How Can Agencies Adjust their Culture for Social Media

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Sep 25, 09 How Can Agencies Adjust their Culture for Social Media

I was fortunate enough to be invited, along with our agency president George San Jose, as a representative of the San Jose Network to the Transworld Advertising Agencies Network (TAAN) semi-annual conference this past week as part of the current work to forge an alliance between the two networks to expand the global footprint of both.

During the conference we participated in extremely interesting discussions and were privy to excellent presentations by Mr. Locatelli regarding agency finances and Jason Falls regarding the growing power of social media in the advertising world. Both presentations were fantastic and we thank all the members of TAAN for letting us participate!

Jason Fall’s presentation made some very interesting points about some of the challenges facing advertising agencies in social media and tips for dealing with the culture clash. Here some noteworthy points Jason cites from Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics, regarding some of the current trends:

  • Social Media has overtaken porn as the No. 1 web activity
  • Gen Y will outnumber baby boomers by NEXT YEAR
  • 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
  • Only 14% trust advertisements
  • Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
  • 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
  • 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines
  • Soon products will find us via social media

What are some of the “cultural” challenges your agency faces with social media? How does this apply to the client side? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

1 Comment

  1. Peter Gerritsen / September 29, 2009

    It was great to have both George and Deborah, as representatives of SJN, participate in the regional TAAN meeting.
    Connecting with smart people is what we see as our mission. Engaging in insightful discussions is why we gather as a group. Learning about new ideas and sharing our individual knowledge with each other makes the network successful, and the meetings all the more rewarding for everyone.
    We at TAAN are looking forward to a very successful alliance with SJN.

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