Definitions

1.Application of commercial marketing concepts, knowledge, and techniques to non-commercial ends (such as campaigns against smoking and drunken driving) for the society's welfare.

2.Use of commercial marketing in promotion of goods and services in a way that helps in promoting the consumers' and, by extension, the society's well being.

Meaning Of Social Marketing

Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other

approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater

social good. It seeks to integrate research, best practice, theory, audience and partnership

insight, to inform the delivery of competition sensitive and segmented social change

programs that are effective, efficient, equitable and sustainable. [1]

Although "social marketing" is sometimes seen only as using standard commercial

marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals, this is an oversimplification. The

primary aim of social marketing is "social good", while in "commercial marketing" the aim is

primarily "financial". This does not mean that commercial marketers can not contribute to

achievement of social good.

Increasingly, social marketing is being described as having "two parents"—a "social parent",

including social science and social policy approaches, and a "marketing parent", including

commercial and public sector marketing approaches.[2]

Rural Marketing in India: Definition and Features of Rural Marketingby Smriti Chand Essay

Advertisements:

Rural Marketing in India: Definition and Features of Rural

Marketing!

Rural marketing is now a two-way marketing process. There is inflow

of products into rural markets for production or consumption and there

is also outflow of products to urban areas.

The rural market has been growing steadily over the past few years

and is now even bigger than the urban market. About 70 per cent of

India’s population lives in villages. More than 800 million people live in

villages of India. ‘Go rural’ is the marketer’s new slogan. Indian

marketers as well as multinationals, such as Colgate-Palmolive,

Godrej and Hindustan Lever have focused on rural markets.

Thus, looking at the opportunities, which rural markets offer to the

marketers, it can be said that the future is very promising for those

who can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to

their best advantage.

Since ancient times, Indian villages had the concept of village markets

popularly known as the village haats. The haats are basically a

gathering of the local buyers and sellers. The barter system was quite

prevalent, which still continues in a number of places even today.

Haats are basically a weekly event, and are central to the village

economy.

Definitions:Marketing:Identifying the needs of customers and potential customers, providing

products/services that satisfy their needs, and developing efficient

processes or systems to deliver your product/service to the market

when, where, and how consumers want it.

Rural Marketing:Rural marketing is now a two-way marketing process. There is inflow

of products into rural markets for production or consumption and there

is also outflow of products to urban areas. The urban to rural flow

consists of agricultural inputs, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)

such as soaps, detergents, cosmetics, textiles, and so on. The rural to

urban flow consists of agricultural produce such as rice, wheat, sugar,

and cotton. There is also a movement of rural products within rural

areas for consumption.

Features of Rural Marketing:The main reason why the companies are focusing on rural

market and developing effective strategies is to tap the market

potential, that can be identified as follows: 1. Large and scattered population:According to the 2001 census, 740 million Indians forming 70 per cent

of India’s population live in rural areas. The rate of increase in rural

population is also greater than that of urban population. The rural

population is scattered in over 6 lakhs villages. The rural population is

highly scattered, but holds a big promise for the marketers.

2. Higher purchasing capacity:Purchasing power of the rural people is on rise. Marketers have real-

ized the potential of rural markets, and thus are expanding their

operations in rural India. In recent years, rural markets have acquired

significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of

the economy has resulted into substantial increase in purchasing

power of rural communities.

3. Market growth:The rural market is growing steadily over the years. Demand for

traditional products such as bicycles, mopeds and agricultural inputs;

branded products such as toothpaste, tea, soaps and other FMCGs;

and consumer durables such as refrigerators, TV and washing

machines has also grown over the years.

4. Development of infrastructure:There is development of infrastructure facilities such as construction of

roads and transportation, communication network, rural electrification

and public service projects in rural India, which has increased the

scope of rural marketing.

5. Low standard of living:The standard of living of rural areas is low and rural consumers have

diverse socio-economic backwardness. This is different in different

parts of the country. A consumer in a village area has a low standard

of living because of low literacy, low per capita income, social

backwardness and low savings.

