Can you try and guess who the winner social platform for Fortune 100 companies is?

You guessed right, Twitter it is.

65% of the world’s most poweful companies reported to have an active account on the leading microblogging platform. Facebook comes in second with 54% of companies having presence on Facebook Fan Pages and 50% of companies who have a YouTube channel. The study also found that only 33% have corporate blogs.

Only 20% of these international companies reported to be utilizing all four platforms (Facebook, Twitter,YouTube, blog) to engage with stakeholders.

There are also those who have multiple active accounts on Twitter and these include AT&T, Nokia and Samsung with 15 accounts each while the average number of accounts for the vast majority is 4.2.

The level of activity on social networking sites was also measured in the study. The total # of posts done on Twitter in the past week by 82% of companies was of 27 tweets, followed by 59% of companies who posted 3.6 Facebook posts in the past week, 68% who uploaded 10 videos on YouTube in the past month and 36% who submitted 7 new blog posts on their corporate blogs in the same time period.

You can find the complete analysis of the findings here.

Below is an infographic from Flowtown which helps visualize better the social media intake and engagement of these Fortune 100 companies:

77 participated both with a stand and was invited to speak in one of the panels dubbed ‘Benchmarking advertising on social networks’ where 77 partner and strategist, Amedeo Guffanti, intervened together with representatives from Speedo, i-Level, IKEA and Media Contacts.

The panel was a great success, after receiving good feedback from the audience who also showed to be very responsive and asking numerous of insightful questions. IKEA and Speedo also did a great job at providing the audience with useful examples of best practice used in successful social media marketing campaigns and other online initiatives.

Other global brands and social media networks who participated at the event include Facebook, LinkedIn, Viadeo, Xing, Orange, Justin TV, Netlog, COI and Virgin Atlantic.

We had loads of fun at our booth where we talked and met lots of interesting people, from independent marketers and B2C companies to freelancers and start-upers. It was a great experience overall, now it’s time to follow-up on all the new acquaintances and start looking forward to next year’s SMWF!

Check out some event photos!

After the success of our previous event on the 18th February, we now confirm our second forth coming event for this year!

Social Media: Maximising your brand presence on Facebook, YouTube and other social networks is the title of our upcoming event to be held on the 31st of March, from 4pm to 7pm, at the Soho House in Old Compton Street in London.

The knowledge sharing event for marketing professionals is being hosted together with B! Digital and in collaboration with Viadeo and Google. Speakers at the seminar, other than 77’s MD, Marco Corsaro, include Bruce Daisley, Sales Leader, YouTube & Display, who will be discussing how to make the best out of Video Marketing using YouTube, followed by Ben Duncan-Clark , Survey Manager, Viadeo who will share insights about market research in professional social networks.

The main objective for this series of social media events which we hope to continue running throughout the rest of 2010, is to provide professional marketers with a better understanding of the opportunities and benefits social media networks hold in store for brands.

Social media continues to grow at an exhilarating pace, it can become challenging for marketers to identify the best way to maximise some of the new online tools and channels existent in today’s social media marketing landscape. It is our intention to take a look at  how to utillize some of the key social networks such as Facebook and YouTube, to enhance marketing efforts, increase online brand presence and boost business ROI.

RSVP here!

Visit our 77 Facebook Fan Page to stay tuned for any updates, event photos + more on future events!

You can also visit www.77agency.com for more on 77Agency.

According to figures from comScore, visits to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook via mobile internet browsers showed triple-digit growth during January.

The study found that 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3% from 22.5% one year ago. Access to social network Facebook, in particular, grew 112% in the past year attracting 25.1 mobile users in January, compared to Twitter which experienced a 347% increase on the corresponding period of 2009.

Overall figures for January 2010 revealed that 11.1% of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via their mobile’s internet browser. This shows an increase of 4.6% over the past 12 months.

Such figures are proof that social media sites are increasingly being used by individuals worldwide regardless of their location, and this is where mobile marketing still holds great promise for marketers. Not only are users accessing social sites and community networks via their phones, they’re also feeling more comfortable making purchases from their handsets, as revealed by a recent Compete Smartphone Intelligence Survey.

Among the numerous online initiatives that were measured in the study, having a company page on a social networking site had the highest adoption with 75% of small businesses using it.

Small businesses today are considering different, cost-effective alternatives to keep their brands visible and accessible to potential customers some of which include posting status updates and/or articles of interest on social networking sites, building network through sites such as LinkedIn, creating a blog in area of expertise and monitoring positive and negative feedback about own organization on social networks.

As the study shows, the second highest activity used by small businesses is posting status updates and/or articles of interest on social networking sites which was implemented by 69% of businesses.

In addition, small businesses also declared that building online presence was one of their main priorities for the coming years, property sites being the top technology investment in the next two years, followed by an online showcase of products and services to help attract new customers and placing third are social media activity investments.

