social media draws a crowd

8/7/2019 Social Media Draws a Crowd

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Social Media Draws a Crowd --- Start-Ups and Established Agencies Look

to Carve a Niche in Online Action

Suzanne Vranica. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern Edition). New York, N.Y.:Jul 19, 2010. p. B.7

Abstract (Summary)

The push to form a more formidable presence in social-media advertising is being fueled by the

increasing number of marketers who are eager to figure out how they can use sites such as Facebook

Inc., whichhas almost 500 million users, and Twitter, with more than 120 million registered users, as a

marketing weapon.

Full Text

(754 words)

(c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further

reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

As more and more advertising dollars flow into social media, some Madison Avenue firms are seeking to

grab a piece of the action. But it will be a tough fight as the space is overrun with companies seeking to

own the segment, from start-ups to public-relations firms.

Universal McCann, the media-buying firm owned by Interpublic Group of Cos., is bolstering its social-

media offering by launching a practice this week called Rally. The division will help marketers develop

campaigns, track online chatter about their brands and measure how those campaigns perform. Headed

by Heidi Browning, a former MySpace executive, Rally will house several new social-mediahires.

MySpace, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.

Publicis Groupe's digital umbrella organization, Vivaki, says it also will open a social-media consulting

practice by the end of the year. The new group will pool Publicis' social-media tools and experts and use

them to beef up the social-media practices that many of Publicis' agencies have already established.

Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy officer at Vivaki, says he is willing to use his mergers-and-acquisitions

budget to bolster the practice if needed.

The push to form a more formidable presence in social-media advertising is being fueled by the

increasing number of marketers who are eager to figure out how they can use sites such as Facebook

Inc., whichhas almost 500 million users, and Twitter, with more than 120 million registered users, as a

marketing weapon.

"Social media is now part of all our clients' plans; we can't not be in this space," says Matt Seiler, chief

executive of Universal McCann.


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Ad spending on social networks world-wide is expected to rise 14% this year to $2.5 billion, according to

research firm eMarketer. Although social media represents only a fraction of the $55 billion online-ad

market, it is one of the fastest-growing segments.

Some corporations have taken a hands-on role in crafting their efforts: PepsiCo Inc.'s Gatorade, for

example, recently created its "Mission Control Center," which is set up like a broadcast-televisioncontrol room and is charged with monitoring the sports drink around the clock across social-media

networks.

But as marketers look to make bigger commitments, they are increasingly seeking experts to navigate

the burgeoning space.

Earlier this year, Chrysler Group LLC tapped New Media Strategies, a unit of publisher Meredith Corp., to

handle its social-media tasks. In March Kraft Foods Inc. hired 360i, a digital ad agency owned by Japan's

largest ad company, Dentsu Inc. The agency has been tasked with monitoring the social-media sites for

some of its brands such as Oreo and Jell-O. It also develops campaigns. The agency recently created the

"World's Fan of the Week" promotion that appears on Oreo's Facebook page.

Microsoft Corp. is currently searching for a social-media firm to handle duties for its Xbox videogame

system, work that is now handled by several of Xbox's agencies, according to people familiar with the

matter. Asset-management firm State Street Corp. also has begun looking at firms. A spokeswoman for

Microsoft declined to comment.

"We have talked to some PR firms that appear to have established valid expertise over the years, and we

are also interested in the new social-media firms that are bubbling up," says Hannah Grove, State

Street's head of global marketing.

Creative ad agencies, digital ad firms, social-media boutiques, public-relations outfits and publishing

companies are all clambering to offer advice, all claiming to be best suited to handle the task.

"You can't walk out your house without bumping into a social-media expert today, says Sean Corcoran,

an analyst at Forrester Research. "The reality is the space is still very much a Wild West."

Analysts say many marketers are more interested in hiring smaller firms that have expertise in the field.

Last year Domino's Pizza Inc. hired New Media Strategies, a word-of-mouth marketing firm, as its agency

of record for social media.

