Digital Influence Mapping Project

Getting Serious By Segmenting Influencers

We manage databases of influencers for particular subject areas and clients that are 500 influencers strong. We know them all in one way or another. We respect their authority and their interests. And we only want to engage them for things that make sense to them (and our client). We want to respect their time and expertise.

We segment our influencers in absolute categories and in categories that are specific to a particular client project. Ever try engaging Food bloggers over a frozen food? You quickly realize that there are many segments of food bloggers. Some will put convenience on the front burner and be receptive. Others would just as soon burn you at the stake for ignoring their "pure" interests in food and presuming that they would ever engage with an FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) product like frozen peas or prepared meals.

I have spoken about our approach toSocial Influencer Relationship Management (Social IRM) which is really the grown-up management of our influencer relationships for their benefit and the brands we work with.

Everyone goes in the database. We track the following types of data:

1. who they are - we love to get to know the influencers we connect with often
2. how influential they are following our 6 measures (it ain't always about "reach")
3. what are their interest by categories and subcategories
4. what have we learned from talking with them about their interests (some really want to hear from brands on certain things and not on others)

There is nothing diabolical about keeping track of this information. Influencers who want to engage with relevant brands appreciate the disgression this breeds. Everyone hates indiscriminate "pitches."

Here's an example of a visualization of a segmentation we have done for a food related project (note to anyone featured here - don't worry, we are not targeting you. This list merely notes your authority and influence):

Segmenting Green

Jacquelyn Ottman had a great post on segmenting green consumers on HBR Blogs. This is the  type of useful segmentation that helps both us, the marketers, and the consumers or influencers (note: our online influencers range from professional witers to proam experts who are essentially regular consumers who have earned some authority in a certain area of interest)

Here's how she sums it up

"Ask: To which environmental organizations do members of our target audience belong (The Appalachian Mountain Club or Greenpeace)? Which types of vacations do they take (hiking or the beach)? Which environmental magazines and websites do they read or visit? (Sierra or Animal Fair?) Which types of products do they buy? (green fashions or energy-sipping light bulbs)? Which eco-labels do they seek out ("USDA Organic" or "Energy Star")?

In observing green consumers over the past twenty years my colleagues and I have found that asking questions like these allows companies to distinguish between four subsegments, which we've dubbed "Resource Conservers", "Health Fanatics", "Animal Lovers" and "Outdoor Enthusiasts." Of course, there are some overlaps among these groups, but discovering which subsegment your customers mainly fall into can sharpen your marketing. The following descriptions are generalizations, but they capture the spirit of each type of consumer."

She continues in describing each segment and importantly some ways marketers can be relevant to them. Here's an example fo her description for Outdoor enthusiasts:

"Outdoor Enthusiasts spend their free time camping, rock climbing, skiing, and hiking. They vacation in national parks and plan their next adventure using tips from Outdoors Magazine. Whether they're purchasing Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap to reduce the impact of washing dishes while camping, or toting reusable bottles like Kleen Kanteen to avoid littering the trail, they seek to minimize the impact of their recreational activities. When shopping, they look for FSC (sustainably harvested) labels on their products, are also likely to purchase outdoor gear made from recycled materials, such as Synchilla PCR (post-consumer recycled polyester) from Patagonia.

Some ways to appeal to outdoor enthusiasts:

1. Conduct a joint promotion with national parks or manufacturers of boots, reusable bottles, and trail mix snacks.
2. Advertise in Sierra Club magazine or online at Backpackers.com."

How do you segment and organize your online influencers?

My Event Strategy Starts With: We Are Like Minds - UK

While my colleague, Thomas Crampton, winds down his annual pilgrimmage to Davos (see some of his coverage here), I am planning out my next event - keynoting at an unusual conference/summit/workshop in Exeter, England called We Are Like Minds. Every year, I re-evaluate conference and meeting opportunities to make sure I am doing all I can to make these significant time commitments - whether I am speaking or just attending - worthwhile. We are still in a recession and regardless of that who has time or money to travel to an experience that doesn't provide some superior value?

