The rumor is out. Ever since Digg CEO Kevin Rose slipped the juicy gossip about Google Me, speculations and predictions about Google’s latest foray into social networking have run wild on the Web. Will this alleged social platform be an innovative standout like Gmail was? Or will it just be an amalgamation of Google’s previous social letdowns – Profiles, Buzz and Wave?
So many questions… But this much is clear: if there’s a company with the resources and talent to develop a real Facebook-killer, it’s Google. And given that social has proved to be the hardest nut for Google to crack, we have a few suggestions for those genius Google developers to consider if they are, in fact, building the next “super social platform”…
The June special issue of Fast Company featured “The 100 Most Creative People in Business”. The section about JP Morgan Chase Foundation’s President, Kimberly Davis, caught my attention instantly because her story helps illustrate some of our own findings here at Media Logic about brand engagement, and similar transparency versus authenticity obstacles that we have encountered with our financial clients and observed in our recent research whitepaper.
The Media Logic Team
06.28.10
A trend our team has witnessed for the past nine months is the growing prevalence of cause-related marketing efforts from financial services institutions. A recent article on Slate.com focuses on American Express’s most recent “dogooder” initiative, the American Express Members Project.
Without question, these efforts are in part attempts by banks and other financial institutions to generate some goodwill after being publicly flayed by consumers, the press, the federal government, state governments and on and on. But it is also related to what Katherine Fulton, president of the Monitor Institute” labels “Moral Hunger,” a nationwide uptick in empathy summed up this way by our own Paige Fleury:
What was a society of consumption, collection and live-for-today is now a more pragmatic, empathetic and forward-looking group whose behaviors from spending and saving to brand choice and outlook add up to a new moral hunger – a desire to do good.
The Media Logic Team
06.21.10
Over the past 18 months, businesses across industries have watched social media swiftly migrate to the center of marketing and business strategy. Organizations large and small are not only embracing social media, but are discovering innovative ways to use social media as a business tool, by moving “the conversation” to the center of their decision-making processes. However, businesses in the financial services sector have been slower than their consumer brand cousins to embrace social media.
Media Logic’s latest whitepaper, Fear not! How financial service institutions can put the ‘Big 6’ social marketing strategies to work, suggests strategies, platforms, and control protocols for how financial service institutions and other regulated businesses can begin to step into social marketing without fear.
Media Logic is working with Atlantic Medical Imaging (a multi-site radiology/imaging practice based in New Jersey) to establish thought leadership, create engagement and preference among patients (and prospective patients) and referring physicians, and ultimately drive utilization. At the center of the strategic social marketing effort is a blog featuring information on the benefits of low dose radiology, a key differentiator for the practice. We also use Facebook and Twitter to create a fan base, encourage interaction and drive traffic to the blog.
Even though the effort has just recently launched, we have used “best practice” techniques we have learned through our work with highly regulated industries such as banking and insurance to build-in security while optimizing engagement. Here are three key elements we believe are important in using social media for medical practices.
Togetherville is a new online social network aimed at kids aged 6 to 10. The basic premise is that kids, with their parents’ help, can set up their own online neighborhood with friends and relatives and develop “a whole new set of skills to become responsible digital citizens.” Kids can post their own status from a pre-approved list created by the makers of Togetherville, buy digital gifts for their friends at the kid-friendly price of 25-50 cents, and use various online apps to create art, play games, watch videos, and send messages to their friends. Mom and dad can see everything that happens, and as members of their child’s community even have the dubious pleasure of tapping into the Hanna Montana and Justin Beiber videos, movie clips and other sponsored video content found throughout the site.
It was the buzz in the agency last week, as various people weighed in on its value to parents, kids and marketers (eek!).
The big question was this: Do kids really need a training ground for social networking?
