And yet, your brand can’t afford to stay out of social media. Social tools give all brands, big and small, and unprecedented ability to engage with audiences meaningfully. They also afford your organization a means of encouraging word-of-mouth (i.e., “viral”) endorsements from fans and followers in ways that are inexpensive, measurable, and practically universally accessible.

To get you started on the path of social media marketing success, we’ve teamed up with the DAM Foundation’s Mark Davey to produce a white paper titled “Rise of the Social Enterprise: How the right DAM software can open new possibilities of shares, likes, comments, +1’s and retweets.”

In this paper, Mark walks you through the social platforms, how they’ve grown, and where some of the opportunity lies in each of them. The paper also lays out some of the ways that your efforts on those social networks can be made more efficient and effective by the incorporation of DAM software into your communications workflows.

How do you use social media to advance your brand? How much time do you give to sharing and publishing content in those social channels? Chances are that, no matter what your answer is, there are ways to get a greater return on your time investment by adopting practices and systems that help you streamline processes and avoid unnecessary redundancies. Social marketing has at least that much in common with your communications in other channels, and DAM is no less valuable a tool to achieve your goals there.

Henry Stewart Events’ DAM CHI

It seems there’s always a Henry Stewart DAM event around the bend. Their Chicago event will be held Sept. 13 at the Intercontinental, Magnificent Mile.

Here’s their brief description of the conference:

Understanding of the reach, importance and meaning of digital assets will continue to deepen – that’s unstoppable. The challenge is to keep up with all the new developments.  Following the success of previous DAM events, Henry Stewart returns to Chicago for the fifth year running. ‘The Art and Practice of Managing Digital Media’ – all from the users’ perspective – is designed to help you keep up with the best of new developments in DAM. Assets have value – and exploiting this value is the purpose of our day long conference. Assets help you prosper when they are well managed. Through our keynote presentations, case studies and panels, you’ll get a state-of-the-art understanding of both the “why” and the “how” of digital asset management – all from the point of view of DAM managers and users.

More information and registration available here.

New Real Story Group analyst

Alan Pelz-Sharpe recently announced on the Real Story Group blog that the group has picked up a new analyst.

Today I am very happy to share that joining me in the UK office of RSG is new analyst Matt Mullen.  A self-confessed nerd, Matt has been working with online and information management technologies for almost 20 years, dating himself awkwardly by admitting he started out with text-based browsers in the early 1990s.

His key areas of focus at RSG will be Web Content Management and Search technologies, with a watching brief on other areas such as social and the semantic web.  Those who have seen Matt speak at conferences in the past will know that he explains highly complex technical issues in a down-to-earth, clear-cut, and humorous way.

The search and web content focus will be relevant, at least tangentially (if not directly), to DAM software. Read the full blog post here.

New white paper on social media marketing and DAM software

Widen Enterprises (owner of this site) has released a white paper titled “Rise of the Social Enterprise: How the right DAM software can open new possibilities of shares, likes, comments, +1’s and retweets.” Here’s a piece of Widen’s description of the white paper:

This white paper will inform you on how social media is rapidly maturing into sophisticated technologies built on relationships, knowledge and the power of the network effect. We will take a dive into how social media has evolved, who is using the tools and why. We’ll also look at why digital asset management will remain the bedrock for harnessing all the data and measuring successes and failures.

Download the white paper and let us know what you thought.

This was a pleasant surprise for researchers who have been studying Repurposil because social media is known to play a vital role in modern day marketing. During their investigations, they discovered that Repurposil makes it easier to make more friends on social media networks for many reasons. One of those reasons, stands out as being far more compelling than the rest.

Show and tell… faster

One of the most difficult things to do in social media is to stay active, responsive and fresh across several different platforms. Repurposil, when taken with the right DAM, can help you repurpose assets quickly and efficiently so that people in varied spaces can get to you know who you and your brand are.

