Social Media Group to Acquire Livingston Communications

Dundas, Ontario and Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 21, 2008

Social Media Group and Livingston Communications today announced they have signed a letter of intent to create the world’s largest independent social media marketing and communications firm. The acquisition of Livingston Communications will be completed in August, 2008.

Acquiring Livingston Communications will grow Social Media Group’s staff to 20, and round out an already significant client portfolio with more technology and nonprofit social media clientele. Including Livingston Communications, Social Media Group will now have operations in Toronto, Calgary and Washington, DC creating a significant North American footprint.

“I am absolutely thrilled that Geoff Livingston and his team will be joining SMG. Geoff is one of the industry’s most highly respected thought leaders. Adding his social PR practice to our already comprehensive services creates a social media offering capable of serving any Global 2000 company, rivaling every traditional communications agency or consulting firm’s ‘social media practice’,” said Maggie Fox, CEO of Social Media Group. “Together our combined assets position our company as the largest independent and most experienced social media firm globally.”

In the combined entity, Geoff Livingston, CEO of Livingston Communications and author of Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs (http://nowisgone.com/), will become Executive Vice President, Americas for Social Media Group and continue to head the Washington office. Social Media Group will also acquire the internationally recognized Buzz Bin blog (http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog) and the BlogPotomac conference (http://www.blogpotomac.com/) as part of the deal.

“It’s clear that companies are desperate for qualified social media marketing and communications services creating an immediate opportunity to serve large enterprises,” said Geoff Livingston. “Joining forces with Social Media Group accelerates our ability to offer the necessary resources to serve these enterprises. I look forward to working with Maggie to create the world’s best social media agency.”

The letter of intent between the firms was agreed upon last week. The deal is for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.

About Livingston Communications

Livingston Communications is one of the leading “social public relations” agencies in the greater Washington area, serving a wide variety of companies with diverse communication programs. The company’s Buzz Bin blog is regularly ranked as one of the top PR blogs in the world. Our services include marketing strategy, traditional media and analyst relations, and social media programs. For more information, visit http://www.livingstonbuzz.com.

About Social Media Group

Headquartered near Toronto with offices in Calgary and Washington, DC, Social Media Group (http://www.socialmediagroup.ca) is the world’s largest independent agency helping business navigate the new socially engaged Web. We take the best of both worlds – thorough business process oriented consulting to uncover the true strategic objectives, combined with tactical execution featuring the creative energy and precision-oriented results of a top-flight integrated communications firm. Services include corporate social media strategy, content creation and management, influencer relations, reputation measurement and monitoring, and educational seminars and workshops.

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Social2B Announces a New Approach to Social Media Metrics, Measurement, and Scalability

Social2B – Leader in Social Media Scalability

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 16, 2011

Social2B announces a new methodology to help companies establish a Social Media Metrics and Measurement strategy, assess their social media maturity and help build the proper infrastructure to address the growing need for scalable Social Media Marketing efforts across the Enterprise.

As social media continues to become part of an Enterprise marketing strategy, it becomes imperative to measure its success. Social2B is addressing this ever-growing need for measuring the Social Media Marketing ROI (Return on Investment) by helping companies align their traditional business metrics with newly emerging Social Media Metrics, such as – Twitter followers, Facebook ‘Likes’ and a variety of other social community building metrics and indicators. This allows marketers to better quantify and justify the investment involved in Social Media campaigns to the C-Level Suite.

The Methodology, service and associated social media product and platform offerings will be launched on March 14, 2011 and will be available to all businesses immediately. They will combine a carefully selected, ‘client optimized’ set of services to assess, align and enhance companies’ social media efforts using traditional business metrics and social media metrics.

“Social media is serious business and everyone is realizing the need to treat it as such,” said Ytzik Aranov, Social2B co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. “Yet, marketers are still struggling with justifying the scaling of social media efforts to their C-Level Suite and their Board. These services will help them do just that.”

