The Mullen advertising agency, and Radian6, a leader in social media measurement, created BrandBowl2010, a Twitter/Super Bowl experience that combined tweeting, ad reviews and a host of metrics to let viewers generate and view real time ratings of the TV commercials that ran on the big game.
“According to the 63,000+ Twitter users whose comments were captured in BrandBowl2010, Doritos was the most effective brand to advertise on the Super Bowl telecast on CBS this year. Budweiser Select55was the least effective brand.
The results were determined from a total of 98,656 Tweets collected at BrandBowl2010. The site provided an overall ranking of the brands advertising on the game based on a composite score that takes into consideration both volume of tweets and sentiment (positive or negative).” Brandbowl 2010
A great idea for ad agency new business …
Mullen offered the last place finisher in BrandBowl2010 — Budweiser Select55 — free creative services to help them make a better Super Bowl commercial next year and they are serious with their offer.
Additional articles regarding ad agency promotion:
The Levelwing Media Blog was selected as Fuel Lines’ Agency Blog of the Month for January capturing 42% of the vote from among the agency blogs submitted. Levelwing Media is a full-service digital advertising agency headquartered in New York City and an office in Charleston, SC.
The Levelwing Blog will be included for Fuel Lines’s Blog of the Year.
Ad agencies need an integrated social media strategy if they are ever going to see the payoff from their participation in social media. An agency blog should be the central component. The place you can drive targeted online traffic through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The blog becomes the “gateway” to your agency and the“face” of your agency. As important as it was to have an agency website, it is now equally important to have an agency blog.
But … having a blog isn’t something you check off your list of social media “to do list.” Nor is it a place to lead with agency capabilities and credentials. It must be of benefit to your audience.
Here is a collection of agency blogging resources:
I’m in Indianapolis this week to conduct a social media | new business workshop for a new client. The atmosphere here is exciting. The Colts are beloved in this city. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is talking about them and the Super Bowl, from our Southwest pilot, the hotel shuttle driver and registration agents, all are ecstatic over their pro team. Indianapolis schools will even start 1 hour later on Monday to accommodate children, teachers and bus drivers who will be up late Sunday night watching the game.
The ADBOWL capitalizes on the Superbowl of Advertising.
You’ve probably heard of ADBOWL, but you may not know that the idea originated at a midsize ad agency’s Super Bowl party in Albuquerque, NM. Ten years later, growing in size every year, the idea has paid great dividends to the agency generating national television, press coverage and positioning it as an industry leader.
For a decade McKee Wallwork Cleveland has capitalized on this event that has brought national attention to their Albuquerque, NM advertising agency with the ADBOWL.
Steve McKee, President of McKee Wallwork Cleveland, shared with me how the idea for ADBOWL came about and what it has done to build awareness for his agency:
“ADBOWL started as a lark. Ten years ago, we thought it would be fun to have a Super Bowl commercials party at the agency, so we did. We handed out little paper ballots on which attendees rated the spots. Pretty humble beginnings.
The next year we put it online and thought we would promote it within the industry. We approached ADWEEK and they thought it was a fun idea, so they gave us some free ad space to spread the word.
One thing then led to another, and in subsequent years things have taken off. ADBOWL has done wonders for the agency on many levels:
First,it gets us lots of free press, which is great for the “I’ve heard of you” factor. It’s gotten us in every major newspaper and trade magazine, on network affiliates all over the country, and even on national TV (a few times). It’s a great door-opener.
Second, it reinforces our desired positioning as an advertising industry leader. We are the expert “color commentators” on the year’s biggest day of advertising.
And third, it has offered us amazing opportunities to learn (by doing) new media. For example, we worked with Sprint to pioneer text-based voting that is now used far and wide, including on American Idol.
In the first years it was a pretty complex thing to execute–we really didn’t know what we were getting into. But as technology has evolved we’ve gotten it down to a science. We try to make incremental improvements each year but keep the user experience very simple and fun.”
Steve McKee recently wrote a book, When Growth Stalls that was made available in March of last year. Steve has been generating sales using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The book provides additional promotion for the agency and further position it as an industry leader.
Encourage your staff to be creative in ways to promote your agency. If you have examples of creative promotions to share, please include in the comment section of this post.
Additional articles regarding ad agency promotion:
In a recent poll ad people are ranked the as the worlds 2nd least trust worthy professionals.
