I’ve heard from corporate social strategists I should be cautious about how much time and how frequently I discuss this nascent social newtork, and I spoke to media from a Tier 1 this week who said “does anyone even go there anymore? It seems like a wasteland”. Furthermore take this damning image which has been viewed 11k times suggests Google+ is filled with Google employees –and that’s about it. In fact, in our data on Super bowl ads, not a single ad by the world’s largest brand even mentioned Google+, an indicator of what the rest of the ads could look like for 2012 in this Facebook centric market.

Why Google+ suffers from a perception issue:

1. Facebook IPO buzz leaves little room for Google. As analysts, we feel this quite heavily, in fact, we’ve been interviewed by many media about the Facebook IPO. in the last 30 days, I can recount on one hand a conversation with press and media about Google+
2. Google+ doesn’t have the full backing of brands. Google+ Brand pages are substandard, forcing brands to double down on Facebook:  The brand pages lack a platform (although their recent partnerships indicate feature rich apps are coming) and their gaming network is limited.  Brands also are skittish to open yet another conversation area to manage and engage in, when resources are low.
3. Strong growth numbers still dwarfed by Facebook, 16 to 1. Even with 60m members and growing, that’s less than 7% of Facebook’s 845m, despite making these big gains since Oct, this social network is still dwarfed by Facebook’s international spread.

To win, Google needs to focus on public perception beyond just building a platform. Google+ continues to integrate the social features with the newly updated homepage on Google.com and we should continue to see it span across their set of products now that they’ve consolidated their profiles which has caused privacy woes. Google knows they must make their social platform work, to meet the needs of the modern web, as advertising dollars shift to other social networks.  They must not only double down on building a successful platform for users, brands and their business model, but must also do proactive media, press and influencer outreach.

• We’ll see a vendor shakeout, although expect pure play vendors of each of the five uses cases to remain
• Consolidation will occur from market forces of email marketing, web analytics, CMS, marketing automation, brand monitoring, support software and beyond
• These tools, in the long run, will marry into existing communication tools to become a new form of a unified digital marketing platform

I’ll continue to cover this space, and have a series of blog posts with more data that we’ll be sharing, and am happy to help brands with vendor selection based on their specific business needs.

This report is powerful in a few ways, it indicates the growth the in space, referencing that 45% of all mobile phone users are carrying a smart phone, and the growth rate for tablets is 23% annually.

The report also indicates how some marketers are missing the market to reach to the connected consumer, citing examples how retailers and restaurant companies created apps that didn’t direct them to their stores, a missed opportunity.

Above Graphic: Mobile App Maturity in Three Phases

Yet beyond the mis-steps of retail marketers, this report provides a maturity framework segmented into three major steps, and a point based system that brands can use to self-assess their quality. Lastly, you’ll find a breakdown in roll out steps from plotting the impact of strategy, choose business impact, choose application type, add features, extend platform support, then finally globalize.

This is Open Research: Use it, share it, and we’ll publish more, the full report is embedded below, which you can download, use and share with attribution. I’ll be working closely with Chris in future research projects, so I recommend you follow Chris on Twitter, and contact him at chris at altimetergroup dot com if you’ve further questions on the mobile landscape.

Related Resources

• IBM Coremetrics, the Metric System blog shared insights
• IBM’s Social Commerce blog shares thoughts
• Chris Silva’s post on the Altimeter Blog.
• Chris Silva’s blog
• Charlene Li shares her experiences as consumer at retail experiences
• Alan Webber discusses this next report
• Rebecca Lieb approaches the report from a content perspective.
• Creative Agency secrets, reviews the report

Findings: Five Trends Indicate Cross Channel Integration a Mainstay. Super Bowl ads, while only representing the nation’s largest consumer facing ads are a bellwether for advertising trends for the remainder of the year. To best understand these trends, Altimeter Group’s research team analyzed each Ad in real time, and conducted analysis to best understand the advertising trends for 2012.  Using Chicago as a middle ground, we reviewed all ads from kickoff till the game clock expired and found that trends out of 87 advertisements.

