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.

This year, 77Agency will be attending Europe’s leading social media event, Social Media World Forum, to be held at the Olympia Conference Centre in London the 15th and 16th of March.

The two day conference and exhibition aims to bring together industry experts to share social media knowledge and case studies from global brands, plus the latest in brand engagement using social media, social media monitoring tools, new avenues for social network advertising, and building community based management.

Cores issues to be covered include monetization, future technologies, social media & brands, PR in social media and B2B networking. A total of 2,500 people have already signed up to attend the exhibition with 200-300 having already paid for conference passes.

On Tuesday 16 March at 10.30am, 77Agency’s Managing Director, Marco Corsaro, will be part of a panel of guests who will be discussing “Benchmarking advertising on Social Networks”.  Other participants include the Digital Marketing Manager for Speedo, Head of Digital Media at Ikea, the Head of i-level’s Social Media Unit and the Head of Social Media at Media Contacts.

77Agency will have a small booth – see number 27 on the floorplan – where we’ll be available to meet with exhibition guests and showcase the agency’s social media services.

For more information about the event, full list of speakers and conferences, visit www.socialmedia-forum.com

Stay tuned for news updates prior to and during the event via our 77 Fan Page!

And if you’re also planning to be there, give us a shout so we can meet up!

Now your brand has a bigger chance of getting discovered on the Web thanks to those journalists who are using search and social media as sources of information for their stories.

As reported on guardian.co.uk, a recent US survey has revealed that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors use social media sources for researching as 56% say social media is important for reporting and producing the stories they wrote.

Another good reason why you should bring your business online!

The survey which was conducted by Cision and The George Washington University, found that among the journalists surveyed, 89% of journalists use Blogs, 65% use Social Networking Sites, and 52% use Microblogging Sites to research information for their stories.

Such results demonstrate the fast growth of social media, how it’s spreading and how it’s also being exploited by journalists and editors not just brands and businesses.

In addition, it’s an eye opener for companies and marketers who are still skeptical about turning to the Web as an alternative and complimentary strategy to market their brand or products.

Now more than ever, marketers should strongly consider using tools such as optimization or activities such as participating on social networks and posting good, relevant content online as to make their information more accessible, and easily traceable to journalists who can then feed themselves with data originating straight from the real source.

Following a successful run of seminars hosted by 77Agency and B!Digital in 2009, business social network Viadeo has decided to officially join the partnership for 2010. Viadeo’s COO, Peter Crosby, has participated as guest speaker in previous events.

As 45.4% of Senior Marketers say they consider social networks and applications a “top priority” for 2010 and 26.8% say the same of mobile, the partnership of new media agency 77Agency, mobile advertising and marketing provider B!Digital and business social network Viadeo brings together specialists in each of the areas in which marketers are keen to focus over coming months.

The topics covered in the seminars will vary each quarter, ranging from a general review of current social media and mobile marketing opportunities to a closer look at different industry sectors and specific sessions to look at campaign management tools and measuring ROI for social campaigns.

Aside from the hosts, guest speakers from the new media industry are being lined up to take part in the events.  Bruce Daisley of YouTube has been confirmed for the March event.

Peter Crosby, COO Europe of Viadeo commented:

“The importance of social media is growing exponentially. It is fast becoming the medium of choice for advertisers and marketeers and increasingly for both internal and external business communication. It is essential that any business or public sector body gets a true understanding of social media so they can maximise the benefits and avoid any potential pitfalls. Social media is the new must-have marketing tool for the foreseeable future.”

Marco Corsaro, Managing Director of 77Agency said:

“We’re very pleased to welcome Viadeo on board.  We feel that the collaboration between the three companies can only build upon the success of last year’s events.”

“Buongiorno has developed unique worldwide experience in supporting and generating relationships between brands and customers via mobile devices in the last 10 years. I’m looking forward to participating in the Social Media Marketing events and illustrating how mobile marketing can be an integral part of the social media marketing mix, in a new convergent phase of the market, ” commented Stefano Diemmi, newly appointed Managing Director – B!Digital.

For further information on upcoming events, check out the 77Agency Facebook Fanpage or visit the 77Agency website.

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.

As time goes by, it’s interesting to see how social networks have evolved, the new developments being made and how users are engaging and participating in the social Web.

Below is another great infographic produced by TrendStream which provides a snapshot of the social media involvement in the market. The global map was put together after interviewing 32,000 Web users in 16 countries in order to best show a unique perspective on web behavior and social media involvement worldwide.

It’s evident that each region of the world adopts these social technologies differently, but what’s even more interesting is seeing how brands implement social media in their daily activities and which type of social activity they prefer to use.

These are the areas in which they’ve categorized the survey:

And this is the actual infographic- click to enlarge and view pdf:

Some observations provided by the company include:

* The social web is mass market: Hundreds of millions of web users are creating and sharing content every month
* The massive impact of China: The vast Internet population coupled with hugely socially active set of web users, makes for a massive volume of content creators. However due to the inward looking nature of China’s internet economy combined with the language mean that this volume of content does not impact the broader Internet
* Low engagement in Japan: We also associate Japan with technology innovation, and actual while you might not think it, the low engagement is indicative of progress. Why? Our map shows PC activity and we know from this research that a huge number of Japanese users are bypassing PC altogether and using mobile devices to access social platforms and create and share content. Just over 34% of social network users only accessed through mobile in the month of the research, this is compared to 3% in the UK, a staggering indication of where the future is heading.
* The low level of microblog engagement: Despite the Twitter hype, microblogging is still not a mass social activity and nowhere near the size and scale of blogging.