The Pollie Awards honor the “Best of the Best” in political advertising and communications. The Earnies are a community-chosen awards program honoring innovative earned media campaigns executed through social media channels.

“For these campaigns we put some out-of-the-box social and mobile ideas to the test – to see if we could raise awareness and amplify our client’s message – and they delivered real results,” said Jack Macleod, General Manager, MXM Social. “It’s such an honor to be recognized for our innovative work for ACCCE.”

      •  MXM Social’s work on the ACCCE’s "Click-to-Call" Grassroots Advocacy campaign won in the Earnies “We Can't Believe That Worked!” category as well as in multiple Pollie award categories: “Best Use of Twitter” (Silver), “Best Use of Facebook Advertising State/Local” (Silver), “Best Use of Mobile Technology” (Gold) and “Best Use of Unusual Phone Techniques” (Silver).

              ◊  About the Campaign: The ACCCE wanted to rally advocates in support of their position opposing an EPA rule which would potentially result in job losses at coal plants. MXM Social developed a first-of-its-kind campaign with both Twitter and Google to educate and mobilize supporters. Citizens who clicked on promoted tweets and ads on their mobile phones were instantly connected to their Senator’s office on Capitol Hill based on geo-location of the mobile phone. The campaign generated more than 3,300 calls to Senators’ offices, yielding over 41 hours of talk time with offices. As a result, several influential votes from senators can be directly attributed to the volume of calls received by their respective offices.  

      • MXM Social’s work on the ACCCE Facebook page won a Silver Pollie award for “Best Facebook Page.”

              ◊ About the Campaign: In January of 2012, ACCCE’s Facebook fan base was roughly 44,000 people. Knowing the organization would need active, vocal fans to speak out on behalf of the organization’s issues and mission during the latter half of 2012, MXM Social set out to build a strong Facebook fan base who would mobilize on behalf of the group. A multi-tiered strategy including content distribution, positioning the page as a resource, geotargeting, special activity during election season, and paid media, led to a 600 percent increase in Facebook fan base, with more than 277,000 fans on the page in December.

For more information on Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, visit www.meredithxceleratedmarketing.com.

About MXM

MXM is a leading content-powered, customer engagement agency that provides fully integrated marketing solutions for some of the world’s top brands, including Kraft, Lowe’s, Chrysler, NBC Universal, and Victoria’s Secret. Through its rich 40-year history, MXM has established itself as the dominant force in custom content and customer relationship marketing platforms.  Strategic acquisitions in mobile, digital, social media, database analytics and healthcare have significantly broadened the agency’s capabilities, and in October 2011, MXM expanded globally through a strategic investment in London-based iris worldwide.  As a result of its rapid growth, MXM has recently been cited by Forrester as one of the pre-eminent customer engagement agencies and by Gartner as one of the top digital agencies.  MXM employs over 600 people globally and is a part of Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) http://www.meredith.com, a publicly-owned media and marketing company serving American women.  Visit http://www.mxm.com for more information.

Constructed to evaluate the predictive impact of social buzz on actual NCAA tournament outcomes, this year’s #SocialBracket fouled-out early. Out of 63 total games (excluding the first round play-ins), MXM Social successfully predicted only 35. For those looking for the math, that’s roughly 56% accuracy, only a slight difference from last year, which predicted 60% of all winners, and picked one of the finalists. This year, social correctly selected 20 of 32 picks in the second round, 11 of 16 in the third and four of the Elite Eight. Thereafter, the volume of online conversation failed to elect a single Final Four or National Championship participant. Seemingly, social misguided us in 2013, but why?

What this year’s tournament truly demonstrates is that no statistic, social exchange or prophetic strategy can overcome raw human emotion, heightened through the tournament’s progression by unimaginable storylines, insurmountable desire and one heck of a zone defense. The ongoing narratives of Florida “Dunk” City, the Big East breakup and Kevin Ware, amongst many others, ultimately affected a team’s overall success more than any pre-tournament dialogue ever could. Thus, while early round victories can more readily be correlated to social buzz, premeditated bracket logic dissipates deep into the tournament as storylines unfold and online conversation shifts. Amongst the chaos, however, social may still provide some clarity. 

One takeaway from all this is that program history and tradition (including number of past tournament wins); as well as power conference belonging, end-of-season rankings and tournament seeding were notably correlated with volume of online discussion. For example, Indiana, which was predicted to win the social bracket with the most online mentions in the month leading up to the tournament (96,652), holds the most (5) NCAA Division I Men’s basketball titles. The top four schools across each bracket region all exceeded 50,000 mentions and comprise at least three national titles amongst them. The top nine volume-ranked schools all belonged to a power conference, while nine of the AP’s final Top 10 garnered more than 50,000 mentions apiece. This year’s champion Louisville, who achieved the No. 1 overall seed, only ranked fifth in total volume, but surpassed its championship opponent Michigan by more than 20,000 mentions.

