Spredfast Blog
Making Sense Out of Social Business

Rethinking Business in the Age of the Social Consumer: Social IRL Insights

February 16th | Posted by Jennifer McNabb in Spredfast Blogs | 3 Comments

I had the opportunity to attend a Social:IRL event recently in Kansas City put on by our friend Ben Smith.  The conference “Rethinking Business in the Age of the Social Consumer” has definitely been a hot topic lately. The bottom line the main speaker, Valeria Maltoni, made was this: our business objectives overall have not changed. Instead of letting social media intimidate you, find a way to integrate social to achieve these goals. There were a few themes I saw throughout the conference that resonated with me. The main topics were relevant content, brand integrity, and influence.  And an amazing fact that was shared to prove how important social has become (as if we didn’t already know) Coca-Cola’s budget for social media 5 years ago was 3% of their marketing budget. Today it’s 20%! Relevant Content One of the things Valeria opened with was “TGiF”. Everyone puts so much emphasis on social channels like Twitter, Google+, and Facebook being perfect. But people often miss the most important letter there. I is for information and what you are actually sharing. A lot of people like to say that your content needs to be relevant. Relevance can depend on a variety of … Read More

Brand Advocacy for the Social Business: iStrategy Insights

February 7th | Posted by Adrianne Gallman in Spredfast Blogs | No Comments

It was pretty evident at last week’s iStrategy San Francisco that CEOs, Marketers and Social Media teams have all figured it out: 2012 is the year of the big social brand. This means it’s time to get engaged and build brand advocacy. iStrategy brought together a great group of thought leaders including Altimeter Group’s Brian Solis, McDonalds Director of Social Media Rick Wion and Former Facebook Marketing Director Randi Zuckerberg. They all spoke about various topics, trends and best practices pertinent to social business for big and small brands alike. The sessions at iStrategy broke down the concept of brand advocacy and brought up some great questions that every brand should be considering: How do I create advocates for my brand? People are already talking about your brand. Here are a few tips picked up in the sessions and around happy hour tables at iStrategy that brands are actively taking to heart to grow their advocates: – People believe people, not corporations. Remember this when talking to your customers and don’t be afraid to have a personality and even highlight your people behind the corporate social media channels. – The best advocates are also influencers, so nurture relationships with bloggers, … Read More