Tracks & Sessions

Session 101 - Stop Blocking!

By one study's account, 54 percent of companies are blocking their employees' access to social media sites. The rationale for attempting to prevent employees from engaging with their networks range from lost productivity and risk of regulatory violations to misuse of bandwidth. Shel Holtz, curator of StopBlocking.org, will make the case for providing and even encouraging employee access. In this session, Shel will outline the benefits companies can accrue, from identifying the best prospective recruits to influencing purchase decisions, while minimizing risks through the creation and communication of well-thought-out policies.

Speakers

Shel Holtz Holtz Communication + Technology

Shel Holtz, ABC, is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, which advises clients on online communication strategies. He brings more than 30 years of experience to engagements with companies like PepsiCo, Symantec, Home Depot Canada, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. He is the author or co-author of six communications-focused books and co-host of the Internet's longest-running communications podcast, "For Immediate Release." Shel is a founding fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and a Fellow of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

Session 201 - Building a Social Media Policy

While social media presents organizations with the prospect of engaging constituents, going one-on-one with an audience of thousand or even a million is a daunting challenge for corporate communications.

Attend this session and find out how Edison International/Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest power utilities – with 20,000 employees – built consensus and established a social media policy to facilitate the communications paradigm shift from a model where the corporate communications department served as an external communications funnel, to a more progressive one where the edges of the organization participate through social media engagement.

Participants will learn:

• The difference between privacy and confidentiality clauses, and when to use which one.
• Why nonexclusive disclosure means nonexclusive social media engagement for public companies.
• How to shape your policy to allow your organization to align with the social media back channel, without endorsing it.

Speakers

Eric Schwartzman Schwartzman & Associates, Inc. , Consultant

Eric Schwartzman is a senior communications professional with broad experience in online communications, public relations, public affairs and marketing for leading brands, start-ups, non-profits and government agencies. Eric helps organization develop and execute digital communications strategies and has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications.

In 2005, Eric started the weekly, half-hour business podcast "On the Record...Online" about how new media is changing the way organizations communicate and how people consume media and information. On the Record.Online has received numerous awards. Eric was a 2006-2007 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. You can connect with Eric on Friendfeed, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Delicious or through his blog.

Session 301 - Who Owns Social Media? Everyone in the Company

Businesses of all sizes are embracing social media – from mom and pop stores to multinational corporations – with great success. But a fundamental question continues to challenge their efforts: Which department or staffers should “own” the social media efforts? Is it marketing, public relations, human resources, or operations? Should a specific team manage the efforts, or a specific person? Arguments can be made in favor of – and against – each scenario.

This session is for business professionals seeking answers to this question. We will examine operational structures of social media management, discuss the importance of clearly defined roles within a flexible, team approach and provide tools for determining which structure is most appropriate for your business.

Ultimately attendees will learn to establish, manage, and maintain an organic yet strategic social media management system.

Speakers

Sharon L. Goldmacher communications 21 , Founder

Sharon L. Goldmacher has 21 years of experience in marketing public relations. She founded communications 21, a full-service integrated marketing PR firm in 1992. Sharon is actively involved in the industry and community. She recently organized a press conference to launch one of the nation’s first Zero Waste Zones, and she also chaired the PR and Promotions Committee for the 2007 NCAA® Men’s Final Four®. She is a board member of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee responsible for the 2013 NCAA Men’s Final Four and the American Marketing Association.

Marlena Reed communications 21 , Vice President, Interactive Services

Marlena Reed has 15 years of diverse marketing communications experience. She has successfully managed public relations, marketing and social media initiatives for organizations in the public, private and non-profit sectors. A multifaceted communicator, her work has earned accolades from the American Marketing Association, the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. As the leader of c21’s interactive practice group, Reed guides clients' digital marketing strategies. She also educates clients in social media, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization and analytics to discover effective tactics to achieve their goals and objectives.

Session 401 - Defining Social Media ROI

Some would have you believe that it is easier to define what is NOT ROI in social media. ROI is not the same as engagement, ad value equivalency, influence or any other buzzword that ROI has been confused with in the last year or so. The truth is far simpler. ROI is an economic equation. It requires you to define the “R” i.e., the return you want or expect, and the “I” or investment you plan to make. In order to determine the ROI from a social media program you just need to define those two elements. As we all know, that may be easier said than done. This session will explain how to do this, using real world case studies on how organizations are successfully measuring the ROI of their social media programs.

Speakers

Katie Paine KD Paine & Partners

Katie Paine is founder of KDPaine & Partners, publisher of KDPaine’s Measurement Blog and "The Measurement Standard". She is also author of the book, Measures of Success. She has been providing communications professionals with tools, data and information to help them make better business decisions for more than 20 years

Session 501 - The Culture of Success (Panel Discussion)

As social technologies continue to work their way into organizations, the full implications of web 2.0 are just beginning to be understood. The social web extends well beyond the communications and marketing groups, and demands a shift in cultural values that requires more than just transparency and responsiveness.

This panel of business and thought leaders will explore the growing mandate for extending the reach of social technologies beyond the marketing department, and creating feedback loops with engineering, customer support, management, HR, finance and other groups. The session will explore which companies are at the forefront of social; what the impediments and risks are; and what best practices are starting to emerge for managing the social organization and creating a culture of success.

Speakers

Todd Van Hoosear Fresh Ground Communications , Principal

Todd Van Hoosear is principal of Fresh Ground Communications, a content- and measurement-driven PR agency based in Boston. As a member of the Social Media Club’s Board of Directors, Todd is shaping the organization’s ability to help consumers be responsible and informed citizens in the new media world. His thought leadership is extended to the Society for New Communications research, of which he is a Fellow, and IABC’s Social Media Release Working Group, where he is working closely with the media, public relations and micro formats communities to establish a standard way of distributing ‘official’ organizational communications through blogs and RSS technology.

As founder of the Boston Social Media Club, Todd speaks regularly about social media and digital communications trends, including recent presentations to several local universities, the Yankee IABC, the Public Relations Society of America and the American Marketing Association, among many others.

Proving that Todd has a life outside Web 2.0 and social media, he is an avid rock climber, bicyclist and photographer, and will occasionally be seen trying to do two of these at the same time. Todd blogs at http://itsfreshground.com/blog and http://morethanmarketing.net.

Session 601 - Using Twitter for Recruitment

Discover how Sodexo USA fills more than 5,000 management and executive positions each year with the help of Twitter. This session will provide attendees with practical steps to incorporate microblogging into a comprehensive recruitment strategy. The discussion will address how to plan and deploy an organizational presence on Twitter, how to integrate social media with other elements of the talent acquisition strategy, how to utilize social media to effectively promote your brand and manage people resources committed to microblogging, and how to measure qualitative and quantitative outcomes from microblogging activities.

Speakers

Arie Ball Sodexo

Arie Ball is VP of talent acquisition at Sodexo, a leader in food service and facilities with more than 120,000 employees in 6,000 locations in North America.

Anthony Scarpino Sodexo

Anthony Scarpino is a senior director of talent acquisition at Sodexo.

Session 701 - Social Media Governance

Many organizations read about companies like Zappos or Best Buy and are interested in the promises of social media (for example, reducing average cost per lead, or increasing customer satisfaction), but most companies find it difficult to determine a path forward. Those who do move forward rapidly encounter many challenges because so many people across the organization need to be involved for social media investments to achieve significant business value. In addition, many brand owners find that they are losing control of their brands, and they don't know what to do about it.

