The article, “Buddy Media Soups Up Social Marketing Suite,” includes the following quote on the subject by Chief Strategy Officer, Jeff Ragovin, among others;

“With our platform being unified, we’re essentially going to cut down all of that noise and have a socially unified software, giving our clients the ability to pull data from our platform and integrate with all of their existing platforms — CRM, email — and to attach data and content across multiple apps, not just social. This will allow brands to give insight across the entire organization.”

The unified social data will be available for Brands to integrate with their existing CRM and email systems to enhance their customer engagement programs across channels. This, in our opinion, was a good and necessary move!

However, the results of a recent Market Force survey imply that content posted by brands is almost equally as impactful – so long as it is relevant and valuable in the eyes of the consumer.

Take a look at the Social Media Today article; “Are Brands Wielding More Influence In Social Media Than We Thought?,” for more of the stats behind this survey and insights on effective Content Marketing.

So, what exactly was the intent of the do-not-track proposal that the FTC laid down in December, 2010? This question has spurred an ongoing debate in the Online Advertising industry and the issue still remains; no one quite knows the answer.

Read Branam’s article to uncover her exploration of this subject matter in addition to the various reasons Marketers and Advertisers collect online data to enhance customer experiences.

Excerpt: “Is there a perceived harm to the consumer if this type of information is collected but not used for targeted advertising? If not, why should the FTC and Congress prohibit its collection for this type of activity?”

Excerpt: “creating an organization-wide focus on and commitment to retention drives a brand’s ability to deliver the level of experience that optimizes customer engagement” which in turn increases brand loyalty.

Make sure to check out the four steps to “jump-start your marketing optimization journey” – which includes; organizing data, scoring subscribers, understanding subscribers’ preferences, and testing.

The DMNews article, “Marketers must use mobile to encourage brand loyalty,” illuminates how brands are integrating mobile into their cross-channel marketing programs and drawing from CRM systems to ensure “consistent experiences across all customer touch points, mobile or otherwise.”

From personalized websites to email segmentation and content – read the article for more details on how these companies are optimizing customer data!

Excerpt: “In the past, marketers were using the information in their databases to determine a consumers’ lifetime value to the brand,” says Mark Miller, SVP and CRM practice lead at Digitas. “Today, marketers must use their database to figure out how to position their brand in a way that provides value to the consumers, instead of the other way around.”

Excerpt: “A cross-functional, coordinated approach to customer engagement helps to foster more personalized, relevant overall relationships with your customers.”

Excerpt: “But now that we are tapping big data, attribution analysis can track behavioral insights and better understand and serve customers who are interacting across an expanding universe of multiple channels, touch points, and data sources – everything from email to search, digital advertising, websites, and social media.”

Read the article for more of Miller’s thoughts on why and how marketers should harness real world data and customer behavior to tailor marketing stories to personas.