Zeno Group Blog

From Absolut to Zappos, companies are embracing a new era of customer engagement and influencer marketing online; although many laggards remain when it comes to social media. Corporate hesitation is rooted in three traditional marketing considerations: message control, brand management and ROI. While these are still important topics to evaluate in marketing efforts, companies should first think of social media in terms of relationships and community; rather than revenues and corporate identity.

“The Growth of Social Technology Adoption,” a new report from Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff indicates that 69 percent of U.S. online adults read, watch or consume social content; while 75 percent use social tools to connect to each other.

Peter Kim, an entrepreneur and former Forrester analyst, is tracking social media efforts through a continuously growing list; which currently features more than 270 brands and their initiatives. The most popular social media tools, or influencer platforms, include YouTube/online video, blogging, Twitter/microblogging, social networks, widgets, crowdsourcing, photosharing and podcasting.

The rising popularity in social media is evident in how many times Mr. Kim’s list has been bookmarked – nearly one thousand times on Delicious, one of the most widely used social media/bookmarking tools. Marketers who need proof that companies can be successful through social media should bookmark, explore and share this list. For active social media participants, the most admired question of 2008 is “Will it blend?” These three words represent a groundbreaking Blendtec/YouTube campaign, rather than concerns of an old-school marketer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Social Media . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.