John Neerland

A few months back, to much fanfare, Twitter bought video-sharing service Vine. Like Twitter before it, Vine is another excellent example of the freedoms of limitations. Instead of 140 characters, Vine limits you to 6 seconds of looping video.

The app recently had its mass media moment when someone’s Vine of the recent terrorist attacks in Boston was featured by news programs across the globe. The Tribeca Film Festival had a Vine contest this past April and brands like Lowe’s and Urban Outfitters have been experimenting with Vine-centric campaigns.

I appreciate the immediacy and urgency when creating Vines and thought it would be a great way to capture my experiences at SXSW. Because you need to capture video “live” and there is no editing after the fact, creating a Vine involves careful planning or just plain lucky timing. Brands will find success in the former, figuring out what story they want to tell in a mere six seconds. Those who understand the medium will embrace the spontaneity and rawness of the output and take advantage of features like perpetual looping.

All in all, I found Vine to be a great way to capture some of the various themes at SXSW. Themes such as:

the lines…

the hotel scenery…

the overstimulation…

the promotions…

the swag…

the former Vice President…

the transportation…

and, of course, the National Beer of Texas.

Mike Caguin

Chief creative officer Mike Caguin gave a longer version of this speech at the Student Advertising Summit in February. For recent, and not-so-recent, grads heading into an advertising career, it’s also a good reminder of why they found this path so alluring in the first place.

It’s 1962 in New York City. Don Draper is looking at a second round of creative concepts for Mohawk Airlines. He sent his creative teams back to the drawing board just 24 hours ago because the work wasn’t good enough. Peggy Olson, a young, talented copywriter, and her art director partner, Sal, lay their work on Don’s desk with conviction. They’re confident they’ve nailed the campaign. They show two ads. Each concept overtly depicts an attractive woman in a short skirt. Pop quiz: who’s the target audience? It’s an attempt to deliver upon one of the oldest clichés in advertising: sex sells.

Don hates it. He steers the conversation in search of a deeper meaning for the fledgling airline. When Peggy challenges him, he counters, “Just so you know, the people who talk that way think that monkeys can do this. They take all this monkey crap and just stick it in a briefcase, completely unaware that their success depends on something more than their shoeshine. You are the product. You—feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do, and they hate us for it.”

Like any good period fiction, “Mad Men” is an exaggeration of what was the truth. Many of its characters carry enough personal baggage to fill a Boeing 747—they chain smoke, drink heavily, use drugs, cheat on their spouses. They are almost all morally questionable. Sounds like the best job on the planet, doesn’t it?

Of course, all of that juicy stuff helps keep the storyline interesting, but when you strip away all of that, you’re left with an industry and career choice that are still unbelievably exciting. What Don Draper meant when he said, “You are the product. You—feeling something,” was that when advertising is at its best, it stirs your soul in a big way.

It’s the reason why every first Sunday in February we debate at great length and measure in infinitesimal detail the most memorable commercials of the Super Bowl.

It’s the reason why we all know someone who’s cried or gotten goose bumps because a commercial tugged on their heartstrings.

It’s the reason why some people proudly and permanently tattoo their bodies with company logos.

Or share something hilarious—it just happens to be an ad.

Or decide to train for that marathon after all.

Or feel compelled to help those in need.

And, whether we admit it or not—or consciously think about it or not—every person in this room owns the things they own, at least in part, because somewhere along the way those brands we wear, share and evangelize made us feel something.

It’s the same in 2013 as it was in 1962. When marketing is done well, it not only connects with people, it becomes a part of people. The only difference is that today, things are more exciting than they’ve ever been. Today, with technology changing every minute and the lines separating advertising, design, digital, media, product development and public relations blurring all the more, our creative sandbox is now infinite.

Here’s the best part of all this. You will find many moments throughout your career where you will say to yourself, “I get paid to do this?” Yes, yes you will. And it’s a beautiful thing.

