Category: Social Media

Trends in Social Media and other predictions for success in 2012*

Watch the Slidecast (PPT+MP3) As part of the San Diego Direct Marketing Associations (#SDDMA) 2012 Marketing Trends Seminar, I was asked to present what I thought would be trends to watch in social media during this coming year. Admittedly, I felt somewhere between The Great Carnac and Jimmy the Greek. Sure, I can make predictions, but ultimately where I would tell you to put your money will be based on my experience and insight.

In preparing, I reviewed each of the types of social media (yes, there is more than one ;-) and recounted some of the the latest activity in the space (not necessarily the newest comers). Most of the usual suspects are still very active (Facebook, Google+ – even MySpace), but there’s some new names on the roster for this coming year you may not be familiar with (like Pinterest, Tumblr and Klout).

Ultimately, it’s still just people interacting with people – using technology…

e-Commerce has gone Social

Think of Social Commerce as the “new mall”. Everyone is there. People watching. Catching up with familiar faces and checking out what others are wearing. What’s hot and what’s not. Shopping is a social sport. Online shoppers are motivated in similar ways, but rather than using window displays, it’s now “curated” online products and recommendations from friends, families or even an anonymous consumer. Word of mouth is still the cornerstone of commercial activity. 71% of online shoppers say that reviews from family members or friends exert a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence…

The goals and metrics by which we measure our website traffic and success change with the evolution of social media. The reasons and places that online commerce take place are changing daily, and unfortunately, they are not trending towards your website. They are going social and mobile. With influences like Facebook friend’s purchase recommendations, social plugins, group buying incentives or photos and videos from smartphones showing off user’s acquisitions, it’s obvious that social media is playing a pivotal role in the online purchasing process…

HausCalls: The Future of Pharma Sales and the Role of Social Media

HausCalls™ is hosted by Kevin Popovic. On today’s call, we have Chauncey Smith, past Brand Manager extraordinaire at GlaxoSmithKline, Chief Sales & Marketing Director at ScienceMedia, and now Chief Marketing Officer at MarketSmith Services. We also have Keith Hall, past Director of Medical Sales Training at GlaxoSmithKline, VP and National Sales Manager for Auxilium, and today the Director at Leadership Advantage.

Kevin Popović: Given the state of sales in the Pharma industry, there’s a lot to talk about. Reports of massive sales force reductions at GSK, Pfizer, Roche – Novartis dropped 1400 sales positions, Sanofi-Aventis had 1700 layoffs. Overall in the Pharma industry, sales took a loss of 50,000 jobs in 2010 (the second largest sector reduction after the US Government). Insiders call it “downsizing”, some call it “rightsizing”, others are just outsourcing.

Chauncey Smith: You know, Kevin, I think your point about job reductions in the pharma industry of that 50,000…

Tweet Economics: How Business Is Making Money on Twitter

Listen to the Panel:“Tweet Economics: How Business is Making Money with Twitter” addresses the phenomenal growth of Twitter and how business, in most every category, is using the micro-blog to make money. Presented by the the San Diego Online Society (SANDIOS), the panel discussion between professionals in the social media space helps marketing and sales management understand the thinking behind using social media, and where they can expect to find the ROI.

Hosted by Kevin Popović, Communications Director, Ideahaus® and Author of Satellite Marketing, a trademarked strategy for using social media for business. Kevin was recently ranked #43 in Fast Company’s Influence Project to find “the most influential people online”.

Survey: Attitudes on Social Media in Healthcare Communication

There is a lot of debate at the moment over the use of social media in healthcare. As with any discussion, the more facts we have the more informed decisions we can make.

We invite you to share your perspective and contribute to our collective knowledge base on the subject. This is a not-for-profit venture that is meant to provide a source of facts and data for discussion. No individual information will be shared, only aggregated data will be reported. What seems to be lacking in the debate is a clear sense of “What average Americans believe may be appropriate uses for social media by healthcare organizations, if any”.

Objective: Assess the current attitudes and perceptions of adults in the US on the opportunities for appropriate use of social media by healthcare organizations. Generate feedback from the public on current and potential uses of social media to responsibly communicate healthcare information. Specifically, to examine perceptions of…