A Recent Article by Jason Keith of
http://jasonkeath.com
In the last month I have had 6 separate conversations
with peers surrounding the question “What is a social
media agency?”
There are several types of
social media companies out there. Some are research
focused, or software heavy, or app developers, or
monitoring services. Some are purely extending the PR
battle plan to a new medium.
The social media agency is one that can grasp all
these segments and help companies extend their brand and
marketing through training, long term strategy, and
execution.
For the purpose of this list, I have focused on
companies who mostly do social media. There are many
companies making social media a piece of what they
offer. These companies are the top ones focusing on
social media.
As
Armano points out “
What
McKinsey would offer in SM would be very different than
Crayon”. Since almost every company would almost be it’s
own category, I am avoiding the categories for now.
Perhaps in future lists we can add some delineation.
Advanced Guardof CC Chapman fame.
Acquired by
Campfire, which may not fall into our criteria of a
“social media agency” but now has some major talent in
the arena.
Altimeter Group,
of Charlene Li and
more recently Jeremiah Owyang fame, “provides
thought leadership, research, and consulting on digital
strategies, with a core focus on how companies can
leverage social and emerging technologies.”
Ant’s Eye View “At Ant’s Eye View we
concentrate on helping companies of all sizes understand
and engage in customer collaboration, social media, and
community building.” Clients include Apple, Microsoft,
Cisco, Dr Pepper, and Maker’s Mark. [added per @
TShelton]
The Conversation Group “The Conversation
Group is a global consultancy broadly dedicated to the
art, science, and practical application of social
technologies. We’re enabling organizations around the
world to radically scale their ability to discover,
engage and collaborate with their constituencies, both
inside and outside the enterprise.” [added per @
PeterKim]
>carrot creative “is a new-media marketing
agency located in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY specializing in
social media marketing and user experience design. We
have the unique ability to take a project from the
initial ideation stages to full scale application
development all under one roof.”
Crayon,
of Joseph Jaffe fame, “is
a strategic consultancy that helps its clients achieve
positive change and impact by joining the conversation.”
Dachis Group, of Jeff Dachis, Peter
Kim, and David Armano fame,
“was
created to unlock the value of social technologies for
large corporate enterprises through its Social Business
Design global advisory practice and technology
implementation program.” Dachis has
$50 million in funding from Austin Ventures and
recently purchased London/Sydney based
Headshift.
Ignite is “the Original Social Media Agency
®. We’ve combined content developers, technologists, and
social media strategists to form the Ignite team.
Together, we keep up with trends, filter the noise, and
help companies like yours put social media to work.”
the Kbuzz “is a Word of Mouth Marketing
firm that creates and sustains buzz through word of
mouth and social media marketing.”
New Marketing Labs,
of Chris Brogan and Justin Levy fame, “is dedicated to
solving your online marketing and social media
challenges. They approach this in two ways, events and
education (see
Inbound Marketing Summit) and through guiding you
and pitching in as a social media marketing agency.”
Mullen “is a social media agency rooted in
strategy, public relations and a belief that creativity
is as important as community. Social agency of record
for Panera, Olympus, Grain Foods Foundation, Stanley,
Stop and Shop and others.”
Shift Communications“is a fast-growing,
national agency that lives at the intersection of
Influencer Relations & Social Media. We measure our
performance according to the impact that we have on
driving your business forward.”
Social Media Group “Highly respected
independent social media shop, delivering results as
Ford’s social media agency since 2007, clients include
SAP, Yamaha, ING & govt. One of the world’s largest
independent agencies devoted exclusively to helping
companies navigate the new socially engaged web.”
Undercurrent “is a think tank based in NYC
that provides digitally-focused strategic planning,
ideation, measurement, training, and advisement to
global brands ready to engage a new generation of human
beings that were born digital.” Clients include Pepsi
and Ford.”
We Are Social is “a conversation agency. We
help brands to listen, understand and engage in
conversations in social media. We’re already helping
Ford, Skype, Eurostar, The Economist, Absolut, Dunlop,
Barclaycard and the WWF.”
Deloitte, McKinsey, Ogilvy’s
360 Digital Influence, and Porter Novelli
are also in the space. Not sure any of them would pass
the “mostly social media” standard, but I felt the need
to include them in the discussion. They are all
contributing to what a “social media agency” is evolving
into.
List of Social Networking Websites
So if you have limited time and limited money to
invest in a social networking strategy, where do you
go? We have compiled an ever growing list of social
websites, so please go to the following links to see the
entire list with URL links:
The challenge is the idea that you can limit your social
marketing strategy in any way. Even if you decide to
limit your strategy to just the Top 10 websites in each
of the 9 categories listed above (remember, there are
over 350+ in total) that means you’re looking at 90
social memberships! If you believe that having a
strategic social networking plan is a valuable
investment, then you should also understand that having
a presence in ALL the social websites is important.
Why? Because there are potential customers, potential
eyeballs who are in social networks other than the Top
10 who you’re not going to reach if you don’t show up in
the other social networks.
Social Networking Software Service (SnsS) – an obvious
solution
The old adage of work smarter not harder seems obvious.
The only way to work smarter and have a reasonable
solution to managing hundreds of social networks is
through an automated software solution. That is the
essence of what WorldClassID is and does. It is a
technology solution which takes the manual and highly
complicated process out of the equation and creates a
repeatable, scalable solution for dealing with hundreds
of social networking sites.
About WorldClass Brand Management and WorldClassID
Brand HyperDistribution: a social network distribution
channel. WorldClassID utilizes a variety of peer-to-peer
technologies which are even more efficient at reaching a
target social network audience than any single method of
channel distribution such as print, email, video, social
networking, direct mail, network and online
broadcasting.
WorldClassID provides a unique methodology to most
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more clients, are looking to sell more product or want
to reinvent yourself…the WorldClassID Social Networking
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and the only personal branding solution on the market
today that can validate the distribution of content
through HyperDistribution.
For more information about becoming a
WORLDCLASSID CUSTOMER
visit
http://WorldClassID.ning.com
or to schedule an interview with Mr. Kendell Lang,
please contact
by email at
Kendell.Lang@worldclass.com or by phone at760.445.3315.
“Are you overwhelmed by Social Networking? Are you
confused by hundreds of social networking sites? Are you
hiring a social network coordinator to manage your
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is all about providing answers to the question, "do you
have a consolidated social content management and social
network channel publication system that allows you to WRITE ONCE and then
PUBLISH GLOBALLY?"
WorldClassID is "Simplifying the SocialSphere™"
and making sense out of a chaotic jumble of hundreds of
social networking sites.”