While this all seems like a lot of data, the message is simple: although a team’s long-term tournament success cannot always be predicted on the basis of social buzz, it can be inferred that online conversation, be it fan-engagement, sporting news, program hype or regular season results, does provide some insight into a team’s initial tournament potential. So long as the concept of predicting March Madness is understandably oxymoronic, this Hoosier alum will take the spirit award and hope for better luck next year, and perhaps a little less hype.

For a few glorious weeks in March, the offices at MXM Social are infected with a serious case of college basketball fever. The staff is consumed by the 68 team men’s basketball tournament––yes, even the play-in games or “first round” as they like to be called––known to everyone as March Madness.* The Big Dance is filled with bracket-busting upsets, legendary coaching duels, buzzer-beaters, top-seeded blowouts, and so many other surprises that make this postseason a time-honored classic.

The winner of the office pool is an accomplishment worthy of the finest coffee and the freshest bagels in the land. However, the old methodology is obsolete. No longer are we confined to choosing teams based on RPI, whether they have a football team, or if we knew someone that went to school there. We are not limited to picking schools based on Power Conferences or mascots alone. We’ve learned our lesson: Submitting a “Chalk Bracket” is about a sensible as making every future 15 seed the next “Cinderella Story.”

This annual tradition of filling out brackets has reached a whole new level. We would like to proudly present to you, “The Social Bracket” (#socialbracket on Twitter). Making its debut last year, we took a look at data from sporting news websites, blogs, online forums, and social platforms including: Twitter and Facebook. Next, we sought to identify the “social buzz” (the total volume of online discussion, over the past month), for the entire field of 68 teams. By matching up the data with this year’s bracket, it creates an aggregated, virtual representation of each team’s past performance, prognostications from sports media experts, and of course some trash-talking too. By all accounts, the MXM Social Bracket is a social media slam-dunk.

This correlative data was not created to predict each game, but in fact last year, the Social Bracket had successfully chose the winner in many instances, including five first-round upsets! So if measuring a team’s “social buzz” can help steer them to the championship, then maybe it could be a good forecast. Then again, good free throw shooting helps a lot, too.

*Note: March Madness™ is a registered trademark of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Best Connection to Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook Audience Award: The Wine Bar Facebook Community
• Award Page
• The Wine Bar Facebook Page
• The Wine Bar Website

We Can't Believe That Worked!: America's Power Click-to-Call Grassroots Advocacy
• Award Page
• America's Power Facebook Page
• America's Power on Twitter

Thanks again to all who voted and be sure to stay tuned to The Wine Bar and America's Power to see what's next for these two thought leaders in social!

The flexible new design lowers Facebook’s signal-to-noise ratio by introducing multiple feeds, highlighted by bigger images that call to mind popular features of Instagram. Designed with mobile in mind, the News Feed promises a consistent experience, no matter what device is used to access the site.

Well for starters, and in its defense, social does not quite look like the makeup of the 2012 Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences members, with approximately “94% Caucasian and 77% male” compromising the bulk of voters  and “people younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership” according to an LA Times 2012 study.  Twitter users, a major component of the SOV compiled for this particular infographic, primarily consists of the 18-34 age group (62%) and on average, more than 55% of female users which would explain why Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman were the two Best Actor nominees with the most female driven discussions.

First predictor upset came in the Best Animated Feature category as Brave had the most favorable sentiment of all the nominees yet Wreck-It Ralph had almost 20,000 more discussions than the competition. Brave’s sneak attack most likely came from the film’s overwhelmingly 72% favorable sentiment in comparison to Wreck-It Ralph’s 39%.

The Supporting Actress field was another tough case, as Sally Field (Lincoln) had a smidge more SOV over Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), the latter garnering more than twice as much conversation on Twitter with 21,719 mentions.  Yet, due to Hathaway’s clean sweep of all precursor awards (i.e. BAFTA, SAG, Globes, Critics Choice) this season, the general social audience’s favorite could not surmount this year’s Best Supporting Actress winner.

While the Supporting Actress category remained close in total SOV, the Best Director’s category seemingly alluded to a clear winner with Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) having over 100,000 mentions and Ang Lee (Life of Pi) following with 63,000. For all nominees, on average, males comprised about 60% (females 30%) of the total conversation. With non-nominee Ben Affleck (Argo) sweeping all precursor awards for the category, and Spielberg being the most notable amongst the Academy and social voice, Lee's win takes prize for “Most Surprising Win” of the night. As for the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture categories, of which MXM Social all predicted correctly, the nominee that led in SOV prevailed and accurately gave insight on who would come out on top.

If you’re a film studio, how much of social conversation do you incorporate into your awards campaign? Is informing the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences of your cast’s stellar performances on social platforms note worthy? It could possibly very well be in the near future. Social is a pretty good indicator of the average moviegoer and can offer insight on what movies audiences adore or loathe. It can definitely turn into a great marketing tool for film studios to use towards the Academy to focus on what kind of impact a movie makes on an audience member after leaving the theater. All of us are guilty of it. As soon as we leave a theater, we head to Facebook or Twitter to give our thumbs up or down. Yes. Everyone is a self-certified critic and that’s okay.