• Trend 1) Brands Heavily Invested in Promoting Traditional Websites
• Trend 2) Surprisingly, Many Did Not Promote a Call-To-Action
• Trend 3) Only a Sixth of Ads Explicitly Promoted Social Media
• Trend 4) Hashtag Marketing Emerged to Stimulate Continual Engagement
• Trend 5) Cutting Edge Marketers Teased with New Marketing Tactics, including Shazam

Above Graphic One: 2012 Superbowl Ad Analysis: Less than one-third of Ads don’t promote cross channel

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Above Graphic Two: 2012 Superbowl Ad Analysis: Less than one-third of Ads don’t promote cross channel

Rather than push for fans and followers on social sites, brands invested in promoting traditional websites, and experimented with new forms of engagement like applications, Shazam, and even promoting hashtags. We found five trends:

Trend 1) Brands Heavily Invested in Promoting Traditional Websites
We found that 49% linked to a corporate website URL, also 9% linked to a microsite URL for a total of 57% of all Ads linking to traditional URLs. This standard deployment comes at no surprise, as a call to action is often needed for advertising ROI, and traffic surges are often the most common way to measure this. Surprisingly, despite many game watchers having multiple devices on in tandem to the TV, a whopping 32% did not have any online references to either a URL, or even a social site.

Trend 2) Surprisingly, Many Did Not Promote a Call-To-Action
In a surprising move, brands did not have a direct call to action. In fact, 32% did not link to any social site or URL as listed in trend 1. For example Chrysler’s Imported from Detroit showed the logos of their car lines, but did not have any URLs. Likely this is due to high brand recognition of brands, and the goal was to drive awareness, consideration –but not drive leads or intent on a website. Why did brands do this? We believe for a few reasons: to drive conversation among friends, or to make an impactful statement, or lastly because we live in a Google world, consumers can readily find URLs without being prompted.

Trend 3) Only a Sixth of Ads Explicitly Promoted Social Media
We define this instance as Ads that showed their social networking accounts like Facebook, Twitter, or even hashtags in text, or sometimes even written on signs in the ad content itself.  Unlike previous Super Bowls where consumer generated ads were infused with traditional ads, we saw less than expected integration of content from the crowd. This year, we didn’t see any explicit mentions of content that was created by the crowd. Furthermore we found low integration with social media, in fact, 16% of brands linked or mentioned their social networking accounts. Among them 11% linked to Facebook, 2% to Twitter. We did not capture any integration with Youtube, Linkedin, or Google+.   Despite the low explicit mentions of social in the Ads, nearly all of the ads are cross-posted on YouTube.

Trend 4) Hashtag Marketing Emerged to Stimulate Continual Engagement
While Twitter helped to promote their platform with the Twitter Ad Scrimmage (which lists more hashtags than we saw in-Ad), we found that 6 ads explicitly promoted hashtags (total of 7%), and only 2 brands promoted their Twitter accounts (2%).  Interestingly, when hashtags were deployed, we found that traditional URLs nor a request to fan or follow. To highlight, General Electric’s Ad focuses on how their technology is a key component of the beer value chain, pointed only to a hashtag “#whatworks” rather than promote a URL or a social networking account. I asked GE’s Twitter account why they did this and they responded to me in Twitter “@jowyang It’s all about shared conversation tonight (and tomorrow). We want to hear from people. #whatworks” This sea change in tactics is an indicator of how brands want to extend the experience beyond the expensive 30 second Ad to an ongoing permanent discussion. Additional hashtag engagement was found by Budweiser pushing #makeitplatinum (in two ads, by our count), Audi’s #SoLongVampires, Best Buy’s #betterway, and underwear line using #beckhamforhm.  These investments appeared to pay off as both Budweiser’s “#makeitplatinum” and Audi’s #SoLongVampires became trending topics minutes after their ads published, there was no indicator that either were sponsored.

Trend 5) Cutting Edge Marketers Teased with New Marketing Tactics, including Shazam
Beyond promotion the traditional website, microsite and social media account, brands have started experimenting with promoting new forms of marketing engagement for a total of 11% total incidence. To extend the experience, 3 ads promoted applications (often showing on an iPhone like Citibank’s Ad), 3 promoted SMS interaction, and GoDaddy promoted a QR code. We found that brands were integrating Shazam, a music finding application. In particular, Elton John in an Q1 Pepsi Ad was the first to promote this integration, encouraging further interaction by downloading media. Although not emerging, in the traditional sense, Etrade even promoted their phone number, which likely drove direct engagement. Brian Solis notes that this extends the experience and audience now becomes more engaged by downloading and consuming media beyond the game day.

