Social media is all the rage these days. No wonder. It’s what everybody talks about, and it’s a press-darling too. It sure does work well for some companies.

However, it’s a lot of talk, and – it’s as if they forget all the other ways to drive traffic, and more importantly, build conversions on your website.

Well, now you have a chance to test and see if you can leverage the true, tried tested methods for driving traffic quickly to your site, while you build the (sometimes slower) social media programs. (Big note here: not to be discounted, you should leverage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others while you test the multi-channel marketing).

You can meet the experts that we have worked with at previous conferences. And you do it all from the comfort of your own home or office.

Click the find out what your competition may already know.

It’s official—air travel is for the dogs, and the cats too. Pet Airways, which offers flights across the country for four-legged friends only, recently partnered with the ad network DogTime Media in order to get the word out about their services and promote DogTime Media’s pet adoption at the same time.

Other pet-focused businesses are taking a similar approach. Many pet food manufacturers, including Whiskas and Purina maintain, have maintain, or sponsor interactive social media sites, complete with online games and videos. Purina Animal All Stars, for example, hosted by Yahoo! Invites pet owners to send in videos of their talented, funny, or unusual pets. The company’s main site www.purina.com, also has games, downloads, and coupons available for it’s visitors.

“People who go to sites like these are people who love their pets and people who are spending time thinking about the products that they buy for their pets,” Bob Shaw, CEO of Concentric Marketing, the agency that works with natural cat litter manufacturer Feline Pine to help socially promote its corporate website, told DMNews in a recent interview.

“From a marketing perspective, we’ve understood that there is an opportunity to connect with consumers around their emotions to connect with pets.”

The current economic climate has everyone searching for ways to save money, and coffee giant Starbucks, whose name is synonymous with the four dollar latte, has been facing price competition from other chains, including Dunkin Doughnuts and McDonalds, which recently announced the launch of a social media campaign.

The campaign, which includes a website with shareable videos and an interactive sweepstakes,and a Twitter account, McCafeYourDay, was to promote the McCafe coffee line.

“We’re having a lot of fun online, and there’s a great dedicated area for McCafé on the McDonald’s Web site with some really quirky fun things,” Sofia Therios, director of marketing for McDonald’s USA told DMNews.com.

It is clear that more and more corporations are beginning to realize the value, and the tremendous impact of social media campaigns and strategies.

Image via Wikipedia

As more businesses realize the value of interactive website
features and social media techniques, DelMonte, makers of Meow Mix cat food, has recently debuted a new interactive website and a game show to promote its new Wholesome Goodness line of cat food.

The website features interactive games called Cat Capades, which allows players to use their “house cat” instincts to overcome household obstacles and challenges.

“We know that cat parents feel a kinship with their cats,
and it’s not uncommon for them to ‘know”
what’s going on their heads—what they think and
feel,” Alison Olsson, account executive for Agency.com,
said in a recent email to DMNews. “We knew this would be
especially fun for cat lovers, because they are familiar with
many of the cat behaviors highlighted in the games.”

Social media strategies are being employed by many companies in
the hopes to reach an increasingly Internet savvy and Internet
based audience. Cereal companies, like General Mills, have
offerings similar to the Meow Mix Site, including an interactive
avatar-based town called Millsbury, which is designed to provide
a place for children to share avatars and items with other
Internet users in their demographics.

Based on trends in Internet usage and social media prevalence
and popularity, it isn’t a stretch to imagine the
websites of the future as increasingly more interactive and
geared toward specific interests and demographics.

Sites like isitdoneyet.gov which provide
consumers with proper meat cooking temperatures and tips are
becoming more prevalent as government officials have begun to
realize just how effective social media marketing tactics can
be.

“When you begin to work with government people on the
client side, you learn just how passionately they care about the
issues, and the limitations that they have.” Brian Herder,
president and executive creative director of Russell Herder, a
Minneapolis based firm specializing in government to public
marketing for state and local government agencies told
DMNews.com.

Some of the biggest obstacles to any government sponsored
commercial marketing campaigns include accountability and ROI,
both of which can be measured more easily when they are
Internet-based. While traditional commercial marketing
campaigns, which are television and ad-based, have been proven
to be effective, the role of the Internet in the lives of the
American public means that online advertising reaches a greater
audience than most traditional types.

Alan Minton, VP at Track Marketing, an Alexandria, VA based firm
specializing in work with federal agencies including the EPA,
the SSA, or Social Security Administration and The Department of
Justice, believes that direct marketing within these campaigns
is the key to their success.

“It’s not enough to say `we put out 20,000 brochures’
anymore,” says Minton. “The OMB (Office of
Management and Budget) requires measurements and agencies are
forced to show real outcomes.”

In addition to isitdoneyet.com, other successful government
sponsored campaigns to emply social media tactics include the
Minnesota Department of Health Teen Education Campaign, and the
Healthy Eating Campaign sponsored by the CDC.