Carton Donofrio Partners, a small Baltimore advertising agency has created a ambitious campaign that bring advertisers, agencies and the media together to stop advertising madness. The campaign is also providing a unique way to build some national buzz and awareness for the agency.
“Advertising simply isn’t working as well as it could because the social contract, the implicit agreement advertisers and consumers have established to support a productive exchange, has been violated,” said David Smith, executive creative director at Carton Donofrio Partners. “The average person’s exposed to over 5,000 ads per day. Advertising professionals are now the second least trusted professionals in the world after politicians.”
The Carton Donofrio Partners launched a campaign”www.StopTheAdness.org.” By taking a stand against intrusive advertising practices and positioning itself as an agent for change is a very appealing new business strategy.
Their campaign interactive Website allows them to start conversations with consumers and with the marketers who are trying to reach them and provide ways to easily make the campaign viral. This is a very effective way for arton Donofrio Partners to gain insightful feedback and also share their inspiring point of view, which I’m sure will generate an appeal for this agency’s services.
The goal of this campaign is to improve advertising and features ways for visitors to participate and interact:
Sign the Pledge and get everyone you know who makes or approves advertising to sign it, as well.
Opt in for reports and updates from us on how to stop the adness and make advertising better.
Give a shout-out to brands and agencies that are doing it right by uploading their advertising on the Wall of Fame.
Expose those who are contributing to the adness by uploading their work on the Wall of Shame.
Give us more examples of adness you’d like to stop in the Join the Conversation forum.
Click on one of our examples of adness above, and tell us what you think should be done to make it better.
The site also showcases videos demonstrating “adness.” These videos show how bad advertising:
Bombards consumers’ personal space
Serves inappropriate material to the wrong audience at the wrong time.
Additional ad agency promotional articles that may be of interest:
Digital marketing is thriving during the recession. Clients are switching agencies based on digital marketing knowledge. Traditional agencies need to be competent at digital marketing now.
Forrester’s recent projections of interactive marketing spend through 2014 show social media increasing at an average of 34% year over year.
A national survey provides insight into what marketers want from their agencies. The Agency of the Future Survey, sponsored by Sapient. Though this survey was conducted just over a year ago, it is a perceptual look back as well as a look forward and still has relevance for agencies today.
The survey polled more than 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing professionals, all of whom are either directly or indirectly responsible for managing digital marketing budget allocation across multiple channels.
Based on the survey results, Sapient, created aTop 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future:
A greater knowledge of digital space
More use of “pull interactions”
Leverage virtual communities
Agency executives using the technology they are recommending
Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing
Social media savvy
Agencies that understand consumer behavior
Demonstrate strategic thinking
Branding and creative capabilities
Ability to measure success
Tim Williams, author of Take A Stand For Your Brand, encourages agency execs to assure their personal relevance in the marketing communications industry. He writes,
“Increasingly clients are turning to agencies not only for help but for thought leadership in digital marketing, and only the most progressive agencies are in a position to deliver it. Agency principals recognize the urgency and importance of the shift to digital, but are personally unprepared for the change.”
Tim suggests a solution to the problem: Create a self-study program that provides a fast track understanding of digital marketing and adapting your agency to the new digital landscape.
He says, “Think about the digitally-talented people you know and you’ll realize most of them are self-taught. They took an interest in digital and learned it on their own. You can do the same, especially because everything you need to know about digital is online, and most of it is free at sites ranging from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to ClickZ.”
Additional “digital” related articles that may be of interest:
Examples of ad agency blogs. Review and decide which of them really “gets it” when it comes to social media. Pick-up ideas for your own blog.
The following 11 advertising agency blogs have been submitted to Fuel Lines. Vote for the best agency blog for the month of January. The winner will be featured on Fuel Lines throughout the month and included in the voting for ad agency blog of the year.
Automatically send the latest feeds from your page to your fans’ email inboxes. A free Email Newsletter application allows your agency’s fans to keep track of new activity on your agency’s Facebook Fan Page.
The NutshellMail online service that lets users send and receive your messages from social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, in your email inbox. You can easily create an automated email newsletter campaign.
The free Email Newsletter application enables your fans to keep track of new activity on your page.
Automatically send the latest feeds from your page to your fans’ email inboxes.
