ROI Isn't Always $imple by Erik Sass

Yesterday I wrote about the need for long-term ROI metrics in social media -- and today, coincidentally, I came across a report by Forrester pointing out that social media success can mean different things, and it doesn't always necessarily boil down to money money money (although that is obviously one of the important ones). Nor can it always be reduced to clicks, downloads, visits, or other purely functional metrics. ...Read the whole story

  • PopSugar Launches Social Shopping Game by Gavin O'Malley

    In an effort to more intimately connect female consumers with brands, online publisher Sugar Inc. on Tuesday is expected to launch a social shopping game named Retail Therapy. The game -- which debuts with a number of retail brands, including Banana Republic, Barneys New York, and Diane von Furstenberg -- encourages players to merchandise and design their own fashion boutiques, and dress their characters in popular styles and brands. ...Read the whole story

  • restaurants Reports: New Insights On Social Media's Impact by Karlene Lukovitz

    The correlations between early-tech adopters and heavy restaurant patronage can likely be attributed in large part to early adopters' higher-than-average affluence, which also enables them to eat out more frequently, says Technomic's Darren Tristano. More important, he points out, is the confirmation that these early adopters are likely to be among the first to broadcast their opinions. ...Read the whole story

  • conference Expert Notes Few Marketers Do Social Media Well by Karl Greenberg

    "The way you want to think about it is as a pond," says Geoff Ramsey of research firm eMarketer. "You throw stuff out there -- ads, for instance -- and what you are looking for is the ripple effect. It's the measurement of that where you see the real value of social media." ...Read the whole story

  • Facebook Rebuffed In Case Against Social Aggregator Power.com by Wendy Davis

    Handing Facebook a partial defeat, a federal judge rebuffed the company's argument that social networking aggregator Power.com acted unlawfully by enabling users to export their contacts and other data to other services in apparent violation of Facebook's terms of use. ...Read the whole story

  • Universal McCann Launches Rally for Social Media by Erik Sass

    One of the world's largest media agencies is investing in social media marketing in a big way with Universal McCann's launch of Rally, a new social media division at the disposal of all UM's clients. Called Rally@UM in a nod to modern parlance, the social media division is headed up by Heidi Browning, a former MySpace executive, and is intended to help clients integrate social media into their long-term marketing and communications strategies, in part by helping them tackle communications planning and creative optimization. ...Read the whole story

Are We Entering Social Advertising's Creative Golden Age? by Catharine P. Taylor

Quick. Name a memorable social media campaign -- besides Old Spice Man. Stumped? I'm not surprised. Because, as with so many other things in advertising, there aren't that many memorable social campaigns. But, getting back to Old Spice Man, that just-concluded phenomenon is an example of the fact that social advertising creative is getting better, a lot better, and that it has the ability to be far more memorable than much creative that has gone before. Why? Because the best of it engages not only you but your friends, especially when it mixes content deftly with the social graph. ...More

  • Xumanii Brings Live Concerts Big And Small To The Social Net by Steve Smith

    Video creation and distribution site Xumanii launched earlier this week, promising to bring together live media production, marketing, social networking and monetization in a single package for all level of brands. The new project is claiming to combine the attributes of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Ustream. Xumanii (they say it is pronounced "zoo-mon-ee") sees this as a play for both personal branding and entertainment. Live concerts, fashion shows, plays, as well as video blogs can be posted for live and on demand streaming. Clearly they have their eyes set on attracting bigger brands, however. ...More

  • Social Media Fundamentally Changing Corporate Worldview by Kaila Colbin

    I had the good fortune today of having a conversation with the visionary John Marshall Roberts, whose focus is on igniting inspiration and overcoming cynicism. By understanding the lens through which people see the world, Roberts suggests, we can better appreciate each other, communicate with each other, and connect with each other. ...More