Sometimes instead of talking it pays to step back and listen to what’s going on in your business and industry, especially when you work in the consumer listening space. That’s what I did for awhile and I learned a lot over the past several months by paying close attention to what our clients and other companies are looking to accomplish in social media in the near future.

One of the things that continues to surprise me is how much has changed in the last 12 months in this business and how much more I think it will change over the next 12 or so months. I’m not going to try to predict the future like so many people a lot smarter than me have done since the start of the year. That said, I don’t need to be The Amazing Kreskin to spot some emerging trends that are moving up the ladder in importance as the new year unfolds. Here are a few gaining some real traction in my opinion;

Organizational Design: Without a doubt, one of the most overlooked components of the entire social media business today is the development of a strategic organizational roadmap for brands to implement. One of the biggest corporate takeaways in 2009 was the natural migration of social media listening from one group to multiple groups. While not yet at a full-scale enterprise level, this evolution of more widespread listening will continue this year, and it is already spreading at a pace that strains the capabilities of many listening providers.

Any discussion about social media listening, measurement, and the now white-hot ‘customer engagement’ area without a full blown (global) organizational strategy is pretty much fruitless. This will continue to be a major issue in 2010 because, by and large, many companies haven’t yet recognized they have the need for it.

If I was running an agency or consultancy practice today, this is where I’d be aligning my thinking and resources for the immediate future. There’s been some work in this area by other firms besides ours, but nothing that I’ve seen that would make a Fortune 500 brand stand up and take notice.

Integrated Insights: Social media listening as a standalone data set has a life expectancy of less than 24 months, in my opinion. It may live longer in non-strategic or measurement adverse areas of a company, but it has no long-term lifespan with the real corporate decision-makers, internal brand strategists and research insights leaders.

I’m convinced more than ever that social media will grow in importance within the corporate environment, but just not the way it looks and feels today without a strategic facelift. This type of change will take place in the yet-to-be tapped world of social media data integration with other forms of traditional research and exploratory data mining. The recent Millward Brown, Dynamic Logic and Cymfony partnership is a step in this direction.

When this becomes more commonplace, listening and measurement will really begin to provide brands with a more robust level of actionable business insights and ROI measurement. Companies will demand that and those who don’t provide it will not be around for the long haul. Most people would be shocked how much more you can get from social media when you view it through the prism of other data sources. I expect companies to step up work in this area in 2010.

Brand Activation Analysis: Over the past couple of years it seems like everyone has been enamored with online customer outreach and pushing brands to get out there and address customer problems and issues on the Web. Call it the “Twitter Effect” if you like, but the focus has been more on the need to do something, especially if your competitor is already actively participating in social networks.

For brands already in the second and third generations of their social media strategy, the honeymoon period for brand activation is starting to wear off and fast. The novelty of “participating” is giving way to an increasing demand to understand the impact of this new generation of B-to-C (brand to consumer) communications. Like listening, brand activation is also starting to spread across companies with a real plan. The concept of the single Community Manager is starting to give way to integrated teams activated across different disciplines, such as customer service, marketing, crisis communications, sales, and other departments. It’s not widespread yet but the handwriting is already on the wall.

This new level of corporate engagement is also putting pressure on the development of new models of brand activation metrics and analysis. That may not sound so hard when you have one corporate responder on Twitter, but meaningful outcome analysis gets a lot more difficult when there is a global cross-functional team online. Measuring the impact on the brand gets a lot trickier. Dial-up your local social media listening provider and ask which button in their application will spit out that type of report. Good luck. Again, I have seen some work in this area, luckily some by our own company, but we all have a long way to go in this area.

The calendar has turned the page to another interesting and challenging decade, and as usual, I welcome your feedback, ideas and experiences in these areas.

Mike Spataro
Visible Technologies

Most brands and marketers invest lots of time and energy into customer segmentation programs in order to develop unique offers or programs based on demographics or buying behavior of their customers. I would propose that understanding where your customers and prospects are “hanging out” is an equally important data point if a brand or marketer wants to maximize exposure to existing or target segments. One such group that appears to be ripe with opportunity is boomers and seniors.  Recent data highlights the massive uptick in online time and social networking participation among them.

According to the NielsenWire Online, while people 65 and older still make up less than 10% of the active Internet universe, in the last five years their number has increased by more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Among people 65+, the increase of women online in the last five years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points.

Not only are more people 65 and older heading online, but they are also spending more time on the Web. Time spent on the Internet by seniors increased 11% in the last five years, from approximately 52 hours per month in November 2004 to just over 58 hours in 2009.