Rachel Zwirlein, Matt Stengel, Ryan Sadeghi

Digital communication, while unique and filled with infinite possibilities, is not that different from how other effective marketing strategies have helped brands connect people. The digital and physical spaces need to work together. You have to relate to people, make relationships, and create content that is relevant and engaging.

That’s the core of what was addressed at this year’s Ad Age Digital Conference – a 101 of the top digital marketing challenges facing brands today. Other topics that bubbled to the top include:

• Brands should create a content strategy in the digital space.
  A brand’s content is the brand’s ad in every space. People don’t see advertising in buckets; they know a brand from every touch point. Whether content is produced by a company or a person via social media, brands need to know how they make their consumers feel. It’s not just about the assets; it’s about finding a way to connect.
• A thriving digital engagement strategy focuses on providing value. People expect brands to know what they want and how they want to engage. Personalization is key and the customer should always be at the core. Marketers can enhance the experience by leveraging data and insights to define the strategy and objective. That said, content must drive the idea, with the understanding that being relevant, informative and nimble are important to increase and maintain engagement.
• Multi-screen is the new normal. People want convenience. They expect interactions across touch points to be seamless. Purchasing behavior is changing more rapidly than predicted, “anywhere commerce” is here and making it imperative for marketers to prepare for transactions at any time, whether content- or commerce-related.
• Visual storytelling creates emotional brand connections.By 2015, 50 percent of all photos taken in the U.S. will be from a smartphone. The digital space allows consumers and marketers alike to create stronger connections to the everyday, outside of the physical world, through photos and video. Storytelling through visual communication allows marketers to make emotional and lasting impressions with their consumers.
• Big data is here, but applied data is king.The byproduct of digital is data, but big data is more than just (exponentially growing) volume. Today, we have more tools to help us analyze the data and better communicate with the right audience at the right time in the right space. It is important for companies to leverage the data they have to anticipate the needs of people—before they even know what they need. But, we also have to recognize that although we have a vast amount of data, we can’t measure everything and expect to get ahead; we have to measure and act on those things that will benefit the audience.

In other words: the key to a strong digital strategy is about having a meaningful customer engagement strategy.

Mike Caguin

Heading down to SXSWi for the first time, I was pretty skeptical that the conference could meet my expectations. So much hype has been built up over the years—it had me doubting that I’d return to Minneapolis digitally enlightened. In fact, I didn’t.

So much of the SXSWi experience is uninspiring. The long lines, the overabundance of choice, the panels that are simply boring. When I got past the harsh realities, however, I experienced what makes heading to Austin special.

Everyone who attends SXSWi is there to push the potential of what people can do. And it’s much bigger than talking technology. I was surprised by how most of my favorite talks barely touched on the notion of interactive as we typically understand it. Rather, the best speakers simply shared their ideas on how they’re improving the lives of people. It reminded me why interactive is not just a medium. It’s everything. Interactive has the power to affect everyone who roams this great Earth in the most meaningful ways. It's what we, as an agency, strive for with interactive.

I hope, in the years to come, to attend SXSWi. Or as I call it, The Human Potential Conference.

Tom Douty

So, the social world is all aflutter with news first reported by The Wall Street Journal that Facebook is working on incorporating the hashtag function into its platform.

As marketers we’re excited because hashtags on Facebook would provide a new search enhancement allowing users to group conversations and sort messages about one topic or news event. As social counsel, it gives us another tool to help brands find fans and get into conversations. It also could give us another tool on Facebook to promote conversations and much like Twitter, use hashtags to find fans, aggregate stories and react to trending conversations if relevant to the brand.

Not knowing what’s exactly coming though, our initial take is, “Why?”

The common language on Facebook is wordier and more conversational than on other social media platforms. It doesn't have the same post-length constraints as Twitter and Instagram. It’s even stranger when you think about Facebook's rollout of Graph Search, which is supposed to be so semantically smart in its parsing.

