Social Media, Digital Marketing & PR Agency

Social media strategy

Well, we’re back one of our favourite topics – Social Media for B2Bs. There’s been lots of promising news in this area this year, and ‘serious’ vertical markets making sophisticated waves in the social media world.  However, there is still much progress to be made with news that, amongst other things, 60% of B2B companies have no dedicated social media staff and although the vast majority have some social media presence, they are not actually engaging in it on a regular basis.  Mmmm, not good.

Whilst B2Bs are obviously getting the overall message that social media is good, they are not necessarily attaching the importance to it that they should.  Even folk in the communications industry, such as B2B PR agencies, aren’t paying heed with a surprising number not having any noticeable digital presence at all, with some ‘leading’ companies making attempts at social media that at best could be described as ‘dabbling’.

Now, this isn’t meant to be a bitch fest about PR agencies, but it is saying that social media management is a tad more complex than your average guru or ‘digital coach’ might let you believe.  It’s not good enough to let a variety of junior staff ‘do a bit of tweeting’ . It’s serious stuff that first and foremost requires a strategy that is compiled by people with significant digital knowledge, traditional marketing strategy skills and the dedicated regular attention (preferably daily attention) required to carry it through.

Slapping up a Facebook page and leaving it empty simply won’t cut it, and as the market continues to expand at a rapid pace, those not paying serious attention to their digital strategies will get left behind.  Most companies, in our experience, need help in a variety of areas and need a combination of consultancy, outsourcing, training and recruitment advice, to get them going in the digital world.

Most B2B companies simply don’t have the expertise in-house to establish a professional digital presence, and the statistics and evidence on social media sites bear this out. We would advise companies to start taking their digital profiles seriously, and take good professional advice quickly.

If’ you’d like to have a chat about your digital strategy (or your lack of one) please contact us on hello@themediamarketingco.com or ring to talk to a human being on 0845 862 0017.

We kick off Remembrance Week with the launch of the super-sexy Android Samsung Galaxy Tab which hit the stores this week and is said to be a serious threat to the iPAD – for those who have been lucky enough to play with and stroke the new beast, they say that it is gorgeous, although a tad expensive.

This week also saw the launch of the new Windows 7 phone and 40,000 flew off the shelves on Monday which sounds quite jolly until you hear that Android phones sold 100,000 a day on their launch and iPhones more than double that.  The smart money is on ‘wait and see’…

Vint Cerf , widely acclaimed as the ‘father of the internet’ and the Vice-President of Google, predicted that the UK is set to run out of email addresses sometime in 2012, which will prove a serious block to the growth of the medium – serious stuff – let’s hope that the ISPs get their act together quickly on this.

The first true ‘Facebook browser’, RockMelt has gone live this week amid much fanfare –  we’re going to start having a play with it this week, so we’ll keep you posted.

Now, mind what you say on Twitter: when Paul Chambers tweeted a joke about blowing up Robin Hood airport, he landed a conviction and a £1,000 fine.  His appeal against this was dismissed yesterday, but our favourite leading Twitter star offered to pay the fine within minutes and lead protests against the verdict.

Also journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has reported Birmingham councillor Gareth Compton for posting a threatening ‘stoning’ tweet. The Police will be investigating.  So tweeps, please be careful what you write because it might land you in trouble.

Those Google folks have launched a staunch denial that they are building a Facebook-looky-likey called Google Me. Methinks they do protest too much, so watch this space.

Meanwhile, Facebook goes from strength to strength despite repeated concerns about privacy, and what they are doing with your data – or is it now their data? – anyway, they now have so much of  it they are having to spend a small fortune on building a new data centre to cope with the 500+  million members and all their stuff. And over at Mashable, they are getting excited because Facebook have called a press event for Monday which is rumoured to be about overhauling the messaging function – we’ll update you on this next week.

And to finish this week, Her Majesty the Queen has jumped onto the Social Meida bandwagon with her own Facebook page, and although she is getting a lot of fans (200,000+ so far), the anti-monarchists are having a field day posting abuse – oh dear, social media is, as ever, just a reflection of life offline.

