Sep 15, 2009 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) — Companies seeking to launch measurable direct marketing campaigns through social media now have access to the necessary capabilities through a new platform from Acxiom.

"Acxiom Relevance-X Social gives companies actionable strategies by bringing consumer insight to social media marketing, allowing marketers to engage, communicate and track the effectiveness of social campaigns," said Tim Suther, Acxiom senior vice president, Global Multichannel Marketing Services. "While many brands struggle to enter this booming market, our clients are now able to effectively engage and deliver ROI."

Acxiom said its Social is the latest offering in its suite of Relevance-X products and solutions. With the ability to engage socially active customers and prospects in their preferred networks, marketers can link that knowledge to relevant communications that ignite conversations on behalf of the brand. Measurement and quantifiable ROI are now available in the digital marketing channel thanks to a single point of integration for managing social media campaigns.

"Acxiom delivers ‘tomorrow’s integrated marketing’ today," said Michael Gorman, vice president for strategy, Acxiom Global Multichannel Marketing Services. "We help clients align their customer and prospect marketing efforts with the activity of those individuals in the social media space, including degree of activity and influence."

Darren Rowse is a full time blogger making a living from blogs like Digital Photography School and TwiTip.  In 2002 he stumbled upon an article about ‘Blogging’ that changed his life. Within 24 hours of reading the article he had started his own Blog.  As Darren’s blogs have grown in popularity and now generate substantial income, blogging has grown from a hobby, to a part time job, to a fully fledged business.

ProBlogger.net is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium.  It started in September 2004 mainly to keep a record of what Darren was learning about blogging for money. Since then the blog has grown to well over 3,500 articles, tips, tutorials and case studies.

Darren Rowse, like the other online marketing specialists I’ve interviewed, is a perfect example of someone who found an area of interest, developed a passion for it, and then persisted and worked hard over time to fully monetize and grow the business.  This diligence has turned in to big blogging revenue and a knowledge that Darren shares with all who are serious about blogging as a business (or hobby).

Darren Rowse on Social Media Marketing

In regards to social media, where is the best place to start if you are new to online marketing?

The best place to start is by researching WHERE the people you want to connect with are already gathering. The problem with social media is that it’s not simply enough to get on facebook or twitter and start sending marketing messages randomly. Different groups of people with different demographics and interests are gathering on different sites. Research where your market is and then spend significant time investing into building genuine relationships in that site before even thinking about marketing directly.

Why is social media marketing such an important part of success with a new online business? or is it?

I’m not sure that social media has to be a part of a marketers mix but it can be a powerful factor for a number of reasons including:

• the volume of people online
• the ability for messages to spread virally throughout networks

What are some of the main tools all new social media marketers should learn how to use if they plan to survive?

I’m hesitant to recommend any one tool simply because each one will relate to different marketers differently depending upon their goals. However I think tools that allow marketers not only to ‘broadcast’ but to ‘listen’ are definitely worth investing into. For example – on twitter there are more and more tools that enable us to set up watch lists and monitor what is being said on different topics. These kinds of tools are powerful.

Is social media marketing at all tied to monetization? If so, how? If not, why not?

Not directly. I actually think that social media has as much potential in many other areas such as customer service, branding, deepening relationships with customers, building trust etc. All of these things can have an impact upon monetization but indirectly.

Please share one specific social media marketing experience that you attribute to financial success.

When I launched my book (ProBlogger the book) last year to be able to talk about it before it was released and then as it was launching using tools such as Twitter was responsible for creating a big buzz. To have a network of tens of thousands certainly gave it a head start over many other books in terms of sales and saw it sell out on many online stores such as Amazon within hours of release.

Where do you see social media marketing going in the next 3 years?

I’m not really sure to be honest. I think we’re seeing networks converge more and more and people seem to be finding more and more ways to access them via a variety of devices – I guess this will continue.

Is social media marketing taking over the world of organic search engine optimization as we once knew it?

Not sure it’s taking over from organic SEO just yet – while there are a lot of people in social networks there are many many others who are not. The day my mum gets on facebook or Twitter will be the day that I think there’s been a take over!

Follow Darren on Twitter @problogger and check out all of his Twitter Tips at TwiTip.com.

Thanks again, Darren, for the interview on Social Media Marketing!

Update: The orginal title of this article was "USA Today Publisher Restricting Employees from Using Social Networks?" USA Today called WebProNews requesting a change because it made it look like USA Today itself was discouraging social media use, which is apparently not the case.

"I can’t speak for the posting on Gannett Blog, but I can say that we at USA TODAY have been working extensively on our social networking efforts," says USA Today Communications Manager Alexandra Nicholson. "USA TODAY was the first national newspaper to offer reader comments, and we continue to expand our community tools by allowing readers to communicate with each other directly, add ‘friends’ through USATODAY.com and through social networking tools like Facebook Connect. Additionally USA TODAY has recently launched a series of moderated communities targeted specifically to our readers, this includes a recent MMA community launch.

Alexandra says that USA Today sees social networking as "a growing effort" on their part and one that they’re "taking on enthusiastically."
Incidentally, Alexandra found our article while doing routine "Twitter surveillance."

Original Article: The controversy never ends when it comes to newspapers and online news. It’s amazing how many debates there really are within this industry.
You’ve got the bloggers vs journalists debate, the fair use debate, and the should social media be used as a source debate to name a few. That last one is apparently even an internal debate within some news organizations.

Valleywag is pointing to a post from a blog (unofficial) about Gannett, publisher of USA Today. The post shares a memo from an editor with the company that is restricting access by employees to social networks. This example is not really about the legitimacy of social networks as credible sources. It’s more about social media in the workplace. The memo says:

It has come to my attention that some staff members are spending a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites during work hours. Also, some staff members apparently are spending work time on Fantasy baseball research and other personal recreation activities.

This is not appropriate. It is not part of the job. Occasionally it will be necessary for staff members to visit these sites for work purposes, but please reserve social networking and recreational pursuits for your private time.

Is the editor wrong? Probably not entirely. Unless employees are using fantasy baseball research for actual stories, there is probably some misuse going on. But is restricting access to social networks the way to go?

News breaks on Twitter all the time. How would a writer get to it without spending some time on Twitter (or using some kind of Twitter app)? Then there is the fact that social networks are a way to contact potential leads and sources. They’re often easier to get through to people than by phone or email.

"As one reporter put it, ‘Facebook is a modern day Rolodex,’" says VW’s Ryan Tate. "Exactly, and if those infernal tele-phones had never been given out like candy to individual reporters, maybe newspapers would be in better shape today!"

USA Today does have a Twitter account, but seems to be pimarily following other USAToday/Gannett accounts. twitter.com/gannett on the other hand has not been updated once, but is being held on to by some guy named Mike Pratt who loves the outdoors