• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 14, 2012

Mindshare is adding firepower to its social media practice both in North America and at the global level.

The WPP media agency has appointed Mark Evans to the new post of North American social media lead, based in New York. He reports to David Lang, president of Mindshare Entertainment. Evans will report to North American CEO Antony Young.

Separately, Mindshare has absorbed sibling shop Socialmedia8 and named SM8 founder Igor Beuker as Mindshare’s first global chief social officer.

WPP acquired SM8 in 2008. Mindshare and SM8 have worked together on various projects since 2009 through a joint venture. Beuker will report to Norm Johnston, global digital leader at Mindshare Worldwide.

Commenting on the moves, Nick Emery, Mindshare’s global CEO, said: “There is a lot of talk in this space and few experts. And even fewer who can translate what they do into integrated business plans for progressive clients.”

Both Beuker and Evans will work with clients to optimize their social-media strategies.

“A lot of clients come in with objectives that they are not executing to meet,” Evans said. Some clients may need to reset objectives or adjust plans for meeting those objectives,” he added. “It’s a space that can be pretty daunting to many clients,” he said.

Previously, Evans was a managing director at social media shop M80. Like Mindshare, it is a unit of GroupM. He oversaw the agency’s New York office.

Before setting up SM8, Beuker founded community agency LaComunidad and social video metrics firm ViralTracker.