Awareness, Inc. Releases Report on Social Media Marketing Strategies to Survive the Economic Downturn

WALTHAM, MA--(Marketwire - November 17, 2008) - Awareness, Inc., the social media marketing company, today announced the release of a report on social media marketing best practices, "Integrating Social Media in Your Marketing Mix." To download the free report, visit http://www.awarenessnetworks.com/resources/resources-whitepapers.asp#IntegrateSocialMedia.

Marketing in an economic downturn requires creative thinking and social media can drive traffic to a brand's Web site using the power of customer enthusiasm instead of dollars. This report describes how to leverage social media such as blogs, forums, ratings and social networking media to improve marketing and build better customer relationships. The report also includes case studies about how major, name brand companies have successfully used social media to engage with customers and increase brand awareness.

Best practices discussed in the report include:

-- Leveraging "Points of Enthusiasm";

-- Humanizing your brand with blogs;

-- Joining conversations rather than just starting them;

-- Making participation easy;

-- Shining a spotlight on great user-generated content;

-- Creating a ladder of participation.

"Social media is a highly effective yet lightweight way to engage customers and build brand awareness," said John Bruce, CEO, Awareness, Inc. "The current downturn in our economy has hit marketing budgets hard. Suddenly, marketers are working with less money and under pressure to get better results and social media is the key to making that equation work. Interactive and digital marketing -- social media marketing strategies in particular -- will play a big part in how brands survive and thrive during the coming months and beyond."

To learn more about the trends and best practices of social media marketing, the Awareness report is available for free download here.

About Awareness

Awareness helps companies build and operate branded Web 2.0 communities. These online communities let customers, prospects, employees and partners connect with each other and share content. At the core of the Awareness solution is an on-demand social media platform that combines the full range of Web 2.0 technologies -- blogs, wikis, discussion groups, social networking, podcasts, RSS, tagging, photos, videos, mapping, etc. -- with security, control and content moderation. Awareness builds these features into complete communities for companies, or customers use the Awareness API and widgets to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into their own web properties. Major corporations such as McDonald's, Kodak, the New York Times Company, Northwestern Mutual and Procter & Gamble use Awareness to build brand loyalty, generate revenue, and drive new forms of marketing. Find out more at http://www.awarenessnetworks.com.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Jennifer Gazin or Virginia Zimpel awareness(at)launchsquad(dot)com 415.625.8555 Awareness Contact Eric Schurr eric.schurr(at)awarenessnetworks(dot)com 781.622.2388