When we read about the importance of listening, monitoring and being active in social media, it is typically in reference to B2C companies. Social media is almost seen as “sexy” and a “must-have strategy” for B2C success, yet we tend to hear less about how important real-time listening and social media monitoring is for B2B companies. Typically, B2B marketers are not looking for the “sexy” solution; they want practical ways to measure their brand, their campaigns, and their place in the market, and they want to use that intelligence to make impactful business decisions. What’s more, many B2B companies don’t think that they have enough brand mentions to warrant monitoring online conversations. But B2B companies, like their B2C counterparts, can benefit tremendously from listening to conversations in the social sphere. 

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As the month of November comes to close we bid a fond “adieu” to all the wild moustaches that show themselves but once a year. That’s right, by the time this post is up MOvember will officially be over (but I’m sure you can still donate). For those not in the know, all the creepy moustaches you’ve seen over the past month have been part of a worldwide charity effort to raise money for prostate cancer research, while having a little fun.  Well, we started off the month with a MOvember blog post, so I thought it only fair to close it the same way.

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There’s little question that for many companies, Twitter is good for business.  With more than 300 million user accounts and about 13% of online adults in the U.S. using Twitter there is increasing potential for companies to build relationships with customers, increase brand awareness and drive revenue.  Twitter has become a hotspot for social media-savvy brands, and the best-of-the-best use creativity and a customer-centric focus to engage their audiences and cultivate true brand ambassadors.  But for a brand to truly succeed on Twitter, they must look beyond the number of followers and retweets, and instead focus on the level of engagement they have with the stakeholders who can – and do – impact their bottom line.  Take a look at ten brands that are doing it right.

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A great team is one with incredible personality, strong spirit and an obvious sense of camaraderie.   Meet the Sysomos team;  the folks who create, support, sell, market and manage the industry’s best social media monitoring tools.  But don’t just take our word for it – watch the video and discover how intelligence, agility and good old-fashioned street-smarts can conquer almost anything.  And, like our team in Chicago, it’s proof positive that when your company is supported by great employees, it shows.

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If you wonder how much impact social media has on sports, consider two of the most tweeted events in recent history:  Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup (3,200+ tweets per second), and this year’s Super Bowl (4,000+ tweets per second).   In the last few years, professional sports teams from around the world have tapped social media as a new way to connect with fans, allowing them to share the same enthusiasm and team spirit on Facebook that they do courtside.  But what teams are hitting it out of the park when it comes to their social media presence?  Take a look at ten teams who are doing it right.

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Halloween may be over, but the time to change your appearance is about to begin again. November has arrived and to many, this month has taken on the new name of MOvember. MOvember has become a worldwide phenomenon where men donate their faces to grow moustaches in the name of raising money for prostate cancer research. The movement has grown larger and larger every year since its inception and this year will be no different.

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Perhaps more often than anything else, I am asked about press releases and their continued role and relevancy as communications vehicles. “Has social media made traditional media irrelevant?”  “Can the process of distributing a press release simply be replaced with a tweet?”  “Have companies abandoned releases as a means to share their news with stakeholders?”  My answer to all of these questions is quite simply, “No.” 

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We’ve all heard the mantra “content is king” – a quote originating from an article Bill Gates wrote in 1996 in which he stressed that content sites, not ecommerce sites, would generate the bulk of income in the years ahead. In fact, content has become as essential to a company’s success as its products and service. But now, content – text, images, video/flash, audio – can simply overwhelm. “Everyone” is publishing content and it is “everywhere,” ranging from blog posts to white papers to videos posted on YouTube. With all this noise, the content we post on our websites may not be attracting our target audiences and achieving expected results. So how do we open the door to greater content-publishing and audience-engagement success? Like anything else, the devil’s in the details.

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Most marketers know that social media must be part of their business strategy.  Unfortunately, they also know that convincing executive teams and getting company-wide buy-in of a social media strategy (and one with an actual budget) is no easy feat.  More and more marketers, however, are finding success by building a case for social media within their organization by putting concrete action plans and real metrics in front of their C-suites, and attributing true ROI to their efforts.  These are the marketing champions who have proven that they can use social media to connect with customers and truly impact their business, brand, and bottom line.  Want to become a champion?  Join us for “Impacting Business with Social Media,” a free webinar hosted by Brian Solis.

