$11,000 (per occurrence) consequence if rules not observed

By Robert Wheatley

Over the last few months we’ve been reporting on the FTC’s efforts to refine guidelines on use of celebrity/third party spokespeople and the emergence of bloggers as a new, legitimate channel of media. A channel, by the way, that comes without the built-in rules traditional media organizations observe regarding ethical separation between PR and reporter.

Let’s start with the FTC’s hard news: if outside spokespeople participate in communications activities outside of advertising, such as a talk show interview, they need to disclose the paid relationship if they are going to talk about a brand or business. Similarly, if Bloggers (or other word-of-mouth sources) receive consideration in the form of payment or freebies in return for promoting a product, that also must be disclosed.

The FTC is saying something that only makes sense: consumers have a right to know if the mouthpiece has received payment in return for endorsement. While there may be some tawdry exceptions to this, for the most part, PR people in previous eras have not been in the business of buying favorable editorial coverage. A story has to stand on its merits. But the spokesperson thing was always a grey area in terms of how a relationship between third party and brand is defined or explained.

Now clarity exists on all fronts, and to the benefit of the consuming public — full disclosure of who is working for whom. Celebrity’s must say in an interview, I’m here today on behalf of brand x. And when Bloggers are paid to write, the deal must include requirements for disclosure of the arrangement. The FTC’s goal is to make sure all information is upfront, should any of it have an impact on the consumer’s decision to purchase something based on what they’ve heard or read.

This is a good thing!!!

One of the hallmark’s of effective public relations strategy is building credibility, and that is best served when all aspects of a relationship with media and third parties is out in the open. Honesty supports integrity and trust reigns supreme in relationships between brands and their users.

• Agencies and clients from here on in must abide by these rules of disclosure or risk punitive action

We applaud the FTC and their decision because it supports what we’ve always believed that great products, services and businesses don’t need to employ fakery or illusion to win in the marketplace. This will foster greater need for PR people to choose wisely in selecting outside spokespeople, preferably those who have genuine interest and reasonable, tangible connections to the products they endorse. Scrutiny, as always, is present these days and authenticity will be apparent to all observers. Why? Because in the new media age anything that can be known will be known.

What do you think?

Some say branding is dead; really?

By Bob Wheatley

A recent post by Sonia Simone of Copyblogger posed a question the other day, is branding dead?. The comments that followed quickly descended down the trail to tactics and thus left the real conversation about brand value and moved on to communication.

• Many interpreted the decline in conventional media platforms as evidence that branding is indeed on the respirator in the marketing ER ward. That, I think, entirely misses the point of brands and branding.

Branding by the way is not about logos, Web sites, events, advertising or any other form of outreach. Just for fun let’s play with this a minute. If brand didn’t matter, what would? In marketing, if all products were essentially generic and stood solely on their features then lowest price would be the primary driver of commerce.

We would naturally gravitate to the cheapest car, toilet paper, jeans, beer and shop the cheapest channels, probably dollar stores. Evolution here would be 50-cent stores or perhaps the return of the old Five and Dime idea our prices are so low you have to stoop to pick them up. Segmentation would dry up as the high end falls away. Efficiency, cost effectiveness, frugality and economy would be the lexicon of product communication.

But that’s not going to happen, is it?

Last time I looked we were still human beings and thus are essentially emotional, social creatures. We love, we laugh, we cry and we care. We get mad and get even. Our lives gain greater meaning when we participate in something that’s larger than ourselves.

We have needs for recognition, esteem and personal pride. We feel good about successes and disappointed at times in failures. We want, we desire. We reach and dream. Some of us have aspirations and drive. Others are content to sit inside their comfort zone, hopeful that the status quo and familiar will remain in tact.

Do products and services play any role in our lifestyles, in our human-ness?

At times we literally wear brands because of the statement or cachet they imbue. Certain brands convey meaning that is at once obvious to others such as Mercedes as luxury auto. And might also suggest social and economic status messages, too.

There are brands that matter to us, that deliver meaning and therefore added benefits. Our experience with them ladders up to a form of joy. I can give you a new take, for example, on my iPhone. I love everything about it — the ease-of-use; it’s functionality and design. But when I started to add App-store games my six-year old daughter could play with glee, delight and a smile, suddenly I had a portable amusement center. What fun. Now it’s value to me has accelerated. Thus my attitude towards Apple grows thicker, closer. The extra investment cost is soooo worth it.