Summary: Promoting Traditional Websites Still King –Social Integration Nascent
A majority of efforts had a focus on making a market impact by asserting new positioning, and linking to traditional websites and microsites.   Unlike previous years which pushed CGM in Ad content, or a direct push to fan and follower, brands in 2012 were more focused on engagement in social media, extending the life of the campaign.  A set of brands didn’t promote any cross-channel engagement, instead focusing on a powerful message, which we should expect to be a trend as brands can be found in every channel, esp aided by search.    New forms of marketing are emerging that result in integrating data from applications, as well as mobile experiences, that we’ll continue to see pioneer through the year.

Update: AdRants has commented on the data. Update: This data mentioned on USA Today.

“In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find that return on investment of the advertising when properly designed, when the big idea is there, can be much more efficient” -Bob McDonald, Chairman-CEO, P&G

Yet this is a trend, as P&G had previously cut advertising spend on soap operas on traditional TV, and continues to grow their social marketing efforts such as the wildy successful Old Spice campaign franchise.

Three Industry Impacts:
The industry should see this as a bellwether moment. This spending giant has significantly shifted funding towards digital marketing, and marketers should take note as it indicates that digital marketing will:

See an increase in spend in overall digital marketing. Overall this is an indicator of continued growth towards digital which includes mobile, web and social. In fact, a recent report indicates the overall digital spend to be $40.6 billion. Yet within this, mobile is a fast mover with a growth rate of 50.2%, to a mere $1.8 billion, while social technology and service will rise by 33.3%, to $2.1 billion.

Makes marketing accountable, through analytics and tracking. Unlike traditional mass advertising and carpet bombing styles of marketing, digital marketing can be instantly tracked providing analytics to decision makers, and eventually helping marketers to course correct an effort in real time. Expect future generation analytics software will start to be predictive –rather than just historical.

Will need to integrate paid, owned, and earned. Yet despite the shift towards digital, the savvy agencies and marketers are already thinking in an integrated fashion to use these tools cross channel, cross experience, and cross audience. We even saw for one of the first times, P&G is experimenting cross-brand, by inserting Old Spice into the Bounce category.

As Jeremy Epstein notes, this all comes on the eve of this week’s massive Facebook IPO, where most revenues are generated by advertisements on this social network. The savvy already know to get with the changing times, or get ready to dust off the resume. Update: Thanks to Gerry Corbett for first bringing this to my attention during a conference we were both at.

Both the submissions on this job announcement board, as well as available social media positions at corporations continue to pour in. In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media, see the archives, which I’ve been tracking since Q4, 2007.

• Kim Snedaker is promoted at AAA Club Partners (a division of AAA) as Social Media Strategist Responsible for establishing and leading a Social Media Center of Excellence for one holding company of 10 AAA Clubs.  I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with Kim and she’s truly an Open Leader at her company with social strategy, well deserved, congrats.
• Paul Berry, former CTO of HuffPo leaves to startup Rebel Mouse, congrats!
• Catherine Merritt joins OLSON as Account Supervisor of Emerging Media Join OLSON’s emerging media team to spearhead client efforts within the social and digital space.
• Marc Snyder joins H+K Strategies as Director, Social media and digital communications Advise clients on best ways to use digital in their PR strategies
• Kristin Hersant joins Echo as VP of Marketing Leads branding, messaging development, awareness building and demand generation. I’ve had the chance to work with Kristin and have been impressed with her professionalism, congrats on both teams.
• Sarah Barnes joins Zale Corporation as Social Media Specialist Manage and lead strategy for social media program to effectively build audience and drive multi-channel revenue for multiple brands.
• Stacy Freedman joins Jun Group as Director of Sales driving social video sales on the East Coast and in the Southeast
• Caitie McCune joins Jun Group as Account Coordinator, Caitie will be interfacing with clients, working with the sales team on new business development, and managing projects
• Hal Wendel joins Passenger as Vice President Sales & Business Development Wendel will oversee Passenger’s sales and business development teams, and work with Passenger’s world-class roster of clients as well as potential clients on providing social brand communities and innovation tools.
• Keith Jason joins Barratts as Seo/Social search executive Social media and SEO
• Jane Franklin joins FreshNetworks as Client service director Working across the whole client portfolio, Jane is responsible for ensuring the FreshNetworks accounts team deliver the strategic consultancy and high quality deliverables that clients have come to expect.
• Brett Barash joins Edelman as Vice President, Digital Oversee digital and social media strategy for the Southeast region, based in Atlanta.
• David Vinge joins Bridgz Marketing Group as Director of Interactive Services Vinge will be the lead strategist for digital services to Bridgz clients, including website development, interactive advertising, search engine marketing and social media.
• Bill Jones joins Fisher Printing Inc as Social Media Manager Implement, Nurture, and Further Social Media Channels for Existing Print Customers as Fisher Printing Takes to the Internet and Goes Digital
• Kyle Lacy joins ExactTarget as Principal, Marketing Research and Development and will be focusing on the development of educational and inspirational interactive marketing content for ExactTarget clients, partners, prospects, and employees through print media, online media, and events.
• Cat Fraser joins BLOOM Worldwide as Head of Social Business Intelligence Set up of Social Business Intelligence practice; development of products and solutions to meet business data and insight demands; advocation of social business intelligence; social business consumer and brand strategy; new business planning; personal and team brand management
• David Pollett joins GraphEffect as Vice President of Sales In his role at GraphEffect, David will oversee all aspects of sales strategy and revenue performance nationally.
• Jennifer Cooley joins GraphEffect as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Spearheading marketing strategy and brand innovation at GraphEffect, Jennifer will drive the company’s corporate and product positioning, branding and identity, public relations and demand generation campaigns.

