Strategy and Happiness Ambassador Program
…from Mashable 11/17/09
Coca-Cola last month announced its Expedition 206 campaign in which the company uses social media to pick three individuals to travel the world in 2010, who in turn visit all 206 markets where Coca-Cola has a presence. Yesterday, at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, GA, Coca-Cola announced the winning Expedition 206 team.
 
Why brands need to own their content channels
…from iMediaConnection 11/17/09
Courtesy of Gordon Plutsky, director of marketing and research for King Fish Media, this article shares some interesting results of a recent study conducted by King Fish. The premise is that a brand can become a trusted resource by creating valuable content, focusing on user engagement, and retention rather than just lead generation, and leveraging social media.
 
SNCR Research: Social Media IS Influencing Business Decisions
…from Silicon Valley Watcher 11/18/09
Tom Foremski shares some results from a recent study from the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), which found that senior executives are affected by social media and that the influence on online communities on business decisions has grown over the past three years. Foremski notes two interesting take-aways: 1) decision makers express a high level of trust towards their online communities, and 2) apparently age is NOT a factor in social media use, despite common perceptions to the contrary.

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are some of the key social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

Online Ads Are Booming, if They’re Attached to a Video 
…from New York Times 11/12/09
All signs point to online video as the communications medium of 2010…and it appears online video may also save the online ad industry too. [Shameless plug: Reality Digital recently launched Spotlight <http://blog.realitydigital.com/blog/reality-digital/0/0/reality-digital-launches-spotlight-online-video-platform> an online video platform]
 
Razorfish Study: Special Offers Drive Engagement In Social Media
…from MediaPost 11/9/09
Razorfish released the results of its 2009 FEED report, which reveals some interesting, but really surprising findings. It seems consumers are engaging with brands on social networks to get free stuff, discounts and better customer service. Go figure.
 
Implementing a B2B Content Strategy: Consider How 
…from ConversationAgent 11/12/09
This is a great article about B2B content and why companies often fail to get their message across. It includes the critical elements to telling a story that sticks as excerpted from Made to Stick by Dan Heath and Chip Heath.
 
Companies Identify Major Business Benefits in Listening to Online Conversation 
…from CNN.com 11/11/09
A new benchmark report published by the Aberdeen Group found that despite the substantial cutbacks that most companies have been forced to make in light of the economic recession, 50% of all companies are increasing their investment level in social media monitoring initiatives.
 
Are You TwittFaced?
…from MarketingProfs 11/12/09
Beth Harte speaks with Jacob Morgan, about his newly released book, with co-author Josh Peters, TwittFaced: Your Toolkit for Understanding and Maximizing Social Media. Among the valuable tidbits Morgan reveals, he identifies the applications he thinks marketers should start paying attention to such as Foursquare and Yelp.

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are some of the key social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

Study Finds Social Media is Actually Social
…from ReadWriteWeb 11/5/09
According to a new study from Pew Internet and American Life Project, technology does not lead to social isolation, as many often suspected. It seems the many discussions on various topics social media users engage in contribute to a richer, rounded social network. We always thought so.

Six Social Media Trends for 2010
…from Businessweek 11/3/09
This is a topic of discussion around our offices and we have some ideas which we’ll share soon, but what do you think will be the top trends in social media next year?

9 digital trends to watch in 2010
…from iMediaConnection 11/3/09
Another look at the future, but more broadly at all things digital. We’re seeing some similar trends ourselves.
 
Madison Avenue's Frustration with Online Video: Quality is "Complete Crap," top WPP Exec
…from Huffington Post 11/6/09
This transcript from the Beet.TV Online Video Roundtable includes commentary and discussion about YouTube’s value and challenges from several top ad execs.

FT's Long Room Uses Velvet Rope Approach to Online Community
…from MediaShift 11/5/09
This post offers a behind the scenes look at the Long Room – an exclusive online community from the Financial Times. In order to create a community of quality, FT opted for less members, and an exclusive members-only structure. Very interesting.

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are some of the key social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

Social Media And Lead Gen, Chapter Two
…from Mediapost 10/29/09
In this thought-provoking article, Gary Kreissman, Founder of Group PRM shares nine emerging principles to help marketers relate social to general and performance marketing planning. We’re at a crossroads and it’s both sobering and exciting to think about the future of this channel and how truly effective social media marketing will change the game.
 
