iMedia Connection - ad:tech blog

2010 was a banner year for social media. Many companies fully embraced social media and created award winning, roi increasing campaigns. Many other companies began to dip their toes into social media with promising results. And for the companies that haven’t started in social media, well, 2011 is when the market place will force their participation.

2011 will be the year of "attempting" social media
Many companies that have been on the cusp of starting a social media campaign will finally "go for it". View it the same as when websites became popular. You had the early adopters (who got the best .com names!), the laggards who built websites a few years later and then the people who realized they needed a website on their business card. The same will happen in social media. Companies will soon need to add a social media profile to their business card.
More companies will attempt to calculate a true ROI in social media, and will fail.
Higher ups will demand to see an ROI – and will continue to under value the ... Read more

Time to stir up another social media debate -  does social media belong in a marketing or PR division? Or both? Or neither?
The answer, just like the answer to many social media questions, is “it depends.”
Social Media should belong in the marketing division if the purposes of your social media activities include the following:
*To increase sales
*To increase traffic to your website
*To increase exposure to your brand
*To increase conversation about the brand
*To launch new products
*To receive feedback and ideas for product or business development
*To establish relationships and connections with potential customers who become your fans or followers
*To be fully integrated with all marketing programs and initiatives (always mentioning your facebook/twitter accounts on your advertising and marketing material)
Social Media should belong in the pr/corporate communication division if the purposes of your social media activities include the following:
*To post the latest company news and articles
*To act as an official source of company information
*To act as a “quick response” to any immediate rumors/news about the company or brand
*To facilitate new relationships with bloggers and members of the media
*To monitor buzz and insights about the company
*To post new job opportunities with the company
And what happens if you are doing none of these... Read more

It sometimes boggles my mind seeing some of the social media campaigns out there. While many brands do it great (Starbucks, Jetblue, Dell, Pepsi all come to mind), there are also many campaigns that just simply are bad. Blank facebook pages. No twitter entries for two months. Customer service and sales questions left unanswered. No blog entries for 5 months - yet - the front page of the company's website proudly displays buttons for "Facebook, Twitter and our Blog".
Disaster. So here are some tips and reasons as to why your social media campaign is failing:
You haven't updated the content in months
So you spent weeks/months "planning" the social side of a campaign. You decided to focus on Facebook and Twitter. You planned the first two weeks of content - even sprung for an agency to create a custom facebook page and a slick twitter background. And what happened? Everything looked great those first two weeks - the page was active - fans were liking the comments - followers were retweeting content. Then you lost momentum (the person in charge focused on other business activities). You lost your creativity... Read more

Facebook and Twitter - what's the real difference?
I'm often asked what is the major difference between Facebook and Twitter. I've given a lot of different answers, but recently came up with "default, universal explanation" that I've been using a lot. I felt this would be helpful to share.
The major difference between Facebook and Twitter: Facebook is for connecting with people you know, while Twitter is for connecting with people you know.. and don’t know.
Got it? Facebook – friends/family. Twitter: friends, family and complete strangers.
When I give this explanation, I often get a lot of puzzled looks as people ask – “Why would you want to connect with complete strangers?”
The reason for this is simple – there are strangers who you are interested in hearing their daily opinions or perspectives.
I’m a huge New York Yankees fan. I use twitter to connect with all the beat writers for the Yankees. I haven’t met any of these people (and hence, they are complete strangers) but I want to know their opinion on the Yankees game. I view them as subject matter experts on the Yankees.
They update their twitter accounts throughout Yankees games.... Read more