Ever find yourself lying in bed late at night, wide awake, scanning TweetDeck on your smartphone as you finish that last blog post? Or catch yourself wishing you could reach out and physically like something? Do you suffer from ADD and OCD tendencies? If you silently mouthed "yes" to any of the above, you too may have what it takes to become a social marketing specialist.

Plenty of marketers are drawn to social media these days (perhaps because 4 out of 5 Americans now use it), but skeptics still write it off as a flash in the pan. No matter how you look at the social web, one thing is clear: You have to fully immerse yourself in it if you want to tap its full potential. 

My team falls into the former category. We keep tabs on Dell's social sphere, and let me tell you: When your global platforms change without warning and you have to fix them in real time, keeping up becomes quite the challenge.

But troubleshooting is just a small part of what we do. We spend the lion's share of our time reading, evaluating and strategizing so we can take advantage of new opportunities to grow the brand's social presence. Sound easy? Become a fan of Mashable on Facebook and spend a day trying to read every article in its news feed. It's like that times a thousand, every day.

To keep our clients energized about the social web (and spare them the headache of sifting through it all), we created RPPL. Built around a real-time syndication platform called Posterous, RPPL is a branded social media presence that enables us to:

• Share. Innovative campaigns, private betas, ridiculous memes ...there's always something to talk about. We use RPPL to separate the wheat from the chaff. As soon as big news comes our way, we post it. Posterous then insta-publishes to Facebook, Twitter and Delicious, giving our followers plenty of ways to get the scoop. 
• Explore. The best way to understand social media is to get your feet wet. With RPPL, we can just create a presence when a new platform piques our interest and test it like mad. 
• Collaborate. RPPL is a vehicle for passing key learnings along to our followers. We hope they spark conversations and inspire new ideas. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats.

In the few short months since we launched RPPL, we've shared hundreds of posts and befriended hundreds of fans and followers. We couldn't be more thrilled about the response we've gotten so far, and we're just getting started. Keep your eyes on RPPL to get in on the next big splash.

What does Account Service do? The answer to this question is one I have been cultivating and evolving since I began my career.

It’s no secret that account service teams and creative teams can butt heads within ad agency walls. But in truth, a good account person can be a creative team’s best friend. Account Service is where a project starts. You could have the best creative team in the world at your disposal, but if your account work is sloppy, odds are the project will be, too. With a good account lead, agency teams are prepared to be strategic and create great work.

What follows are a few best practices that I’ve observed in great account service teams. Take them for what they are worth; go forth and service!

Learn Your Client’s Business. Educate yourself on your client’s industry and understand where their product fits within the competitive set. Learn what their products are and why people want (or don’t want) them. Understand both marketplace challenges and pressures that your client faces internally on a day-to-day basis. This will help you to think of solutions before your client has even posed the problem, as well help create a relationship of trust.

Stop and Think. When you first get a request from the client, take a minute to digest the assignment. Do you have all of the information you need to write a creative brief? Are there any questions you know your team will ask? Does it make sense for your client’s business and your campaign strategy goals? When you are relaying feedback to your team, make sure you understand what needs to happen and why. Thoughtful, clear and concise communication will help your team create the best work.

Know the Fundamentals. While it may not be your formal training or professional background, work hard to educate yourself on the fundamentals of digital marketing. What interactive vehicles are out there, and which one would be the best platform for a given assignment? What different programming options might your team consider when embarking on a site build? What does information architecture really mean, and why is important? And what analytics tool will you use to measure success? A good understanding of the interactive landscape will help you to skillfully execute a project, manage client expectations and avoid setting your team up for disaster.

Follow the Rules. Process isn’t fun, but in the digital world it is what enables us to be efficient, strategic and ultimately produce the best ideas. Make sure your team always has clear communication from you in the form of briefs, change orders and other documents they need to do their jobs. Set an example for other team members by not cutting corners. Educate your clients about your agency processes to both set timing expectations and encourage them to give you better information from the start.

Break the Rules. Just because you aren’t a media planner, or know any live-stream video vendors, or don’t have the budget for a professional photographer doesn’t mean you can’t make it possible for your team execute a big idea. Collaboration with partner agencies and vendors is hugely important, and, more often than not, you will depend on their expertise to pull certain aspects of a project together. But don’t let the unknown stop you from picking up the phone to call a director, or a media vendor or even the owner of a pie shop to keep a project moving forward.