Why build a cornerstone feature that is so reliant on users to appropriately tag something with a hashtag? Why not build a search function that is actually smart enough to determine what’s relevant or recommend topic meta tags based on content without the distracting hashtag?

But rest assured, there’s a long-range plan behind it. Maybe it’s a positioning move to unseat Twitter as more people do all their socializing on their phone. Maybe it’s part of a grand plan for Facebook to bump Twitter from their hold on the instant feed.

Our faith is in your hands team Zuckerberg. We’re #waitingwithanxiousanticipationforyournewhashtagcoolness.

Mike Schwab

Dear Marketer,
While everyone else in our industry attended SXSW as a developer, advertiser, designer, or what have you. I actually attended SXSW as your consumer. And what I learned is that your entire industry is slowly getting in on my little secret:

It’s all about ME.

Yup, you used to think that you could bucket me with a bunch of other people who have similar HHIs, genital parts and ages. You were essentially saying that Marilyn Manson, Bobby Brown and Tim McGraw were the same person and had the same values. Turns out that we all want to be spoken to individually and that technology and the digital space are enabling that. Not only do we want to be spoken to individually, we want it on our terms and on our own schedule. I don’t want to wait for episodes of my favorite show; I want the entire season and I want it now on any device (see: Netflix’s “House of Cards.”)

And I want to be the star of the show. At SXSW I got to sit on the throne from HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones.” I got my picture taken and of course I put it on Facebook so all my friends could see ME. The New York Times made a profile of my face out of words, but then I learned that the words weren’t about ME—not cool. I visited the GE Brilliant Brew truck for a free latte and got my face drawn into the foam. I could have gotten a free latte with a GE light bulb drawn in the foam and only waited a few seconds, but instead I waited 45 minutes to get ME in the foam. It ended up looking like a mash-up of Abe Lincoln and Mr. Clean. But it was well worth the wait, Why? Because it was a picture of ME.

I was also shocked to see that brands were actually offering me things that I needed and wanted rather than yelling at me with a megaphone. Chevy offered me free rides around town through their “Grab a Chevy” program. AT&T let me power up my phone in a secure locker as I roamed the conference (while feeling naked without my phone). And countless brands gave me free stuff, like 3M post-its, battery packs and cell phone cases. The cell phone case came from a company that lets me customize and design my cover with—what else—pictures of ME.

The sessions were great, and, shockingly, they all revolved around ME. A few sessions touched on the power of humor, and I like to laugh—as long as you make it easy. And storytelling—I love a good story and you’re actually starting to learn that I would rather hear about the story behind your products than the features of your products. I attended Jonah Berger’s session (he’s the author of Contagious) and realized that you’ve started to figure out what makes things contagious. And as you suspected, it’s the content and type of content that makes things memes, not just calling them “viral” or making sure the right blogger or TV show mentions them. And, speaking of contagious, I waited in line one hour to get a picture of Grumpy Cat (and ME).

I even found it comforting to hear the stories of how Panera Bread and Whole foods are becoming more meaning-driven. It makes ME feel good when I eat there.

So keep it up marketers.

Best regards,

Your consumer (ME)

Dan Mandle

Senior editor at The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal, last year published a blog post about social media and its impact in generating web traffic: “Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong.”

With approximately 5,400 Tweets; 4,600 Facebook Likes; 1,200 shares on LinkedIn; and 1,100 +1s—to say nothing of the blog commentary and other related discourse in digital channels—it’s fair to say that “Dark Social” was a sticky idea that went viral.

To me, the main point of the post is that today's web analysts are decreasing the perceived value of social interactions in their reporting by relying on tools that track visits by referral sources—tools that invariably allocate otherwise socially driven traffic coming from, say, instant messenging and email to generic sources such as “direct” means.

Other, more general implications include:

1. The notion that optimizing for social media means more than looking at Facebook and Twitter. The content itself has to be appraised.
2. Formal social networks have brought a form of structure to social interactions that did not previously exist (in as simple a format).
3. Along with the structure of formal social networks there is not only a loss in privacy, but a gain in social record keeping.