"A lot of companies right now that specialize in PR or advertising are trying to do this on the side and the

thing we liked in NMS is they specialize in social media," said Chris Brandon, a spokesman for the pizza

chain.

Analysts and ad executives say the space won't be dominated by small competitors for long because

advertising holding companies and bigger public-relations firms will l ikely ramp up acquiring the smaller

boutique firms, much like they have done with other digital areas such as search advertising.


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"I do think this is the year for consolidation in social media," says Ms. Browning, president of Universal

McCann's Rally unit.

Credit: By Suzanne Vranica

Indexing (document details)

Subjects: Acquisitions & mergers, Marketing, Advertising agencies, Social networks, Online

advertising

Classification

Codes

9190, 7200

Locations: United States--US

Companies: Universal McCann (NAICS: 541810 )

Author(s): Suzanne Vranica

Document types: News

Column Name: Advertising

Section: Media & Marketing

Publication title: Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jul 19, 2010. pg. B.7

Source type: Newspaper

ISSN: 00999660

ProQuest

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2083580581

Text Word Count 754

Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2083580581&Fmt=4&clientId=133194&RQ

T=309&VName=PQD


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OPINION: Success in social media comes with becoming part of culture

Arian Van de Ven. New Media Age. London:Jul 15, 2010. p. 13

Abstract (Summary)

These days it's virtually impossible to overlook the importance of social media yet most brands seem notto understand how they can use it to their best advantage. What's becoming clear is that brands which

are having success in social media have always been in touch with culture.

Full Text

(440 words)

(Copyright (c) 2010. Centaur Communications Limited. Reproduced with permission of the copyright

owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.)

Arian Van de Ven Future and trend insights, Telefonica O2

Brands which are having success in social media have always been in touch with culture

These days it's virtually impossible to overlook the importance of social media yet most brands seem not

to understand how they can use it to their best advantage. What's becoming clear is that brands which

are having success in social media have always been in touch with culture.

As anthropologist, blogger and author Grant McCracken puts it, "Connect to our culture and we will

follow." He doesn't mean high or artistic culture, but popular culture, which is inclusive and

representative of people's changing mindsets. Social media is just another channel within which popular

culture expresses itself.

Brands that have achieved cultural legacy have been woven into people's online conversations without

having to work hard at it. People can see the difference between brands that are forced on them and

those that have organically become part of our culture. Brands with rich cultural legacy have been able

to take this a step further by providing platforms on which people can build their own conversations,

uncensored. In other words, they've created a credible cultural ecosystem.

Lego is a great example of this. With the rise of the internet, Lego fans around the world started

generating their own content, showing how to build objects from Lego bricks. The company, renowned

for its high level of secrecy, felt it was losing control over its intellectual property. Instead of starting

lawsuits, it embraced this cultural movement by creating an ecosystem around the Lego bricks.

Lego believes that as a corporation it owns the Lego trademark but that people, and especially fans, own

the brand. Lego fans are as much producers of Lego's cultural legacy as the company itself. Lego keeps

building this cultural ecosystem both online and offline with the launch of the Lego Click community,

where fans create rich content, and Brick Magic, an event in North Carolina where fans from around the

world meet and share their passion for the brand.


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So for all the online and social media marketers out there, prior to building your social media strategy,

ask what is your brand cultural legacy that people connect to and want to be part of, offline and online?

To create a successful cultural ecosystem, brands must have high affinity, richness of content and loyal,

passionate fans. What are the behaviours and motivations of your fans that you can harness through

social media to create your brand cultural ecosystem? For Adidas it's shelltoed Superstars, for Burger

King it's the Whopper. What's yours?

Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors


Subjects: Brands, Media, Culture, Social networks, Marketing

Classification

Codes

1220, 5250, 7000, 9175, 9000

Locations: United Kingdom--UK

Author(s): Arian Van de Ven

Document types: Commentary

Publication title: New Media Age. London: Jul 15, 2010. pg. 13

Source type: Periodical

ISSN: 13647776

ProQuest

document ID:

2080852271

Text Word Count 440


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City News: Restaurant Chain Gets Social

Sumathi Reddy. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern Edition). New York, N.Y.:Jun 15, 2010. p. A.20

Abstract (Summary)


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Restaurants are increasingly using social media as a marketing tool, but a New York City burger chain

launching next month is redefining the strategy. 4food, which on July 6 is to open its first of 11 planned

locations, will allow customers to use iPads to place orders.

