Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’
Which Department Owns Social Media? — via Mashable
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Design, Interactive, Social Media, Technology
At Dana, this is a partnership between the media department and the interactive department. Of course, often times it falls heavier on one side or another. For instance, the interactive department handles all of the social profile development and the media department runs ad placement on those particular channels. Seldom do we partner with a PR firm. Not that we wouldn’t or shouldn’t. In fact, it makes perfect sense to. The responsibilities that social media create are often time based and those that have the time to handle do.
Christina Warren @ Mashable has written a great article about this.
“In its November 2009 report on Social Media and Online PR, Econsultancy found that of the companies surveyed, 35% of companies managed their social media resources under the digital marketing team. PR/communications departments managed 21% of respondents, with 19% saying that social media was managed by a cross-functional team.”
Digital Transformation and Social Media: Notes from Boulder Digital Works
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Design, Media, Social Media, Uncategorized
This is a really interesting presentation given by Ed Boches, at the Boulder Digital Works conference. The folks at DANA greatly appreciate his willingness to share with the digital community to further our collective understanding. Please scroll through the presentation and feel free to comment!
[slideshare id=3735846&doc=bdwfinalcopy-100415085609-phpapp01&type=d]
Social Media: The New Frontier
Posted by Tracy Stottler | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Media
“Five years ago, we thought of the Web as a new medium, not a new economy.” ~Clement Mok
I’ve been in advertising and marketing for over 20 years. In the early days, we outsourced typesetting and laid everything onto boards. We had wax machines in our studio to lay down the type. Email was just starting to be used and the commercial Internet we know today wasn’t even conceived of yet (thank you, Al Gore!).
We printed a whole lot of brochures back then. I remember in the mid-90s when we were working with clients on their marketing strategies, we started looking at adding a website to their communications plan. The response to that recommendation was consistently, “But how am I going to pay for THAT?”
Back then, having a company website was the new frontier. It was unfamiliar territory, but a necessity. No one really knew how to design an effective site or make it a revenue generating tool, but it was clear this would be a major addition to the marketing mix. We needed to take a fresh look at the budget and reallocate money from one category to make room for this new category. We had to print fewer brochures and ask for a little more funding at the same time.
As marketing experts, it is our job to support our clients needs, keep the door open to new developments, and deliver ideas on how to expand business and generate more revenue. One of the most recent and exciting opportunities is in the area of social marketing. But how does this fit into a company’s overall marketing strategy? How do you track its effectiveness and measure ROI? How do you pay for it?
I just read an online article from Business Week called “Debunking Six Social Media Myths”, by B.L. Ochman. It’s a valuable read on the subject when you’re ready to add social media to your marketing mix.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090218_335887.htm
It says, “For companies, resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.
Customers are itching to interact with brands and talk to people like them about their products/services. Companies must continually adapt, engage with customers and innovate to stay competitive.”
One of the issues addressed in the article is that “many of the tools that can be employed in social media marketing are free to use, however, integrating these tools into a corporate marketing program requires skill, time, and money.”
The article goes on to explain that “a budget for an effective social media marketing campaign begins at $50,000 for two to three months. Some companies have spent less and some have spent more … but building a site that incorporates interactivity, allows user-generated content, and perhaps also includes e-commerce doesn’t come cheap from anyone who knows what they are doing… It takes skill, experience, and money.”
Additional budget guidelines are given and although some of the costs quoted may sound a bit daunting, particularly in this economic climate, the point is to start somewhere. Find a way to begin incorporating social media into your plan at a level you can afford. Dana has identified some simple ways to ease into this new medium, enabling its clients to see what social media can do for them.
Measuring the value of social media is a bit trickier, but “you can use a variety of methods, including mentions on blogs and in media; comments on the content; real-time blog advertising results, and click-throughs to your company Web site. You can get very precise statistics from a variety of sites, including Google Trends, Twitter search, Google Analytics, BackType, and Compete.”
Think about websites 10-15 years ago. No one knew how they would make us any money and only seemed to cost us a lot. But over time, they became more cost-effective revenue generating tools that we now can’t live without. Social media is the new frontier. Even before recent months, when many resources have been cut, it’s an important reminder that we still need to make room for social media in any marketing strategy and understand what an investment in social media actually means.
As the newest medium available in your marketing arsenal, social media will demand a fresh look at your budget so you can reallocate money from one category to make room for this new category.
Parenting Disney Style
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Design, Interactive, Media, Uncategorized
First and foremost, I am NOT a parent. I am, however, an uncle to a seriously amped up niece. My brother and sister-in-law definitely have their hands full taking care of her and their newborn baby girl. When I came across an article written by Chris Crum about the newly launched (Wednesday 8/20/08) social networking site for parents I immediately thought of them.
For parents that work full-time and are trying to “do the right thing” having a network of other parents trying to do the same “right thing” can’t be a bad thing. This isn’t Myspace, Facebook, Hi5 or Swurl…its the Disney Family Network. Parents can find like minded parents with the same issues and try and iron them out together. I have given several presentations on the benefits of social media, social networking and the human machine we call the “internet” and I must say Disney has done it well. Niche social networks aren’t always the most effective, but I think that when you’re online at 2am trying to figure out why your having child issues and find another parent doing the same thing, you have struck social networking gold.
Check it out.