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It was one year ago last Thursday, July 28, 2011 that the #smmeasure Twitter chat, which focuses on social media measurement and analytics, was born.  The combined efforts (and expertise) of Marketwire and Sysomos allowed us to start a chat to discuss one of the biggest concerns for social media professionals: How to measure the success of social media.  (more…)

When Barack Obama campaigned and won the US presidential election in 2008, one of the driving and deciding factors in his road to the White House was his use of social media. Obama’s campaign is one that has gone down in history for its innovation. He still had to uphold American campaigning traditions – kissing babies, shaking hands, attending rallies, holding fundraising dinners. But he also used social media and web-based technologies to reach a younger, “wired” generation – a strategic approach that John McCain, his Republican opponent, failed to take full advantage of. (more…)

What do an iconic American consumer brand, a Swiss digital communications agency and the 2011 Canadian federal election all have in common?  Each tells its own success story with social media.  Specifically, each is a case study about using the intelligence and insight gleaned from social media monitoring for brand and reputation management, crisis communications and message control, and cross-channel promotion. (more…)

Over the past few years, working in the UK social media industry, I have attended many conferences and events. Content has varied widely with debatable levels of useful takeaways.  Brands like to share their ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ lists based on their experience with delegates desperately trying to find ideas that will work in their own companies. (more…)

#smmeasure Twitter chat recap

Although our weekly Twitter chats (#smmeasure) have been going strong for nearly a year, we took a brief hiatus from posting recaps, but we’re bringing them back! Moving forward, we will hand-pick the chats that provide the most significant insights and comments and share them with you on the Marketwire blog.

In one of our recent chats, we based our questions off a HubSpot webinar that brought some of the most burning social media measurement questions to light. (more…)

Nobody ever said communications was easy.  Building great content, finding the right audiences to share it with, and having your messages resonate in a way that makes those audiences take notice and take action involves more than just luck and some clever copy.  Today, successful communications is about conversation and engagement with your customers and key stakeholders, and it’s about building strong relationships with those who can impact your brand and your business.  (more…)

This year, despite the many weddings I’m a bridesmaid for, I couldn’t help but think about the upcoming royal nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The event, and everything leading up to it, has caused an international media frenzy, similar to the last royal wedding in 1981 when William’s parents (Charles and Diana) were wed. Back then, the public relied solely on traditional media: TV, radio, newspapers. Now, with the Internet, social media and smartphones, things have ramped up several notches. Audiences are much more engaged; the media is faster and more pervasive; and, companies are more aggressive, clever and informed to market to a captive audience. (more…)

A couple of weeks ago at SXSWi, one of the more interesting sessions I attended was called “Social Capital: The Billion Dollar Future.” Social capital refers to a person’s or brand’s collective online presence and what it means to the people around them. The session was paneled by Bill Parkes (nFusion), Michael Spataro (Visible Technologies), Zach Hofer-Shall (Forrester Research) and Richard Margetic (Dell). (more…)

PR News recently hosted the PR Measurement Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and welcomed more than 250 PR, marketing and communication professionals for a day of strategizing, learning, and networking.  With speakers such as Katie Paine (@kdpaine) and Tim Marklein (@tmarklein), the attendees were in for a treat and a vast wealth of knowledge on exactly what it means to have “influence.” (more…)

Nobody said social media monitoring was easy.  There are billions of conversations taking place across blogs, social networks and news sites – all in real time.  Little wonder that the thought of diving deep into those discussions in an attempt to analyze what’s being said, spot trends and identify the most influential voices and opinions is often overwhelming.  For those who have already taken the plunge, it can be all too easy to find yourself neck-deep in unfamiliar waters:  You’ve extracted a wealth of information and statistics from a host of monitoring and trending tools, yet trying to piece it together in search of “the big picture” is difficult at best.  (more…)

The conventional online corporate newsroom is set for some major changes in the next 12 months. Posting press releases solely for your audience’s consumption is a thing of the past, and won’t be enough to compete in this era of content generation and knowledge sharing. The advent of social media has introduced active audience participation via Twitter, Facebook fan page links, sentiment analysis and a raft of other capabilities, and has transformed the newsroom from a passive information source to one that solicits active participation and immediate feedback. We could call this a “Web 2.0 newsroom.” (more…)