Obviously those apart of the Academy have the upper hand and rightfully so because they do this for a living and have a better eye for film criticism. Yet, no one makes a film to solely be enjoyed amongst their working peers. Just something to think about. No pressure. Same time, same place next year!

We tracked social conversation from the period preceding the 2013 Academy Awards nominations continuing through pre-show speculation to see whether volume of social conversation could accurately predict the winners on Sunday night. We also looked at the cumulative critics’ predictions for best picture and compared them to the general online share of voice.

Take a look at the outcome below. What are your picks?

However, the evolution of journalism is guided by the social revolution. We design our newsrooms and our content to incorporate community points of view, to give voice to the masses, and to encourage the dissemination of accurate information.

Meredith and New Media Strategies embody this evolution. We are motivated by the endless possibilities that are presented when conversations converge across traditional, digital and emerging channels. Our momentum has only just begun. 2013 has much in store. Stay tuned to @NMSosphere over the coming weeks to hear big announcements that demonstrate this commitment.

In the meantime, please join us in celebrating the tremendous achievements of the honorees at the @NatPress 30th Annual Awards Dinner on February 27 at the Washington Hilton. We look forward to seeing you there.

Stipple builds layers of social content onto brands’ photos and animated gifs. These augmented images can be embedded in a brand’s website or social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

Fans hover over Stipple images to see related video, links, social accounts, purchase information, and more. Justin Timberlake has already used Stipple to announce his new album art work and track list.

The tool provides immediate opportunities for monetizing social assets and driving audiences to related brand content. Some examples include:

• An automotive manufacturer could highlight the unique features of a car, with dots linking to details or images that make its vehicle stand out. 

• A clothing retailer could bring its look book images to life with video of each item, sizing information, and links to purchase through the e-commerce site or at specific locations nearby.

• An entertainment network or studio could encourage online streaming of full episodes or films, while cross-promoting series and brand social handles, the soundtrack, and key talent.

Check out our POV below for more:

Diageo

Voting is open until February 20th, so be sure to get ahead of the game and start spreading the word now!

Brands might consider using Facebook Poke for:
• One-time coupon giveaways
• Personal and private promotions
• Photo contest submissions

This POV introduces Facebook Poke and provides supplemental materials covering competitors, case studies and steps for brand implementation.

Brands might consider producing Vines to:

• • Create time-lapse or stop motion scenes
• • Display ingredients for a recipe
• • Show product development from beginning to end
• • Tease production of television episodes
• • Reveal secret offers that quickly flash on camera
• • Hold contests among fans to decipher what they’ve seen

The POV below  introduces Vine and provides supplemental materials covering the other major players in the space, as there is no clear leader NMS recommends at this time.

• Nearby Tries to Oust Foursquare as Mayor of Local
  We’re now seeing the first products from former Gowalla team members at Facebook – which the social giant hopes will permeate across mobile, automotive and even wearable contexts. While Foursquare still boasts 30 million users actively checking in and recommending locations around the globe, Facebook Nearby has begun ranking locations by which your friends have visited, liked or recommended.
  
  Facebook wins on its sheer volume of users, but it doesn’thave search nailed the way Foursquare does (a search for ‘Mexican’ may work, while ‘tacos’ turns up nothing). Foursquare provides context based on time of day and a user’s favorite lists. Business needs to have a Facebook page to show up on Nearby, while Foursquare is crowd sourced from more than 3 billion check-ins worth of history. Also, Facebook has a few innovative approaches for gaining ground quickly. Silicon Valley cafes can now offer free Wi-Fi to patrons who check-in on Facebook, pushing adoption.
   

• The Tantrums Continue for Facebook and Twitter
  Yet another news feed iteration? Hear the cries of frustrated brands and consumers as constant changes to the EdgeRank algorithm leave us wondering how many people – and who those people are – seeing our updates and whether a text post or a picture gains more traction today. Not to mention what Randi Zuckerberg was so pissed about.
  
  Facebook is a teachable platform, and its engineering team seems to be on an unending quest to understand your personal affinities, allowing them to serve up content based on what you and your friends like, regardless of how disparate the two things may seem. Reese’s Pieces during Downton Abbey, anyone? Meanwhile, expect more nosy invasions of privacy because cracking this is a goldmine for the revenue hungry social hippo.
  
  Meanwhile, over at the Great Wall of Twitter, the platform has cemented its importance as a real-time media tool, while tossing droves of third party developers over the fence like parasites. Whereas open sourced app integration brought prosperity in the land of Facebook, Twitter’s desire for a consistent experience on platform and mobile, as well as its need to earn a few bucks, may hinder its ability to quickly develop competitive products.
  
  That said, as we learned through its spat with Instagram (which Twitter hoped to buy at half the price Facebook paid), whatever Twitter wants, Twitter eventually gets. Put enough birds together and you, too, can build strikingly similar filters to those made popular by your competition.
   