Full Text

(490 words)



Restaurants are increasingly using social media as a marketing tool, but a New York City burger chain

launching next month is redefining the strategy.

4food, which on July 6 is to open its first of 11 planned locations, will allow customers to use iPads to

place orders.

Customers also have the option of naming and branding their creation, and posting it on Facebook or

Twitter. When ordering from home, they can create commercials on YouTube.

The branded burgers and commercials are then featured on a 240-square-foot media wall at the

restaurant that also streams from Foursquare, a social-networking site where users can check in at

restaurants and other locations. Every time someone buys one of the concoctions, the creator receives a

25-cent credit through their account.

Seating at the restaurant consists of bleachers and communal tables, further driving home the idea of

social networks.

"We anticipated systems that would reduce the cost of marketing and allow the consumers to do the

marketing themselves," said Adam Kidron, co-founder of the restaurant.

One restaurant consultant said 4food's marketing ploy and idea of issuing credits was innovative, but

that various chains had employed similar customization opportunities.

"It's going to appeal to the millennial generation," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of

Technomic, a Chicago restaurant research and consulting firm. "But I'm not sure it will do anything more

than make the time you spend there a little more entertaining . . . . Consumers are going to a restaurant

less for the gimmicks and more for the quality of the good."

The unusual self-marketing isn't the only defining difference of the restaurant, whose first location is at

40th Street and Madison Avenue.

The burgers have holes in the middle, which can be filled with one of 100 rotating garnishes, from

macaroni and cheese to sushi rolls. The hole portions of the burgers are also served on skewers for

those seeking a carbohydrate-free dining experience.


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And a commissary in the kitchen of the Madison Avenue location will host a vocational training center,

which includes a program for individuals coming off of public assistance.

The two-story, 6,000-square-foot space will have seating for 120 people.

Leases on Union Square and Columbus Circle locations are being negotiated, said co-founder Michael

Shuman.

Five additional locations in Manhattan have been identified, in addition to one each in the Bronx,

Brooklyn and Queens. The chain's arrival in New York City was first reported last month by Eater, a

website that covers the restaurant industry.

Mr. Kidron said a private investor in the company, who did not want to be identified, had pledged

money for the first three locations.

An average meal will cost $12 to $13.

In addition to burgers, the restaurants will offer breakfast, sides and tea-time snacks.

The owners are in the process ofhiring 60 people. They said about half the applicants at job fairs found

out about 4food through social media websites.

Credit: By Sumathi Reddy


Subjects: Marketing, Wireless access points, Restaurants, Social networks

Locations: New York City New York

Companies: 4food (NAICS: 722211 )

Author(s): Sumathi Reddy


Publication title: Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jun 15, 2010. pg. A.20


ISSN: 00999660

ProQuest

document ID:

2058167271


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Text Word Count 490


T=309&VName=PQD

Build business with promotions and social mediaMary E Morrison. B to B. Chicago:Jun 14, 2010. Vol. 95, Iss. 7, p. 26 (1 pp.)

Abstract (Summary)

In an interview, Neil Brown, chairman of the Construction Marketing Association, talked about the

trends in construction industry marketing. He said that a lot of construction brand marketers ended up

cutting budgets in the past couple of years, and especially in 2009. Companies moved more activity to

publicity, social media and promotion, so those tactics became more prevalent, and advertising endedup taking the brunt of the budget freezes or eliminations. The market is still very difficult. There are a lot

of brands that have dropped out of traditional advertising.

