Social Media is not for every brand, but some have enjoyed tremendous success and conducted seamlessly efficient campaigns in social media. What has worked for them, and how? Not a normal breakout, not a completed case study, not another set of PowerPoint presentations, in iMedia's new "Marketing Interventions" we bring concrete marketing problems together with solutions. Each Intervention features brand judges onstage and a specific problem that "interventionists" pitch to solve, followed by a rough-and-tumble discussion among judges, interventionists and the audience.

Interventionists:
Chris Cunningham, CEO and Founder, appssavvy
David A. Yovanno, CEO, Gigya

Judges:
Sean Cheyney, VP, Marketing & Business Development, Accuquote (Pic from Sept Brand)
Brian Lipman, Manager, Interactive Marketing, ConAgra Foods

Moderator:
Masha Geller, Content Director, iMedia Summits

Mistaken Marketing Belief: Social media is a marketing minefield because it’s impossible to control what people say about your brand. Moreover, just because millions of consumers are on Facebook and other platforms, it doesn’t follow that brands can successfully market there at all. Social media sites produce poor quality traffic and are really all about getting a Facebook profile and a MySpace page to repurpose existing site content like press releases. Even then, measuring the impact of social media marketing is impossible. Right?

Wrong! Savvy brands have enjoyed tremendous success and conducted seamlessly efficient social media campaigns. What has worked for them and how? In this hour-long marketing intervention, we'll bring marketers and social media specialists together to wrestle with these issues in an "American Idol" style session.

Two social media specialty companies will each get 10 minutes to pitch a panel of marketers – and the iMedia audience – on how a brand should spend its social media budget, wrestling with issues that include:
• How much control is too little?
• What is a successful social media engagement and what does it require?
• Measuring the impact of your SMO efforts
• Convincing upper management to give social media a try
• What is Social Media Optimization? How do you plan to target the right audience for better-quality traffic?
• What are the best options for your brand? Should you stick to MySpace or branch out to photo-sharing sites like Flickr, Photobucket, Fotki, and video sites like YouTube, Break, or Hulu?
• Can article-sharing sites like Digg and del.icio.us give your company news and press releases longer legs?
• What to do if a social media campaign backfires
Our point of departure is a fictional case study, but our journey will take us deeper and wider – across different industry verticals, marketing objectives, and budgets.

Case study: Star Struck is a national chain of coffee houses offering gourmet beverages and food in a comfortable, meet-for-coffee environment. The company has a strong presence online but has never dabbled in social media. Originally, the company had planned to run three Super Bowl spots, but the CMO’s mom just “friended” her on Facebook so she has chosen to divert the three million dollars from one of those spots to a social media push to extend the reach and engagement of the campaign – and to drive customers to "meet for coffee at Star Struck."

GET THE PRESENTATION

• [Presentation] Download it now

Presenter: Chris Cunningham, CEO and Founder, appssavvy; David A. Yovanno, CEO, Gigya

Format: PPT