Social media governance is a set of frameworks and best practices that help companies achieve the right balance of empowerment and accountability in their social media efforts. This session will help you to determine where you are, where you want to go, and how to get your organization moving down a path that makes sense for your goals, team and culture.

Topics will include:

• Policies and standards
• Metrics and business cases
• Process model for making investment and operating decisions
• Roles and responsibilities

Speakers

Chris Boudreaux Accenture

Chris Boudreaux leads cross-functional teams to create new social media capabilities and services – from strategy through execution. Chris's work in social media has been featured by industry researchers and journalists including Forrester, Mashable and Reuters. Recently, Chris created SocialMediaGovernance.com to provide tools and resources for leaders and managers who want to get the most from their social media investments. He is currently developing a book on the topic of social media management. In the past, Chris led online product development and business transformation initiatives at several leading companies including Bank of America, Boeing, eBay, and Microsoft. Chris also led product development and business development at two digital media and online advertising start-ups

Chris earned an MBA and MS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago; a Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; and a BS in Management from Tulane University. He is a former officer in the U.S. Navy, and lives in Silicon Valley with his wife, Frankie, and their son.

Session 801 - Social Media as a Collaborative Technology Inside & Outside the Firewall

A new generation of employees is entering the workforce, social computing/2.0 technologies are being adopted in business, employees are demanding more flexible work environments and corporate data is growing. Issues around knowledge extracting and sharing, collaboration across geographically dispersed workforces and employee engagement will likely become more intense as organizations face greater employee demographic differences and generational attitudes toward technology. Learn how next generation collaborative practices and technology can solve many of these issues. Learn how to develop a culture of collaboration, supported by technology, that can solve traditional HR and IT issues, retain and inspire a multigenerational workforce, and connect employees to each other and the organization as a whole.

Ethan Yarbrough will discuss how to design and implement workplace technology solutions and business cultures to help organizations operate safely and effectively within the context of a rapidly evolving business environment—what many are calling the Next Generation Workplace.

Speakers

Ethan Yarbrough Allyis, Inc , President and Co-Founder

Ethan Yarbrough is president and co-founder of Allyis, Inc., a consultancy focused on the development and adoption of 2.0 technologies and practices within the enterprise. As president, Ethan provides strategic oversight to the organization, and his firm is at the forefront of the broader Enterprise 2.0 conversation.

Ethan’s dialogue can be viewed via his blog (http://www.emergingwebmemo.com) and tweets (http://twitter.com/Ethany) and heard at various speaking engagements. Ethan is dedicated to helping the enterprise use social media inside the firewall to improve employee morale and retention and enhance knowledge management, collaboration and innovation.

Session 901 - Assessing Digital Readiness

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report ( http://www.schwartzmanpr.com/pr/schwartzman/social-media-engagement.aspx?ncid=8387 ), a study conducted by Eric Schwartzman with iPressroom, Korn/Ferry International, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Trendstream, is among the most comprehensive studies ever conducted on the specific new media and social media communications skills that are most important to today’s hiring decision makers.

Find out which emerging media channels are most important to commercial, nonprofit and governmental organizations and why.

Participants will learn:

• Which department leads social media engagement at most organizations.
• How important digital communications skills are, compared to conventional public relations skills.
• The fundamental strategic gap that most organizations are making with social media.

Speakers

Eric Schwartzman Schwartzman & Associates, Inc. , Consultant

Eric Schwartzman is a senior communications professional with broad experience in online communications, public relations, public affairs and marketing for leading brands, start-ups, non-profits and government agencies. Eric helps organization develop and execute digital communications strategies and has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications.

In 2005, Eric started the weekly, half-hour business podcast "On the Record...Online" about how new media is changing the way organizations communicate and how people consume media and information. On the Record.Online has received numerous awards. Eric was a 2006-2007 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. You can connect with Eric on Friendfeed, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Delicious or through his blog.

Session 1001 - Big Oil Dips its Big Toe in Social Media

Big Oil has as powerful a need to enter the new communications landscape as any industry in the world: the aging of its highly skilled workforce demands new recruitment approaches and internal communications programs that attract social media-savvy talent. Negative public perception demands more two-way communications programs that encourage interaction and empower employees to be ambassadors, and the global scope of its operations and people demand the kind of open-minded, open-ended collaboration that is inherently part of new communications strategy.

This session will present a case study of ConocoPhillips from 2006 to 2009, revealing how the communications department's intentions to launch a new and more liberal social media policy and to employ social media techniques were thwarted, delayed, and tempered by the powerful limitations imposed by its information technology and legal departments.

The session is designed for both internal and external communicators at large and small companies and organizations. Participants will get a unique perspective on one of the world's largest integrated energy company's steps and missteps in the world of new communications.

Speakers

Ray Scippa ConocoPhillips , Director, Employee Communications

Ray Scippa began working in Employee Communications with Continental Airlines in 1988 where he led a proto-typical social media revolution at the then bankrupt airline. Utilizing telex machines, bulletin boards and 1-800 call-in lines, he and his small team delivered timely and responsive communications during a period of extended corporate crises. He has continued to practice progressive corporate communications as vice president of public relations for Pennzoil-Quaker State Company (1998 - 2002), director of public relations for J. Ray McDermott (2003 - 2006) and in his current role with ConocoPhillips. In addition to his responsibilities for electronic/digital communications, Scippa is the executive editor of ConocoPhillips Spirit magazine, a quarterly glossy publication distributed to 40,000 employees and retirees around the world.

Session 102 - The Digital Handshake: Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Even today's most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. This session will explain why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. Learn the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business.

Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, Paul Chaney will teach attendees how companies both large and small can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world.

Participants will learn:

• Why social media marketing is the wave of the future and right now!
• How to use social media to increase word-of-mouth and new client referrals
• How online conversations can lead to the building of long-term, trusted client relationships
• Seven of the most commonly used social media tools for engaging customers

Speakers

Paul Chaney The Digital Handshake Book , Author

Paul Chaney, the Social Media Handyman, is a veteran Internet marketer, business blogger, popular speaker, social media consultant and coach.

Session 202 - Corporate Twitter: Innovate, Interact, Inform

This session will focus on ways to use a corporate Twitter account for more than just a 140-character press releases. Kellie Parker will present a case study of SEGA’s Twitter accounts and how they are managed. She’ll share the secrets to the company’s groundbreaking and very successful Free Stuff Friday program, which has increased SEGA’s Twitter follower numbers by 400% in less than six months. The session will teach participants what it takes to get started, best practices and ongoing management techniques.

Participants will learn:

• How to get started with Twitter for business
• Best practices to build and manage a corporate Twitter account
• How to use contests to increase followers and reach

Speakers

Kellie Parker SEGA of America , Community Manager

Kellie Parker leads a four-person community team for SEGA of America. Her team is responsible for creating and executing community and social media strategies to support SEGA’s games, including console titles, virtual arcade titles, and online role-playing games. Her team manages forums, blogs, podcasts, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube pages, Flickr feeds, outreach to fan sites, contests, and more.

In her previous role, Kellie was the online community manager for PCWorld.com and Macworld.com. In this role, she was responsible for setting the community-building strategies, managing the relationships with community software vendors, and interacting with the community members on both sites. She also managed all member-created content on both sites, including blogs and blog comments, product reviews, and wiki knowledge base. She was responsible for all interactive features of both sites, including polls and user contests. She managed the PC World "Letters to the Editor" inbox and edited the "PCW Forum" section of PC World magazine each month. In addition, she wrote a community-focused column on PC World, wrote an IDG-internal blog focused on community and social networking, and contributed to the Today @ PC World blog on social networking and user generated content news.