My Core Criteria
There are some practical considerations for me when I get involved in an event. Some are basic and some are new for this year:

• Will I likely learn something substantial that I can apply to my business within the next 90 days (I learn something no matter how poor a conference event and I am talking about "substantial learnings"
• Can I connect with clients or brands during the trip? The "killing two birds with one stone" approach helps justify costs and time. Likewise, can I connect with my global team and deliver off on part of my business mission with them (e.g. new training, business development, their client meetings)
• Do I have something substantial to contribute as a teacher? Beyond the 'thought leadership points' of stage-time, is there an opportuntiy for me to share something highly useful with colleagues, something they can meaningfully apply to their business within 30 days? (I hold myself to a slightly higher standard which I hope to meet) I don't waNt to speak just to speak - too many folks burning us out with that.
• Can I meet a concentrated group of social media and word of mouth marketing practitioners for the sake of current and future recruiting needs? Meeting colleagues who are actually doing the work and sharing from experience is usually very valuable.

My 2010 Criteria
Beyond this base there are a few new criteria which draw from where I am at professionally - both on a personal level and as a leader at Ogilvy. Some are qualifiers on the above criteria, others are new criteria. 

• Will the event give me considerable opportunity to meet and talk with professionals in one of the core areas of my business focus this year? We have set priority areas of expansion for our business - social media platforms, geographies, business verticals. For instance, we are tremendously bullish on the use of the Facebook/Twitter social crm model for brands in a few markets around the world. We specialize in integrated social media programs that scale. Can I advance these expertise/offerings even further? Can I find or establish a "community of practice" even?
• Does the event go deep on any form of meaningful measurement? You might argue this is just another facet of the previous criteria yet it is a singular focus for us and worth calling out. Ever since we introduced Conversation Impact (or really when we began working on it), we are insatiably hungry for the best thinking on measuring impact and performance. Also, events that have a solid focus on measurement - marcom, business impact - tend to be more rigorous in their agenda - less fluffy talks/sessions.
• Will I learn new ways to innovate in a "bootstrap" environment? I was thinking about this the other day when talking with Andrew Nachison from WeMedia, another great conference coming up. My team at Ogilvy innovates all of the time coming up with new, more effective and impactful ways to use social media marketing. We embed that innovation in our day, so-to-speak. I am always eager to learn new ways of doing that.
• Is it provocative? Will the session likely challenge my own view of how the world turns in social media? This one is a hard one to gauge and yet can be the most compelling and impactful.

We Are Like Minds
Get info and register here
Dates: February 26-27, 2010
Place:Exeter, England

This conference will be provocative. It will also bring together professionals in core areas of business focus for me, practitioners for current recruiting and brands - local, national and global - that interest me and the I respect.

My session? It's new and it's something practical that brands and others can apply to their business today.

Time for a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy
Brands and organizations have been experimenting and getting sharp in social media marketing. That's good because in one way or another social media and the impact of word of mouth has become a global change. But this experimentation risks becoming social media tokenism. Little trials that may be ineffective or worse, it could burn out your organization's enthusiasm for the possibilities of social media before the miracle happens.  Brands like Intel, Ford, P&G, Unilever, Vodafone and others are trading up for a more comprehensive social media strategy that really delivers results. We will review a framework from these experiences that maps out how to develop a strategy today. And the 'watch-outs' - what do we need to be careful of as we develop and roll this out. What will this deliver for your brand? A disciplined approach to using social media to achieve the biggest impact on your business (and your oarganization) possible.

Join us. 

Three Reasons Not to Use Influencer Engagement

Influencer Engagement is when you identify a collection of medium-to-high influence social media publishers - people with their own blogs, Twitter handles or communities - and you invite them into play a role with a brand or organization via social media. Simple example is identifying the top 50 bloggers in a relevant segment or affinity and you invite them to HQ as part of a process to build a relationship with the brand. This is a bit different than simple "pitching" to top media bloggers.