According to The CMO Club’s recent survey, today’s most sought-after skills within marketing organizations were in social media, analytics, search optimization and integrated marketing technologies. Based on recent eMarketer research, 4 out of 5 US businesses over 100 people will use Social Media Marketing in 2011. Social2B’s new service will help identify a social media strategy for Key Performance Indicators (KPI), which are still being refined by standards bodies and organizations alike. As KPI’s vary in each business and each industry, Social2B will assist its clients in establishing the metrics that are important to their business.

“Scaling social media efforts will become a top agenda item for 2011 and 2012, as businesses begin to realize a full potential of social media marketing, tools and technologies,” said Alex Romanovich, Founder and Board Member of Social2B. “It’s only a matter of time when social media will become a mainstream metric of every client-centric business and will be integrated into every part of the value chain – HR, Legal, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, and other strategic parts of an organization.”

About Social2B

Social2B is a social media marketing company focused on helping businesses build an integrated social media marketing strategy. Social2B’s Social Media Scalability Methodologies combine strategy with implementation, integration, technology and analytics to provide unique, goal-oriented services across the entire Value Chain of the Enterprise. Social2B’s unique Social Media Scalability Roadmap is a perfect fit for medium and large size corporations looking for growing client engagement and measurable results.

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Technorati Tags: Announces, Approach, Measurement, Media, metrics, Scalability, Social, Social2B

The Social Media Revolution Comes to Tulsa #SMTulsa

Becky McCray

Tulsa, OK (PRWEB) February 21, 2011

Tulsa area thought leaders, internet marketers, PR specialists, and tech enthusiasts will all gather for an afternoon of sharing knowledge, and sparking ideas.

“Social Media is about all the ways we create and share with each other,” stated Becky McCray, keynote speaker.

Social Media Tulsa is a community that invites its members to gather and talk about the impact of Social Media on business, news, entertainment, sports, non-profit, and other areas of everyday life. Since last June, the group has met monthly, exploring and promoting the many exciting companies and venues in the city of Tulsa.

The first Social Media Tulsa Conference seeks to educate, engage, and enliven the community. Breakout sessions will allow attendees to select the topics that are of interest to them. The speakers will share their unique stories of success in using social networks for business, non-profit, job hunting, or following their passions.

The official charity partner of the conference is Breast Impressions, Inc. Breast Impressions‘ mission is to increase breast cancer awareness and fundraising to support breast cancer education, prevention, and treatment. Using the social giving site Give a Tweet, attendees, companies, and supporters can donate, or match cash donations to support Breast Impressions. A portion of the proceeds from the conference will also be donated.

Conference speakers include: Mandy Vavrinak, Doug Stewart, Michael D. Butler Sr., Ronald Skelton, Lori Cain, Marty Coleman, Heather Cupp, Carlos Moreno, Cheryl Lawson, and others. Becky McCray, rural entrepreneur, small town business owner, and social media consultant will be the keynote speaker.

Social Media Tulsa Conference organized by event specialist, Cheryl Lawson of Party Aficionado LLC., includes lunch, keynote speakers, breakout sessions, exhibits, and a cocktail reception.    

Sponsors and media partners are joining forces to help make Social Media Tulsa Conference a success.

“We appreciate Cheryl for organizing this awesome opportunity for Tulsans who want to learn more about social media and rub elbows with the movers and shakers in the #SMTulsa community. Hope to see you all at the conference,” stated Lori Cain, residential realtor and speaker.

“Join #SMTulsa conference 3-24-11 http://bit.ly/hhwF5D ” is the official Tweet.

To register for Social Media Tulsa conference click on the link below, or visit SocialMediaTulsa.org

About Social Media Tulsa:

It all began with Social Media Day Tulsa at Fat Guys Burger Bar in the historic Greenwood district.

