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New firms are also focusing on the mob mentality of word-of-mouth marketing to discover product influencers on social
networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Leveraging the communication and influence power of social networks for marketers and advertisers is an important
new channel to be developed and utilized. The increasing prominence of social networks as the means to communicate and share information
among consumers and their ‘friends’ provides many ways to identify, target, and reach segments of unique consumers
clusters who quantifiably can be targeted for specific content, products and services. Here are a few of the social networking
marketing firms: Cubics.com displays hundreds of millions of impressions every day, using behavioral analytic technology optimizing the placement of
ads where they perform the best. New campaigns may take up to one to two days to start running
with significant volume.
ContextOptional.com is yet another social marketing agency which provides clients
a comprehensive media plan, including strategy formulation, promotion, and development for targeting
their messages via Facebook and other social networks.
SocialMedia.com notes that 7 out of the top 10 websites
today are social and hence is where targeted messages for products and services should be concentrated via its targeted applications.
SocialMedia reaches over 35 million unique users per month via 5,000 applications with over 1,000 developers
for targeted ads in Facebook, bebo, MySpace, Orkut, Hi5 and Friendster. Powered.com uses the term “social commerce” to describe
how their social marketing, social networking and social media solution works in the areas of consumer learning and the research
process, both before and after consumers purchase products online. PandemicLabs.com is another marketing firm that specializes in viral and
social media marketing. A free social networking tool is available from KickApps.com to power audience growth and engagement on user websites. KickApps allows
for users to build their own community with social networking and photo and video sharing capabilities, enabling them to create
their own widgets, custom video players and much more. TheKbuzz.com is another innovative word of mouth (WOM) marketing firm
that creates and sustains buzz through marketing concepts, communities, and conversations.
getfoundnow.com offers news and techniques on search engines, social network marketing strategies,
blog writing tips, and other advanced tactics such as analytics and usability. AdSlate by Jivox.com is an interactive online service that allows businesses to create and place video advertisements on the Web. Another new start up Social Kinetics was founded by SRI scientists which uses behavioral analytics to identify, find and retreive specific types of expertise
within social networks. Developed originially for the military as part of project CALO (Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes)
and funded by the US Department of Defense. The SRI program evolved into iLink,
a machine-learning system that models users and content in a social network and then points the user to relevant content,
as well as identifying human domain experts for "expertise identification." SRI teamed up with military officers
to build the iLink social analytics tool, which was originally used to answer questions regarding counter-insurgency and battlefield
situations in Iraq. However, iLink and Social Kinetics can now provide the technology that map the skills and needs
of users in Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
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