Take a look at our demo DAM site. There, you’ll get a feel for just what we’re talking about. When you’re done, let us know what you thought and what kind of DAM system might help most when taken together with Repurposil.

The latest pre-release version of the public beta or “Consumer Preview” has leaked into the wild and shocked some users with its lack of a start button. Instead the super-bar runs all the way across the screen. It makes sense as generations of users are used to keeping favorite applications on their desktop while modern phone users are hardly aware of the concept.

It’s interesting to think about what this development could mean to the users and makers of DAM software—and software in general, for that matter. Generally, software interfaces are built to strike a balance between creating the simplest, most intuitive experience possible and being easy for new users to adopt and learn. Because, for many, a computer’s OS is often the interface they deal with most, it’s easy to see why the experience of using, say, Windows and Mac OS go a long way to inform how developers and designers make decisions about other software.

I look forward to seeing just what this new Windows OS ends up looking like. What’s certain, though, is that no matter how many other changes are made to Windows, the disappearance of the Start button will open some doors for DAM and other software. If I had to place a bet, I’d say that the UIs we interact with most will begin to look more and more like the ones on our mobile phones, tablets and web browsers. Chrome, for instance, is already heavily dependent on large icon panels, an app store, and other components we all got used to with Android and iOS.

Where do you see (or where would you like to see) Microsoft go with this, and how do you hope that the changes affect the other software you use?

We’re especially interested in your thoughts on the impact that these changes could have on DAM software. Take a look at our demo digital asset management system and contact us to let us know what you like, as well as what you think could be made better.

That’s why many are making the decision to learn about DAM (digital asset management) software and implement a solution that meets their unique marketing and communications needs.

Despite knowing that they needed some form of software for managing digital assets, some aren’t sure where to look or what to look for. To make sure that they found the best system for their needs, the an educational institution, like any other, should take its time in reviewing vendors and products for managing digital assets. Clearly, it’s best to find a solution in on an efficient timeline, but it’s worth noting that, even if your organization needs to take years to make a decision on DAM, it’s better to take that time than to scrap the project altogether.

In the case of one university that currently uses the Widen Media Collective, the review process took much longer than expected because they took extra time to evaluate the ROI of components from each system offered by each vendor. They also viewed DAM systems from a long-term perspective and considered components that might be needed at some future time. Their evaluation of DAM software’s ROI looked at more than just the number of features offered for a particular price. They also looked at each system in terms of whether or not components could provide usable solutions that would be scalable, easy to use, and effective.

After demos, the list was finally whittled down to just a few vendors. The next step in the evaluation process involved speaking with these vendors’ clients. At the end of a long, drawn out process, the university settled on a digital asset management system from Widen as they comfortably met their top requirements for a good price.

Transition of assets into the new system and assigning metadata was naturally time consuming, but once the system was up and running, even larger amounts of time were quickly and consistently saved with each asset retrieval. Asset search and retrieval processes that previously took days to complete now took less than a minute. After measuring ROI for their new DAM system, it was hard for many to believe that it was saving the university hundreds of thousands of dollars. As flabbergasted as they were, they realized that the numbers were correct when the increase in efficiency and true worth of assets were taken into account.

Take a look at our white papers to learn more about how to search for the best digital media asset management system for your organization.

DEAR Dr. DAM: My name’s Carrie and I manage digital assets for a second-tier university in upstate New York. The good news is that our school has been growing for the past five years. The bad news is that I need to find a more cost-effective means of hosting our digital image library very soon. Actually, I really needed to find this solution yesterday so I truly have to make a decision about using some other type of hosting now!

The marketing department has been using in-house servers for our huge collection of high resolution images since we first started filling memory cards with photos of professors, students, equipment, and other marketing assets. That worked fine until videos started playing a bigger role in our marketing strategies. Hundreds of excellent videos were made and uploaded to university websites. Next thing we know, the marketing department gets a bill for bandwidth use that makes us wonder if we should have just given old fashioned poster presentations at a hundred high schools.