The goals of influencer engagement
There are three fundamental communications goals for engaging influencers:

1. Getting their feedback to inform a marcom effort or product or service development
2. Inspiring them to become outbound word of mouth advocates (e.g. you want them to post authentically positive things about your brand, issue or organization)
3. Building relationships for longer term reputation management (i.e. "putting good will in the bank")

Role this plays
There are three roles and influencer strategy can play in a particular marcom initiative:

1. Strengthening and approach to a larger marcom campaign or product initiative by incorporating the feedback and insights generated through talking with these key influencers. Your product or campaign will end up more relevant and therefore more successful in the marketplace. We all "test" - this is another, effective way to get useful feedback
2. If Influencers talk positively, you earn third-party credibility for your brand. If their activity achieves any kind of reach or sparks substantial grassroots discussion (more WOM), you can influence the purchase decsion or opinion of the customers or stakeholders that you are trying to drive to action.
3. Allys can protect the brand in times of crisis and add value to the brand at all times. Admittedly, the digital influencer contribution to this is difficult to measure but not impossible.

Why you shouldn't use influencer engagement

Most marketing clients want to set up influencer engagements to inspire people to share word of mouth. If they are interested in feedback, it is by far a secondary benefit. As for building up long term relationships that may pay off for brand or reputation goals, while I would like to say that is a primary goal, that too is a nice-to-have. So, when should you avoid these types of programs:

1. Don't proceeed if you plan to ask for feedback simply as a demonstration that you are listening with no real intent or interest in acting on anything you hear from influencers. Many marketers will through in a listening activity with a group fo influencers as if it were a step to earning trust (it kind of is). If you don't plan on acting on anything you hear from these folks then don't set everyone up for disappointemt by asking them what they think of the new ad campaign or the way the product feels in their hands.
2. Don't proceed if you do not plan on amplifying their word of mouth to achieve some real impact. If you want your influencers' content - blog posts, tweets, videos, images - to reach an appreciable number of folks, then you should be prepared to do what you need to to add that scale and reach. Aggregating that content and then promoting it via paid media is one approach. Forming a partnership with a media entity (e.g. NBCu, Sugar Network, etc...) is another approach (almost always pay-to-play). Both are enhanced with some attention to an SEO program that does what it can (white-hat tactics only, please) to elevate these third-party listings in search. Without these scale efforts, will you really be happy with a few posts and tweets out there? It's authentic (or can be) but will your customers notice?
3. Don't proceed if you are not committed to delivering a true "value exchange" with your influencers. This principal (see more in this post) outlines what the influencer "gets" for their time and attention. Don't presume they are fascinated with your product nor ready to be rabid advocates. Also, don't presume you know what that value is for them. Carefully and discretely reach out to afew influencers and run your ideas by them. Could save you a big disappointment later when nobody bites). As you think this through, be clear about the new disclosure issues related to the FTC guidelines on endorsements and testimonials (see this post).

Not every brand is ready to reach out to influencers.They are other ways to use social media. You can drive yourself crazy pursuing such a program when you aren't ready to do what it takes. If there was an easier, softer way believe me, we would be all over it. One more myth-bashing proof point ( the myth that social media marketing is free). It actually takes work and commitment.

Centralized Control of Social vs. Spreading Social Throughout the Organization

Should there be social media marketing and communication experts within your enterprise or should "social" be spread out across the business within existing job functions?  This is a false question. Or at the least it is a question whose answer will predictably change over time.

Ultimately, business will identify and adopt best practices in the disciplines of social media and embed those in pre-existing job functions. "Social" will be a way of doing things and found everywhere across the business.

Media relations professionals have already largely made blogger outreach a part of their job. For all the criticsm of the public relations discipline, their early involvment in social media has led to this integration. Customer care professionals are adopting "social customer care" most obvious in the use of Twitter handles as an initial outreach and triage platform.

For the next 5 years, at least, brands will need experts who focus on making social media work and they do it 24/7/365. We need experts pushing what's next or pushing a disciplined  approach (read: metrics-driven).