I’ve reviewed enough agency Websites that my eyes are almost permanently crossed. So many agencies trying to impress with a lot of flash they forget that prospective clients need a quick way to be given ” just the facts” about your agency.
I’m amazed at how many agencies make it difficult to get past the hype and provide necessary, evaluative information. Some don’t include their location. Prospective clients evidently are suppose to guess it.
Make it easy for a prospect to obtain the facts about your agency. Provide a link to a easy to print, downloadable PDF Agency Fact Sheet on your agency’s Website. And while we are on the subject, make it easy for them to make contact, not with the info@ but with a person, preferably the person charged with overseeing your agency’s new business.
Steve Jobs Calls the New iPad “Revolutionary.” The Apple tablet could offer a new way for marketers to reach consumers IF they will seize the opportunity.
It’s good for agencies to stay ahead of the learning curve of communication technology, to know what’s coming down the pike that will impact our industry.
CNN.com covered Apple’s unveiling of the iPad announcement live with Twitter updates from @cnntech and the CNNmoney live blog. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said,
“What this device does is extraordinary.”
“It is the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”
“It’s a dream to type on.”
“This is a magical device, at a breakthrough price.”
“It’s unbelievably great … way better than a laptop.”
“Way better than a smartphone. It screams.”
“We have an unlimited plan for just $29.99 a month.”
Here are some of the announcement highlights:
Apple tablet computer to be called the iPad
CEO Steve Jobs calls the computer “magical” and “revolutionary”
Price will range from $499 to $829 and they’ll begin shipping in 60 days.
iBook interface lets users tap books in a virtual bookshelf to read them
A nearly 10-inch screen
It runs existing apps from the Apple apps store
It’s available in 16-gigabyte,32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte versions
It is about a half-inch thick and weigh about 1½ pounds
The device will have a1 GHz processor
New app: iBooks. Five of the biggest publishers in the world are part of this
Users can flip pages forward or back by tapping the screen, or drag pages with your finger
Keyboard dock
Easily connects to projectors
BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours, over a month on standby
They are scheduled to begin shipping in 60 days
Most tech blogs are excited and optimistic that the iPad is indeed a revolutionary product because there are already:
Over 12 billion App downloads
Over 125 million accounts with credit cards
Over 75 million people already know how to use the iPad (iPhones, iPods)
It is predicted that Apple will sell over 10 million iPads this year alone. It should get the attention of advertisers. The bigger size of the Apple tablet will allow marketers to introduce more browser and video functions. With a 10-inch touch screen that will display movies, TV shows, games and publications, and also let consumers interact with them.
This device will offer a new way for marketers to reach consumers through this interactivity in a way similar to what the iPhone and iPod Touch has done for the $4.2 billion dollar a year app industry, which didn’t even exist a couple of years ago.
The iPad could also single-handedly resurrect the print industry.
“In the midst of the recession, advertisers left newspapers in droves as circulation numbers plummeted. Many newspapers around the world closed, popular and seemingly indestructible mastheads issued hundreds of redundancy notices and journalists started shaking in their boots – the future of journalism in tatters.
But here we are today, we’ve made it through the storm and now Apple just might save the industry, shaking things up and changing traditional advertising for ever,” UTalkMarketing’s Melinda Varley.
Another insightful article, Luke Hayman, a partner at Pentagram, among the top magazine designers, recently redesigning of New York, Time, and Travel+Leisure, he provides “five ways that iPad will change magazine design.”
The only constant in advertising is change. To maintain success, you have to keep up. That isn’t easy. Especially with this revolutionary change we’re experiencing in communications. It’s time for the ad community and marketing community with all of its creative and intelligent minds, to be the agents of change instead of being the ones forced to change.
The Big Question ad agencies want to know, are businesses actually using social media?
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research conducted a nationwide telephone survey in 2009 of those companies named by Inc. Magazine to the Inc. 500 list. According to the study,
… social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed.
The report also shows that the fastest growing private companies are adopting social media 4 times faster than the largest public companies.
“This research proves conclusively that social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed. It also indicates that corporate familiarity with and usage of social media within the Inc. 500 has nearly doubled in the past 12 months,” researchers, Dr. Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson.
Social media has arrived in business. The hype is real:
56% of the Inc. 500 are using at least one form of social media
66% consider social media “very important” or “somewhat important” to their strategy
51% of companies are monitoring social media
They’re using it because they consider it important to their business and marketing strategy.