Social Media Tulsa is a community that invites its members to gather and talk about the impact of Social Media on business, news, entertainment, sports, nonprofit, and any other areas. You don’t have to be an expert to join. Social Media and social networking is new and growing and no one can claim to know it all. Collectively, we can share knowledge. To learn more and join the meetup group visit http://socialmediatulsa.org/.

About Party Aficionado

Party Aficionado is the leading social marketing firm. We help you share your story using event marketing, social media marketing, internet marketing, and PR.

Learn more visit http://www.partyaficionado.com/.

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Attachments

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, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Technorati Tags: #SMTulsa, Comes, Media, Revolution, Social, Tulsa

Effective Social Media Strategies Focus of New Restaurant-Industry Conference

Louisville, KY and San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 20, 2011

FohBoh Social Media and NetWorld Alliance, publisher of FastCasual.com, QSRweb.com and PizzaMarketplace.com, have partnered to produce the Foodservice Social Media Universe conference, a two-day event to raise awareness and use of B2B and B2C social media tools and strategies. It will be held Sept. 18-20, 2011, in San Francisco at Hotel Kabuki.

The conference is intended for restaurant operators and foodservice industry vendors, manufacturers and service providers. The event will begin with an opening reception Sept. 18 and will end with a closing keynote Sept. 20 to be given by FohBoh founder and CEO Michael L. Atkinson.

The conference is open to all executive members of the foodservice industry, including public relations and marketing professionals, human resources executives, business development directors, branded food and beverage manufacturers, CEOs and their executive teams.

“Since we launched FohBoh in November 2007, social media has grown beyond what many foodservice-industry executives have come to understand. By producing this event in partnership with NetWorld Alliance, we hope to provide valuable and current actionable strategies to help the foodservice industry grow through the social web,” Atkinson said.

Prior to the official conference launch, the social media team at FohBoh will host a pre-conference workshop that will cover the basic social media tools and applications available for foodservice operators – Social Media 101. The FohBoh team of social media practitioners also will host a post-session conference designed to help operators develop a custom social media strategy based on conference topics and takeaways – Social Media 201.

Sessions and panels will target three main areas of the social web: Social Media Management, Software as a Service and Location-based Marketing. The event also will focus on the establishment of restaurant-industry best practices surrounding the topics of brand monitoring, customer engagement and social media measurement.

“We first met Michael after our 2010 Fast Casual Executive Summit and quickly came to the mutual agreement that a conference was needed focused solely on social media for foodservice operators. Between FohBoh’s strong credibility in the social media space, and our experience putting on first-class events, this was a natural partnership,” said Valerie Killifer, vice president of foodservice media at NetWorld Alliance.

Conference registration is $ 695 and an additional $ 99 each for the pre- and post-conference workshops. Visit http://fsmu.fohboh.com to stay informed on all conference announcements, including agenda topics and speakers.

Follow us on Twitter @FSMU and Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Foodservice-Social-Media-Its-BIG/156200487777526.

Media contact:

Valerie Killifer

valeriek(at)fastcasual(dot)com

502-241-7545 x143

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7Summits Re-ignites SocialMedia.org, Keeping the Community for Social Media Leaders on the Forefront of Leading Edge Design and Technology

An example of a SocialMedia.org Member Center user profile.

MILWAUKEE (PRWEB) April 26, 2011

SocialMedia.org, the community for social media leaders of global brands, has launched a completely redesigned member center designed and deployed by social business agency 7Summits.

Already a vibrant community, rapid growth at the subscription-based SocialMedia.org created a need to move the community to a new platform that could deliver even greater capabilities. Members were looking for new ways to connect with peers, access content and keep up-to-date on this rapidly evolving field.

SocialMedia.org turned to 7Summits for its expertise in creating social sites that are both functional and engaging. “7Summits brought thought leadership, fresh thinking and great execution that have created a resounding effect already,” said Andy Sernovitz, CEO of SocialMedia.org. “We needed it built right, and we needed it built fast, and 7Summits made it happen.”