I will admit to a personal indulgence: I love Robert Graham shirts. They are unique, well made, stylish and fashionable. I probably have a dozen of them. They are not cheap. Oddly enough, however, when compared to designer name plain dress shirts, the Graham products are a bargain. I feel good when I wear them, sort of a signature thing. I get compliments, people notice the distinctive fabrics, even the little touches like different patterns inside the cuffs and collars

Probably all of us can tell similar stories about things we enjoy, that matter to us, that perform beyond the utility of their ability to provide warmth or sustenance. Organic Valley dairy products are more expensive. But I like their ethos of supporting family farms and the absence of hormones in the milk is something I prefer for my young daughters.

Brands are indeed conveyed by their names. Many of these ideas however require building, investing, communicating to help us fully embrace their worth and meaning. But the thing itself gains equity in our lives because of the emotions we associate with them. Mostly good feelings for the items we care about vs. the commodities we don’t and wish just to purchase cheaply.

Branding is not dead. Branding will never be dead. Unless of course we’re all replaced by robots. The intersection of commerce and humanity guarantees it. While communications techniques and media forms may indeed evolve, the role products and services play in our lives will endure. The emotional fabric that sits between us and the things we like will continue, too.

Our firm is all about brand building. (I love my work). And while what we do in PR communication is increasingly moving to social media platforms, our efforts to help clients better define brand value and positioning is as right as rain, the sun rising and the world turning.

Makes me happy. Especially because brands now grow on the basis of their ability to define, understand and mine consumer lifestyle associations. Said another way to become enablers and facilitators of their consumer’s interests and aspirations. To earn permission for a relationship. Hey, wait a minute. We just might be in the happiness business.

How about you???

Ok, how long till the other guy comes up with a Fizzybig?

By Robert Wheatley

It is an essentially American thing to be pre-occupied with improvement. It is culturally systemic with us to make things better, to constantly upgrade our technologies and processes. This is good. And fundamentally it is the driver that drives business growth, no matter the category or brand.

But better today is harder to achieve in material leaps. So for many businesses the battle is more about incremental-ism than leaping tall buildings at a single bound. Why? Because technology has so sufficiently improved in so many categories that products at the nuts and bolts level are quite similar. The points of difference become thinner when looked at from the engineering or formula vantage point.

So we make great hay in a shorter period of sunshine when we launch our Wizzywig, because of course our arch competitor will be fast at work to one-up the achievement with their Fizzybig. And so the cycle of marketing life continues.

Are we having the right conversation about business growth?

Isn’t design and engineering excellence table stakes now?

There are more products in more categories competing for consumer attention than at any other time in history. That’s a lot of sku’s my friends. And guess what? Much of what we see pound for pound is about the same.

The human response to over-choice and sameness is almost as predictable as the next new line extension of your most popular brand of _________________. The buying decision process has become more of an emotional calculation than it is a rational one.

• Our internal editing system winnows out the noise of specsmanship and settles on what we perceive to be relevant, useful and rewarding to our lifestyles.

Brands are now all about relationships and personal value

So what does your brand stand for that is relevant and distinctive? How do your best customers feel when they are in the presence of your brand? What meaning does your brand evoke?

• If Sharpie pens can identify a way to tap into the inner creative soul and bring to life the spiritual side of what we do personally to express ourselves, then there’s hope for everyone who is reading this right now and thinking bad thoughts, like “hey, I’m in a commodity business so who will care.” Pen is a pen is a pen, right? Wrong.

If in fact you buy the idea that relationships matter to brand growth, then how about working overtime to imbue your brand with greater meaning?

This may feel uncomfortable to those who are inspired by the latest ingredient from R&D that makes their product 15% more effective than brand X. This is still and forever will be a necessary and important and good thing.

• But the battle for preference and sales resides entirely, yes entirely in the six inches of grey matter between the two ears of those we wish to sell to. And their decision tree has now evolved.

Trust, peer-to-peer communication and the social era

Just as consumers turn the corner to react more emotionally and to separate brands that matter from those they only want to pay less for, the media world somehow works in its mysterious way to offer the most relationship-forward of media platforms ever devised.

• Social media is at once a conversational, relationship-building environment that provides brands with a path to forging connections that come across as more friendship focused than transactional.

