INGAGED | Marketing Engagement Insights » finance

Future of Social Biz?

Brad Parry — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:16:04 +0000

The Future of Social Business, or just unfocused?

It was announced today, http://selnd.com/qcySJG – that Walmart, bought One Riot, those with the “Killer Social Targeting Engine” (their words not mine), to better be able to connect with customers. They speak of the intersection of social, mobile and retail being and how this will help give consumers what they want at any time. Coming off of the idea that Social Business is the future, this acquisition by the world’s largest retailer, makes for some really interesting thinking. Big Brands buying out development and research shops…is this what the future of Social business looks like or is it just a case of not being focused on the core business?
Drop up a note and let us know what you think.

Social media and real results an oxymoron?

Brad Parry — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:34:02 +0000

Just read this article in Mashable, â€œHow Startups are Using Social Media for Real Resultsâ€. The basic premise: startups should make social media the centerpoint of their communication tools, as itâ€™s cheaper.

Canâ€™t argue that. However, it got me thinkingÂ of otherÂ ways that startups can take advantage of Social Media that werenâ€™t noted in the piece.

Using social media as a coherent and actionable approach to updatingÂ investors and the investment communityÂ (especially if you are a public start up) can save an incredible amount of time for the senior team as they deal with ensuring that the messages are always clear, and consistent.

Educating and trainingÂ your supporters on where, when, and how to find the information is criticalâ€¦and as the piece suggests, requires a great deal of commitment. But the opportunity â€“ not to mention efficiencies â€“ far outweighs the short-term challenges and provides a great outlet for idea mashingÂ and just as importantly feedback.

To answer my own question here: no, results and social media are not an oxymoron. We just need to help people define what real results should be viewed as.

Social media engagement: Create guidelines not levels of approval

David Spark — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:13:50 +0000

Not every call into a call center is monitored and edited, so why should you want or try to do that with social media? This is the question to ask your clients if they’re wanting to go through multiple levels of approval at all levels of social media engagement.

Your goal should be to train staff on how to engage in social media in a way that answers questions correctly and stays within your corporate brand. That was the discussion I had with Daryl Stansfield, Digital Account Director at PHD, in Toronto, ON. I was happy that he mentioned having a previous financial client (see previous post about financial concerns in social media) that had a Facebook forum that was so successful that users started helping users.