Mediaboss Marketing

Basingstoke, UK (PRWEB UK) 14 February 2012

Social media is a relatively new form of marketing, however there are strong signs that it is becoming the new platform for marketing as sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter dominate the social and business world.

LinkedIn have just reported their annual revenue at $860m which is great for such a new business. LinkedIn started in America in December 2002 (launched in May 2003) and has quickly become a world wide business used by professionals and business people to connect, share information, link up with like minded professionals, find jobs etc.

Twitter is another American social media site that is quite new, started more recently than LinkedIn (March 2006), they have a revenue of $140m and like LinkedIn are targeting the business market.

Facebook is also an American social media business that was started recently (in February 2004) but has a much higher revenue income at $3.71bn. Facebook is expected to float on the stock market later in 2012 expected to raise an additional $5bn. Facebook is different to Twitter and LinkedIn as they are (currently) focused on the social market rather than the business market (but things change).

"These are the three largest social media websites and the three to keep an eye on, it will be interesting to see how marketing trends react to the growth in the social media world," says Marcel Blackburn of Marketing Quotes. "Traditional forms of marketing are of course seeing the effects as advertisers switch to banner adverts or PPC adverts on social media sites," Marcel added.

Anne Richards (who works alongside Marcel) added, "The growth of social media sites in the last decade has changed the way that businesses and social connections work, texting is out and 'Tweeting/' is in. Despite the economic slow down, advertising spend is going up (according to the ASA) but as businesses look for cost savings, there may well be changes as we move further into 2012.'

It will be interesting to watch the social media world, will new social media websites spring up, or the existing ones merge who knows. One thing we do know is that the marketing world and indeed the society at large has been transformed by the introduction of the social media website.

About Marketing Quotes - A free website to help UK businesses to get free advice and quotes from local marketing agencies.

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Marketing Quotes Comments On The Upward Trend Of Businesses Using Social Media Websites.

One of the biggest advertising agencies, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, is starting practice units that are devoted to helping clients navigate two areas that are rewarding but confusing: social media and youth marketing.

Ogilvy & Mather, which is part of WPP, the world’s largest ad-agency holding company, is to announce the formation of the social media unit, called Social@Ogilvy, on Monday morning.

The other unit, Ogilvy Youth, is in a nascent stage, or, in keeping with the vernacular of younger consumers, “in beta.”

The new units join others at Ogilvy & Mather that are devoted to areas like cross-cultural marketing (OgilvyCulture). The formation of the units is indicative of efforts by large ad agencies to adapt to the rapidly changing needs of marketer clients, who must grapple with the seemingly continuous changes in consumer behavior.

“Thinking across the disciplines is critical,” said Miles Young, global chief executive at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in New York. “You have to redesign your agency around content and domains.”

Social@Ogilvy will operate across all the specialty agencies of Ogilvy & Mather, including advertising, direct marketing, public relations and digital marketing. Clients include American Express, BP, Ford Motor and I.B.M.

The new unit, with more than 550 employees in 35 markets, is derived from what had been a specialty offering inside Ogilvy Public Relations.

“The headline here is that it’s a worldwide practice that connects all the agencies,” said John Bell, an Ogilvy executive who is being named global managing director of Social@Ogilvy.

Although “we’ve had a social media unit for seven years,” he added, “integrated social solutions matter a lot more,” particularly because, by some estimates, brands will spend 17 or 18 percent of their total marketing communications budget on social media in the next few years.

Brandon Berger, chief digital officer at Ogilvy & Mather, said: “Social has become such a huge priority. It’s core to the way consumers behave. They talk about you, and they talk about you online, and it’s measurable, and you can get involved in the conversation.”

Needless to say, social-media services like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube are an integral part of marketing to young consumers. That is underlined by the fact that Ogilvy Youth, although a fledgling, already has a presence on Tumblr.

Ogilvy Youth will be focused on teenagers and millennials, also known as Generation Y. Initial clients include the United Way.

Ogilvy Youth will be overseen by Lauren Crampsie, who is 31; she recently became global chief marketing officer at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. The day-to-day operations will be led by Felicia Zhang, 28, who is at the agency as part of her stint as a WPP fellow.

There are two reasons to start Ogilvy Youth, Ms. Crampsie said. One is “thought leadership,” citing a global youth insight study that the unit is hoping to release next month, which will offer a look at, among other things, “a day in the life of teens in 12 global markets.”

The other reason Ms. Crampsie gave is for “recruitment and retention,” in that the employees working at Ogilvy Youth are all to be young themselves.

