Mehrunnisa Wani is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Future of Social Technology.
Every day there are emerging social platforms, startups, which marketers are adapting to and focusing their campaigns on.
Time and time again, almost since its very inception, people expounded about the idea of too much engagement, that they aren’t interested in hearing about where their Facebook friend is headed, or what time they woke up. The conundrum is that designers are still discovering or defining the fine line between innovation and overload.
Kincaid’s worries are that social technology will penetrate too much of society and encroaching on privacy and life – and that there should be a cessation. When do we know to stop? For the future, with this oversaturation people are likelier to embrace niche networks and disconnectedness.
Ogince’s contention was that social technology needs to be humanized. He’s disappointed in it, saying it’s failed to a certain extent. It needs to be personalized and aim at assuaging to the general public with social health programs (for example, have physicians advise patients, or an app that encourages people to quit smoking).
If not that, at the very least, the programs that now exist should sharpen skills, or built on them.
Social technology is still in its infancy and it has a long way to go but both Ogince and Kincaid articulated the need for a shift in the direction that its heading towards.
Mehrunnisa Wani hails from Kashmir, India. She is currently a masters candidate at the Columbia School of Journalism learning to report stories in various mediums, all the while familiarizing herself with the digital media boom so she can utilize those skills to connect the world one story at a time. In the future she hopes to cover conflict zones, learn to code and change the world – simultaneously. She resides in Queens, New York. Follow her on @mehrwani.
Mehrunnisa Wani is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Rappathon- Hacking for Change: A New Way of Collaboration.
“What’s the best thing you’ve created? I don’t know. Come around tomorrow.” – Camilo LaCruz
Believe it or not, the ingredients for social change are collaboration, creative minds, and a days worth of idea generating.
With their collaborative methodology RAPP hosted it’s first rappathon workshop, tailored to bring developers and designers together to explore concepts that might someday enrich thousands, if not millions, of lives.
In league, they worked towards creating technology that could work for the people, by the people. This hackathon, much like the others sprouting across the tech scene, are increasingly involving people.
After pairing up individuals and a tidbit of mix –and-matching, groups moved from station to station picking up where the last team left off so others could expand on the idea or share their two cents.
The web apps that came out of this aimed to improve the lives of individuals, or at the very least assist people in some regard. One of the ideas yielded was a map that would track a daily commute, keeping in mind the money, number of calories burned, and the carbon footprint. This would be linked to a social network, which would inform friends, family, coworkers of the commute and in the end, the data would be accumulated over a period of time so that the commuter can ascertain what method is cheaper, less time-consuming, or less arduous.
The apps weren’t launched but the organizers graciously shared the ideas in hopes of someone developing it. It’s still about experimentation and there are still ways of transforming life. If there is a social need, an app can fulfill it.
Mehrunnisa Wani hails from Kashmir, India. She is currently a masters candidate at the Columbia School of Journalism learning to report stories in various mediums, all the while familiarizing herself with the digital media boom so she can utilize those skills to connect the world one story at a time. In the future she hopes to cover conflict zones, learn to code and change the world – simultaneously. She resides in Queens, New York. Follow her on @mehrwani.
Mehrunnisa Wani is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from The Guardian Interviews Alec Ross.
“What does the Internet have to with foreign policy and diplomacy? In this day and age, if you care about human rights you have to care about the Internet,” said Alec Ross, senior advisor for innovation, Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
As evident from the Arab (Internet) Spring, social media was an effective vent for the outrage and the wave of the frustration that swept through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and, most recently, Syria.
Tweeples, Facebookers, and YouTubers worldwide were all proponents of this change. With their succinct slogans, videos, and blog entries they encapsulated the depth of the oppression. The revolution was filled with narratives of twitter handles and even fact-checking was a collaborative effort, or what veterans would call a crowdsourcing activity.
Some dubbed it as the greatest tools of this age and others went as far as crediting it for fermenting the chaos and subsequently, toppling regimes. Despite the divergent views on the platform, it catapulted social justice campaigns worldwide, abetting and enabling leaderless protests.
The role of technology is, of course, integral –and now becoming closely intertwined with diplomacy. With governments realizing this, some are constricting expression and others such as the United States are allowing its ambassadors, some 195 have twitter accounts and 170 have Facebook accounts, according to Ross.
Ross, however, doesn’t credit technology—wholly—for the toppling of dictatorship-based regimes, but he is finding solutions to the gravest health, economic, social problems in developing nations through social media applications. It’s a new wave – the social networking-diplomacy era, where fostering ties between nations is done through programs like Apps4Africa, bringing fifteen nations and discussing solutions which, in the end, will yield innovative methods in tackling economic development issues and paving ways for sustainable long-term projects.
The consensus is that it is a tool for civic engagement, where information is readily available and movements are accelerated, but what happens when people achieve their goal, when governments are overthrown? Who helps with picking up the crumbs? Are plan of actions created?
“Though social media has proven to be a tool for dissent, it has not yet proven to be a successful tool for governance,” said Ross. With tools set forth by the State Department, Ross hopes that governance connects with the governing and social media takes out the implicit elitism in governing. Two things for sure, social media is equalizing the world and creating a forum of communication between the governing bodies and the people. Social media has become the weapon of the first world, but what about the third world?
Mehrunnisa Wani hails from Kashmir, India. She is currently a masters candidate at the Columbia School of Journalism learning to report stories in various mediums, all the while familiarizing herself with the digital media boom so she can utilize those skills to connect the world one story at a time. In the future she hopes to cover conflict zones, learn to code and change the world – simultaneously. She resides in Queens, New York. Follow her on @mehrwani.
While the end was near for dedicated attendees of Social Media Week New York City, Friday was just the beginning of my experience. There was no time to waste and after debating over the serious line up of various events, I was ready for my first SMWNYC gathering.
What Real Time Marketing Really Takes
Emily Steel from the Wall Street Journal led the panel discussion including Beth Waxman-Arteta of JWT, Ryan Davis of Blue State Digital, Bill Wolff of Primetime Programming, and Mike Sommers of Viggle at the Advertising and Marketing Content Hub at JWT. Topics from preparing for and challenge with real time marketing were touched on with much talk about the type transition period social media is fueling.
And what did I take away?
HR/human power is essential behind real time social media, real thought processing and relevance is needed to sustain engagement.
Every brand could use real time marketing, how it’s executed may differ.
Advertising agencies will transition into “brand content” agencies so the meaning of CMO may be defined as editors of content. Simply put, “real time” marketing will be just marketing in the future.
People/consumers are looking for substance and authenticity.
Filtration of information is diminishing, as communication is becoming more real/raw.
Currently real time marketing is a mixture of PR, social media, and brand management.
The thing about authenticity is that it’s imperfect sometimes. Mistakes happen.
Future of Social Technology
Michoel Ogince of Big Fuel and Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch discussed their predictions/opinions on the future of social networks/technology at the Global Society Content Hub at Big Fuel Headquarters. The conversation circled around the topic of humanization and the complex human behavior that social technology has yet to mirror perfectly. It was great to hear the opposing sides that Michoel and Jason brought especially when Path was brought up. They did agree that this is still the early stage of social technology and that if we think it’s really social right now, we’re wrong.
But the discussion also touched on:
Facebook: is it a place to dump a ton of content?
Social gaming (Zynga in particular): gamers invest a lot of money and time in the beginning but it dies off, they hit a wall.
App Store’s future: currently it’s a challenge to find/access specific apps.
Far future: social technology will be penetrated in every aspect to “friending” objects such as your fridge.
Advice for entrepreneurs: be driven by passion, don’t cling on to every “success story advice”.
There will be “niche networks” for social media/technology in the future.
Left Brain Meets Right Brain –The Blueprints for a Sophisticated Social Marketing Campaign (hosted by Shoutlet)
Jason Weaver, the CEO of Shoutlet, led this discussion including David Armano of Edelman Digital, Doug O-Reilly of MWW, Chris Eichman of Rayovac, and Brenda Schmerl of Reader’s Digest. The hour-or-so long conversation revolved around the controversial topic of left brain, right brain, or both. Planning and organizing people who are left-brain dominant among those who are right-brain dominant seemed to be key in finding the balance for a company. There was a debate over people who were both, or a hybrid, and if this category even existed. David Armano walked everyone through what he called a community engagement blueprint when touching on the subject of scenario planning. Improvisation seemed to be a theme for reacting effectively, with the main focus on being able to utilize the strengths of those who are creative and those who are analytical.
My overall impression of Social Media Week NYC was great. (especially since is FREE!) Being a student that is always seeking for more real world information, besides a textbook or some year-old case study, these events left me satisfied. Actually, I take that back, SMW has left me hungry and on the edge of my seat in excitement for what’s next. Being a part of the generation that really digs deep into the data of this social realm is fresh and transformational. I truly can’t wait to see how what’s trending now transitions into traditional.
