Mediaboss Marketing

Social Media marketing has some very real benefits when compared to other, more mainstream platforms. First off, its free! Considering that any winery, regardless of its size, can set up and monitor its own Facebook Fanpage and Twitter account at no cost, you can see the appeal. Sure, it takes time and energy to post relevant, topical content and if you want a fancy Landing Page or Like Gate youre going to have to make use of an external company to design one for you (which will have obvious cost implications), but essentially you can be up and running within an hour at no cost.

Another benefit of Social Media marketing is that your message, like a hardy virus, has the means to replicate itself. This ability to go forth and multiply ensures your message will enjoy a greater audience as each fan or follower re-posts and re-Tweets it. And, because the message will come from a trusted source (i.e. their own online friends), these second-hand recipients are more likely to read the post and in turn pass it on.

Read on.

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Social Media marketing for wineries

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Wildfire, the global leader in social media marketing software, today announced it will now offer enterprise and consumer brand customers the ability to run video contests on YouTube, the world's largest video platform. With this announcement, Wildfire is the first social marketing company to integrate with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and now YouTube that enables brands to drive engagement with consumers utilizing YouTube video contests. Wildfire has seen 100 percent annual growth in the use of video contests over the last two years, as brands leverage contests to engage with consumers and to tap the power of user-generated video content. Wildfire customers ran more than 7,000 video contest campaigns in the last 12 months, generating more than 6.5 million visits.

Companies such as Dairy Queen, Mercedes-Benz, Western Union and Sony have successfully run video contests on Facebook. Extension of the Wildfire suite to support video contests on YouTube brand channels makes it easier for brands to engage users on the site that inspires over 100 million people to take social action (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week. Brands can simultaneously publish their video contests across not only YouTube and Facebook but also custom branded microsites. Wildfire Social Marketing Suite provides complete analytics and moderation capability to help maximize the impact of the video contest.

Video Contests Among Most Effective Promotion Types

Video contests are a key method of engaging YouTube community members and inspiring all kinds of users to participate. Budding video directors, attracted by the opportunity to gain visibility, channel their creativity into producing unique brand-reinforcing content. Brand enthusiasts are motivated to create content that showcases the things they love about the brand. And YouTube community members are drawn to the contest sponsor's brand channel as a source of interesting, new, and often professional-quality video content.

"Video contests are one of our top three most effective promotion formats in terms of generating user views, which makes sense because people love to watch, share, and vote on videos that others submit," states Victoria Ransom, founder and CEO of Wildfire. "By extending the Wildfire platform to support YouTube, we are pleased to make the benefits of running video contests on YouTube available to our enterprise customers."

"We had great results engaging with consumers through our 'Mini Blizzard Treatment' video contest using Wildfire," said Nick Blissenbach, Digital Marketing Manager, American Dairy Queen Corporation. "We are excited to leverage the Dairy Queen YouTube Channel to extend the reach and engagement of future video contests."

Best Practices for Successful Video Contests

Based on its industry-leading experience with video contests, Wildfire recommends three best practices for running a successful video contest:

About Wildfire

Wildfire is the global leader in social media marketing software, with over 13,000 paying customers worldwide, including 30 of the world's 50 most valuable brands. Wildfire's Social Marketing Suite combines best-of-breed social promotion and advertising software, robust mobile and desktop page management, messaging and sophisticated real-time analytics in one complete platform. Wildfire's powerful and intuitive software allows creative marketers and non-technical managers alike to create social campaigns and pages, communicate with their social audience and measure social media performance. Brands and agencies such as Facebook, Virgin, Amazon, Target and Ogilvy as well as thousands of small businesses use the Wildfire platform to engage with audiences on major social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The only social media marketing company to receive an investment from Facebook's fbFund, Wildfire has offices in California, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, Munich, and Singapore. For more information, please visit http://www.wildfireapp.com.

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Wildfire Delivers Social Engagement for Enterprise and Consumer Brands through YouTube Video Contests

LOS ANGELES, March 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Empire Post Media Inc. (OTCQB:EMPM.PK - News) has decided to take, in house, the distribution chores previously contracted to The Fremantle Corporation with the addition of six-time Emmy nominee Stuart Schwartz to the production team of "Journey Beyond" as executive producer and showrunner.

Empire CEO Peter Dunn stated, "The addition of Stuart to the team, along with his great pedigree and connections in the television business, provides an opportunity to manage the distribution of our products in-house, thus eliminating third-party sales costs and commissions thereby increasing bottom line revenues to the company.

"Due to the global popularity of the 'Journey Beyond' genre, projected revenues, assuming a five year run, and based on current market data, are estimated at $35,000,000, with each episode in the first season expected to generate approximately $260,000, and growing to over $400,000 per episode in the fifth year, not including revenue from the 3D version, which could be substantial," Dunn added.

Empire has previously announced a $1,500,000 finance facility, in place, to produce the show.