There have been plenty of counterpoints to the Alexis piece. For instance, the notion that the web has only been social since the rise of social networks (ca. 2005) ignores the fact that the Internet—of which the worldwide web is a part—has been social since its inception. Is anyone up for a dial-up chat on a local bulletin board service (aka BBS)?

Regardless of semantics about the Interwebs, I was intrigued by the notion that our analyses might be downplaying the true role of social interactions simply on account of our toolsets.

I therefore replicated the Chartbeat methodology Alexis outlined in “Dark Social” and ran a test of the site Colle+McVoy launched earlier this year for the Pedal Minnesota campaign (www.pedalmn.com).

Methodology

• Exclude Sources (relevant to the site I analyzed)

• Specific media vendors/partnerships (i.e., exploreminnesota, bringmethenews, tuneupstation)

• Exclude Media (relevant to the site I analyzed)

• CPC, organic, email

• Exclude Landing Pages (clearly not “Dark” in their nature)

• Home page (i.e., /)
• Main section header pages (i.e., /map/|/events/|/resources/|/pedal central/|/contact/|/partners/

Results

My results reflected the general patterns Chartbeat isolated with traffic data to The Atlantic. At first glance, this might suggest we need to be more thorough with any site reporting that requires us to be 100 percent certain about all socially derived visits. However, owing to other truths about site analytics and methodologies (deactivated cookies, for instance, decreasing what we can actually report as full and complete records), we will never be 100 percent certain about all such visits.

Analysts working in agencies should keep this in mind. As much as we'd like to report firm campaign results to our teammates and, ultimately, our clients, courtesy of web analytics tools that purportedly count unique visitors to your properties and tally the sources of their arrival to those properties, we need to be transparent about the fact that—unless we're pulling server logs—our data is always going to be directional.

Mike Caguin and Eric Husband

The Super Bowl is the most anticipated and talked about event in the advertising industry. It’s our Oscars, Grammys and Fashion Week wrapped into one. We expect to see some of the best creative, soundest strategy and most effective marketing of the year. But with all the flash and hoopla, how does it affect the average marketer? What can the millions of marketers, business leaders and entrepreneurs take away on Feb 3rd?

First, they should ask, “What is my Super Bowl?” Instead of looking at the event as the advertising star-studded night it is, consider it just a platform, a launching pad that top tier advertisers decide (or can afford) to leverage.  Every marketer has a “Super Bowl” or big stage and you don't need $4 million plus (average cost of the Super Bowl media buy) to own it. While helping Caribou Coffee with a major rebranding effort, we approached the design of their coffee cups as their Super Bowl. After all, to the nation's second largest premium coffee shop, their cups actually garner the sort of impressions a commercial during the Super Bowl does. All of a sudden, the cup designs became a lead element in the campaign and everything followed.

And with Land O'Lakes, we treated their new mobile site as their Super Bowl. Today's busy Moms (and Dads) are turning more and more to mobile devices to plan and prepare meals, so we placed great emphasis on creating a user experience that was intuitive, simple and inspiring. After all, it will be used by millions of people.

Once you identify your Super Bowl, it might not reach hundreds of millions of viewers in one fell swoop—or feature the mishaps of Janet Jackson— but there are some things we can all learn from the big game that can be applied.

It's not just about showing up, it's about standing out.

Whether it's at a trade show such as CES, packaging on a store shelf, or something as simple as a sweepstakes—just think, what would happen if you treated it as if everyone was watching? Pretend for a second that USA Today is going to gauge your efforts with a meter the next day. That your family and friends are going to point out "I know the person who did that…" The reason so many Super Bowl spots are memorable isn't just because they cost a lot of money. It's because a lot of thought went into them. No one wants to disappoint.

Make sure it’s the right kind of memorable.