7Summits’ team of strategists, designers and developers built the SocialMedia.org member center on Jive Social Business Software (SBS) 4.5. Drawing upon their experience creating engaging communities for large companies nationwide, the 7Summits team worked with Social Media.org to design the site’s new experience, develop and test the necessary technology, and ensured the complete migration of the existing community profiles and content.    

“Members of SocialMedia.org are working together to shape social media trends with people that they trust,” said Paul Stillmank, President & CEO of 7Summits. “Working with Andy and his team, we’ve structured the new community to provide access to cutting-edge knowledge and enable conversations to occur here that simply don’t happen anywhere else. Members can also make contacts and enhance their standing among peers to better share information about how social media is quickly reshaping how business gets done. Needless to say, we felt a tremendous responsibility to get these improvements right and we are proud of the work.”

Members are responding positively to SocialMedia.org’s continued progression. “Participating in socialmedia.org has proven instrumental in our ability to research ideas, stay up to date on trends, and network with other social media professionals at major brands,” said Amit Wadehra, Strategy and Content Manager of Social Networking at Allstate Insurance Company. “The new member center provides useful tools that make it easy to connect with other leaders in the space and share valuable experiences.”

SocialMedia.org member screenshots are available and additional examples of 7Summits’ work can be found in its portfolio.

About 7Summits

7Summits, http://www.7SummitsAgency.com, is a Social Business Agency founded in 2009 to help clients engage customers, partners and employees to help grow their business. 7Summits’ solutions deliver results by improving both social relevancy and social enablement. The firm refers to this approach as Applied Social Media, and has helped many Fortune 1000 brands to become more socially connected organizations. 7Summits offers deep expertise in social business strategy, community experience design, platform development, and community activation.

About SocialMedia.org

We’re the community for social media leaders at the world’s greatest brands. Members help one another by sharing best practices, practical ideas, and solutions to the issues they can’t talk about anywhere else. We’re all about fast answers, real-time collaboration, and an internal focus on your company – not campaigns. If you’re leading social media at a major brand, you belong in this family.

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©Copyright 1997-

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

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Technorati Tags: 7Summits, Community, Design, Edge, Forefront, Keeping, Leaders, Leading, Media, Reignites, Social, SocialMedia.org, Technology

Target the Right Social Media Sites

In today’s world of technological advancements, only a few can remain off this space. People sitting at a distant land know much about a person blogging from a different continent. We have friends whom we have never met in the real world, we know about their culture, tradition, family and friends and much more than we would even care to know; and to top it all, we often get to know about a person even without enquiring about it.

It happens through several social networking sites and to be specific a detailed information about the person is received through blogs. Blogs gives one an opportunity to speak up or write things in detail and then place it in front of potential readers.

Blogs can be a good way to promote business, big or small, through blogs people come to know about the nature of business and the sector in which your organization operates.

Blogging or describing about a certain thing is just not enough. After you have written about what you want people to know, the blog should be directed towards the kind of people who you think are interested in such matters. Bloggers need to recognize the incredible potential that social media marketing provides.

As it is easy to do so, many want to maximize the traffic they receive from social media. To maximize the traffic one can add a Digg button to their posts or sign up for an account at StumbleUpon. Interesting point here is that, many bloggers often overlook the fact that there are numerous options available which would help them position their blog and business better as per their style and need.

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Technorati Tags: Media, Right, Sites, Social, target

Responding to Top Of Mind Awareness Reactions With Social Media

In my last article, I talked about Top Of Mind Awareness and how Social Media Marketing is a new frontier that your company should considering adding to your marketing mix.

Today I want to talk more about how Social Media Marketing can help increase your credibility through building relationships and testimonials.

I talked in my last article about how capturing Top of Mind Awareness means you are the first person (or company) people think of when they think of a certain product or services. What I didn’t cover is the reaction that follows. There is another element beyond that top of mind thought. After you responded with the first product or service that came to mind you most likely had one of four reactions regarding their product or service:

Positive: You have used their product or service and loved it. It was great and you would recommend it to your friends. In fact, next time you do that type of business you’ll do it with that same company again, because you like the product or service so much. You are so pleased with the service that even if a competitor comes along and gains the top of mind experience you are not likely to change service / product.

