The premise of his argument is that social media is not a vertical channel – that social media is “a horizontal set of technologies that enable sharing across individuals and brands.” As he deftly describes, social media “can and should be incorporated across virtually all marketing activities.”

I completely agree with his assessment and thesis. However, I would go farther and say that social media should be integrated across more business functions than just marketing.

Social media is critical for customer service. Social media is fundamental for research and development. Social media is a powerful HR platform.

While most companies have understandably first ventured into social media focused on marketing, to think that social media should be “owned” by marketing departments, and their agencies, is simply underestimating and misunderstanding the fundamentals of this technology.

If you haven’t heard, Twitter announced on Monday 4/12 that they will be rolling out their first paid advertising platform to begin monetizing their mammoth micromedia platform. The service is being called “Promoted Tweets”, and will initially be launched as promotional tweets that show up on Twitter.com search results. It’s the first step in a multi-stage roll-out, so there is definitely more to come, including the possibility of “Promoted Tweets” becoming a free tweet, as described by the NYTimes.com.

This is an exciting development to say the least. But don’t think that “Promoted Tweets” or whatever it evolves into will be the next Google AdWords. In fact, according to Augie Ray of Forrester, there are many risks associated with inapproriate use of paid Twitter ads, including public backlash against perceived “bully pulpit” tactics by brands.

Augie summarizes what this all means for the commercial use of Twitter by astutely noting that “this may be paid media, but it is a few drops of paid media in a sea of earned media.”

We hope that our new look and layout will make the site easier to navigate, search, and comment on (and we definitely encourage your comments and feedback!)

Stay tuned as we begin rolling out new blog posts on the ever changing world of digital marketing and it’s intersection with traditional advertising.

Regards,

Jose Villa

The campaign, sponsored by L.A. County Department of Public Health, was almost a year in the making, and forced our agency to rethink everything we thought we knew about advertising and cause marketing.

I just published an article for MediaPost’s EngageTeens column on the approach that led to the creation of We’re Fed Up… you can read it here.

Jose Villa

While the ability to make a Facebook page is incredibly simple, knowing how to engage your audience takes a little more savvy.  Here’s a list that details how five of the best Facebook fan pages have accomplished that feat.

Key Takeaways: In addition to providing a forum around which your brand advocates can develop a community, some key elements of a successful Facebook fan page include:

• Content that is targeted to both the audience and the channel.  Facebook is a place for more informal communications.
• Provide a steady stream of content.  Give something for your fans to talk about.
• Encourage and reward your fan’s enthusiasm.

Display Campaigns Boost Search Effectiveness

The Sensis Take: The findings from a recent iCrossing white paper offers strong anecdotal evidence in support of coordinating the efforts between your search and display strategies.  This reaffirms our assertion that no campaign lives in a vacuum.   Integrating your marketing efforts across channels can have significant compounding effect, particularly with digital.

Key Takeaways:

• 27% of people exposed to the display ad searched for the product, brand or company using a search engine.
• 21% of people exposed to the display ad typed the Web address directly into their browser and navigated to the advertiser’s site.
• 9% of people exposed to the display ad investigated the product, brand or company through social media or message boards.

“Running a display campaign causes a statistically significant increase in search traffic, specifically search visits, unique visits and SEM click-throughs,”

Tuesday Super For Facebook Brand Pages

New data from ViTrue suggests that click-through rates for content posted on Facebook fan walls are incredibly high when compared to other forms of digital marketing communications.   These rates are significantly higher Monday-Wednesday, with a peak click-through rate of 9.89% on Tuesday and a low of 2.67% on Friday.

The Sensis Take: We’ve seen a number of studies suggesting that Tuesday is also the peak day for Social Media content consumption.  This data certainly confirms our experiences at Sensis, where the traffic of our thought leadership contributions to the social web receives the most traffic on Tuesdays.

We’ll continue to track these trends as we look for more sophisticated messaging strategies that account for variables as macro as demographic distribution and as granular as time of day.

Basic Twitter Advice to Companies: Shorten Your Tweets

The Sensis Take: Time and time again, we see Twitter posts that are interesting, but can only be retweeted by major editing from the retweeter, or without attribution.  Both of these barriers to retweeting offer significant barriers to the viral spread of your communications.

You’ll also see a significant reduction in click-through rates if the retweets fail to offer a sufficient description of the content (i.e. “Check this out: http://bit.ly/TXge0”).  Incidentally, that link goes to an interesting article by Sensis CEO Jose Villa on the engagement model of digital marketing.

Key Takeaway: Make the maximum length of your tweet 130 characters minus your username.

-Blair Goldberg, Associate Digital Strategist

So being the geek that I am, I decided to post the following tweet from my Blackberry:

“Enjoying amazing breakfast and coffee at the Seaside Cafe & Bakery in Pismo Beach, CA”

Approximately 2 hours later, I was followed on Twitter by a vacation rental company called Addie Townhomes in Pismo Beach.

The folks over at Addie Townhomes have not only started using Twitter as an extension of to their outbound marketing (they currently tweet information on upcoming rental deals, special events, and goings on in Pismo Beach), but they are also actively searching Twitter to seek if anyone mentions anything related to their business, in my case, “Pismo Beach.”

Well, I really enjoyed my time in Pismo Beach (and breakfast at Seaside), and I am very likely to go back. I will be following Addie Townhomes on Twitter and will definitely check them out as a potential lodging option.

Needless to say, they converted a potential customer and it didn’t cost them a thing. That’s smart use of social media!

- Jose Villa

Basically, the folks at Buy.com took the scavenger hunt concept and took it to social media, including Facebook and Twitter as points of entry into the promotion.

To take part, you are asked to follow Buy.com’s Twitter feed where they will intermittently post questions. The answers to these questions can be found on different pages on the Internet. Once a participant identifies the answer to the question, they must post their answer on Buy.com’s Facebook wall.

Very clever use of social media. Not only is this a cost-effective way to launch a promotion (that is very organic to online retail), but Buy.com is building it’s social media communities. As of the posting of this blog, they had 11,409 followers on their Twitter account and 5,432 fans on their Facebook group.

Buy.com definitely “gets” social media.

Jose Villa

The question arises, is this a sign of a trend away from online advertising to other media or is it just the result of the overall ad spend pie decreasing so much that online was unable to escape it’s effects?

I say the latter.

More than anything, it was the result of one of the most irrational pull-backs in media ad spend in advertising history, more a result of an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and anxiety than a concern about the ROI of digital advertising. 

Check out this LA Times piece discussing the news and my quotes on the news.

Aretta Frazier, Media Coordinator

However there is change is in the air. Because for advertisers targeting Women, as well as Women looking for a healthy all-topics community, blogs like BlogHer.com and GeekSugar.com are on the rise. For Example A study conducted by BlogHer and Compass Partners this year found that 36 million women participate in the blogosphere each week, and 15 million of them have their own blogs. (BlogHer, which was founded by Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins, has itself grown into a mini empire that includes a Web site that helps publicize women’s blogs, and an advertising network to help women generate revenue for the site.) Not to mention as a 24 year old female I love reading these blogs too.  My point is, there is a healthy community of advertisers looking for new ways to speak to women,  and women that want to read and exchange opinions on every topic from a-z. So take a look at blogs like GeekSugar, and as a Woman be inspired to start a blog of your own. Use your voice. There are Women and advertisers alike just waiting to hear it.