Full Text

(356 words)

Copyright Crain Communications, Incorporated Jun 14, 2010

[Headnote]

industryoutlook

As chairman of the Construction Marketing Association, Neil Brown is focused on providing marketing

managers and executives in constructionrelated industries with professional development resources,

networking opportunities and recognition. Brown also founded Construction Marketing Advisors, a

partner marketing agency for the association, as well as the Construction Marketing Institute (CMI), a

continuing education and professional certification provider for the construction category. BtoB recently

spoke withhim about trends in construction industry marketing.

BtoB: How have construction marketers responded to the economic recession?

Brown: A lot of construction brand marketers ended up cutting budgets Dn the past couple of years, and

especially in 2009]. A lot of traditional companies that are owners of construction-related brands - such

as tools, earth-moving equipment and architectural services - were experiencing severe sales declines,

almost without exception in the double digits. So there were some pretty severe reactions to that. We

saw such things as cutting all advertising spending, or laying off 50% of your marketing department or


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just cutting marketing budgets back in general. Companies moved more activity to publicity, social

media and promotion, so those tactics became more prevalent, and advertising ended up taking the

brunt of the budget freezes or eliminations.

BtoB: What media and messaging tactics are proving mostseffective in reaching this audience?

Brown; The market is still very difficult. There are a lot of brands that have dropped out of traditional

advertising. One ofthe good things about that is if you're a surviving brand, it's a little quieter in the

market. In general, we're [helping marketers] be more aggressive with their messaging and focus on

direct response and promotions - promoting sweepstakes and contests to break through the clutter, for

example.

Social media is a pretty major initiative in all b-to-b markets. We're doing quite a bit of social media with

our construction clients and starting to get pretty interesting case studies and measurable results. I think

thafsthe result oftwo things. [First] there's hype about it and discussion about it. The second thing is that

it's relatively inexpensive. Its not a budget hog like display advertising ortrade shows. - MIM

[Sidebar]

NEIL BROWN

Chairman, Construction Marketing Association


Subjects: Construction industry, Marketing, Trends, Social networks

Classificati

on Codes

9190, 9000, 8370, 7000, 5250


People: Brown, Neil

Author(s): Mary E Morrison

Document

types:

Interview

Document

features:

Photographs


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Section: VERTICAL INSIGHT CONSTRUCTION

Publication

title:

B to B. Chicago: Jun 14, 2010. Vol. 95, Iss. 7; pg. 26, 1 pgs

Source

type:

Periodical

ISSN: 15302369

ProQuest

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ID:

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Text WordCount

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VName=PQD

Measuring Your Social Marketing

Juan Martinez. Customer Relationship

Management. Medford:Jun 2010. Vol. 14, Iss.6, p. 19 (1 pp.)

Abstract (Summary)

In an interview, Jim Sterne, author of Social Media Metrics, talked about the value -- and common

misconceptions -- of social media marketing. According to Sterne, social media is a group of technologies

that people have embraced in an enormous way very quickly because it makes communication easier.

The misconception is that it's a single form of communication that solves a single problem when actually

it's a whole new way to communicate. He said that social media is an addition to customers who are

reaching out to you. CRM is showing that you are part of the community rather than just being behind

the desk of a call center being able to respond.

Full Text

(885 words)

Copyright Information Today, Inc. Jun 2010


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[Headnote]

REQUIRED READING

In his new book, Social Media Metrics, Jim Sterne explains the right way to gauge your success

The company with the highest number ofTwitter followers doesn't necessarily have the best social

media marketing strategy - or so says Jim Sterne in his new book, Social Media Metrics: How to Measure

and Optimize Your Marketing Investment. Sterne, who has been writing about Internet marketing since

1994, details ways for businesses to assess marketing efforts using valuable data and describes how

marketers can maximize their returns on social media investments. CRM Editorial Assistant Juan

Martinez spoke with Sterne about the value - and common misconceptions - of social media marketing.

CRM magazine: Why was it important to write about measuring the success of social media rather than

about creating a successful media initiative?