Curious: You wonder if the product or service is as great as advertised. Next time you are in the market for that type of product or service you’ll probably at least check them out. Or if you are currently having a positive experience with a competitor but they fail you in some way in the future you’ll most likely check out this company who has gained your Top of Mind Awareness.

Indifferent: You have tried the product or service and found that it is okay, but not great and fantastic. If it is convenient you may take advantage of that product or service, but you won’t go out of your way for it.

Negative: You had a really bad experience with the company. A bad product or service has really turned you off. In fact if that product or service comes up in conversation you will most likely make a point to share your bad experience in hope of saving someone from having a bad experience.

The great thing about Social Media Marketing is that it can provide you with a wealth of opportunities and take advantage of each reaction.

About a year ago, a local Chiropractor I saw frequently and was following on Facebook was giving out Starbucks gift cards for the first ten people to post their testimonial on his Facebook page. What an ingenious idea! All of a sudden he had several testimonials he could use in other marketing. People who were following him could read the testimonials for themselves and he could have even taken those testimonials and promoted them on other social media sites. (For example, he could have sent out a tweet on twitter that said, “Check out what our customers say about us!).

By encouraging testimonials you can build a huge repository so that new people begin to give you credibility. With testimonials, people who are curious can see that you are really as good as you say you are. Indifferent people may give you another try. You also have the chance to see what customers really think. If a negative person posts a comment such as, “Their check out lines are to long,” you have instant feedback that you can then take and improve on. You could respond to the comment by saying, “We appreciate your feedback. As a result our new commitment is to open a new checkout lane every time there are more than 5 people standing in line.” When people feel valued and believe that a company really cares about what they think, their negativity can be changed into positive beliefs about the company. Responding to negative comments can also show others that you are a caring company who doesn’t just show their “Sunday best” but who are interesting in building trust.

It is undisputed that word of mouth is the best type of marketing. Social Media Marketing allows you to take that word of mouth and get the most mileage out of it by promoting and encouraging testimonials from customers, friends and family of customers. You can then take the virtual “word of mouth” and spread it around your local community. As a result your business has huge potential to grow in your community.

We at Be Sighted Social Media are offering a free white paper to help you get started, simply visit our website!

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Technorati Tags: Awareness, Media, Mind, Reactions, Responding, Social

How A Social Media Optimisation Campaign Works

The reason why your business needs Social Media Optimisation

Secure your products and services infront of more prospective customers
Update your ‘followers’ quickly and easily with product and service updates which generates loyalty to your company
Boost the profile of your company with your consumers, potential customers and search engines to help them locate you time and again
Most importantly………INCREASE CONVERSIONS!

Company Social Media Campaign

Fully branded in your company logo with banner links to your main website
You have full admin access to update your SMC when required
SMC is linked with your Facebook and Twitter accounts for automatic updates
Your SMC is integrated with RSS News Feeds, and Social Bookmark and sharing capabilities PLUS a Google News XML sitemap
Each content update on your SMC will include a backlink to your main website to increase specific keyword rankings

On-line Press Releases:

We create well written, newsworthy press releases about your business, products, services and events (such as sales or product discounts)
Submission to hundreds of news portals and syndicated through hundreds of news feeds which are picked up by thousands of news subscribers looking for news in your industry (potential customers)
Picked up by Google news which increases rankings and relevance of your website in the Google index

Social Bookmarking Submissions:

Each Press Release Information Article or post on your SMC is manually submitted to 10 premium social bookmark websites including Digg.com
Increases visibility of your website in search engines and improves link profile, which in turn increases rankings
Positions your website in-front of your target market

Information Articles:

