helping brands make perfect sense of social media, from IAB UK’s social media council

, Head of Digital Strategy at Imagination talks to the IAB about how social media has heightened the brand experience. Discussing the relationship between the consumer and the brand, she outlines the ways in which consumer expectations have been heightened thanks to digital, and the increased feedback that marketers are getting in social spaces. Using case study examples from Debenhams and London Museums, and argues that a successful case study is essential to persuade a brand to take that first step into ‘doing’ social media.

Watch the below video to see the full interview

By , head of digital strategy, Imagination

Browsing through research and social spaces as I like to do I came across this fascinating graph on TechCrunch last week.

StatCounterGlobal

It’s fascinating not because it shows a drop off in Facebook from December 2009 although that’s probably worth a column in itself, but because it shows the popularity of Stumbleupon. Stumbleupon has been helping users find random, rated content since 2001. It’s not new and it’s not flashy but it is very definitely a social space.

Users love stumbleupon for 3 reasons – peer-recommendation, simplicity and serendipity. Essentially they get great stuff from people they like in their network.

I’m not suggesting that Stumbleupon should be at the heart of every social media strategy, social media strategies should not be based purely on numbers but on relevance. Still, it reminded me again about the importance of considering your audience and being sure you know where they hang out online.

What this graph clearly illustrates is that the usual suspects are just that, usual. And it can pay to truly consider the whole social market place when you are investigating social media strategies. Or you might miss the most important place to be because it’s not the most high profile.