• Submit a new hire that’s ‘on the move’ with this easy-to-use online form.

Seeking a job?

1. See the Web Strategy Job Board, which includes paid submissions from the top brands in the world.
2. Community Manager jobs by Jake McKee
3. Social Media Jobs by Chris Heuer
4. Social Media jobs, filtered by SimplyHired
5. Social Media Job Network by James Durbin
6. 25 places to find social media jobs by Deb Ng

Additional Resources:

• Community Manager Facebook Group
• Community Manager Appreciation Day (Every 4th Monday of Jan, yearly)
• List of corporate web strategists and community managers for 2010
• List of agencies and consultants by Altimeter Group
• Social Media Headhunter: Career advice, job postings and services
• New Media Hire community by Jim Long and team

Please congratulate the new hires by leaving a comment below.

These folks are critical in the change as companies have moved from the static website to the dynamic human focused social business we’re seeing across every agency.

Charged with the following four key responsibilities: a community advocate, brand evangelist, savvy online communicator, and involved in shaping future products and services they’ve got their hands full. This exciting new role is common at many companies within the social media team, see composition of a social media team, and how community managers fit in.

Yet despite the sexyness of the modern day community manager job, these roles aren’t just “playing on Facebook all day”. They’re plagued with dealing with customer issues after hours (the “burnout”) , and on weekends, learning to manage undesirable community members, and trying to balance the needs of customers and sometimes conservative corporations unwilling to lean towards social.

Despite the upsides, and challenges, there’s a bright future for this role, as they learn to measure based on business goals, tap into the emerging outsourcing service providers, and extend beyond marketing and support to helping define future products based on real-time customer feedback.

A salute to you, Community Managers!

Related Resources

• Get engaged, converse with the #CMAD tag on Twitter.
• Wikipedia’s recognition of CMAD
• 2011 Annual Community Manager Appreciation Day
• 2010 Annual Community Manager Appreciation Day
• Radian 6 has stats from the impact of the event
• Next year, CMAD will be Jan 28th, 2013, mark your calandar

Both the submissions on this job announcement board, as well as available social media positions at corporations continue to pour in. In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media, see the archives, which I’ve been tracking since Q4, 2007.