Jim Sterne: When I started writing about online marketing, it was brand new and it was important to put

all that information out there. Back then, my specialty was unique. But by 2000 everybody understood

how important the Internet was and everybody was an Internet marketing expert. So I changed my

focus to measurement - specifically, Web analytics. That spread to marketing optimization,

accountability, and performance monitoring. Then social media came along and it was obviously

valuable and intuitive. But I haven't seen anything valuable written about how to measure it.

I also felt it was important to have one place where you put all the information together instead of

having to read a thousand blogs about it. I guess I'm showing my age when I say that I like books.

CRM: Whafs the biggest misconception around social media marketing?

Sterne: That it's one thing. Social media is a group of technologies that people have embraced in an

enormous way very quickly because it makes communication easier. The misconception is that it's a

single form of communication that solves a single problem when actually it's a whole new way to

communicate. Anytime someone says, "Social media is..." if you take out the words "social media" and

insert the word "telephone," you find out how awkward it sounds. "Social media is great for direct

marketing." Well, yeah - but the telephone is great for direct marketing as well. And it's so much more

valuable.

CRM: How is social media important for CRM?

Sterne: It's another channel. People like to use all different methods of communication. Some people

like to use Twitter to send messages. You now have to make that part of your contact center. You have

to add monitoring of your fan page on Facebook to your contact center. Social media is an addition to

customers who are reaching out to you. On the relationship management side I want to open up wider

than just pure-listening mode. In the good old days, we did surveys and called it market research. We


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did random - digit dialing or direct surveys to our B2B clients. We asked them to tell us what they

thought. Now we get to overhear conversations, which is significantly more genuine as far as opinion

and attitude because customers are talking among themselves. And we get to go join the conversation.

CRM is showing that you are part of the community rather than just being behind the desk of a call

center being able to respond. You're proactively part of a community and you're participating.

CRM: You mention throughout the book, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that mere will be new methods of

online communication before your book is even released. Where do you envision social media

marketing within the next five years?

Sterne: God knows what's going to happen. In my wildest imagination there will be something I'd like to

call Google Personal. It will be a lock-down personal, private Google that knows everything about me. So

when I say I need a flight to New York it knows all my preferences, all my frequent- flier numbers, which

car rental company I prefer. It can act as my personal digital assistant. It knows I communicate more

with John and Susan and knows that I trust their opinion. So it goes out and finds out how they reviewed

a hotel, and it tells me, "Here's the best hotel for you based on everyone you know who has reviewed

it." It's the power of watching what I do and how I'm social in order to get me more-powerful

information based on reviews and input from the cloud.

CRM: Lei's keep your prognosticator hat on. Inyour bookyou list David BerLwitz's "100 Ways to Measure

Social Media." Will that list grow or shrink in the next five years?

Sterne: It will grow from the perspective of what can be measured but it will shrink from the perspective

of what should be measured. There will always be more data points that we can capture but [the

number] of those [that] will be valuable will also shrink because we'll have more experience. We once

thought hits were valuable because it was the only data we had. But we came to find out that actually

hits weren't very useful. What was useful was tracking people's behavior - hits weren't doing that Whichmeasurements will be valuable ultimately depends on your business goals. - Juan Martinez

For more of our talk with Jim Sterne, visit us online at http://sn.im/jun10-issue.


Subjects: Social networks, Marketing, Customer relationship management

Classification

Codes

7000, 5250, 9190


People: Sterne, Jim

Author(s): Juan Martinez


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Document types: Interview

Document

features:

Photographs

Section: Insight

Publication title: Customer Relationship Management. Medford: Jun 2010. Vol. 14, Iss. 6; pg. 19, 1

pgs


ISSN: 15298728

ProQuestdocument ID:

2049089821

Text Word Count 885


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Marketers Watch as Friends Interact Online --- Using Data From SocialNetworking Sites, Companies Are Able to Target Ads to Like-Minded

Acquaintances of Customers

Emily Steel. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern Edition). New York, N.Y.:Apr 15, 2010. p. B.5

Abstract (Summary)

New York-based 33Across tracks how consumers interact with one another -- commenting on posts or

sharing messages, for instance -- across about 20 sites, online networks and third-party application

companies, which build software like games and quizzes for social-networking sites. 33Across says those

sites reach

a total of 100 million month

ly unique U.S. visitors.