Ford Tries Social Media For The Fusion, Too
…from Wired News 10/28/09
The latest innovative social media campaign from Ford. What do you think of Ford’s various social media efforts? Love ‘em? Think they’re using the medium to full advantage? Just don’t care? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Kleenex Promo Lets You Pick ... Your Mom
…from AdAge 10/27/09
Love this! No matter how old one gets, we always wish for some gentle mothering when ill. Kleenex clearly gets that and has launched GetMommed.com, where visitors can choose from among eight moms either directly or via Facebook-style quizzes, to provide mom-like health tips, suggested care and some much needed TLC.
 
What to Consider when Shopping for an Online Video Platform
…from ReelSEO.com 10/29/09
Kris Drey from VidCompare.com shares this short, practical guide for finding the best video solution for your needs. Good advice.

Television Futures: Charging for Online Content
…from SeekingAlpha 10/26/09
Diane Mermigas takes a look at the state of online video, TV and Hulu in particular. Among several pearls of wisdom, Mermigas notes, “The longer consumers get used to not paying for the convenience of free, on-demand Web viewing, the more difficult it will be to recondition them to pay for content.”

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are the most important social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

Social Media Marketing Meets Huge Growth
…from The Epoch Times 10/15/09
We knew it! Lucky for us, a recent study supports our belief that social media marketing is on an upward growth curve. And why not? It works.
 
Brands Seek Fans on Facebook
…from AdWeek 10/12/09
A great article on the success factors and examples of brands creating successful Facebook campaigns.

Integrating social media, CRM to optimize your marketing efforts
…from BtoB 10/12/09
According to the survey, “Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses,” 88% of marketers are employing social media for marketing purposes. It’s taking that to the next step – applying social media to support and nurture customer relationships – that gets tricky, but also returns excellent value.
 
Social Media Marketing Lowers Acquisition Costs 39 Percent for TakeLessons.com 
…from SocialMediaExaminer 10/12/09
This awesome case study comes courtesy of a great new online publication focused on educational and how-to information on social media marketing. While this company relies on public social media tools, the strategy and – perhaps more importantly – the execution is spot on proving that no matter the size of your business or budget, social media is a powerful vehicle for generating awareness, engagement and loyalty.
 
Are Brand Managers Dead?
...from BusinessWeek 10/12/09
Here at Reality Digital, we believe that no matter how much we know (or think we know) there will always be someone out there who knows more, or better. In this case, it’s BusinessWeek’s David Kiley and Larry Light, CEO of Arcature. In response to a recent Forrester report suggesting the title “brand manager” should be “brand advocate” – Light and Kiley disagree. While CMO at McDonald’s Light has said his real job was “Brand Editor.” He believes that consumers and other forces have too much control over brand perception for the brand to have control. Kiley suggests that the consumer, not the company executive, is the “brand advocate.” What’s your take?

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are the most important social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

Social Media and Just-In-Time Monetization
…MediaPost 9/23/09
Catherine P. Taylor relates some interesting insights gleaned from the recent Advertising Week conference. Of note is the discussion about social media monetization and the increasing need for companies to be prepared to jump when their brand is criticized or put in the spotlight. Hear hear!

The Top Six Reasons Companies are Still Scared of Social Media
…What’s Next blog 9/23/09
This is an excellent article rebutting the six reasons companies fear social media. B. L. Ochman’s concise and pointed arguments are right on target. If you’re one of those companies, read this.

How Much Internet Does Your Brand Really Need?
...Forbes 9/24/09
In this article, former eBay CMO Mike Linton cautions: “Wait before you jump into social media. Your customers may not want to ''chat'' with your brand.” Whaat? Well, maybe he has a point. I guess a niche community site isn’t right for every company.

Simple, sticky, successful sites
…iMedia Connection 9/23/09
We love reading articles like this because we always learn about some great campaign or destination. In this case, the author talks about "The Fabric of My Life" site from America’s Cotton Producers featuring Zooey Deschanel and others singing the theme song and sharing their style inspiration. Very cool. Other sites mentioned include microsites for the Kia Soul and the 2010 Ford Mustang.

Boehringer sponsors UGC contest in diabetes awareness effort
…Medical Marketing & Media 9/24/09
We love this! What a phenomenal use of a UGC contest not only because it’s a meaningful topic, but it’s an excellent example for other pharma companies to emulate. Boehringer Ingelheim and the Diabetes Hands Foundation are seeking to raise awareness of diabetes with a contest inviting adults with diabetes to submit videos describing life with diabetes through one of the five senses.

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are the most important social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly Reality Check...

