The Sounding Board

2013 Social Media Conferences and Events

As companies everywhere dive headfirst into their 2013 marketing plans, I’m sure a social program is included on everyone’s agenda. How do you get your message out effectively, via which social platforms and how do you get your audience engaged in conversation? What should you be tracking and what tools should you be using to make it a success? Whether you’re a beginner or a veteran, social platforms are developing so quickly it can be hard to keep up. Check out the events and conferences coming up in 2013 that could help with your social media endeavors, and feel free to comment with others that we may have missed.  After all, it’s about being social, right?

Social Media Marketing World – April 7-9, San Diego, CA 

Social Media Marketing World 2013 will combine high-quality sessions with an amazing social experience. You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, and enjoy extensive networking opportunities in San Diego, California. Connect face-to-face with top social media marketing experts while breaking bread with like-minded peers from around the globe.

Event Twitter Handle: @smexaminer

Event Hashtag: #SMMW13

 

BlogWell – April 17, New York, NY

BlogWell features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations.  This year’s case study presentations will be given by:

• Verizon: Learn how Verizon uses social media to connect with their customers.
• Walgreens: Learn how Walgreens builds internal collaboration and employee relationships through social media.
• ComEd: Learn how ComEd used social media to turn one of the hottest summers ever into the “Coolest Summer Ever” in 2012.
• TD Bank: Learn how TD Bank is becoming a social business by engaging employees and connecting customers with experts.
• Wendy’s: Learn how Wendy’s uses social media listening to make business decisions.
• Corning: Learn how Corning is getting the attention of their fans using social media.
• Sanofi: Learn how the U.S. affiliate of this global pharmaceutical company engages diabetes patients through social media.
• Walmart: Learn how Walmart uses data to build better social media strategies.

Event Hashtag: #blogwell

 

The Social Media Strategies Summit – April 23-24, Chicago, IL

Social Media Strategies Summit has been designed to apply to a variety of industries. In an effort to meet attendees’ learning objectives, it is built in six tracks, each outlined to focus on a particular industry. Each track includes sessions focused on the following categories: corporate case studies; community engagement and customer service; measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; sales approach; legal risks & strategies; and marketing strategies & tactics.

Event Twitter Handle: @GSMIonline

Event Hashtag: #smssummit

 

iStrategy Global Digital and Social Media Conference – April 23-24, Miami, FL

Join North America's most forward-thinking digital marketers, social media mavens and online experts as they converge on Miami in April 2013 to discuss the future of digital marketing and share strategies for improving customer engagement, driving conversions and developing campaigns that positively ring with authenticity, relevancy and significance. Speakers, panelists and workshops will be lead on the following topics:

• Social media
• Mobile marketing and applications
• Display advertising
• Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC)
• Email marketing, database marketing and customer relationship management (CRM)
• Web analytics
• E-commerce
• Content strategy including video, viral and blogs

Event Twitter Handle: @iStratBuzz

Event Hashtag: #iStrategy

 

The Social Media Strategies Summit June 12-13, New York, New York

Social Media Strategies Summit has been designed to apply to a variety of industries. In an effort to meet attendees’ learning objectives, it is built in six tracks, each outlined to focus on a particular industry. Each track includes sessions focused on the following categories: corporate case studies; community engagement and customer service; measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; sales approach; legal risks & strategies; and marketing strategies & tactics.

Event Twitter Handle: @GMSIonline

Event Hashtag: #smssummit

 

Pivot Conference – October 15-16, New York, New York

Pivot is not a social media conference, or even a traditional conference at all. Pivot is as close to a true social community of powerful leaders as a physical gathering can be. In our incisive on-stage conversations, the speakers contribute to the audience, the audience contributes to the speakers and everyone contributes to one another. All Pivot’s participants are leaders of social initiatives from major brands and the organizations that serve them. The result is a singularity that defines the heart of social for the year ahead.

Event Twitter Handle: @pivotcon

Event Hashtag: #pivotcon

What's New on LinkedIn

Social Media: What do Oreo and the Federal Government Have in Common?