From an article in today’s MarketingDaily on Ford Motor Company’s digital media guru, Scott Monty, we hear that 77% of Americans trust corporations less this year than last. Wow. Trust cannot be over-stated as fundamental to any successful brand relationship. Trust feels like a very human thing. And it is.

According to Monty, Ford’s social media strategy is to humanize the brand, to connect people with Ford. Awesome. If Ford can find a way to create greater distinctions for its brand so it owns an idea in the consumer’s head apart from being a dependable, well-built American car, then they have the best of both worlds: value and emotional fabric built on a foundation of human interaction and conversation thus the behemoth corporation becomes approachable, maybe like-able. Trustworthy even?

Now that’s a defensible, own-able brand proposition in a sea of technical sameness and periodic one-upmanship.

What do you think?

Everything you used to believe about crisis strategy is evolving

By Robert Wheatley

Yesterday I had the extraordinary opportunity to speak at the annual conference of the Pulp and Paper Manufacturers Association in Milwaukee. My deepest thanks to Dick Kendall for inviting me. This organization represents leading companies that make paper products and the components that go into them. The theme for the conference was “The Road to Recovery.” And part of the agenda was devoted to disaster and what to do when it strikes.

My part: to present the case for an entirely new approach to crisis communications strategy, emerging from the growth, influence and realities of social and digital media.

Here’s the deck I presented:

Just before I got up to talk, two gentlemen with Packaging Corporation of America, Ron Zimmerman and Bruce Kummerfeldt, led a heart-rending review of a recent plant disaster that claimed the lives of three of their colleagues following the explosion of a large storage tank. They chronologically described the unfolding events from the moment the ground suddenly shook like an earthquake through the days and weeks that followed. Media was on-site at the plant within 20 minutes of the explosion.

You could feel their pain as they described and maybe re-lived — the unnerving conditions and loss of life. Some of the activities in response to press and other agencies (OSHA) followed a well-worn path that those of us in crisis response have been down so many, many times before. But all of that is changing. Right now.

It’s Now Disaster at the Speed of Light

Early in my career I worked on the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster in India that claimed at least 10,000 lives. I got involved downstream (1984) with a team assembled by Ogilvy & Mather, agency for Union Carbide, to address mounting community relations challenges in areas where their domestic plants operated. In those days, we spent time in due diligence, research and planning, and our work with media followed this effort using the familiar tactical tools we had come to rely on in the TV generation of sound bites, fact sheets, third party expert interviews, etc. The materials and tools we developed became the grist for stories written or produced by trained journalists. We all understood the rules of engagement.

I love this quote from Rupert Murdoch that just nails the evolutionary moment we are in: Technology is shifting the power away from editors, publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.

The traditional media world of rules of engagement has given way to information, images and video uploaded by anyone (not professional journalists) at anytime to platforms that are instantly global. And those pieces of communication may or may not convey the facts correctly. Perception indeed leads reality.

My message: you are not in control anymore. And events unfold at speeds approximating the nanoseconds of digital transmission. Social media can help create and help solve crisis events. But the time to get involved in social media is not at the moment of crisis, but now.

The crisis communications toolbox has forever changed. There are advantages to social media communication in our ability to listen more quickly, effectively and to distribute information directly to stakeholders and by-pass the once exclusive filter of traditional media. But that comes, too, with responsibilities founded on honesty, humility and transparency.

It’s a new world, requiring a new recipe. Are you ready? Says Jason Baer of Convince and Convert blog: If you can’t get a video of your CEO on YouTube within 3 hours, anytime of day or night, you are not ready.

It’s time to overhaul the crisis response protocols. You agree?

Stunning how perspective and message adjustment can fuel success.

By Robert Wheatley

A post earlier today from Michele Miller’s wonderful Wonder Branding blog caught my attention. She shares a video that tells a beautiful and poignant story of a blind man quietly begging for change from disinterested passersby.

A compassionate young businessman stops, adjusts the wording of his sign and the money flowed. The new message was captivating and compelling. Yes words can make a difference. Do we take the time to think carefully how and in what context we express marketing solicitations, knowing full well that a different perspective can spell the difference between indifference and enormous success?

Words are never cheap. They offer far more power than we give them credit for. Please watch this video. You’ll SEE what I mean.

Within the marcom team, who gets the no

By Robert Wheatley

In the last year there has been unprecedented attention on the rapid growth of social media sites and the astounding audiences they are rapidly aggregating. If there are over 23 million users on Twitter and Facebook has a larger following than the population of Japan, you can understand why marketers are trying to divine the right pathway into this new medium one that is more about conversation and engagement than it will ever be about pushing messages at people.