One highlighting fact which can be greatly exploited using social networks such as Twitter or Facebook is the fact that small businesses hold customer service as one of their biggest strengths, and have proven to be quite efficient at responding to customer claims, answering their questions and solving their problems.

For more information on the study you can visit www.growsmartbusiness.com

The annual convention of Athletes World, a subsidiary of  the Bata group, leader in Italy for the distribution of international sneaker brands such as Nike, Adidas, Converse, Lacoste and sportswear fashion, was held last Tuesday in Limena, Italy.

Athletes World, which has a network of over 100 commercial outlets between direct and affiliates in major Italian cities, is also an innovator of new technologies, and has implemented social media strategies in their marketing mix since early 2009.

“Over the years we have built our community on Facebook and with nearly 30K fans we are proud to have been one of the first major retailers to see an opportunity in the social media arena and integrate these new tools into our off-line communication strategy,” declared Paola Sandini, Advertising & Communication Manager at Athletes World, “thanks to the joint efforts of both our traditional communication agency (Attila & Co) and new media agency (77Agency), we have initiated a process of innovation and integration of alternative communication channels which will continue in 2010 and eventually take us to the launch of our e-commerce.”

Marco Corsaro, Founder and Managing Director of 77Agency said:

“We are proud to have been invited to speak at the convention of Athletes World. It’s an honor to be recognized for our efforts  in the development of  successful digital communication campaigns for and to have been selected for the development of the e-commerce platform for this important sports fashion retailer.”

Click image to see full story: (in Italian)

I’d like to go back to one of my blog posts from last week, Building Good Online Branding While Being Consistent, and discuss one very important factor that was kindly brought to light by Dominique Lahaix co-founder & CEO of Cairn Inc., a privately held software technology company.

His comment was the following:

Thanks for the article. I like the stress on having an objective.

What I think is also critical is to target a specific audience.
Most marketers define their audience as “social media” and I think this is a huge mistake. The web is made up by a myriad of communities and tribes (that connects thru blogs, twitter, facebook) and what marketers should look at is how to select the communities that matter and develop the right value proposal, messages, strategies for these communities not to broadly and loosly diffuse messages into “social media”.

And my response to his statement was:

Yes, I entirely agree. Strategies should be developed to cater a specific audience from a specific network. It’s like having a campaign targeted to a Spanish-speaking audience and using the exact same campaign with the literal translation in English to target the English-speaking crowd…it’s just not going to work. Community profiles are different,they have different customs, demographics, psychographics,etc. Great point!

Like I said, great point. And this is why I decided to dedicate a couple lines to explain this very important aspect.

It’s true that in the thriving world of social media, things won’t always be as easy as they seem. At times, trying to define a comprehensive social media strategy for your brand can even be overwhelming.

But as Dominique stated, marketers cannot assume that the citizens of the ’social media’ universe are all the same, that they have the same likes and interests, speak the same language, or practice the same hobbies.

Before determining your social media objectives you need to first understand your audience. Once you have distinctive goals for your digital brand strategy you can then embark on ‘mini-campaigns’ which target specific audiences in specific channels. In short, your company goals will automatically help you determine the crowd you want to reach and further define the message you want to depict.

For instance, Twitter has proven to be effective on the CRM and customer service front, whereas Facebook can be more useful to interact with customers and foster relationships. And this translates to two different approaches for two different networks.

In addition, measuring your campaign results will become a less daunting task since the idea is to be able to examine each one of your campaigns individually and track your ROI until eventually pinpointing the social media channel that best fulfills your company’s objectives.

(hat tip to Dominiq for the inspiration)

Below is a list of activities to help you bring your physical event online by leveraging online tools like social networks and the likes.

BLOG

If you have a blog already, make sure you write about the given event well in advance and also a few days prior to it. Look into your sector’s blogging community and identify the bloggers that would be most likely interested in blogging about the event, and of course, don’t forget to invite them to the event.

CREATE A FACEBOOK EVENT

If your brand or service already has a Facebook Page, include the event on the page, plus highlights of the event, keynote speakers, images, ways to participate, etc. Event’s can be easily shared between users and if you like, you may also promote your event by launching a highly targeted Facebook ad campaign.

After the event, you can add photos of the participants, tag people and even thank them for joining. It’s a great way to start conversation between you and your audience.

TWEET! + HASHTAGS

Tweeting during the event can generate great buzz and get people talking. If people talk and comment about it, that’ll get more people interested and awaken curiosity about upcoming events. A few days ago I attended the Forum Digitale della Comunicazione here in Milan and it was great in the sense that they had a Twitter live stream being projected in a huge screen and all tweets being shown included the dedicated event hashtag: #fd10tag (no idea why they added the ‘tag’ at the end).

The good thing about hashtags is that those who couldn’t make it to the event can 1. keep up with the live streaming as the event occurs and 2. look up news on the certain event using the hashtag on the Twitter search field.

SOCIAL NETWORK STATUSES

We all love the ‘what are you doing’ or ‘what’s happening’ questions, but moreover, we love answering them. Why not make good use out of these and promote your upcoming event, where you’re headed, which event your attending, why you’re looking forward to it and who your favorite guest speakers are, etc etc.

