I send out a weekly ‘newsletter’ of the 10 most compelling things that I read each week to a small group of people internally and some of my agency and media partners outside of Intel. One of the topics that I included was the title of this post. Inc. Magazine released a study last week that I found to be very interesting. What the study shows is that of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the U.S. an overwhelmingly large percentage of them are actively engaged with Social Media disciplines, tools, and/or activities:
“According to the study, social media usage by companies on the Inc. 500 has grown in the past year, with 91 percent of companies reporting that they use at least one social media tool, compared with 77 percent of companies surveyed in 2008. Of the six social media categories covered in the survey, the one that continues to be the most familiar to Inc. 500 companies is social networking, with 75 percent saying that they are “very familiar with it.”
What’s interesting about this study is that all companies surveyed were privately held – perhaps showing a higher tolerance for ‘risk’ associated with Social Media activities. Another quote that shows where the motivation lies for adopting new and compelling marketing disciplines states very simply:
“Inc. 500 companies are focused on doing anything they can to grow faster and social media is an innovative tool that may give them an edge over their competition”
In summary – stay on the forefront of marketing innovation to ensure you’re message stands out over the competition. Pretty simple, but many public companies are slow to recognize this and the value that Social Media contributes to that leadership message…
Beyond what you read on V/Speak – there are some other ‘must reads’ out there that are summarized nicely on Freelance Folder’s site. Ritu lists out the top 25 blogs to help you stay current with Social Media including some of my favorites and daily reads:
Mashable – Founded in July 2005, Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. With more than 12.5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web and offering social media resources and guides.
Social Media Today – Social Media Today LLC helps global organizations create purpose-built B2B social communities designed to achieve specific, measurable corporate goals by engaging exactly the customers and prospects you most want to reach.
PR 2.0 – Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media. Considered one of the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media and PR 2.0, Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club.
There is a larger subset on his site, and many are worth reading. The above represent my favorite three of the bunch as they are well thought out, informative, and usually a step ahead of the trend…
While the bulk of my work is not on our company web site, I have a lot of respect for the work the team does on domain. This is a shout out for their latest effort – making your quest to find the right processor for your needs, easier. Have a look at the tool (screen shot below). I think you’ll find that it works well and we’ll even give you a path to start shopping!
We’re ramping our mobile efforts @ Intel with some interesting programs launching this quarter (stay tuned iPhone users) and a significantly greater presence in 2010. We’ve planned carefully and are committed to presenting our customers with the best mobile platform experience possible. Why are we so careful in our approach? Simple – mobile users are not widely accepting of mobile advertising, per a recent report released by Parks, via MediaPost, as the chart indicates below. My takeaway? If you’re going to advertise or market to a mobile user – make it relevant, useful and give them an easy path to make an action.
Todd Wasserman of BrandWeek interviewed me last week about our newly released MyLifeScoop program (“With LifeScoop, Intel’s A Publisher“). I think Todd did a pretty good job of relating the essence of what MyLifeScoop is about, however I think some of the intent of the site gets blurred when he focuses on the ‘advertising’ portion. Yes – it is a media buy – but not in the ubiquitous display sense.
What were trying to do here is show the relevance of technology to your everyday life. Intel clearly plays a part in that technology discussion as a result of our processors being the ‘brains’ of many of the leading PCs and smaller form-factor devices (like Netbooks) on the market today. We worked very closely with Federated Media and our Agency of Record, OMD, to develop a program that is not simply about pushing Intel – that can be done through a display buy on an ad network or a commercial on broadcast television. Our interest with MyLifeScoop is developing a relationship with an audience that will use a site like this to find useful ways to incorporate technology into their daily routine and share their own technology tips and tricks with others through a ‘community’ section (launching soon).
I think Mike Arauz of Undercurrent sums it up very well in his quote at the end of Todd’s piece when he says:
“If you’re on the Internet and I can’t see what you’re reading and what you’re sharing, I don’t know who you are. The same is true for brands.”
I couldn’t agree more. With MyLifeScoop, we’ve created an opportunity to share material that we feel is relevant to your life and your technology choices. We hope you find it to be a relevant resource to pass along to your network and to participate in the site through social connection points. Give Todd’s article a read and please visit MyLifeScoop to see if there’s a tip or trick to fit your technology need.
As a digital marketer I’m always looking for trends in the vehicles that I use in my quarterly and yearly campaigns. Obviously the growth of Twitter in 2009 has been tremendous. You’re seeing adoption from all walks of life and across many usage models. What’s interesting, however, is that we have seen a trend over the last four months that shows the growth of this micro-blogging service as slowed…and effectively flat-lined in the US:
This is a curious phenomenon, as Mashable reports since the service has “entered pop culture, it’s been the web buzzword of the year, everyone from NFL players to rock stars are tweeting. We’ve seen hundreds of exciting services and ideas built around Twitter in the past two years.” (Courtesy: Mashable).
I continue to build a Twitter component into all of our Social Media programs that come out of my group at Intel. From my perspective, it’s a valuable and easy way for individuals to contribute to a community that we are developing – such as the MyLifeScoop program I blogged about earlier this week. While growth has slowed for the moment, there is no doubt in my mind that as Ev and Biz continue to broker agreements with industry leaders we will see audience uptake spike again.
Today, in conjunction with Federated Media, Intel has launched a new program called ‘MyLifeScoop‘. What is this, you ask? I think the blog post on FM’s site announcing this says it best:
“…a practical guide for how people use technology in their everyday lives – home, school, cooking, movies, pictures, multimedia, email, storage, you name it. This is a practical, useful tool that aggregates all the best news, information, tips, tricks and how-tos. And, what’s more, it’s all updated in real-time, so it has the newest, coolest, freshest, most useful information available.”
We’re just getting started – I encourage you to check out MyLifeScoop on your own to see how you can improve your everyday life through the use of technology. Remember – amazing things happen with Intel Inside.
Todd Wasserman of BrandWeek interviewed me last week about our newly released 
