The "Social" Conversation . . . Evolving

The evolution of the conversation regarding social media and social networking is occurring - taking the dialog beyond the technology to the strategic use of social media and social networking for marketing objectives.  Bringing together a few Forrester Research publications on social networking and a recent Harvard Business article on social strategy, a framework for using social media strategically to reach your marketing objectives is emerging.

Following up to Groundswell, Forrester’s Josh Bernoff writes “Objectives: The Key to Creating a Social Strategy”  and “Social Technology Strategies for ‘Boring’ Consumer Brands” -  two reports that apply Forrester’s strategy methodology, POST - People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology to direct the social conversation with actionable strategic road maps for using social media in marketing.

The help with the people part, if you don’t have the resources to research your customers, can be gleaned from “Understanding Users of Social Networks,” by Sean Silverthorne (published September 14, 2009 by Harvard Business School). This report distills research for understanding users in the process of developing a social strategy, answering the questions, "how are people using social networking sites?" and "what are they doing?"  A few key insights from this report:

    - Pictures are the killer app of all online social networks – 70% of all actions related to viewing pictures