Anna is a quirky senior at Virginia Tech studying Marketing and International Business. She is curious and thirsty for anything related to social media and brands. Anna aspires to work in an environment that’s constantly battling between the trending and traditional. When she’s not geeking over new digital happenings you can find her working on her new healthy lifestyle and obsessing over froyo. Follow her on twitter @achoi12 or dig deeper on her personal blog, achoi12.tumblr.com, or marketing blog, annanciate.tumblr.com.
Stephanie Vatz is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Investors in the Hot Seat. You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @stephvatz.
The Saatchi and Saatchi Health and Wellness Hub displayed an array health tech devices on tables this Thursday, as entrepreneurs wandered around the space, mingling with investors and other business people all looking to use their start-ups to improve the world of health. They had all come to hear a team of health investors answer their questions about how to gain seed or development money for their projects.
Among the company heads was Kevin Dawkins, who runs CFFone, a mobile social network company that provides support for teenagers with cystic fibrosis. Ordinarily, Dawkins explained that cystic fibrosis prohibited the teens from spending time with other cystic fibrosis patients because of risk of infection, but the social network allowed them to share stories of their disease and support each other digitally.
CFFone had already received a grant from NIH, but the grant was going to expire in about a year so Dawkins came to the event to learn more about how to find the right investors and pitch to them.
“The people who spoke are exactly the types of people we are going to be pitching to,” Dawkins said after the event.
Those investors he was referring to were Steve Krein of Startup Health, Dave Whitlinger of the NYeHealth Collaborative, Todd Pietri of Milestone Venture Partners, Mohit Kaushal of West Health Fund, Maria Gorsch of the New York City Investment Fund and Brad Weinberg of Blueprint Health.
The six panelists took the stage to describe their own businesses as well as the model companies they wanted to invest in–organizations that could bridge the disconnect between the government stakeholders and patients on the ground in order to create better and more affordable health care.
The conference comes at a time when the stimulus package that President Obama passed was like giving “rocket fuel to this sector”, when West Coast investors are beginning to invest in East Coast companies and when health industry is looking to the private sector for new software and technologies.
Like at many of the other SMW events, the speakers mentioned “Big Data” and discussed how it could be a valuable tool for emerging technology companies to offer, whether it be through software for hospitals or analysis and access to data for patients themselves.
“Everything we do is around lowering the cost of health care,” Kaushal said.
Stephanie Vatz is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from How We Did It: The Sanofi Open Innovation Challenge. You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @stephvatz.
Last year, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi partnered with Data Design Diabetes for the Sanofi Open Innovation Challenge. The Challenge took young entrepreneurial innovators and health experts alike to develop a way to improve the quality of life and care for the over 25.8 million Americans living with diabetes.
To explain how the Open Innovation Challenge came to be, Michele Polz, Senior Director of Patient Solutions at Sanofi, and Aman Bhandari, Senior Advisor to the CTO of Health & Human Services came together on Feb. 15, discussing their initial project and upcoming the 2012 competition.
Polz described her desire to move “beyond the drugs” as a diabetes franchise and look at new models for treating diabetes including new technologies and designs. From this, stemmed the challenge–a five-step process that gives away over $200,000 in prize money and grants health entrepreneurs the chance to raise seed money and get their name out.
This year’s process is as follows: first, Data Design Diabetes and Sanofi use online crowd-sourcing to figure out what areas of diabetes care need the most repairing. Next, everyone can submit ideas for designing a product that addresses what matters most to people living with diabetes in the United States. Five of these entries are picked to win $20,000 and to enter an intensive project mentorship program and design boot camp. From there two are selected and given an additional $10,000 to bring their projects to real communities and one winner is chosen.
Last year’s winner, Ginger.io also appeared at the Health and Wellness Hub talk to describe their behavior analytics company that uses a mobile sensing platform to change patient behavior depending on health conditions and symptoms.
For the 2012 Challenge, the crowd-sourcing online survey has just been closed and the company is selecting a focus for this year’s competition, but the team seems almost as excited for other company challenges that have been inspired by Sanofi.
“It’s great to see someone who’s an entrepreneur and innovator, up there on stage with someone who is a major player in their field,” said Bhandari. “We are very serious about spurring innovation and entrepreneurship, whether it be in the public sector or private sector…We just want to promote the best ideas.”
Stephanie Vatz is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Frank Moss on The 2012 MIT Health and Wellness Innovation Hackathon. You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @stephvatz.
As head of the New Media Medicine group at the MIT, Frank Moss heads entrepreneurial biotechnology projects that attempt to improve health care and medicine.
He displayed inventions like an artificial intelligence nurse that helped record patients’ auditory and visual problems for a real-life while responding to patient concerns to demonstrate comprehension. Using the example of a young woman with diabetes, Moss illustrated how the woman could use the artificial intelligence system to connect with a real doctor and solve her problem more efficiently. The whole system was a bit similar to the way Apple uses artificial intelligence to answer customer support questions.
“We have to combine academia with industry,” he said when discussing the huge risks the MIT Media lab and his own company, BlueFin Technology, try to take when thinking of medical models for the future. “Big companies don’t take risk, but they must have the willingness to take risks and fail.”
Not all of Moss’ projects were as complicated; some even seemed easy to implement into today’s healthcare world. Applications for mobile phones, for example, could be used to improve the likelihood of a patient taking care of himself.
Among the apps that Moss suggested were medical clocks to inform the patient when to take his medication, medical charts so the patient could see the problems for himself and social networking to provide comfort and camaraderie among patients.
In the realm of health and medicine, Social Media Week NYC has been bringing technology and humanity to the forefront in some surprising ways.
On Monday at the Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness Hub in SoHo, two keynote speakers, Carol McCall and Michael Graves, discussed improvements and potential solutions to patient care problems.
As the Chief Strategy Officer at GNS Healthcare, Carol McCall’s main job is looking at data. Her presentation however, was more focused on using technology to alter patient behavior both as a preventative health measure and a way for patients with similar experiences to commiserate or share stories.
McCall drew upon examples to illustrate the idea of taking an active role in one’s own health by changing attitude. Her primary interest was patient psychology and she offered techniques to either change people’s perspectives of their own life stories, positively modify self-perception, or find new ways to help people help themselves.
A key theme in Monday’s discussions was innovation. With social media it appears that experience in the field you work in might even be a detriment to thinking outside of the box and shedding new light on old problems.
The second keynote speaker of the morning, world-renowned architect and designer Michael Graves, knew very little about health care until he had to. Graves rolled to the stage in a wheelchair after a CBS Sunday Profiles clip of him finished playing on stage.
In 2003, a mysterious infection paralyzed Graves from the waist down, suddenly making him dependent on others, even inside his own hospital room.
Once he was on stage, Graves pressed a button on his wheelchair that made the front wheels roll under the back wheels until he was tall enough for everyone to see. It was the first example in a string of innovative design to come.
He started his discussion of reinventing in hospital room design by talking about his own frustrating experience of being unable to reach the sink faucet at the hospital, or being able to see himself in the mirror. Constantly, he was reminded that he couldn’t walk anymore.
“Oh, that’s not for me,” he said he once thought about the out of reach faucet, “that’s for people who can walk.”
Now, Graves is dedicating his career to designing new products, furniture and buildings with the disabled in mind. He displayed images of reinvented hospital bedside tables that would be easier for cleaning crews to disinfect, more functional shower stools, chairs that were easier to get out of and patient chairs to make the transition from operating room to hospital room more comfortable. He even made his employees sit in wheelchairs while designing some of the new products for him.
Although Graves couldn’t stand-up himself, his audience stood for him; he received a standing ovation before and after his presentation.
This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Vivian Nunez, please click here.
The New Ghostwriter Panel included Aliza Licht, Terry Li, Sam Graham- Felsen, and was moderated by Todd Wasserman; to say it was incredible is an understatement. Each panelist is an expert in his or her field of interest and throughout the conversation it showed.
Mr. Graham-Felsen demonstrated extensive knowledge in the meshing of politics and social media, which ultimately transcended that niche and flowed into personal branding and the importance of authenticity. Having been a blogger for the Obama 2008 campaign, Sam understands how essential it is to have a voice that is all your own and to be able to have a candid conversation with those that interact with your material, a trait that the Obama campaign perfected. The ability to give a personal voice to the blog is what set Sam and the Obama campaign apart from any other organization that used ghostwriters, which is simply the middleman or filter between what the brand or politician wants to say and what you as a follower actually read or hear.
All the panelists opposed directly to the use of ghostwriters because it takes away the transparency of any brand and in specific Sam admitted to being a strong proponent of “cutting the divide between a company or politician and an audience”. Terry Li partially disagreed with the statement because he finds the ghostwriter to be useful if used wisely, like when someone has a speech written by someone else. Yet ghostwriting provides a specific dilemma because it takes away from the “social” side of social networking, it makes any young adult vulnerable to falling for the pretense that they are communicating with their favorite celebrity when they really are talking to his middleman.
Aliza Licht or @dkny as many might know her, has perfected the ability to remain authenticate, engage in conversation, and still represent the brand quite well, without having to resort to ghostwriting. An easy feat she admitted simply because while tweeting she is being herself. The key lies in the authenticity and the ability to create a flow of information; each young adult is aware of that natural flow because they take part of it every single time they use a social network. You engage with others on social networks assuming that it is personally them and although advertising might be involved subtly, like Terry Li and Bre.ad manage to do, you still feel like you are a part of a genuine conversation.
