Archive for January, 2009
SCG Was There: OMMA Social
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009Recently, some members of our Spring Creek Group team went down to San Francisco to mix and mingle with other like-minded social media pros, gain some insight into emerging social media trends, and learn more about what the future of this industry entails.
OMMA Social, a one day conference designed to help guide marketing and media professionals through the social media field, had an attendance of roughly 300 people. In a time when budgets tend to be tight, this impressive turnout shows the huge interest businesses and clients are taking in social media tools and new media channels.
The conference was emceed by Cathy Taylor from MediaPost, and included top name speakers in the online advertising and social media industry such as keynotes Angela Courtin, SVP Marketing, Entertainment & Content, MySpace and Chris Curtin, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Corporate Marketing, Hewlett-Packard Company.
Visible Technologies Rides the Wave (Report)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009We here at Spring Creek Group would like to extend a hearty “Congratulations!” to our friends and partners over at Visible Technologies on their rating as a “Strong Performer” in Forrester Research’s latest (and just released) Wave Report breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of various “Listening Platform” vendors.
The fact that this was the first year that Forrester Research decided to classify this particular category of vendor as “Listening Platforms” rather than its previous title, “Brand Monitoring,” speaks volumes to the fact that the market is really beginning to embrace just how important it is to use social media to not only monitor what’s being said, but also to directly engage with customers and become valued members of those conversations.
Although we’ve known about the goodness that is Visible Technologies long before we even officially partnered with them, it’s always a good feeling to know that other folks are starting to take notice as well.
Visible Technology’s press release on the subject can be found right here.
To get your hands on your very own copy of the Forrester Research Wave Report, you can download it here.
Spring Creek Group out on the Town: We went to SMCSeattle’s 2009 kick-off event
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009The Social Media Club Seattle’s first event of the year went off without a hitch last night, and we think it’s safe to say that a good time was had by all. For at least one evening, we all were able to trade in our emails, tweets and Facebook messages for some face-to-face conversation, in-person interaction, and even some laughs over a few cocktails. Turn-out was huge, the food was delicious, and the overall experience was great.
,
Our thanks go out to the gang at Visible Technologies for providing the venue and the snacks, and everyone at SMCSeattle whose organizational expertise made the night run so smoothly. For more pictures of the event, head on over to the SMCSeattle homepage here, or take a peek at local artist and photographer extraordinaire Tamara Weikel’s Flickr account here.
Spring Creek Group at Northwest Harvest
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009One of our favorite local non-profits is Northwest Harvest, an organization that works to supply 18 million pounds of food each year to close to 300 food banks and meal programs across the entire state of Washington. If you live in the Northwest, you’re probably familiar with their donation bins, many of which line the doorways of local Northwest businesses.
As Northwest Harvest receives no city, county, state, or federal funding for their efforts, they are completely dependent on contributions from private donors and more than 46,000 hours of volunteer time Washington residents donate each year.
This past Martin Luther King Day, our team spent an afternoon working with the fine folks over at Northwest Harvest, sorting through thousands of pounds of donated items and helping prepare food shipments that will soon be sent to local food banks across Washington State.
More About Our Press Release With Visible Technologies
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009You may have read today’s press release from Visible Technologies (if not, you can either scroll down to our previous post or just read on here and we’ll summarize) that publicly announced their partnership with Spring Creek Group. Visible has long been recognized as a company on the forefront of social media monitoring and engagement solutions and our experiences working with them so far have been invaluable.
We’ve been utilizing TruCast since the early days of its development, and our clients have been tremendously pleased with the results that it provides. As Visible has been extremely open with accepting and adopting a lot of our feedback on the software, we’ve been able to train our team to utilize TruCast according to the wants of a wide range of clients, each with their own particular goals in mind.
TruCast is great for measuring a particular brand’s perception online and providing companies with quick, nearly instant insight into not only what is being said about their product, but where the majority of those conversations are taking place on the Web.
As marketing directors have rightly begun to request ways to quantify returns on a social media spend, we’ve worked with a number of large and small clients, and have engaged a number of different analytic and measurement tools depending on the goal of each client. There’s a growing set of valuable analytic and measurement tools developing in the social media space, and we’re working with many of those tools as they fit the different aspects of the social media cycle.
Although we still do use a wide variety of these tools on a daily basis, the insight provided by our partnership with Visible Technologies helps us train our staff accordingly as TruCast continues to develop. Every member of the Spring Creek team – Engagement Leads, Marketing Managers, Analysts, Program Managers and Principals— is involved in tailoring the application of TruCast to the specific needs of each of our clients. And that’s why we’re excited about this news.
To celebrate the official announcement of our joyful and prosperous union, Visible Technologies and Spring Creek Group will be co-sponsoring the Seattle Social Media Club’s first event of the year, on January 20th at 6 p.m. For more information, check out http://socialmediaclubseattle.eventbrite.com/
Visible Technologies and Spring Creek Group Partner to Deliver Robust Social Media Management and Engagement Solutions to Fortune 100 Clients
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009By BusinessWire
SEATTLE, BUSINESS WIRE –
Visible Technologies:
- Visible Technologies, an industry-leading provider of social media monitoring and engagement solutions, today announced a partnership with Spring Creek Group, an innovative online marketing agency. Spring Creek will offer its customers Visible Technologies’ social media analysis and engagement software platform, TruCast.
