Here's a brief and interesting white paper titled "Making the Case for a Social Media Strategy".  It clearly lays out and reinforces that it's the end user - the personal publisher sharing their voice, ideas, or opinions - who is exerting more and more choice and control over the ways the media - including advertising - is being created and distributed.

This is an important element of Q-Ads' value to end-users ... the ability to exercise more choice and control over what advertising they use and where they place it alongside or within the content of a blog post.

Social media – online sites like blogs and discussion boards where consumers create and share information and opinions directly with each other -- are beginning to affect brands. Examples like the Kryptonite lock crisis and Intuit’s continued success have convinced marketers to incorporate social media into their plans. In many companies, marketers must convince their senior management executives who don’t understand the influence the social aspects of the Web experience is exerting on their brands.

Here’s the elevator pitch to give to a busy executive:

The influence traditional media and marketing have over consumer perception is waning as people use the plethora of digital technologies to circumvent traditional sources to obtain information and entertainment from each other. But these social media outlets are more than another channel through which to deliver messages to the marketplace. Companies like GM, Microsoft, Intuit and New Line Cinema are successfully using social marketing strategies to understand and engage their audiences more deeply – with demonstrable business results.

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Read the rest of a white paper from Cymfony titled "Making the Case for a Social Media Strategy"

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