As a part of the younger demographic this is how you want to develop all your personal branding ventures after because between Aliza’s personal touch, Sam’s lens in storytelling and engagement, and Terry’s ability to create an unrecognizable divide between interaction and promotion, you are able to find a perfect equilibrium to propel your own personal brand.. During the Q&A plenty of the answers provided were geared toward young adults and advice was given. For instance if what you want is to be a strong influence in social media a key is to provide material not seen before or to truly engage in conversation, not just disseminate information. The topic of the panel might have been ghostwriting but the advice shared here goes beyond who sends out twitter messages, it is about a personal brand, and by personal I mean YOU!
This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Jessica Bender, please click here.
You wouldn’t think that Rachel Lloyd had been through any hardships just by looking at her. Decked out in an animal print cardigan and fiery red pants, the executive director and founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS)was the model for how powerful women should appear. When Lloyd strutted up to the podium at her own keynote at Thomson Reuters on Tuesday afternoon, she had a certain air of confidence to her, one that you can gain when you go through a traumatic experience like she has.
Lloyd is living proof that any girl, regardless of race or income, can be a victim of trafficking. For a good chunk of time in her teens (until she was 19), she was struggling to get out of the sex trafficking industry. When she eventually found a way out, she wanted to do nothing more than help other trafficking victims. “Squares would treat [these victims] like they didn’t belong,” Lloyd began. “If [society] didn’t change public perception about the way girls were being treated, nothing was going to change.”
With only a computer and $30, Lloyd started GEMS in the comfort of her own apartment in 1998. Although she first started to spread awareness about trafficking using typical grassroots techniques (petitioning, picketing, handing out flyers, etc.), Lloyd wanted to get the word out in a more creative fashion.
A book and a documentary put out by Lloyd and GEMS completely changed the future of the non-profit. Starting with the book Breaking the Silence, GEMS members told their heart-wrenching stories using personal stories, prose, photography and other forms of art. What really got GEMS the attention it rightfully deserved, though, was the film Very Young Girls. According to the non-profit site:
Very Young Girls is an exposé of the commercial sexual exploitation of girls in New York City as they are sold on the streets by pimps and treated as adult criminals by police. The film follows barely adolescent girls in real time, using vérité and intimate interviews with them, documenting their struggles and triumphs as they seek to exit the commercial sex industry. The film also uses startling footage shot by pimps themselves, giving a rare glimpse into how the cycle of exploitation begins for many women.
While the film had success at film festivals across the country, the documentary exploded on premium cable channel Showtime. Lloyd admitted that praise came from the strangest places, since the filmed aired during the late night on TV – even drug dealers in Rachel’s neighborhood raved about the movie to her!
Success may not have come overnight for the organization, but their achievements are undeniable. GEMS is currently the largest non-profit in the country working with sexually trafficked young women. They mentor over 300 girls each year through recovery and leadership programs, and currently have three distinct housing programs, providing the girls with services they need to conquer life.
GEMS’ current project has Lloyd hoping that sexual exploitation awareness will hit the mainstream. In partnership with trafficking organizations Free the Slaves and Polaris Project, mtvU’s Against Our Will Campaign was launched in September 2011. The campaign’s main focus is to empower college students to learn more about modern-day slavery and inspire them to take action to end trafficking for good. While being on mtvU is a big stepping stone, Lloyd dreams of getting the campaign on MTV by the end of the year.
Moderated by Peter Himler – President — Publicity Club of New York
With Panelists: Anthony De Rosa — Social Media Editor, Thomson Reuters Craig Kanalley — Social Media Editor, NBC News Elizabeth Heron — Social Media Editor, The New York Times Jake Porway — Data Scientist, The New York Times Mat Yurow — Social Media Producer, Bloomberg News and BusinessWeek Steve Krakauer– Senior Digital Producer, CNN/U.S
What
The Socializing the News luncheon began with Publicity Club of New York’s President, Peter Himler introducing Jake Porway, the Data Scientist at The New York Times’ Research & Development Labs to demonstrate his company’s Cascade app, which I must say is likely the most *beautiful* tool presented during Social Media Week 2012.
Project Cascade goes beyond the two dimensional graphs most companies currently use. It’s a three dimensional representation of how news is shared and how it spreads. The app uses data from the New York Times website and Twitter, well-worn territory but and it adds a key element: information from bit.ly, the URL shortener. By working with bit.ly, staff were able to see when New York Times links were shortened or expanded. Altogether, a full tapestry is exposed: Read; Share; Engage.
Person 1 browses the NYT site, reads an article of interest, uses bit.ly to shorten the URL, shares on Twitter; Person 2 clicks on the bit.ly link, expands the URL to read the story; Engagement via returning to the NYT website, retweets and conversation. A very powerful data set emerges from these actions. Using the tool developed at the NYT, researchers can see the cascade of events which happens whenever someone tweets one of their news stories.
Project Cascade shows all the sharing behavior based on a tweet. All the layers of retweets. The echo effect across Twitter. The degrees of separation from the original tweeter. Analysts can see the reach of an article by seeing how tall the graph gets, built by layers of retweets. They can also see when others enter and leave a conversation, streaming over time. Consequently, they can also pinpoint influence by large spikes in the data. Who are key players and what are they saying? The app allows analysts to understand the nature of a tweet and how it spreads by looking at the backbone of influential people. Does it help when someone asks a question or adds their thoughts? Do they use a certain hashtag? How does conversation evolve? On which branch do people enter the tapestry? How do things change over time? Using the tool, analysts have quantifiable data to ask questions like “When is the best time to tweet?” They can test the hypothesis and see what works best. They can see who are consistently bringing people back to the site. Which articles are likely to spread and why. What are the sections which affect the flow of conversation? How do journalists become a part of the conversation? Should we retweet ourselves? Should stories be managed or should they be allowed to grow organically? Now, all these questions can be looked at because Project Cascade offers a lens into what is happening in social media.
But Socializing the News wasn’t all apps. Steve Krakauer shared on how social media has a real impact on what companies do. What happens on the digital space translates into more viewers on CNN. Now, the question is how to harness that. Piers Morgan is a great example of how Twitter can build a brand. He is a personality with a strong following. And it really is Piers who tweets. Google+ doesn’t have a good metric or analytics system, yet, and it hasn’t opened up the same way Facebook and Twitter have. For those reasons, people hesitate. For big organizations to consider Google+, it will have to show more of the back end data. With Facebook and Twitter, you can have a community where you can hit people with what they are interested in. Cultivating a community that already exists is almost as important as reaching out to new people. But most important is people clicking on links, replying, retweeting and commenting, more so than follower numbers or likes.
Mat Yurow joined the dialogue, offering his perspective from Bloomberg. Bloomberg‘s wire service is its main source of revenue. In a world where Twitter is becoming the source for breaking news, how does a company balance service offerings which are free v. charged? Mobile apps have been optimized for sharing and discussion and that is where the organic growth will happen. At the moment, it’s about building a following. Each social network has its own strengths, and those strengths are primed to be taken advantage of.
His company has found that it gets much more traffic from Facebook and people spend three times as much time reading articles on the site, as opposed to the traffic from Twitter, while LinkedIn is used by reporters to find leads. Play the slow game and build relationships. There are few tools better at relationship building than Twitter. Social media editors are responsible for building their credibility and clout to make people listen to what is being said; PR people are responsible for checking-in periodically even when they are not pushing or selling a story. Become a familiar face on a journalist’s timeline, and journalists will be much more willing to respond.
Yurow instructed attendees to find a way to add value to your followers, and play to the vanity of people. Mention them in a newsletter, and then let them know they have been included. Send out tweets at different times, depending on when people read. Understand your audience and find out when you can offer most value. Consider scheduling tweets to post at night or on the weekends because social sites may be blocked at your followers’ workplace. Don’t lose your audience because they are not able to be at a desk when you are.
Then the New York Times’ Elizabeth Heron offered her views. On Twitter, the company uses the main @NYT account to break news. However, each desk has its own account and is responsible for its own social media strategy, so things don’t need to be completely centralized. “Hashtag Science” is used to create short hashtags which clearly identify the story and invite people to contribute. For example, #iEconomy to discuss how Apple is affecting the economy; how does Apple differ from other major companies that manufacture in China; do factory conditions affect people’s choice to buy iPhones?
To give readers access to journalists, the New York Times also holds live chats on Facebook, as well as on Google+ hangouts. The company likes to give direct access to reporters who work on series. And this international contingent of reporters is great for crowdsourcing. NYT considers the journalistic value of social media. It’s difficult to quantify, but if the company finds sources it would not have found otherwise or it’s able to cover breaking news more comprehensively, then it is significant. On the business side, the company cares about referral traffic. Engagement metrics are much more important than number of followers.
