| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 07/15/2012 - 07/17/2012 | Dana Point, CA |
MediaPost
As social media budgets continue to rise, demands from the C-suite to prove the value of these investments are intensifying. Executives do intuitively understand that direct consumer relationships are valuable, and they are patiently, albeit eagerly, awaiting the ability of their marketing departments and agencies to correlate the economic impact of ongoing social media investments.
ragan.com
Sometimes it seems business-to-consumer companies get all the attention. Not this time. Here’s one for the business-to-business communicators. In my column last week, I addressed some of the characteristics that make those brands with several million Facebook fans so successful. Though my piece focused on business-to-consumer interaction, several commenters astutely pointed out a dearth of business-to-business best practices in social media. My work now deals mainly with B2C clients, but I’ve had plenty of experience working with B2B companies, and I’ve seen their challenges in trying to be consistent and relevant in the social space.
ClickZ
Calculating ROI in social media is a hot topic. As companies have rushed into the elusive social media marketing gold mine, many are left trying to figure out if all the time and effort is paying off.
The problem is that social media is extremely difficult to measure. In a former life, I worked as a financial analyst at P&G, and a big part of my job was to measure the ROI of our different marketing efforts. In calculating the return on traditional media, we often found that we couldn’t exactly calculate everything, so we resorted to some creative approaches.
Read more…
MediaPost
Is B2B (business to business) really ready for social media marketing? The short answer is “no.” The long answer “is almost. Let’s just say that generally speaking, these kinds of companies are “social media curious.” My agency gets a lot of B2B inquiries from marketing, sales and PR executives with companies that are genuinely interested in “doing something a little different — you know, funny and more edgy.” Half the time they chicken out and go back to whatever they were doing before they called us, which usually includes sleep-inducing product videos and downloadable PDFs that they will no doubt force upon corporate buyers who have grown accustomed to this, along with their bland breakfast and lukewarm coffee every morning.
iMedia Connection
For decades, traditional research practices have informed marketing strategy for major brands. While this has proved indispensable in crafting marketing communications, this type of research lacks the dimension required to paint the full picture of a consumer’s mindset, especially in a new era of discovery where a marked shift in consumer behavior has exponentially accelerated change in the world around us.
ragan.com
Bet you’ve heard plenty about the importance of conversation in social media. We’ve all heard companies must engage their customers online. We’ve probably said it ourselves. But is conversation the most important thing in social media?
What’s the value of conversation? Few will question the value of conversation. It extends customer service and makes PR more personal. But does conversation improve the bottom line?
Business Insider
On Jan. 30, I wrote an item describing how Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald was going to “moderate” — i.e. reduce — his $10 billion global ad budget because his brands can get ”free” impressions on Facebook and Google. The article enraged some ad execs, who were livid at the notion that advertising on Facebook is “free.”
MediaBizBloggers
Social media understanding seems to be splintering if last week’s Conference Board seminar on “Branding in the Social Media World” is anything to go by. Let’s face it – social media is such an enormous ‘bucket’ that it’s difficult to know what level to pitch it, and this seminar had everything from absolute beginners to accomplished players in its audience. I’m wondering if conference organizers need to start pitching their events in ‘levels’ that are more specifically defined for would-be delegates.
Content Marketing Inst.
It’s estimated that in just a few short months, Facebook will have 1 billion users. With those kinds of numbers, it’s hard to believe that the company didn’t even exist 10 years ago!
Social Media B2B
