Best Integrated Campaign, Tech, winner: Adobe Systems

Campaign: Metrics, Not Myths

Adobe used psychology to market a new cloud-based suite of tools for managing marketing programs. It designed the "Metrics, Not Myths" campaign to debunk common misconceptions about marketing and give marketers credit for the discipline their profession demands.

Using low-cost paid and earned social media channels, Adobe created and syndicated a series of humorous videos that capture the passion of professional marketers for their work and the frustration of feeling undervalued. A Facebook hub was set up to host the video content and encourage engagement. The page hosted ongoing discussions with marketing experts on the value of social media, while a companion contest encouraged marketers to share the biggest misconceptions about their field.

The campaign drove more than 2,200 social media posts within its first three days and 1.1 million video views the first month. The Facebook page added 11,000 Likes. It also drove countless smiles on the faces of beleaguered marketers.

Best Integrated Campaign, Tech, runner-up: Deltek Inc.

Campaign: Connect More

You don't see many campaigns that use as many outlets as Deltek did to promote its Insight 2012 user conference. To drive awareness and registrations—and deliver updates to non-attendees—the company employed Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, SlideShare, YouTube and Instagram.

Facebook was the hub for photos and updates. Twitter hashtags #Insight2012 and #BestofInsight generated the most interactions of any social channel. A LinkedIn group hosted conversations before and after the event. The best presentations from previous conferences were plucked from the archive and a new one was posted on SlideShare each day leading up to the event.

YouTube brought prospective attendees videos from past conference, and Deltek partnered with InstaPrint to print on-site photos uploaded to Instagram with the #Insight2012 hashtag.

The campaign generated nearly 700 new Twitter followers and 900 tweets. YouTube videos were watched more than 10,000 times, and Deltek added 1, 000 followers to its LinkedIn company page.

LinkedIn winner: Dell Inc.

Campaign: LinkedIn Page

As one of the most prominent users of social media for customer engagement and support, Dell wanted to do LinkedIn right. It has been a leader in leveraging the most sophisticated features of LinkedIn's company pages and in making effective use of LinkedIn groups to build sub-communities around customer interests.

With more than 400,000 followers, Dell's LinkedIn company page is a major avenue for communicating news and career opportunities to its constituents. Dell posts multiple updates to the page each day and currently lists nearly 700 jobs. The company was the first to use LinkedIn's new Careers page and targeted status updates and to showcase its products in the Products & Services tab.

What really impresses us about Dell's LinkedIn presence, however, is its many groups. They include the 3,000-member Dell TechCenter, a 10,000-member Business Solutions Exchange devoted to management advice, and even an invitation-only group for CIOs.

Below is a list of all of this year's winners and runners-up:

Best Integrated Campaign Tech 

Winner: Adobe Systems, Metrics, Not Myths

Runner-up: Deltek Inc., Connect More

Best Integrated Campaign Nontech 

Winner: Aon, Global Service Day

Runner-up: New Cities Foundation, DeusM's Social Media Campaign

Best use of Twitter

Winner: GE Intelligent Platforms, Our Water Counts

Runner-up: Technology Association of Georgia, Technology Tweet Tournament

Best use of Facebook

Winner: Emerson Climate Technologies, Painted Copeland Scroll Compressor Program

Runner-up: Cisco Systems, Facebook

Best use of LinkedIn

Winner: Dell Inc., LinkedIn Page

Runner-up: Burns & McDonnell, LinkedIn Company Campaign

Best use of Pinterest

Winner: Constant Contact, Pinterest

Runner-up: JCK Marketplace, JCK Pinterest

Best Corporate Blog

Winner: Intel Corp., Turning Up the Volume: Boosting Intel Health IT Blog Views 1,200 Percent

Runner-up: Strother Communications Group, 41 Stories

Best Closed Community

Winner: Cisco Systems, Social Media Training and Certification Program

Runner-up: The VMware User Group, VMUG Online Workspaces

Best use of Mobile

Winner: Cisco Systems, Mobile Event App

Runner-up: Hobart Corp., Spotlight App

Best Viral Video

Winner: Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., EdAhead Awareness and Adoption

Runner-up: Sourcefire Inc., The Breakdown of a Fake AV Scammer