Posted on Tue, Nov 03, 2009
Today’s Daily Bytes, albeit a bit tardy in posting, is about strategy. First off, a post by David Armano in the Harvard Business Review blog looks at the top 6 social meedia tends for 2010 that businesses should keep in mind with their planning. A post from looks at how social media confuses business and reminds us that social media is about the strategy and not the tactics. Finally, this post looks at the five megatrends that businesses can’t ignore going into 2010.
Six Social Media Trends for 2010
David Armano, a senior principal at the Dachis Group and a distinguished blogger, points out that 2009 year marked a year of expansive growth in social media. With this growth, social media has become far more ingrained in all of us professionally and personally. Against this backdrop, David points out six significant social media trends for 2010, including:
- social media begins to look less social. Comment: sad but true, the onslaught of Twitter lists will contribute to this.
- corporations look to scale. Comment: scale will be critical to encourage more social media adoption across leading organizations. This will also require more corporate training in social media.
- social businesses becomes serious play. Comment: the article looks at Foursquare as a precursor of this . . . I don’t disagree, but I certainly would like to find more folks over 40 like myself engaging with it!
- your corporation will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced). Comment: I would go beyond “might” and say that it “must” be enforced. It amazes me how many companies have not yet cued into this as an issue.
- mobile becomes a social media lifeline. Comment: I agree here but we need better Twitter apps for the iphone and blackberry like what is available to engage in social media.
- sharing no longer means e-mail. Comment: I agree, but e-mail is still what we all check for more often.
What do you think about these trends? Do you think there are other trends for you to consider as to how you integrate social media into your business strategy?
Social Media Confuses Businesses
In this post, My Creative Team Thinking blog points out that a recent study from Citibank/GfK points out that 75 % of small businesses don’t feel social media is working for them and according to Gartner, the Fortune 1000 companies will be experimenting with social media in 2010. The post points out that the success of these efforts have more to do with strategy than tactics.
5 marketing trends you can’t ignore
Adam Kleinberg, CEO of Traction wrote a post this week in iMedia about the five megatrends that businesses can’t ignore and provides real world examples of companies capitalzing on these trends. It is an inspirational piece; in the meantime, here are the five megatrends:
- Mass collaboration is powering the new economy and Apple is “the brand that gets it”
- Constant connectivity in an on-demand world and Sprint is “the brand that gets it”
- Globalization: Making the world a smaller place and Aliababa.com is “the brand that gets it”
- Pervasive distrust in big corporations and Ally Bank is “the brand that gets it”
- A global sense of urgency to fix the problems of a modern world and IBM is “the brand that gets it”
Posted on Wed, Oct 28, 2009
Today’s Daily Bytes looks at facts from Marketing Profs summary of its new Digital Marketing Factbook, stories from ClickZ on social media success stories that are thankfully not Comcast, Jet Blue or Dell and the issues companies and individuals face in social media from Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang.
Digital Marketing Factbook: A Glimpse Inside
We sometimes don’t realize how much our web usage can change in five years. This chart put together from a recent survey conducted by the Online Publishers Association and published in the Marketing Profs Factbook clearly illustrates the shift:
The post includes some other interesting data from The Factbook which collects data collected from marketers and consumers. The topics surveyed include which digital marketing tools are most effective, what consumer actions result from email marketing, what are the most important emal marketing initiatives in 2009, the value of different digital resources in influencing purchase decisions, and how firms are using social media for marketing purposes. The post is lengthy, rich with charts and obviously a promotion to get you to buy The Factbook for $ 199.
Social Media Is Tailor-Made for SMB’s
Dave Evans in ClickZ focuses on how SMB’s are leveraging their nimbleness and agility to succeed in social media. His three examples are companies that are far bigger than the average SMB, but great examples of how ingenuity, focus and an understanding of one’s consumer can be really helpful to building a business:
Benjamin Moore, the long-lived paints and coatings company owned by Berkshire Hathaway has developed an iPhone app – ColorCapture Ben - where if you see a color you like you can scan it in and match it to a Benjamin Moore paint color. This is so cool. I could have used this when I painted much of my house. I can’t tell you how many times I had issues going to the paint store as I didn’t have the paint swatch. I also did more investigating on this application online and found out that this application has already received awards and coverage in the New York Times.
Slingshot Sports, a leading producer of wakeboards, put together a program around the online wakeboard community and ProductPulse, a Facebook and MySpace product sharing and voting application. The result was getting product design ideas from the community as well as 350,000 views from enthusiasts on Facebook.
Skullcandy, a leading maker of cool headsets and earbutds, just enterest India and leveraged Twitter to secure a good market launch.
Your Company May Own Your Tweets, Pokes, and You Tube Videos
What if an employee opens up their Facebook account on your watch? What if they are creating and uploaind You Tube videos at work? Who owns the content? You or the employee. The entire playing field of social media is a hornet’s nest of issues. Jeremiah Owyang aptly points out many of the issues and the need for companies to establish firm policies in this realm. This is a great piece and a must read for business leaders.