Want to know how marketers really feel about social media?

Check out these statistics from Alterian’s seventh annual social media marketing survey.

- 70% work with 3 or more suppliers to accommodate marketing services such as digital
marketing, database marketing, data hygiene, creative & brand, strategy, web analytics etc.
- 23% work with a “staggering” 7 or more suppliers
- 66% will invest in social media marketing, known as SMM
- 40% will shift more than 20% of their traditional marketing to SMM
- 36% invest in social media monitoring and analysis tools

The marketing industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Set against a backdrop of tight budgets, increased demand for accountability, the explosion in social media and informed, active and connected consumers, marketing is moving from mass communication towards multichannel customer engagement. While consumers are driving this change, marketers also are expecting their service providers to keep up and streamline and connect the services they offer Source: Alterian study.

One sentence stands out: a new type of partner is emerging – a Customer Engagement Agency (CEA) as does this quote:

“We’ve hinted before that agencies that can’t transition from pushing out messages to nurturing customer connections aren’t long for this world. Agency readers, heed our warning. Services firms that lack data management, analytics, listening, social media execution, and strategy expertise will dry up.” – ”US Interactive Forecast”, Forrester Research, Inc., July 2009

To learn more, download your copy of Alterian’s seventh annual social media marketing survey – registration required – then come back and let us know what you think.

Your Turn: What do you think is getting shifted out of traditional into SMM? How do all of those suppliers integrate?

Image: Barbara Rozgonyi copyright 2009 for www.thesociallens.com

It’s Monday. I’m home from BlogHer. I miss San Francisco. I listened to fascinating stories. I talked too much. I lost my voice. I didn’t sleep there. I slept here until 10 this morning. I am not back on central standard time. I did upload some images. Here is one, taken in Union Square.

And, I’m in a mild state of shock.

On Friday, my blog was named to  Alltop’s PR list. What’s 14 x 3? Oh yeah, it’s 42. That’s how many PR blogs Alltop lists today.

On Saturday, I made it into the AdAge150, coming in at 467.

And on Sunday, I came in at number 32 on a world’s top 50 PR blog list.

This is all well and good and I am pleased as punch, if only to prove that what the heck? I guess I do know what I’m doing. . . and yet, I silently wonder:

Am I good enough?

Who am I to be at the top?

What do these rankings really mean?

And, in the end, what does it matter?

Today what matters is that my clients get the attention they deserve, my family gets some kind of attention from me – at least a hug or kiss or two, the bird feeder is on full, the cat can find her catnip cigar and I’m on time for the finance committee meeting at church tonight.

You betcha, I’ll list these rankings. But, I won’t pose as a world-ranked PR guru. Because, really I’m not- yet, anyway.

I am a person who helps people tell their stories.

One of my most gratifying moments came near the end of BlogHer. Someone found me and asked me to help a young woman conquer her public speaking fears. Although she was comfortable speaking to thousands from a stage as protestor, she was petrified of talking about business to a small group of supportive local business owners. Security stopped by to ask us to leave – twice. The party was almost over. But our conversation was too important to end our discussion.

Being comfortable delivering your message to the intended audience is a huge roadblock: I hope I helped her move it and I hope that everyone who stops by here is somehow inspired to be who they want to be and then talk about who you are to the people who want or need to listen.

And, I really, really want to congratulate all the other PR bloggers on all the lists for being the brightest PR beacons that burn through the fog.

Two years. Three platforms. 399 posts. Today I’m celebrating my second anniversary as a blogger.

For some reason, I thought my anniversary date was 06.06.06. But, it’s today: 06.02.06.

Actually, I wrote my first blog post – ever – in the fall of September 2004. I chose something silly to amuse my audience, make it easy on me and avoid a commitment. Designed to be part of a presentation on digital communications, my first blog featured one post: a picture of my cat in a bed of Beanie Babies. I’m not counting that one.

Almost two years later, I started blogging for business, kicking off my blog and my ezine simultaneously. This time, the first post “Creative Confetti” talked about an artist whose press release I’d written. He’s a zany guy who reinvents famous artists’ works with a story worthy of a motion picture [hint: that's how we got him so much publicity.]

But, I thought that story was too creative. Instead, I ran the exact same content as my ezine readers received in a post titled: How to Warm Up Relationships.