Prior to joining PC World & Macworld, Kellie was a senior producer and online community manager with Live World, Inc. for seven years. At LiveWorld, she built and managed some of the web’s largest branded communities, including HBO, A&E, History Channel, QVC and Discovery Channel.

Kellie holds an MBA in Marketing (with Graduate Honors) from Regis University.

Session 302 - The New Media Style Guide

Anyone who has ever worked in corporate marketing and branding has read through a corporate style guide. It's how we ensure that the brand is represented as intended and includes detailed usage instructions on font, style, color, language, etc. But in social media, everything the brand was intended to represent is suddenly ignored in favor of a rush to engagement. However, in socialized networks, the brand and how it's perceived is open to public interpretation and misreading now more than ever.

In the era of the social web, the corporate style guide requires a refresh in order to embody purpose, engender affinity, and ensure relevance. And it's not just the brand personality that requires examination and establishment. The personality, tenor, and voice of the individuals representing the brand in social networks contribute to the overall brand experience.

This session will focus on exercises and methodologies for establishing a brand personality cycle that effectively weds brand and representative. Questions to answer include:

• What does the brand represent?
• What are its characteristics?
• What are the brand personality traits?
• What is the voice of the brand?

Speakers

Brian Solis FutureWorks , Principal

Brian Solis is recognized around the globe as one of the original and most prominent thought leaders in social media. A digital analyst and visionary, Brian has influenced the effects of new media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and traditional media. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning new media agency based in the Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. Brian’s blog is ranked among the world’s business and marketing elite, and he was a 2008 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.

Session 402 - How to Manage Your Social Media & Online Authority for Business Benefits

Businesses are beginning to understand the value of engaging online. Companies interact with their customers, monitor their brands, and promote their content. It’s smart for a company to create a presence on the Internet and use social media for business; however, they need to take their social media strategy to the next step by measuring the impact of their presence. By understanding authority and influence, a company can be sure to use social media in way that brings true value to their company.

This session is for business owners and marketing professionals. It will explain how companies and individuals can measure the power and influence they have online, as well as their competitors' influences. It will tap into data from millions of social media users to help shed more light on the topic of authority. Who has more authority? What influences authority? Why does establishing social media authority matter? How can you use this information to rank higher than your competitors? By understanding authority and influence, a company can be sure to use social media in ways that bring true value to their company.

Attendees will learn:

• How companies and individuals can measure the power and influence they and their competitors have online
• Why establishing social media authority matters, what influences it and what features in a social network are measurable
• What tools businesses can use to measure their social media authority, and how to use this data to increase the impact of a company's social media presence and to rank higher than their competitors

Speakers

Dharmesh Shah HubSpot, Inc. , Chief Technology Officer and Founder

Dharmesh Shah is chief technology officer and founder of HubSpot, an Internet marketing company dedicated to helping small businesses leverage the Internet to get found by qualified prospects and convert more of them into leads and customers. Prior to founding HubSpot, Dharmesh held a number of technology management and development positions and was founder and CEO of Pyramid Digital Solutions, an enterprise software company in the financial services sector. He also authors OnStartups.com, a top-ranking startup blog with more than 14,000 subscribers. He is an active member of the Boston area entrepreneurial community and a frequent speaker on the topic of startups and Internet marketing. Dharmesh holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in the Management of Technology from MIT and is author of the book Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs.

Session 502 - Blurring Boundaries

Blurring Boundaries is the working title for Shel Israel’s third book on social media. This one examines online communities at such large companies as IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. It attempts to show how large, serious companies have found measurable, sustainable business value in social media and to answer the frequently asked questions that start with the words, "how do I convince my boss...?"

Speakers

Shel Israel

Shel Israel is an expert on how businesses use social media in marketing, communications, and customer support. He works with businesses of all sizes on social media strategy and high-level business issues. Among the companies he has helped are Wells Fargo Bank, Sun Microsystems, Dell Computer, CNET, Intel as well as scores of startups. He is author of Twitterville, How Businesses can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods; co-author, of Naked Conversations--how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers, and The Conversational Corporation, a Dow Jones eBook.

Israel has contributed editorially to BusinessWeek and FastCompanyTV. His GlobalNeighbourhoods.net , blog is among the 100 most popular business blogs, according to Ad Age.

Prior to the advent of social media, Israel advised technology startup companies on communications. He worked with the startups that initially launched Sun Microsystems, PowerPoint, PC sound and desktop mapping. When the Worldwide Web emerged, Israel consulting agency became the first to focus exclusively on internet startups and worked with several memorable pioneers of that era.

Since 2005, Israel has focused exclusively on social media and how it is used in business, education, journalism, nonprofit organizations and in global personal communications.

Israel has been covered by Forbes magazine, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times and many respected online and traditional publications.

He is a popular keynote speaker. Since 2006, he has addressed more than 100 audiences in nine countries on social media business topics. Israel is a natural-born storyteller. He mixes humor into talks that are designed to make practical points. He selects from his portfolio of more than 100 case studies to illustrate social media best practices.

Shel is a Senior Fellow of the Society for New Media Research and a member of the board of advisors for the Social Media Club and SmartBrief on Social Media.

Session 602 - B2B Social Media Marketing - Really!

Conventional wisdom says that social media isn’t appropriate for B-to-B marketing. Conventional wisdom is wrong. Across the corporate landscape, businesses ranging from banks to high-tech firms to plumbing supplies are successfully applying social media tools to connect with customers, channel partners, and suppliers. And as they grow more confident with the tools, they’re experimenting with sophisticated applications like social networks and customer co-creation. B-to-B social media marketing isn’t just about blogs any more. Learn what the innovators are doing.

Speakers

Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin is a long-time technology journalist who’s worked almost exclusively online since 1999. He advises marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. Paul was founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget, one of the most successful new media entities to emerge on the Internet. Before that, he was editor-in-chief and executive editor of the technology weekly Computerworld for 15 years.

Paul is author of the award-winning book, The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing. He writes a column for BtoB magazine and Ziff-Davis Enterprise on the topic of innovation, is a Senior Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research, and co-chairs the social media cluster for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. You can follow Paul on Twitter @pgillin.

Session 702 - Social Media for Regulated Industries

This session will demonstrate key strategies for delivering measurable results and ROI in the online and social media space. This session will also detail a specific industry case study on navigating a social media program in the not clearly regulated online health care space. The session will feature successes and provide examples where the results of the effort have fallen into regulatory or public communications trouble.

At the end of the session, participants will have a clear picture on how best to tread the very thin line between offering real and useful information and engagement to their audiences while avoiding the pitfalls of policy and the lack of impact brought on by adherence to too-strict a set of guidelines.

Participants will learn:

• How to use cutting edge tools as well as best practices for delivering results in a complex policy environment
• How to address challenges – from the importance of transparency to the stress on using online tools to build relationships
• Seven key best practices

Speakers

Christian Olsen APCO Worldwide , Vice President, Online

Christian Olsen is a vice president with APCO Online and leads the international online health care practice. He provides powerful, results-focused online communication strategies for APCO Worldwide’s global clients. In his career at APCO, he has managed projects that span a wide range of industries filling many different roles including business development, project planning and program architecture and implementation. As APCO's online health care expert, he provides valuable insight to clients on how the new media and online technologies can benefit the vast and growing industry.

