Eight out of ten agencies are monitoring social media for clients. Though there are too many tools, too few benchmarks and too few ways to integrate data from multiple sources according to the 4A’s inaugural “Agency Social Media Monitoring and Reporting Survey.” With “significant variation in social media monitoring, reporting and associated business practices from one agency to another” … more than half of respondents felt they were doing a good job for clients, even though many clients are still not convinced of the value of social media. Agencies, of all shapes and sizes, are looking for better ways to understand what’s being said about brands across a growing array of social media platforms. 

Contests are a staple of social media. They generate leads, opt-ins, sharing, comments and virility. The conventional wisdom is that simple contests spawn cost efficient customer engagement that makes people happy. 

The cool kids have abandoned Facebook and headed to Tumblr.  Twenty-nine million unique visitors signed in four days each week to gain access to 44 billion posts on 102 million blogs. The average user logged-in for 154 minutes and looked at 30 pages per visit. One in eight used a mobile device to tumble. 

Reach, credibility and influence are the ultimate objectives of social media marketing. Reaching the right audience in ways that resonate, prompt viral distribution and drive action are the reason we get out of bed in the morning. In the scramble for attention, credibility and ad dollars the social channels jockey to make their cases. One has volume and global scale. Another has real-time immediacy; a third touts its influence and opinion leadership. A fourth is the playground of the too-cool-for-school crowd. 

Facebook’s Newsfeed re-design, the first since this feature was introduced in 2006, is aimed at increasing engagement, expanding time spent on the social network, overcoming Facebook fatigue and creating more inventory and more interoperability for advertisers.