Link: http://www.marcomnewmedia.com/services/socialmediamarketing.html

MarCom New Media has been doing social media for more than two years now for most of our clients. Social media marketing in the business sector has grown the past year or two, but as early adopters, we have seen many changes, and there are some things that we knew would make it - like Facebook, while others we had questions about since the beginning - like Twitter.

Social networks were only beginning to gain traction in the spring of 2007; now memberships are in the hundreds of millions. People are having interactive conversations online in social media websites like MySpace, and Facebook. There are also social networking and video sharing places like You Tube and Google video, virtual reality sites such as Second Life, Last.fm and iTunes for personal music, Flickr to share your photos and micro blogs like Twitter or Pownce. Social Media is growing exponentially.

Social Media Marketing includes offsite optimization strategies with the intent of distributed content across multiple social media networks. Tools for this include adding links to services such as Digg, Del.icio.us or Readdit. This includes writing unique content embedded with your key words and phrases, so when people search online, there’s a better chance of finding your content via the search engines.

Recent research from a company called E-Consultancy, in association with the Online Marketing Summit is showing that most businesses are largely still in the experimental stages of social media. 61 percent say they have experimented with social media, but not done that much.

We are seeing that businesses are starting to get to the place where they view social media as crucial, however, everyone has beent trying to come up with ways to measure the success of social media campaigns.

Key Findings:

The majority of companies have difficulty measuring the return on investment (ROI) from social media. Almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) say their organizations are “poor” (34%) or “very poor” (27%) at measuring ROI.

Increased traffic to Web site is the business goal that marketers are most likely to be trying to influence through social media marketing. Three quarters (74%) of companies say they use social media to increase traffic.

Direct traffic to Web site is by far the metric most commonly used to measure the impact of off-site social media, measured by just under two-thirds of company respondents (63%).

More brand recognition (64%) is the second most important business objective in terms of impact of social media. A similar proportion of respondents (62%) cite better brand reputation.

Despite the widespread recognition that social media marketing impacts brand reputation and brand visibility, only a quarter of all respondents (25%) surveyed use online brand mentions and brand awareness as a metric for measuring off-site social media success. Just 15% use brand perception as a metric.

Just over half of companies (56%) say that they try to achieve increased sales through social media activity. But only a quarter of companies (24%) use sales as a metric for measuring social media success.

90 percent of the businesses surveyed say they expect social media marketing to take up more time internally "in a year's time."

Link: http://www.marcomnewmedia.com

A company in Sausalito, CA called Aggregate Markets offers new online ad campaigns where their Shop Ads allow customers to purchase select products directly in the ad. The transactional type ad taps into a secure shopping cart system.

It appears this will be a new trend for apparel retailers. Aggregate has previously worked with the home entertainment and media sectors. MarCom New Media is working with numerous clients that are interested in expanding their online revenue streams, so this type of product is of great interest.

With 2010 trends indicating that traditional and online marketing is coming of age, there are many new opportunities to be creative. It is all about the target customer, the message, the creative hook, and tracking the results. Today's marketing is all about strategy, campaign creation, then tracking and editing or tweaking the campaigns towards improvements for the best ROI.

Link: http://www.marcomnewmedia.com

eMarketer reports that there are some major shifts in social network advertising spending predicted for 2010. Facebook has reached 350 million users globally. As social media marketers in Los Angeles, MarCom already has new Facebook tactics in place. There's a great 60 page guide on HubSpot that helps marketers with the tactics for corporate fan pages and advertising on Facebook.

"In total, marketers will spend $2.2 billion to advertise on social networks worldwide in 2009, with $1.2 billion in spending in the US. In 2010, Facebook will account for nearly one-quarter of all social network ad spending worldwide, up from 20% in 2009," according to eMarketer.

Social network marketing will be a priority for 2010, with significant spending going to search and social media marketing consultants like Marcom to build and maintain a social network presence. As more marketers use social networks, they will seek to integrate them into the rest of their marketing. The research firm says that 2010 will be a year in which social network advertising will intersect with other kinds of advertising.

Research also reveals that the most active users of Facebook or Twitter, and other social networks, are interested in deep engagement. What's more, 32.9 percent of respondents who friended a brand on Facebook appear to be more likely to become a fan because they were a current customer than were Twitter users.

Users ultimately want to find deals and discounts, and sharing interesting things that they care about. As marketers we need to keep them engaged and find ways for them to want to share messages with their friends and colleagues.

Link: http://www.marcomnewmedia.com/services/optimize_online.html

A new white paper from Vocus reviews the state of the media today. They tell us that in 2009, the traditional parts of the media bled while reporters from - newspapers, magazines, TV and radio - found themselves without jobs.

As online marketing and PR flourished, thanks to the new social media marketing tools - MarCom New Media has been telling our clients for months that the media is changing drastically.

According to Vocus Media Research Group,"Approximately 293 newspapers folded, with nearly 100 of those shuttering in the year’s first quarter alone. Meanwhile, eight magazines with a circulation of 1 million or more ceased publication, and 600 staff members were laid off from top tier publications."

Here is the grim summary:

Magazines that shuttered this year, totaling 1,126.

Radio stations are down from the previous year, and more than 10,000 jobs were lost.

Television bankruptcies were common as more than 100 TV stations were affected by their parent companies filing Chapter 11.

This news is no surprise, and why our search engine optimization company in Los Angeles focuses on search marketing, social media marketing

The year 2010 is simply the earliest stages of a complete re-engineering of our institutions driven by the social Web. Social networking has all but replaced many media outlets, and only those that integrate social media quickly will survive.

MarCom New Media has been testing many of the social media methods over the last six months, and we know what works, and what is less effective. If you don't already have corporate accounts with Twitter or a corpoate page on Facebook, call us.

Facebook has more than 20 million users.
There are 10 billion online searches in the U.S. (11/09)
There are 200,000,000 blogs.

Here's access to the complete Vocus report.

Link: http://www.marcomnewmedia.com

According to Forrester Research, interactive marketers will be focusing on a data-driven strategy in 2010, automation, and building customer relationships which are supposed to bring discipline and definition to marketing.

The company said, "We also expect innovation in data management, exchange-based buying, online video, and augmented reality to adjust current channel practices. This will push marketers to focus on creating interactive, and not merely digital, strategies."

This is what Marcom New Media has been updating and telling all of our clients in the last month. For instance, the concept of doing direct marketing, or direct mail in conjunction with an online campaign will drive revenues.

We just completed our MarCom Prosper Online newsletter which focuses on what one Los Angeles SEO company recommends for search marketing, social media, and advertising.
Source: http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/2010_north_american_interactive_marketing_predictions/q/id/56029/t/2