In the last 13 years, Christian has gained experience working in the government, nonprofit, health care, telecommunications and engineering sectors with a focus on online communication efforts for relaying policies to wide and varied audiences.

Since joining APCO, he has worked for clients in the energy, transportation, government relations, technology and entertainment sectors with a primary focus on healthcare companies and organizations. He has managed client relationships ranging from Fortune 50 companies to governments to nonprofit organizations.

Most recently, Christian has led the online efforts in the ongoing health care reform debate for a variety of clients. This involved nationwide information dissemination and outreach efforts aimed at influencing policy debates surrounding the future of American health care as well as online grassroots and advocacy programs. He has spoken on a wide range of topics, from the newest trends in online technologies to the implementation of successful state and local campaigns using new media tools.

Mr. Olsen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from DePauw University.

Session 802 - Media Relations Rewired

Under the old model of media relations – we'll call it media relations 1.0 – our job as media relations professionals ended once a story appeared in print. We might create a clip and forward it to the sales team or tack it to the wall, but for the most part, once a story ran, we could move on.

Those days are gone.

Many of today’s media stories have a “long tail” in social media, moving through blogs and social networks in a way that has a real and measurable impact on public sentiment and attitudes toward our companies and products.

As media relations professionals, we need to be able to gauge the full scope and impact of the stories we generate and identify opportunities to join the conversation as stories quickly make their way into social media.

In this session, Christine Benton and Mike Pilarz of Burson-Marsteller's technology practice will help participants to develop a new skill set that integrates traditional media relations with social media practices to bring forward a new Web 2.0 discipline.

The session will:

• Establish how the socialization of media has changed the scope and length of a story’s impact
• Share new social media tools to track the lifeline of a story and determine exactly how audiences are responding to messages via comments, tweets, blog posts and overall web traffic
• Provide guidance on engaging with social media audiences in a transparent, effective manner to maximize a story’s reach
• Share case studies to show how to frame the true life of a piece of news or content
• Help participants communicate the full value of a media story back to the business

Speakers

Mike Pilarz Burson-Marsteller , Senior Associate

Mike Pilarz is a senior associate in Burson-Marsteller's technology practice, where he manages media relations programs for Fortune 500 brands such as SAP and Accenture. He is also the co-founder of Social Media Breakfast Chicago, a recurring series in which moderators lead small-group discussions over breakfast on various social media topics. Founded in August, 2009, Social Media Breakfast Chicago has included moderators from organizations such as the Chicago Tribune, CME Group, and President Obama's 2008 election campaign. Mike can be found at www.twitter.com/mikepilarz.

Christine Benton Burson-Marsteller , Director

Christine Benton is a director in Burson-Marsteller’s technology practice, where she leads social media initiatives with Fortune 500 company SAP in addition to ghostwriting speeches, articles and book content for the company’s senior executives. She has delivered social media trainings for the San Diego Press Club and the Asian American Journalists Association and also served as a panelist at the San Diego MIT Enterprise Forum. She can be found on LinkedIn and at www.twitter.com/christinebenton.

Session 902 - Disclosure - It's Not Just For Bloggers: Impact of New FTC Guidelines on Corp. Social Media Programs

The new FTC regulation stating that bloggers must disclose compensation and free gifts they receive from companies got all the press, but the reality is that companies engaged in social media have an equal responsibility for disclosure under the new FTC guidelines for endorsements and testimonials. This session will explain the new requirements, assess the impact on corporate social media programs, and offer strategies for complying with the rules.

Speakers

Susan Getgood Getgood Strategic Marketing

Susan Getgood has been involved in online marketing since the early 1990s, and watched the web evolve from the first browsers to the interactive communities we participate in today. Since 2004, her firm GetGood Strategic Marketing has been advising organizations of all shapes and sizes on integrated social media outreach and Internet marketing strategies that help businesses craft a positive Internet presence, meet their customers online, build their brands, and drive revenue.

Susan is a Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.

Session 1002 - How Social Media & Online Communities Strengthen Employee Engagement

NetApp (#1 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For in January 2009) employees around the world wanted more opportunities to communicate – with each other and with leadership. Based on this employee input, NetApp built an online community, NetApp Live, connecting its global workforce and delivering on its brand promise.

Learn from NetApp’s experiences building an online community for employees, including building a cross-functional team to drive the initiative, conducting a thorough vendor-evaluation process, developing social media guidelines, identifying the people and skills needed to manage the site, launching community, encouraging participation, and the metrics to assess the impact. Discover why social media is an investment in NetApp’s future.

Speakers

Francesca Karpel NetApp , Senior Manager, Internal Communications

Francesca Karpel is a communications expert with more than 20 years of experience in various industries including technology, education, and financial services. Her expertise includes identifying and executing strategies and technologies, which facilitate corporate growth. She has grown NetApp’s internal communications infrastructure as the company has grown from 1,000 to more than 8,000 employees, and become recognized as a great place to work in locations around the world. Francesca led the cross functional team that selected the software platform for both internal and external communities at NetApp as part of the NetApp brand launch.

Francesca has spoken at conferences and provided best practice examples in professional texts on internal communications and branding.

Francesca earned a BA from Smith College and an. MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University She also studied at Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales, Cergy-Pontoise, France, one of the premier management schools in Europe.

Session 103 - Intro to Social CRM (Panel Discussion)

There has been broad experimentation with social media channels by both B2B and B2C companies in the past few years. Today, companies are realizing that traditional customer engagement channels like call centers, web and partner channels are not going to go away anytime soon, while also trying to understand what bottom line impact social media channels can have, and how these new channels need to work with traditional models to deliver a consistent and superior customer experience. This has led to a new tool set and approach to customer relationship management — social CRM.

Social CRM has been defined as a philosophy and a business strategy. It involves a new Web 2.0-enabled technology platform, new business rules and workflow processes. Social CRM allows organizations to engage the customer in conversations that provide mutually beneficial value. Join conference host Jen McClure for a discussion with social CRM experts and learn how social CRM differs from traditional CRM, the new business models, the processes, the methodologies, the practices, and the technologies that are part of social CRM.

This session will discuss SAP's experience in leveraging social media channels for customer and ecosystem engagement as part of an overall customer experience management strategy, and will explore ideas about what the future promises.

Speakers

Jen McClure Redwood Collaborative Media , CMO & Director of Community Development

Jen McClure, is chief marketing officer and director of community development for Redwood Collaborative Media, and founder and president of the Society for New Communications Research. Jen is a communications professional with nearly 25 years of experience in all facets of media and communications and is a recognized leader in the field of new communications and social media.

Vinay Iyer SAP CRM Global Marketing , Vice President

Vinay Iyer is the vice president of SAP CRM Global Marketing responsible for thought leadership and marketing. He has championed the use of social media and Web 2.0 channels for SAP CRM marketing efforts, and aspires to keep SAP CRM in the forefront of new media marketing. Prior to joining SAP, Vinay held product marketing and business development roles at Siebel Systems in the US and EMEA. Vinay has a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from The Wharton Business School.

