While most clients understand the value of social media to develop a direct connection with customers and build community around their brand, we do occasionally talk with folks who question the value of social media for their business.

For example, I was recently in a new business meeting with a company selling high-end analytics services to Fortune 500 execs. The VP of sales asserted that “the people we’re trying to reach aren’t on Twitter.” I replied, “that may be true, but the people WE’RE trying to reach are on Twitter.”

The fact is, media and analysts (and many of the rest of us) now get much of our news from social media sources.

A recent survey by Cision and Don Bates at GWU University backs up this claim: they found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

Click here to read the full article on MediaPost – many eye-opening stats on where today’s stories really come from.

- Posted by Leyl Master Black (@mktgalchemist)

What tongues are wagging about now:

§ The good: 2.2% rise in consumer spending; consumer confidence surged 12 points. Americans feel brighter about the outlook and AP is writing about “Frugal Fatigue”. Sentiment is more positive from the anecdotal conversations we have had

§ The bad: US GDP declines 6.1%, Sun loses $201M in Q1; Interpublic posts $73m loss and 11% dip in revenue, Moto burns $1.3B in cash in Q1

§ The ugly: National freakout about Swine Flu – flights cancelled, gov’t monitoring passengers getting off int’l flights, national state emergency funds triggered

The rest:

• IAC in talks to buy Yahoo! Personals
• MSFT/Verizon planning iPhone competitor
• AOL spinoff
• Iphone Microtractions enabled within apps at 3.0 launch
• Disney and ABC content headed to Hulu decline 30% yet Apple is going to start creating its own.

VC:

• NVCA makes reco’s to address capital markets crisis, revive IPOs at Annual Meeting
• WPP reviews successors for Sir Martin Sorrell following earnings, where debt increased to $3.75b and cash flow decreased ~$500M
• LOT of new startups forming from the newly unemployed. In some circles “everyone whom I know that lost their finance job started an online venture.” PeopleSoft founder raises $75M from NEA/Greylock for Workday, SaaS HR and financial software

Press:

• Entrepreneur Mag’s Entrepreneur of the Year award submission due 6/15.
• CTIA Call for papers due in May

Parties and Events:

• May 7: Churchill Club CIO Update 2010
• May 11: MediaBistro party at 111 Minna Gallery: Raffling off a free ticket to their 6/3 MediaBistro Circus: Extraordinary Event (attending, will send notes)
• May 14: PaidContent Social Media Mixer
• May 20: Media 140: London’s first Microblogging and Twitter event. Lot of press attending.
• May 20: Churchill Club Top Ten Tech Trends
• June 10: Digital Download 90 sec Mobile App Shootout

Spark held an informal end of year tech panel today in London and it was great to hear from companies that are feeling positive despite (or because of) the current climate. Much of what you read these days is doom and gloom – layoffs, businesses shutting down, others having difficulty raising money – and while all of those things are happening, there are also companies hiring, growing, expanding into new geographies, and feeling bullish about 2009. So, in an attempt to get that side of the story told, we got together founders and execs from some of London’s most interesting tech companies.

Participating in today’s panel were: Cesar Mascaraque, the European MD of Ask.com, Matt Jones, founder of Dopplr, Frank Meehan, founder and CEO of INQ Mobile, Martin Stiksel, co-founder of Last.fm, and Richard Moross, co-founder and CEO of moo.com. Reshma Sohoni, CEO of Seedcamp, was the moderator.

Of companies on the panel, most, if not all, talked about plans for fairly aggressive growth in 2009. MOO will be expanding into the US and is currently hiring. Ask.com grew 25% this year and will be increasing its marketing spend next year (in Europe at least). Last.fm is focused on expanding in the US market. INQ Mobile has impeccable market-timing with a low-cost, social networking phone for the masses, and Dopplr is capitalizing on the trend of the internet becoming truly mobile, and helping people optimize their travel (at a time when people are concerned both about cost and their carbon footprint).

Another common theme of the day was focus – this word was probably mentioned 100 times. Everyone agreed that to be successful in a challenging climate, the single most important attribute for a company is focus. Martin, who started Last.fm in the last downturn, said the restricted economic environment really helped them because they had to focus on their core value proposition and not chase the many other things that might have been possible. Cesar from Ask.com said that they would continue to focus on their core customer, while much of their competition was worried about who was going to buy who and for how much. Richard from moo.com believes that this environment will be good for companies who can focus and execute because a lot of the noise will fall away, reducing distractions, eliminating some of the competition, and making it possible to hire amazing talent.

