Mediaboss Marketing

Are you dreaming of a social enterprise?

At Dreamforce in San Francisco this week, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff trotted out executives from companies such as General Electric, Virgin America, Coca-Cola and Burberry to tell their success stories about connecting customers, employees, partners and, yes, even products.

"It's a fundamental change in business," Benioff told the crowd gathered at the Moscone Center, imploring them to get on board with the social revolution.

With the tagline "Touch the Social Enterprise" and boasting a record 95,000 registered attendees, Dreamforce turned out to be a social networking love-fest that featured a meandering interview with Sir Richard Branson and a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in front of City Hall.

Wielding Salesforce.com tools, CEOs and CIOs professed great returns on investment from enterprise social networking. George Zimmer of Men's Wearhouse said he had spent untold millions on television advertisements courting Baby Boomers but is transforming to social networking to reach Millennials and find out what they like and don't like.

"You're going to like the way Salesforce works, I guarantee it," Zimmer says in a riff on his famous line.

Coca-Cola showed off the power of mobile and the cloud with a "smart" soda machine that connects to customers via a phone and lets them mix and match flavors and share recipes on Facebook.

Then there's CEO Angela Ahrendts of Burberry waving her iPhone to the crowd and predicting that fashion advertising will link up with the mobile phone in scenarios reminiscent of the movie "Minority Report". That is, advertisements on a wall will connect with customers via the smartphone.

Behind the glam, though, the social enterprise isn't a dream come true.

Companies, for instance, talked about using Twitter to connect customers with customer service. When a customer complains on Twitter, someone at the company is listening and can respond. The underlying message: Air your complaints in a public way, and you'll receive help.

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Dreamforce reality check: The social revolution is not for everyone

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Everyone in technology thinks they have the next big thing, but two University of North Florida Seniors might be right.

They launched Open Leaf, an academic social networking site at the beginning of the school year.

"I think one time we programmed for like 27 hours straight. Just lots of coffee," said Co-Founder Eric Nopanen.

Nopanen and James Hamilton didn't waste any time launching their social networking site Open Leaf.

All told, the duo spent more than 800 hours to get the program off the ground.

"My eyes were hurting from programming for so long, I put on sunglasses," he said.

Just 3 weeks in to the school year, the site already has almost 1,000 subscribers.

It's open to any student at any college or university who just wants to learn. It connects people in similar majors to brainstorm, get tutoring, or meet up to study.

"Essentially it's like opening a big virtual classroom to every course around the country," said Hamilton.

"It's just meant for students to connect and share resources, discuss relevant topics," said Nopanen.

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UNF Students launch social networking site

BURLINGTON, MA--(Marketwire - Sep 20, 2012) - Awareness Inc., the provider of social marketing solutions for brands and agencies, today unveiled the results ofits social monitoring campaign for X-Factor -- the most talked-about series premiere in TV history.

Across the two-night Season 2 premiere, X-Factor garnered a record-breaking 2.9 million brand-related conversations across social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, and Reddit. Awareness' flagship product, theSocial Marketing Hub, monitored all 2.1 million conversations and then leveraged the software'snewly announcedSocial Marketing Automation suite to collect the profile and social behavior information of 1.1 million unique viewers who discussed X-Factor during the premiere. For comparison, The Voice premiere clocked in 16,000 brand-related mentions with 15,000 unique authors. In addition, The Voice judges generated 31,000 mentions while X Factor judges raked in 200,000 mentions from 72,000 viewers.

"By using Awareness' Social Marketing Hub and, specifically, the social marketing automation suite, we at FOX and X Factor can gain a much deeper understanding of our audience," says Bryan J. Gonzalez, director of emerging platforms of FOX Digital. "By analyzing the social profiles of 1.1 million newly identified fans, we have an opportunity to learn a great deal about our fan's favorite shows, other interests and viewer demographics."

The new Social Marketing Automation capability, fully integrated with the Awareness Social Marketing Hub, is comprised of three core components that equip marketers with the tools to increase their social marketing sophistication:

"We are pleased to have FOX as a premier client using our Social Marketing Automation suite. As social TV grows in importance, effective social monitoring and prospecting is critically important to viewer attainment and retention," says Brian Zanghi, CEO of Awareness. "For FOX to collect and analyze 1.1 million unique new viewer profiles, they can enhance their segmentation and targeting among key target demographics."

About Awareness, Inc. With a unique combination of technology, experience and thoughtful support, Awareness enables smart marketers to efficiently and effectively generate ROI from 100% trackable social media interactions. It is the leading provider of OnDemand Social Marketing Automation Software designed specifically to address all key aspects of social media marketing -- from demand generation to customer acquisition and social customer engagement. The Awareness Social Marketing Hub, the company's flagship social marketing software, is the only solution available that ties Social Prospecting, Social Scoring and Social Profile Database into one solution resulting in a detailed social marketing ROI. Awareness works with some of the world's leading brands and marketing agencies including Major League Baseball, FOX Broadcasting, NBC Universal (Comcast SportsNet), Raidious, American Cancer Society, Tiger Woods Foundation, The Carlsberg Group, Mindjumpers, Nuance, Demandware, Trend Micro, and Computer Associates.

Backed by NorthBridge Venture Partners, Awareness is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

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Record-Breaking Season Premiere X-Factor Drives 2.1 Million Social Conversations and Over One Million New Fan Profiles

Re "Romney tries to stem damage from controversy" (Sept. 19):

It gets a little tiresome to hear the mainstream media say that Mitt Romney is undertaking damage control regarding his remarks concerning half the U.S. population. There is no damage control going on or is it needed when one speaks the truth. It appears that the mainstream media cannot stand to hear the truth and will attempt to marginalize those who speak it if it does not jibe with their version. The American public would do well to pay attention to what is said, especially when it is backed up by facts as is the case of Mr. Romney's remarks.

-- Lawrence A. Calabro, Northridge

The video that revealed an "off the cuff" statement by presidential candidate Mitt Romney regarding how he felt about a majority of Americans believing themselves to be victims when it comes to wanting government support is important to hear prior to the elections. Even if he felt those words were not communicated as elegantly as he would have preferred, they still reflect an elitist attitude that does not favor the middle and lower economic classes. It reminds me of a recent disagreement that I had with a Republican who criticized me for not thinking "rich enough" because I supported Obama. I replied with comments that seemed relevant to Romney's video "faux pas" - that I do

-- Isadora Johnson, Seal Beach

-- Marjorie Eisenberg, West Hills

-- Irving Leemon, Northridge

-- Robert Reilly, Long Beach

Is NASA so ashamed of GM, Ford and Chrysler not to select an American (icon) motor vehicle company to transport Endeavour through the streets of Los Angeles to its new and final home at California Science Center? CSC may have a "marketing arrangement" with Toyota, but NASA still owns and controls the shuttle until final release to the CSC. Endeavour should be pulled by a Detroit pickup with a large billboard in its bed listing all U.S. contractors that built this marvelous vehicle. So NASA, what form of political correctness is on display here?

-- Mario Marchisio, Rancho Palos Verdes

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No damage control necessary for Mitt Romney

20-09-2012 07:19 Five Talking Points of London Fashion Week 2012 Jess Cartner-Morley and Simon Chilvers look back at London fashion week, the biggest five days in the UK fashion calendar. There were highlights from the Christopher Kane, Mulberry, Burberry and Jonathan Saunders shows; a more significant role in the fashion world for social networking technology; and hints at some new trends

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Five Talking Points of London Fashion Week 2012 - Video