Session 203 - How Vertical Response Used Social Media as a CRM Tool

As a leading self-service direct marketing provider to more than 65,000 small businesses, and a small business itself, VerticalResponse leverages social media to communicate with existing customers and to connect with new audiences that would not have been reached otherwise. In In this session Jenna Jantsch will share what VerticalResponse did to implement social media into its business, including choosing CoTweet as the company’s social media Twitter CRM tool, engaging a social media community of more than 6,000 small business professionals, building a following on YouTube with employee videos, and continuing the small business marketing discussions on LinkedIn and Facebook with groups and fan pages. The key takeaway from this session is what VerticalResponse learned from listening, commenting, and communicating, as well as content creating for social networks.

Participants will learn:

• How to get started with Twitter for business
• Best practices to build and manage a corporate Twitter account
• How to use contests to increase followers and reach

Speakers

Jenna Jantsch VerticalResponse , Social Media Lead

Jenna Jantsch is the social media lead at VerticalResponse and is responsible for managing the company’s social media programs. Her philosophy is education with a healthy kick of sales. Since starting at VerticalResponse Jenna has revamped the company’s social media efforts by adding Twitter, a LinkedIn group, and targeted messages to the existing YouTube channel. She also launched a seven-part educational webinar series about social media. Her social media efforts have become ten percent of VerticalResponse’s current customer sign-ups.

Session 303 - Social Media and the New Purchase Process: New Frameworks for Marketing and Sales Planning

With the advent of the Internet, the way in which both businesses and individuals purchase goods and services has changed dramatically over the last decade. Now with Web 2.0, and the surge in social media, buying behavior is shifting yet again.

Yet many organizations conduct their strategic marketing and sales planning using older frameworks that fail to adequately adjust for such shifts in customer behavior and new buying patterns. The fact is throwing money at "social media" won’t move the needle for many companies unless it is based on customer insight and supported through an integrated sales and marketing strategy.

In this session participants will learn how to supplement current planning with a Fifth P, focused on the customer’s new purchase process. The presentation will illustrate through case studies how doing so helps companies zero in on how to maximize marketing and sales spend at critical "moments of truth" and bottlenecks in the purchase funnel, both online and offline.

Speakers

Mark Carr CMG Partners , Partner

Mark Carr works with clients to dramatically improve their business results through the development and implementation of innovative business and marketing strategies. He often advises clients in relation to the launch of a new product, service or business unit. He has more than a decade of management and consulting experience in the consumer products, financial services, telecommunications, Internet, health care, and publishing industries.

Mark’s clients have included large organizations such as XM Satellite Radio, Nextel, Verisign, Marriott, Nextel International, and Banknorth, as well as mid-sized and entrepreneurial ventures such as Raritan, Evolved Nanomaterial Sciences, RealBenefits, Salient Stills and Cyra.

Over the past decade he has served on both sides of the management equation, working as a strategy consultant and as a senior executive at a number of firms.

Prior to going into management consulting, Mr. Carr was a business journalist and editor.

Mark Carr writes and speaks regularly on a variety of topics related to business and marketing strategy. His articles have been published in the Financial Times, Sales and Marketing Management, CFO Magazine, Journal of Business Strategy, NC Business Leader, PR News, Management Consultant International, CPA Marketing Report, and MarketingProfs.com, just to name a few. In 1996, Mark co-wrote a book, Doing Business in Vietnam, which was published by the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Session 403 - Lethal Generosity: How to Do Big Business By Doing Good

Social good and corporate social responsibility are becoming oft-used strategies for companies looking to impress customers. But "lethal generosity", a term originally coined by Shel Israel, goes beyond mere tactics and operates at the cultural level. Companies that are generous members of a community, are often seen as credible and influential. As such, they gain the upper hand over their competition in that community. Hear case studies of companies that have employed lethal generosity and the results that they get from doing so.

Hear from Kami Watson Huyse, who has worked with a number of for profit and non-profit organizations to build goodwill with online communities. Also hear from Beth Kanter, whose research includes "Community Philanthropy 2.0".

Speakers

Kami Huyse My PR Pro , Principal

Kami Huyse is a sought-after speaker and writes an award-winning blog, Communication Overtones, on the topic of public relations and social media strategy. She has been nationally recognized as a leader in the use of social media for public relations. She has been a speaker at social media events and conferences all over the country and her work in social media has earned her the SNCR’s 2008 Reputation Management award and IABC’s 2009 Gold Quill of Excellence Award. Her ideas and work in social media have been featured in several books including "The New Rules of Marketing and PR," and "Now is Gone." She was recently recognized for a Social Media award by the Austin-American Statesman. Additionally, she was named the Public Relations Professional of the Year by the Public Relations Association of America San Antonio. She is a senior communicator with 15 years of experience in crisis communication, reputation management, focus group research, public relations measurement and media relations. She has worked for corporate clients such clients as SeaWorld, Time Warner Cable, Network Solutions and Frost Bank. She also has worked for many non-profit organizations such as the Manufactured Housing Institute, America’s Charities and the American Red Cross. She also co-founded the Houston chapters of the Social Media Club and Social Media Breakfast in 2009.

Beth Kanter

Beth Kanter is the author of Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits. A frequent contributor to many nonprofit technology web sites, blogs, and magazines, Beth has authored chapters in several books, including "Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders", edited by NTEN.

A much in demand speaker and trainer, she was the keynote speaker for the Cambodian Bloggers Conference in Phnom Penh, The Connecting Up Conference in Brisbane, Australia, Minnesota Council on Nonprofits, Making Media Conference in Chicago and others. She has presented about nonprofits and social media at some of the leading social media industry conferences including O'Reilly's Graphing Social Patterns, Gnomedex, SWSX, Blogher, and Podcamp.

She is curating NTEN's "We Are Media: Nonprofit Social Media Starter Kit", an online community of people from nonprofits who are interested in learning and teaching about how social media strategies. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week's "Voices of Innovation for Social Media". She is the 2009 Visiting Scholar for Social Media and Nonprofits for the Packard Foundation.

Her book, The Networked Nonprofit, co-authored with Allison Fine, will be published by J. Wiley in Spring, 2010.

Session 503 - Social VOC and CRM

This session will provide concrete examples of how Intuit and other companies collect "voice of the customer" (VOC) and integrate it into CRM systems. Participants will learn how to build systems for and track ROI and will discuss the future of VOC and social CRM systems

Speakers

Scott K. Wilder Wilder Marketing, Inc. , Social Guru

Scott K. Wilder was the founder and general manager of Intuit’s award-winning Small Business Community website. Before joining Intuit, Scott was the vice president of marketing and product development at KBToys and eToys, the director of Internet services at Borders.com and Apple Computer, and has held senior management positions at American Express and Silicon Graphics.

Scott has worked on many online communities, including eWorld at Apple, Borders Cafe at Borders.com, KBToys Community at KBToys.com.

He is also a founding board member of the Word of Mouth Association (WOMMA) and was a 2006 2007 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. He received graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Georgetown University.

Session 603 - Managing Your Online Community Ecosystem

Hear from Digg community manager Jen Burton on how Digg -- one of the largest and most vocal communities online -- monitors, engages, and responds to its users. Jen will discuss her role and how the community management function drives the services, guidelines, and tools to manage Digg's often passionate community. Learn how community management aligns with product management and marketing to ensure that the community's best interests are represented and how community management can play a key role in influencing feature direction.

Speakers

Jen Burton Digg , Community Manager

Jen Burton is the community manager for Digg where she is responsible for engaging and championing Digg's community of over 35 million users. Prior to Digg, Jen was at Slide, the world's largest publisher of social entertainment applications, where she lead product planning, design and development for core products. Jen has more than a decade's worth of experience in the online and social media space and has held various customer service, product and marketing roles at PlanetOut and Amazon.com.