USE BUSINESS NETWORKS

Take advantage of online communities such as LinkedIn or Viadeo to promote your event. Networks such as these are advantageous for joining groups and communities where you can easily find subjects related to your industry or sector. Also, now that Twitter updates can be synced with your LinkedIn account people can keep up with your tweets and current activities as they are broadcasted on your status update.

UPLOAD PHOTOS + VIDEOS

A good way to generate some good noise is by creating photo albums on sites such as Flickr or Facebook or by uploading videos on YouTube. Online sharing applications are the best to manage your photos and share them with the world. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words…People enjoy viewing pictures/videos, not only are they entertaining, they also serve to inform and give people a general idea of what the event, conference, roundtable was like.

Try these out and let us know how it goes!

A few months back we wrote a post discussing the importance of dedicating time to customers and how the rise of social media use can positively impact customer service as well as enhance interaction between brands and consumers.

This still holds true as we haven’t stopped witnessing great efforts on behalf of brands, for instance, @WholeFoods, who have turned to social media and harnessed channels such as Twitter and Facebook to reach their customers and build relationships.

On this particular post, however, I wanted to discuss the importance and the role of employees in a business when it comes to social media sites.

If you think about it, your employees are the people who are most familiar with your product or service, hence, they’re your biggest brand ambassadors. Because the interent gives everyone and anyone a voice through these social platforms, why not use the opportunity to leverage  your employees and make them active advocates of your brand.

According to Nielsen, 2/3’s of the world’s interent population visit social networking or blogging sites. Your employees are now on the web more than ever and being very social. Facebook, for example, has recently revealed that the average user has 130 friends on the site. Just about anyone can get access to the Internet and communicate with likeminded individuals who share the same interests that they do.

You can make your employees your biggest fans and have them showcase why your product or service is their absolute favorite. Make your employees feel like they can engage online by encouraging them to participate in social networks, forums or blogs.

The idea is for your employees to start dialogue, give valuable insight about the company and become influential enough to encourage others to join the conversation.

Your employees represent one of the best solutions to connect your business with your customers and start conversation. The more natural, spontaneous and sincere their interactions are, the more they will appear like real humans who are not trying to sell anything to anyone…and this can only result in one thing: open, friendly dialogue.

The following data is a compilation of social media statistics put together by Econsultancy showcasing the most significant facts and figures surrounding networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and online activities such as blogging and photo sharing.

If you’re a newcomer or are beginning to consider taking a plunge into the social media arena and exploit the opportunities (and challenges) social media offers, take a look at the following numbers:

* Facebook claims that 50% of active users log into the site each day. This would mean at least 175m users every 24 hours.
* Twitter now has 75m user accounts, but only around 15m are active users on a regular basis. It’s still a fair increase from the estimated 6-10m global users from a few months ago.
* LinkedIn has over 50m members worldwide. This means an increase of around 1m members month-on-month since July/August last year.
* Facebook currently has in excess of 350 million close to 400 million active users on a global basis. Six months ago, this was 250m… meaning around a 40% increase of users in less than half a year.
* Flickr now hosts more than 4bn images. A massive jump from the previous 3.6bn I wrote about.
* More than 35m Facebook users update their status each day. This is 5m more than towards the end of July 2009.
* Wikipedia currently has in excess of 14m articles, meaning that it’s 85,000 contributors have written nearly a million new posts in six months.
* Photo uploads to Facebook have increased by more than 100%. Currently, there are around 2.5bn uploads to the site each month – this was around a billion last time I covered this.
* There are more than 70 translations available on Facebook. Last time around, this was only 50.
* Back in 2009, the average user had 120 friends within Facebook. This is now around 130.
* Mobile is even bigger than before for Facebook, with more than 65m users accessing the site through mobile-based devices. In six months, this is over 100% increase. (Previously 30m).

Other significant facts include:

* There are more than 3.5bn pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.
* There are now 11m LinkedIn users across Europe.
* Towards the end of last year, the average number of tweets per day was over 27.3 million.
* The average number of tweets per hour was around 1.3m.
* More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook.
* Purpose-built Facebook pages have created more than 5.3bn fans.
* 15% of bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging, according to Technorati’s new State of the Blogosphere.
* At the current rate, Twitter will process almost 10bn tweets in a single year.
* About 70% of Facebook users are outside the USA.
* India is currently the fastest-growing country to use LinkedIn, with around 3m total users.
* More than 250 Facebook applications have over a million combined users each month.
* 70% of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog.
* 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews.
* More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008 and more than 60m Facebook users engage with it across these external sites each month.

Keep these handy for when you begin developing your brand’s social media strategy, however, the info presented above is only a bird’s eye view of this particular sector.

In order to be able to achieve your objectives using social media, it is best you understand your audience well and identify the right channels in order to be able to properly cater to your selected audience.