Full Text

(899 words)




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Birds of a feather flock together. Or, in the Internet age, a customer's friend is a potential customer.

Embracing those truisms, some big marketers, including Sprint and eBay, are turning to small start-ups

to help them tap social-networking data to find would-be clients among the friends and acquaintances

of existing customers, to the dismay of some privacy advocates.

EBay, for instance, used online tracking technologies to identify customers who browsed or shopped for

products in the clothing, shoes and accessories section of its site. It then turned to New York-based

start-up 33Across, which analyzed data from social-networking sites to map out the connections

between the customers eBay had identified and other Web surfers, in order to serve up ads at the right

time and place.

New York-based 33Across tracks how consumers interact with one another -- commenting on posts or

sharing messages, for instance -- across about 20 sites, online networks and third-party application

companies, which build software like games and quizzes for social-networking sites. 33Across says those

sites reach a total of 100 million monthly unique U.S. visitors.

For example, if an eBay customer shared a movie review with an acquaintance, 33Across identified that

connection and places a cookie, or anonymous string of tracking data, on the acquaintance's browser so

that they later could be targeted with a relevant ad whenever they visit certain sites.

Advertisers say the new wave of social-networking targeting is registering impressive results. Daphne

Liska, senior manager of Internet marketing at eBay, said the 33Across campaign was more successful

than standard online ads and that eBay plans to continue using social data to find new customers.

Sprint, which also worked with 33Across, tested the approach last summer to promote the launch of the

Palm Pre smart phone and quadrupled related online sales, says Joe Migliozzi, managing director of

digital at Mindshare, the WPP-owned media agency that managed a campaign for Sprint. He says Sprint

is considering the same approach for future campaigns.

"A lot of what goes into a purchase comes from a general conversation between you and people in your

group," Mr. Migliozzi says. "We're identifying the links between people."

33Across is one of a handful of start-ups, such as Media6-Degrees and Lotame, that aim to make use of

the reams of Internet user data behind social-networking sites for ad targeting. They all use complex

algorithms to track connections between consumers. 33Across says it tracks five billion connections,

then weighs them to determine the closest ties.

"There are massive streams of untapped social relationship data," says Eric Wheeler, chief executive of

33Across. Mr. Wheeler says his company collects user data from MyYearbook.com but he declined to

name other specific sites, citing agreements with those Web sites.

(Tracking cookies from 33Across were found by The Wall Street Journal on other sites, including popular

Twitter-photo site twitpic.com, as well as music site lyricsmode.com and health site righthealth.com.)


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Not surprisingly, such tracking of friends and acquaintances has attracted the attention of some

lawmakers and regulators. Such ad-targeting approaches are facing increased scrutiny from federal

regulators who are investigating privacy issues tied to the Internet. Some lawmakers, concerned about

Internet privacy, say they are preparing to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make more

transparent Web sites' tactics for collecting information on their users.

"To the extent that ad companies are using social-media information to deliver ads in a way that is not

transparent to consumers or consumers don't understand what the source of the basis of the ads are,

that could present an issue," says Christopher Olsen, an assistant director in the privacy and identity

protection division of the Federal Trade Commission.

The ad-targeting companies say that they abide by industry standards and that the information they

collect is anonymous and can't be traced back to individual users. Industry trade groups are introducing

standards that let consumers know when they are being targeted by an ad as a result of tracking.

Both Facebook and MySpace allow marketers to target ads on their sites to consumers based on the

information users include in their profile, such as occupation, age, location and interests. (MySpace is

owned by News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.) The new group of start-ups thinks that

the data mapping connections between people -- rather than their profile information -- are more

valuable.

Facebook ran into a privacy debacle in 2007 with an advertising tool called Beacon that allowed

Facebook to track users' activities on certain external sites, then show updates on the site about those

activities, such as retail purchases. CEO Mark Zuckerberg later apologized to users and changed the

site's privacy settings.