After all, that’s exactly what the best account service teams and producers do: Bring it all together and make the amazing happen.

Recently, Springbox was tasked by Dell to create several websites that focus on community and social networking. Due to tight timelines and a specific set of criteria, Springbox began to search for a third-party solution. We needed something that had all of the usual suspects when it comes to social networking and community: blogs, commenting, profiles, media galleries, RSS feeds, user-generated content and the ability to scale for a large number of users among other things. It also needed to allow for a great amount of customization. After evaluating several solutions, we decided to go with Telligent Community Server 2008.5. Community Server had everything we were looking for and more. 

The first site that we implemented was a total rebuild of the Dell Lounge. Out of the gate, we needed to heavily modify the default layout and much of the functionality. Community Server's Chameleon templating system made this a snap. While Chameleon’s user controls handled recurring tasks and details, our developers were free to concentrate on higher-level site functionality. 

The Dell Lounge was such a success, and Community Server proved to decrease both development and maintenance time to such a degree, that we also chose the platform for Dell's Take Your Own Path series of regional websites. Take Your Own Path needed to support a large volume of daily traffic; Community Server has already proven itself more than capable.

As we update the sites, we'll build upon the current functionality and add more of the social media aspects that Community Server provides. I'm sure it will be a breeze.

It’s been a long time in the coming, but the internet may finally be making serious inroads to your living room. The appetite for smarter media options is nothing new, but greater at-home bandwidth, smarter compression technologies and the proliferation of internet-enabled devices may finally be making it possible. People have already incorporated the internet into all aspects of their lives (business, communications, shopping, etc.) and are eager to upgrade their dated and passive home entertainment experience, too. The internet has trained users to expect live, on-demand content that is highly interactive, bundled with the ability to customize and share. Only the internet can deliver that to our living rooms.

So far it is still the Wild West when it comes to internet media solutions, and there is no clear leader or standard in the space, just lots of folks trying to find the right solution. Let’s meet the players.

Content Sources

Content is king, and it’s the abundance of rich content that is encouraging people to want to consume it in their traditional entertainment environment. When it comes to viewing online content on your TV, there's a smorgasbord of digital sources. 

Home Network Content: Before we even talk about the internet, we need look at what we already have on our laptops, PCs and home servers. Our hard drives are busting at the seams with videos (downloaded, ripped, homemade), music and photos. As more homes become networked, this content can finally be freed from our computers and consumed in more comfortable and social surroundings.

Streaming Services: Arguably the most exciting content source is streaming video from services like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand (VoD), YouTube, Vimeo, MTV, and many more. These sites and services serve up on-demand video whenever and wherever we want it.

Download Services: Lots of players are vying for your download dollars, and unlike streaming services (at least for now), they can generally offer much higher quality and the joy of ownership. Services like iTunes, Amazon VoD, Starz Play and CinemaNow are slowly honing in on pricing, format and device support standards.
 
Photo Sites: But video isn’t the only star of the show, the digital photography craze has also netted gobs of photo content ready to enjoy with friends and family. While many users may simply want to view photos from their home computer on their TV, the vast majority of people have embraced online sharing sites like Flickr, Facebook, Kodak Image Gallery and PhotoBucket to house and share their photos.

Audio and Video Podcasts: While streaming sites are popular for their immediacy, users and media creators have also embraced downloadable content for its high quality and portability. The web is packed with audio and video podcasts that users would love to consume on their media centers.  

Internet Radio: In many ways Internet Radio has lead the charge in getting web content onto the home media center. The early availability of content, low bandwidth requirements, and relatively simple interface requirements made it a great starting point. For years now, devices like the Roku SoundBridge and Logitech Squeezebox have made it painless to wirelessly stream services likes Pandora, Shoutcast and Rhapsody, plus thousands of independent radio stations to your living room. 

Hardware

So we’ve established that there is a plethora of content available in a number of different formats, now how to get it onto the TV. As luck would have it, there are numerous hardware options available to bring online content to your living room. 

Video Game Consoles: The latest round of gaming systems from the major players all sport an advanced array of web-enabled media options. Both Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PS3 offer video on-demand services and support full web browsers, which allow users the ability to access any number of streaming sites. The Xbox also features integrated Netflix streaming and PlayOn software, which enables a more TV friendly interface to access sites like YouTube and Hulu.