Our copywriters create well written informative articles in your products, services and industry
Submission to 50 + of the most highly regarded article syndication websites and each one uploaded and distributed through your SMC
Successful submissions result in author credits and powerful backlinks to your main website to boost rankings for your target keywords

Company Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (for B2B) sites:

Set up of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles for your on-line business
All profiles linked to your SMC and social bookmark accounts for regular updates
All SMC updates (blog posts, press releases and information articles) are posted to Facebook and Twitter to update your “followers”

Marketing Your Company SMC:

FoundUB4 will market your SMC over 12 months to drive traffic to your website
Monthly link building, content development, social bookmarking and relevant directory submissions
Getting your SMC in front of more potential customers!

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FoundUB4 is a small, yet focused social media agency Barrie is a Social Media Specialist with experience in social media optimisation Extremely technical and passionate about search marketing in its entirety. Visit us on-line at http://www.FoundUB4.com

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Technorati Tags: Campaign, Media, optimisation, Social, Works

Social networking has an impact on search engine marketing

Search engine marketing is starting to be heavily influenced by social networking.

According to new research from Experian Hitwise, social networking websites are grabbing significant amounts of traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. As a result search engine marketing agencies appear to be adopting their search marketing strategies to encompass the relatively new technology. John Merakovsky, a search engine optimisation expert from Experian, told ZDNet: “Social networking visits have consistently exceeded search engine usage.” He said that the trend has been strong in the Asia region since 2007 and it looks like the trend could take off around the globe.

Experian Asia Pacific’s research showed that social networks in Hong Kong accounted for 16.69 per cent of user visits in the week ending October 23rd. This is compared with just 7.58 per cent for the leading search engines. In Singapore, the numbers were 15.57 per cent and 10.15 per cent respectively. The trend could easily change the face of search engine marketing, which is going to get a more real-time, user interaction focus.

Meanwhile, Steve Hodgkinson, a leading IT analyst with Ovum, told the news provider that social networking is merely the next step in the development of search – which means every SEO Company worth their salt will have to keep abreast of the latest Facebook and Twitter search engine optimisation developments.

“Social search is just a natural evolution of search made possible by the creation of social network databases that are available for exploitation by new forms of search algorithms and social networking dialogue,” Mr Hodgkinson claimed.

Meanwhile, James Roy, senior analyst at China Market Research Group, told ZDNet: “People are realising that information such as music or online videos which their friends like and recommend, are more likely to interest them than what is broadly popular on the Internet or has a high Google ranking.” Microsoft’s online search executive Yusuf Mehdi recently claimed that the integration of social media into its search offering was a major part of its new strategy to personalise search. His comments came as Microsoft signed a lucrative deal with the leading social networking site Facebook.

Technorati Tags: Engine, Impact, marketing, networking, Search, Social

The Purpose Of Social Media

You’ve heard all the hype about social media. You know you should join in because if you don’t your competitors will and you’ll lose out on big potential money. On the other hand, you dread the thought because you already have enough going on and it’s just one more thing to add to the growing list of things to do.

Of course, this is where I’d love to plug our services and say let us handle that for you, but that really isn’t the point of this blog.

Before engaging in social media you need to know WHY you are going to focus on social media. You need to have a purpose and know what you want from social media. While marketing is becoming more and more about the customer, you’ll be much more effective in reaching them if you have goals.

I encourage you to sit down and take 15-30 minutes and just write out whatever comes to mind about what you’d like to accomplish through social media. Then choose the top three things and evaluate your current social media marketing.

If you want to bring in clients under the impression that you are the most helpful Real Estate agent in town, for instance, then your Facebook page & YouTube channel should reflect free tips for buyers and sellers. Be helpful. Don’t just post your listings and “contact me” messages. You get the idea.

Perhaps you have another goal for social media. Either way, if you know what goals you want to reach through social media marketing, you’ll be able to better determine which marketing content will achieve the desired results.

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Technorati Tags: Media, Purpose, Social