It stands to reason that the insurmountable evidence of social media’s rise is on the radar screen of every agency out there, no matter the skill set or category of service. Ad agencies, digital agencies, WOM agencies, PR firms — you name it everyone is at work right now to devise their strategic answer for this important communications medium.

The social media environment should be the province of PR. Period.

Social media revolves around authentic forms of communication. It’s about relationship building in its most human sense. Credibility reigns supreme. Authenticity is a prerequisite. Artificial story telling is a no, no. Who has the skill sets, the in-bred knowledge of this form of dialogue to do it right?

Public Relations and the people who work in this discipline have the necessary understanding, mindset, writing skills, attitude, mantra if you will to be effective in an area of communication that requires even demands great sensitivity on how brands reach out to forge two-way relationships.

• This is not the province of cleverness or artistry and movie-making skill sets. Rather human conversation, truth, honesty, reciprocity, education and sharing reign supreme.

In a story on this subject published by firmvoice.com, here’s an excerpt from several luminaries in our business on why PR excels at Social Media.

• Jason Mandell, founder of Launch Squad: PR owns story telling and content. The content is where we have been playing all these years. And social media is about content. Amen and amen. PR’s legacy is to pursue the path of conversation and education, working to inform and assist, not so much to push overt selling messages inside an entertaining wrapper.

• Charlie Kondek of MS&L Digital: Of all the marcom disciplines, PR is he only one that’s most about participation rather than disruption. The mindset and skills required to execute effectively in this space are better suited to those who’ve been doing it, granted in more conventional media arenas, for years.

• Chris Perry, EVP Digital Strategy with Weber Shandwick: We earn the right to generate ideas, shape stories, and foster relationships based on mutual interests. The fusion of these three actions is essential to effectively leverage social media. The trinity is again unique to the PR business.

What you say IS the message in Social Media

We understand the nuances of this form of interaction. We know how to message correctly, how to position ideas effectively in a channel that guards its focus on human conversation and rejects attempts to conduct direct selling inside the gate.

Brands today are first and foremost about relationship building. Social media should be an integral part of the brand communications arsenal. But the keepers of the flame should be the PR team those who’ve grown up in a media environment that is reminiscent and reflective of a messaging form we understand how to construct and deliver effectively.

For the PR business, agencies and clients must step up to the table to provide leadership in this arena that offers promising but perplexing opportunities to brands and businesses.

Do you agree?

Note: in a future post we’ll discuss integration of social media within the mix of other media and go-to-market tools.

Pampers Pulls at Heartstrings…

By Robert Wheatley

For years (wow, has it been that long?) this blog has extolled and showcased the virtues of finding and mining the brands’ higher purpose. A sweet spot that serves as the umbilical chord between a brand and hyper-relevant concerns, issues and passions in the consumer’s life.

And why does this matter? Because anything less than a bond based on this kind of emotionally charged value can lead to commoditization — and the downward spiral of a brand’s core value proposition. So this is a frequent subject here because it is so important to brand building in the digital “consumer-is-in-control” age.

Pampers “pampers” their target’s true needs…

One could assume that Pampers brand is in the business of providing a convenient, absorbent product to help protect baby bottoms. Think of all the investment that must go into diaper materials research to offer comfort while fulfilling the primary dryness mission. Or design engineering to prevent leaks. And what about those closure mechanisms to keep the diaper in place when baby is moving. We can’t forget the cartoon character licenses to dress up the diaper exterior and presumably bring a smile to both baby and mom.

Well the day of feature and benefit selling as we’ve come to know it is over. These things while important are table-stakes. Great design and technology is a given. The competitive formula has evolved and moved on. Successful brands in the years ahead will be those that “matter” to their primary buyers. The brand value proposition is no longer simple math around the analytical facts that ladder up to “superior.”

Emotion precedes logic…

It is vital for brands to determine what their essential meaning can be to users. And that meaning by the way is going to be found beyond simple, analytical distillation of the core product attributes themselves.

Pampers brand has famously arrived at this understanding. What is the core truth for new parents? The awesome, lifelong responsibility they are about to undertake comes with no user manual. Parenting is a big, big transition in life, full of delights, stresses and surprises. Children change everything.

So is Pampers ultimately selling diapers? No. They recognized that the path to “permission” for a brand relationship is tied to how they can best help, assist and support this central parenting mission.