88.6% of seniors, check personal e-mail as the No. 1 online activity performed in the last 30 days. Viewing or printing online maps and checking the weather online were the second and third most popular online activities.

The No. 1 online destination for people over 65 in November 2009 was Google Search, with 10.3 million unique visitors. Windows Media Player and Facebook were No. 2 and No. 3. Interestingly, Facebook, which came in at No. 3, ranked No. 45 just a year ago among sites visited by senior citizens.

Overall, the number of unique visitors who are 65 or older on social networking and blog sites has increased 53% in the last two years alone. 8.2% of all social network and blog visitors are over 65, just 0.1 percentage points less than the number of teenagers who frequent these sites.

Marketers would be wise to do more than test online marketing programs with seniors as we head in ‘10.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

Today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published updated Advertising guidelines calling for increased transparency with respect to online marketing and advertising. Specifically, the FTC made changes to the“Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”. In its commentary, the FTC referenced and adopted the Word-of-Mouth-Marketing Association (WOMMA) guidance in several instances, looking favorably upon the Association’s own Ethics Code, and adopting WOMMA’s suggestion that only “sponsored” communications should fall within the scope of the Guides. Therefore, adherence to the WOMMA Ethics Code is a critical first step for businesses and marketers in complying with the updated FTC Guides.

As a active member of the WOMMA ethics group this is fantastic validation of the hard work we have doing with member input over the past year.  Several fundamental principles of WOMMA’s Ethics Code, such as the importance of transparency, disclosure and honesty across all media, are now required by the FTC. The WOMMA organization is a firm believer that the updated Guides will usher in a new generation word-of-mouth of viral and social media marketers who place the highest priority on ethical practices.

Some additional highlights from the WOMMA press release include:

-  WOMMA, President Elect Paul Rand explaining, “The greatest value we can provide to our 400-plus members is helping them navigate the uncharted waters of social marketing. WOMMA takes great pride in not only equipping members with a venerable compliance ‘how-to,’ but also in the collaborative way we went about influencing policy, itself.”

- WOMMA General Counsel Anthony DiResta of Manatt, Phelps & Philips adding, “These new FTC Guides constitute a sea change for certain marketing practices that are widespread and effective in all industry sectors. It’s clear that confusion will result in their application by bloggers and brands alike, and there are even rumblings that legal challenges may be brought. Thus, in this period of uncertainty, meaningful self-regulation and practical clarity are essential.” Diresta makes one point clear for marketers, “Transparency and honesty are essential in communications by consumers or experts in all media formats.

- WOMMA is confident these Guides will also help the Association enforce its own Ethics Code. According to Joe Chernov, chair of WOMMA’s Member Ethics Advisory Panel, the Association’s primary focus is on educating members on best practices; however, it must also ensure its members are adhering to those practices. Chernov concluded, “Marketing ethics is no longer an ideal. It is now a mandate.”

Over the next several months, WOMMA will lead industry discussions on the topic of what constitutes adequate and meaningful disclosure. This dialogue will culminate in November at the association’s annual Summit in Las Vegas, when WOMMA will dedicate educational sessions to help marketers understand and adhere to these new Guides. In fact, Mr. Chuck Harwood, the FTC’s Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, is a featured speaker.

For those in the advertising industry that use word of mouth, viral marketing, or social media platforms, WOMMA’s Ethics Code is an excellent and practical way to evaluate compliance with these new Guides.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

I recently had a chance to sit down and spend sometime with Todd Friesen and hear his latest thoughts on Social Media. Naturally, the conversation turned to Twitter fairly quickly. Todd is very active on Twitter and offers us some perspective on micro-blogging and its impacts on brands, search and SEO. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts Todd. It’s always great to catch up. Looking forward to seeing you at the next SMC Seattle event.

Cheers,

Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies

Last night the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) had their annual awards event where Visible Technologies TruCast solution was nominated for best commercial product of the year. It was a tremendous honor to have even been a finalist. And even greater that we won.

The amazing thing about this years judging was that the instead of the usual jury of peers and industry folks - the vote was put out to the community!

As a technology provider that enables many leading brands the ability to listen, measure, and engage with their customers we were being put to that same test about getting our own community of advocates to vote for us. I can’t thank the community, our employees, friends and supporters for all the outreach, emails, forwards, tweets, re-tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook updates. The community really came through for us and we were up against at least one firm that had 10 times the number of employees we have. It just goes to show that bigger doesn’t necessarily always win and that the power of your community can deliver amazing results for your if interact regularly, add value and appreciate their interaction.

Again, thank you for all the support.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies