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.

Jen Stack

Advertising Week 2011 is taking place in NYC this week, gathering many industry leaders, luminaries, movers and shakers in one place. Over five days there are countless forums, panels, roundtables and one-on-ones, focusing on the issues and passions that surround the current business of marketing and advertising. I attended several events with C-level leaders discussing how technology continues to disrupt and change the business.

While the fate of the economy is still looming and there are plenty of issues, the overall vibe from these leaders is optimistic. Most find that this is one of the most exciting times of change, discovery, experimentation and creativity. Below are some of their inspiring insights on the topic.*

John Partilla, COO, Dentsu Network West: “Since there is so much specialization and complexity, clients are relying on us to be partners to navigate effectively. Clients are shifting budgets from mass to social media. It’s less expensive, but they need more help from agencies. It’s the first opportunity in a long time when agencies are more valuable…and there are better opportunities for agencies to work more strategically.”

John Adams, chairman and CEO, The Martin Agency: “We no longer sell units of advertising; we’re in the business of creating content. It’s liquid content that flows from one platform to another. Consumer-generated content creates a huge landscape when presentation turns to conversation and we can engage in that conversation.”

Maria Luisa Francoli, global CEO, MPG: “Never before have agencies been platforms to exchange ideas and technology.”

Christine Fruechte, president and CEO, Colle+McVoy: “We need to experiment with technology as much as possible. Twenty percent of our time should be spent exploring technologies. We need to use technology and data to be more relevant.”

Mike Sheldon, CEO, Deutsch LA: “We are in the business of generating content. Our goal is to create stuff that is super entertaining or super useful. If it falls in one of these two categories, consumers will engage.”

Lee Doyle, CEO, North America, MEC: “Technology has put us more in the position to go to agencies and be more of a partner. The right message is one thing, but the right environment is critical.”

Nick Brien, chairman and CEO, McCann Worldgroup: “Coke highly supports innovation and allows a 10 percent failure rate from experimentation. This should be encouraged. The notion is to break through. Technology enhances creativity. We are often business partners with our clients to be on the forefront of all this change. Clients are dealing with so many issues, and the one thing we need to understand is the truth of the brand and finding ways to connect in engaging and sustaining ways with consumers.”

Christine Fruechte: “We now have to constantly monitor and shift, plan and re-plan. It’s now a different mindset for clients and us.”

Greg Schaefer, president and CEO, NCC: “Content lives in all different platforms now, and clients are looking for media companies to connect more of the dots and understand what consumers expect from the iPad, mobile, TV, etc.”

Mike Sheldon: “We talk to clients about becoming more of idea venture capitalists, to experiment and loosen up the reins. We don’t think everything we do will be a home run.”

For more information about Advertising Week 2011 and lots more content, go to www.advertisingweek.com

*Please note that the sessions were not taped, so quotes are not verbatim.

Nina Orezzoli

When World War I was over, the United States was flush in money and optimism. Jazz played over the airwaves of the very first radio stations, and Coca Cola’s advertising strategy switched from medicinal to fun. And on August 26, 1920, women were granted the right to vote.

Now, 91 years later, things look very different, especially for women: For every two men graduating from college, three women are doing the same; almost half of American households count a woman as the breadwinner; and more than half of the country’s managerial and professional jobs are held by women.

Next to statistics like those, it’s obvious that women are underrepresented in ad agencies, at least in creative and leadership roles. Only 3 percent of creative directors are women; and a 2009 study found no American ECDs who are mothers with spouses who work. Plus, earlier this year, Forbes published an article, “The Glass Ceiling in Advertising,” revealing that only 15 percent of top managers in ad agencies are female and that none of the global ad agencies are led by women. So today, as we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, established by Congress as “a symbol of the continued fight for equal rights,” I wondered how the few women holding successful advertising jobs are doing it.

Christine Fruechte – one of a small number of female ad agency CEOs in the country – explains her success like this: “I never felt limited by gender bias. I simply focused on doing the best job I could and over-delivering. The fact that I was oftentimes the only woman in the room was my reality, but it never felt limiting. If men in the industry underestimated me, I was just at an advantage because I knew what I was capable of.”

But, after many years in the industry and having the opportunity to work at agencies from Minneapolis to Honolulu, Christine decided to become a mother. “This milestone causes many of us to reflect on our careers and on what makes life fulfilling,” she says. But it can be an especially difficult transition for women in advertising, since this line of work requires our attention and extreme dedication.

