Media giant Hearst announced a start-up new business unit, LMK (stands for Let Me Know), to develop software applications (apps) for Apple’s iPhone. And, as you might guess, this is no small thing.

“Hearst eventually expects to offer thousands of apps,” reported the March 12^th Wall Street Journal,  “that pull together news and photos about narrow slices of information.”

Its focus will be on all of the information available in the Hearst titles (Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, O, The Oprah Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Redbook, Food Network Magazine, Seventeen, etc.– Hearst publishes 15 U.S. titles and 20 magazines in the U.K, plus other media products) and also expand its reach to hobbies, sports teams, musicians, Barbie, cupcakes and more. In other words, all the information consumers may ask for…  “Let Me Know.” Get it?

The Apple app business is currently estimated at $2.7 billion and growing. There are today, more than 150,000 apps available and 3 billion-plus downloads. By 2013… just three years away, an industry consultant estimates apps for all products could be a $15.6 billion business!

Presently LKM has 70 apps (at 99cents) in the Apple store “for fans of the New York Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs (go Cubs!) and other ball clubs, as well as for Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Coldplay and other musicians,” reports the WSJ.

LKM is weighing other pricing options. According to the WSJ story, it could charge 20 cents/month as long as the app is used. It is also considering advertising within the apps which could prove a rich market for sports teams… those apps would likely be free to the consumer.

The SSN Take: What this means is that the fast-growing app business is about to accelerate to warp speed.

Jerry Constantino, March 15, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

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If you feel like your company’s marketing firm isn’t firing on all cylinders, you are not alone.

A recent Adweek article, “Social Media: ‘Agencies Don’t Get It,’ Survey Says“ complained that many “full service” marketing agencies don’t live up to that billing because they mostly ignore social media. However, other businesses are finding their hip social media agency is lacking the foundation of a traditional agency. Unfortunately, most people are caught in the warzone between these two factions and are left to sort out the bodies and decide what’s best.

“Clients complained that their agencies — creative, media, public relations, design and others — typically treat social channels like blogs as traditional media,” the Adweek piece said. “In other cases, their ideas are not backed up by practical skills in the area. What’s more, one client pointed out that his agencies have little of their own experience using social networks or video-sharing sites for themselves.” For most people, that full social media saturation they envisioned when Facebook and Twitter began jumping off the tongues of marketing trendsetters hasn’t resulted in a financial explosion. Many agencies are so rooted in the traditional methods of ad space, newspaper column inches and television face time that they don’t have the resources to properly launch their clients’ social media campaigns.

The remedy for this problem would seem to be companies like Ignite Social Media who claim to be, “a new breed of company that specializes in helping corporations use social media tools, sites and applications to connect with customers and prospects.” They are not alone, as Jason Keath recently pointed out on his media blog in “15 Top Social Media Agencies,” many industrious agencies are looking to capitalize while their more traditional brethren are dropping the digital ball. “There are several types of social media companies out there,” Keath said. “Some are research focused, or software heavy, or app developers, or monitoring services. Some are purely extending the PR battle plan to a new medium.”

Even though these dynamic new kids on the block have the answer for getting your company to go viral, they are still lacking the total package, which relegates them to niche status. The Huffington Post article, “The Problem With Social Media Agencies,” predicts that since traditional marketers and upstart social networkers are both lacking the full package, it might be a few years until agencies get the experience and manpower to really grapple with a full scale marketing blitz that blends old and new media. Until that time, companies will have to pick their battles and experiment with what works best for them, knowing there is no perfect solution yet.

Patrick Roland, March 15, 2010

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As social media continues to dominate the advertising realm, many small businesses are looking for low-cost ways to enter the fray.

Facebook and Twitter accounts are free but require time and dedication to actively gain a following. Jason Sadler of Florida already has quite the following, and is willing to wear your T-shirt for an entire day, tweeting and promoting the brand to his tens of thousands of followers, all via I Wear Your Shirt. As this Boston.com article “Creating Buzz, One Day at a Time“ highlights, both small and big companies have jumped on the revolutionary marketing scheme, including Lucky Brand Jeans and comedian Bill Cosby. Said one client, “it didn’t feel sales-y, and that’s what we liked about it.” As often mentioned, the key using social media for business is an interactive discussion, not a cold sales pitch. I Wear Your Shirt illustrates this perfectly and may be the ad solution you need.

The SSN Take: Read some of the testimonials to see the typical results.

Sam Hartman, March 14, 2010

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Adopting social media outlets for marketing have been successful but one of the concerns surrounding it from followers were “Do these people get paid for endorsing?” or “Have they received samples from the business?”

Ignored is what typically happens according to the article “New guidelines aimed at making advertisements in Tweets more transparent.” The new guidelines announced from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association were #paid, #samp or #spon before a tweet regarding a product of service. These were chosen due to the character restraint on Twitter, and relative terminology ease for followers. McDonald’s and Dell quickly adhered to these rulings and have asked their partners/clients to do so as well. Rulings like these will help unify standards for advertising through social media and create an air of openness for all who tweet about products and services.