• And the One to Watch: Medium
  From the creators of Twitter, Medium bundles themed collections of pictures or stories curated privately or by multiple users. These guys know what they’re doing, and elements of Tumblr, Pinterest and great storytelling all add up to a contender for the “it” social network of 2013.

Part 1

• The Expanded Role of the Brand as Publisher
• Recognizing Visual Search
• Social Video Apps Like Viddy and SocialCam Lose Ground to YouTube Capture

Part 2

• Get Glue Tries to Viggle Its Way Back to Primetime
• Our Idea of “Social TV” Moves from Water Cooler Discovery Services to Immersive Marketing
• Myspace, GroupMe Go Nowhere

• Get Glue Tries to Viggle Its Way Back to Primetime
  After losing $96.5 million over the last year, entertainment check-in app Viggle is hoping to raise $25 million to complete a Hail Mary purchase of competitor GetGlue. 
  
  This acquisition would meet  a desperate need to combine feature sets: Viggle has lured brands to support a rewards system for TV watching, but GetGlue, with 3.2 million registered users and 500 million ratings, has the engaged community sponsors need to reach.
  
  In a lesson learned from Foursquare, GetGlue knew stickers would no longer keep it competitive with network loyalty programs and proprietary apps like HBO Connect or Bravo’s Play Live.  Coming out of last year’s SXSW, content providers like MTV and Bravo stressed their leg up over third party apps: they know what’s coming next in the script. Not to mention that networks now have to hoard content to use across Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest and Storify – essential components in their social TV arsenal.
  
  Last but not least, it’s their Paul Revere moment. The British are coming in full force, and the threat of Zeebox’s partnership with Comcast and HBO, as well as impressive apps from operators like Dish could put these third party apps out of business.
   

• Our Idea of “Social TV” Moves from Water Cooler Discovery Services to Immersive Marketing
  Television discovery via social is working. Forty-nine percent of women have sampled a TV show based on friends’ Facebook updates. Now that legislation has opened the field for social TV, expect Netflix and other apps to build our viewer histories into the Facebook Open Graph, the same way Spotify did for music. A live TV guide of what friends are watching at any given time is still a very real possibility. This will be a huge win for networks and studios obsessed with entertainment data provided by BlueFin and Nielsen, both via Social Guide and its new partnership with Twitter.
  
  Viewers, on the other hand, will now expect richer experiences: to be able to share the segments of a program which they find most interesting and create their own commentary. Apps like Quips and Umami are the start of this. Marketers will need to embrace transmedia content creation and immersive entertainment. For example, Defiance, a new series on Syfy (and an NMS #client), is both a multiplayer online game and a television show. What happens in one world will inform the other, bringing the audience into a truly immersive, socialized entertainment experience. Social may also be the afterlife for aging programming, creating transmedia plays like Top Chef’s “Last Chance Kitchen” that allow stories to be reinvented later in their shelf life
  .
• Myspace, GroupMe Go Nowhere
  Speaking of the afterlife, Myspace is on its third or fourth reinvention now, hoping to compete with Pandora and Spotify as a social music service. Expect that no amount of makeup will save this busted brand of yesteryear. After an initial eye catching video, MySpace has cried wolf once again, unable to entice an audience already satisfied with options on the market.
  
  Meanwhile, GroupMe, which needs a radical brand extension to stay afloat, entered the social shopping market at perhaps the worst time, just as market leader LivingSocial laid off hundreds and shuttered many of its offices. Kudos for inventing a co-payment platform for friends, but we don’t see this taking off.
  
  That said, with the social shopping space tanking, expect more wow-worthy experiential retail environments to lure fans in store this year.
   

Yesterday (Part 1):

• The Expanded Role of the Brand as Publisher
• Recognizing Visual Search
• Social Video Apps Like Viddy and SocialCam Lose Ground to YouTube Capture

Tomorrow (Part 3):

• Nearby Tries to Oust Foursquare as Mayor of Local
• The Tantrums Continue for Facebook and Twitter
• And the One to Watch: Medium

• The Expanded Role of the Brand as Publisher
  As Zuckerberg’s Law persists, brands will create upwards of 20+ pieces of custom content per week on their primary social networks. One look at the success of Oreo’s “Daily Twist” shows that the soft sell – highly relevant, targeted daily conversations as opposed to direct sales messages – grabs the attention of fans and media and reminds them of their brand love.
  
  The trick will be carving out a space to own. To that end, one-off digital engagements like finding a place to stay will move from the functional to the conversational. Take Airbnb’s website redesign which now provides  a social playground for users to engage with celebrity-curated wish lists, browse eye-popping Pinterest-like pictures, and foster their wanderlust alongside friends.
   
• Recognizing Visual Search
  As brands amp up their game and investment in visual content for Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr, traditional text mining can no longer track the trail of brand assets across the web.  Enter visual search tools like Curalate that scan photos pixel by pixel to verify that the JCrew pants on your blog and Pinterest page are one in the same. Not only will this technology help brands understand where their images travel, but we can expect consumers to receive a whole host of new augmented reality apps powered by visual recognition tools, a la Google Goggles.
  