Craig Kanalley expounded on the role of the social media editor: to tell stories. Carve a niche and innovate to use social media creatively. There are endless possibilities. It’s also part of the employee’s responsibility to break out of a Twitter Monkey role. Engage journalists on Twitter by offering timely information.
Keep in mind that Pinterest is sustainable because it appeals to the mainstream audience, not the tech-geeky crowd. Finally, it’s better to post in real time in possible. Scheduling tweets can make you look outdated if not done correctly, so be careful.
The panel concluded with Anthony De Rosa. He stated that in order to be the place where people go for news, you should be the beacon for all news – it makes you valuable. You shouldn’t feel like you can only report those stories coming from your newsroom. However, make sure to validate; due diligence is necessary. Be a megaphone for your own content, but also act as a curator so you’re the central source for everything. The difference between social media and headlines is that you don’t have to be as literal with the former. Social media writers are aiming to grab attention rather than gain the SEO system. Ride the line of interesting and engaging, but don’t mislead.
Pinterest popped up again as a great distribution channel for videos, and LinkedIn was positioned as good for gathering information because it allows users to filter others by who people are: which companies do they work for and which positions do they hold? Listen on LinkedIn. This function doesn’t exist natively on Twitter, but can be maximized on LinkedIn.
Peter Himler helped us end the event by pointing us to MuckRack, which tracks thousands of journalists on Twitter and social media.
At the end of the event, I walked away feeling like I had a great sense of the myriad ways the news can get social and how companies are doing it.
Lisa Chau has been involved with Web 2.0 since graduate school at Dartmouth College, where she completed an independent study on blogging. She was subsequently highlighted as a woman blogger in Wellesley Magazine, published by her alma mater. Since 2009, Lisa has worked as an Assistant Director at the Tuck School of Business. In 2012, she launched GothamGreen212 to pursue social media strategy projects. You can follow her on twitter.
Donovan X. Ramsey is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism and one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC.
Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, took to the stage at Social Media Week NYC recently to discuss online trends and the future of content sharing. With Facebook going public and the relative success of new sites like Pinterest, it’s an important, big question and one that Peretti might be qualified to answer. In a packed auditorium at the Hearst building in Manhattan, he rolled out his vision.
“There’s a big shift happening and we’re at the beginning of it,” he said. “There are still industries to be disrupted. You need to think from the perspective of a user that wants to share something…The real key to a lot this stuff is emotional intelligence.”
Peretti cofounded the Huffington Post, a site that has revolutionized blogging and news online by mixing the two. Now he runs BuzzFeed, a hub for headlines like “Goat Massage” and “40 Things That Make Corgis Happy,” based on a type of emotional intelligence. In his address, Peretti referred to BuzzFeed as a “giant content site for the social world.” He described this world as one identified typically through social networking sites Facebook and Twitter but getting more social by the minute.
The socialization, so to speak, of content online happened in stages, according to Peretti. The first stage was that of portals like Yahoo, which catered to a general audience. They were the sites, with big home pages and categories, through which users had to go for content. The next step was the search stage. Think Ask Jeeves and About.com. Users began finding content by requesting it. The Internet was opening up and users were starting to have an influence on the creation and promotion of content. That led to the social stage.
He said one of the most interesting trends he’s spotted in the social stage is the tide of users who go to BuzzFeed looking for something to share on their Facebook pages. He said it represents a shift from how content was consumed before. It’s a sign that the audience sees themselves less as just that. They’re aware that they’re more than an audience. They’re participants.
Peretti’s big prediction was the streamlining of content online. “Facebook is the best example of content expanding from friend updates,” he said. “As Facebook matures, there’s news now and people are getting comfortable with a social world where everything their friends care about is mixing together.” In preparation for this, BuzzFeed has made changes like the addition of ex-Politico writer, Ben Smith as editor-in-chief. Their first scoop with Smith was Sen. John McCain’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. According to Peretti, BuzzFeed beat CNN by 30 minutes.
His strongest case study seemed to be his own company. BuzzFeed, with its simple headlines and variable content, is mostly directed by the interests of its users and their reactions to content all over the World Wide Web. In fact, the site goes as far as to organize content into categories based on users’ reactions. With one click, you could vote something as a “fail” and with another, browse a lists of “wins.”
During the presentation, Peretti brought up a slide of basset hounds running, their droopy folds flapping in the wind. He said such content is decidedly shareable because of its common appeal. It can go onto your best friend’s Facebook wall or be sent to your grandmother in an email. The key to creating sharable content in the social age is finding material that defines a moment, said Peretti. “Let the user become invested in the story…People are the gatekeepers in the social media world, not Google’s algorithm.”
This is a guest post by SMW veteran Joyce Sullivan.
This is my 2nd year as a Social Media Week NYC speaker and attendee. After getting my feet wet last year curating and moderating a panel on the emerging world of social media for financial services, I thought I’d dive in again talking about Social Media Strategy for Financial Services.
We finished our setup work on Monday with our live event on Tuesday, Feb 14th – and yes, I wore red on stage for Valentines Day! The planning and prep paid off, as we had a full house at @NYITManagement Auditorium. We had good feedback in person, and via our Twitter feed using our hastag#SMWFinServ. If you missed us, and want to know about all the fun facts on how to do social media in the highly regulated financial services industry, this link’s for you! We also Storified our tweets! You can also catch me on Livestream or on Twitter @JoyceMSullivan and @SocMediaFin.
My Day as a Social Media Week Attendee
With my SMW presentation complete, it was now time to enjoy the talks from the other side of the stage. I had a full day starting at Big Fuel bright and early listening to Rachel Stearne (whom I met in the elevator on the way up!). So great to hear what’s going on in the NYC digital space with Rachel at the helm as Chief Digital Officer for Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Free wifi in the parks is today a reality but just a beginning. It may be a bit longer before we have it on the subways, which Rachel mentioned was one of the biggest requests. However, the city will be providing lots of support for the NY Tech start up community. Rachel encouraged all to check out all the NYC Digital happenings.
As part of her first 90 days with the City, she created the Road Map for the Digital City outlining a path to build on New York City’s successes and establish it as the world’s top-ranked Digital City. They make it easy to keep up with these news making and news breaking innovators: @rachelsterne@edpilkington@nycgov@NYCDigital.
I had planned to head over to another venue but since I had a front row seat at Big Fuel (check out my pics of the stage!) I thought I’d hang a bit longer and see what’s going on with social TV. Yahoo! kicked off the event with Patrick Albano on stage introducing the next talented panel for Social Television: Opportunities for Broadcasters and Advertisers. I absolutely loved the Into Now app demoed by the sartorially resplendent Edwin Wong of Yahoo!.
Though I’m trying to stay neutral (for now!) with the upcoming 2012 US election, the talk by Edward O’Keefe of ABC News demoing their new OTUS News app they developed with Blue Fin Labs is a game changer. And for the finale we had Beth Reilly of Kraft Foods showcasing the success and fun of engaging their audience with their latest Cheesy Skillets Liquid Gold spots. Who would have thought Velveeta could get this much of a rise out of folks.. well, the Liquid Gold Blacksmith guy has a little bit to do with it! Keep up with these app makers: @intonow and @OTUSNews and @kraftfoods.
Next up was my fave Joe Fernandez of Klout interviewed in front of a digital fireplace by Big Fuel CEO Jon Bond. I’ve been an early adopter of Klout and have watched them soar and swoop down – a bit – in the last few months. They continue to be the digital global influence leader. It was interesting to hear after the US, the next biggest countries for Klout are #2 Brazil and #3 Japan.
Joe told some inside tales about the handlers of the rich and famous coming to see him and asking why some other big star had a higher Klout score. For such a successful global influence disruptor, Joe is very down to earth and approachable. See what I mean: @JoeFernandez and catch Jon Bond at @JonBond57.
Time to walk around and check out the rest of the goings on at Big Fuel. Yummy (and free!) food from @wholefoodsNYC in the back was a good way to refuel. The charge stations throughout the floor gave me a chance to charge up my devices and meet others. As I turned around to say hello to the folks around me, I met @BeVisible, whom I have followed for the past year but had never met in person. Always great to meet old school in real life.
It was a double header day for Joe Fernandez who was also on the Global Influence panel. Along with Joe, we got an insightful and fun perspective on how this group influences their online community from Funk Flex aka @FunkMasterFlex, along with Brandon Evans of CrowdTap, moderated by Ben Luntz of Big Fuel. It was especially fun to have Funk and Joe sharing their views on how to be influential. Joe said he started following Funk right before this event to get to know him. This Livestream is definitely worth another listen. It’s on my replay list.
It was time to get some fresh air and check out another venue. I decided to go to a non-hub event to check out the ‘indie’ SMWNYC scene. I picked “Can We Tweet Yet, Social Media in Financial Services” hosted by Joanna Belbey of Actiance a few blocks away. It was a nice sized group and with a slide show, and some handouts, Joanna took the group through the ins and out of social media regulation in a clear and approachable manner.
This was great live theater; no livestream for this one, folks, though you can follow more of Joanna’s insights on twitter: @Belbey and on BelbeyBlogs.
