After nearly three years managing the social media and healthcare practices at the Lab, Raquel Krouse recently joined the Initiative Media team as SVP, Director for Prophesee social solutions, the agency’s social media unit. We sat down to talk about her new role, and how Prophesee aims to give brands better ways to listen and engage consumers online.
Q: You’ve done exciting work in social media over the past few years; how does Prophesee fit into the social media narrative?
A: When talking about developing a social media strategy, I’ve always stressed listening as an essential first step. But it’s really about active listening. Prophesee not only provides solutions to monitor online chatter, but also provides the services to help brands understand and effectively act upon online buzz.
Q: What’s different about Prophesee, and why now? Continue reading “Prophesee: Engaging consumers online”
We live in a digital world, so it makes sense that our pets would have some cool gadgets of their own. And, for the holidays, new media solutions for pets make good gifts for the pet lovers in your life. From pet social networks and dating sites, to digital camera collars, pet mobile phones and GPS systems, the pet-tech field keeps bringing pets and their owners new toys to play with. Here are some cool, albeit strange, digital innovations for pets:
Social search, that is, search aided by our friends or online connections, suggests that being able to search your friends’ opinions, interests, and actions would create a better search experience. We already look to our friends for recommendations on movies, restaurants, and vacation spots, so doesn’t it make sense that our favorite search engines would be aided by content from our social connections?
Earlier this week, I attended the 
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To remain successful, marketers MUST market in the social web. According to a May 2009 Anderson Analytics’ survey, 52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social network. No matter the marketing goal, from customer service, branding, and lead generation to direct marketing and e-commerce, there is a place for social media in the marketing plan.
This month the Lab attended a kind of Facebook marketing boot camp, where members of the Facebook team guided us on best practices for integrating Facebook within brand marketing plans. The opportunity is much larger then capturing a portion of the 250 million Facebook users as customers; it’s also a prospect for new ways to be innovative in our marketing.
