The global trend towards digital socialization is around the corner and will make quite an impact on digital culture in 2010.

In 2009, we saw data portability (more simply described as logging onto “other” sites with your “Faebook” login.  We also saw people begin to understand what Twitter is good for.

We’re in a time now when countries such as India and China are quickly getting on board with social media.  Facebook’s explosive growth in the last few years was driven largely by non-US members.

What this means is that an unprecedented opportunity to globally extend communities is arriving.

The challenge will be bridging offline cultural gaps online, and the businesses that can enable this osmosis to the benefit of their brand will be the largest winners.

Another powerful social media trend will be around eReaders.  We are about to see an explosion in the adoption of eReaders that might very well outpace the iPod’s.  And as people replace their source of information from paper to digital, the advantages of digital will arrive as well.  There will be eReader apps, communities, and networks swirling around our sources of information in ways we have never seen.

And with game-changing changes in social media, we will also see businesses struggle to keep their social media policies up to date, flexible, yet risk-adverse.  As the global communities extend further, and digital reading begins quickly burning paper, the potential upside and downside will be a challenge for businesses to navigate.

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CEO Ed Kim will address the benefits and myths surrounding social media in his talk “Integrating Social Media into Your Existing Campaign.”

San Francisco, CA - April 30, 2009 - Red Bricks Media has been selected to speak about Social Media tactics at the Annual Conference for Catalog and Multi-channel Merchants, given by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

The performance marketing agency’s CEO, Ed Kim, will discuss how to build effective multi-channel marketing campaigns leveraging the latest Social Media Strategies. For those who want to engage with social media forms such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, Kim will provide best practices and dispel common myths. From case studies of Red Bricks Media’s clients, such as THQ and a major fashion publication, Kim will demonstrate the opportunities provided by social media including specific targeting, outreach, and measurement tactics that drive measurable ROI.

Discussing his session, Kim said, “I’m very excited to speak at ACCM. Social media should be approached with the same marketing goals and objectives required for all performance-driven channels. I’ll discuss strategic ways to integrate social media with existing campaigns to drive far greater results.”

Kim has previously presented at Ad Tech, Search Engine Strategies, Webmaster World PubCon, Digital Hollywood, and the Vodafone Ventures Summit. His session takes place on Wednesday May 6th from 8:30 to 9:30 am.

Additionally, Kim will be offering expert advice on Email Creative from 3:45 to 4:45 pm Tuesday May 5th. Kim spent five years at Acxiom Digital, helping develop email programs for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including HP, Apple, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo and more. Conference attendees can schedule a session or sit in on a critique to learn how best to achieve results through email campaigns. On May 6th, Kim will also be moderating a table during the conference’s “Lunch With The Experts” daily sessions, where he will be presenting Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing 101.

About Red Bricks Media

Red Bricks Media is a full-service global marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, award-winning creative services and emerging forms of media including buzz and mobile marketing. We take a performance-driven approach to our campaigns and measure our success by our clients’ successes. Red Bricks Media is an independent agency headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Taipei, creating world-class advertising programs for top brands like Microsoft, Hearst Magazines, THQ, and the Los Angeles Times. Visit www.redbricksmedia.com to find out why Red Bricks Media is one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country.

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Here’s a great piece of advice.

Treat people online the same way you would in person.

Think about it.

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I am now finishing three books on Social Media (Groundswell, Join the Conversation, The New Influencers).

While I find the books very insightful, I have one minor issue that I can’t stop dwelling on. Two of the books above (Groundswell and Join the Conversation) have some very bold statements about the end of “shouting” and how marketing as we know it is being forced to change by the online communities.

And I have to say - I believe we are seeing, and will continue to see, the “conversation” explode.

But then I start to think:

When I look around my apartment at all the brands I have, I can think of a traditional marketing campaign for many or even most of them, but I can’t think of why I would want to have a “conversation” with the vast majority of them.

I’m sure the people at Canon, Trader Joe’s, Ragu, and The Bank of America are nice people. But I don’t want to talk to you. Please don’t join my conversations - I barely have enough time for the friends who have earned my respect. If I need customer support, just pick up the phone quickly and please don’t offshore it to India.

Additionally, the vast majority of successful case studies of conversation marketing in the books I have never heard of. I guess I was not a part of those conversations. But I did see the traditional campaigns from those companies.

I do think there is a place for the “conversation” in the overall interaction mix (not always marketing), but let’s not get carried away with it.

I think the “shouting” these authors reference is going to be replaced less by “conversation” and more by the one way message (the shout) evolving into a more entertaining format. I posted about Bud’s hilarious swear jar ad. (I consider this a form of buzz marketing and not conversation. I am watching, not having a conversation). This is a great example of something I totally enjoyed watching.

I could be wrong. Maybe I’m right. Time will tell.

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