The study published in EMarketer yesterday on What Works for Social Media Marketers had an interesting insight – what works most often in Facebook, building an application, is not the most used tactic to reach your consumers or customers, in f act, it’s the third most used tactic.   The post pointed out that ..

Unsurprisingly, buying ads—even targeted ones—was the least effective type of social media marketing overall.

What works best for Facebook - turns out building a Facebook App!

Right, giving people something to do, entertaining them, that seems to work a lot better.

And Emarketer points out the same thing happened with Twitter – the most used marketing tactics are less effective – and the one that is the most effective is – Monitoring Twitter for PR Problems …. ha!

B2C marketers had the most success with monitoring Twitter for PR problems (done by one-half of all respondents) and contacting users who posted negative comments about their brand (done by only 22.4% of total respondents)

Most effective use of Twitter is monitoring for PR Problems... who would have thought?

Ok, we got that point out of the way – here’s the next one.  Sysomos is a great tool and I’ve been using MAP for the last month and I like it, alot.  Why?   The results I get are more accurate, less full of noise and I’ve noticed on the queries I’ve run lately using Sysomos that I have also run on other platforms.  Sure,  Sysomos  could use some user interface improvements, but the product is overall, one of the best I’ve touched for what it does – and I’ll write a bit more about Sysomos MAP, soon.

Third, getting to the “noise” issue I read an interesting post at The BrandBuilder blog today about Will the world’s best Social Media case studies please stand up?

I mean, who would not want to go to the Likemind conference in Devon, UK?  Esp at the Castle – but …. how’d they pull that one off ….?  And what does it have to do with Social Media?    Sure, I’d attend Bovey Castle even if there was a garbage disposal conference there .. who cares what the conference is, as long as I get to hang out at the Castle…  anyway, Oliver goes on to say …

Why here? Three reasons: Convenience, awesomeness and the fact that the idea for the Summit came to us there for a good reason: It’s perfect for it.

….  We could have decided to hold the Summit anywhere: A hotel conference room in London, an office suite in New York, a cool space in San Fransisco… The possibilities are endless.  (The content of the Summit, its relevance, its format and even the cost to attend would be exactly the same, regardless of the venue.) Since the LikeMinds conference is already taking place just a short drive from Bovey Castle, it would have been a shame not to take advantage of its proximity.  

You can find out more about Bovey Castle here.

I’m still trying to figure this one out  …. why there? – even though I’d love to go – hey, even if I could go ... would the whole thing end up being an exclusive club that hardly anyone can go to ?   ...  Isn’t that just the reverse of Social Media?   Maybe, Maybe not … look at the TED conference – same thing, bigger scale – instead of spending 1500 pounds you spend 6,000+ dollars and have to be invited.     Well .. do you have to be invited to the Castle?  Sorta… You have to have a Case Study and it has to be good, real good.

….. Saturday February 27 is the LikeMinds Summit at the spectacular (and Summit-friendly) Bovey Castle (just a short drive from Exeter). Unlike the conference, the Summit will be an invitation-only event.

Submit your case study.

….. Your submission can be in almost any format: a video, slide deck or document that is either emailed to the Summit staff, or even a simple hyperlink if your case study already exists online.

Invitation to the Summit will be based on the submission of that case study along with the following  qualifying elements. These elements are intended to prove the successful use of Social Media by documenting:

- Before and after overviews of the organization, with accurate measurement (Benchmarking)
- The research that backed the program
- The breakdown of strategy, integration, management and measurement
- How teamwork was guided, across departments, organizations and with the end user
- What were the most valuable lessons learned
- The frameworks that have been created from the experience

A jury will select the top 15-20 case studies from all received submissions and will send out invitations by the end of January.

Submissions for the Like Mind Summit may be sent to summit@wearelikeminds.com

Who’s the audience?  Since there’s only 20 people invited – who could actually produce the kind of case study (that they could share) that would apply?   I can think of only two types of situation that would apply.

One, could be top brand/PR marketers in Social Media, people like Steve Rubel (Edelman), Arrington (TechCrunch), etc.   The other situation would be non-profits, people like Beth Kantor.  Now, that could be instesting .. at the Castle – the same people have crossed paths at other conferences, why not at the Castle?

Maybe the only thing – I’m more interested in the event because of where it is, than what it is … and I’m not sure that is the best way to look at it.   Like I said, if someone had a garbage disposal conference at it was at that Castle, and some paid me to go – I’d have a great time.   Not sure what that has, or doesn’t have, to do with Social Media, though.

Should be interesting, though – would like to hear how the conference goes.   Like I said, if they invited me, and I could afford it – I’d go – why not?   But how many people could even qualify …. how many have the case studies that are of the specifications they’re asking for.  I guess, we’ll see, soon enough.