Session 703 - Social CRM Stories: Case Studies, Challenges & Emerging Best Practices (Panel Discussion)

Who owns the customer and how do we make sure that the customer’s voice is heard by everyone, every function in the company that needs to hear it? This is a key challenge facing companies of all shapes and sizes. Our panel of experts will share their experiences integrating social CRM listening strategies across the enterprise. What works, what doesn’t and what’s the next step?

Speakers

Susan Getgood Getgood Strategic Marketing

Susan Getgood has been involved in online marketing since the early 1990s, and watched the web evolve from the first browsers to the interactive communities we participate in today. Since 2004, her firm GetGood Strategic Marketing has been advising organizations of all shapes and sizes on integrated social media outreach and Internet marketing strategies that help businesses craft a positive Internet presence, meet their customers online, build their brands, and drive revenue.

Susan is a Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.

Tom Asher Levi Strauss & Co.

Tom Asher and his team are responsible for responding to all Levi’s ®, Dockers® and Signature by Levi Strauss® consumer inquiries for the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil to drive loyalty and sales. He is also leading efforts to monitor social media in order to help Levi Strauss & Company listen more holistically to consumers and understand their wants and needs.

Tom’s prior work experience includes managing Greenpeace’s mail order catalog business, serving as national sales manager for Esprit’s environmental apparel line "Ecollection", and founding and managing Artventure, a socially responsible apparel and direct sales catalog company.

In 2007, Tom was chairman of the board of SOCAP (Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals), a 2,000 member customer care association. He has a BA in Sociology from Vassar College and an MBA from Golden Gate University.

Session 803 - The Next Big Breakthrough in Socil Media: Connecting the Social Web to Busines Processes

Remember 15 years ago when everyone questioned the value of a Website, which, at the time was typically nothing more than an online brochure? We are now facing the same transformation with respect to the interaction between consumer and company through social media. According to an October 2009 Cone survey, 95% of social media users expect brands to be online, and 78% of survey respondents interact with companies or brands via new media sites and tools.

This phenomenon presents a radical shift in how brands have traditionally connected with customers, where marketers previously managed both the message and its delivery. The rise of a two-way dialogue and the concept of the customer experience is both destabilizing and an enormous opportunity for organizations to harness consumer opinions about their brand. Social conversations provide emotive and real-time expressed opinions—qualities unique, and in many cases complimentary, to transactional data in CRM or call center systems.

Blake Cahill, senior vice president of marketing at Visible Technologies will lead a discussion that will address:

• The potential “collisions” that organizations can face due to a lack of understanding and readiness to exploit or react to the power of the social CRM channel.
• Why—and how—to successfully connect existing customer systems, online customer communities, and broader social networks within the organization—the essence of social CRM.
• What companies with back rooms filled with data can do to mine it, analyze it, and improve products, services or experiences based upon it.
• Examples of Fortune 100 firms that are leveraging social workflow to strengthen customer service, improve call center support, and increase the profitability of their customer base through their CRM systems.

Speakers

Blake Cahill Visible Technologies , Senior Vice President of Marketing

Blake Cahill is senior vice president at Visible Technologies where he is responsible for executing marketing strategies, thought leadership, and analyst relations to increase market and customer awareness for revenue growth. Blake has more than 15 years of executive management experiences leading marketing, sales, product management, and customer support organizations both domestically and internationally in a variety of technology, consumer, and telecommunications companies such as SafeHarbor Technology Corporation, AT&T, Belgacom, Qwest, SBC, and ServiceMaster.com.

Through these diverse experiences Blake has witnessed the intersection that drives businesses and their results are uniquely conjoined to "listening to the customer" and he has developed some insights about the intersections of customer experience, brands, and technology. Blake holds bachelor's degrees in political science, history, and business from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. You can follow Blake’s blog at http://www.visinsights.com/?author=10

Session 903 - Putting the Customer First

Social CRM is the connection between the social world and your organization. The problem to date has been how to leverage all the unstructured data from social networks to build better customer relationships and stronger customer experiences; all leading to more loyal customers. Social CRM is one of the core components of building a Social Business – a key imperative of the 21st century for all organizations, allowing them to generate actionable insights and increase their competitiveness.

Speakers

Jacob Morgan Chess Media Group

Jacob Morgan is the principal of Chess Media Group, a social business consultancy focused on strategy, creativity, and results. Jacob works with clients on developing both internal and external social business strategies and is a recognized thought leader in the space. Jacob is also the author of Twittfaced, a social media 101 book for business. He also authors one of the top 100 most influential marketing blogs in the world according to AdAge magazine.

Session 1003 - Leveraging Social CRM to Grow Your Loyal Customer Base

Social CRM is all the rage, but who’s really adopting and how is it working? Which customers are actually using social channels to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences about the companies they do business with, and are they representative of customers overall? Attend this session for this discussion earn how companies are making sense of all the data and knowledge flowing through social channels and how that data is making it up the corporate food chain to influence decisions about companies’ products, services, reputation, innovation strategy and more. And what’s coming next in the realm of social CRM? Join Dr. Francine Hardaway for a look at social CRM now and tomorrow.

Speakers

Dr. Francine Hardaway Stealthmode Partners

Dr. Francine Hardaway is a new technology expert. She blogs for Fast Company and Huffington Post, and has spoken at Gnomedex, Social Media Club, and the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conferences. She is a serial entrepreneur who counsels and invests in other startup entrepreneurs at Stealthmode Partners.

Session 104 - The Hyper-Social Organization

Whether you call it social media, social computing, the social web, or social networking, the importance of this latest wave of innovation to hit business is not that we have new media or new tools with which to do business. The key take-away of the changes afoot is that all business is becoming social again – whether you like it or not.

This session will take an in-depth look at this “hyper-social” shift and how organizations can prepare themselves to become hyper-social themselves. The presenters will review how hyper-social organizations think about their business, their talent, and their metrics. Through the use of case studies participants will learn how companies have successfully transformed their traditional business processes, ranging from customer communications, product innovation, knowledge management, and CRM into hyper-social processes.

Speakers

Edward Moran Deloitte Services, LP

Edward Moran is director of product innovation, Deloitte Services LP. Ed is a Global Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) subject matter specialist, and advises companies in the areas of strategic planning, product innovation, competitive positioning, and digital convergence.

Francois Gossieaux Beeline Labs , Partner

Francois Gossieaux is a founder of Beeline Labs and former CMO of eRoom,. An entrepreneur and new media expert, he is also president of Corante, he runs the Marketing 2.0 blog and community, is a marketing/innovation advisor and a Senior Fellow and board member of the Society for New Communications Research.

Session 304 - The WOM Confessional: Lessons Learned in Creating Brand Movements

"Generate buzz". "Go viral". "Tweets and fans". These phrases are now commonplace within the marketing stratosphere. But even with all the new focus on social media tools, many organizations struggle with how to incorporate these tactics into a results-driven strategy that truly connects a community of brand ambassadors.

Participants will learn:

• It’s about passion conversations versus product conversations
• Movements begin with the first conversation
• Why people are the ultimate killer app

Geno Church will reference the methodology and results behind case studies from successful word of mouth movements, including the new Best Buy Musical Instruments (MI) program and the award-winning Fiskars Brands “Fiskateers.” You’ll also learn how to identify your own brand story and connect with a community of true brand ambassadors.

