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I went to the Social Media Club Boston event last week hosted by Hill Holiday.  The discussion focused on brands’ use of social media and the panel included executives from Forrester, Street Attack, and Visible Technologies, among others.

Speakers presented some interesting case studies, including the Best Buy @15 Challenge, the Hershey “House of Bliss” parties, and the Nike+ online community.

The use of social media by brands is a strategy that has fully blossomed. More important, is recognizing that we are all still learning - social media tools and how consumers interact with brands (and each other) online evolves so quickly, we have no choice but to keep “taking notes.”  And so I did.

One of the more interesting analogies came from Mike Spataro of Visible Technologies when he said that “social media is A1 sauce, not the steak. Social media is a supplement, not a substitute.” He later added that “Defining success [with social media] depends on your objectives. You have to ask yourself, ‘what do you want to know about your brand?”

When I first attended an SMC event a couple years ago, it seemed as though very few were actively tweeting.  But, last week the Tweets were flying! There was even a screen up next to the panel to display the Twitter stream - a nice touch! Check out #SMCBoston to read up on some of the discussion for yourself.

Filed under: Boston, Digital PR, Social Media |