While things are certainly not as stable as many would like, what the people on today’s panel talked about more than anything was the opportunity this presented if you were in a position to take advantage of it. On that note, here are a few predictions for 2009:

Matt from Dopplr expects companies like Last.fm, Mint and Wasabi to do well – he calls these “personal informatics” companies. They measure, analyze and help you visualize your behavior. They can reflect your behavior back to you so you can make decisions and optimize what you’re doing. Like a personal dashboard – great when people are trying to cut the fat out of their lives and do more with less.

Cesar from Ask.com is planning to take advantage of the falling price of TV ads – he says they’ve fallen 25% already this year and thinks that will happen again. It’s a great opportunity for companies to get high profile advertising at a low cost.

Frank from INQ Mobile thinks that mobile advertising still has a way to go, mainly because the current interfaces don’t yet deliver relevancy to the customer and the trade off isn’t worth it.

Martin from Last.fm said that the online music industry is really still in its infancy and he expects consolidation in the market. He also pointed out that recessions can be good for music in general – developments like punk and raves both happened in recessions.

Reshma from Seedcamp said funding will continue to go to companies that can show that people are willing to pay for their services or products right away. It will be difficult for those who don’t have a proven business model that results in near-term revenue.

So with that dose of inspiration, here’s to finishing 2008 with a bang and starting off strong in 2009!

–Rachel

My foray into social networking started in spring 2003 when I somewhat reluctantly joined the Friendster frenzy to snoop on my friends’ friends for date material and have my friends hype how cool I was (LOL).

Next I joined LinkedIn to beef up my professional network and start collecting an electronic paper trail of all the interesting people I’ve met along the way. You never know who so-and-so knows, right? Agreed, it’s opportunistic, but it’s honest and straightforward, and I never have to claim we’re “friends”.

Years later, I joined MySpace (very reluctantly) to support the CD release my musician husband. The experience of logging into and using MySpace was altogether irritating. So many people, so many dreams, and so little “genuine” community, despite the fact you have 2 million friends. Check out this funny clip on the topic. I’ve even spent considerable hours on Last.fm, a social music discovery site to find new music.

One thing I can say for all the sites: the time you put into (and that can be a lot) is only as valuable as what you want out of it. Each network has their own particular utility — whether it’s dating, professional networking, supporting or finding a musician. There’s no doubt, social networks are useful. Some more than others.

Most recently I joined Facebook to see what the fuss was all about. So far, it seems like a great way to keep a pulse on all the cool technology my “friends” are into. I’m even helping to contribute to the fray. Today, I added my client Jaman’s new Facebook application called Jamanation to my profile. Effectively, I told everyone in my network that Jaman is a place to find and download great global, independent titles in high definition. How convenient and cool.

“Social networks are a sad excuse for self validation,” says my husband who is certain social networks are just a fad. I don’t agree, but one thing that is true for this social networker — after going on a few dates with people I met on Friendster years ago, I ended up hanging up my Friendster shoes when I met my husband, who I did not meet online.

However, that said, he was just one degree of separation away — the friend of a friend. Long live social networks!

- June

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the journalists report on the yet-to-be-released book making appearances on places like YouTube and Flickr. It turned out that these appearances were indeed excerpts from the new book, ruining a $20 million security campaign to protect against just that.

In the age of ultra-transparency, where the Internet is both a friend and a foe – how do we as PR professionals protect this kind of news from breaking before we intend it? As PR strategist Jon Greer points out, “Will bloggers who never spent a day in journalism school, who never spent a day in a media newsroom, yet who command audiences and attention online, subject themselves to these [embargo date] guidelines? And if not, what is PR’s obligation to adhere to these guidelines if influential new media ‘journalists’ do not?”

I think the answer to that question is to know the bloggers that cover your news and be smart about when to send them information. Do your research and ask them how they prefer to work and when they want to receive important information. Most of all, you have to be a part of the dialogue to do PR in the new media world, keeping it at arms length is hardly an option these days. I also think a good disaster-recovery plan should be in place for when your news accidentally breaks, especially for instances like what happened with Harry Potter.

Just some food for thought, er should I say spells to make you conjure…

Matt