  
• Social Video Apps Like Viddy and SocialCam Lose Ground to YouTube Capture
  Whether you were hoping to capture a film masterpiece in 3, 15, or 60+ seconds, 2012 left you with a dizzying number of apps claiming to be the Instagram of video. While Viddy and SocialCam seemed to lead the pack, sudden explosive growth in registered users (just in time to attract investors) was followed by a steep drop off in interest and lack of community building. 
  
  Viddy has moved quickly to bring A-list talent on board: Britney Spears left SocialCam to support Viddy, joining the ranks of Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. They’ve also brought the likes of Ellie Goulding and Carly Rae Jepsen on board to provide soundtracks for fan usage.  SocialCam has gained ground among sports teams and minority celebrities. And both are being outperformed in simple drag-and-drop functionality by the Dreamworks-born Ptch and evocative yet often creepy Cinemagram.
  
  If they can’t pull together an active base, these sites will lose ground to the largest video community out there. In late December, YouTube, which intends to build on its original content channels in 2013, put a stake in the ground with Capture – an elegant app allowing celebrities, influencers and fans to push content to their already active social network.
   

Tomorrow (Part 2):
• Get Glue Tries to Viggle Its Way Back to Primetime
• Our Idea of “Social TV” Moves from Water Cooler Discovery Services to Immersive Marketing
• Myspace, GroupMe Go Nowhere

Friday (Part 3):
• Nearby Tries to Oust Foursquare as Mayor of Local
• The Tantrums Continue for Facebook and Twitter
• And the One to Watch: Medium

Flashback:
• Our 2012 Predictions

WASHINGTON, D.C./NEW YORK, N.Y. (November 1, 2012) – Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM), Meredith Corporation’s (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com) global customer engagement agency, announced today that it has added several industry leaders to its social media practice, New Media Strategies (NMS). MXM transforms content, data analytics, social and mobile marketing into insights and innovation to create brand experiences that give clients a competitive edge.

Joining MXM’s social media practice are Tom Donnelly as Vice President Public Affairs; Gayle Weiswasser as Vice President, Engagement; James Clark as Strategy Director; and Megan Malli as Senior Account Director.

Donnelly joins NMS with over 20 years of communications, public affairs and government relations experience. Most recently, he was a director with CQ Roll Call's Advocacy & Engagement practice area, where he led efforts on social media strategy and enhancements for its flagship state legislative tracking service and grassroots and advocacy tools.

Prior to CQ Roll Call, Donnelly was Vice President at Illumen, a company he founded in 2001 and was acquired by CQ Roll Call in late 2011.  Illumen was a digital news and legislative information aggregator for the public affairs community.

Donnelly’s background also includes leading the global Dow Chemical team for the Public Affairs practice at Ketchum Public Relations, where he also led crisis communications for brands including Intuit and Bridgestone/Firestone.  Donnelly also spent time on Capitol Hill, including a stint as a senior legislative aid for then Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ).  He was Mr. Saxton's top aid on the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.

Donnelly is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and currently resides in Stone Ridge, Virginia, with his family.

Gayle Weiswasser joins NMS as Vice President, Engagement, where she will oversee social media marketing strategy on owned and earned channels for a roster of blue chip clients representing a variety of industries.

Previously, Weiswasser was Vice President of Social Media at Discovery Communications, where she directed social media strategy for Discovery’s networks. She managed the networks’ Facebook, Twitter and other social media platform strategy and implementation, as well as partnerships with social TV services, social media monitoring and emerging platforms.  Her responsibilities also included blogger /influencer engagement, coordination of cross-platform ad integrations, and development of social media best practices for employees, talent, and Discovery partners.

Prior to joining Discovery, Weiswasser worked at Arlington, VA-based crisis communications firm TMG Strategies, where she advised Fortune 500 companies on using social media during times of crisis. She has a law degree from Harvard Law School, and formerly practiced both intellectual property and transactional law in Washington DC and San Francisco.

Weiswasser is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Women’s Entertainment and Technology Board at Digital Hollywood, as well as a member of the Board of Advisors to the OTT- Connected TV – Hollywood Alliance.

James P.  Clark joins NMS as Strategy Director where he will be responsible for leading day-to-day strategy for large clients and groups.  Clark has over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development, operations, management and social/emerging technology and innovation.

Most recently he was Lead Social Media Strategist at Mindshare, primarily working on the Sprint account. He developed integrated paid earned strategies across all Sprint’s digital spaces including social, search & display.  He was responsible for designing, building and managing Sprint’s Social Media Resource Center (SMRC) –one of the first real-time social media management and response centers developed in the U.S.

Previously, Clark was Vice President of New Business Development at Visible Technologies, where he helped the company develop their social media product offerings, client development and internal sales and marketing team development. His experience also includes nearly 20 years of working for AT&T in the Washington DC, Phoenix and New York City areas across a broad range of functions and clients.