6. Traditional outlook:The rural consumer values old customs and traditions. They do not

prefer changes. Gradually, the rural population is changing its demand

pattern, and there is demand for branded products in villages.

7. Marketing mix:The urban products cannot be dumped on rural population; separate

sets of products are designed for rural consumers to suit the rural

demands. The marketing mix elements are to be adjusted according

to the requirements of the rural consumers.

Social Marketing vs. Commercial Marketing. What are similarities and difference between social marketing and commercial marketing?Posted on June 25, 2013All those who have interaction with marketing concepts, better know what exactly social

marketing is. Going through with the commercial marketing definition, we can say that

marketing is the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to the

customers in order to retain the benefit of the organization and stakeholders as a whole.

Social marketing is something different with the commercial marketing. In commercial

marketing we generally focus on customer needs, wants, products and services but in

social marketing we have a customer behavior, more deeply society’s behavior to focus.

So by the end of this explanation, we can say that commercial marketing is about

focusing customer needs and social marketing is about focusing customer behaviors.

Commercial marketing techniques utilized in social marketingMost of commercial marketing techniques rapidly used in social marketing. For

example, market research is an essential tool of commercial marketing and this is also

used in social marketing. Before launching social marketing campaign, there is a need

to conduct a market research to analyze the target audience and barriers of social

marketing campaign.    1.       Market research

2.       Segmentation

3.       Find out the needs, problems related to behavior

4.       Selection of target market

5.       Setting goals and objectives

6.       Effectiveness and efficiency of operations

7.       Positioning

8.       Marketing Mix (4 P’s)

·         Product

·         Price

·         Place

·         Promotion (5 M’s of advertising)

9.       Implementation of marketing plans and strategies

1.   Monitoring and evaluation            Main difference between commercial marketing and social marketing 

Social marketing is more difficult than commercial marketing.

Commercial Marketing Social Marketing

Product

Selling of tangible goods and

services Selling desired behavior

Primary

objectives

Primary objective in commercial

marketing is to satisfy customer

by selling products to them and

fulfilling their needs and earn

profit.

The primary objective of social

marketing is to benefit society in

term of social gain.

Focus

Focus on physical products or

services.

Focus on to reach the target

audience and change the behavior.

Marketing tools

Marketing tools use for selling

products.

Marketing tool use for changing

behaviors.

Satisfying

needs

In commercial marketing,

marketers satisfy individual

needs.

In social marketing, marketers

satisfy society needs.

Similarities between commercial marketing and social marketing1.       A customer orientation is critical.

2.       Exchange theory is fundamental.

3.       Market research is used throughout the process.

4.       Audiences are segmented.

5.       The proper target market is selected.

6.       All 4 P’s are considered.

7.       Results are measured and evaluated and used for improvement.

Social MarketersCommercial organizations do not do social marketing. There are other organizations

that develop and process social marketing campaigns.

1.       Public sector organizations

2.       World Health Organization (WHO)

3.       Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

4.       Department of Health

5.       NGO’s

6.       Department of Social and Human Services

7.       National Highways Traffic Safety Administration

8.       Schools, Parks, community health clinics

9.       Governments

Ways to handle social issues1.       Technology

2.       Science.

3.       Legal/ Political/ Policy making

4.       Improve infrastructure

5.       Built environment

6.       Changes in corporate policies

7.       Schools trainings

8.       Education

9.       Media

Social Responsibility in Marketing

       

Most marketing organizations do not intentionally work in isolation from the rest of

society. Instead they find that greater opportunity exists if the organization is visibly

accessible and involved with the public. As we’ve seen, because marketing often

operates as the “public face” of an organization, when issues arise between the public

and the organization marketing is often at the center. In recent years the number and

variety of issues raised by the public has increased. One reason for the increase is the

growing perception that marketing organizations are not just sellers of product but also

have an inherent responsibility to be more socially responsible, including being more

responsible for its actions and more responsive in addressing social concerns.