Last week I wrote about how Oreo dominated social media during the Super Bowl blackout and touched a bit on how powerful social media can be when used correctly.

However, if you’re reading our blog most likely your company doesn’t fall into the packaged sweets category. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re saying “Well, that’s great for Oreo, but what about the federal government. They don’t use social media!”

To that I call shenanigans. 

Just because you’re not selling your product to the general consumer doesn’t mean your audience isn’t using social media and that you should ignore it.  It’s 2013, folks; everyone is using social media. That includes the government. Not only is the White House on Twitter – with more than 3.6 million followers – but almost every branch of the military has a presence there along with most federal departments and agencies. Many of these same federal departments and agencies are also represented on Facebook and LinkedIn.   

So, now that I’ve shown you that the federal government does in fact use social media I’d like to push you to think beyond just the agency/department representation on these sites. It’s definitely worthwhile to know that government agencies uses social media but more important, in my opinion, is knowing that employees of those agencies – i.e., your customers - are there. After all, social media communities are not run and populated by robots. People, including members of your target audience, manage and congregate on these sites.

When selling to the government you aren’t selling to some great and powerful Oz who runs the agency from behind a magic curtain. You are selling to people. When your company’s sales team goes into an agency they aren’t going to the CIO, they are talking directly to the person who uses the equipment, the person who has the ability to make purchasing decisions. These are the people you want to be sure you are seeking out and reaching on social media, just as Oreo is seeking the consumer who is likely to purchase their cookies.  You may not have Oreo’s advertising or public relations budget but that’s the beauty of social media – it’s free – and if used properly – priceless.  

Interested in learning more about how to use social media to engage with the government? Download our tip sheet – The Blueprint – Social Media and Government. 

 

 

--Jennifer Edgerly

Google +: Alive and Kicking or Six Feet Under?

Someone recently asked me what Google+ was (mind you, this person is not an active social media user by any means), and I found myself stumbling in my explanation. I’m on the channel, but couldn’t tell you the last time I logged in, let alone actively used it. As much as I wanted to love it, I just never got sucked in. I enjoy so many Google tools, but am sorry to say, this just isn’t one of them. Am I alone in that feeling, or do I have company? (Sorry, Pete, I know you’re a fan.)

Reports from the past few months have varied, so it’s hard to come to a conclusion. However, I did some poking around and came across this cool infographic a UK social media firm put together last month. It compares Google+ to other social networking sites and suggests that activity on the site is much lower compared to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Take a look below, or here, for the details. Where do you stand – is Google+ alive and well?

- Mary Evans

 

Using Social Media to Engage the Federal Community: SECAF Event

I had the pleasure this morning of attending a presentation by my CEO, Elizabeth Shea, to the Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum (SECAF) on how to engage the federal community via social media.   

It seems that somewhere along the way people started believing that the government isn’t actually using social media. But with more than 3 million Twitter followers, it looks like someone forgot to tell the White House that government isn’t social. Turns out that NASA isn’t far behind with 2.8 million followers, and the Department of Homeland Security has more than 52,000 “likes” on Facebook. 

In fact, according to Market Connections 2011 Social Media in the Public Sector Report, 70% of federal agencies and 93% of contractors are using LinkedIn while a whopping 86% of agencies and 88% of contractors are on Facebook.

These stats clearly speak to a point made by B.L. Ochman in BusinessWeek way back in 2009: “Millions of people are creating content for the social web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.”   

So below are some of the key takeaways from Elizabeth’s presentation this morning and some tips for people just jumping into the social fray. 

Listen to what is being said.  At a minimum the expectation is that you are listening. There are a variety of social media listening posts that can help you learn what your customers want. 

Create compelling content. As we’ve discussed many times on our blog, content is king. You either need to curate or create your stance, your value proposition, the reason your customers buy. Social media is reliant on content, and you need to plan a way to create content that is useful to your audience.