The Rise of Digital … is your ad agency digitally prepared?
“This is a changing of the guard,” said Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo Group and chief innovation officer for Publicis Groupe Media. “If you look back 20, 30 years ago, the major (media) companies would probably be print-based. Then they move to basically be broadcast based. Now we’re looking at companies that have basically digital or technology underpinnings.“
The 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook survey, conducted by The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), which polled in excess of a thousand executives from major global brands, traditional and Digital agencies, vendor and service providers that operate in the Digital space, as well as freelance and independent Digital practitioners.
This research continues to confirm that the future of Digital Marketing is exceptionally bright.
Some notable indicators from the survey:
81% of Brand Execs expect an increase in digital projects for 2010
50% will be shifting funds from traditional to digital media
78% of global participants believe the current economy will actually spawn more funds allocated to Digital
Additionally keen insights from SoDA members around the globe on their thoughts and predictions about the future of the Digital Marketing landscape over the forward 12 months.
“The web can be anywhere, and physical interaction with brand and the extension of commerce into the real world are the convergence point in the next wave of digital marketing.” – Peter Connolly, Obscura Digital
“The most important outcome of the smartphone revolution isn’t sales, but rather the shift in the cultural expectations of the device. In just two years, the iPhone has quickly ascended to pop-cultural icon, and has shifted the way that mobile devices impact consumers’ lives, attitudes, and how they, in turn, view the role of a mobile device to support their daily needs.” – Brian Chiger, AgencyNet
“IPTV will be the catalyst for “a move away from the ‘interruptive’ advertising model that dominates television today, toward the idea of enhancement, in which brands support new contexts for viewing.”– Dale Herigstad, Schematic
“Augmented Reality has the potential to transform the digital landscape, merging online and offline in many creative ways. It is among the most interactive digital tools available to marketers, delivering unparalleled experiential engagement.” – Richard Taylor, IE
“Rather than spending another misguided year trying to “engineer” viral campaigns that will propagate themselves, regardless of consumer intentions, it’s time to refocus our marketing efforts to align with the way that people actually behave.” – Ivan Askwith, Big Spaceship
“The most effective digital platforms have shifted from “disruptive” to “productive” by providing a service or utility…[They] fundamentally change the approach from “how we reach our customers” to “how we make their lives better.” – Ken Martin, Chief Creative Officer, and Ivan Todorov, CEO & CTO, Blitz
FootPrints, the blog of Walker Sands Communications, a PR/Marketing agency located in Chicago, Illinois, was selected as Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year for 2009. Walker Sands received 33% of the 1,544 votes cast. The agency has particularly extensive experience working with high-tech and business-to-business firms with complex messaging in need of clarification.
A special thanks to all of the agencies that participated this past year which spawned some good natured competitiveness, a bit of friendly ribbing that kept this a fun exercise. It’s even created dialogue and formed relationships among agencies.
Click here for the complete voting results and a listing of previous Agency Blog of the Month winners.
Ad agencies will need an integrated social media strategy if they are ever going to see the payoff from their participation. An agency blog should be the central component. The place you can drive targeted online traffic through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The blog becomes the “gateway” to your agency and the“face” of your agency. As important as it was to have an agency website, it is now equally important to have an agency blog.
But … having a blog isn’t something you check off your list of social media “to do list.” To have credibility and generate inbound new business leads
Agencies are often behind the social media curve and even behind their clients in its use. Where is the advertising agencies leadership?
Barbara Bacci Mirque, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, ANA, recently observed that “more and more advertisers are leading their agencies into new media, not the other way around,”
“If the ad community and marketing community with all of its creative and intelligent minds cannot find a solution for using, effectively using, social networks and user-generated content, it will be the greatest loss to the advertising and marketing business that we’ve ever experienced.” Jack Myers, a leading media analyst
This is an enlightening Ad Age Video reinvention of skiing resort marketing. During the past year, social media has abruptly and dramatically changed the behavior of ski resort customers and forced resort marketers to abandoned their long time marketing strategies and practices.
Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz explains the dramatic changes and his company’s decision to build a new in-house marketing operation that uses both social media and digital marketing to engage their prospective customers in real time.
Click Here to view this Ad Age Video, Reinvent Ski Resort Marketing.
It’s been said that advertising agencies aren’t changing, they are being changed.