The question for organizations is how to have it both ways. How can you train and empower staff across marcom, customer care, legal, and product development to use social as part of their job and maintain a tribe of experts in social at the center?

Jeremiah Owyang floated a deck of 4 Social Media Trends in 2010. Two of the four touched on this question:

"2. Live the 80% rule. This is a movement: get your company ready. 80% of success is getting the right organizational model, roles, processes, stakeholders, and teams assembled –only 20% should be focused on technology.

3. Customers don’t care what department you’re in. Customers just want their problem fixed, they don’t care what department you’re in. Yet, now, nearly every department can have a direct relationship with your customers using social tools. As a result, provide customers with a holistic experience Start to investigate how brand monitoring, community tools and CRM systems are merging."

He used a slide to portray 3 organizational models: Distributed, Centralized or Coordinated.  I would argue that these are academic distinctions that rarely manifest themselves in a neat and static way in real life. Unless you are in a regulated industry like pharma or finance with a culture attuned to the restrictions of communication and marketing laws, your organization likely started in social media via some uncoordinated enthusiasts using social media on some campaign or corp comms funtion - the comms team for a consumer brand, the marketers on a new product launch, a B2B brand manager starting a community.

You may have then hired the 1-2 social media guys/gals to help drive adoption and best-practice use of the discipline. The task quickly outstripped the capacity of the two sharpshooters to do the work themselves. After some discussions of hiring more social media experts, you then resolved to empower different business units and personnel to make social part of their jobs.

Then the "Center of Excellence" or "Social Media Council" was born inside the brand. This created a federation of social media "handraisers" from PR, marketing, customer care and elsewhere to come together to share guidelines and cases to intsitutionalize best practices and protect the brands reputation.

The magic isn't whether the brand chose this path - social media experts plus social media capacity-building - but how they did it. What was the knowledgebase solution that awarded entrepeneurial experiements but codified learning? How were people trained? How did they adopt workable and "pretty good" metrics models to inform their practices?

So, it's less about an organizational model and more about a process and path towards injecting social into the organization at a pace that makes sense for that business.   Note: Ford is cited as a centralized model. I have the great opportuntiy to work with Ford and I can tell you that it is not centralized. There are great social media programs and initiatives spread throughout he organization. The one element that is centralized in some respects is strategy. Ford has more epxerience than most brands in social media and realizes that a metrics-driven strategic apporach is the key to programs with the best impact and return on reputation(ROR).  

Video Game Statistics in a Sharp Infographic Format

Thanks to the ever-useful PFSK, here is a clever infographic of video game statistics. The Ogilvy NY Innovation Lab is all focused on gaming this month so perfect timing for this. The graphic comes from OnlineEducation.net which is filled with arcane knowledge (like a Day on the Internet)

Source: Online Education

Brands Delivering Utility

We want more value from brands. That doesn't mean discounts. It means that we are looking for brands to deliver more than products with benefits. Kraft is doing it via their iFood Assistant app. They are providing a useful application for the iPhone for which folks are willing to pay a buck. Weber Grills offers community, utility and valuable information via Weber Nation which  extends the Weber experience for the brand and gives customers a new form of value beyond the grill perfomance itself.It's easy to see on teh surface how strategies like these build loyalty.You can bet that both organizations have modeled out purchase data to demostrate ROI.

Whether it's utility, information, entertainment or community, brands feel the pressure to deliver more value to their customers and deepen a customer relationship that goes beyond traditional marketing and simple email-driven CRM efforts. They are also discovering that these additional values drive word of mouth beyond what their core product can do by itself.  

Geico Gets Useful

My insurance company - Geico recently released their iPhone app, the Geico Glove Box. I originally chose Geico as my auto insurance provider without much thought. In retrospect, I wish I had investigated word of mouth about their service. I got lucky. Their service has been good on those few occaisions I have needed them.