Engage with your audience.  Social media tools enable you to engage with your audience in a meaningful way. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Determine which channels your customers use and meet them there.

Lastly, B2G communications has evolved.  While there is still a core set of print publications we work with on a daily basis, there is also a “new” set of online sites that are just as influential. Online sites and networks to follow (or join) to keep up with what’s happening in the government space include: FedScoop, GovLoop, GovConWire, OhMyGov and NextGov.

I wrote recently about the quality vs. quantity conundrum on Twitter, and included some tips on how to get started. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on how to make the most of LinkedIn. 

 

--Jennifer Edgerly

Technology Marketing Alliance Announces LinkedIn Event

 

Tomorrow, the Technology Marketing Alliance will be holding its summer event: “LinkedIn for Business: Maximize your Company’s LinkedIn Presence.”

The featured speaker is Jason Jue, CMO for Vocus.

Jason will be sharing best practices for managing a comprehensive B2B LinkedIn strategy based on his experiences at Rackspace and Vocus.  His marketing team has used Linkedin as part of strategic marketing campaigns to drive brand awareness, leads and build networks for sales to find appropriate contacts. 

This is not a "how-to use LinkedIn" conversation, but rather a demonstration of how to build a plan, leverage the powerful tool, and incorporate it into your overall business marketing strategy. 

Event details are as follows:

Wednesday, July 18, 2012
7:30 to 9:30 a.m.
The Tower Club - Tyson's Corner
Cost - $50.00
Register here:

Hope to see you there.

- Katie Hanusik

Crisis Communications: Into the Security Breach

At this point in time, there’s a good likelihood that some 20-something Eastern European man with a goatee is running around Prague posing as yours truly.  How do I know this?  Because I’ve had my personal, supposedly secure information hacked online so many times it’d be a shock not to have had someone like that assume my identity.

In recent years, many of the companies I engage with on a regular basis, from Sony to Bank of America and more, have had their networks breached by wily hackers.  These charming folks have broken into these businesses’ online databases and stolen, at best, passwords and, at worst, my social security and credit card information.

The recent LinkedIn security breach is only the latest in a long line of online break-ins.  Now, some shadowy figure, hunched over a laptop in a shabby backroom, can change my work profile from “Senior Account Director, SpeakerBox Communications, Washington D.C.” to “Lead Clown Wrangler, Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus, Constantly Traveling.”  Or worse.

Every time something like this happens, the first thing I think – well, after remembering to cancel all of my credit cards – is how will the company respond to this one?   In the case of LinkedIn, I’d say it’s been handled fairly well.   Once reports started coming in about a possible issue, LinkedIn began communicating via social media channels that the organization “continues to investigate, but at this time, we’re still unable to confirm that any security breach has occurred.  Stay tuned here.” 

I added the bold text in that last part because I think it’s important:  stay tuned here.  In effect, the company was telling its users that it would communicate any updates with them in a timely manner, via Twitter, Facebook, the media, email and, yep, LinkedIn, thus responding to concerns relatively quickly and keeping its user base informed.  And, once it had more information, it did.  Later that day LinkedIn communicated that there was, indeed, a breach, and laid out its plans for taking action.

Here’s a case where the horse was already out of the barn and the only thing that LinkedIn could really do, at least initially, was communicate what the organization planned to do moving forward, thereby keeping their customers informed.  And I give them credit for reacting relatively quickly and responding to users’ concerns. 

This is more than I can say for Sony Computer Entertainment.  A few years ago when the PlayStation Network was compromised, Sony tried to cover it up by simply taking the network down for days without any true explanation for their customers (and yes, they got me on that one, too).  This was followed by a bunch of hemming, hawing, stammering and Sony basically falling all over themselves in the press.  Granted, Sony somewhat eventually made amends by providing its users with complementary security monitoring and a bevy of free stuff – but that was well after the guy in Prague could have already been playing as me in Call of Duty while using my credit card.

Two companies, both in similar crisis situations, yet both with very different approaches.  One was fast to respond and keep users informed; the other gave me the option to download a free copy of Dead Nation.  Folks, I think we have a winner.