Th

e new targeting tech

nique is rooted in decades of research

about social beh

avior. A New EnglandJournal of Medicine study from 2008, for instance, found that smoking behavior -- such as quitting or

not -- spreads through social ties.

"These companies are on to an important factor in the market that we haven't tapped into well, which is

how consumers are connected to each other and how they influence each other's purchases," says Emily

Riley, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Still, ad executives say they are seeking more transparency about where the data come from and where

their ads appear.

"Agencies are still trying to wrap th

eirh

eads around it," says Joh

n Nitti, senior vice president and digitaldirector at Publicis Groupe's Zenithmedia.

Credit: By Emily Steel



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Subjects: Internet, Electronic commerce, Motion pictures, Startups, Marketing, Social

networks

Classification

Codes

7000, 8331, 9190


Companies: (NAICS: 454112 ) eBay Inc (NAICS: 454112 ) , Sprint Nextel Corp

(NAICS: 517110, 517210, 518111 )

Author(s): Emily Steel


Section: Media & Marketing

Publication title: Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Apr 15, 2010. pg. B.5


ISSN: 00999660

ProQuest

document ID:

2009432641

Text Word Count 899


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Putting the 'social' in social media

Paul Gillin. B to B. Chicago:Apr 12, 2010. Vol. 95, Iss. 4, p. 34 (1 pp.)

Abstract (Summary)

The author recently surveyed 55 marketers, including many at b-to-b companies, about their satisfaction

with social media tools. While the results aren't statistically valid, they yield some interesting insight on

how the media landscape has changed. Respondents said that in 2006 their companies were using an

average of less than one social media platform each. By last year, the average had swelled to more than


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eight. The new challenge for b-to-b marketers will be to exploit the potential of social media to create

connections between all their employees and all their constituents.

Full Text

(455 words)

Copyright Crain Communications, Incorporated Apr 12, 2010

[Headnote]

NEW CHANNELS

I recently surveyed 55 marketers, including many at b-to-b companies, about their satisfaction with

social media tools. While the results aren't statistically valid, they yield some interesting insight on how

the media landscape has changed.

Respondents said that in 2006 their companies were using an average of less than one social media

platform each. By last year, the average had swelled to more than eight. Equally interesting were the

satisfaction ratings. Just two of the 55 respondents said they perceived the ROI on their social media

investments to be negative, while 46 rated it somewhat or very positive.

There's both good and bad news in these trends. Businesses have clearly turned the corner in their

adoption of social platforms, but the rush to join the party indicates that they may be reverting to the

mass-market mentality that social marketing explicitly rejects.

The mindset of mass has been ingrained in the marketing conscience for a century. In a world in which

the only efficient way to relay a message to a small number of people who cared was to bother a large

number of others who didn't, big media was the only game in town.

Online media have flipped this equation. Success is now defined by the ability to establish meaningful

conversations about very specific topics. Quality displaces quantity, and relationships replace messages.

A lot of marketers are having a hard time grasping this because they spent so many years doing the

opposite. They see new channels as a way to build another mass audience for the same old messages.

They wear their Twitter follower count as a badge ofhonor. They miss the point.

Social media are called social fora reason. They are a means to create relationships between individuals.

Human resources professionals at Sodexo Worldwide have learned this. The big food service and

facilities management company has all but discarded job boards in favor of Facebook, Linkedln, Twitter

and a variety of conversational tools. The reason: They found that initiating conversations with

applicants before moving them into the recruitment funnel improved both recruiter efficiency and

candidate enthusiasm. Along the way, the volume of applications jumped 25% in two years, while

recruitment ad spending dropped $300,000.


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The new challenge for b-to-b marketers will be to exploit the potential of social media to create

connections between all their employees and all their constituents. This will present enormous

governance issues as we begin to "media-train" entire companies instead of just a few individuals. That's

a topic for future columns. For now, the challenge is to discard the old economics of mass and embrace

the value of one-to-one.