Being socially responsible means an organization shows concern for the people and

environment in which it transacts business. It also means that these values are

communicated and enforced by everyone in the organization and, in some cases, with

business partners, such as those who sell products to the company (e.g., supplier of

raw material for product production) and those who help the company distribute and sell

to other customers (e.g., retail stores).

In addition to insuring these values exist within the organization and its business

partners, social responsibility may also manifest itself in the support of social causes

that help society. For instance, marketers may sponsor charity events or produce

cause-related advertising.

Marketers who are pursuing a socially responsible agenda should bear in mind that

such efforts do not automatically translate into increased revenue or even an improved

public image. However, organizations that consistently exhibit socially responsible

tendencies may eventually gain a strong reputation that could pay dividends in the form

of increased customer loyalty.

Characteristics of Modern Marketers

   

As we’ve seen, marketing is a critical business function that operates in an environment

that is highly scrutinized and continually changing. Today’s marketers undertake a

variety of tasks as they attempt to build customer relationships and the knowledge and

skill sets needed to perform these tasks successfully are also varied.

So what does it take to be a successful marketer? Obviously, at the center of a

successful marketing career is an understanding of the important concepts that are

discussed in the Principles of Marketing Tutorials. But basic marketing knowledge is just

the beginning, for today’s marketers must possess much more. Among the most

important knowledge and skills needed to be successful are:

Basic Business Skills

Marketers are first and foremost business people who must perform necessary tasks

required of all successful business people. These basic skills include problem analysis

and decision-making, oral and written communication, basic quantitative skills, and

working well with others.

Understanding Marketing’s Impact

Marketers must know how their decisions will impact other areas of the company and

others business partners. They must realize that marketing decisions are not made in

isolation and that decisions made by the marketing team could lead to problems for

others. For example, making a decision to run a special sale that significantly lowers the

price of a product could present supply problems if the production area is not informed

well in advance of the sale.

Technology Savvy

Today’s marketers must have a strong understanding of technology on two fronts. First,

marketers must be skilled in using technology as part of their everyday activities. Not

only must they understand how basic computer software is used to build spreadsheets

or create slide presentations, but in a world where information overload is a problem

marketers must investigate additional technologies that can improve their effectiveness

and efficiency, such as multifunction smartphones, GPS navigation services and web-

based productivity applications. Second, marketers must understand emerging

technology and applications in order to spot potential business opportunities as well as

potential threats. For instance, the rapid growth of social media requires marketers to

firmly understand how these fit within an overall marketing strategy.

The Need for a Global Perspective

Thanks in large part to the Internet, nearly any company can conduct business on a

global scale. Yet, just having a website that is accessible to hundreds of millions of

people worldwide does not guarantee success. Marketers selling internationally must

understand the nuances of international trade and cultural differences that exist

between markets.

Information Seeker

The field of marketing is dynamic. Changes occur continually and often quickly.

Marketers must maintain close contact with these changes through a steady diet of

information. As we discuss in our tutorials, information can be obtained through formal

marketing research methods involving extensive planning that includes the use of a

variety of information gather techniques.  However, marketers also must be in tune with

day-to-day developments by paying close attention to news that occurs in their industry,

in the markets they serve, and among their potential customers.

In the remaining parts of the Principles of Marketing Tutorials we explore in further detail

the key concepts and strategies that are consistent across nearly all industries and

marketing jobs. While reading the tutorial will not guarantee marketing success, it will

certainly offer the foundation needed to be a Modern Marketer.

Many large companies are using social media for their cause marketing efforts in a particularly effective way.

Marketing isn’t always about promoting a brand – sometimes, marketing promotes a

cause. Like with all types of marketing, social media is a valuable tool to increase

awareness and engage people, but there are good and bad ways to use social media

for cause marketing. These companies and charities are doing a good job using social

media for cause marketing.

1. Chase Community Giving

The Chase Community Giving project is a great example of cause marketing in social

media because it relies solely on interaction. Since 2009, the cause has called on its

Facebook fans to vote for their favorite charity or non-profit to receive a donation from

Chase bank.

Chase Community Giving also uses current events and holidays to spread the word

about related charities – such as Military-related charities for National Military

Appreciation Month and the Arbor Day Foundation on Arbor Day.