Too often, in their efforts to stand out, advertisers make the mistake of not linking their creative idea to the uniqueness of the product. They do a great job making people laugh, or maybe even coaxing a tear or goosebumps with a heartfelt message, but the viewer is unable to remember what brand moved them in the first place. Will your audience walk away your Super Bowl message the way you'd like?

Get the most out of your investment.

Two trends have emerged from advertising during the big game. First, creating buzz for your ad prior to game day is a great way to make your marketing dollars work harder. Can you tease your Super Bowl effort before it launches?

Second, advertisers are doing an increasingly good job of tying a social component to their spot, whether it’s an online game or asking viewers to vote for the ending of the spot on Twitter. By doing this they engage consumers, increase conversations and build buzz. Be sure you’ve employed all the tools in your marketing toolbox to promote your Super Bowl.

Carl Martin

At SXSW 2012, the programmers of the film festival brought back Lena Dunham, who had won the Grand Jury Prize two years prior for her film Tiny Furniture, to debut the first three episodes of her forthcoming HBO series “Girls.”

It seemed like an anomaly at the time—just one year ago—to have a television show represented at a festival showcasing independent film. This year, however, television was no longer an anomaly.

The networks had apparently taken notice of the runaway success of “Girls” and came out to the festival in force. HBO was back with an ingenious “Game of Thrones” installation—a replica of the Iron Throne that people could sit in and then post photos to social media. And, post they did. HBO also had Iron Throne pedicabs taking people around the city.

A&E screened their new show “Bates Motel,” hosted a panel with the show's creator, and took over one of the larger local bars, converting it to a branded experience. Even the Film Festival Shuttles were wrapped with ads for Showtime's current roster of programming.

The rise of television at the film festival was part of a larger trend we saw: The medium is becoming less important and content is what's truly creating an audience.

Fred Armisen talked about this on an IFC panel about alternative comedy on television. He talked about the potential for a low-budget show like “Portlandia” to find a large audience through the new channels of distribution. He explained that big budget Hollywood films and small basic cable TV series are going to end up right next to each other on Netflix, and audiences are going to watch whatever they find more entertaining. This puts everything on the same plane and opens up tremendous opportunities.

From the artists' perspective, tons of people are still watching and enjoying your work, but they are able to do it in a more flexible way. Viewers don't all watch at the same time, but the views over time are remarkably high.
This shift toward content over medium reflects the overall trend we saw at the festival that consumers are demanding experiences that are more personalized and centered around themselves. This new form of content distribution appeals to them because they get to curate what they watch according to their own interests and they get to watch it on their own schedules.

And, judging by the line for the “Game of Thrones” chair, these personalized, "centered around me" brand experiences have reach beyond the realm of content distribution.

Nat Jungerberg

Consider for a moment that you’re moving. It could be from an apartment to your first home, or even across the country. Regardless, you’ll need some help. Who do you call?

You’ll need someone with muscle and endurance. You’ll need someone who can navigate tight corners and think creatively when challenges arise.

You’ll probably want to call someone who respects you as a person, as well as your personal property. And perhaps most important, you’ll want to call someone who you can share a beer with once the work is done.

Relationships with clients, colleagues and coworkers are no different. With most of the world’s population spending one-third of their adult lives working, according to the World Health Organization, relationships at work have become a cornerstone of productivity, innovation and overall employee satisfaction.

In an agency, you can always tell how good the work is going to be by the relationships. This obviously applies to client relationships, but it also holds true for relationships within the agency or between partnering agencies.

The best relationships are honest and collaborative, built on a foundation of mutual trust, respect and shared goals; whether it’s raising the profile of a brand, increasing sales or moving a sofa across town.

How are your working relationships?

If a great relationship is among the greatest accomplishments in life and business, then it's probably worth the most work. #archive

— Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) June 12, 2012

Casie Cook

At a time when many bright-eyed college graduates are embarking on their first internships or “real” jobs, it seems appropriate to offer some advice on how to be successful. First, you must understand that you cannot fail. Every new endeavor is an opportunity to learn and to grow. Sounds cliché, but it’s true. 

