2012 represents the largest investment by brands in social channels, technologies and platforms to date and the forecast for 2013/2014 is even larger. eConsultancy’s most recent survey reports that 51% of companies changing their social media budget are planning to increase it by over 20% in 2013, with more than 9% doubling their budgets. (UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2012).

According to the CIM’s Social Media Benchmark wave two report, of the 2,000 UK and Western Europe marketers surveyed, 79% of them have brand Twitter feeds, 69% are on Facebook, 66% are on LinkedIn, 60% are on YouTube, 53% have blogs, 25% have proprietary online communities and 22% have Google+.

That’s a lot of social media, but not necessarily a lot of understanding about its effect or value.

Read more on How social commerce might just save social…

There was a time when reaching your target market with a clear message was enough to sell products. Now brands need to create campaigns that have network appeal. This means creating ideas that can be shared in multiple iterations to fit within the audience’s ever changing world. But where do these ideas come from, how do you plan them and who should be creating them? Is there a formula for creating campaigns with network appeal?

Getting people to share your brand or campaign with their network is about two things happening together. Firstly, it’s about creating an idea worth sharing. Secondly, it’s about planning the idea’s distribution. Read more on Have you got the shareability factor?…