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On June 11th, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament will kick-off in South Africa and captivate a world audience for 31 days. In honor of the event, Nike created a commercial directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (who is best known for directing “Babel” and “21 Grams”). The commercial which clocks in at over three minutes and features a “whose who” of international soccer stars (Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Franck Ribery, Fabio Cannavaro, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Thiago Silva, Ronaldinho and Theo Walcott) and guest appearances by tennis sensation, Roger Federer, basketball superstar, Kobe Bryant and even Homer Simpson Read More

On May 25th, I participated in the Social Media Plus Summit at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The event included a series of lectures geared towards different business audiences (i.e. Sales, Marketing, Executive, Human Resources, etc) and exhibitors showcasing their products/services. A scan of the crowd showed a diverse audience made up of several hundred individuals hoping to learn more about social media. Below is a summary of the sessions that I attended and the lessons learned Read More

It is one of the biggest questions you will hear in any open forum on Social Media: Which department owns social media? It is a main topic that I will be covering at a panel discussion with the PRSA on June 8th in New York. But I wanted to outline my thoughts here and summarize some of the key sides of the debate.

While attending the SocialMediaPlus conference in Philadelphia on May 25th, I listened to the famous Frank Eliason from @ComcastCares. In his purely interactive session, Frank received this question: Do you see social media creating a convergence of marketing, PR, and customer service? Frank answered that he did not believe these areas would “converge”. Read More

In April, a Cinco de Mayo-inspired Facebook promotion drove 8,000 new fans and 370,000 active interactions for El Monterey, a frozen Mexican food brand based in Dinuba, Calif. The “Save on Cinco” campaign asked Facebook fans to share their family savings tips within a branded, game-like Facebook app. Other fans interacted with savings tips (by rating, commenting and sharing) to earn points redeemable for BOGOs, branded merchandise and other prizes. All interactions took place within Bulbstorm’s Idea Challenges application for Facebook promotions Read More

A colleague of mine, Michael Brenner, has stated numerous times that the role of marketing is to help our companies gain and keep customers. This is a unifying principle for both marketing and sales teams and should act as the foundation for your campaigns. The question becomes, how do you achieve this? In most marketing organizations, the single most important way to keep customers is to build satisfaction and loyalty, while the best way to gain new customers is through positive referrals from your existing customers. Read More

For the launch of SAP Crystal Solutions, SAP has created a new Facebook App that analyzes your friend network. The analysis is presented in an easy to read dashboard that helps answer the questions “How valuable are your Facebook friends?” and possibly more importantly “Is your network more valuable than your friend’s network? Read More

Recently a colleague forwarded me a recording of a social media webcast featuring Guy Kawasaki titled “Exploring the Power of Going Social” that was originally hosted by WebEx on May 12th, 2010. For those that are not already familiar with Guy Kawasaki, he is the founding partner of Garage Technology Ventures, co-founder of Alltop, an accomplished author and a former Apple Fellow. Whatever you do, do not call him a social media expert – he does not believe these individuals exist – rather he is someone that is successfully using social media to achieve results Read More

Today is “Quit Facebook Day” where users around the world plan to delete their Facebook accounts in protest over recent privacy concerns. Currently there are roughly 29,000 individuals who have pledged to delete their Facebook profiles by the end of the day – making up only a small fraction of the over 500 million users Read More

The buzz around social media has created an atmosphere where marketers have an unquenched thirst for knowledge and tips surrounding incorporating social media into their campaigns or improving their existing social media campaigns. With summer nearly upon us, below is a list of social media books that you should add to your summer reading list. These books are listed in no particular order and have been written by some of the most well-known social media experts today. Read More

Social media is quickly becoming an integral part in the marketing mix for consumer brands. Marketers are using social media tools to monitor the conversations surrounding their brand, industry and competitors while also engaging in the community to build strong relationships. According to a recent report from Forrester Research, social media marketing spend is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 34%. Despite this, a recent study shows that most marketers are new to social media and others are still on the sidelines as they believe the landscape is still too risky and unproven. However, waiting too long to embrace social media may harm your marketing efforts in the future. Below are 3 reasons why every B2C marketer should use social media Read More