A Parent is Born – what a fantastic statement that simply nails the point. With every first birth a new parent is born, too. The journey Pampers embarks on puts the brand in league with the none-too-trivial concerns their buyers have about caring for their new child.

• There’s simply no end to the extensions and content-deep communications territory this “mission” will yield. To start with they’ve created a documentary series of videos (see them here, here and here) that chronicle the real-life experiences of a brand new family. They are thoughtfully produced with a balance of entertainment value and the transfer of authentic, real parenting experiences.

This platform is perfectly suited to social media channels, such as integration with mommy bloggers for mom-to-mom interaction. Importantly the whole project elevates the brand’s relationship and value to mom and dad. The emotional equity this creates over time is palpable. The unselfishness in the messaging completes the circle of credibility. Nothing comes across as a sales pitch. Because it doesn’t have to!

Stop pitching, start relating…

P&G has determined that treating consumers as objects to sell to isn’t nearly as powerful as treating them as individuals to help, assist and support, and in doing so to earn a valued position on the consumer’s list of brand’s they care about.

It may sound counterintuitive to those who think you must hammer away at benefits. Well, consumers are already better educated and informed than at any other time in human history. The old tell them, tell them again and then tell them what you told them era of selling is done.

So now it’s time to look for the higher purpose for your brand. In doing so you will open the door to a brand related bond. Plus open engagement and conversation with a customer who is actually listening, and that leads to preference. And preference drives sales.

What do you think?

Customers are not targets

By Robert Wheatley

If you think about it, words really matter. How we say things can lead to clarity or disagreement. The tone of a conversation can incite or inspire. What we say is a reflection of how we think. Our words may indeed inform our actions. What we believe is usually born out in how we verbally characterize our roles, jobs, priorities and actions.

Robert Passikoff wrote a great article on how we see customer relationships at Marketing Daily.

My point? It may be time for some honest introspection, a tune-up of sorts in how we truly, honestly view the relationships with those we wish to sell to. After all, businesses exist to serve the needs of customers and hopefully grow as a result. However is it possible that the wrong brand attitude could invoke behaviors that impede the one thing most organizations pine for – profitable growth?

The answer is yes. And it’s worth talking about. Why? Because of the seismic shift in the rules that govern how brands build customer relationships in the age of consumer control around markets constructed entirely on foundations of self-interest. The Mad Men era of “pushed” story telling worked because the power curve was aligned differently. Outbound messages could instruct consumers because they lacked the resources to learn “brand news” from other transparent sources. Business held all the cards.

Now the onus is reversed: organizations must divine the right role and pathway to gain “permission” for a brand/consumer relationship.

The entire brand/customer paradigm has flipped and so the language of business should adjust.

“You can no longer speak of your customers as faceless targets…”

The consumer is in charge and she looks for tangible and emotional value from the brands that matter to her. Mattering means important to, inspiring, connecting, worth listening to. And what’s at the foundation of mattering? It’s when what you do and say consistently and credibly conveys, “I understand your lifestyle needs and here’s how we can help.”

Brand language and behavior has to match the ethos of this new form of customer relationship building or the whole thing (your marketing plan) won’t work the way you want. Here’s how it shapes up:

Transactional relationships are about:

• Talking “at”

• Overt selling

• Persuading

• Interruptive forms of communication

• Aggregating eyeballs

• Consumers are targets to be targeted

• Message repetition

Trust based relationships are about:

• Two-way conversation

• Perpetual listening

• Pursuing lifestyle meaning and relevance

• Building rapport

• Reciprocity – big word meaning to do something unselfish

• Respect

• Authenticity and honesty

Ironically, the best brand relationships now start to take on the persona of human friendships. The language of the marketing and communications plan should reflect this awareness and understanding, lest we tempt old behaviors to return. So, treat your customers like you treat your best friends. You care, you’re interested in their lives, you want what’s best for them and it shows. Is this how you talk about your customers?

What do you think?

A Visit to the Virtual Dog Park

By Kerri Erb

One of my favorite things to do is take my beagles Frankie and Flora to the dog park. It makes me feel good to see them playing with their dog pals, and I get to connect with other pet parents. The conversations between us pet parents range from the food we’re feeding our pets, our favorite pet products, recommendations on veterinarians and dog walkers, and even fun dog events around the city. Almost always…it’s about our pets.