Now, I get their app. Two things I give them credit for - that they even tried to create something useful is a great move. And the app really seems useful. I can call roadside assistance straight from the phone. They feature a taxi-service finder that's obviosuly geo-based. I could connect to my account and make paymenst if I wanted to, and they have a complete contact directory based upon the context of my situation.

This trend will grow. Every brand should be asking themselves how they can deliver value across these four categories. Some may find like Nike did with Nike+ that they create something far bigger than a supporting value. They may find that they discover their true business or at least the next evolution of that business.

One question about process: should brands find their additional value around the core, sustained brand values or "this year's positioning" meant to drive a single campaign? There is probably no right answer. Most brands would still create a marketing campaign based around a big, brand or marketing idea and then explore how utility, entertainment, information or community might support it.  

But what if they started by asking the value question first? What if that drove the "big idea" thinking?

Turning Internet & Mobile Giving Into Investment

• President Obama called the $100m of US aid to Haiti an "investment." I like that.

• News stories report on the incredible amount of donation and word of mouth in support of the people of Haiti via mobile ($3m to Red Cross via texting) and Twitter

• The CTIA advertised an offer for free texting of donations to the American Red Cross ("Haiti" to 90999) and the Yele Haiti Earthquake Find ("Yele" to 501501)

• President Obama enlisted Presidents Clinton and Bush to spearhead a fund and effort to relieve the current suffering. You can donate there now - www.clintonbushhaitifund.org

• President Clinton has a longer term commitment to Haiti. He spent his honeymoon there and has remained involved. That's what I am talking about.

I noticed a tweet from Brian Reich, who knows a lot about non profits and driving advocacy,  over the past few days:

"We already knew web/mobile can bring in money after disasters. Need to see if groups can, or will, engage audience beyond fundraising."

Between the President's use of the word "investment," the Clintons' enduring involvment in Haiti and Brian's tweet, I can't help but want a longer term commitment to a cause. How can we use the same tools that we use everyday and make a long term investment in a part of the world with fellow citizens of the world? Certainly there are many many online donation services that will facilitate automatic giving, allow you to search and sort through organizations and causes to find one that you feel strongly about, and even connect directly with individuals via microlending. In many ways there is a wealth of choices for someone ready to make a commitment.

Sustained Commitment
I am looking for a way to contribute via donation, volunteerism and my ability to raise awareness via word of mouth to a part of the world that just needs extra support to reach a goal. My family has capacity and a will to help others and simply want to do it on a more personal level and via a sustained commitment. I am talking about 5-10 years of focused effort.

Coincidentally, Kevin Bacon was honored last night at the Critics Award with the Joel Siegel award highlighting his humanitarian efforts. They were acknowledging his creation of sixdegrees.org which built on the awareness of the meme in his name to create a compelling way for people to give. It is a partnership with the Network for Good which in some ways is that "hub" for long term commitment. I think this service is part of the answer. Here are the other steps we want to take that can extend the impact of our involvement:

• if our cause is located in one part of the world, we want to visit that place to "see with our own eyes..."
• any trip can include connecting with people locally and offering whatever we may have that could benefit them - sweat equity, internet expertise, marketing expertise, etc...
• a routine way of keeping in touch with what is happening in that community. Right now I use my Daily Influence Dashboard as a heads-up display on my business interests in social media and marketing. I could find ways to populate a tab of news and serach results for my area of commitment
• a routine way of spreading word of mouth beyond simple badges and email footers (but those are good to)

Any ideas on how to bundle all of this together into a lasting commitment that goes beyond periodic or reactive donation are welcome. Meanwhile, we are having a family meeting this weekend to brainstorm and I will let you know what we come up with.  

A Framework for Social Media in Crisis Management

This presentation which I and Jamie Moeller delivered in December through our partnership with the Wall Street Journal (and thanks to Thomas Crampton), offers a solid framework for Digital Crisis Management using social media (and responding to social media).

In it you will find:

• 5 Trends In Digital Crisis Management
• A Digital Crisis Management Framework
• 5 Keys to Managing the Crisis

WSJ and Ogilvy: Social Media For Crisis Management 2009

View more documents from jbell99.