I wanted to also attend Email and Social Media up at Thomson Reuters taking place at the same time uptown. I had heard Wendi Caplan-Carroll of Constant Contact speak at other events and wanted to catch her latest insights. Next best thing?.. watch it on Livestream and find out what Fanbruary is all about! Great intro by Brady Hahn of Crowdcentic introducing Nick Hahn (any relation?), Wendy Caplan-Carroll, Noel Descalzi, Gabby Bernstein, and Josh Mendelsohn. So many great insights of how to use email marketing as part of social media to reach your target audience. Being authentic is key, and you can see all the insights here.
And my day is done! Being on the Social Media Week stage and watching the events on stage, are both exhilarating AND exhausting. Everyone have fun out there!
Joyce Sullivan is a recognized industry expert in social media networking through emerging social media networking tools. A financial services industry veteran, Joyce speaks frequently on the convergence of social media and the financial services industry. She’s been recognized for her social media networking expertise through seminars, and you can watch Joyce’s interview with CNBC anchor and journalist, Maria Bartiromo, on career reinvention and the use of social media networking on “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo.” Keep up with her online.
Hoda Emam is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism, and one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC. This is her account, both written and photographic, of “Challenging Conventional Wisdom of Social Media: Socmedia Editors Share Their Latest Ideas.”
In the same room that Anthony Shadid’s work was twice decided as worthy of a Pultizer Prize for International Reporting, Social Media Week attendees gathered to celebrate his life.
When news of his death broke out on February 16, the online community took to various social media platforms to mourn his loss. Anthony Shadid was even trending worldwide on Twitter.
At the Columbia School of Journalism Joseph Pulitzer World Room, guests of the event placed down their smart phones and laptops to stand for a moment of silence. Several of the attendees of Social Media Week approached the podium to express their thoughts.
Professor Ann Cooper, an internationally known journalist and executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists said, “It feels like I have lost a trusted guide to what has happened in the Middle East.”
In April 2011, Anthony Shadid and three of his NY Times colleagues were released from captivity in Libya. Their first public event after their return was at Columbia University. In response to why Shadid covers stories that takes him to dangerous parts of the world, Cooper read a comment that Shadid made during the discussion, “We are taking these risks because these stories wouldn’t be told otherwise.”
Shadid was also a great influence for many aspiring journalists including, Namo Abdullah, a graduate student from Kurdistan. Abdullah’s voice trembled as he reminisced Shadid’s support and inspiration over the two years of their friendship. “If there were no Anthony I wouldn’t have understood even my own country, as good as I do now.”
Liz Heron, the NY Times social media editor, had worked with Shadid and his wife Nada Bakri for a period of time. She took to the podium and commented on Shadid’s passing. “It also makes me realize that you know his brand of foreign correspondence is so vital today, even among all these new different models of foreign correspondence that we are coming up with now,” said Heron. “It’s really complimentary to the kind of social media correspondence that is coming up and it can’t be left behind.”
Shadid, 43, was known for his gifted eye for detail and his contextual writing. He leaves behind Columbia Graduate and NY Times reporter Nada Bakri and their two children.
Before moving into the final panel discussion for Social Media Week attendees were reminded of Shadid’s humble character. His twitter page was displayed showing his title as simply a “Journalist and Writer.” In a time when social media is understood to be a platform to display ones credits and experiences, Shadid’s profile is a model of selflessness.
Hoda Emam is currently an Master of Science candidate in Digital Media at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Hoda’s recent experience includes working with ABC News and the United Nations.
Donovan X. Ramsey is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism and one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC.
What the hell is transmedia? It was certainly the question on my mind. Having been trained as a print journalist, I considered it a feather in my cap to have digital media skills. In fact, I was live tweeting the “Collaborative Storytelling” panel as a part of New York’s Social Media Week. Twitter is something journalists are just starting to really understand. Now this? So there I was, and iPad in my lap for note taking, my digital camera around my neck and cell phone in hand for tweeting. Was I creating in transmedia? The panelists would attempt an answer.
The panel was lively, made possible in part by gag slides displayed behind the speakers. It included Lina Srivastava, Mark Harris, Brian Clark and Aina Abiodun, who served as moderator. The diverse group was often funny and consistently thoughtful.
Srivastava studied law at New York University and now runs Lina Srivastava Consulting, where she promotes transmedia activism. She also makes documentaries like “Born into Brothels” and “The Devil Came on Horseback.” Mark Harris makes films too and unlike the other panelists he might be considered something of a techie. Harris develops software to “facilitate transmedia experiences.” Brian Clark is the CEO of GMD Studios, a company I deduce is an ad agency that works across platforms. He calls himself an “experience designer.” Our moderator, Aina Abiodun, said she stumbled into transmedia while working on a film. She is yet another filmmaker that has expanded the reach of her work through the elusive “transmedia.”
In an interview with Ad Geek in 2011, Abiodun defined transmedia as “a style of storytelling in which one core narrative idea sprouts many rich, new story tentacles across media platforms.” The discussion kicked off with each panelist’s individual definition of the term. This led to the first tangible revelation surrounding transmedia: no one can agree on exactly what it is. There were words that came up regularly however. There was talk of storytelling, experiences and collaboration.
Clark brought up the popular “It Gets Better” campaign as an example. “It Gets Better,” the series of videos across the Internet is certainly collaborative. Everyone from President Obama to average Youtube users has recorded themselves to share stories of adversity in youth with the underlying mission of preventing suicide in LGBT teenagers. Abiodun didn’t think that was transmedia. She argued that the medium was still practically the same: video.
Then Abiodun asked a question that was sure to raise some dander “Is the bible transmedia?” The panel bounced the idea around for a while. There is the story told by a cathedral for example and that of the text. There are sermons and stained glass windows depicting biblical scenes. Heck, there are even movies like “The Ten Commandments.” The debate fired up. Srivastava offered that transmedia can’t be accidental, there has to be some intention. Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John intend on a multi-platform experience?
A slide appeared behind the speakers that read, “You’ve grown old and died at this panel.” I looked to my phone and saw tweets flooding in with the hashtag #smwtransmedia. The audience was uploading and sharing pictures of the slide, arguing about the concepts of transmedia while the panel did. One Twitter user wrote, “#smwtransmedia wondering if the slide experience is dependent on the conversation.”
If Srivastava, Harris, Clark and Abiodun couldn’t agree on a definition, they may have designed an experience toward one.
This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Opal Vadham, please click here.
What do you get when you put a Managing Editor, A Director of Global Marketing, 3 Founders, and A supermodel in one panel? A whole lot of inspiration, and not one seat left unattended. 30 Floors above Times Square, people were excited and anxious to hear about the panel that was about to take place. It was none other than the highly anticipated panel that was all over our Twitter feeds-The New Face of Social Good: How To Make Your Own Social Media Magic! Hosted by none other than my favorite organization She’s the First (who we have previously featured on our website.)
The event started out with an introduction from supermodel Alek Wek who She’s the First connected with through Twitter. I was lucky enough to meet her before and she specifically said she was completely against getting on twitter, the only technology she could use is email and that was good for her. But after many people persuaded her she caved in and joined in November, and since then she says it’s such a positive thing that raises awareness, it’s an outlet that we take for granted because countries like Africa don’t have it. I had to ask her, since I am at a She’s the First sponsored event what she is the first in her family to do and she says she’s the first to be a model (even though her mom at first told her NO), and her memoir is translated in up to 10 languages. And my favorite question of all- her advice to all of our readers out there-”Be YOURSELF. Even though sometimes you feel shy, there are people who are going to love you and identify with you and grow with you. One thing I thought to myself is that I couldn’t do this as long as I did if I wasn’t myself with the people who knew me. Be Yourself, Believe in yourself, and even though some people won’t, if you have few good friends you can count on your fingers, you’re set. “
After Aleks incredible introduction the panel which featured Adam Braun founder of Pencils of Promise, Susan McPherson director of global marketing firm at Fenton Communications, Michael Radparvar cofounder of Holstee, Tammy Tibbetts founder of She’s the First, and was moderated by none other than Mashable’s Managing Director Emily Banks. All of the panelists agreed that Social Media changed their life. The advice that was given was priceless, Michael said there is nothing more important then the first people you work with, and you love them like a marriage because you end up spending countless of hours with them. Adam said it’s okay not to start something; you can still be the head of marketing or the head of something. Find what you’re most passionate about, and seek work within it. And Susan made a great point about there are 3 times as many non-profits there were 10 years ago, but far less income. One of the best quotes of the nights was “A good tweet is like a good headline, it’s what grabs you to read the article, has to be catchy, that way your twitter is like your own magazine publication.”- Tammy Tibbetts The panelists agreed that the two biggest things of social media is transparency and storytelling.
Adam Braun also took few minutes to answer questions for our Differences readers, he told me that a lot of hard work goes into overnight successes but if you believe in something relentlessly, it will happen. He also gave the advice for our teens to find your passion and find an organization out there and work with them, and if it feels right, you know you’re doing the right thing.