2. Johnson’s Mother’s Day Campaign

Johnson’s Baby also timed a social media cause marketing campaign with an upcoming

holiday. The company is donating a dollar to Save the Children for every like or share

on one of their Mother’s Day cards.

This technique works well for cause marketing in social media because it encourages

people to like and share the organization’s posts for a good cause. Plus, by sharing the

posts, Facebook users can also wish a Happy Mother’s Day to their family and friends

in a way that is much more meaningful than a simple “Happy Mother’s Day” on

someone’s Facebook wall.

3. Kellogg’s “Share Breakfast” Campaign

Kellogg’s set a goal to serve one million breakfasts to children who are in need of food.

In order to reach this goal, the company created a Facebook post, a set Tweet using the

hashtag #sharebreakfast, and a pin on Pinterest, and promised to feed one child

breakfast for every share.

This style of social media cause marketing works well because it goes across multiple

social media channels. The donations are not limited to shares and likes – people can

Pin, Tweet, and Post as much as they want to contribute to the cause. However, each

post still links back to the organization, allowing them to track how many donations

they’ve earned.

4. Panera “Food Chain Reaction”

Panera Bread is partnering with Feeding America to provide soup for the hungry. The

campaign encourages uses to invite friends to join “circles” in a Facebook application.

For every completed circle of five people, Panera donates one bowl of soup.

The “Food Chain Reaction” relies on Facebook users connecting their friends to the

cause and encouraging them to help out, but does so in a way that is far more unique

than the typical “Share this post” or “Like this page” strategy. Though Shares and Likes

do go a long way, standing out and doing something different on social media is a good

way to grab people’s attention.

5. Elizabeth Arden’s “Pin it to Give It” Campaign

The cosmetics line Elizabeth Arden and the Look Good Feel Better campaign teamed

up to bring “Pin it to Give It” – a campaign to donate eyeliner to women with cancer

through Pinterest.

“Pin it to Give It” is a good social media cause marketing campaign because its target

audience aligns with the main demographics of the site it uses – Pinterest users are

mostly female, and Look Good Feel Better benefits females. The inspirational message

behind the cause is one that many Pinners can understand – sometimes, feeling

beautiful on the outside also makes you feel beautiful on the inside.

7 Common Social Media Marketing Problems and Their Solutions

Lee Odden     Online Marketing, Other Events, Social Media

This post is part 2 on Social Media Marketing Best Practices from IMS Minneapolis.  The first post featured Brad Smith from Best Buywho offered insights into their social media principles, guidelines and learnings.

This post includes liveblog notes from the presentation given by Adam Singer of TopRank Online Marketing. Adam opened up noting that according to a research study byRussell Herder and Ethos Business Law, 14% of executives are unsure of social media, yet 70% expect to spend more.

That set the stage for some of the common obstacles and barriers to social media adoption which he focused on in: 7 Common Social Media Problems and their Solutions.

1. Flying blind

Many companies chase social media tactics with no idea about the who, what, when and where of the social web. It’s essential that companies first develop a listening program to answer those “W” questions.   Listening through social media monitoringis critical to understanding brand, competitors and key terms relevant to your audience on the social web. Without a smart listening effort, companies miss key opportunities: marketing, customer service, sales, recruiting, partnering and public relations.

2. Unsure where it fits – who owns social media?

As companies develop their social media programs, responsibilities and resources need to be allocated and that leads to accountability and “ownership”.  For successful social media adoption within organizations, it’s important to establish social media goals and responsibilities in different parts of the organization.  As resources and accountability are identified, the different departments can work to cross pollinate efforts, and work

together as a team. Doing so helps leverage combined efforts and from an implementation standpoint, avoids conflicting representation of the brand.

3. Inconsistent participation

Companies need to be consistent with their social participation. Our clients at TopRank Marketing with the most successful blogs are those that post consistently. The solution to more consistent participation is to lead from the top, get executive buy-in. Establish goals and provide a feedback loop to contributors. As they grow, the community will provide feedback. Set aside resources, plan who will create content, monitor and engage. Tap passionate community members and activate them to be brand ambassadors. Create efficiencies through the repurposing of content.