We work unsteady hours. We travel for client meetings, conferences and shoots. According to CareerCast, a job in advertising ranks among the most demanding. Account Supervisor Jenny Stoltenow said she was reminded of this on her first day back from maternity leave. “One of my male counterparts said, ‘I can’t imagine being a mom in advertising.’ Two different people sent me stories about how agency jobs are in the Top 10 Most Stressful, followed by a study on how motherhood is the ‘toughest job in the country.’ That sets the tone for struggling in this job and having a family.”

Stacy Janicki, Director of Account Management and mother of three, had her first child at 24. “I was a young, ambitious account executive, and I quickly had to trade out happy hours for last-minute dashes to day care. I found myself overcompensating (taking work home, volunteering for extra projects) to make sure my peers and managers knew that I was still hungry and willing to pull my weight. I’d pick my kids up from day care and head back to work, kids in tow. I’m thankful that they have positive memories of this. Ad agencies are like amusement parks for young children: silly people making jokes and drawing pictures for you, scooters lying about, candy dishes everywhere, ping pong tables, jumbo TV screens, soda machines. What’s not to love?”

Stacy is one to point out that mothers in advertising become adept at squeezing everything in, although it means being unconventional. “The kids of ad moms usually have late bedtimes,” she says, “because if you’re getting home a little later, you want to maximize your face time with them.” Jenny puts it this way: “My need to sleep is losing out in the ‘have it all’ world. But I don’t want my son to grow up reflecting about how his mom was always looking at her iPhone when he was being fed a bottle or sending ‘one last email’ while he was learning to crawl, so when he’s awake and we are at home, my attention is on him 100 percent. After he goes to bed, that is when I finish projects.”

Lisa Holzemer, Senior Interactive Producer, is the newest mom at work. “So far I feel a wide range of emotions,” she admits. “Sadness to leave the baby [at day care], happiness to be solving work problems again, guilt, jealousy, elation. Everyone says it will get better. I’m waiting for that.” She feels she’s able to stick it out until then because she and her husband share their responsibilities. “We’ve always operated in a way that if something bothers you (e.g., dirty dishes or messy rooms), clean them yourself. I get to the things that bug me and so does Adam, but we let the other stuff sit until the weekend. Or the following week,” she adds with a smile.

The more I asked, the more I heard women say they relied on their spouses heavily. “I drop Beck off in the morning and Adam picks him up in the evening so I have the window to stay late if I need to,” Lisa told me. Stacy guesses she’s cooked 98 percent of the dinners, but she hasn’t vacuumed a floor in the 13 years of her marriage. Christine says she enjoys doing the laundry, gardening, cleaning, but isn't allowed to cook dinner or touch the lawn mower. She treasures the one-on-one time with her son, while her husband catches up on work or a game of golf with the guys; she calls this co-parenting.

That’s how I see it, too. As women become powerful contributors to their family’s financial status, there is a shift to a more egalitarian division of family chores - or, as in my case, a situation where some men are choosing to take the primary role in child-rearing so that the women they're married to can focus on their careers. Motherhood is becoming parenthood.

Earlier this month, Time ran a cover story, “Chore Wars,” citing new data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that proved men and women are evenly sharing workloads, both paid and unpaid.

“I notice how far things have come when I see how my dad looks up to my husband,” Christine told me. “My dad never changed a diaper, cooked us dinner, helped us with math or took us clothes shopping.” My own father, a pediatrician, changed the first diaper of his life when his visit to Minnesota coincided with one of my business trips. He told me about it proudly, with humor and enchantment at having done a thing like that for my baby.

Moments like that make it clear to me that both women and men are gaining so much from their new social expectations. By forming a true partnership with men – by selecting spouses they can collaborate with – women can go as far as they want in their careers. Even a career as time intensive as advertising.

Meanwhile, men are actually getting to experience their families. In the old advertising boy’s club, as on Mad Men, guys worked all the time, stopping occasionally to look at their children through the bottom of a martini glass. It’s not like that for John Neerland, Associate Creative Director. “I handle all day care pickups and drop-offs,” he says. “I also help out with meals and bedtime. My wife is on call four to five days a month, so I cover the child care during her shifts. Sure, it’s a balancing act, but it's worth it. I feel really fortunate that loving my family and loving my work doesn't have to be an either/or.”

Working together, women and men can both play a pivotal and better-balanced role in their own lives. And that's the kind of equality I’m after.


Nina Orezzoli
Senior Art Director
Colle+McVoy