Throughout the event many people were also tweeting and connected because they were apart of changing a girls life. The Think Cloud agreed to donate a dollar to every tweet with the hash tag SMWMagic, and at the end of the night 1,137 #SMWMagic tweets generated 1,725,630 impressions, reaching audience of 621,260 followers! All of us were apart of something bigger than the event itself, we sponsored Eli’s senior year of high school in Tanzania!
It’s so funny because around a month ago I had a meeting with Tammy and she was telling me about all the exciting upcoming events she was in the process of doing. And I remember her specifically telling me about this Social Media Week event and all she had planned for it. And to see it all come to life, all run smoothly without a glitch was incredible. It was the most popular Social Media Week event, and I can honestly say the most inspiring as well.
Looking back, I’m feeling a very different emotion than I was at the start of Social Media Week last Monday. Five panels… what was I thinking? Yes, I was only “formally” participating in three of them, and yes, there was an accomplished support team ensuring smooth operations. Nevertheless, there was the required planning, research, logistics and rehearsal time that was required to ensure success and audience approval.
The good news, of course, is I survived, and the reviews have indeed been positive. But more importantly (for me),I was fortunate enough to be influenced and inspired by all my panel co-conspirators and each one has left an indelible imprint on me. Social Media Week’s magic came through!
The week started with a panel on Monday consisting of DotEarth blogger and former NY Times environment reporter Andy Revkin, third generation environmentalist and Plant A Fish founder Fabien Cousteau, and marine biologist Dr. David Guggenheim; it was moderated by Guardian US editor Janine Gibson. The topic, Will Social Media Help Solve Global Climate Change?, was timely and included a rich and vibrant audience discussion. Along with my friend Anthony DeRosa, Thomson Reuters’s social media guru, my role was to find and secure the speakers – not an easy task given the well-known challenge that most accomplished scientists don’t rate themselves highly on communications and public speaking. Fortunately, each speaker was eloquent and conveyed the need to talk up the successes that we are witnessing in the environment rather than harboring on the challenges and social media can be an effective medium to do so. The ending consensus, however, was a bit more ominous: “we have much work to do to better communicate what climate change is and isn’t.”
Tuesday morning, Fenton opened its doors to an early morning crowd curious to learn about NGOs, Causes and the Original Interest Graphs. Joining the stage was director of global communications for The Estee Lauder Companies Sabrina Dupre, open editor at Guardian US Amanda Michel, and vice president of business development for Causes James Windon. The panel was expertly moderated by Fenton’s SVP, Digital John Gordon. During the 90 minutes, the panelists offered their tips on the best way to build and nurture a nonprofit’s constituency so that it can be of greater value to the media, corporate underwriters and sponsors. One memorable insight came from Dupre, who recommended always having an “and then” strategy after asking audiences to take action through social media.
Since hosting only one event in 24 hours is just not enough, I headed over to the SMW Health & Wellness Hub on Tuesday night to curate and moderate a panel entitled Women, Money & Social Power: What Made The Komen Debacle A Win For Women.Panelists included NY Times reporter Jennifer Preston, digital strategist Deanna Zandt, and writers Rachel Sklar, Amanda Marcotte and Chloe Angyal. The very timely discussion centered on what we learned from the very recent debacle. One question I asked provoked discussion online and offline: “If you could turn back time, what advice would you have provided to Susan G. Komen’s president, Nancy Brinker?” The panelists were far from shy to respond during the hour and we closed the session thinking we should share a link from the panel with the management team of the Komen foundation.
Wednesday morning I woke up to participate as a panelist in CSR and Social Media: Are they Aligned in your Organization? alongside Campbell Soup’s VP of CSR Dave Stangis, Lippe Taylor’s VP of Digital Sloane Berrent, Toyota’s Assistant Manager, Philanthropy Kelly Fisher. The conversation was moderated by CSRWire’s Editorial Director Aman Singh. 70 guests filled Fenton’s conference room and actively participated. Highlights included watching Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good video and the video for Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment’s “We Can Be Heroes” campaign, which raises funds for the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. All the panelists emphasized the importance of cause campaigns being created authentically and from the soul of the particular company. Not an easy task for some of the larger corporations in the room given the complexities and various departments involved in such campaigns. There was also extensive discussion around the pressures on CSR professionals to learn how to communicate in today’s rapid media landscape so they don’t have to depend on marketing and communications departments for extensive support.
By Thursday eve, I couldn’t help but wish it had been Social Media Day rather than Social Media Week. But with one more panel to go, I drank an extra cup of coffee (and a Diet Coke) and persevered. Last but not least was The New Face of Social Good – How To Make Your Own Social Media Magic. The panel featuredPencils of Promise Founder and CEO Adam Braun, Holstee’s Mike Radparvar, She’s the First’s Founder Tammy Tibbits and me, with moderation by Mashable’s Emily Banks. It was standing-room only at Thomson Reuters’s 30th floor conference room. To everyone’s delight, She’s The First provided their special Social Media Week-branded cupcakes. We shared our thoughts and wisdom on what works and what doesn’t for nonprofits in the world of social media. A favorite tip from Radparvar: “things go viral when they are meaningful, never because you try to make them go viral.”
So looking back, with a heavy sigh, I survived! What were the week’s highlights? In no necessary order, a few:
1. Connecting with such extraordinary people, each doing his and her part to make our world a better place
2. Witnessing first-hand the power and ingenuity of Social Media Week, a platform that will only continue to grow and influence our world. I was so pleased that my firm, Fenton, participated and supported.
3. And finally by Thursday eve’s panel, no longer feeling like Lily Tomlin on the old TV show Laugh-In, because my feet actually reached the ground!
Susan McPherson is Senior Vice President at Fenton, the nation’s leading public interest communications firm. With over twenty years experience in marketing, public relations, communications and business development, Susan brings a wealth of knowledge to Social Media Week. In addition to participating on our Advisory Board, Susan serves on the board of Bpeace, an organization dedicated to assisting women in regions of conflict start businesses. She is a member of Echoing Green’s Social Investment Council and the New York Leadership team for 85Broads, and advises both Plant A Fish and The OpEd Project.
This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Vivian Nunez, please click here.
Watching any kind of sports game has always been considered a very social experience, but in the last few years that social experience has transitioned more and more into a social media experience. Many of the questions that were addressed in the first half of the panel had to do with social media and whether its involvement in sports would take away from the integrity of the sporting event. The overall verdict was that a balance needed to be reached between physical “in the moment” interaction and virtual interaction with sporting events.
Sports networks have begun to use mass relevance as the perfect gateway to incorporate social media into the sports experience. They have also been using mass relevance as the perfect way to bridge the gap between those experiencing the event live and those tuning in through other platforms. The advantage to this particular kind of interaction is the conversation that emerges as a result. Many young adults are as plugged in to the TV set as they are to their smart phones while watching sports; the use of mass relevance really allows their voice to be heard regardless of where they are watching the event from.
Social media has also been incorporated into the everyday life of sports through its athletes. MLS, NBA, NFL, MLB, and the NHL all have athletes that connect to their audience through Twitter and although that interaction really helps leverage the brand as a whole, its most important contribution is the relationship it establishes. The use of social media cuts out the middleman that tends to exist between a fan and his favorite athlete. For the young adult demographic it is monumental to be able to speak or share thoughts with your favorite athlete or sports personality through Twitter, Google+, or any other social media platform.
The integration of social media into the sporting event really assists each sporting channel because as stated in the panel “fans are the insider perspective of games”, a lens you can get no where else. As a result, the Millennial generation can relate more to a game if they are also able to capture the moment and update their friends about it. The best aspect of being able to use social media through the season is that it is also as easy to get information during off-season, a win-win for both the sports brands and the sports aficionados.
The same theory of social media interaction in sports events is found in the gaming world. The gaming world might even be using it to a greater extent because it is their only base to be able to compare how good they are versus how good everyone else. Nonetheless the idea is the same, if social media was incorporated correctly and information was not only stated but used to start conversations the sports industry and it’s audience would benefit endlessly from it.
I can’t recap my first day of Social Media Week NYC without mentioning the night that preceded it. Speakers at 9am always seem more colorful when they’re presenting on the heels of a crazy party. And Social Media Week’s 2012 Opening Reception – hosted by Nokia and held at the Greenwich Village Country Club – included an open bar and competitive sports. I knew I was headed for a great week when I hit, not one, but TWO hole-in-ones over 7 holes of mini golf! Given that we live in a digital world, I’m shocked and saddened that nobody filmed my moments of glory (okay, luck). Nevertheless, the tone was set for a special week – and the following day’s events did not disappoint.