Pete Larmey

Hamburgler image copyright McDonald's

Googled in 60 Seconds

When faced with one minute on the internet, how much can you get done? 

This week I came across a great infographic from web design firm Go-Globe.com (see it full size here) on things that happen on the internet every 60 seconds. It is AMAZING how much happens in such a small amount of time – there are almost 700,000 Google searches, 60 new blogs started and 13,000 iPhone apps downloaded.

They got such a great response to their first infographic they put together part 2 that shows that 232 computers are infected with malware, 38 tons of e-waste is generated and 1,100 acres of land are farmed in Farmville! 

It’s amazing to see the number of useful (and time wasting) things we do in one minute – could you imagine being the recipient of all 168 million emails?

– Ali Robinson 

No Seriously. What the Hell Do I Do with LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is an anomaly in the social media world – it’s decidedly a social network, but I would argue that it’s either the Least Social Network or the Most Social Network, depending on how you view it.   It’s the least social because, let’s face it, it appears to lack the real-time sharing nature of Facebook and Twitter…which could be a good thing, if you don’t want to know what your boss had for lunch.  On the other hand, LinkedIn enforces authenticity and places a premium on authentic interactions, albeit from a business perspective, something that is increasingly difficult (for a variety of reasons) on Facebook and Twitter.

Sure, you could undertake an archvillain-esque campaign of lying and misinformation to convince your contacts that you’re literally Bruce Wayne, but that defeats the entire purpose of the site.  And that purpose would be, at it’s most simple:  business networking.  Yet despite this easy-to-grasp premise, LinkedIn success, or the perception thereof, remains elusive for most businesses. 

So what, pray tell, constitutes success on LinkedIn?  And how does one achieve it?

For the former…that’s an individual (or corporate) decision, just like with every other social networking platform.  There are no hard and fast metrics for any social media, and that includes LinkedIn.  But given the site’s professional make-up, business leads are a reasonable metric to use, assuming that they are tracked appropriately with LinkedIn specific whitepapers, webinars, etc.

How to achieve this success follows a bit more of a pattern.  The first step is engagement, but internally rather than externally, in that you need to get as many of your employees onto LinkedIn as possible.  Encourage them to connect with old colleagues or friends – start a wide-ranging network.  Next, create a company page (LinkedIn provides step-by-step instructions) which functions much like a Facebook page, only with a guaranteed audience and the added benefit of all of your employees’ backing it.

Finally, add content – everything from whitepapers to authored articles to press releases to brochures is fair game.  Get it up on LinkedIn (better yet, tailor it to LinkedIn) and use the handy analytics component to track what’s going on. 

Honestly, that’s the basic premise – efforts can be refined across verticals (you can make different versions of your page, for example), but the principles remain the same.

So what the hell do you do with LinkedIn?  Now you know.

--John Terrill

How the Federal Workforce Consumes Media

Last week I attended Market Connections’ unveiling of the 2009-2010 Federal Media and Marketing Study. In its second year, this study aims to uncover how Federal decision makers get their news and information. Some interesting findings (from my perspective):

• Respondents named 36 outlets that are key to daily news and information gathering. These broke out to 14 social sites, 28 federally-focused publications, and 12 general business and news outlets.
• Top ranking federal pubs (across the whole respondent base) were Government Executive, Federal Times, Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News, and Defense News.
• Top ranking websites were CNN, Govexec.com, MSNBC, Fox News, and the Washington Post.
• While 45% of respondents said they prefer to read trade news as a combination of print and online, another 34% said they preferred print as compared to only 13% preferring online only.
• Tradeshow attendance is skewing lower with only 46% reporting they attended a show in the past year.
• Social media continues to grow, with the biggest jump from last year’s survey being the usage of LinkedIn (up to 16% from 4%).
• Social media faces hurdles in becoming a business tool for government with 55% of respondents unable to access social sites at work.

-Piper Conrad