Social media good for recruitment

A new white paper from US ad agency Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law reports that 69% of of marketing and HR executives think social media a good tool for recruitment. They also thought it was good for customer service (64%) and 48% thought it improved company morale.

Unlike UK marketers (see yesterday’s blog) 8 out of 10 US execs see brand and relationship building as the main benefits of social media  though there was cross-pond agreement on social media’s opacity with 51%  fearing they don’t know enough about it.

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60% of B2B marketers ‘looking at’ social media

The Internet Advertising Bureau has just announced findings from its joint survey with B2B magazine of 140 UK B2B marketers.

They show that online marketing is being used predominently for sales and lead generation with email, SEO, PPC and display the most popular activities.

No mention of social media being used though with marketers saying they are ‘looking at it’ but lacking information on how it can be used. The overall picture seems to be that marketers are sticking to what they know online whilst waiting for more evidence on how social media and branding can benefit them. More »

What’s stopping marketers using social media?

An emarketer report earlier this year revealed a high level of interest in social media tools with 87% of US marketers saying they intended to use them next year. Why the wait? The reason is perhaps explained by their latest report revealing that 37% don’t know where to start. They could ask their agencies but then 31% of them don’t know either.

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The best online PR campaign in the world

I must confess myself in awe of the PR campaign that saw the UK’s Ben Southall installed as winner of Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best job in the World’ competition. The agency Hill Balfour Synergy had a very small budget yet  managed to create enormous worldwide coverage.

The real cleverness of it, beyond the initial concept seems to lie in the second stage where candidates were asked to submit a promotional video to a voting site and carry out their own publicity. The leading competitors in each country were given some PR advice over the phone it seems and encouraged to ring up radio and tv stations to campaign for votes.

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