Back then, I included a video with every ezine article. Most of them were, well, not that good. But, they were fun to make. The video that went with the first issue told the story of a basement, an octopus and a realtor. While I won’t retell the story now-you’ll have to wait, I will say I think I started out on the right track.

How do you warm up or reheat your community relationships?

Technorati Tags: Blogs,Anniversary,Marketing,Relationships,Barbara Rozgonyi,Wired PR Works

Problem: you have no iPod or a limited CD collection – you write better when you listen to music – you have a HUGE deadline – tomorrow and you need creative inspiration NOW

Solution: set up your own creative inspiration soundtrack when you register for free and dial your mood into Musicovery at www.musicovery.com

How I found it: I won’t go into details about how I have a free, in-house social media-Internet marketing research resource. Did I mention this one commandeers the college market? The intern surfed using an upcoming Cool Tool to be revealed that led them to Musicovery.

Because today is an intense client production day, I needed some music to get me through in ways that caffeine cannot. My first attempt was to watch/play a live REM DVD on my studio’s flat screen – didn’t work; too visually engaging. But, this does.

Here’s how . . .

Chosen as one of the Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites by PC Magazine, the site lets you dial in mood [like dark and energetic]/dance/me, select from 18 genres and decided on a decade – now that’s customization!

You can explore last songs played and wonder at a connectivity grid that shows how artists relate. One caution: keep your hands on the keyboard and your eyes away from the grid if you want to meet your deadline.

Browse the Cool Tool series.

How do fuel your creativity? Leave a comment and let us know . . .

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

Technorati Tags: Cool Tools,Musicovery,Writing,Barbara Rozgonyi,Wired PR Works,Productivity

Finding myself stuck here rather than on the road over the weekend due to an overly productive snowstorm, I hit the gym in search of double workout: cardio/social. On the elliptical, a neighbor and I started talking about the job market. As we racked up miles, our conversation soon wandered off to a topic I’d never considered before: wedding publicity.

Jim told me about a couple whose wedding dance video – with over 8 million views from the top poster – got them spots on Ellen, NBC’s Today show, MSNBC, WNBC New York and who knows where else. The bride’s dressmaker, J.Crew, is the fortunate recipient of all kinds of publicity they couldn’t dream up or buy.

Searching for Wedding Dance on YouTube, I found 25,600 videos. The first result is the Brubaker video, which also gets seven listings out of the top 20 videos. The highest number of views comes from johnm’s submission.

Take a look at the stats for the original source of Best First Dance Brubaker:

4165 ratings – overall 4 stars

1,957 comments

favorited 10, 216 times

Check out the number of clicks from these sites that link to the video:

1998381 clicks from http://widget-0f.slide.com/widgets/sf.swf

896705 clicks from http://widget.slide.com/widgets/single.swf

60694 clicks from http://widget-ce.slide.com/widgets/sf.swf

16953 clicks from http://video.stumbleupon.com/

13879 clicks from http://www.videosift.com/video/Best-First-Dance-at-a.

Added November 9, 2007 by johnm, John’s only YouTube video, the video is posted in the entertainment category with these tags: brubaker, first, dance.

SEO tagging is the biggest overlooked area for exposure when uploading videos, writing posts or participating in social media in general. I suggest adding: wedding dance, Baby Got Back dance, J Crew wedding dress, Righteous Brothers, Brubacker, Today Show, MSNBC, Ellen and top wedding videos.

Here’s the video . . . it starts out as a traditional slow dance and then mixes into a – well, watch it and you’ll see- dance.

PR Takeaways for Brides and Publicity Seekers of All Sorts [replace "wedding" with your product or service] . . .

Be original and sassy, go against convention

Get ideas from Top 10 Wedding Dance Videos

Submit your video to the categories where it will get noticed

Send the link to top posters in these categories; if they like it they’ll post it, too

Comment on popular videos and leave a link to yours

Visit the sites that get the most clicks and find out how to submit yours

Hire a choreographer and practice if you want a hit like this

Invest in a high-quality wedding video to make the most of your memorable day

Email everyone you know and ask them to spread the word about your video link

Entertain your live and future audiences with something wacky

Contact the dress designer to let them know the video is up

Know that once it’s up, it may never come down

What do you think – would you put your wedding video on YouTube?

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

Technorati Tags: Wedding Publicity,Wired PR Works,YouTube,Viral Videos,Barbara Rozgonyi,Product Endorsements,Wedding Dance