Clark holds an MBA in Marketing with Regis University graduating with Honors, and a B.S. from the University of Maryland (College Park) in Physical Geography/Geology.  Currently he resides in Tinton Falls, N.J. with his family. He will be based in the New York office of MXM at 805, Third Avenue.

Megan Malli joins NMS as Senior Account Director where she will be responsible for managing key client accounts and programs. Most recently, Malli worked with AKQA, where she was responsible for managing the Volkswagen mobile programs and the U.S. Postal Service digital shipping initiatives.

Malli has nearly a decade of experience in the marketing and account management area, and has lead and developed strategic marketing plans and programs for a number of Fortune 500 companies. Her  clients included leading brands in the telecommunications, automotive, government, retail, tourism, education, and health care sectors.

Malli holds a Master of Science degree in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. She also earned her B.A. from Carnegie Mellon. She resides in Arlington, VA.

“Each of these individuals is highly regarded for the depth of their expertise and range of experience,” says Jack Macleod, General Manager, NMS. “We believe that they will contribute significantly to our growth and to the continuing growth of our agency.”

Offers were initially limited to brands with Facebook account managers, but Page admins without these connections are now being greeted with a product tour explaining a new “Offer, Event +” category added to the publisher on their Pages.

According to our findings, it appears that this second wave of the release is largely limited to retailers, restaurants and local businesses with physical locations. The initial focus on retailers is reflected in the updated Offers FAQ, which describes Offers as being “in beta to a limited number of local business Pages.”

Facebook is now encouraging interested Page admins to fill out an Offers Information Request form. A request-based release strategy is a welcome change from previous beta product releases, as it provides smaller businesses with a means of indicating their interest in participation to the Pages team at Facebook.

By placing Offers functionality in the hands of the most motivated Page admins first, Facebook may succeed in generating sustained interest in repeated use of the product—a level of loyalty that the now-defunct Facebook Deals was never able to develop.

Readers, do you plan on using Facebook Offers in the near future?

The act of reading itself isn’t the only thing that has gone digital. Getting recommendations for books and sharing questions and impressions of them is becoming an increasingly digital experience. Whether you’re a Kindle or Nook convert, have started reading books on your iPad, or still like the feel of a paperback in your hands, how do you find your next book? Chances are high that you’re getting recommendations through your social networks.

Perhaps you’re following Friday Reads, which has a community of 10,365 on Facebook and 144,774 on Twitter. Its large Twitter following is partly due to its promotions each Friday when followers enter free book giveaways by tweeting about what you’re currently reading that week using the hashtag #fridayreads.

Or maybe you log all your reading habits on other popular reading communities like Good Reads, LibraryThing, Book Crossing, or Amazon’s Selfari. These sites allow you to create your own virtual bookshelves, track books that you’re currently reading, would like to read or have read, write reviews, share recommendations, and join in on conversations in live chats and forums. The largest online reading community, Good Reads, boasts a large base of 379,763 Twitter followers and 4,470,287 UMVs.  It also offers the opportunity to sync with your Facebook page so that you can share your Good Reads progress with all your friends, not just other Good Reads members.

If you’re a little more private and are just in search of a new read, you may consistently check www.whatshouldireadnext.com. Simply type in the title of a book you enjoyed and the website generates a personalized list of other books you might like based on that title or author.

With these growing communities and more traditional publishers like @PenguinBooks, @GuardianBooks, @nytimesbooks, and @nybooks each with anywhere from 296,00 to 431,000 followers on Twitter alone, social networks offer an array of opportunities to get your next book fix.

Even though Target announced its decision to pull Amazon’s Kindle from its nearly 1,800 stores nationwide and Amazon’s Kindle sales have dropped in Q2, Kindle devices are still selling at a rate of at least 1 million a quarter. E-reading is definitely not going away. With up to 100 individuals on the Kindle e-checkout waiting list for popular books at my local library, e-books are certainly in demand. So this begs the question, read any good e-books lately? I’m taking suggestions at @oselj!

A week after my account was restored; I received an apology e-mail from Spotify.  The e-mail assured me that I would not be billed for the week without service.  And even better, the Spotify team enclosed an apology playlist as an added gesture.  Though I question their team’s taste in music, I loved their regard for customer satisfaction.[3]

It’s important to respond to customer dissatisfaction in a timely fashion. Have a strategy in place to react to and resolve customer service issues as quickly as possible. Do what’s best for your customers when everybody is watching.[4]  And in instances where you can, go the extra mile and say you’re sorry, even when nobody is watching. 

2012 Silver
Best Facebook Page
America's Power Facebook

2012 Bronze
Best Use of Email
TRAIN Act Activation

2012 Bronze
Best Use of Facebook Advertising State/Local
America's Power

2012 Honorable Mention
Best Use of Social Media
Digital Recruitment Campaign

We're also honored to have been honored by the Internet Advertising Competition last week for our work on behalf of the NFL Players Association and Chrysler Automotive Group:

Best Online Sports Video
NFLPA - Let Us Play

Outstanding Integrated Ad Campaign
Chrysler Fatchance 2.0

Outstanding Online Video
Chrysler Imported from Detroit Backstories

Outstanding Integrated Ad Campaign
Jeep
 

Fantastic job, @NMSosphere!