My Virtual Dog Park

Then a while back it occurred to me, while talking about the power of social media to a pet food brand, that my involvement in the online pet community is actually very much like a virtual dog park. I connect with hundreds of pet parents via Twitter and the Pet Friendly, Animal Lovers group on LinkedIn to engage in the same type of dog park chatter and swap information about pets. So when I can’t physically be at the park to share information with pet parents, I know I can count on the online pet community that’s out there 24/7 with an abundance of great recommendations and information to help me be a better pet parent.

Pet Companies Need to Join the Pack

Some pet brands are connecting with the pet community on Twitter. Some are doing a great job, while others are missing a huge opportunity to establish a relationship with existing and potential customers, and ultimately help them sell more products. I’m surprised by how many pet companies are not out there. With more than $45 billion projected to be spent on pets this year, the thousands of us pet parents out there online are buying from and supporting those brands that are joining us online with information that helps us make the lives of our pets even better.

It can definitely be scary to get out there and join the online pack, but what do pet brands have to lose? Your competitors are probably out there right now. Pet parents are already online and in powerful numbers. Not to mention they don’t bite! If you have a public relations or marketing partner, they can be that life jacket for you as you jump right into to the deep end of the doggie pool. If you aren’t quite ready to partner with someone to help you go down the social media path, the smart thing to do is take a moment to establish your own social media protocol.

Let’s face it, pet parents are probably already out there barking about your company – good and bad. While you might be holding out on getting started, don’t make an even bigger mistake by allowing the negative remarks go without a response from you. They can take on a life of their own. You gain respect from your customers by quickly responding to any issues and questions.

Virtual Dog Park Etiquette

Just as there are written and unwritten rules of the dog park, the same goes for how you join a tight-knit online pack. So if you still aren’t sure, these initial guidelines can work for any brand, but are really geared towards giving pet companies a nudge in the right direction. Even if you’re already out there, you may not be using all the social media tools to your advantage. Here are some initial guidelines:

• Don’t just talk about you and your product. Give me all kinds of pet lifestyle information that is helpful to me. That way I see you as a trusted source of pet information. Maybe even partner with a veterinarian or a pet behaviorist to be another voice for tips

• Celebrate your brand fans! Engage in conversations with them (especially on Twitter and retweet their positive comments). As a pet parent I respect the endorsements of other pet parents, versus a brand being self-serving about their products.

• Host fun contests and give away your product via social media (especially Twitter). It’s a solid way to gain followers and show your appreciation for those who are loyal to your brand. No doubt that those who have a great online experience with your brand will be sharing their recommendation for your product with other pet parents – the power of “word of mouth” at play!

• Don’t just let people “follow” you. Be sure to follow people back.

• Not everything you hear from your customers will make your tail wag, but it’s OKAY. Just respond to any issues or problems right away. Be honest and make the situation right, and you won’t lose that customer to another brand.

If you still want a partner to provide you a gentle lead on actually getting started with social media, I’m always up for a conversation about how to engage your brand with the pet community. Email me: kerb@wheatleytimmons.com or find me on Twitter: twitter.com/KerriAErb

Here’s the evidence in fact form…

By Robert Wheatley

The media environment your brand competes in is changing rapidly. Are you ready?

Social media is perplexing to many organizations trying to find their way in correctly, effectively. It helps when you have a passion for it and strong reasons to make the leap and invest. So it stands to reason that laddering up the rationale for making social media strategy a part of your communications effort is a good starting point.

So why should you get really motivated to move in this new direction? Read on.

The following list was developed from a wonderful Slideshare presentation created by Boston and Toronto-based Espresso.

• 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology.

• Twitter’s monthly user growth rate in January to February of this year was 1,382 percent.

• Average number of Tweets per day: 3 million

• Two-thirds of Global Internet users visit social networks.

• Visiting social sites is now the fourth most popular online activity — ahead of email.

• Time spent on social networks is growing at 3X times the rate of overall Internet use.

• 13 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.

• 100 million YouTube videos are viewed each day.

• 3.6 billion photos are now archived at Flickr.

• 5 billion – the number of minutes spent daily on Facebook.

• 1 billion – the number of content files shared each week on Facebook.

• 93 percent of social media users believe companies should have a presence in social media.

• 85 percent of social media users believe companies should interact with their customers at social sites.

Hope that makes the case. What to do next? That’s where expert help and guidance comes into play.

What do you think?