If there was any question that 2007 will be the year that social media breaks into mainstream corporate communications, this short piece from Direct Marketing News should put those doubts to rest:
Ogilvy North America, a unit of the Ogilvy Group agency network, is allying with Technorati to provide clients with blogs, video blogs, videos, photos and other online user-generated media.
The agency will use the Technorati Conversational Marketing System to offer tools, strategies and tactics for clients to syndicate content, participate in interactive dialogues and build relationships with online communities key to their brands.
Interesting times, my friends – you can read the complete text of the press release here.
What exactly is the Technorati Conversational Marketing System?
And is it availble to anyone?
It sounds like it’s a web-based enterprise social media solution – a bit like Lotus Connections. You can read the full press releasehere.
Thanks for the link.
and, Maggie, here’s my concern…
I don’t think that this is a sign that social media breaks into the mainstream (although it still could be happening anyway). And I don’t know enough about this program – but I’ll look into it.
But if it is available, at least at this point, only to larger agencies with significant budgets, then it’s not going to be what it’s cracked up to be. That’s because social media is more democratic, more horizontal. If this is not available to mid-size and small agencies or single practioners, then it would seem to be more of the same, with a new coat of paint.
But it is up to me to research it and find out for myself.