IDG Partners with Social Media Co. to Drive Conversations About Advertisers Across its Sites

Tech company taps Socialmedia.com’s technology.

By Dylan Stableford
05/20/2009

The tech industry, perhaps more so than others, has become increasingly reliant on social media. And, according to industry research and advisory firm Outsell, Inc., IT advertisers are poised to increase spending on social media roughly 20 percent in 2009.

Tech publishers are keenly aware of this sea change, too. IDG, the tech media powerhouse, this week announced a strategic partnership with Socialmedia.com—a company that produces “products that make advertising social,” (including its “Word Of Mouth Impression (WOMI)” technology to “drive brand conversations across the Web”)—to use its proprietary social ad serving platform to offer marketers social ad solutions across IDG’s brands.

How It Works

Socialmedia.com will enable Amplify, IDG’s new suite of marketing services, to spark dialogue about their products within IDG communities. Amplify is able to stimulate conversations about an advertiser by “asking users to voice their opinions and then share those opinions within the appropriate community” through sponsored ad units.

“For example, a tech company may want to know what IT professionals like most about a mobile device,” IDG explained in a release. “The sponsored ad unit will prompt responses that will be tabulated into aggregated results; additionally, users can opt in to share their ‘vote’ with other site visitors, with Facebook friends, or with followers on Twitter. … IDG’s Amplify services enable marketers to execute social marketing campaigns that can grow and generate word-of-mouth messages across multiple IDG media brands and within social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.”

According to IDG sales and marketing senior vice president Matthew Yorke, “the buyer research matches the growing interest in social media among marketers. We have credible, trusted media sites where the conversations can begin and spread. Paid media brings people to a place while social media prompts interaction that leads to accumulated value over time.”