What Makes Social Media Different?

Brands are facing a new reality: they need a social media strategy. But what does that mean? They might believe they are active in Social Media because they have a corporate blog or a presence on a social networking site but that’s not a strategy. Those are just tools. This way of thinking simply does not take into account the fact that the marketing landscape has fundamentally changed. Users don’t see one-to-many, top-down broadcasting as THE way to get their content. They get content created and distributed by their peers. That’s Social Media; an active interaction among a network of …

Embrace UGC, Create Brand Evangelists

As traditional marketers examine where their audience is going, they are starting to look at the Social Web and its abundant and ever-expanding amount of User-Generated Content (UGC). UGC is quickly becoming the name of the game in the social media and marketing spheres. UGC, a plentiful and often untapped resource, can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly.

In a recent Ad Age article, “Most Define User-Generated Content Too Narrowly”, Jimmy Wales and Andrea Weckerle discuss how UGC enables brands to interact and engage with their customers on an unprecedented scale. What brands need to …