No. It won’t. The truth? Online media — all forms of it — increasingly rules the world, but social is just a piece of that converged puzzle. When you look at the numbers direct marketing rules the world, at least from an overall marketing spend perspective (see above chart from the Marketing in the Round infographic), money is being invested in direct tactics like email marketing, direct mail, search, and more first. That’s because the direct marketing approach yields the most ROI at a 10:1 ratio, according to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). Geoff Livingston on Google+

Image by ephy1 Most of the online hype about organizational social media adoption revolves around the “social business” craze. In my conversations, most businesses say they’re grappling with the multichannel integration into marketing. It begs the question, “What will come first, the full integration of social media into the marketing wheelhouse or the widespread rise of socially-enabled enterprises?” Last January, we debated whether social business was BS or reality. It’s a good question, and one that’s still not fully answered in my mind. Geoff Livingston on Google+

This post is co-written by G Squared (Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston). Guess what?!? We finally get to talk about our new book! We joked, early on, that it’s not nice to tell prolific bloggers they can’t write about what they’re writing about. It’s been a challenge, that’s for sure. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag with our book now listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Special congratulations again to Gini, who is making her first appearance as a published author. Her post today on Spin Sucks discusses some of the feeling that comes with that. Generally, Gini’s ability to market has been eye opening. She is stellar, and deserves to be one of the …

The following is a Google+ post. It is based on early observations about the network and larger social media trends. Consider it an open cognitive discussion and learning about the network. Please fee free to add your experiences, thoughts and hopes. Much has been said about Google+ Circles, and their ability to filter content streams by the type of person in our life. In doing so, Google+ has also allowed each person to demonstrate how influence plays out in their lives. In reality, influential people are the most trusted peers and family members in our lives — not the Chris Brogans, Seth Godins and Robert Scobles of the world. Yet, the land grab that has occurred in Google+ and all …

Image by Graymalkn Cluetrain Manifesto Co-Author Doc Searls recently observed that the Web has moved from personalized postings and unique micro-publications to an over-commercialized web. Perhaps Searls point is indicative of a larger trend of amateurs losing power online. In the professional Internet communications market, we see a similar movement away from amateurs, too. As someone who straddles both sides of the fence, this professional evolution is welcome. For a good long period, the amateur has been able to bluff their way into the wallets of corporate clients. Large follower counts, content marketing expertise, social media trailblazing guidance, all yours for $9999.99! Desperate companies that wanted to take part in social media hired these people, many with mixed results. Consider …

Image from the Outsiders With an over-focus on Facebook and Twitter during the past few years, organizations may be doing themselves a disservice by failing to cultivate communities in other networks. These networks have their own strengths and weaknesses, and because of their sizable communities are significant in their own right. Here is a look at three that maybe worth your organization’s time. In each case, if one invests the same amount of time they would in Facebook or Twitter — in essence replacing one with the other — they would likely get the same if not a better result from the community. So why ignore them? 1) LinkedIn: It may not make sense to call LinkedIn a second tier …