Keynote: Gabe Zichermann on The Business of Fun: How Gamification Will Change Your Organization: I’m in the (green) gamification business and Gabe Zichermann is my guru. While my personal focus centers on leveraging gamification to promote sustainability, if you’re even remotely involved in game-based marketing, you can thank Gabe Z for evangelizing the movement and making it tangible. He literally wrote the book on gamification, which he defines as “the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage people and solve problems.” As always, Gabe’s talk was a mix of thought innovation, business application and unadulterated fun. While I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Gabe speak numerous times, he drops new gems with each appearance. This presentation included my first exposure to the concept of “fluid intelligence,” which characterizes the ability to think critically and solve problems. It’s juxtaposed with “crystalized intelligence,” which essentially translates to book smarts. It turns out that – despite popular conception – children are becoming smarter if you measure wits by fluid intelligence. Early and frequent exposure to games and technology is wiring their brains for multi-tasking and tackling complex challenges. This is one reason why renowned experts ranging from Dr. Jane McGonigal to Raph Koster argue that games have the power to change the world for the better. Considering Social Media Week’s 2012 global theme of Empowering Change Though Collaboration, Gabe was the ideal catalyst to press “game on” and kick off the festivities.
This Game Will Make You Healthier: My next stop spoke directly to my lifestyle. As a vegan and exercise enthusiast, I take great care to manage my diet and health regimen. Along with refreshing my body with Vita Coco, I came away from this event – organized by Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness – with a greater understanding of the intersection between health and information technology. As a perfect segue from my morning session, the panelists discussed how game mechanics like challenges, points, rewards and leaderboards can lead people to better physical fitness and nutrition. The drivers are grounded in principles of behavioral psychology and the innate human desires to achieve, be social and get appreciated. Executives from companies such as MapMyFITNESS and HealthPrize demonstrated how their mobile apps and interactive web platforms provide real-time feedback to keep people motivated and on track toward better health.
Chocolate Tasting Networking Party for NYC’s Social Good Community: Being an entrepreneur can be lonely. The long hours, nonexistent vacations and constant pressure are enough to depress the spirits of even the most passionate founder. But being a social entrepreneur is unique: in addition to making money, we are driven by a mission to create a better world. The most valuable currency for an entrepreneur is inspiration. I received a full plate of it (and ethically-sourced chocolate), courtesy of COMMON, Design for Social Innovation at SVA and the Social Innovators Collective, who collectively brought together a diverse, dynamic and dedicated group of people – most of whom were also dateless, considering it was Valentine’s Day and we were all still “working.” I write “working” in quotes because, as the saying goes, when you have a job you love, you never work a day in your life. This event reminded me how fortunate I am to align my personal values with my professional career, and meet the coolest people in the world along the way.
The bottom-line. My experience at Social Media Week NYC wasn’t business or personal: it was both.
Conventional thinking dictates that technology—including social media— and education are at odds with each other. Between the amount time student spend of Facebook, and the rise of pay-for-papers sites, many administrators and teachers have permanently blacklisted all of these programs in their schools. However, social media cannot be valued in such a constricted prism. There are many unorthodox uses for social media, which would engage the nation’s children.
Ms. Seideman goes beyond the traditional use of a Blackboard/WebCt component for her classes; during one occasion, she asked her students to take out their cell phones and reach their parents to answer a question about the Vietnam war , within minutes there were texts from parents and relatives offering many views on this war. During the panel, she explained that she wanted to bring the ‘world into her classroom.’ Moreover, I asked her what fueled her passion about social and bringing into the classroom, she stated, “I created my blog as an outlet for me to actually share my ideas about a year ago, and now I have 11 thousand people who have been to it, which I think is pretty amazing. I was sharing ideas with friends but I was never getting the responses I wanted back. And by going on twitter and other social media sites, I was able to expand my teaching and improve it. I think that is what inspired me, I wanted to meet teachers like myself.”
In addition, the use of social media hasn’t only had a positive affect for Ms. Seideman’s teaching, she sees the transformative effect it has on one of her students: “I have one student who will use My Big Campus or edmodo and post articles and things he has from class, and I think that is the epitome of what you want education to be, where they are going outside of a classroom and online to find resources and things to add to the online community. And he will actually find things that add to our discussions and post them on to our virtual class.” Furthermore, for all of those teachers— who like Melissa—want to include social media in the curriculum for their classes, she kindly shared with me a few of her favorite sites: “I get a lot of ideas from Free technology for teachers. Technology Tidbits. Teaching paperless is a wonderful site, their whole blog is about teaching a paperless classroom. Polls Everywhere is a cell phone service to use in the classroom. And Teaching Generation Text is all about texting.
Yet, the learning experience does not end with a high school diploma. In the beginning of the session, 2tor Co-Founder Jeremy Johnson —whose online learning system partners with universities to create online course programs for their students—- stressed the importance of social interactions of the university setting, and how he implemented that into his online business model: “In order to get the benefit of a high quality of education, you need to interact with other smart students, you need to only let in students who get into [the university] and you needed to actually interact with them the way we are talking right now, and to see them in real time and to actually engage in conversation.” Like Ms. Seideman, 2tor saw the potential and value that Social Media added to their online business, “What we set out to do was to essentially build a learning management system that actually looked far more like Facebook than Blackboard…in order to let people recreate those hyper campus conversations. Because inherently, what social media is doing is allowing you to connect online more deeply with other people. We felt we needed to bring that into academia,” said Johnson.
In the same vein that high school is changing because of social media, college will adapt and reform as well. 2tor CEO John Katzman stated in his panel that perhaps colleges will never be completely done online, however, that taking a semester online to either travel, do philanthropic work, or even having job would be a quite attractive alternative to student—especially since the price of college is incredibly expensive. Perhaps, a complete and robust online high education experience is not that far off from reality.
During a Social Media Week 2012 panel at JWT on Tuesday, Jennifer Creegan, General Manager, Brand Advertising Business for Microsoft Advertising and Brant Barton Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer for Bazaar Voice announced an ad platform partnership dubbed “People Powered Stories.”
Recent research by Microsoft’s Bing shows that consumers trust sources outside of social networks when making purchasing decisions – mainly online reviews. Based on this research, Microsoft will soon introduce a new ad format for brands and publishers aimed at providing consumers with the purchasing information they need, when they need it – all around the web. Think Facebook sponsored stories outside of the Facebook domain.
In order to do this, they’ve enlisted the services of Bazaar Voice, a “a Software as a Service (SaaS) company that turns social media into social commerce by enabling authentic customer-powered marketing.” In simpler terms, Bazaar Voice is the preeminent source for customer reviews, powering the review platforms for many of the top Global brands.
Starting soon, Microsoft’s ad publishers will have the option to activate this new type of targeted display ad featuring a brand message and highlighted consumer reviews. The initial test campaign was for Windows 7 and was targeted at college students. The ad ran across Microsoft properties that offered audience targeting capabilities to assure college students would see the Windows 7 reviews at sites they visited frequently online. The results Microsoft reported back were impressive:
Ad believability increased 20 points above the market norms for technology ads
6.3% lift in purchase intent
13.5% lift in unaided brand awareness
Example of "People Powered Stories" creative
Despite the encouraging sales pitch and test results from Microsoft and Bazaar Voice, there are some still some pending questions about the product. For example, will consumers trust that the advertiser and Bazaar Voice are serving up authentic customer reviews? Bazaar Voice prides themselves on this very concept, but consumers tend to be wary.
Further, there isn’t any connection to the social graph within the ad unit. If someone decides to click on the ad, they can’t easily share what they’ve learned with their own social graph. Although Microsoft is trying to “go beyond the like,” it is important to recognize the importance of the social graph and layer it across all media properties.
Finally, the quality of review curation remains to be seen. The reviews will be contextual, based on the interests of the consumer being targeted. But will this targeting have as great of an impact as Yelp’s “highlighted reviews,” which take the most mentioned terms in a database of reviews and bring them to the forefront? That might be a feature that is integrated in the future, but in the Windows 7 example, reviews weren’t curated in that manner.
Leave a comment if you’ve come across any of these ads yet, or what you think of the idea.
As Brand Channel Manager at pure-play social media agency Big Fuel, Ross Sheingold focuses on trying to keep the “social” in social media by creating lifestyle content that consumers actually care about. Aside from the four years spent at Penn State University, Ross has been a New Yorker living in Manhattan for the whole of his nearly 30 years on the planet. When he isn’t staying up to date on the current digital and social media trends and “geeking out” on the latest tech gadget, he spends time on his fan advocacy cause as the man behind @StadiumInsider. You can follow Ross on Twitter @RossSheingold and on Google+ http://gplus.to/RossS
A highly-anticipated event, with over a hundred guests in attendance, Beyond the Like was filled to its capacity with guests even standing throughout the presentation.
It was the launch of Microsoft’s new product, “People Powered Stories.”
Microsoft Advertising collaborated with Bazaar Voice, a software as a service (SaaS) company that integrates customers social data to help brands leverage content. Microsoft Advertising’s General Manager for Brand Advertising, Jennifer Creegan, and Bazaar Voice’s co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Brant Barton, came to introduce the product.
Using the “Back to School” campaign as their test pad, Microsoft took reviews of Windows 7 from their target audience, high school students, and displayed them on their banner ads. Microsoft is aiming to make banner ads content more social to add relate-ability with clients. And they were did it. “Back to School” was a success for Microsoft, who now looks toward marketing “People Powered Stories” to other brands.