Beyond the Campaign: Crowdsourcing & Co-Creation with Glaceau

 
  
Recently Glaceau engaged its followers via Facebook to define a new flavor. It is a classic example of a co-creation exercise with customers and has three qualities worth paying attention to:

Extends beyond the campaign: the video call to action to get folks to engage was posted on their Facebook page in September 2009. The entry period ended in late October. That is a classic 6-8 week "contest" cycle and is what many CPGs (or FMCGS - fast moving consumer goods) use as a best-practice time period fo focusing peoples attention. In November they announced the flavor and that they were down ot 3 recipes. This past week they revealed the winners, and the package design (complete with a blue Facebook logo-more on that in a minute) and the product hits shelves in March 2010 undoubtedly with much fanfare and paid media support. Glaceau has gone byond the standard campaign cycle of engagement and created many moments over at least 6 months to keep folks engaged. The co-creation has spawned a new product which I presume they have tested in ways they always do to feel re-assured that it has potential in the marketplace.

One reason they could do this is their 1.1m Facebook fans which brings us to...

Use Facebook as their platform: like McDonalds, iTunes, VSPink and some other brands, Glaceau is committed to Facebook and more importantly to their 1.1m fans (aka customers). They routinely offer them interesting offers and opportunties. And they try to be humans in the way they speak.

They did at least two other "activities" over a similar period both tied to celebrity or entertainment brands: Twilight New Moon and 50 Cent. That must have helped them with overall awareness tremendously as both have active fan communities within Facebook.

The kicker? They have made the new flavor, Connect - complete with the Facebook logo, into the profile image of the page. What a terrific reminder to everyone that they are embedded in the Facebook world. And a great example of extending the Facebook partnership beyond the media buy for the year.

Commitment to Co-creation: they actually created a product from the experience.The engagement last year was a mix of crowdsourcing and co-creation. here's how Mashable explained it in September:

"The app itself doesn’t exactly give you the ability to mix flavors together to create your own, but instead lets you monitor social media buzz on the top 10 flavors in contention. It pulls in social chatter from Google News, Twitter, Flickr, and Foodgawker, which means that your tweets, blog posts, searches, and images could all help nominate a flavor for consideration. The more chatter on a flavor, the more likely it will make their final top 10 list. Once the social buzz has been tabulated, app users will be able to vote on their favorite flavor, starting September 14th.

The most interesting aspect of the app and social media marketing campaign, however, is the bottle design. Starting on October 5th, you’ll have the opportunity to use the app to design the entire label. This includes look and feel, your own spin on the flavor blurb (ever notice how funky the flavor blurbs are?), and the be all end all flavor factor — the name. You can work in teams with up to two additional Facebook friends, and the winner will be decided by Vitamin Water and their celebrity partners."
  
What I don't know and would love to is how many votes were cast and if that was in anyway statistically relevant and decisive in the selection. The ultimate winner was chosen by the brand. Presuming they did their own flavor focus group testing, it would be interesting to see how consistent the Facebook data was to whatever qualitative testing they did.

They are supporting a new product in the marketplace that their Facebook fans developed. That si the story. Many co-creation ideas fizzle when the brand reveals they are not willing to follow through with what the community points them to or do it in a half-assed way.

It will be interesting to follow the rest of the story - how the product fairs and how Glaceau puts a value on their rigorous use of Facebook engagement. 

3 Helpful Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2010

I read a lot of 2010 predictions to end up with 3 that I felt were truly helpful to a seasoned marketer from a major business. There are a lot of common clams out there from "this is the year of mobile marketing" to the many ways people guess that location-based marketing will take off (this ranges form the 'augmented reality' fans to the predictions that Four Square is a harbinger of major innovation).