• Len Devanna joins Ant’s Eye View as Vice President, Social Business Strategy Assisting clients in their journey to become a fully-engaged enterprise. I’ve known Len for many years, and have always been impressed, congrats!
• Paul Fabretti joins Brazen PR as Director of Digital Agency Board Director with oversight of the digital direction of the agency, best-practice community management, consultancy, insights and reporting and monitoring and services provided
• Jon Burg joins Champions Oncology as Dir Consumer Advocacy & Experience Manage consumer communications, lead generation marketing, business analytics and consumer experience design.
• Erika Blanchard joins VIPdesk as Manager of Digital Marketing and Social Media Handles all digital marketing and social media for VIPdesk and many of the world’s premium brands
• Joy Hays joins Texas Instruments as World Wide Social Media Program Manager efine, execute and deploy social media web applications
• Jay Blum joins Panasonic Energy Corporation of America as Marketing Manager Develop and launch social media marketing infrastructure
• Laura Dinneen joins BLOOM Worldwide as Senior Strategist Social business strategy and insight
• Samantha Loveland joins Yammer as Vice President, Worldwide Customer Engagement In her new role, Loveland will lead Yammer’s Customer Success, Implementation Engineering and Support teams and will report to Chief Customer Officer David Obrand.
• Dave Olson is promoted at HootSuite as VP Community Dave Olson oversees HootSuite’s international community building strategy. His portfolio also includes marketing, communications, media outreach, public relations, collateral creation, localization and support at HootSuite.
• Angel Gonzalez Ideagoras, Social Media in Healthcare Founder & CEO Foster the adoption of Social Media in the Pharma Industry
• David Pessah joins Thrillist.com Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Oversee Thrillist’s strategy & presence on all applicable social platforms.
• Nick Valente joins Verizon Wireless Associate Director Social Media National strategy and implementation of Social Media
• Ben Watson joins HootSuite  as VP Marketing Ben joins HootSuite to champion the overall departmental strategy and leadership function for the marketing department.
• Tee Twyford joins Tommy Hilfiger Europe Community Manager Looking after social media strategy, analysis and implementation for Tommy Hilfiger Europe
• James Rumble joins HootSuite VP of Finance As VP of Finance, James will be responsible for strategic financial planning, forecasting, cash management, business rationalisation, and reporting for HootSuite’s finance and accounting department.
• Daan Jansonius joins Social Embassy Brand Engagement Manager Daan will be responsible for a number of key clients and help them develop and implement their long term social media strategies
• Virginia Miracle joins Spredfast  as Executive Vice President of Professional Services, Vriginia is responsible for expanding and overseeing Spredfast’s Professional Services organization.
• Kristal Ferchau joins Ant’s Eye View as Director, Social Business Strategy Assisting clients in their social engagement journey.
• Anthony Garcia join sAnt’s Eye View as Senior Consultant, Social Business Strategy Assisting clients in their social engagement journey.
• Brian Hsi joins Ant’s Eye View as Director, Social Business Strategy Assisting clients in their journey to become a fully-engaged enterprise.
• Cathryn Rowe joins Ant’s Eye View as Designer Rowe will focus on content layout and data visualization to build Social Engagement Playbooks for clients.
• Brandie Feuer joins Bath & Body Works as Director of Marketing, Social and Mobile Focused on social and mobile leadership across the organization
• Chris Maher joinsHouse Party as CEO Leading the launch of House Party’s new digital platform

• Submit a new hire that’s ‘on the move’ with this easy-to-use online form.

Seeking a job?

1. See the Web Strategy Job Board, which includes paid submissions from the top brands in the world.
2. Community Manager jobs by Jake McKee
3. Social Media Jobs by Chris Heuer
4. Social Media jobs, filtered by SimplyHired
5. Social Media Job Network by James Durbin
6. 25 places to find social media jobs by Deb Ng

Additional Resources:

• Community Manager Facebook Group
• Community Manager Appreciation Day (Every 4th Monday of Jan, yearly)
• List of corporate web strategists and community managers for 2010
• List of agencies and consultants by Altimeter Group
• Social Media Headhunter: Career advice, job postings and services
• New Media Hire community by Jim Long and team

Please congratulate the new hires by leaving a comment below.

Join Altimeter’s webinar to discuss this report.
We’ll cover the market trends, industry problems, provide new data not in this report, give insight to the future of this growing space. We’ll also be featuring case studies of success of how top brands are showing success, please submit case studies for review. Register for the webinar on Feb 7th, 2012, and we’ll dive in deeper.

This report puts companies in control based on business needs.
Buyers are confused by the number of vendors claiming similar offerings, and as a result spend months making decisions on who to short list. To fast forward the industry, this report serves to accelerate the process, this report contains the following elements:

1. A Thorough Methodology: including 71 interviews, a survey to 144 buyers, a survey to 27 vendors, and analysis from a dedicated research team. Read page 4 for more details
2. Five Business Use Cases: Based on interviews with buyers, we sought to find out their needs, rather than focus on software features.
3. Altimeter Radar: a decision-making matrix that will help buyers to determine which vendors are best for them.
4. Pragmatic Guide: At the end of the report, we feature 11 steps with examples and pitfalls to avoid guide all buyers must complete.
5. A resource checklist: buyers should use to ensure that they make the best decision with regard to their social media.