Dedicated Devices: More recently, devices already associated with TV consumption or new, dedicated web devices have begun to gain traction in the market. While devices like Roku and Vudu focus more on traditional content, devices like AppleTV and Tivo offer users more variety in the types of media they can access.

Embedded Devices: Why build a whole new device when web services can be bundled into existing form factors. Major television, DVD and Blu-ray manufacturers like Sony, LG, Samsung and Vizio are all rushing to bundle in streaming services like Netflix and Blockbuster On-Demand, as well as emerging internet-enabled platforms like Yahoo’s Connected TV.

Media PCs: Let’s not forget the device that already does it all, the PC. Prices have dropped to the point where a dedicated media PC is no longer just the territory of the super rich and media geeks. We are also seeing people completely replace their TV with all-in-one units like the Apple iMac or the Dell Studio One that were designed to be your media hub. 

Software Platforms

With tons of content available and plenty of devices that can access it, the problem comes down to interface and ease of use. While computer users are accustomed to dealing with complex data, navigational challenges and inconsistencies across sites, the living room media consumer demands ease of use and consistency. Here are the major trends:

Operating System as Media Hub: Both Apple and Microsoft would love to own this emerging market and are taking unique approaches to the problem. Apple’s base solution is Front Row, a remote-friendly interface baked into their OS that gives users a 10-ft. interface to interact with primarily pre-downloaded content. Users can also step up to the dedicated AppleTV that adds connections for services like YouTube, Flickr and internet radio. Both options are tied closely to Apple’s iTunes universe.

Microsoft’s Media Center was initially launched with Windows XP as a separate version of the OS and has continued to evolve into its latest Windows 7 version. In typical Microsoft form, they take more of a do-it-all approach, including DVR functionality, streaming video from major network sites, Netflix, internet radio and more.

Media Hub Software: One of the more exciting trends is the emergence of 10-ft. interfaces for both existing services such as Hulu Desktop and YouTube XL, along with all-new universal media hub software offerings such as XBMC and Joost. While the TV-friendly versions of existing services add little new functionality, services like Boxee hint at what the future of living rooms might hold, with integrated web, local media services and tied-in social features that let friends share content. Boxee is currently still in alpha but already runs on all major operating systems as well as the AppleTV and even has an iPhone remote app available.

Internet Widgets: Yahoo! Connected TV and Verizon FiOS are taking a slightly different angle by building internet-enabled widget platforms that augment traditional media delivery rather than replace it. These new layers of content allow users to get services like weather and stocks updates or access services like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr for updates and media. 

Thoughts and Conclusions

So far much of this puzzle is still unsolved, there is a ton of players and no one is rushing to develop standards or harmonize their approaches. With that in mind, there are several things that jump out at me: 

• More opportunity to engage. As someone dedicated to creating experiences that connect people and brands, I see a huge emerging opportunity to expand the ways in which I do that. 
• Interface design and usability, important as ever. Just when you thought that mobile platforms were the hardest thing you could design for, the 10-ft. interface presents a mammoth, new set of challenges.
• Balancing uniformity and individuality. When it comes to consuming media on a television, users are accustomed to a very simple and consistent experience. So as we begin to develop media and experiences for these new platforms, we need to be mindful of those expectations. Only then can we push toward the new and innovative. 

 

I stumbled upon this Adweek column, When Silence Can Be Golden, written by Benjamin Palmer, co-founder of the Barbarian Group. It’s one of the more interesting pieces I’ve read about social media recently. It’s particularly insightful about the challenges that many agencies and brands face as they incorporate social media into their strategies. 

Palmer, in his common sense style, brings up great points — namely, social media wasn’t devised as a marketing medium and that perhaps the industry should consider social media as less of a marketing platform. Instead, it should be thought of as a place where people go to chat about what’s going on in their lives … and, in some cases, interesting marketing.

Increasingly, the type of work our agency produces doesn’t fit in tidy, one-size-fits-all categories such as a banner ad, website or email. When it comes to social media, we closely examine the type of products and services that our clients produce and whether they’re a good match for social media. Many times they are, and the conversation flows. Sometimes they’re not, and the outcome would be forced.

One thing is for certain: Agencies shouldn’t think of social media as just another marketing platform. As a means of monitoring customers’ opinions and prolonging conversations, its relevance can’t be underestimated. As a marketing tactic, it’s important to remember what came first: The medium was there before your message. Be respectful of that fact.