Speakers

Geno Church Brains on Fire , Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer

Brains on Fire Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer, Geno Church, is responsible for developing word of mouth, buzz, viral and evangelism strategies for the agency’s clients. In his 15 years with Brains On Fire, Geno has helped build word of mouth into the identities of brands including Fiskars Brands, the American Booksellers Association, Rawlings Sporting Goods, National Family Partnership, Earshot Independent Music Stores, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and Rage Against the Haze (South Carolina’s youth led anti-tobacco movement). Geno received an advertising degree from the University of South Carolina.

Geno has been recognized as a thought leader in both the identity and word of mouth realms, and has received awards from numerous organizations, including the 2008 Effie awards, 2004 National ADDYs and the 2006 Word of Mouth Marketing Association WOMMIE awards, where he received honors for work with Rage Against the Haze. Ad:tech and the 2007 Forrester Groundswell awards also recognized the Fiskars Brand Ambassador movement.

Session 504 - Building Channel: Understanding the New Media Landscape

You are wasting millions of dollars online every year. It's time to stop. This session aims to fully explain the concept of "building channel" and completely change the way you spend your marketing and communications dollars on the web.

Join Social Media Group Founder and CEO Maggie Fox for this insider's look into how some of the largest companies in the world are reinventing themselves to keep pace with this evolution. By successfully leveraging these new platforms and spaces to support their business objectives, savvy firm are blowing their competition out of the water – more quickly and cost effectively than ever before.

In this session you'll get a full appreciation for the real-life ways in which social technologies are transforming the marketing and communications landscape - today.

Participants will learn:

• Why you should stop building microsites and spending millions on media only to let it all wither when the campaign is over
• How you can think like a broadcaster and stop reinventing the wheel every time you go to market
• The importance of building permanent real estate online, and what that looks like
• Examples of how brands who "get it" are using social platforms to cost-effectively and repeatedly reach millions of qualified hand-raisers - virtually for free
• The resources and structure you need to have in place to support this new model

Participants will gain:

• An insider’s look at how some of the biggest businesses in the world are coming to understand that they are now media companies
• A look at real-life syndication and content models that have been deployed within Fortune 50 companies
• An understanding that this is publishing, but with a twist - community management (the "conversational element") is also essential - what does that look like from a resource and structural perspective?
• An understanding of how you can help your organization make the shift; your objective in this fragmented universe should be to build channel - not microsites

Speakers

Maggie Fox Social Media Group

Maggie Fox is the founder of Social Media Group, one of the world’s largest independent agencies helping business navigate the new socially-engaged Web. Pioneers in the field, Social Media Group has developed social media strategies for some of the best-known brands in Europe and North America, including; Ford Motor Company, SAP Global Marketing, Yamaha Motor, Corbis, and Harlequin Publishing.

Maggie has been interviewed about social media by The Washington Post, CBC Radio, The Globe and Mail, CTV News, The Toronto Star and Marketing magazine, among others. She was recently included in Women Who Risk, a listing of influential women who head up Internet-based firms, and is a member of both The Social Media Collective, an invite-only group of "the web’s best thinkers on media, marketing and web 2.0" and the Enterprise Irregulars.

Maggie was also named one of the Top 100 Marketers in the 100th anniversary edition of Marketing magazine. Maggie is frequently asked to speak to the media and business groups across North America about Web 2.0, and sits on the Advisory Board for Stodgy Media, operators of the Social Media Collective and MyVenturePad sites. She also has a seat on the advisory board of Humber College’s Public Relations program.

Session 704 - Smart Media: How to Deliver Powerfl Content to Drive Brand Awareness and Lead Generation

The pieces are coming into play for a revolution in how social media and marketing content are used to make purchase decisions. It all revolves around the delivery of relevant content and conversations based on individual personas, peer group profiles, and intelligent content assets. This session will show actual, online examples of how marketers must prepare and view pursuit and participation to maximize the impact of social media on brand awareness and lead generation.

Participants will learn:

• Research findings that highlight the use and impact of linkage from social conversations to traditional content
• The usage of social media platforms by buying stage
• How to integrate social media with traditional media
• The desired role community participants wish vendors and agencies to play
• How advertising integrates into social conversations
• How email can become an important element of smart content

Learn how you can prepare for this new world and use social media as a conversation catalyst that dramatically increases its purchase decision value, delivers contextual content and builds prospect engagement intensity. Learn how content can be created and delivered in powerful ways that will enable increased brand awareness and accelerated revenue.

Speakers

Bob Johnson IDG Connect , VP & Principal Analyst

Bob Johnson tracks social media platforms and their impact on awareness and investment decisions. As vice president and principal analyst at IDG Connect, he uses research to track the social media platform and conversational pursuit of recommenders and decisions makers, and, how the coming convergence of social, semantic and content will help build share of conversation, campaign effectiveness and nurture-to-harvest engagement intensity.

Lisa Dennis Knowledgence Associates , President

Lisa Dennis identifies areas of social media convergence and opportunity for sales, marketing and customers. As president of Knowledgence Associates she focuses on the practical application of social and traditional media in outbound and inbound marketing activities, field sales pursuit, CRM integration, virtual events, consultative sales dialogues and managing the buy cycle.

Session 204 - Reputation Management in the Age of Asymmetric Communications

Despite social media's ever-growing relevance to business and communications, many companies have managed to ignore online conversations without suffering obvious consequences--that is, until now.

Previously, social media participation was a choice for organizations, largely because Web platforms cross-communicated manually; to see social media content, you had to seek it out and participate. But this era of opt-in participation ended unceremoniously with the almost simultaneous release of a handful of new platforms and applications, which have ushered in a new communications age: the age of asymmetric communications. These applications, including Google's Sidewiki, Squidoo's Brands In Public and Twitter's Lists, integrate, aggregate and even annex social media content in ways that companies can no longer avoid or ignore.

Asymmetric communications' implications on brand and reputation management are staggering. Now, a company's stakeholders can interact with brand-specific content and comment at will, even on the company's own corporate Web site. This requires executives to completely revise communications strategies and business models to thrive – let alone survive – in this new era.

This session will identify the specific "asymmetric" platforms and applications that have emerged, and describe the various effects they can (and already have) had on real companies through case studies. It will then outline a plan of defense, offering communications executives a step-by-step roadmap for navigating their brands and corporate reputations through today's profoundly turbulent business environment.

Speakers

Courtney Barnes Edelman Digital , Vice President

Courtney Barnes is a vice president and director of content strategy at MH Group Communications. Her responsibilities include content creation/thought leadership development, as well as training clients on how to integrate social media strategies into their overall communications models.

Most recently, Courtney co-authored Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications (McGraw-Hill, August 2009), a corporate survival guide for the Web 2.0 world. She is also the co-founder of Think Communications, a strategic communications advisory that helps organizational leaders establish and enhance their executive voice and influence through the use of social media.

Prior to joining MH Group, Courtney was the editor of PR News, where she managed editorial content and wrote on corporate communications, marketing and public relations, with particular expertise digital communications and the strategic integration of social media into businesses’ communications models. In addition to her writing and editing responsibilities, Courtney was an active guest lecturer for executive education programs and industry events.

Courtney has contributed to thought leadership pieces appearing in academic and business journals, including the Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Business Strategy. Previously, Courtney was an associate with Communications Consulting Worldwide, a multi-disciplinary consulting unit of Fleishman-Hillard. She has also worked for Condé Nast Traveler and Washingtonian magazines.

