Social & Mobile

Marketo this week launched Marketo Social Marketing, a suite of social marketing automation products including Marketo Social Boost, Marketo Social Promotions, and Social Data analysis. The suite is aimed at helping marketers to identify key influencers using social media services.

The company announced the launch this week at the Marketo User Summit in San Francisco. “We are in an incredible, worldwide business shift, with digital and social media at its core,” said Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez during the opening keynote. “The buyer is in control. Marketing and selling must now adapt.”

The announcement comes in the wake of Marketo's acquisition last month of social marketing startup Crowd Factory, which provided much of the underlying technology included in the Marketo Social Marketing suite.

As a new kid on the social media block, Pinterest has had its ups and downs lately. After a stretch of mind-boggling growth during 2011 and early 2012, things have cooled off a bit for the social photo-sharing site. Perhaps inevitably, some people are suggesting that Pinterest is a flash in the pan.

Here's the truth: There's a lot to like about Pinterest – certainly enough to guarantee it a long and prosperous life. There's also evidence that Pinterest is a useful marketing tool, both for B2C brands and for a small but growing number of B2B firms.

Social media certainly provides powerful opportunities to send member engagement soaring, thanks to the natural connections that arise from posting, sharing, linking and “liking.” But in order to best take advantage of these new ways to develop a two-way dialogue with members and boost their loyalty to the organization, you’ll need to develop a strong, clear strategy.

According to analyst firm Gartner, the worldwide social customer relationship management (CRM) market is forecast to reach over $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2012, up from approximately $625 million in 2010. But Social CRM is not just about technology. At its heart, it is a philosophy supported by the right technology and tactics.

On Wed. May 30, at 2 p.m., DemandGen Report will host a webinar in conjunction with Avectra to highlight key trends in CRM, new tactics for building two-way relationships and tips for driving member engagement.

Today’s most successful marketers are using social channels to drive revenue. To help marketers optimize their social efforts, Silverpop launched Social Pull, a free Facebook application marketers can use to create landing pages and social forms, and to capture customer information on their Facebook business pages.