 

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This year we’ve decided to take the tradition of filling out our tournament brackets a bit further, to go beyond doing all of our prerequisite sports blog research. We’re putting Big East loyalties and ACC allegiances behind us. No longer were we satisfied picking winners of games based on colors, mascots, and states and cities we’d  most like to live in.

This time, we’ve decided to pick winners the way we know best. We’ve tabulated the volume of online discussion over the past month of each of the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament to see who has had the most social buzz. We’ve visualized the information, and dubbed it “The Social Bracket.”  (#socialbracket on Twitter.)

Below, see The Social Bracket, and who comes out on top:

First, what’s immediately apparent is the top teams clearly have made a massive impact online, even far before they were selected as high seeds for the tournament.  Our research has one-seeds Kentucky, Syracuse, and North Carolina making the tournament, as well as all the one and two-seeds heading to the Elite Eight. Having the top seeds all go to the final rounds is something we call “all chalk” - a controversial pick on its own, as most experienced bracketologists typically like to send a lower seed to the Elite Eight / Final Four. (These are also the picks that are hardest to make.)

Online discussion has big things happening for Missouri, sending the Tigers to the Final Four boosted by the thousands of fans pulling for “Mizzou” on Twitter. There’s a significant numbers of upsets picked in the first round by the volume of conversation in social, including:

• VCU (#12) over Wichita State (#5)
• Colorado (#11) over UNLV (#6)
• Virginia (#10) over Florida (#7)
• Harvard (#12) over Vanderbilt (#5)
• Texas  (#11) over Cincinnati (#6)
• West Virginia (#10) over Gonzaga (#7)
• Alabama (#9) over Creighton (#8)
• Cal (#12) over Temple (#5)
• Ohio (#13) over Michigan (#4)
• N.C State (#11) over San Diego State (#6)
• Purdue (#10) over St. Mary’s (#7)

After this weekend’s first and second rounds, we’ll run our analysis before each weekend of the tournament - and trying to pick the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and the National Championship via social.  We’ll be posting updates from our @NMSosphere handle on Twitter with the hashtag #socialbracket, and we’re hoping you’ll join the conversation.

Who do you have going deep in this year’s March Madness?

“We are delighted that Imani has joined the New Media Strategies team,” said Macleod.  “Since our inception in 1999, our expertise in social media marketing and insights has brought great value to our clients.  That expertise is not limited to earned and owned media, but applies to traditional media as well.  Imani’s knowledge and experience will enable highly innovative strategies that build, sustain and optimize online community engagement, and deliver more holistic integrated solutions for our clients.”

Greene’s background positions her well for her move to NMS.  She was hired by Ogilvy in 2002 to launch a paid media offering that supported the advertising needs of its PR clients. Over her 10-year tenure, she helped win and manage more than $70 million of media buys for corporate, non-profit and public organizations.  Prior to Ogilvy, Greene spent nearly 10 years at ad agencies, including McCann-Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi.  She has won several awards for her work, including Mediaweek's Media Plan of the Year for Smith Barney. 

“I am thrilled to be joining an agency of this caliber at such an exciting time for the business,” said Greene.  “Building a robust media offering to support the stellar client portfolio of New Media Strategies was an opportunity I just couldn’t resist.  The social media landscape is incredibly dynamic and wide open for innovation, particularly as lines continue to blur between digital and social.”   

With annual spending on social media marketing exceeding $3 billion and 70 percent of large corporations planning to increase their social media budget by more than 10 percent in 2012, brands are increasingly looking to outside agencies for support in directly targeting consumers based on their social graph, according to Macleod.  

“In total, worldwide social network spending is expected to reach almost $6 billion this year.  Imani’s insight will be instrumental as we pursue that business,” he added.

ABOUT NEW MEDIA STRATEGIES

New Media Strategies (NMS) is the world's first and largest social media marketing agency. With an unparalleled track record implementing strategies that drive results for Fortune 500 marketers, NMS has played a leading role in defining social media marketing, metrics and best practices.  Heralded as a "pioneer in consumer communications" by the Washington Post, NMS was named to Inc’s “500 Fastest Growing Companies” three years in a row. NMS was acquired by Meredith Corporation in 2007 and operates within Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM), the company's full-service digital and customer relationship marketing agency, named to Ad Age’s Agency A-List in 2011.  To learn more, visit www.nms.com or on Twitter @nmsosphere.

Contact:  Jack Macleod (703) 253-0050; jmacleod@nms.com

These topics certainly aren’t the only subjects that have taken on new life on Tumblr, and you can really find a Tumblr for just about anything, including Selleck Waterfall Sandwich (don’t ask me how I know about that one). Most of us here at the ‘sphere are big fans of Tumblr and asking any person for their favorite will yield a slew of blogs of all shapes and sizes. So, without further ado, I want to share a couple team favorites and a few personal gems for you to check out [read: browse for hours until you realize it’s 3 in the morning and you have work tomorrow].