This is just the start of this growing space.
We coined the Social Media Management Systems market and started the first industry list in March, 2010 (read all the posts on this topic). Over the past few quarters, we worked closely with Altimeter Research’s Andrew Jones, and we’ve compiled over 13,000 pieces of data about vendors and what buyers need, case studies, and dozens of interview notes. Our experience helping 3 global companies make decisions on these SMMS vendors has helped us to realize the struggle the entire industry is going to have when it comes to keeping track of this fast-moving space. This report, which is a snapshot in time, documents the industry, and we’ll continue to publish changes in this space over the coming years.

Above Graphic: First, Align by the Five Use Cases for Social Media Management.

Above Graphic: Then, Choose The Right Social Media Management Systems based on Business Needs.

Open Research: Use it, share it, and we’ll publish more.
While there are many types of decision-making reports on the market, this one is unique for the following reasons: 1) We realize that one size does not fit all and we do not lump all vendors into one diagram; instead we segment by use case to show different capabilities, 2) Rather than focusing on enterprise class only, we include those that can serve medium-size companies, as this space is dynamically changing, 3) We publish under Open Research so it can be read by all, rather than sold by subscription, and 4) We disclose our client relationships, including vendors that are clients that were in this report, so you have the utmost confidence in our recommendations.

During the editing process, we pulled out pages and pages of content in the editing process, so expect many future blog posts, webinars, and speeches to continue this discussion.

Related Research

• Report: Social Readiness, video of speech at LeWeb
• Report: Career path of the corporate social strategist
• Report: See all my research reports
• Jason Falls has given a thoughtful analysis on the SMMS space
• Cross posted on the Altimeter Group blog

Related Webinars

• Regain Control & Minimize Risk – Your Strategy for Managing Corporate Social Media with SocialVolt (client), Feb 15
• Altimeter hosted webinar to discuss the report, its findings, and future of this space from an industry perspective, Feb 7

News Media

• The Huffington Post: Corporations at Risk From Social Media Adoption Issues
• Forbes: Managing Social Media Chaos: A Leadership Priority
• Read Write Web: How to take control over social media proliferation
• MediaPost comments that Companies Struggle To Manage Social Media
• Ragan.com: Companies average 178 social media accounts
• SmartBrief on Social Media
• Social Business News Roundup
• Marketing Charts rehashes the data
• Social Media Today
• Social Media Today: Chris Syme reports on the need for solutions
• Bizreport comments on how companies are struggling
• Corp Comms discusses that Large firms juggle multiple accounts
• Brafton Media notes how companies must control accounts
• Business2Community rehashes key points in the report
• Warc distributes the key numbers found in the report
• WOMMA discusses the risks of having too many accounts
• eMarketer covers the report
• Media News Line: Social Media Accounts and Conversations on the Rise
• The Financial: Social Media Accounts and Conversations on the Rise

Domain Experts

• Marketing Pilgram says it’s time to “Take out the social media trash”
• Jay Baer discusses “Taming the chickens”
• Shel Holtz advises companies to get control of their social media now
• Jason Falls says this report will help help your brand, and offers critiques
• David Deal notices that vendors need to mature
• Kyle-Beth Hilfer provides an important legal view, and warns of dangers
• Peter Kim, former colleague at Forrester, discusses “Herding cats”
• Erik van Roekel notes it’s not about the tools only
• The report also reviewed in Dutch, by Erik van Roekel
• Joe Chernov asks: So You Wanna Launch a Global Social Media Program?
• Eloqua: 5 Wows from Altimeter’s A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation
• Bazaarvoice discusses the dangers of proliferation
• Angela Hausman, warns of social media risks
• Stuart Bruce reviews the findings
• Adi Gaskell reviews the report
• Vidar ‘blacktar’ Andersen reviews the report
• Gemma Went says the report was “Handy”
• Steve MacAlpine notes many have to navigate the social media maze
• Jon Gatrell reminds of Solutions, Integration, Fragmentation and Governance
• Customer Think covers the report
• MT Business says this is a “must read”
• Marshall Sponder reviews the pros and cons of the report
• Gerald Hensel of Blast Radius reviews the report
• Todd Defren discusses the numbers from the report
• Jesse Stay, the head of social at LDS reviews the report and provides more context
• Mediatel discusses the report
• Social IRL covers the report, and discusses the upcoming webinar
• Slidescene shares the report
• Aseem Badshah hopes to see consolidate of accounts