Presuming you already have loads of social media marketing expertise and that your primary purpose is to work with major brands in B2C and even B2B, here are three predictions for social media marketing in 2010 that are worth taking action around:

Brands and Marketers will invest in Data Analysts to Inform Their Social Media Marketing Efforts

As I have said so often this past year, many of our larger brand clients have been focused on measurment and adding scale to their social media efforts. There is a rich set of measurement options now available. Just look at WOMMA's recent Metrics Guidebook which compiled some of the leaders. "Scale" is still not well understood. We have our own models for adding scale. Both areas remain new and non-standard. Brands will stop waiting for Godot and they will realize that their currently-staffed internal marketing measurement teams can't provide the real answers they need about how well their social media investements are paying out. 

Marshall Sponder put it pretty succintly in his prediction post; "...in 2010,  data analysts will become hot property for marketing departments..."

He goes on to claim that clients will demand PR firms (he works in PR) to have these capabilities. I would go further and say that brands, themselves, will invest in new positions as they tire of trying to make partner-measurement models work for their unique situations.As their investment in social media programs rises, they will see the wisdom in investing in internal data analystics that will be dedicated to establishing trustworthy models for performance and business value metrics that can be shared across the organization.

Social Media Staffing Models Established Within Enterprise
We do a lot of organizational planning for clients - mapping workflow, identifying staff and repsonsibilities in marcom and customer service. Most brands are learning from doing and by making incremental hiring decisions (everyone seems to go through the "hire-one-expert" phase and then evolve into building a team and infrastructure to accomplish social business goals). Innovators like Intel, American Express, Best Buy and more have created teams internally to address their needs in social media. One common model is the "center of social media excellence" which forms a federation of members from all disciplines who are executing social programs. they come together to share best practices, establish policy and build an integrated capacity.

As brands invest more deeply in social and reap benefits across marcom and customer service, they are defining their dedicated staff needs in new job descriptions from content strategists to social customer care to community managers. Who manages the brands Facebook presence now distributed across a collection of pages and fueled by a CMS sustem like Vitrue or BuddyMedia? The whole purpose of that particular strategy is to cultivate "everyday engagement" and it reqiuires commitment and human-hours to execute.  That's just one example of a labor-intensive (yet efficiient) new requirement.

Jay Baer from Convince and Convert put it this way in a post featured on his site and in a compilation of predictions from Conversation Agent which has some good ideas.

"In 2010 we’ll see the emergence of best practices around real-time Web staffing. What types of employees are needed? Do you need round-the-clock monitoring? What’s the role of the agency, in comparison to the brand? All of these questions are being answered by brands via trial and error today."

Look for more mature staffing models. But don't look for them to be shared as openly as social media guidelines have been. Business will want to protect the investment in trial and error that led them to a staffing model that works. They will see that as a competitive advantage.  Brands will need to participate in more exclusive 'clubs' like WOMMA's Brands Council or the Social Media Business Council to get access to this depth of sharing. 

Blogs Will Resurface As The Popular Hub for Brand's Social Media Effort

Taly Weiss tweets on page 37 of her Trendspotting Predictions in 140 Characters presentation, "Blogs will continue to flourish as people realize that micro-blogging needs a "home base"."

This year blogs will redefine themselves for brands. They will be the fast-publishing and 'voice of the brand' option for many brands who now have experience in social media via Twitter and Facebook and have a new confidence in expressing themselves socially. It is likely that many brand web sites will merge with their blog. Rather than the awkward examples of this to date where the blog no longer looks or behaves like a blog (more like just another page within the Web 1.0 Web site), we will see Web sites that bear many of the attributes of blogs and Web 2.0 (spontaneous, shareable, subscribable, etc...).

Blogs are not passe. Quite the opposite. They will become a valuable "get more" destination that corporate Twitter handles and Facebook "walls" can point people to.

  

also:

Heather Rast at Insights and Ingenuity put together a helpful index of many marketing-related predictions form across the Web. You can access it here.
http://insightsandingenuity.com/2010/01/01/reflections-predictions-and-trends-2010s-new-day/

also, Taly Weiss at Trendspotting has a clever deck on Slideshare that compiles the "tweet-predictions" of many of the usual subjects - 37 slides worth!