With Tumblr’s growing popularity, brands have begun to establish a footprint on the site, specifically fashion brands. Kate Spade is one example of a fashion brand that has really perfected their voice on the platform. They rarely post their products, but focus on uploading lifestyle photos that establish the brand’s attitude, e.g. vintage photos, style sketches, shots of NYC. These simple, “inspirational” and visually appealing shots get reblogged hundreds of times and quickly spread the brand’s image across the platform. A picture they posted of a gumball machine received almost 5,000 notes! Similarly, if you are interested in all things sartorial, you may also want to check out T Magazine (The New York Times Style Magazine). Formatted in a slightly different fashion (see what I did there) than Kate Spade; they post high quality, high fashion photos straight from the runway or studio.
 

If you want to use Tumblr to keep up with public affairs, the Obama campaign has been pushing out content ranging from everyday happenings around the White House to explanations of Obama’s tax plans. My personal favorite post is the .GIF of Obama’s reaction to a marshmallow cannon firing. For more news on Tumblr, check out The Washington Post’s Blog, @innovations. It’s formatted to look just like their website, but hosts lighter, sharable daily news.

Now, if you just want something to tickle your funny bone, Tumblr is rife with hilarity. I could go on for hours listing LOL-worthy Tumblr blogs, but I’ll highlight a few heavy hitters:

Perez Hamilton – A spin on the gossip Blog, Perez Hilton, Perez Hamilton dishes the dirt on our forefathers, covering all the drama from the 13 original colonies. You just can’t go wrong with headlines like “Rhode Island Recognized as Colony with A Hippie Charter” and “King Charles II Gives Carolina to EIGHT Different Dudes.

9gag – The behemoth meme generator posts submissions from its website. If you want to know where that internet joke that everyone has beaten to a pulp came from, you can be confident it passed through 9gag at some point.

Dads Are the Original Hipsters – Self-explanatory. It is this blog’s mission to show all the hipsters out there that their dads were doing it before it was even cool to be a hipster. Followers are encouraged to send pictures of their fathers to be shared on the site.

Cats That Look Like Ron Swanson – Also self explanatory. Plus, cats are always internet gold.

T-Rex Trying – A personal favorite that catalogs the trials and tribulations of a T-Rex trying to adapt to modern living. Poor guy’s arms are so short!

Moral of this story, there is a Tumblr blog out there for everyone, so start exploring. Maybe you’ll think of the next obscure topic to Tumbl.

There is no exact science to drafting the perfect pitch email, but below are a few tips to getting started when looking to reach out to an online influencer.

Address the Blogger Appropriately – I shouldn’t even have to offer this as a tip since it should be automatic. I still hear from my contacts that at times they receive e-mail pitches addressed as “Dear Blogger,” or “Dear [Name],” or “Dear [Insert wrong name here].”  Bloggers are people just like you and I and they should be addressed properly. Take the time to learn the name or by which they would like to be addressed and make sure to include it.

Read the Blog – Receiving a blind cold pitch email is about as friendly as Kevin McCallister throwing a brick in Marv’s face in Home Alone 2. Some bloggers receive hundreds of emails a day, and if you would like to stand out from the rest of the trash they receive, go out of your way to get to know the blogger by actually reading their blog. Try to find a nugget of information within a post to relate back within the email, hyperlinking to the post.  For example, if a blogger wrote about a recent trip, make note of it and ask about it. It shows you’ve taken the initiative to learn more about the blogger and that you are genuinely trying to open up a line of friendly communication.

Read the About Page – The About Page is there for a reason. You can learn a lot about a blogger, their tastes, and preferences. Many bloggers include what types of brands and products they prefer working with, how they would like to be pitched (if at all), and how they would like to work with brands. This information is key when reaching out to bloggers.

For example, if a blogger shares in her About Page that she is a vegetarian, don’t pitch her asking for a review of your client’s brand new beef jerky. It’s a quick way to get you on her bad side.

Connect the Pitch to the Blogger – Do your best to connect the product/promotion to the blogger and their readers. Remember, blogger outreach is all about creating a mutual relationship, and the pitch has to be something that may interest the blogger and their readers.  For example, if a blogger writes about running and you are promoting new sneakers, offer reasons to why the new sneakers would help their current running regimen.

Short Pitches – With bloggers receiving so many e-mails daily, they don’t have time to read every e-mail word for word.  Stick with the most important information, talking points, and what’s in it for the blogger and their readers.  Don’t let them guess, tell them right away. If a blogger is interested, they will let you know. If interested, then send a follow-up email with additional information, links and images to help the blogger craft their post. If a blogger has questions, find out the answers right away and respond as soon as possible so you do not keep them waiting.

As blogger outreach continues to be part of a brand’s social strategy to accomplish their goals, e-mail pitches and communications become more of a priority.  By sticking to best practices when contacting bloggers, you can help increase your positive response rates, which will be the foundation to developing long term mutually beneficial working relationships with bloggers.