Social

• Social

  AT&T’s Social Exec Talks About Focusing its Facebook Presence

  Social media has led to a lot of great creativity and innovation in digital communications and marketing. It truly enables the whole concept of word-of-mouth marketing by giving users easy tools to share with their network, for ideas to spread beyond our own social circles, and for new ways to connect with brands and products we love. With all that promise it is important, as companies, for us to provide the most effective way to stay fresh with news and information to keep fans, followers, subscribers, and most importantly, customers efficiently informed.

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  Facebook Advertising Offers Real, Measurable Results

  Facebook is commanding an ever-increasing piece of advertising budget pies, thanks to the measurable results it provides marketers in terms of new fans and website conversions. While Facebook’s auction-based bid and cost-per-click pricing structures are similar to Google’s, they are much more valuable to marketers for a few key reasons—namely, the interest-based targeting, immediate gratification opportunities and the potential for viral activity they offer. Here’s how each of these serve marketers:

• Social

  Social Marketing a Growing Part of the Media Mix in 2011: Survey

  Asked how they’ll approach Web video this year, three-quarters of marketers said they will increase their use

• Social

  National Guard Facebook App Lets Users Make Their Own Music Video

  If a picture’s worth a thousand words, the Army National Guard is hoping that a music video is worth a whole recruitment speech—especially if it’s directed by individual users

• Social

  Kenmore Looks to Get Moms Talking with Blogger Campaign

  Everyone knows the Kenmore appliance brand. And that’s both an asset and an obstacle for the appliance brand, which is retailed in Sears and Kmart stores and Web sites

• Social

  Items of Note from Around the Web

  FACEBOOK KETCHUP, NOT CATCH-UP Condiment superpower Heinz planned to launch a new tomato ketchup flavor in the U.K., balsamic vinegar. Rather than hand

• Social

  What You Need to Know to Create an Online Content Calendar

  So you’ve listened carefully online to what customers and others are saying about your brand. You’ve determined where they are congregating and what they are talking about. You’ve developed a social game plan and where it will get to work— Twitter, Facebook, blogs, microsites, YouTube—all of the above. Now it’s time to create an actionable, results oriented promotional content calendar by following these straightforward steps.

• Social

  Gap Rolls Out One-Day ‘Name Your Price’ Offer Online

  Casual apparel retailer has taken another step to re-engage customers, this time with an innovative adaptation of Web couponing that lets online shoppers negotiate for the price they’re willing to pay

• Social

  Aunt Jemima Employees Star in Viral Video: Q&A

  A contest at a plant in Jackson, TN, that makes Aunt Jemima frozen waffles, pancakes and French toast, led to three employees starring in a video filmed at the plant and documenting how the products are made. The first video in the series of three was posted Feb. 17 on Facebook and had 33,000 views within 24 hours. Viewers could also download a $1 coupon. Andy Reichgut, a vice president of marketing for Pinnacle Foods, which manufacturer’s Aunt Jemima products, gives us the scoop on the program.

• Social

  Facebook Tips: Get the Right Message to the Right Audience

  Watershed moments can come in unusual places. In 2007, Clara Shih had one in a tiny noodle shop located on a nondescript Hong Kong side street when she overheard two old men talking about Facebook.

  “It seemed like the wrong place, the wrong language, and the wrong demographic,” Shih, founder and CEO of Hearsay Corp., told an audience at a Direct Marketing Club luncheon. But as she listened she understood their interest in what was then a nascent social network which boasted barely 20 million members.

  Facebook has grown a touch during the intervening four years, with current users topping a half-billion people. Its importance to marketers has similarly expanded: Shih cites a survey in which 72.5% of U.S. companies consider social media a top marketing priority.