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One standout panel at South by Southwest Interactive 2012 brought together divergent voices in the evolving social media marketing realm.

“As social media marketing moves from experimental to institutional, brands no longer question social media marketing as a line item. That said, the strategies and deployment of social campaigns continues to introduce big questions about ROI versus spending and effective measurement has been a trendy topic without clear answers for years” — Epic Battle: Creativity vs. Discipline in Social

The questions brands, agencies, and social networks need to answer in 2012 proved to be the most engaging of the myriad SXSW sessions I attended, featuring: Mekanism CEO Jason Harris, 140 Proof CTO John Manoogian III, the Barbarian Group’s Kristin Maverick, and former Formspring Head of Marketing & Communications Sarahjane Sachetti.

Tips for the up-and-coming start-up all-star

We get paid to be smart and NOT just create splash pages for the sake of being on a platform
Lean Startup has become required reading for our Digital/Innovations team
There’s a difference between being an early adopter and having a strategy: Be first AND do it well
Try many things, take risks and fail fast
How edgy a campaign can be is dependent on a brand’s ability to handle the resulting storms
Startup marketing budget realities and ensuing discipline can bring you closer to the customer: Use tons of testing and email
Startups have to be smart; they can’t withstand tarnish from fails like an established brand can
Must be disciplined in where and how you roll out campaigns to reach the right people and have impact

Testing and planning are still crucial for any brand

Testing media and partner to create a better story.
User feedback is important but not the only component
Planning sometimes looks more impressive and stands out a lot more than those who just jumped in
Test & learn from small projects before launching larger campaigns with wary clients

Using social to boost social media marketing

When brands let go a bit, amazing creativity can ensue
It’s smart to wait and launch something that stands out from the competition on the Pinterest/platform-of-the-moment
Joining Pinterest early will not convert to sales, but being the first could be great PR
Thought leadership, and not being present, can be a risk.
Social enables being nimble, testing variations. Try test campaigns

Hear out your client

Essentially, the client is buying a metrics report at the end: Here’s who we hit
Clients know their business better than you do, need to collaborate and build together
Clients know more than you – invite them to the creative process, find out what work they like, build campaigns together

Why should I consider using multiple agencies?

When working with multiple agencies, clients must own messaging consistency. Need to define who owns what
Multiple agencies can work well for big brands, find the partners who have needed specialties
When multiple agencies are involved, it’s the client’s responsibility to shepherd and drive focus
Separating PR and advertising doesn’t work: Bring them together for full impact
Position third-party analytics companies’ findings into client reports. They also tend to be more honest

There are no standards for online campaign metrics

Metrics are more than just clicks: Sales, word-of-mouth also ranks high
The Barbarian Group includes PR folks, can deliver more than just clicks and sales, wider reach
Email marketing still works!
Why build a microsite? Join in where your audience exists: The basis for community a la BabyCenter, LinkedIn Groups
Build brand platforms and build campaigns on top of it vs making a ton of microsites

Special thanks to the many thought leaders at this talk: @TimMcDougall13, @triggerisobar, @beccax, @DanPinch, @AaronCacali, @paliosaratoga, @ACDunbeck, @spatafio, @harrisja, @kmaverick, @sf_sj, @jrh_creative

Don Draper Mad Men

Mad Men illustrates our evolution, but have we?

The Mad Men countdown clock is ticking down (too bad there’s no widget to post here), and I’m thrilled. Sadly, no time to use Betty’s party planner, but cheers to AMC for another season of lessons that can be applied to Social Media.

While the social media integration was widely commented on at South by Southwest Interactive 2012 (highlight posts forthcoming BTW), there’s so much more to contemplate.

Mad Men was also mentioned on a panel at the SES (Search Engine Strategies) New York conference yesterday. The panel discussed integrated marketing and mentioned the pitch Don Draper gives to Kodak when the slide “wheel” is introduced.

My Tweet about kicking off the Social Media Strategies course I teach with the Mad Men Carousel clip became a top tweet. Sorry there’s no embed, but click to watch: http://bit.ly/MadMenCarousel

Very evocative, no? This is how I want my students to think of the class: interesting, ever-evolving, which reflects where we are in this industry today.

The Sterling Cooper pitch provides a perfect frame for today’s students — and professionals: It illustrates how technology changes, but the desire for human connection pervades.

Meanwhile, my 2012 conference circuit is echoing: We’ll soon be dropping all the prefixes: e-marketing, online marketing, search marketing new media. It’ll just be straight-up marketing. I read a recent OMMA post that Social Media staffs are being fully integrated into the marketing departments. This make sense, no? You wouldn’t have an email department all by itself and only thinking about getting into inboxes (then what?)?

In essence, we’re all here to align what the company has to offer with customer expectations.

I can’t help but wonder what’s really going through the minds of the Millennials who’ve signed up for Social Media Strategies when I show them a pitch for a product that took consumers by storm decades before they were born. It’s an ideal starter to a class the focuses on engagement and interaction, and we start practicing these fundamentals on Day 1.

I’m eager to see how Mad Men keeps the conversation going, both in my class and in my mind.

What other lessons have you learned as Mad Men shows us a reflection of ourselves in another time?

Social Media: Creativity vs. Discipline | South by Southwest Interactive

Mad Men: More lessons to mine for Social Media

Mad Men illustrates our evolution, but have we?

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