Needless to say, the university simply can’t afford to host all of that information so we need another, cheaper solution. I have seen some great offerings for hosting our assets off-site but I’m worried about security. Even though I have heard promises about security and even seen positive testimonials from companies that rely on hosting assets off-site, I still feel funny about putting our marketing materials on computers outside of the school. So, with your experience and wisdom about everything related to the management of digital assets, will our assets be secure when hosted in the cloud?

DEAR CONCERNED CARRIE: As a doctor of digital asset management, I can wholeheartedly assure you that your organization’s assets will be safe when hosted in the cloud. The only thing I would add is to use a reputable provider that can demonstrate plenty of experience in safely hosting the assets of other companies and organizations. Also, to feel better about hosting your assets on computers outside of the university, just ask the provider to explain how your precious marketing materials will be kept secure. I think it’s safe to say that a provider of digital asset programs that has successfully hosted and managed the digital assets of several large companies will also be more than capable of keeping your assets just as secure. Oh, and it will also seriously lower your costs too!

Learn more about saving money and feeling secure when hosting digital assets in the cloud at the educational DigitalAssetManagement.com demo page.

Every now and then, we bring you the latest in news from around  the DAM world. Here’s some of the DAM news from the last day or two:

The DAM landscape

Real Story Group published its 2012 Digital & Media Asset Management Overview. As RSG’s Theresa Regli notes, “things are markedly more exciting in the DAM & MAM world as we start 2012.”

Check out a synopsis and a download link here. Note that the report is not free.

New Widen DAM users

Widen Enterprises announces new customers from the end of 2011. The SaaS DAM vendor, which owns digitalassetmanagement.com, had what it calls a “record year”.

Among Widen’s new clients are NXP Semiconductor, CODA automotive, and an unnamed professional football franchise.

See the full release from Widen here.

New York DAM conference

Henry Stewart Events, a regular organizer of DAM conferences, is at it again with “The Art & Practice of Managing Digital Media”. This event will be held May 10-11 in New York City.

More details are available here.

DAM in LA

Createasphere, another frequent player in the DAM event space, has its own event right around the corner. Take a look here for more information on this Los Angeles event taking place Feb. 22-23.

Createasphere’s Digital Asset Management Conference Announces Schedule for Expert and Practitioner Driven Event

Trendsetting Conference Set for February 22-23 at the Beverly Hilton

January 13, 2012 (Burbank, CA) Createasphere’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) Conference – the leading industry event catering directly to the digital asset management community – will take place in Beverly Hills on February 22-23.

Createasphere’s Digital Asset Management Conferences are top gatherings of trend-setting experts who present and interact with end users sharing their experiences in DAM, MAM, information management, storage, security, and preservation. The event encompasses a broad scope of applications, including advertising, broadcasting, entertainment, new media, publishing, non-profits, government, and retail sectors.

Over the course of the two-day conference, attendees will participate in panel sessions, keynote presentations, lunchtime roundtables, cocktail receptions and an exhibition area of leading companies in the DAM/MAM arena. This unparalleled group of speakers will address the escalating challenges of production workflow, content protection, transmedia, disaster recovery, semantics, metadata, taxonomy, and much more.

Speakers set for Createasphere’s Digital Asset Management Conference are an esteemed group of experts, including; Stephen Beres, HBO; Jeff Flasco, Technologent; David Ginsberg, Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Marketing; Theodore E. Gluck, Walt Disney Studios; Deborah Hunt, Information Edge; Janet Lafleur, Atempo; Kate McCallum, Center for Conscious Creativity; Dan McGraw, Seven Dials Media; Charlie Miller, Control Group; Chris Orr, University of California; Jason Perr, Levels Beyond; and Nick Sincaglia, NueMeta LLC.  Announcements of additional speakers and keynotes are expected shortly.

Topics will include Production in the DAM environment, The CEO signoff for DAM, Semantics Metadata – Complexity or Innovation?, Content Protection, How To Get Started on Your DAM Project, Managing Analogue Assets in a Digital World, Managing Change, The Role of Digital Librarians, and many more.

