'Outward-looking' strategy

摘要

Since IDG Communications introduced its social media marketing service Amplify in May, the company's sales executives have been huddling with their customers to gauge their reactions.rnWhile IDG's clients have gotten used to the idea of social media as a marketing vehicle, they are still seeking guic'ance on which direction it should take.rnIDG is betting the company's newly re-branded corporate sales unit, called IDG Strategic Marketing Services (SMS), will help to assuage clients' concerns about social media. The change was announced in September.rn"The problem with a name like 'corporate sales' is that it reinforces that inward-looking approach," said Matthew Yorke, president of SMS, and previously senior VP-corporate sales and marketing at IDG. "We're trying to position ourselves as to how we believe the world is evolving, which is much more of an outward-looking approach, and working with clients whereby we could be, in many cases, developing ideas or programs that may involve a very small piece of IDG media or none at all."