Schwartz, a former top executive with Cosgrove/Meurer, has produced 174 episodes of perennial TV hit "Unsolved Mysteries."

"Journey Beyond," which was created by Ellen Fontana and Richard Mann, principals of Empire's wholly owned subsidiary Hybrid-Reality Entertainment, deals with paranormal and psychic events, based on the real stories of real people. The show is being produced in 3D for delivery in 2D HD and 3D.

Further information about Empire Post Media can be obtained from the company's web site, http://www.empirepostmedia.com.

http://www.hybridrealityentertainment.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements including statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, underlying assumptions, and other statements, other than statements of historical facts.

Continued here:
Empire Post Media Takes Worldwide Distribution of 'Journey Beyond' Television Series In House After Addition of ...

Despite President Saakashvili's record of reforms, Georgia consistently ranks low on press freedom indices. Similar news reports on the country's three main TV stations are the latest hint of a tightly controlled media.

Earlier this month, newscasters on Georgia's three main TV channels, Rustavi 2, Imedi TV and the public broadcaster Channel 1, read out very similar reports on a controversial death in police custody. The incident has renewed suspicion that the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili maintains firm control of its media, despite its publicly declared commitments to democratic reform.

The news story was about how opposition politicians, linked to Saakashvili's main political rival, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, had supposedly politicized the death of 46 year-old Solomon Kimeridze. Authorities maintain Kimeridze, a burglary suspect, tripped and fell three floors to his death while in police custody. The story focused on the opposition politicians' reactions, which journalists portrayed as inappropriate, and only briefly mentioned the fact that the politicians were questioning the suspicious circumstances of a man's death in police custody.

Each of the three TV stations used nearly identical video footage and news scripts.

Journalist Nino Zuriashvili wasn't surprised by the similar broadcasts

According to the watchdog group Transparency International, such "coordinated news coverage is a strong indication for a lack of editorial independence of the country's major broadcasters." For independent journalists and ordinary citizens in Georgia, that's not surprising.

"This is not the first time. It happens a lot that the sequence of news stories and the topics of these stories are the same on different channels," said Nino Zuriashvili, an investigative journalist who worked for Rustavi 2 until it dropped its popular investigative program when Saakashvili was elected president in 2004.

Little trust in information

The private owners of Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV have close ties to the Saakashvili administration, while Channel 1 is state-owned. These three are the only nation-wide channels that provide news programs. They never broadcast news negative to the government. Instead the president's ribbon-cutting ceremonies and speeches are covered extensively.

There have been protests calling for more balanced coverage by Georgia media

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Little media freedom in Saakashvili's Georgia

Published on March 26, 2012

By Allyn V. Baldemor

Online social networks mobilized hours after Noemi Lagman, 21, was reported to have been missing January 6, 2010. The student of Asia Pacific College Magallanes left her house in Multinational Village in Paranaque between 9 and 10am. Last seen near Duty Free in Paranaque, Lagman had with her Php33 thousand for enrollment but classmates said they did not see her at school, and her mobile phone could not be reached. A community page on her behalf was created the following day on Facebook, detailing the girls description and contact numbers.

On January 10, an announcement that Lagman has been found and is back safe with her family went viral. We were advised by the authorities that information on how and where she was found be kept confidential for her and her familys security and privacy. We ask for your understanding on this matter, read the post by cousin Allan Capulong.

The account on Lagmans disappearance was shared by at least 8,000 people on Facebook alone. It was through social media where we got the first lead, according to the familys message. Social networks breathed a collective sigh of relief but a few who commented on the developments demanded details, saying the family owes it to those who reposted the initial announcement.

That it took only a few hours for the news to break on a massive level and four days for the matter to be resolved begs the question: Are social networking sites bound to render legitimate news sources obsolete? If it takes mere minutes for anyone with a computer or mobile phone to publish online an incident, are formally trained journalists headed for extinction?

IMHO, no.On both counts.

I searched the Internet for news on this subject and found only a handful of news sites carrying it. The copy often mirrored the post on Facebook. I can only assume that a more detailed account will be published in news sites in the coming days. When and if pertinent details could be had. and Or if not, it is in deference to the familys request for privacy.

The topic calls to mind some basic journalism tenets: There has to be anews-worthylead, yes, but it has to have a follow-through as well. To report the news, the journalist has to tap into various verifiable sources (plural), who have to be protected at all cost. Perhaps more crucial, the reporter must keep a certain distance from the issue.

Case in point: the girls family need not be further anguished by people compelling them to divulge details, which they regard could be potentially harmful. It is unfair for the people who responded to the call for action to believe that the family owes them. If the news was reported by a journalist, s/he would (or should not) be expected to do so. The journalist is required is to follow-up a news-worthy lead and tell the story factually using verifiable information from credible sources. If the reporter finds that no more details could be had, s/he tells it like it is and writes -30-. The development and subsequent substance of a report depends on who writes it: An enterprising journalist or someone just cruising through her/his beat.

Originally posted here:
On Mobile Journalism and Social Networking