The Four C's Of Social Media For The C-Suite

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Social media is becoming the executive equivalent to catching lightning in a bottle. It has quickly gone from ultimate focus group and brand popularity contest to a serious digital marketing platform. As it does, it has bubbled up from a quirky, unpredictable experiment to a measurable customer lab.

Download this whitepaper now to learn about the Four C's of social media for the C-suite and how social intelligence is providing clarity for the C-Suite.

by Steve Hall    Feb-14-13    
Topic: Research, Social, Trends and Culture



HubSpot Launches 'Make Love Not Spam' Initiative

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Complete with a cute video featuring kids and a serious letter from the CMO, HubSpot is out with Make Love Not Spam, an initiative designed to rally marketers to make marketing people love and to stop spamming.

In his open letter to marketers, HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe writes, We can be better than this. Marketing is hard. Reaching new prospects is hard. But we believe that if we put our energy and resources toward making marketing people love, we can get more inbound leads and rely less on sending spammy emails. And when I say we all can be better than this, I'm including HubSpot"

The campaign comes with t-shirts, coffee mugs and helpful, informative information including an eBook entitled "Make Love Not Spam" and a SlideShare entitled "Learning Lovable Marketing From the Experts."

Disclosure: I currently contribute to HubSpot's marketing blog.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-14-13    
Topic: Cause, Direct, Social



RedSquareAgency Uses Vine to Send Valentines Day Messages

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Making good use of this month's app of the moment, RedSquareAgency is using Vine to create customized Valentine's Day Messages. Coupling with Vine's #Valentine initiative, the agency will send a personalized Vine message to those who tweet @redsquareagency or who visit ValenVine.

by Steve Hall    Feb-14-13    
Topic: Agencies, Social



Taco Bell Introduces Doritos Cool Ranch Taco With Vine

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Like a bunch of lemmings jumping off a cliff, more and more marketer's are jumping aboard Twitter's Vine to tout their brands. Seriously. It's like Pinterest doesn't exist any more. Vine is the shiny new object du jour for marketers.

Not familiar with Vine? It's actually a fairly cool app. It allows you to shoot six second videos that can be broken up into segments allowing for some fairly ingenious creativity.

Today, Taco Bell jumped on the bandwagon to announce the new product which will be available March 7.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-13-13    
Topic: Social



Digital Cupid Reveals Your True Valentine

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If you think you know who your true Valentine is, think again. After all in this day and age of social media...ahem...stalking, the rules are very different. And Charlotte-based ad agency Tattoo Projects is out to prove it.

The agency has developed a Facebook app called From Cupid that, by analyzing your Facebook interactions, tells who who your true sweetheart is. The results may surprise you!

by Steve Hall    Feb-12-13    
Topic: Social



Chocolate Brand Lacta Launches Feature Length Film

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Once again, Greece chocolate brand Lacta, which has become known as a symbol of "the sweetness of love" is out with another stellar piece of content marketing. This time it's a full blown movie that tells the story of three couples who meet, face challenges and, in the end, find happiness. Or so we hope. The full length movie won't be released until Valentine's Day.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-11-13    
Topic: Social



Who Owns Social Media? Brand or Agency?

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In the early days of social media, the market was flooded with "social media gurus" and agencies that added social media-related bullet points to their new business decks and called themselves experts in the space. Very thankfully, there is less of that nonsense today, the segment has grown up and the market has become more mature.

But it's still not exactly clear with which entity the responsibility for a brand's social media program sits. Some argue the specialized expertise of agencies and PR firms are still needed to guide brands through the maze of social media opportunities. Others argue it's inefficient and leads to less effective engagement when outside parties are involved and, therefore, advocate for social media to be handled internally. In fact, Edelman coined the term "social business" to describe the proliferation of social media practices at the enterprise level.

Read the rest on Central Desktop's blog...

by Steve Hall    Feb-10-13    
Topic: Opinion, Social



Infographic Summarizes Biggest Social Media Wins, Fails

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MBA in Marketing Guide (yes, it's link-baiting but it's good information too) created an infographic that details the biggest wins and fails in social media over the past year or so. Top wins include DollarShaveClub, Nike, Sephora and Honda. Top fails include McDonald's #McDStories, Chick-Fil-A anti-gay thing, American Apparel's Sandy-themed promotion and Kitchen Aid's tweet about Obama's grandmother.

Check out all the details in the infographic.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 8-13    
Topic: Research, Social



Target Turns Tweets Into Everyday Collection Runway Show

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Well this is pretty interesting. On January 24, Target had a live fashion show which involved models reading tweets from people while holding products from Target's Everyday Collection. To participate, people could tweet their witty commentary with the hashtag #everydayshow and the models would stut thr runway and read the tweets. You can see a highlight reel below.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 7-13    
Topic: Brands, Events, Social



Why All Media Is Social Media

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It's not a surprise social web has caused a dramatic sea change in digital marketing. From new methods of communication to how digital marketers now interact with customers, everything has changed. And many marketers are still like deers in an Interstate full of headlights making big mistakes.

The new social web - like it or not - demands a shift in marketing methodology that rewards creativity and a willingness to engage with customers in new ways. It also lends new opportunities to digital marketers everywhere

In this report from Gartner, part of the Adrants whitepaper series, you will learn:

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 6-13    
Topic: Research, Social