The Ebb And Flow Of Community
...from Social Media Explorer 9/16/09
Jason Falls shares some good insight on the behavior of a community. All you community managers or marketers – take note.
 
Creating Memorable Brand Experiences using the Social Web
…from Britopian9/16/09
Michael Brito shares his take on the value of just watching and listening to your brand community. Case in point, the demand generated for Ajay Bhatt t-shirts following a recent Intel commercial. Intel listened and moved quickly to run a contest on Twitter to give away 100 t-shirts. Notes Brito, “The human interaction and authentic conversation that happened and continue to happen today are what define a memorable brand experience, in my opinion.” We couldn’t agree more.
 
A Platform for Life: How a holistic social media campaign can keep a brand alive
…from AdWeek 9/14/09
This might be one of the more interesting articles we’ve read in a while. Bob Greenberg, CEO of R/GA writes about what he terms a “holistic social media campaign” referencing Gap’s Born to Fit campaign as an example. Essentially, he’s advocating for branded social communities where the ‘campaign’ is just an extension of the ongoing brand interaction with its customers. Bob, we’re right there with you on this one!
 
Social media commitment
…from JaffeJuice 9/16/09
crayon’s Jeff Jaffe also read Bob’s article and had this to say, “As we say at crayon, "marketing is not a campaign; it's a commitment" and whether we're talking about communications, advertising, brand building or even web development, it all applies equally when the goal is to foster and nurture long term, authentic, meaningful and productive relationships with customers.” Amen.
 
Ford's Fiesta to Party on -- Without the Fiesta
… from AdAge 9/14/09
Michael Learmonth writes about Ford’s unique marketing challenge for revealing the US version of the Fiesta after the 100 cars have been returned to Europe. What’s really interesting is that Ford plans to spend 10-20% less on traditional media to launch the Fiesta. “But Ford has come to believe that more social, not more media spending, will be the solution.”
 
The Three Spheres of Web Strategy –Updated for 2009
…from The Web Strategist 9/14/09
In this post, former Forrester analyst, Jeremiah Owyang has updated his Three Spheres of Web Strategy. The #1 focus is Community. “To be successful, the Web Strategist must understand (by using a variety of techniques and tactics) what customers and prospects want.”

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are the most important social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly reality check...

Study Finds Social Nets 'Realistically' Near Top Of 2010 Media Buying Plans
…from MediaPost
Here’s some promising news. A report released today by the Center for Media Research in conjunction with InsightExpress found that 57.7% of respondents "ideally" plan, and 56.3% "realistically" plan to include social media in their media plans next year.
 
Report: Tuesday Super For Facebook Brand Pages
…from MediaPost
According to new data from social media services provider ViTrue, Tuesdays are the day of the week when click-through rates are highest on content posted on the walls of brand pages on Facebook, at 9.89%. Interesting. How will this data impact marketers’ push campaigns? Or will it? Share your comments.
 
Facebook Users to Help Create New Vitamin Water Flavor
…from Mashable
This is an excellent example of an interactive social media campaign. Vitamin Water is handing over the keys to their flavor creator lab and tapping into the Facebook community for flavor innovation with a new app called the flavor creator lab. Users can also design the label and flavor description blurb. I’m so doing this!
 
When Facebook Fans Turn Ugly: Examining The Honda Accord Crosstour Page
…from AllFacebook
Ouch! When will brands learn the key to successful social media is transparency? Read all about Honda’s new Crosstour Fan page fiasco including a glowing post from an anonymous fan who turned out to be a Honda employee and the resulting backlash from unruly fans. Do you think some of this could have been avoided if Honda had developed a private online community where they could safely share more details and better photos? We do! ;-)
 
Ford Revs Up Social Media Efforts 
… from MediaPost
Ford, on the other hand, is doing a bang up job with its social media efforts as evidenced by its Fiesta Movement. In a recent article in MediaPost, a Ford spokesperson reveals the campaign has generated more interest than Ford expected. She also noted, “I think the interest is being generated by the content -- the videos -- they are posting. And we are seeing them talk about the features and attributes of the car, but they are very genuine and authentic in their posts." Like music to our ears.
 
People of Walmart Is a Hit Walmart Can't, and Shouldn't, Stop
…from AdAge
People of Walmart is a new blog that lets people upload, rate and comment on photos of oddly dressed people seen shopping at Walmart. According to B.L. Ochman, “it would seem there's not a damn thing Walmart can -- or should -- do about it.” Agreed! This is a great UGC example.

A lot happens in the social media industry each week. Here's what we at Reality Digital think are the most important social media information to pay attention to. It's your weekly reality check...