The only constant in advertising is change. To maintain success, you have to keep up. That isn’t easy. Especially with this revolutionary change we’re experiencing in communications. I try to learn something new every day. I know that to do so is essential for my ability to survive, let alone succeed.
Social Media is also impacting ad agency new business …
Mirren Business Development, is one of the premiere new business conferences for small-to mid-size ad agencies, marketing, public relations and digital agencies. Over 400 agencies from across the country will be participating in this years conference, April 12-14, in New York. See the full AGENDA of sessions and SPEAKERS and REGISTRATION information.
I’m scheduled to speak on Wednesday, April 14 for a 1:30 pm session. Let me know if you plan to attend and lets start networking prior to conference through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Below is my session title and topics.
A Formula for Fueling Agency New Business through Social Media, Wednesday, April 14 at 1:30
This session will provide a step-by-step overview and guide for creating a social media strategy to build credibility quickly and to generate inbound new business leads for your agency:
Major Shift in Advertising Means a Shift for Agency New Business Practices
The 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Ad Agency New Business
The Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business
The Best First Steps Into Social Media
A 4 Step Approach to a Social Media Plan
Social Media Best Practices: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogging
Time Management: How Do I Keep Up with Social Media?
“I have a huge disagreement with people changing their agencies like they change their underwear,” said Jane Bedford, partner at the Bedford Group, a consultancy based in Atlanta. “Our clients tell us it takes them about three to six months for them to get fully engaged with their agencies. It’s very difficult for an agency to get up and running, and totally please the client, within the first year.”
“Desperation may be something new to many industries in the recession, but it’s something the agency business has known, embraced and perpetuated for decades. Agencies only have themselves to blame by playing right into the hands of these serial agency-review ‘players’ [and] making it too easy for the client to bully us.” Michael Grey, Chief Marketing Officer, Grey, New York
If agencies don’t want to play the numbers game they must get away from the mentality that “everybody” is a prospective client as long as they have a heart beat and a budget.
“The common failing among agencies seeking new business,” says agency search consultant Bob Lundin, “is their inability or unwillingness to name what they stand for and market themselves on distinguishable differences.”
The agencies that have been able to step out of the crazy agency review process are those that are differentiated and focused. They know who their best prospective clients are and that’s where they spend their time and resources.
Agencies that have an appealing point of differentiation to a particular target audience have:
a much larger geographical marketing area
more earning power
few competitors
clients that respect them
more viable new business opportunities with less cost
Only agencies can stop the madness of and their mistreatment from the review process.
Clients want more accountability from their Ad Agency. Here’s an example of an agency that has found a unique way to put some “skin in the game.”
A New York advertising agency, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners has created a mini-mutual fund of its agency clients’ stocks that are publicly traded.
“We’ve been hearing from a lot of clients that they want more accountability, they need us to own their challenges.” Lori Senecal, Kirshenbaum Bond president and CEO.
The agency spent $500,000 to start this Client Stock Index. The 300 employees of Kirshenbaum Bond will be offered long-term cash and compensation incentives to mirror the performance of the stocks in the index, which they will be able to track each trading day on an intranet on the agency’s Web site.
Starting an agency mutual fund was among 50 ideas presented by employees at a crowd-sourcing meeting in October that sought proposals to help revitalize Kirshenbaum Bond from everyone who works there. The index was the brainchild of two Kirshenbaum Bond employees: Aric Cheston, partner and creative director, and Matt Powell, chief technologist. They will each receive a cash bonus of $10,000 from MDC.
“Agencies either go forward or backward; they don’t stay the same,” said Richard Kirshenbaum, co-chairman at Kirshenbaum Bond, “it’s time to have renewed energy and spirit at a time when the landscape is changing” for the advertising business.”
Two of the most asked questions I receive from agencies are: “How do we price social media?” and “How Do we service social media?”
Many advertising agencies are trying to sell social media services and even though they don’t know how to price it nor service it. In prospective client meetings, if the agency brings up social media, it generally will peak a prospects interest.
A lot of agencies are still struggling for any new business opportunities. So, if it generates interest and leads to a project, they’ll sell it and try and figure out how to price it and service it when they get back to the office. I’m sure your agency has never been guilty of anything like that. Truth be known, most of us have done it at one time or another.
The agencies that do have some experience with social media tend to “over-think” social when they try to price it and create a plan for servicing it. They make it much more complex than it is.
