ONIT

Wishing you, your company, and your family happy holidays and all the best for a successful new year. It has been a great year and we here at Onit would like to thank you for your visits, comments, encouragement and feedback, without which this season would not have been possible. We hope you’ve had an equally great year and wish you continued success for 2010.

Year in Review and Top Social Media Marketing News of 2009

2009 was a major growth year for social media. The industry learned to grow audiences and connect with fans. Facebook reached a milestone of 350 Million users and made $710 Million in profit this year, and it is still growing. Twitter boasts over 7 million users and there have been over 5 Billion tweets.

Snippets of what has happened in the past year:

• Rules for Facebook contests and promotions changed and agencies/companies learned to adapt to the stricter guidelines. Contact us if you need help on your next Facebook or Twitter contest campaign.
• Twitter announced their New Twitter Lists function and API allowing users to organize their followers and influence network. Follow Onit at @onitmarketing.
• Facebook opened their fan page framework to allow brands the ability to add product catalogs and direct links to shopping carts. Check out what we did for Merrell.

Going Forward:

Next year will all be about integration. Over 85% of companies next year expect to incorporate social media into their marketing mix to reach greater audiences. Companies will cross-promote their brands and products by being more social in nature. If your goal is to manage your company’s reputation, strengthen online awareness of your brand, or sell your widgets, there’s a way to integrate social media into your overall marketing efforts. Plans will have to written, entering social media and tweeting a sales pitch will not be enough. Companies with set social marketing strategies governed by properly trained brand ambassadors will come out on top. Train your employees to be brand ambassadors and include them in your social media plan.

What to look for in 2010:

Go Mobile: Apple iPhone & Google Android users account for 82% of US mobile web traffic, include a mobile strategy in your plan.

Authenticity: Social media will become purely social and responsive, not automatic. Companies will learn to listen to fans and customers to better understand the valuable interactions going on online. Our client companies are encouraged to experiment with applications and mediums to learn how their messages can inspire action!

Happy New Years! Have a Social 2010!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 11:58 pm and is filed under Web 2.0 World Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.