Clicksharp Marketing

Thanks to everyone who attended Taste of Technology at the Time Warner Center tonight.

Let’s take a moment to recognize all the contributors: our organizer Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com, our moderator Stephen Wellman of Ziff Davis Enterprise, and our other panelists:

• Jennifer Shaheen, Technology Therapy Group
• Jasmine Sandler, Agent-cy
• Stephanie Frasco, The E.Factor

And, of course, you the attendees. Thanks for providing compelling questions, and bringing so much energy to the evening.

Below are some of the products and trends, either mentioned in discussion or otherwise relevant:

• General facts and figures
  • Number of U.S. adults using social media at least once a month in 2008: 69 million. (source: eMarketer)
  • Social network ad spending: $920 million in 2007, $1.43 billion in 2008, $2.6 billion by 2012. Compound annual growth of 19%. (source: eMarketer)
  • Social media’s share of total online ad spend in the U.S. was 4.4% in 2007, 5.5% in 2008, will grow to 6.3% by 2012 (source: eMarketer).
• B2B marketing on social media
  • B2B ad spending on social networks is still a drop in the bucket… just $15 million in 2007, and will grow to $40 million in 2008 (source: eMarketer). B2B’s share of total social network ad spend is currently just 1.6%, but will grow to 8.0% by 2012.
  • LinkedIn is strong in the B2B segment, especially to establish your company as an authority on a particular topic by using the Q&A functions.
  • If your business caters to a local clientele, Briz.com offers its users a platform to consolidate marketing communications, perfect for event marketing and other promotional marketing. This site also can be leveraged for customer relationship management (CRM) applications.
• Twitter
  • An article about how the Virginia Tech massacres created new awareness of Twitter as a potential solution to the sluggishness of emergency communications.
  • Here are some Twitter feeds worth following just to see how it’s being used: Popeye’s Chicken, Home Depot, Intel, Whole Foods, Clicksharp Marketing (you may know them) — and be sure to see how the popular TV show “Mad Men” is using Twitter.
• Blogging: the article about Procter & Gamble recruiting all the “mommy bloggers.”
• Video - Stephanie mentioned TubeMogul, which is a fantastic resource for syndicating video content. This product was featured in a recent white paper entitled “Small Business Guide To Web-Based Video Marketing.”
• Website Analytics. Stephanie also mentioned Google Analytics as a “must have” resource for business owners to track the efficacy of all marketing efforts. This product is available to the public, and featured in a recent Clicksharp video, “Google Analytics for Business Intelligence.”
• Non-profit organizations and social media marketing:
  • We discussed Jones Soda, the Seattle-based beverage manufacturer which has been putting the Causes feature of Facebook to good use. (Here’s a link — see slide 35.)
  • Here’s another interesting tactic to consider. We know how difficult it can be to ask for money. What if you host your content on a website showing ads with Google AdSense, and when you communicate directly with your audience, tell them “we won’t ask you for a donation — but every single visit to our site generates revenue which we will donate to the cause. So every single person you forward this to, it’s like making a small donation.”
• Wikipedia: the next time around, we hope we’ll get a chance to look at this medium, often criticized for its quality control and overlooked for its social potential. There’s more to Wikipedia than you might have first guessed: “Wikipedia: a marketing channel as powerful as it is free”
• RSS (really simple syndication). (Video: What is RSS?) Jennifer mentioned AideRSS; I’d never heard of this until tonight, but at first glance it seems like an invaluable tool for market research and competitive analysis.

And for one more treat… here’s a pretty strong list of large well-known corporations and their brands appearing in popular social media campaigns: Social Media Marketing Examples (thanks to Peter Kim).

See you next time.

Related Posts:

Event: “How Social Media Can Grow Your Business” (New York) Join us for the latest in the Taste of Technology small business series, "Beyond Websites and Email: How Social Media Can Grow Your Business"....

Internet Marketing Meetup: Wednesday Recap This is a recap of Wednesday's presentation: "Fusing Social Media with SEO Strategy." Included in this list are social media case studies, SEO plugins for Wordpress, and more....

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 @ 8:40 pm on the category Small business, Social media, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


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