“I see so many missed opportunities” for the ad agency industry, she said, “with kids right out of school going to work at Google or Facebook.”

“We need to make sure we don’t lose this generation to technology companies and social-media companies,” she added, and demonstrate that Generation Y “can be excited and inspired about agency life.”

Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist at The New York Times since 1991. Follow @stuartenyt on Twitter.

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Ogilvy & Mather Staffs Up in Social Media and Youth Marketing

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

A new survey from Constant Contact®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT - News) finds that social media marketing has become a critical marketing tool for small businesses and nonprofits planning events, with 77% of event planners currently using social media to market their events, and another 14% planning to do so in the next year.

The survey also reports that event planners still rely heavily on email marketing, online event marketing tools, websites, and print advertising to promote their events, indicating that traditional forms of event marketing still play an essential role in promoting an event.

Social Media Marketing Increasingly Important for Events

A full 78% of survey respondents believe that social media is an important marketing tool for their events. Roughly the same percent (77%) currently use social media to market and/or promote their events (advertise or engage on Facebook® or Twitter®, responding to posts in online social forums, etc.) and another 14% plan to do so in the next year. In addition, the vast majority of respondents using social media said their social media efforts to market events will increase in the next year (81%), with the remainder reporting that their level of usage will remain the same.

Forty-six percent of respondents have at least an initial plan for their social media marketing efforts, and another 10% report having a thorough and refined social media strategy. Those that do not yet have a plan see the value in creating one: 34% stated that they were beginning to think about creating one, and while another 9% believe they should start.

“Event marketing has evolved. It’s no longer just direct mail invitations, phone calls and simply hoping that people will come,” said Chris Litster, vice president and general manager of event marketing for Constant Contact. “Now, it's social media conversations, real-time communication and online video—true engagement across platforms to create a holistic event experience from start to finish.”

Forms and Uses of Social Media for Events

Facebook is the most popular form of social media; of those using social media to market their events, 89% report using Facebook, followed by Twitter (66%) and LinkedIn® (54%). Reliance on Twitter and LinkedIn appears to be growing, however. Eight percent plan to start using Facebook to promote events within the next year, while 13% plan to use Twitter and 20% plan to use LinkedIn. Eighty-five percent of respondents using social media have a Facebook fan page for their organization, and another 11% plan to create one soon.

The top reason (56%) event planners are currently using social media is to educate/inform about upcoming events. Their goals for future use are greater: 66% of respondents would like to use social media to reach more people, 65% of respondents would like to gather feedback from past event attendees, 63% would like to obtain new/more event attendees, and 62% would like to remain engaged with past event attendees. Those not yet using social media to promote their events cite the number one reason as they don’t know how (54%), followed by it being too time consuming (39%).

“An event — be it a networking gathering, open house, fundraiser, or class — is by nature a social affair, so it makes perfect sense that social media would be a fantastic tool to help plan, promote, and build excitement. If the goal is to get as many people as possible interested in your event, social media is a perfect complement for spreading the word to your core base of customers, members, and beyond,” said Litster.

Social Media Marketing Complements Other Event Marketing Tools

With social media efforts growing, the effectiveness of other marketing tools to promote events remains strong. Email marketing is ranked the most effective of these tools (91%), followed closely by online event marketing/management tools (85%), websites (77%), and print advertising (69%).

These findings suggest that social media marketing is complementary and additive, rather than a replacement to more “traditional” event promotion tactics.

“We’ve seen our small business and nonprofit customers improve their results by taking an integrated approach to their event promotions,” said Litster. “The combination of social media with other event marketing platforms can be powerful, and today’s tools make it easier than ever to integrate them together. The end result: increased event attendance, deeper relationships with customers and members forged, and maximum impact obtained from your events.”

About the Survey

This Constant Contact-sponsored survey was administered in October 2011 to small businesses and nonprofits using Constant Contact’s event marketing product. Results include responses from 474 respondents across a range of business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and nonprofits industries.

Additional Resources:

Ebook: The State of Event Marketing: Getting Social with Small Business Get-togethers

Best Practices Guide: Add Social Media to Your Event Strategy

How-to Guide: Using Social Media to Plan and Promote Your Events

About Constant Contact, Inc.

Constant Contact is revolutionizing the success formula for small organizations through affordable, easy-to-use Engagement MarketingTM tools that help create and grow customer relationships. More than half a million small businesses, nonprofits, and associations worldwide rely on Constant Contact to drive ongoing customer dialogs through email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, and online surveys. All Constant Contact products come with unrivaled KnowHow, education, and free coaching with a personal touch, including award-winning customer support.

Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

(CTCT-F)

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Constant Contact Survey Reveals Social Media is a Critical Marketing Tool for Event Planners; Usage Expected to Increase

Mumbai:  Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today said India does not intend to censor online social networks such as Facebook, but demanded that they obey the same rules governing the press and other media.

"I want to say once and for all, without any obfuscation, no government in India will ever censor social media," Mr Sibal said at an IT summit in Mumbai.

"I never wanted to censor social media and no government wants to do so. But like the print and electronic media, they have to obey the laws of the country," added Mr Sibal.

He held a number of meetings with leading Internet companies late last year in which he asked about the possibility of pre-screening content posted online by users.

Mr Sibal reportedly showed executives examples of obscene images found on the Internet that risked offending Muslims or defaming politicians, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Since then, 19 Internet firms including Google, Yahoo! and Facebook have been targeted in criminal and civil cases lodged in lower New Delhi courts, holding them responsible for content posted by users of their platforms.

The government has given its sanction for the firms to be tried for serious crimes such as fomenting religious hatred and spreading social discord, offences that could land company directors in prison.

Google and Facebook said earlier this month that they had removed the allegedly offensive content used as evidence in the court cases.

The groups have appealed to the Delhi High Court asking for the cases against them to be quashed on the basis that they cannot be held responsible for the actions of their clients.

The comments of a judge hearing the case raised further fears that freedom of expression online could be restricted.

"You must have a stringent check. Otherwise, like in China, we may pass orders banning all such websites," the judge said during a hearing in January.

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No censorship for social media, but laws must be followed: Sibal

Tor network connections from Iran plummeted amidst a new government censorship program

Last week, the Iranian government apparently started a new censorship program that blocks encrypted Internet traffic. Even Iranians who had taken steps to evade government firewalls were being stymied—and the immediate impact can be seen in usage of the Tor network.

Tor anonymizes Internet activity with client software that routs traffic through the Tor network, a worldwide network of relays and bridges set up by volunteers. Iran is second only to the US in Tor usage, with roughly 50,000 Iranians anonymizing their Internet traffic each day by routing it through the Tor network. Yet between Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, connections dropped from about 50,000 to fewer than 20,000, and plummeted to nearly zero by Friday, Feb. 10.

The dramatic change proved the prediction of Tor project member Jacob Appelbaum distressingly accurate. Last week, as reports of the Iranian crackdown began circulating, he warned, "It's likely that more than ~50,000 - ~60,000 Tor users may drop offline." But Appelbaum and his fellow Tor project members had a plan: a new obfuscated bridge (obfsproxy) that makes encrypted traffic appear to be regular traffic. Obfsproxy was an "ace up our sleeve," as Appelbaum described it, and Tor put it into action over the past few days despite its user interface being a bit rough.

Obfsproxy is already helping some Iranians get back online. The number of Tor connections was back up to roughly 15,000 on Saturday, although it's likely obfsproxy is playing only a small role. Tor's statistics show the use of bridges to connect to the Tor network from Iran have inched up only slightly since last week's dropoff. Statistics for Sunday and Monday haven't come in yet.

"It's not clear if Iran has lessened censorship of SSL traffic or if we're having that much of an impact," Tor Executive Director Andrew Lewman told Ars. Regardless of the cause, the dramatic upswing and downswing of Tor connections from Iran provides "a fine graph of what government censorship can do to a country," he said. "We've been working mostly flat out for the past few days to help the people of Iran and it's nice to see that we are having an impact."

On Friday, Appelbaum put out the call to the Tor community to start running obfsproxy bridges. He warned that the software is not easy to set up, that it might be effective for only a few days "at the rate the arms race is progressing," and that people who set up bridges need to either contact the Tor Project or share the bridge addresses directly with users who need them.

Obfsproxy is "still very alpha-quality software," Lewman said. "We're seeing a few thousand connections through obfsproxy relays already. We have roughly 300 obfsproxy relays around the world already, some of them already pushing many megabits per second of traffic. It's definitely picking up as the world awoke over the past 24 hours, to the point where our Web servers alone were handling 500 mbps of download traffic. Our BitTorrent seeds of the software are doing well, too."

Appelbaum promised that an easy-to-use client is in the works, but for now, people setting up bridges or obfsproxy client connections must follow these somewhat complicated instructions.

Tor isn't the only method for staying online in places like Iran. One product called Hotspot Shield uses a VPN to secure Web traffic and bypass firewalls. A Hotspot Shield spokesperson tells Ars "we've observed that the Iran blockades have had no effect on our users."

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Tor's latest project helps Iran get back online despite new Internet censorship regime