The SSN Take: Disclosure is always good, even if it is mostly ignored by your followers.

Belinda Sissom, March 14, 2010

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Do you trust what your friends say about a certain product or company? What about a recent news item?

As we swap stories and information with our friends across social networks at an increasing rate, the “barometer of trust,” as one study puts it, is inversely sliding. This NewsFactor article, “Social Media: Fluke or Future of Marketing?“  discusses a recent study by public relations firm Edelman, citing a decrease in those who “view their friends and peers as credible sources of consumer and business information.” Has the social network model backfired? The firm’s regional president says consumers are “rebelling against the noise,” due to the “professionalized” social circles that have perhaps grown too large. Many are now turning back to experts and academics for “clarity, objectivity, and accuracy.” While the author believes this trend bodes well for traditional news sources, could it breed a strong skepticism of social networks and its shared content? Tell us what you think.

The SSN Take: Take a hard look at professionalism in your social media message.

Sam Hartman, March 12, 2010

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Valeria Maltoni’s ConversationAgent article disguises some good social media tips in a cryptic dialogue of top companies and their trump card: their reputation.

From “7 Social Media Behaviors That Won’t Win You Customers,” it says as we all know by now, setting up accounts on Twitter and Facebook is only the first step; a real conversation, a dialogue, must follow, and it can often create havoc when the company’s reputation is on the line. While some of her advice is solid: having a coordinated social media effort, being prepared to address potential issues in real time her other remarks are self-contradictory:  don’t push messages at specific users, but don’t be “all over the place.” She claims “all customers want is a great transaction […, so] put shopping carts everywhere” – is this the interactivity that social customers want nowadays? I don’t believe so. Her meta-speak touches on the importance of online brand reputation, but the advice is clouded in a verbose haze of abstractions.

The SSN Take: Cut to the chase – be professional on social media and interact with your customers.

Sam Hartman, March 13, 2010

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A comprehensive review of the various social networking features available has been written up in “Roadmap: Make Your Corporate Websites Relevant by Integrating Facebook, Google, MySpace, LinkedIn, or Twitter.”

Social media guru Jeremiah Owyang covers each feature in detail, from Sharing, Authentication, and even each site’s Application Platform. Following that is a run-down of networks listed in the title, categorized by which features they offer, and through what medium (LinkedIn and MySpace, for instance, allow the Application Platform through OpenSocial). Owyang also offers three guideposts to compliment his roadmap, discussing the customer base and finding partners. “Companies must integrate customers [sic] behavior on social networks to their corporate website to increase relevancy, word of mouth, and trust,” he says.

The SSN Take: Figure out how to bridge the gap between third-party social networks and your corporate web site.

Sam Hartman, March 12, 2010

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A recent Pew Internet study, “Understanding the Participatory News Consumer,”  highlights the varied landscape of Internet news sources that consumers are turning to more and more, often beating out local and national radio, television, and print sources.

The key here is the “participatory metric:” 37% of users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or used social media to spread the information. And if your company happens to be the target, well, heads up! As news is easily shared between users, both good and bad remarks will spread quickly. This couples nicely with the study’s remark, “News is pocket-sized,” a metaphor for the burgeoning mobile news and information market. Users will seek reviews on the go, advice from friends about products, and update in real time just what they think about a particular service. But is the wealth of news, both in content and variety, too much? 70% of respondents said “yes.”

The SSN Take: Keeping an eye on what people are saying about your brand is important in this digital age of information sharing.

Sam Hartman, March 12, 2010

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Microblogging is going big time, a recent Web User report, in “Twitter sees 1.2bn tweets in January“ claimed.

While Twitter’s skyrocketing popularity should not come as a surprise to business and marketing minds, the people sending tweets might raise some eyebrows. January, 2010 was a record month for Twitter, since over one billion tweets were sent, equaling about 40 million per day. That number is impressive, considering this is about 16 times as many tweets as the previous January.

However, the report’s most staggering statistic was how, of Twitter’s 75 million users, 80 percent of those people have only made less than a dozen tweets. That means the recent billion tweets were produced by only 20 percent of Twitter’s members. Learning that this explosive pool of followers is more condensed should be music to the ears of anyone trying to crack into social media and spread the word of their business.

The SSN Take: You’re going to have to work harder to find the Tweeters actually tweeting.

Patrick Roland, March 12, 2010

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Gaebler.com recently reported in “Social Media Adoption By Small Businesses Doubles” that they attribute the ability to attract new customers without spending any money as the key reason.

Large marketing budgets are a foreign language to most small businesses, so finding a way to identify customers, build relationships with them, and provide continued service that results in faithful, loyal, and repeat customers is like striking gold. Difficult market conditions and an ever-expanding social media user base made the choice an easy one for small business owners. Especially when WebProNews.com reported earlier this month that Facebook has more than 400 million users and 200 million of those users access their accounts at least once per day. The power and potential of social media can no longer be ignored.

Melody K. Smith, March 12, 2010

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