How many social marketing vendors does a brand need? Sitting on a panel at the Social Media Summit on using paid, owned and earned media. Erin Hoskins, senior, audience development/new media marketing & services, Meredith, said the company is already “rooted in data,” with 800 data points collected about each of its users. So it already uses a lot of tech vendors. She noted the publishing giant has added in social data to its analytics tracking in recent months in order to tied that information back to revenue. That means being able to turn a combination of paid and earned …

While introducing JWT Director of Trendspotting Ann Mack, Social Media Insider Summit emcee Cathy Taylor asked who in the audience has used Vine -- the new 6-second video posting app. Most had. But when she asked who has produced a 6-second commercial, only one attendee said so. Incredulously, Taylor asked, "You've produced a commercial?" The attendee said, yes, "but it was for myself." (Pause) "Isn't that what Twitter is about?" Twitter narcissism aside, the notion of 6-second Vine commercials reminds me of the old Cinemax TV series "Max Headroom" -- remember that? Remember the "blipvert" commercials that ran, well, about …

Opening Social Media Insider Summit panel moderator Drew Neisser is CEO and founder of Renegade, but he's running this panel like a gameshow host. And he's not half bad at it. While introducing a question on "what's new on Facebook," Neisser described it as, "The coolest thing since the like button replaced genuine conversation." The panelists weren't quite as funny, but has some constructive suggestions. Later, when Neisser asked if the panelists would invest their kids' college funds in Facebook stock, and all four of them said, more or less, yes. Bank of America's Chris Smith noted that with "1 …

Twitter Head of Global Product Marketing Guy Yalif showed some fascinating applications of Twitter data, including how consumer sentiment can be tracked by Bluefin to determine which TV shows perform best. Recalling a New York Times story from a year or so ago reporting on data indicating that Twitter has a biorhythm to it -- that people begin their day upbeat and optimistic, but end it downtrodden and pessimistic -- so I asked Yalif if Twitter was beginning to utilize any of that data to help brands target consumers. "We don't, but it is something we love third-parties to do," …

During his introductory remarks at the Social Media Insider Summit, MediaPost chief Ken Fadner corrected what he said was an erroneous fact about some of the famous people who reside on Captiva Island, the summit's venue. Fadner said that he had mistakenly said that Microsoft Founder Bill Gates has a house here. But Fadner said he later found out that information was wrong, and confessed that he learned about it from a busboy at a nearby restaurant. Fadner said that while that fact may be incorrect, it is now part of the social graph, because, as he said, if you …

Before taking the stage to deliver his opening keynote at the Social Media Insider Summit Guy Yalif, head of global product marketing at Twitter, chatted with me about some surprising and unintended uses for Twitter. Among them, he said, is that people are beginning to use it as an early warning system for natural disasters, especially earthquakes. I told him that I heard that when the earthquake ran up the East Coast a couple of years ago, there was a Twitter tweet trail that corresponded to it. Yalif went me one better, telling me that one of his Twitter feeds …

While showing examples of paid, owned and earned social media content, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Ragovin started with one that demonstrated you don't necessarily have to pay or own to generate lucrative business results. And he demonstrated it in a very personal way. Ragovin showed an "earned" social media post touting jet maker Boeing's store, which was offering limited edition replicas of Boeing jet windows. "I bought three," Ragovin noted, adding, "That's a $1,500 conversion for nothing." The anecdote taught me two things. One, earned media can be very effective. Two, Salesforce Marketing Cloud execs are paid …

Day One of the Social Media Insider Summit got off to a not-so-insidery start this morning, with a sponsored breakfast presentation by Jeff Ragovin, Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud (formerly Buddy Media). It's not because Ragovin isn't an insider. He is -- he was like employee No. 3 at Buddy, SMIS conference chair Cathy Taylor just confided in me. It's because Ragovin is kicking things off with some pretty basic primer stuff -- not exactly insider fair. "People still don't know the difference between paid, owned and earned," Ragovin asserted, scanning the meeting room at the South Seas Island …