4. Not individual or confident

Believing that people will listen to and find value in what you really want to say requires confidence. Whether you’re right or wrong might not matter as much as being passionate. Now, more than ever, is the time to show leadership and conviction when it comes to social participation and engagement.

5. Digitally unsavvy team

Modern marketers need to understand social media.  Companies don’t “do social”, they “are social”. That means being savvy participants.  There’s good reason for that. According to “Social Technographics of Business Buyers” from Forrester Research:

91% of business buyers read blogs, watching user generated video, participate in other social media

55% of decision-makers were in social networks 43% are creating media (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.)

“If you’re a B2B marketer and you’re not using social technologies in your marketing, it means you’re late.” Josh Bernoff, Forrester.

The good news is that you can learn to be social media savvy through training, participation, listening and engagement.

6. Data paralysis

Data should help drive decisions, but don’t let it get in the way of creative ideas from your team. Adam relates the story of one of his clients, Joffrey’s Coffee where he recommended campaign changes based on his personal experience with the social web vs waiting for data to prove a concept. The result was a successful program by all accounts which is often cited as a social media marketing case study by others in the industry.

7. Lack of personalization

Use real team members in your social media efforts. Don’t use some faceless person behind “Brand X”. Forge relationships with others. Put others in the spotlight. “Give to get” and be focused on serving and being useful.  Don’t send in legal right away as an initial reaction to social dissension. Read the “Streisand Effect” for more on what happens when that backfires. Embrace personal brands, don’t worry about them getting too popular because their allegiance is to the brand.

In the end, companies can win on the social web by developing a strategy, experiment and iterate. And if you get lost, you can always get h

The 10 main issues companies face when tackling search and social media marketing and how to overcome them - See more at: http://www.smexperts.co.uk/seo/10-main-issues-companies-face-tackling-search-social-media-marketing-overcome/#sthash.VJ3pF76g.dpuf

Salford University Business School have worked with Manchester Digital marketing

companies to develop a CPD course which is designed to help you and your

organisation. The course is delivered at MediaCityUK in partnership with reputable local

agencies and is geared towards helping your company to get return on your Search and

Social Media Marketing investment.

Below, I’ll takes you on a whistle-stop tour of the main issues for companies looking to

take search and social media to the next level.

1. The right people – If you do not have expertise within your organisation, seek advice

and training from reputable sources. Search and Social Media Marketing is not rocket

science, but you will save a lot of time and money if you work with experienced people

with a successful track record.

Seek out recommendations from customers, employers or colleagues and speak to the

people that they have worked with previously to gauge how effective they have been

with previous projects.

2. The right strategy – Planning is everything. Understand your customers and future

customers needs – how are they finding your business online and how might they find

you in the future?

Once you understand your customers, formulate a comprehensive plan of what you

would like to achieve with your search and social media marketing campaign. What is

working or not working to date, how can you improve and where are the gaps? Make

sure you factor in staff time as it all costs money.

Think about your digital and traditional marketing holistically and make sure they work in

tandem at all stages of the customer journey.

3. Evaluate your competitors – How well are your competitors doing in the search

results for Google, Yahoo and Bing? What social networks are they using and how

many followers do they have on Twitter, Facebook fans or +1’s on Google Plus? How

are they engaging with their customers? What is working for them or not working and

what can you learn from these successes or failures for your own strategy. Compare

your own search keywords to the ones used by your competitors.

4. Produce great content – put your plan into action and produce great content. A blog

can be an excellent way to create great new text, audio or video that people will want to

view and link to. Your content could be produced by someone internally or employ

experienced people. Your content should be engaging, informative, interesting and

relevant to your company. A great idea for content could lead to a lot of positive interest

in your company and products if it ‘goes viral’ on a service like YouTube. Even the driest

subject matter can produce useful and engaging expert content.