Our image this week is of Remembrance Day … lest we forget.

The financial sector embraces social media and blogging

We work extensively with companies selling B2B and we are very used to hearing objections to social media is ‘not for us’, although this is beginning to diminish, as we reported recently.

So we were thrilled to see this piece of research from media company Cision showing how influential blogging and social media has become in the financial sector.

How heartening to see financial bloggers wielding so much influence and professional organisations representing accountants having a healthy presence on Facebook. Not to mention publications like The Economist and The Financial Times embracing the social media world so warmly. We feel this is indicative of how ‘real’ business people are taking digital very seriously now. And if they can do it, so can any other market sector!

We really feel it is only a matter of time before virtually all vertical markets and companies of all shapes and sizes, from the largest corporates to the most traditional professions, will take on board the advantages of the digital world.  And when you see the number of industries that have numerous influential and active bloggers, we don’t think that it’s long before the whole world will be joining in.

And if we can help you with your digital marketing and P, reputation, brand management or promotion, from setting up a blog and social presence to running a full scale digital campaign, please contact us on hello@themediamarketingco.com or ring to talk to a human being on 0845 862 0017.

Skateboarding. Guadalajara, Mexico by Miguel Angel Lopez Virgen. Winner of the Sequence Category in The Red Bull Illume 2010 Adventure Photo Competition

Places are all the rage this week with the location-based service Foursquare’s plan to dominate ‘what happens after the checkin’ and Facebook trialing a new places-based checkin-focused module. Some people are now seeing ‘Popular Places’ popping up on their Facebook screen showing locations where friends in your network frequently check in. Facebook the Super Network has also updated its Apps on the iPhone and Android platforms to include ‘Groups’ functions, brought ‘Places’ to the Android mobile platform in the UK and announced that American users who check in to specific shops will get ‘deals’, including free clothing from Gap and donations to charity from MacDonalds.

Over in Twitterland, Stephen Fry flounced at the weekend over ‘misquoted’ press reports that basically said that he thought women didn’t like sex (TMMC Towers would respectfully beg to differ on this point), but don’t worry, as of Thursday night he had flounced back in, so all is well with the world!

Meanwhile, Phil Neville has ‘gone viral’ after Everton fans had their noses out of joint because everyone was talking about Tottenham’s Gareth Bale – the campaign worked with Neville trending above Barack Obama.   And on the subject of Twitter, ads will now be appearing in your timelines, well it will if you use Hootsuite (which we do) so we will let you know whether the ads that get shown to us are both ‘useful and authentic’ to the Twitter experience, as promised by the powers that be.

Things are not so jolly over at MySpace (yes, it is still there). Newscorp have said that the losses that MySpace are making are ‘unacceptable and unsustainable’. We will be watching this space…

And over in acadmic-land, there is news that holographic telecommuting may soon be possible. With images being able to be transmitted via the internet, we could soon, according to the boffins at the University of Arizona, be able to have a ‘holographic telepresence’.  Oooh err, Scotty, eat your heart out.

Back to reality. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced plans for London’s East End to become a centre of technological innovation to rival Silicon Valley, and there is also to be a review of British laws on intellectual property. Investors in the project will include Google, Facebook, Intel and consultants McKinsey & Co who will be interested in the long-term future of the area expanding out of London’s Old Street and Shoreditch that is already becoming known as Silicon Roundabout – mmm, doesn’t have quite the same ring about it as Silicon Valley does it, but then Valleys are a bit short on the ground in the City, so a Silicon Roundabout will just have to do.

So that’s about it, but if you’re twiddling your thumbs this weekend, we like this handy top-ten list of the best mobile games of all time.   And on a gaming theme our image this week is Skateboarding. Guadalajara, Mexico by Miguel Angel Lopez Virgen from the Adventure Photo Contest Winners, Red Bull Illume 2010 – and it is fair to say that all the winners were seriously WOW!