- The strategic alliance allows Spring Creek to extend the capabilities of its social media management (SMM) services by enabling clients to more accurately measure their online brand awareness and the effectiveness of their social media marketing programs.
- By deploying proven SMM methodologies and leveraging robust technology tools like TruCast, Spring Creek gives clients such as Microsoft the ability to track relevant brand conversations online, gain actionable marketing intelligence and engage with the social media communities that matter most to their brand.
- Spring Creek Group is an innovative online marketing agency that helps companies of all sizes improve brand awareness and increase site traffic through social media-based online marketing methods. Spring Creek helps brands connect with their customers via innovative social media marketing programs such as branded online communities, blogs and social networks that result in higher brand awareness, increased sales and deeper customer loyalty.
- Visible Technologies provides brands, including Microsoft, Panasonic and Hormel, the ability to bolster brand reputation, build revenue and measure the success of social media engagement. The company’s TruCast2.0 social media monitoring and engagement platform launched in May 2008.
QUOTES
- ‘Engaging with social media is not an option for marketers today ‘ it’s an imperative. Consumers are using social media like blogs, consumer-generated reviews and social networks to compare our products and determine what other people are saying about them. Working with Spring Creek Group and using Visible Technologies’ TruCast platform, we’re able to create social media marketing programs that actively engage customers in a dialogue with one another, and then track and measure the effectiveness of these programs to drive sales and build brand value.’ – Marty Collins, Microsoft Group Marketing Manager, Windows Interactive and Digital Marketing
- ‘Over the past 18 months we have been building our relationship with Spring Creek Group, working in concert with them to help industry-leading clients like Microsoft achieve their marketing objectives through effective social media monitoring, measurement and engagement.We look forward to replicating this success with current and future clients.’ ‘ Blake Cahill, senior vice president of marketing, Visible Technologies
- ‘Our partnership with Visible Technologies has proven to be a huge success helping companies like Microsoft launch, measure and optimize social marketing programs to achieve real business results. The TruCast software platform strengthens our established social media management methodology by allowing brands to easily monitor and track millions of simultaneous online conversations, articles and posts.’ ‘ Clay McDaniel, co-founder and principal of Spring Creek Group
SUPPORTING RESOURCES
- Listen to Marty Collins, Microsoft Group Marketing Manager, comment on TruCast
- Spring Creek Group
- Spring Creek Group Blog
- Visible Technologies
- TruCast
- VisInsightsBlog
About Visible Technologies
Visible Technologies helps companies listen and learn what consumers are saying about them online, and it enables brands to participate in the right conversations with the right influencers at the right time. With this real-time business insight and response, companies build relationships with customers, bolster their brands and grow revenue. Its innovative TruCast platform is the industry’s first complete solution for social media analysis and participation. Visible Technologies also helps brands and individuals manage and protect their online reputations with the powerful TruView’ search engine solution. For more information, go to http://www.visibletechnologies.com, or follow the blog at http://www.visinsights.com.
About Spring Creek Group
Spring Creek Group is an innovative online marketing agency that helps companies of all sizes improve brand awareness, increase sales, and drive site traffic through social media-based online marketing. Spring Creek Group is made up of experienced, skilled, and results-oriented online marketers with a passion for using the most innovative marketing tactics ‘ including branded communities, interactive content, and next-generation social networking’ to drive measurable business results. Members of Spring Creek Group draw on deep e-commerce and online marketing experience at companies such as RealNetworks, Microsoft, Amazon, Judy’s Book.com, Salton, and Disney Internet Group. The company’s clients include both local growing companies and nationally established industry leaders like Microsoft, Corbis and Paramount Farms. For more information, visit www.springcreekgroup.com www.springcreekgroup.com.
We See London, We See France.
Monday, January 12th, 2009It never fails. Just when we think we’ve seen everything in the world of social media, something like this happens. Apparently, the social media networking opportunities provided by applications like Twitter are not just endless– in this particular case, they’re also pantsless.
Why Not Start the New Year off in a Fun and Productive Way?
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009Now that the holiday season is over and you’re fresh out of excuses to go to any more corporate-sponsored parties, we’ve got just the thing for you: another corporate-sponsored party.
Seattle’s very own Social Media Club is hosting its first event of 2009 on January 20th at 6:00 p.m., and Spring Creek Group, as well as our friends over at Visible Technologies, will be helping to sponsor this get-together.
Visible Technologies is providing the location and snacks, and we’ll provide the cocktails, so stop by and chat with industry professionals, brainstorm with other social media experts, or just have a few drinks and get to know some other folks in the field.
If you register online before the event, you and a guest can both get in for just $15. You can find out more information and purchase tickets here: http://socialmediaclubseattle.eventbrite.com/
The 5 Cs of Savvy Social Marketers
Monday, January 5th, 2009Commitment:
Don’t just post a profile—social media is not a set-it-and-forget-it realm. Get involved in your network, and make it a part of your routine.
Connections:
The more connections you can forge, the more powerful you’ll be online. This is true for corporate and personal brands.
Content:
Share helpful, useful, and interesting information as much as possible. People will better understand you and your goals this way.
Commentary:
Applaud others. Thank those who help you. Give hat tips and re-tweets and leave comments on blogs. Critic carefully. Question things that puzzle you. You’ll further integrate yourself into the fabric of the conversation(s).
Character:
Remember that Google never forgets, and use that to you advantage to shape your reputation.