5. Optimise your website – Check your website for any problems. Make sure your

website titles and meta description tags are correct, check for broken links or things that

your customers or the search engines will have trouble with. Try this free website tester

on your website to spot problems www.found.co.uk/seo-tool

Make sure you have got access to your websites visitor information and that you have

good people to evaluate this data to help ask questions and inform company decisions.

Google Analytics is one solution to allow you to capture and report on this

data www.google.co.uk/analytics. You should also have website statistics to compare

from your website hosting company control panel.

6. Social Media – Evaluate which social media platforms are being used regularly by

your target audiences. Services like www.addthis.com provide an easy and free way to

add social media sharing icons to your website.

Setting up a presence on a small number of social networks relevant toyour target

audience can be an invaluable way to promote your business, gain customer feedback

and engagement. Devote time and resource to a small number of networks and make

them work for your business. Register your company name for free on Google’s social

network plus.google.com – it may be useful in the future!

7. Link building – Links from high quality websites to your website are vital to your

websites search engine rankings. To gauge the quality and authority of a website, or to

see who is linking to your competitors, you can use tools such as Open site

Explorer www.opensiteexplorer.org

Start off by requesting links to your site from people you know. Make sure the incoming

links are from high quality and relevant websites. If you produce excellent content and

newsworthy stories, great websites will be happy to link to you. You can also employ a

reputable link building expert to help with your ongoing link building strategy.

8. Local searches – If you provide a local service, make sure people can find you

locally, by registering your website and business at services such as Google Places for

Business. Make sure you have good pages on your website devoted to the fact that you

provide services in the areas that you operate. Local searches can be crucial,

particularly in the age of mobile devices.

9. Go Mobile – It sounds obvious, but make sure your website works on smart phones

and tablets. You may not need an app, but your website should work properly and

quickly on all the popular mobile devices. Increasingly, more purchases are made on

mobile devices than desktops. This means it is vital that your website functions properly

on these devices.

The new Google algorithm is called ‘Hummingbird’ and it is designed for the future of

search including mobiles and for answering questions quickly. Remember this when you

are producing your excellent and expert website content.

10. Return on Investment – your search and social media strategy should form part of

your overall marketing plan. This includes everything you do offline and online. All of

your communications should be targeted carefully at different points of the customer

journey from their initial awareness of your service, to their final action or purchase.

Make sure you track and record this process carefully so that you can gauge which

aspects of your strategy lead to return on investment.

Salford University Business School have worked with Manchester Digital marketing

companies to develop a CPD course which is designed to help you and your

organisation. The course is delivered at MediaCityUK in partnership with reputable local

agencies and is geared towards helping your organisation to get return on your Search

and Social Media Marketing investment.

- See more at: http://www.smexperts.co.uk/seo/10-main-issues-companies-face-

tackling-search-social-media-marketing-overcome/#sthash.VJ3pF76g.dpuf

The Many Challenges of the Social Media IndustryPosted on August 7th, 2008 in: Challenges, Social MediaLike every industry, the social media industry is plagued with problems that for now, are slowly being solved. It’s important to note the challenges in our industry in order to first identify them and eventually overcome them. There is no indicator from our data that Social Media will go away, in fact the adoption rates of Generation Y, indicate this is a trend, but with that said, let’s first examine the issues in the industry:The Many Challenges of the Social Media IndustryA current lack of profitsThe social media space, a movement where anyone can participate has resulted in low or no revenues for most participants. For example, there are millions of bloggers, and only a few of them can claim serious revenues, and even a smaller subset have built media empires. Aside from the users themselves, many businesses focus on generating hits, visits, or registered users and will figure out how to monetize. Take a look at social networks, some valued at billions, yet we’ve yet to hear success stories of hand over fist revenues. Like the universe, stars and revenues are far and few in between, a majority of creators will not generate revenues.Some innovation spurred by funding –not revenuesBoth a problem and an opportunity, investors (VCs) continue to inject money into this space –often funding unproven business models or one-off technology. In more mature industries, it’s unlikely we’d see such an influx of spending, but often because innovation was spurred off the success of actual revenues. With so many companies being funded without actual revenue, the market is exposed to a several variants of the same feature.Low barriers to entry make competition cut throatCommodity software is always a concern, and when this occurs, there are so many entrants the market is confused –unable to determine who to purchase from, and competiors may eat into each others margins. Take for example the crowded community platform space (aka white label social networking) industry that has over 100 vendors –all offering very similar software.Excessive noise drowns out signalWith everyone able to create content and share the details of their personal lives in detailed minutia, the problem of excessive content becomes an issue. Every 60 seconds, 13 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube (says YouTube employee), and millions of tweets are generated every day. With so much content being created, how will one filter out what’s important?Amateurism threatens professionalismNodding to Andrew Keen’s criticism of the dangers of amateurs creating less-than-professional (and sometimes incorrect) content then spreading it prolifically this has caused some concern for those who consume this content. The problem of course, isn’t