Social media is very time intensive but usually has very little hard cost associated with it. Agencies are accustom to charging for their time and that should make it easier when they need to create a proposal for social media services.
Here are my six quick tips to help with the pricing and servicing of social media:
Create a very detailed proposal based on “scope of work”
Use a blended rate when pricing agency time, often $125 per hour for small-to mid-size agencies
Provide clients with a flat-rate monthly retainer agreement
Understand and utilize the social media 3rd party tools that will allow your agency to handle multiple accounts
Train your staff in time management skills specific to social media to maximize their efficiency in handling client accounts
Equip junior level staff members to handle a lot of the day-to-day “grunt” work in servicing social media accounts for clients (monitoring, blog comments, Twitter, Google alerts, maintaining Twitter, schedule, etc).
If you have additional tips, please share them in the comment section below.
Which of these agencies best understands social media?
These 12 ad agency blogs are all Fuel Lines Ad Agency Blog of the Month selections for 2009. Please review and vote for your favorite as the Ad Agency Blog of the Year.
You are not hiring an agency’s past, you are hiring its future.
Edward is the Chief Creative Officer for the Mullen agency. He joined the Boston agency when it was small and helped to grow it to become a respected and renowned advertising agency that is known globally.
He is one of the few agency principals willing to immerse himself in social media and has rapidly moved his agency in the same direction. Mullen truly “gets it” when it comes to social and I believe one of the reasons they have had such great success with their new business acquisitions.
Edward recently wrote a great piece for his blog Creativity Unbound, “Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency.” He points out that most RFIs (request for information) sent to agencies are asking about an agency’s past. But he states,
“… you’re not hiring an agency’s past, you’re hiring its future. And that future, while somewhat informed by previous accomplishments, is more likely to be a reflection of an agency’s vision, the newest people it’s hiring and its willingness to embrace what’s coming rather than preserve what’s been.”
With that point being made, Edward suggests 5 questions a CMO should ask:
What is the future of advertising?
What are you doing to assure your survival?
What are your criteria for hiring people?
What is your definition of a creative team?
What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?
Click here to read Edwards entire article, “Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency.”
“If you don’t know where you want to be, it hardly matters which direction you take.”
Once you’ve had a taste “first hand experience” with social media and have an understanding how this new media channel can be used to promote your agency, the next step is to develop a “simple” plan of action. One that can be maintained when your agency is at its busiest.
At the core of every good new business program there’s a good plan. Along with the plan, having a person who pulls everything together. Building a Social Media Marketing plan and determine what the objective of the campaign is and therefore what tools should be utilized and how.
A helpful resource to get you started is the POST Method. POST is one of the most effective acronyms since the four P’s of marketing. It’s a four-step approach that helps marketers define a social media marketing plan for their business and/or clients.
The POST method is the heart and soul of the book, Groundswell, written by Forrestter Research analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoffand. It is highlighted in Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell blog post, The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy. The POST Method serves as a guide to help you determine the right strategy for the right audience.
Your purpose should dictate strategy and the tactics used for reaching desired goals. A few common outcomes for your social media marketing efforts should include:
Gain insight into your target audience – You can use all the qualitative data you want, but some of the most interesting and helpful market research can be found within the social communities where your prospective clients interact, share information and make recommendations.
Link building for traffic and SEO- According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. Creating linkbait and promoting it to social media news and bookmarking sites can attract a slew of links from bloggers that read them. Creating value for the community is not the only rule, creating value and behaving according to formal and unwritten rules is what sustains social media sourced link building.
Build brand visibility and authority- As you participate in social media pay close attention to the interests and needs of your prospective clients. I’ve often said that social media “teaches” agencies the way they should have been doing new business all along. Leading with benefits that are of importance to your prospective clients, not with agency credentials and capabilities. Not only will social media teach you to do new business the right way, it is also the best “branding tool” that I’ve ever used in creating an appealing, differentiating position for agencies.
I recommend using social media as a central component for your agency’s new business program. It helps agencies create a more clearly defined focus and differentiating business strategy that will give them a competitive advantage for new business, a higher-profile reputation, and an improved ability to attract and win the clients they really want.
You'll get prospective client: e-mails, direct dials, media spend, brand and agency information, custom research requests and streaming financial information.
Posted by Michael Gass 