Social Network Marketing Expands Sphere …by eMarketer
“Companies that want to maximize their presence on the social Web must take advantage of social networks in all stages of the purchase funnel, from awareness to learning to buying to loyalty.” This excellent advice comes from Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Marketing on Social Networks: Branding, Buying and Beyond.”
 
Want 5,000 More Facebook Friends? That'll Be $654.30 …from AdAge
Well, this is…interesting. According to AdAge, for a price USocial will deliver you Facebook friends and fans. USocial claims that each Facebook friend or fan is worth $1 per month, and given the popularity of Facebook as a marketing vehicle suggests that people will make back their investment many times over.
 
The $1 Million Social Media Marketing Challenge …from MediaPost
Well…wow! In an effort to prove the real value of social media marketing, Joe Marchese, president of SocialVibe threw down the gauntlet via MediaPost this week when he challenged “any marketer willing to, over a given period (minimum three months), spend an equal amount through social media and any "traditional" media outlet at scale (minimum of $1 million on each): If the ROI from social media is not equal to that from traditional media, my company will deliver free media until the difference is made up.” This is gonna be interesting!
 
Social Media: When Ecosystems Become 'Egosystems' ...from AdAge
AdAge was chock full of interesting articles this week including this contribution from Craig Daitch of Measure2x. Craig asks the provoking question “why do you participate” and suggests the answer stems from our intrinsic need for self-actualization (a la Maslow's "Theory on Motivation"). Good stuff. You can check out more of Craig’s thoughts on his blog Thought Industry.
 
Gear Retailer Makes User-Generated Content Pay …from BusinessWeek
Here’s a great interview with outdoor gear retailer BackCountry.com founder Jim Holland about the company’s thriving online community and the value of user generated content.
 
Examiner.com snaps up citizen-journalism hub NowPublic …from DigitalBeat
Examiner.com announced that it has purchased citizen journalism-driven web site NowPublic for about $25 million. As suggested by the New York Times this move is on par with the trend toward major companies acquiring small, hyper-local sites and the inevitable move to user generated content.

Today, we're launching a new social media community site for our customers, partners and anyone interested in social media information. Simply named the Reality Digital Community, it aims to be a resource for industry professionals seeking information on the latest social media trends, campaigns and issues. 

We'll be highlighting issues we think are important to this community:

• Tips on how to build a social network
• Social media monetization strategies
• Metrics and ROI stats for social networking
• Cool social media campaigns

And we're working on getting industry experts to put their two cents in:

• Guest blog appearances
• Best practices webinars and more

It's also a place to share your favorite moments from the last conference or upload a template that will help someone solve his or her social media campaign woes. And if you're the type that likes to share your expertise, you'll have plenty of opportunities to voice your opinion on controversial issues in a blog post or contribute advice in a forum thread.

However you decide to participate, we hope that you'll join our community, engage in dialogue and find it and its members a valuable resource for your day-to-day social media questions. The Reality Digital Community is still in its infancy, but with your help, we can build a vibrant network of brand marketers, agency creatives, entrepreneurs and developers.

Visit the community now and register! Feel free to invite a friend or three. There's a contest going on for the next couple of weeks and one lucky community member is going to win a new Flip video camcorder! So you might just want to check it out now. ;)

I dropped by the Web 2.0 Expo yesterday at San Francisco's Moscone Center to check out who's touting the latest Web 2.0 technologies. What I discovered as I perused the aisles of the Expo Hall was a collection of vendors whose businesses mainly focused on two topics: 1) social media information and 2) SaaS (software as a service) offerings.

eMarketer predicts social media marketing spend will increase in 2009 and I expected to see a lot of people crowding around the booths, absorbing sales pitches and marketing messages, all in an effort to piece together their individual social media strategies with the latest offerings. But the expo floors were remarkably quiet even though there were a good number of vendors hawking their social media solutions and technologies. Looks like the economy really has taken its toll on travel budgets.



From an event marketing perspective, it can be difficult to predict ROI on show sponsorships that you commit to months in advance. Had any of these vendors known in advance that attendance would be so dismal, I'm sure they would've thought twice. But with lead times of 3 months or more for securing sponsorships and exhibit booths, it's near impossible to predict, especially given the way the economy tanked the last few months.

While there was a lot of social media information to be gleaned from the Web 2.0 Expo floors, people just weren't there this year. I can only imagine what other conferences are looking like this season. I'm not sure, as I won't be doing much traveling either.