This may come as a surprise to many marketers, but remember what happened with banner ads. There was a steady loss in CTR. Despite Facebook’s efforts to approve ads and block out spam, the same will happen.

However, a lot of clicks may not be the end-goal for many marketers on Facebook

Key Takeaway: Online behavior changes. What once drove a lot of clicks may now be best for awareness. This has happened before and it will happen time and time again.

Read more about the findings at eMarketer.

Click image for full size.

Joe Chernov at Eloqua took issue with describing different social media properties as more complex than any other type of business. For instance:

“Consider the automotive rental sector. The industry is comprised of complex relationships between and among auto manufacturers, rental fleets, used car dealers, delivery services, repair shops, aftermarket equipment manufacturers and suppliers, limo services, lease companies, loyalty/points systems, shuttle services, insurance carriers, and logistics specialists.”

Key Takeaway: This is what industries look like when they mature – Lots of companies, different services, all competing and maturing the industry in the process. It’s called social business folks.

Read Joe’s full argument at It’s All About Revenue, Eloqua’s blog.

And check out Luma’s other graphics about mobile, digital capital, video, search and display. They’re very well done.

Key Takeaway: Mobile will play a huge part in content consumption and creation. Create sharable experiences to ride the mobile photo wave.

See the whole infographic at Digital Buzz Blog

Influence is relative to a lot of things – time, place, relation, topic, and more. It can be passive or active, like when I ask a friend who travels a lot about which airline to take. They’re influencing me because I asked them to. The dynamic changes when they tell me, unsolicited, about their favorite airline. That’s influence through advocacy. And it’s a different beast.

Peddling influence has a seedy sound to it, but that’s how many marketers expect influencers to behave. They see five figure Twitter followers and just want to see one tweet endorsing their brand or product.

Key Takeaway: Building advocacy acknowledges that everyone is influential in one way or another. Even if an advocate only influences a close set of friends, they are actively influencing. It’s brand building. Passive influence is more like point of sale marketing.

Read Michael Brito’s take on the discussion at Britopian

1. “Taking Out” as in attacking, confronting, one-upping, etc. or

2. “Taking Out” as in writing, buying, optimizing, etc.

Jeremiah Owyang found that as time goes on, social agencies are veering towards the latter. His insights come from ongoing research. But the change may not indicate a change in philosophy.

Early social agencies thrived by casting aside ineffective banner ads in favor of engagement and earned media. But the digital advertising landscape has developed far beyond banners. New ad options like Facebook Sponsored Stories or Sponsored Tweets have created ads that pass the engagement and relevance tests.

Jeremiah found that social media advertising still remains the sole form of ad services that most social agencies offer. Case studies are few and far between because the change is recent and social agency structure focuses more on community management than defined campaigns.

Key Takeaway: Social ads have evolved to a point where the “Kool-aide drinkers” are buying in. By still keeping the focus on engagement, you can use ads to amplify your initiatives. Not many will cry foul anymore.

Read more about the findings at Web Strategist, Jeremiah’s blog

Affect, a strategic PR, marketing and social media agency, published a helpful guide.

Must Dos:

1. Change your Cover and Profile Photo. Odds are, your Profile pic is being displayed poorly unless it’s a square. The Cover Photo needs to be 815 x 315 px and can’t be too promotional.

2. Write your history. If your company existed before Facebook, you should add in significant dates that were previously omitted. When did you start, merge, go global, rebrand, or get bought by Google? Your community wants to know.

3. Forget default landing pages. They’re gone and probably not coming back. This affects promotions and the value of tab apps in general.

Should Dos:

1. Post more videos and photos. The visual appeal of Facebook just exploded with this change. Take advantage of the engagement opportunity.

2. Minimize your tab apps. Only three are visible. Cut your page down to the bare essentials. This will help boost the effectiveness of what remains.

3. Pin top posts strategically. This is your hero post. Choose wisely and don’t let them fester. And don’t just think of it as a banner ad. Nobody will like that.

Read more tips at Affect’s blog, Tech Affect

Affect is a WOMMA member.

By Christian Borges, VP Marketing, Mr Youth

A SXSWi Session Recap

Panelists:

• Ali Velshi, CNN
• Barry Diller, IAC

For the uninformed/uninitiated, Barry Diller is one of the preeminent Television and entertainment industry titans of the last 30+ years. As the current Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and the media executive responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company (prior to Rupert Murdoch) and USA Broadcasting, his footprint looms large and is undeniable. Needless to say, I was curious as to what this grizzled vet had to say about the current state of affairs with regards to content and the entertainment industry at-large.

Highlights and Key Takeaways

Technology is providing a radical shift in how people access and receive content. This is nothing that we haven’t heard before, and as consumers we’re living proof of this today. That said, Diller predicts that the bundling model of programming delivery favored by the entrenched interests of cable and satellite companies will be defeated (but not completely go away) allowing viewers to access content a la carte and on the go through devices connected to the Internet.

Other Tidbits

One of the lasting quotes that stayed with me was when Diller said “As long as you have an idea, you can broadcast to everyone. That is a profound change in how media has been organized for the last 100 years.” True indeed.

Read the full post on All Things WOM

Listen to the whole session here

By Austin Lytle, Social Business Strategist, Spredfast

@AustinLytle

A SXSWi Session Recap

Political campaigns, while good at sticking to tried and true methods, are typically early adopters in new technologies that could provide an edge. Unlike businesses slow adoption, the marriage between social technologies and politics in 2008 released unrelenting political adoption of new social technologies.

Social trends that did not exist in 2008 are already proving valuable in shaping the 2012 election cycle. In a panel named “2012: Social’s new role in politics” with Khris Loux, Matt Blumenthal, Vishal Sankhal, and moderated by Ben Parr on the new role for social in 2012, here are some emerging trends that I think political campaigns and business alike should be aware of.

Since 2008, the shear growth of social networks has made communicating to a base viable. It’s also no longer the 20 and under crowd (“non-voters”) who have adopted social. If my Mom and Dad are posting about something so-and-so did, campaigns are in a different phase within social.

Continue reading…

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WOMMA had several reporters in the field at SXSW. We’ll publish their session takeaways throughout this week on All Things WOM.

Marketers are salivating over more than just that. 80% of pins are repins – meaning a crazy level of sharing.

This is not to mention the highly sought after demographic – generally young, female, educated, and middle-class.

Key Takeaway: We’ve got a trifecta! Pinterest’s success accentuates a long-standing trend of the internet becoming more visual and instantly sharable. Brands should take note of this not only on their Pinterst pages, but also in their other media.

See the full infographic at TechCrunch

By Corbin Kappler, Field Marketing Manager, Vitrue

@CorbinKappler

Panelists included:

• Brad McCarthy, Managing Editor The Next Web
• Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua
• Becky Brown, Director, Social Media Strategy at Intel Corporation
• Tyler Willis, Vice President of Business Development at Unified

Three topics were covered by this packed-house panel, the first of which was on global reach and local impact. The concept was quickly illustrated when the conversation turned to the new app Highlight. An example was made that spectators for this panel had traveled from all over yet many of us had the same application, this is global reach. The local impact aspect of the concept derives from however marketers choose to utilize this service to deliver value, whether it be a local deal or other incentive.

The next topic that was discussed on this panel was that of the persona of one.

Continue Reading…

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We had several reporters in the field at SXSW. We’ll publish their session takeaways throughout next week on All Things WOM.