During a panel discussion I made the point that social media transcends marketing for most organizations, and is (or will be) an integral part of most organizations’ operations and core business strategy. I gave the example of the Federal government, where I am seeing management consulting firms like Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) taking the lead, not marketing or advertising firms. In fact, I would argue that consulting firms like BAH are in the best position to address social media and how to best harness it.

The weakness consulting firms have is that they do not have “in the trenches” experience developing and managing earned media programs – which is at the heart of any effect social media program.

PR and traditional agencies lack the technical chops to really handle the “implementation” and technical production (think social apps, etc.) side of social media. At least traditional ad agencies understand and are capable of developing the big ideas that should be the foundation of any great social media program.

The knock on digital agencies is that they get too caught up on the technology and production side, and can’t see the forest for the trees…

Bottom line is that no one can effectively lay claim to social media, except maybe savvy companies like BestBuy and jetBlue that are doing just fine without a lot of outside consultants…

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.”

In the mean time, the godfather of social CRM is Paul Greenberg.  To get yourself up to speed on the basics, you should read his two posts on his CRM Forecast 2010.  The posts are here at Part I and Part II.

Another cool thing about Wharton BizTech, was that I got to meet MC Hammer, who was the morning keynote speaker.  He is surprisingly sharp when it comes to speaking about social media and the future of marketing, and has a pretty amazing fanbase on Twitter.  Follow him at @MCHammer.

On the other hand, I think about the incredible complexity of the digital strategy world and the trend towards specialization and wonder if merging the Planner and Digital Strategist is feasible? For instance, with the rise of unique digital areas of specialty / expertise such as information architecture, user experience planning, analytics and social media, the role of digital strategist appears to to be too much of a simplification and generalist position out of sync with the rapid changes in digital communications?

What do you think?

Check it out here: http://www.thinkmulticultural.com/2009/11/05/twitter-land-grab/

David interviewed agency principal Jim Copacino, and one of his quotes was brilliant:

“The Burger King ‘Subservient Chicken’ phenomenon opened my eyes to the possibility and power of interactive digital communications. For me, it snapped everything into focus—technology, community, experience, engagement. The fact that it was a brilliant digital interpretation of the 30-year-old ‘Have It Your Way’ positioning vividly illustrated the difference between 20^th and 21^st century communications.”

As an agency that is always working with offline, traditional “lead” agencies that usually drive the positioning for our clients’ brands, we have consistently struggled to get those partners to understand how to interpret the brand positioning digitally – how to interpret and express the brand positioning leveraging technology, community, and experience with the goal of achieving that elusive goal of engagement.

Jim Copacino has simply and elegantly articulated the challenge and opportunity of digital communications, something that is organic to digital agencies, but unfortunately still very foreign to most traditional agencies.

The “difference between 20^th and 21^st century communications” – sage!

Jose Villa

(this is part of 2 of a 3-part article on using Web 2.0 strategies in Health care. Click here for Part 1)

Join the current dialogue

Social media trends make Web 2.0 strategies attractive marketing options for health care organizations. Your target audience is already out there communicating with one another, so go ahead and join the conversation by listening to what your audience is saying and contributing to the discussion.

There are already a number of patient social networks –general communities like HealthCentral and MedHelp and disease-focused sites like PatientsLikeMe and DiabetesMine. Watch as former patients talk about the service they received from your organization. Thank people who sing your praises and learn from those who make negative comments about the service they received from your employees.

In addition to these health care-specific outlets, the mainstream social media sites are also engaged in important conversations your organization needs to be aware of. For those just starting out in the social media world, take time to learn about Facebook, Twitter, Technorati (blogs) YouTube and Flickr. These are “common” outlets that can quickly help you see what conversations are going on. For example, for Twitter, you can go to http://search.twitter.com/ and type in your organization’s name. This will search through all the Twitter conversations and pull up any mentions of your company.

Start your own community

While there are numerous conversations already going on, sometimes the best way to reach your target audience is to create your own avenue for dialogue. We helped one of our clients, White Memorial Medical Center, create an “I was born at White Memorial” Facebook group. To maintain the authenticity of the discussion occurring on the Facebook page, White Memorial has recruited actual patients born at the hospital to serve as the group’s administrators and be the face of the social media campaign.

White Memorial didn’t want their audience to see this as just another marketing gimmick. At the core of the campaign is an opportunity for White Memorial patients to talk to each other. By helping them see what they have in common – having been born at White Memorial –hopefully that will help forge friendships with one another and a lifelong relationship with the hospital.

The Facebook group has been introduced to the general public through organic and viral marketing, again with the ultimate goal of people viewing this as an authentic and natural place to converse. As the group further develops, it will likely also be connected to White Memorial’s marketing and fundraising efforts.

Check-in next week for Part 3 of this series.

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

Static Web sites are no longer enough to build lasting relationships with your customer base. Web 2.0 and the growth of social media have created valuable tools for health care organizations to successfully reach their target audience in meaningful ways that can help create lifelong brand ambassadors and loyal customer relationships.

But instead of just jumping onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon, it is important for health care organizations to take a step back and determine how they can strategically use social media as part of their overall communications plan.

The social network consumer

It is a common misconception that social networks are filled only with teenagers and college students. While these populations still comprise a key demographic of social network users, they are by far not the only ones. Earlier this year Facebook stated that women 55 years old and older are its fastest growing demographic. In fact, the 26 to 44 year old age group now accounts for 41 percent of Facebook’s audience. The percent of adult Internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s December 2008 survey.

Twitter, the latest Web 2.0 craze, has infected pop culture with celebrity users like Oprah and Shaquille O’Neal and has become part of politics with its user list including President Barack Obama and numerous members of the U.S. Congress. In the United States alone, according to comScore, Twitter recorded more than 4 million users in February, up more than 1,000 percent from a year ago. This includes a number of businesses utilizing this popular medium to reach their target audiences. One of the interesting things about Twitter is that the 45 to 54-year-old crowd is actually the one driving the increased interest in this outlet, as opposed to 18 to 24 year olds who traditionally were the social media early adopters.

These strong trends continue with the multicultural population as well. More than 40 percent of U.S. Hispanics who go online at least once a month maintain social network profiles, according to Ipsos. In addition, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that 43 percent of online U.S. African Americans have a profile on a social network Web site – 12 percent higher than whites / non-Hispanics.

Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or through your own social network, there are multiple ways to reach out and communicate with your target audience. The challenge for any health care organization is figuring out where to start. The first inclination is to jump into anything and everything that is available, but it’s important to find the mediums that work best for each organization and what they are trying to accomplish.

Check-in next week for Part 2 of this series.

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