Agency Reviews

• Mindjumpers says this report will save you money
• Video: Tac Anderson and Jen Grant of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide review the report
• Tac Anderson says companies need to get a strategy first, before tools
• We Are Social covers the report, also in Italian
• Michael Brito of Edelman covers the report
• Michael Brito also covers this at Social Business Review
• Christine Perkett says enterprises are still confused
• Blast Radius shares the report

Software Vendor Reviews

• Vitrue discusses the report
• Heresay Social shares the report
• Shoutlet discusses the report
• Argyle Social gives their POV on the report
• Syncapse head of Research, Christopher Berry, shares
• Buddy Media covers the report
• Awareness covers the report
• One to One covers the report
• Syncapse reviews the report
• The Targeted Group reviews the report
• Spinklr shares their thoughts

Other Notes

• Shel Holtz discusses how the report was released

Update Jan 5th end of day: We corrected the report to notate a correct total of 71 interviews, not 70.

Whether folks agreed or disagreed, the assertion that Tech Blogs are evolving from the Golden Era to the next, continues to resonate as a healthy discussion. I saw responses from many of the blog management teams (Techcrunch, Mashable, RWW, VentureBeat, BoingBoing, and more) both agreeing and disagreeing, as well as traditional journalists at Wired chiming in.

Recap: Four Trends Why Blogs Are Evolving Out of Golden Age
In the previous post, it was identified there are four distinct trends why tech blogs are changing:

1. Corporate acquisitions stymie innovation.
2. Tech blogs are experiencing major talent turnover.
3. The audience needs have changed, they want: faster, smaller, and social.
4. As space matures, business models solidify –giving room for new disruptors.

The Next Generation Blogs Will Have The Following Traits
Then, it was identified four future trends on what the next-generation blog will look like, in summary: 1) An opportunity for new stars to emerge, 2) Yet, the rise of personal brands will be harder, 3) New models to emerge, long form content not the only way, and finally 4) that a new mix of media will emerge.  To further the discussion on what these trends will mean to this industry, let’s explore even deeper to identify where we should expect to see innovation from.

A Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers
This classification will help to shape who are the players are who should defend, those that are on the fast move, and those that could clinch a new seat as an established tech blog.  To understand, let’s segment the market by class, Ill give examples, and explore at a high level their strengths and challenges.

Be a Savvy Blog Reader:  Know How Hierarchy Dictates Behavior.
The behaviors of each tier of blog depends on where you are in the taxonomy.  For example, those at the top of taxonomy are in dominant positions and will to sustain that.  As such, they will: have higher quality production in content, ability to scoop stories, may not link to original sources, all in order to maintain their lead.  On the flip side, those on the bottom of the taxonomy will also have different behaviors: they may give their own editorial spin, find long tail specific stories that mainstream doesn’t pickup, and can give deeper coverage in interviews the top players will not.

Watch the Challengers and Emerging Blogs as Post-Golden Tech Blogs.
Who will emerge as a victor in the post-Golden Age?  The established will seek to keep the up and comer challengers down, as well as the Emerging category.  In particular, the Verge is demonstrating a new approach by a fresh visual layout, high production video, and an experienced editorial team with insider connections.  Secondly, the Emerging blogs continue to grow organically, or have carved a niche that will keep from growing into a mainstream tech blog. As players towards the bottom move up, we’ll see a new “Platinum Age” (Sarah Lacy term) of Tech Bloggers emerge.

Above all Else, Look for Passion.
One of the attractive aspects of this medium is how the individual writer brings forward their point of view, their personality, their opinion.  As such, this has made blogging hold our attention as the rules of traditional journalism have been challenged  Despite the business aspects of running either an individual blog, or a big media blog, we should always look, interesting content, unique points of view, and of course, passion.

I look forward to your thoughtful comments as our industry continues to mature.