Social Marketing News 2/1/10

Rachelle Houle-Maisner, Interactive Producer — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:22:43 +0000

Apple’s iPad was the biggest news last week, drawing attention from every corner of the web. Within minutes of the announcement, hype turned into hysterics as the jokes started pouring in. Apparently #iTampon was the third most trending topic that evening. Many see the Maxi- I mean iPad as a huge threat to existing eBooks like the Kindle. I’m not so sure about that. Yes the iPad has a full color LED display, but one very important feature of a true eBook is eInk. This is a low res, black and white display with a low refresh rate that reduces eye strain, making the screen more like reading printed paper. To me the iPad is like a glossy magazine, but the Kindle is like a simple black and white novel. The bookworms that consume the most eBook content are going to stick with Kindle, and the iPad will appeal to people looking for a Netbook first, eBook second.

Interested in measuring ROI from your Facebook efforts? That’s about to become a little easier when Facebook rolls out its new conversion tracking tool. Facebook announced the upcoming feature at last week’s OMMA Social event in San Francisco. MediaPost embedded video from the discussion on this article.

Proctor & Gamble is officially in favor of social media marketing, embracing Facebook in particular and encouraging its brands to do the same. I found it interesting that in the article reporting on this topic, AdAge felt it was necessary to quote Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation for P&G, with contradictory remarks from 2008. This one caught my eye:

“Who said this is media?” he said. “Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

With this quote AdAge is perhaps trying to demonstrate a riff in P&G’s ranks, though the remarks were said over a year ago and I have the suspicion that it may have been out of context. Whether McConnell supports social media marketing or not, this is a great quote with a lot of truth behind it. We can’t treat social media as advertising, it’s an entirely different kind of game. Ignite’s Jim Tobin was on the same wavelength in a recent Web Trends episode when he said, ”The web is the worst place in the world for interrupting people.” I couldn’t agree more.

Facebook

P&G Embraces Facebook as Big Part of Its Marketing Plan - AdAge

Facebook Now Has Yahoo In Its Sites, Already Bigger In Pageviews (ComScore) - Tech Crunch

Facebook Develops Conversion Tracking Tool: What’s A Fan Worth? – MediaPost

Why Your Boss Hates Facebook - ReadWriteWeb

Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook [STATS] - Mashable

R&R Partners: Build the Brand, Protect the Brand » facebook ROI

Social Marketing News 2/1/10

Foursquare

Social Media: Strategy

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Digital Advertising

Internet Trends

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.