You know you’re smart. Now you have to prove it. Based on my experiences, you can do this by being an incessant learner, thinking critically, building strong relationships, understanding expectations and showing passion along the way.

Keep learning

Learning doesn’t end after college. In a very real way, it’s the start of you creating your own curriculum. Look for inspiration everywhere. Read articles and books, study people and places, attend events, talk to smart people – just get out there and soak it up. 

Think differently

If you’re asked to do something, don’t just do it. Recognize the end goal and over-deliver. Find a different, better solution. Combat ambiguity by asking good questions. Asking questions demonstrates curiosity and the desire to better understand what’s trying to be accomplished. You’re not expected to have all the answers. No one does. 

Build good relationships 

Whether you’re extroverted or prefer to keep to yourself, you must create connections with people inside and outside of where you work. Cultivating strong relationships will help you navigate through your career – and your life. The easiest way to do this is to just be you. People will recognize when you’re being genuine and get to know you for who you really are – professionally and personally.

Understand expectations

One of the biggest barriers to surpassing expectations is not knowing what they are in the first place. Ask! On your first day, ask how your success will be measured. Then follow up after about a month by requesting a review to understand what you’re doing well and what you can work on. 

Wear your passion

Finally, show that you’re passionate about what you’re doing. People don’t want just anybody representing their brand. They want a team of passionate, ambitious leaders who will advocate for the organization. Enthusiasm should shine in everything you do. 

In short, be so remarkable that you make everyone else aspire to your awesomeness. Work every day to make yourself, and everyone around you, better. You’ll know when you’ve found what you’re meant to do because you’ll feel like a better you with every bit of effort you contribute to it. You’ll also know if you haven’t found it. You must continuously expose yourself to new information and experiences to find what makes you happiest. Remember, you cannot fail – so long as you try. 

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – H. Thurman 

Bethany Iverson

As advertisers, we have incredible influence to move things forward and take on challenging issues of culture, society, technology and economics. We can spur honest conversations (even if they’re difficult), and create work that broadens discourse instead of reducing it.

In order to accomplish this, our industry needs diverse intellectual talent — people who see and experience the world in many different ways. But a disturbing trend is emerging: women and men who would have once pursued a career in advertising are being lured away with tempting offers from startups and tech companies (see 8 Reasons To Choose A Startup Over A Corporate Job). Attractive new job offers, coupled with a less-than-favorable reputation as an industry (advertising is the 10th most hated profession in the U.S. according to Gallup), means that advertising could be facing a very real shortage of diverse intellectual talent in just a few years’ time. A lack of talent means our industry’s point of view will become staid and our ability to create change will quickly fade.
 
The issue of talent is precisely what we set out to address in our recent collaboration with the 4A’s, a leading ad association looking to jump-start a dialogue with the next generation. The project was designed to share untold stories of real people who work in agencies. But before we could tell their stories, we needed to know what we were up against.

We began by talking with college students and young advertising professionals in order to understand the gaps that exist between students’ perceptions and employees’ reality. We asked similar questions of both groups and then compared their responses. The results were staggering: the things that students are most wary of are the same things young working professionals enjoy most.

In general, students believe that 1) You have to be a brilliant creative genius to make it in our field, 2) There aren’t enough ad jobs to go around for those who are interested, 3) Digital agencies are the only ones that work with new technology, and 4) Agencies are cutthroat, backstabbing places that eat their young.

Most of these perceptions are unfounded. First, young professionals told us that they thrive on the creativity in agencies, whether they’re an account executive or a copywriter. Second, they found jobs by landing internships, meeting the right people and having the right attitude, even when the job search sucks. Third, they work with emerging technology every day — it’s actually an area where they feel the most empowered. Finally, those just starting out in advertising told us story after story about how much they enjoy collaborating with coworkers, how welcoming agencies are, and how most of the folks they work with are driven to create great work rather than clutter the world with more garbage.