really the quality of content, but the ability to quickly decipher what’s important –and what’s not.Marketers move in without community considerationWherever people move, marketers follow, while some do it smart and savvy, many will approach it from a different style. For example, the concept of pay for post, social media optimization, bacn, spam-like content on blogs and social networks, and other marketing noise is and will continue to be a challenge whenever communities congregate. (updated per Jennifer’s suggestion)Corporate and personal brandjackingBecoming more and more common, brands –and individuals– can easily be brandjacked as others take their user name, domains, and assert themselves as someone else. Given there are hundreds if not thousands of websites to monitor one’s brand, squatting these names will increasingly become difficult over time.Lack of standards causes disparate experiencesAlthough better than many industries, the open web still slowly moves towards common standards of logins, social graphs, and content types. Even protocols like Google’s OpenSocial were designed to unite activities and applications across any social network, each container (social network) requires tweaking to customize to each platform, while some –like Facebook– don’t participate at all.Cultural changes cause resistanceWithout a doubt, this movement of self-publishing and connecting is a disruption to the marketplace, media, the buying cycle, and the marketing funnel. Generation old barriers are crumbling from a command and control viewpoint to an open and collaborative style of business and personal communications. With these radical changes comes resistance from those who were previously in power (media, management, marketers, governments) who are slow to adopt –and thus resist.Identifying true expertise challengingIn experienced industries, track records are defined by years and sometimes decades, in this burgeoning new industry, it’s often difficult to decipher who is a true expert –and those that have actually performed a social media change to make a difference. Mostly, track records only go back a few years, and few can demonstrate a return on investment.Difficulty measuring ROIDespite many attempts to measure “engagement” or “ROI” there still is no industry standard to measure the efforts of social media at the personal –and corporate level. While many have developed their own ability to measure on a one-off way, there’s no industry way to quickly –and easily agree pan-industry.Conversational Marketing may not scalePeter Kim points out that social media marketing may not scale. Primarily due to the 1:1 relationships that are needed to engage in conversations, it’s difficult for one person

(despite how large their platform is) to cover all the conversations in a given market. Be sure to read the thoughtful comments. (added August 23)Rumors can impact stock pricesThis example of a rumor spreading mis-truths about Steve Jobs health actually cost a dip in Apple stocks. With rumors flying around more easily than the time it write an email, the internet often doesn’t have time to self-correct before bloggers hungry for link bait jump on, adding to the flames. We often see this pile on behavior during blog fights too.Hyperconnected can’t scaleFor some hyperconnected folks on blogs, twitter, friendfeed and facebook, they don’t scale as everyone reaches out to them, as a result, they miss deadlines, opportunities during this long battle to stay up to speed. Technology has created this problem when the world flattens out and there are no more gate keepers, I thought it would be fun to be like this, but in reality, it’s a curse too.I realize this post could infuriate some social media purists, but I wanted to provide an objective view of what I’m seeing in order to map out danger spots on the map, so we can collectively overcome them. I hope you read my other posts where I list out challenges of social networks, widgets, blogging and others, if you plan to run in this space, first know the hurdles.If you can think of other challenges in our industry –feel free to leave a comment, I’m curious to hear your reactions. (Update: On a related note, Jeremy Pepper is holding the experts to task)