Entries Tagged 'Interactive Marketing' ↓

There are three reports that came out recently worth noting for those a bit behind in their reading like I always seem to find myself.

Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff was generous enough to share his recent report on Keys to Creating a Social Strategy in which he lays out what he calls the POST method for social strategy development. Josh contends that most companies are going about creating social strategies backwards by focusing first on technology rather than audiences and strategy upfront. I couldn’t agree more even though I work for a social media tech firm. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in meetings where technology and tactics were the topics over strategy and objectives.

The POST method revolves around People, Objectives, Strategy and (then) Technology. Josh’s report lays out a sensible approach for companies to follow. It’s well worth the time even if you’re late to the reading game like me.

The second study was the widely covered and discussed “Digital Footprints: Online Identity Management“ report from Pew Research concerning the number of Americans who Google their own personal information. Research analyst Mary Madden expressed surprise in interviews this week that only about half of the people in the U.S. with Internet access have Googled themselves.

I don’t find that number surprising at all. In fact, I’d bet it’s lower than what Pew found. When you get away from the urban tech centers of our country, the average American isn’t living online, Googling all their friends and relatives, blogging every day or Twittering every five minutes. Some of us have a slanted view of the real world. Only a fraction of people who really need to be concerned about what appears about them in search engines have ever taken the time to check their results. If more of them did, I promise you’d see more people freaking out than you do at the moment.

The third study from USC’s Annenberg Center and Ketchum PR found that many communicators are out of sync with the way consumers now use media. This trend has been underway since the invention of the browser. Findings related to the growth of media usage by emerging markets make this study worth reading too.

Mike Spataro

The Society for New Communications Research is another fast growing organization gaining wider respect and new members each year. The group handed out awards last night in Boston to more than 50 companies and individuals in the area of excellence in social media and interactive services.

It’s a good thing that organizations like SNCR and WOMMA put in the time and effort to recognize what people are doing because I’m not sure how we’d keep up with some of the amazing work being performed in this emerging industry. We were thrilled to be among the winners in the area of technology innovation for our TruCast solution, but if you ask me the real winners are the people whose lives are being changed everyday by smart interactive and social media thinkers. For instance;

The Humanitarian Emergency Logistics Preparedness, Inc. (HELP) is a non-profit humanitarian relief organization that helps victims of natural and man-made disasters on a global basis. They target medical/health concerns in disasters and other areas of chronic medical need. HELP deploys “Doc-in-a-Box” mobile telemedicine clinics and a Web-based community of volunteer physicians and hospitals. These clinics enable local physicians to have modern state-of-the-art facilities and expertise “looking over their shoulder” providing the latest technology and insight to the remotest regions of our world. It’s safe to say the program has been an enormous success. The work being performed in the non-profit area is among the best you’ll see. You can find the other case studies on the SNCR New Communications Review site.

Awards were also given to some of the usual brands that have been long-time social media leaders, such as GM, Dell, Sun, Microsoft, Boeing and others like Midwest Airlines. In fact, I had a chance to spend some time with Tish Robinson who authors Midwest’s popular female-focused travel blog - Travels with Tish - Girlfriends Getaway Guide, which is based on the personal travel experiences of Tish and her friends. What a cool idea.

More on the actual conference sessions in the days ahead.

Mike Spataro

Great turn out for our Seattle Word of Marketing event this morning. Lots of folks from Microsoft, Pemco Insurance, Verdiem, Pacific Science Center, Wunderman, Waggener Edstrom, and ParkerLePla. Peter Waldheim kicked things off with the history of the WOMMA association and then myself, Peter, Malcolm Faulds from Bzzagent, Sean O’Driscoll from Microsoft, Britt Peterson from Cole & Weber, and Kelly Smith from Curious Office Partners presented and debated a variety thoughts, results (both bad and good) about why WOM is important, growing, and why companies and marketers should get engaged. The potential for growth in WOM as we enter 2008 and beyond is enormous.
Blake

Visible Technologies

It’s funny that when the Internet went commercial in the 90’s there really weren’t that many new PR positions created. Very few companies, for instance, created jobs like “Internet PR Manager.” In most cases, Web communication roles were absorbed by existing PR pros. That’s certainly not the case here and now in the social media age. Now we have everything from ‘conversation analyst’ to ‘new media guru’ to ‘chief blogger and podcaster.’

The online edition of the Chicago Tribune has an interesting article on this called “You Talk, They Hear on the Web.” It highlights some of the work performed by Edelman Public Relations, but rest assured there are many other PR shops with strong capabilities in this arena now, such as Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Group, Burson Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Shift Communications, and Topaz Partners to name just a few.

Mike Spataro

There’s been a lot of talk lately at cocktail parties, trade shows, industry conferences and other social networking events about whether or not we’ve entered the next Internet bubble. Like everyone else who lived through the last one, we all have our opinions. I don’t see the same hype now as then, but the fact that so many people keep raising the issue lends some validity to the discussion, which was also the subject of a feature story in Sunday’s Boston Globe (free for a few days).

Mike Spataro