The disparity between perceptions and reality means that it's up to us to redefine creativity and show that there are many seats at the table, help students understand that finding the right internship is the first step toward finding the right job, communicate that technology is the lifeblood of every agency and an area where young talent rules the roost, and last but not least, show that advertising is the new team sport.

On the heels of our research came a new website, openadvertising.aaaa.org, designed to open up the walls of our agencies and welcome those who are skeptical, excited or curious about our field. The site features short videos from art directors, writers, strategists, analysts and account executives that show what a day in the life is really like, which we hope will dispel misperceptions along the way.

Colle+McVoy had the pleasure of creating four videos for the site that feature our employees. Take a peek at our stories (and the new OpenAdvertising site). We’d love to hear what you think about where our industry is headed and what we could do to make it better than it’s ever been before.

Grant Olson

Maintaining a social media presence has become an essential part of the marketing mix for just about any consumer-facing brand. In fact, enterprise class corporations now have 26 employees on average creating social content on their behalf (Owyang, Jeremiah. Social Media Management: An Industry Perspective).

Although marketers realize that a social media presence is crucial, social media (or community) management is still a young discipline. Over 80% of enterprise-class corporations’ social media programs are less than three years old (Owyang, Jeremiah. Social Media Management: An Industry Perspective). The exciting part is best practices are still being forged all the time. This includes the emergence of a handful of social media engagement tools that aim to help social media teams listen to and interact with their communities.

It’s important for marketers to stay abreast of the tools that can make us more effective while engaging in the social space. That’s why we’re constantly evaluating social media engagement tools. Most of these tools include features like:

• Conversation streams from various social networks to keep an eye on what’s being said about your brand
• The ability to flag or assign posts for follow-up and facilitate collaboration between team members
• Publishing capabilities for multiple social networks to broadcast content to your community
• Post-level analytics to gauge the effectiveness of your content

Of course, you should always keep your specific social media objectives in mind when evaluating these tools. But, to help narrow the list, a recent evaluation from Colle+McVoy identified three frontrunners: Hootsuite, Buddy Media and SocialVolt.

In our particular case, we were looking for a tool with a good balance of collaboration features, real-time listening, post-level analytics and publishing capabilities across multiple networks.

HootSuite provides the most bang for your buck. It offers solid analytics, a decent user experience, and standard collaboration features like assigning community posts to team members for follow-up, for $5.99/month, plus $15 per additional user per month.

Buddy Media is a true enterprise solution, with a scalable offering that spans just about every social network. It is one of the few tools that provided options for publishing to a YouTube channel.

SocialVolt is solid across the board. Although more expensive at $1,800 per month for the professional edition and a website that leaves you needing a live demo for the full picture, we were still very intrigued.

The most important thing we learned through our evaluation is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. No silver bullet. It’s extremely important to articulate your goals for the social space and tailor your team and tools to them. We did arrive at a clear decision for the tool that best fits our particular needs: HootSuite.

HootSuite provides all the necessities a social media team needs in a clean and intuitive interface. Collaboration is streamlined. Publishing capabilities include almost all social networks and post types. Analytics are integrated across the board. Customizable conversation streams on the home screen allow you to keep an eye on the conversation. And, perhaps an often-overlooked benefit, the training necessary for a team to use the tool would be minimal.

If you’re part of a social media team that could use some streamlining, there’s a good chance one of these tools could make your life easier. Just don’t forget to consider the whole picture before jumping on the bandwagon of any single one. It’s a long list.

Craig Pladson

Colle+McVoy’s FEED IT educational series was created more than three years ago with the purpose of spreading inspiration and sharing knowledge throughout the agency and with our clients. We’ve had a wide range of amazing speakers, including Scott Belsky, Robert Stephens and Alex Bogusky. Independent film director Hunter Weeks will be coming to the agency to kick off our 2012 FEED IT series in January. As an extension of FEED IT, we launched our inaugural digital excellence session last week. These sessions take an active approach to learning through demonstration with a focus on emerging media and technology. After each of these sessions, we will post our presentations to the C+M blog, so you’re able to follow along, comment and ask questions.