For a complete lineup of speakers, events, and registration information please visit www.createasphere.com/DAM, or call 818-842-6611 for more information. Special pricing is offered to students and groups.

About Createasphere

Createasphere is a global community builder for the entertainment technology industry, advancing technologies and careers through Expos, Conferences, and online offerings.

Createasphere was founded in 2001 as HD EXPO, and over the past decade has grown into a global company that develops and presents influential events for the content creation community, on line and face to face. Founded by Kristin Petrovich Kennedy in Los Angeles, Createasphere became part of Diversified Business Communications in 2009, now driving their entertainment strategies and properties division. Currently Createasphere is presenting the Entertainment Technology Expos in New York and LA; the Digital Asset Management Conference in New York, Los Angeles, and Europe; The DAMMY Awards in New York; Cinema India Expo in Mumbai; the online news and content portal CreativeProCoalition.com; 3D Road Shows; and Post Production Master Classes.

Each and every document, video, image, and whatever else is archived in your corporate image library is and always will be an asset with at least potential or repurposing value. So they should never, under any circumstances, be deleted.

Most organizations realize it’s a serious no-no to eliminate anything that can be put to use, but not as many understand why assets should never be taken out of and archived away from a DAM system. Here are a few reasons every digital asset should be kept in a DAM system:

• Expiration doesn’t devalue assets: Even if an asset has officially expired, that doesn’t mean that it has lost its value. Although it might not be helping the company earn revenue at the moment, it might do so at some undetermined future time. You never know when that moment will arrive so it’s best to keep those assets in the system for ready employment when needed.
• Old assets are just waiting be reused: No matter how old and outdated an asset appears, it’s still going to be useful someday. It doesn’t have to be used in its present form either. Many old assets can be reshaped, reformatted, or reused in some way and that is always going to help the company save time and resources. All it takes is creativity, the willingness to reuse before producing new assets, and keeping your assets archived in the DAM system.
• Other storage devices are risky: Since assets don’t lose their value, there’s no point in keeping them in a place where they can be damaged or lost. Maintaining assets in storage devices outside of the DAM system is a good way to permanently lose them. Even if the assets aren’t eventually damaged in some way, keeping them out of the DAM system will probably make you forget about them anyways. They will essentially be lost along with the value they hold.

Take a look at our demo options to get a sense for what a DAM system can do and how it might help you capitalize on the value of all your assets.

We also realized that we needed some way to manage our digital assets, so we acquired a DAM system. Although it wasn’t software as a service, the price seemed right so we bought it and have just started to use it. Not long after using the system, we realized that we had a serious problem. Basically, we can’t find all of our assets! Some show up but then others don’t and I have no idea why! I know for a fact that everything is stored in the cloud and that the DAM software should be able to access this so what am I doing wrong? I mean, those assets couldn’t have just disappeared (I hope that’s not the case)!

DEAR MISSING ASSETS IN MINNEAPOLIS: You made the right decision about upping the production of digital assets and investing in a system to manage them but you probably wouldn’t have this problem if you had acquired a software as a service (SAAS) DAM system. Service representatives would have made sure that this mystery of the missing assets would have never happened in the first place and could have answered your questions instead of good old Dr. DAM.

Nevertheless, you came to the right place because I’m happy to help and can assure you that the problem is nothing serious. From what you have told me, I strongly suspect that the answer to this mystery lies in the metadata. Or, perhaps I should say “lack of metadata”.  Every DAM system needs to be told how to find assets and this is accomplished with metadata. This is basically information about data and refers to the tags used to describe your assets. For example, if your assets have metadata that describe their date of creation and format, this information can be used to find them in the system. If you didn’t include format in the metadata, nothing will show up when searching for them based on their format.

Go back and take a closer look at your metadata. There’s a pretty good chance that you need to include more information for each asset. To learn more about the ins and outs of metadata, take a look at these white papers.