Courtney graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a B.S. in Journalism and a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies.

Session 404 - Invasion of the Podcast Producers: How to Build an In-house Radio Show that Resonates

Amanda Filler and Russell Carlson, producers of the Military Health System Dot Mil Docs podcast ( http://www.health.mil/dotmildocs/ and http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Dot-Mil-Docs) will present “Invasion of the Podcast Producers: How to Build an In-House Radio Show that Resonates” Participants will learn how a podcast can be used within the context of a larger communications strategy as a cost effective means to reach stakeholders who prefer to receive information on the go.

This dynamic and interactive session will coach participants through all stages of producing an in-house radio program, from planning and implementation to launching and evaluation. Participants will also discover what format is right for their organization and learn basics of editing, pricing, and distribution. Instructors will use relevant case studies, specifically from the Military Health System, to communicate the benefits and effectiveness of adding a podcast to an organization’s toolbox.

The presentation is designed for beginners who are considering producing a podcast for their organization or are interested in learning more about podcasting in general. Presentation topics will include: Why Podcast? Which Podcast Format Works Best for Your Organization?, Producing a Podcast from Scratch, Evaluation & Measurement, and Tips & Best Practices.

Speakers

Russell Carlson Booz Allen Hamilton

Russell Carlson is a senior consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, a global strategy and technology consulting firm that works with clients to deliver results that endure. Russell is currently the Web content manager for the Military Health System. In this role, he coordinates the creation and online publication of content that communicates the story of military medicine to a wide, general audience. He is also a host and technical producer for Dot Mil Docs, the Military Health System’s weekly podcast. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in English.

Amanda Filler Booz Allen Hamilton , Senior Consultant

Amanda Filler is a senior consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. She is currently the producer for the official podcast of the Military Health System, Dot Mil Docs. In this role, Mrs. Filler coordinates the end-to-end production of an in-house podcast for military service members and their families. She is also the monthly theme lead for the Military Health System, which includes the creation of monthly campaigns about topics such as women’s health, military children, and brain injury awareness. She graduated from James Madison University with a degree in Communication Studies.

Session 604 - B2B Video: Why a Corporate Video Channel Makes Sense

This session will explore why enterprise businesses should create unique video content and programming that effectively communicates to various audiences. It will also highlight best practices for integrating video into a broader social media and traditional communications program. Specifically, Alex Plant, head of Social Media and Multimedia Studio at NetApp will discuss how NetApp successfully built and implemented a corporate video program that provides an authentic, transparent, and effective communications experience to a multi-faceted audience profile including customers, employees, investors, media, and competitors.

The session will include an overview on key considerations that any savvy social media lead should consider before implementing video into the broader communication program. Participants will learn how to effectively reach the right audiences through relevant video content prioritization, organization, and distribution, targeted measurement, and integration of video into the broader communication initiatives like product launches, corporate events, press releases, competitive issues response, and new customer acquisition.

Attendees will leave this session with a solid understanding of why video programming is important for any B2B communications initiative, how to develop and implement corporate video programming that talks to the right external audiences, and how to set goals that correctly measure the effectiveness and reach of a video program.

Speakers

Alex Plant NetApp , Head of Social Media and Multimedia Studio

Alex Plant heads all things social and multimedia for Sunnyvale, CA-based NetApp, Inc. A 13-year Silicon Valley veteran, he previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, managing the corporate communications objectives and its relationship with the onsite television studio; Burson-Marsteller, working closely with HP on brand and product communications; and has managed corporate communications campaigns for Palm, Adobe and other major technology brands. Follow Alex on Twitter (@APatNetAPP) or check out the NetAppTV channel on YouTube to see the exciting combination of multimedia and social media at work.

Session 804 - Cutting Out the Media Middle Man: Next Year's Media Model Today

While the media industry grapples with what it will look like in the future, companies, advocacy groups, artists, politicians and the government are cutting out the media middle man and striking up conversations directly with their constituents. Where does that leave media, journalism, entertainment? The new media business models that are working with success today are about being a bridge, not a gatekeeper. BlogHer works on both community journalism initiatives and commercial marketing campaigns. Each can be part of a sustainable media business model in an environment powered by the Internet... which has created as fundamental a shift in human communication as the alphabet or the telephone. Attend this session and discover a workable new media model in action.

Speakers

Elisa Camahort BlogHer , Co-founder & COO

A longtime Silicon Valley marketing executive, Elisa Camahort Page has been at the vanguard of professional and business blogging. As BlogHer's COO, Elisa leads events, marketing, public relations and research for BlogHer, while working to ensure that all company operations deliver on the company's vision. Prior to co-founding BlogHer, Elisa was running a marketing consultancy, Worker Bees, and was among the first to integrate corporate marketing strategies into the social media environment. Worker Bees followed a successful career as in the cable broadband sector.

Elisa is widely read as BlogHer's conference leader and reality television editor. Elisa is a frequent public speaker, bringing research data about women and online communities to life in recent keynote sessions at MediaBistro Circus, Fem 2.0, NewComm Forum and WOMMA Marketing Summit.

Elisa is a founding Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and serves on the Board of Directors of the 42nd Street Moon Theatre in San Francisco, the programming advisory committee for SXSW Interactive and the Board of Advisors of the Anita Borg Institute.

Session 904 - The Path to the New Jounalism

Story after story proclaims a crisis in U.S. journalism, as major news organizations appear on the brink of bankruptcy and the public is left wondering who'll be left to cover the news. J.D. Lasica, a journalist and social media consultant, argues that a solution can be found not in propping up existing news institutions but in making way for a new generation of entrepreneurial news gatherers, who marry the best of journalism with the dynamic, connective abilities of social media.

Such a fusion represents the future face of U.S. journalism.

Speakers

JD Lasica

JD Lasica is a strategist, tech entrepreneur, writer, blogger, trainer and consultant and one of the world's leading authorities on social media and the revolution in user-created media.

Session 1004 - The Impact of Multimedia on News Search

As the Internet has become increasingly capable of supporting multimedia (i.e. faster connection speeds, commoditization of storage and price declines, resources like YouTube), more and more marketing professionals have sought to incorporate audio, video, and images to complement the text of their news releases.

Incorporating multimedia into news releases has become increasingly important because multimedia provides additional content that can be indexed by search engines and more importantly, research suggests readers are more inclined to act (click through, share, forward, etc.) on information that contains these elements. For example, images increase click-through rates, video increases time spent on a page and click-through rates and multimedia increase your overall digital footprint.

This session will:

• Makes the case for multimedia in news releases
• Explore how multimedia news releases build online equity and search visibility
• Provide best-practice tips and insights for using multimedia news releases
• Demonstrate the results that can be achieved

Speakers

Jiyan Wei Vocus

As director of product management, Jiyan Wei drives product platform strategy and roadmap execution for PRWeb, the leading online news distribution service. In addition he supports strategic business planning, partnerships, and marketing/sales. Prior to Vocus, Jiyan served as vice president of online services for v-Fluence Public Relations where he was responsible for defining and developing services to monitor and analyze online activity. He earned a BA in English from Georgetown University and Masters in Media/Communications from the London School of Economics where his dissertation focused on media production and consumption in social media communities. He is a member of the advisory board of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and maintains a blog, New Influencer (www.newinfluencer.com), where he writes about media and technology.