This month's topic was Google+. We started by framing up Google+ within the context of Google’s greater mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. This, of course, placed an emphasis on search as we talked about the purpose and long-term validity of the network. The point is that Google+ is more than a social network. It’s an opportunity for Google to integrate their ecosystem of products and services (e.g., Gmail, music, photos) through a consumer-friendly social platform with targeted sharing functionality. Google+ also primes the pump for +1’s, which have a positive impact on search relevancy as people can easily find endorsed links from people within their Circles. The deck also informs the audience of the network's usage activity, demonstrates its main features and outlines implications for marketers. Click through the deck and let me and Dan Mandle know what you think.

Allison Janney

Bloggers can get a bad rap. “Who even reads blogs?” is often a question posed by teams or clients when discussing a potential blog outreach program. Actually, a lot of people read blogs. According to eMarketer, the number of blog readers in the U.S. will reach 122.6 million in 2011, representing 53.5% of Internet users.

I’ll be the first to admit that not all blogs are good blogs. It’s like finding websites – there’s the good, the bad and the ugly. However, when you want a third-party endorsement for your brand online, bloggers hit the sweet spot.

Here are some points of differentiation that make bloggers a powerful influencer group, and some ideas for how you can best work with them on behalf of your brand. 



Passion


Personalization


Creativity

Jen Stack

Jen Stack

The Twin Cities is getting its own Nuit Blanche and we couldn’t be happier. We fully embrace and support our amazing local arts community, but we think it deserves a lot more attention. That’s what the international Nuit Blanche movement is going to bring.

Nuit Blanche (literally White Night, All-Nighter or Sleepless Night in French) is an annual all-night or nighttime arts festival that opens museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions for free and provides space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art), themed social gatherings and other activities.

This Saturday, June 4, the Twin Cities is joining the movement by hosting Northern Spark , the area’s first ever, all-night long arts festival transforming the cities’ urban landscapes into a Twin Cites' wide art gallery. More than 60 regional and national artists together with the Twin Cities’ arts community will display new art installations at public places and unexpected locations throughout the cities. Directed and produced by Northern Lights.mn and funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board, Northern Spark takes place from sunset on June 4 (8:55 p.m.) until the morning of June 5, 2011 (sunrise 5:28 a.m. ).

While there are lots of events and places to visit, below is a quick rundown or cheat sheet of key events from our friends at Pop Fizz Daily:

8:55 p.m. : At Upper Landing Park in St. Paul, Philip Blackburn has composed a car horn fanfare. It will be accompanied by the lighting of Jim Campbell’s "Scattered Light" . More than 1,600 suspended LEDs encased in standard light bulbs are programmed to play a video. Then follow "Nightmare" (The eerie and unexpected vision of a white horse galloping on the Mississippi at night, produced by towing a video screen on the river) as the horse begins its trek.

11 p.m. : We’ll head back over to Minneapolis. There will be 10 art projects on the Stone Arch Bridge, such as "MURMUR," which are select photographs that will be projected in large scale on the Gold Medal Flour silos, and "Ceil," a laser that sweeps across the Mississippi River to create a canopy.

12:30 a.m. : Snack time! There will be food trucks scattered throughout the city and free coffee at Black Dog Cafe .

2 a.m. : We’ll also be dropping by the Walker Art Center , which will have galleries open until 6 a.m. and a lawn full of projects such as "The Shape of Night" (2 a.m.), you can bring your sleeping bag and be documented creating your own special sleeping position.

2 a.m. : Swing by MCAD, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Soap Factory and Soo Visual Arts Center . See listings here .

4 a.m. : Feel the heat at a bonfire in Loring Park .

5:30 a.m. : A pancake breakfast will be served at Intermedia Arts .