[Author Affiliation]

PAUL GILLIN is a consultant who specializes in community journalism and social media. His Web site is

www.gitlin.com.


Subjects: Marketing, Social networks, Polls & surveys, Attitude surveys

Classification

Codes

9190, 9000, 7000, 5250


Author(s): Paul Gillin

Author Affiliation: PAUL GILLIN is a consultant who specializes in community journalism and social

media. His Web site is www.gitlin.com.


Section: OPINION

Publication title: B to B. Chicago: Apr 12, 2010. Vol. 95, Iss. 4; pg. 34, 1 pgs


ISSN: 15302369

ProQuest

document ID:

2017006481

Text Word Count 455


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T=309&VName=PQD

Social media making its mark on marketingRichard Vancil. B to B. Chicago:Apr 12, 2010. Vol. 95, Iss. 4, p. 34 (1 pp.)

Abstract (Summary)

The author is excited about the contributions that social media will eventually make to marketing.

What's most promising is that social will help to transform marketing communications into what it

should be: a two-way interaction between buyer and seller. Two things need to happen for social media

to earn its rightful place in the marketing mix. First, it must contribute to the inbound side of marketing.

The second development is on the outbound side of marketing. Social media needs to become a primary

preference for how buyers inform their decisions.

Full Text

(456 words)

Copyright Crain Communications, Incorporated Apr 12, 2010

I AM EXCITED ABOUTTHE CONTRIBUTIONS that social media will eventually make to marketing. What's

most promising is that social will help to transform marketing communications into what it should be: a

two-way interaction between buyer and seller. Presently, much of our marketing communications is just

the opposite: a one-way push of the vendor's voice, ^f But social media is not marketing . . . yet.

Two things need to happen for social media to earn its rightful place in the marketing mix. First, it must

contribute to the inbound side of marketing. Web 2.0 conversations about your company's product and

services need to be mined and gleaned so that they become valuable components of your product

management decisions. The litmus test here is that your product managers start to depend on those

contributions.

The second development is on the outbound side of marketing. Social media needs to become a primary

preference for how buyers inform their decisions. IDC research shows that buyers almost always prefer

to receive information from independent third parties and from their peers. Social media should shine

when applied in this fashion.

But there is important work ahead to make these things happen, to "operationalize" marketing

organizations to reap the benefits of social media. "Operationalize" may not make it through your

spellchecker, but it's a term on the lips of the best marketers in tech today.

My sense is that marketing leaders know that the following three operational tasks need to be

completed before the inbound and outbound marketing benefits of social media can be realized.


20/21

* Centralize: While I'm not a great fan ofheavy-handed corporate marketing policies, in the case of

social media I am pressing for them. When a privacy breach involving a social media campaign occurs, I

bet the blame is going to wind its way back to the marketing department, regardless of its role. For this

reason alone, corporate marketing needs to have basic social media governance policies in place.

*Train: For every 100 people casually involved in social conversations, you probably have only two or

three in-house experts. Find those two or three, and have them train the rest.

* Measure: Poor metrics can give good marketing activities a bad name. Because it's easy and we are all

lazy, we slip into measuring activities and not results. Measuring the number of tweets or enumerating

the cast of your followers are examples of this. Instead, measure how many buying decisions you

influenced. Measure how many customer-service issues you identified and passed on to the right area

for resolution.

[Sidebar]

Social media needs to become a primary preference For how buyers inform their decisions.

[Author Affiliation]

Richard Vancil is VP-executive advisory group at IDC. He can be reached at [email protected].


Subjects: Social networks, Marketing, Consumer behavior

Classification

Codes

9190, 9000, 5250, 7000


Author(s): Richard Vancil

Author Affiliation: Richard Vancil is VP-executive advisory group at IDC. He can be reached at

[email protected].


Section: OPINION


21/21

Publication title: B to B. Chicago: Apr 12, 2010. Vol. 95, Iss. 4; pg. 34, 1 pgs


ISSN: 15302369

ProQuest

document ID:

2017006461

Text Word Count 456


T=309&VName=PQD

social media draws a crowd

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