The move to produce “People Powered Stories” came when Bing, a Microsoft company, conducted research that showed audiences look to reviews more than to social networks for advice on products. This prompted Microsoft to look into developing a user-generated reviews to market a product. The company believes that having users submit their reviews adds believability to the ad on sites.
The company still uses engagement time as a metric to determine relevancy of ad with consumers, a metric that was dismissed by another panel: Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N. When interviewed, Creegan stressed that Microsoft isn’t using engagement time as the only metric but does factor it into their evaluations.
“That’s why we have three metrics: purchase, believability and engagement time,” said Creegan, making their process a sound launching pad.
Trinna Leong is from Malaysia and had two years of work experience in the online advertising industry before deciding to trade the sweltering tropical heat for a chance to pursue journalism at Columbia University. Prior to switching fields, she has worked on projects for Nike, IKEA and Citibank. You can follow her on Twitter at @trinnaleong.
“If you are asking for someone to pay attention, you are probably doing the wrong thing.”
Engaging consumers has been a difficult task for all advertisers in today’s fast paced age. The day’s panel of five industry experts in the field of advertising and marketing came together to discuss what works and what doesn’t in capturing audience’s attention.
“People are more interested in being the curator, purveyor,” said Vanessa Montes, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Fuse. All panelists agreed that consumers usually pay attention through “word of mouth” when friends introduce an item or brand.
That said, brands would want to generate positive talk-ability amongst its audience. Examples given by the panel included the Chipotle ad that aired at the Grammys; an ad that Adrian Barrow, Head of Planning at JWT’s New York office, thought was “artful” (while stating that overall “brands have developed the touch on how to behave on entertainment channels”); and the PETA ad that Michael Learmonth, Digital Editor at Advertising Age, felt strongly against. With the PETA ad, Leamonth felt that the message was that being vegan increases sex drive, but by painting a woman who looks sexually abused, PETA was not sending out a positive message.
Another key point brought up by the panelists is that in social media networks, brands have ended up looking at numbers instead of content. Quantity has been ranked higher than quality, causing brands to lose sight of engagement with their audience.
“Social media is a media that exists between people. For it to pay off, it has to be nurtured,” added Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of Deep Focus.
“Instead of focusing on number of likes and posts, advertisers should focus on what people are talking about on the page,” said Schafer.
The general consensus from the panelists was that advertisers in the midst of trying to pull in more fans end up failing to determine what to do with the fans they have on social media. The worst metric to measure is one that measures how long users spend on a page.
Barrow also argued that consumers now want “something that can help them make the best use of their time” because then “they’ll award brands with some attention.” This defines a new role for agencies to produce new ideas that is useful for consumers.
Panelists also commented on the importance of brands making sure that their brand stays relevant by encouraging audiences to talk about the brand instead of the celebrity that endorses it. Ultimately, the main takeaway for brands is to have engagement fueled by consumers not by brands.
Trinna Leong is from Malaysia and had two years of work experience in the online advertising industry before deciding to trade the sweltering tropical heat for a chance to pursue journalism at Columbia University. Prior to switching fields, she has worked on projects for Nike, IKEA and Citibank. You can follow her on Twitter at @trinnaleong.
The final day of what was an exhaustingly inspiring Social Media Week NYC 2012 was fittingly characterized by informative, engaging sessions covering the LinkedIn, Tumblr, and – of course – complimentary open bar bases. Here are the finals words from Day 5, capping off a tremendous week of activity:
The LinkedIn Difference: How Brands Are Building Deep Connections with Professionals: Linkedin Director of Eastern Region Marketing Solutions Dale Durrett led an enlightening panel discussion highlighting ways top brands are at the leading edge by marketing on LinkedIn to both businesses and consumers alike. Key takeaways from the session were that the LinkedIn space – which as of this writing has 150+ million users – is a largely untapped marketing opportunity for B2B and B2C outreach, and is ideal for companies to humanize their brands. “People buy from people!” was a tweet that was often re-tweeted during the panel, and its message is clear: with emerging tools available on the platform to carve out a significant presence, @LinkedIn truly allows brands to really add many faces to whatever they are selling through their employees.
Let’s Get Ready to Tumblr: Building community by reimagining and redistributing your content: In what was surely the most cozily, “alternative” venue for a Social Media Week session – the Chinatown headquarters of start-up Record Setter – a group of panelists shared their various positions on Tumblr as a serious method for gathering and sharing information with communities. While the panelists universally agreed that millions of people are sharing more than ever on Tumblr, surely a direct reflection of the new ways in which people are engaging with entertainment, news, and fashion content, they were surprisingly hesitant to – and in fact steered clear from – endorsing Tumblr as the go-to blogging platform for brands to engage on. Until Tumblr is ready to take analytics more seriously, the look and feel advantages it provides over the WordPress platform far from outweigh the latter’s platform leg-up on its competition.
Social Media Week Closing Party: The VIP invite-only closing bash of Social Media Week was characterized by much of the same Opening Party frivolities: an expansive open bar (thank you sponsors Bulldog Gin and Heineken for providing), lots of engaging conversations, and a terrific space (thank you District 36 for hosting). To top it all off, attendees were treated to music from an amazing DJ that expertly knew how to keep the party rocking all night; a memorable way all around to end what was a likewise tremendous week of activity.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
Janet Upadhye is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from The Agency of the Future.
“YouTube will not kill TV,” said Robert Davis, Director of Ogilvy’s Advanced Video Practice. “And actually, video never really killed the radio star.” What Davis meant by his colorful introduction is that agencies of the future need to stop thinking in absolutes. And instead focus on common threads.
Davis highlighted content as the most obvious common thread. The content remains the same in any medium, but how companies think about content needs to change. Davis, accompanied by Mitch Bernstein, Client Strategy Director and Martin Lange, executive Marketing Director of Digital Strategy, laid out ten strategies to create, what they called, a “Content Revolution.”
Briefly, those points included speaking in languages that audiences understand, making content more interactive, creating good distribution methods, measuring success rates by more than just views, creating content that is liberated from the interface, focusing on hand held devices to deliver content, and identifying who the target audience is and when and how they best receive content.
Social TV is one of the most important emerging strategies. A panel comprised of Peter Naylor of NBC Universal, Kimberly Meyers of GetGlue, Matt Crenshaw of Discovery Cannel, and Mark Ghuneim of Trendrr talked about how to socially activate TV audiences.
Ghuneim identified “calls to action” as great ways to get viewers involved. For example, American Idol asks viewers to discuss and vote for their favorite competitors. According to Trendrr, 420,000 people mentioned American Idol on social media sites during its premier on January 18 of this year. This shows increased involvement and a new way to measure a show’s success.
Meyers talked about one of her clients, Pepsi, and one of their new social media campaigns. Viewers that checked into watching the Super Bowl on Foursquare and Facebook received a sticker in the mail worth a free Pepsi. Without mentioning numbers, Meyers said that they strategy was very successful.
Social TV can actually change the artistic direction of a show. The USA Network allowed viewers to tweet about the new opening credits of the television drama White Collar. After an outpouring of negative comments, the network decided to change back to the old opening. “USA took the opinions of its viewers to heart,” said Naylor. “That is what social TV is all about.”
The way that people are watching TV has changed and Social TV is the networks’ response to that change. “People want to be able to discuss the shows that they love with other fans,” said Ghuneim. “Social TV allows viewers to do just that.”
Janet Upadhye is a multimedia journalist covering Hunts Point in the Bronx. In a past life, she was the Development Director at San Francisco Women Against Rape. During her decade in the Bay Area, she also organized within queer and trans communities for safety and justice. You can follow her on Twitter at jupadhye.
Social Media Week 2012, NYC hump-day edition continued the momentum built up during the week’s first forty-eight hours of events, featuring an exceptional keynote from Behance‘s CEO, as well as two spirited, highly interactive discussions around creating community and social engagement. Here were some of Day 3 highlights:
Keynote: Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, followed by GOOD Panel: Beyond Crowdsourcing: Using The Community To Report: Behance CEO, and Cornell grad (Go Big Red!), Scott Belsky kicked off the full-house session with a keynote addressing many his company’s initiatives to organize and empower the creative world to display and find talent every month. Named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business”, Scott kept packed audience compelled by sharing dynamic examples of how companies can harness their creative energy to yield the optimal output. The ensuing “Crowdsourcing” panel was a more broadly focused discussion on media’s relationship with its community – addressing media’s failures and successes to get authentic, meaningful anecdotes from its communities directly.
Creating community around your blog: Savvy self-promoting bloggers and freelancers alike came out in droves to the quirky Gershwin Hotel to enjoy an animated and refreshingly candid debate, hosted by Blogads, addressing ways bloggers can build strong communities. The discussion benefitted from each of the panelists’ divergent backgrounds and their keen willingness to offer very specific, actionable advice to the hyper engaged audience they were speaking to. Big kudos to the bloggers at GalaDarling.com, JessicaHarlow.com and ConcreteLoop.com for a job well done.
A Quizzical Evening in Social Media, hosted by BuzzFeed: Closing the day at JWT meant an early evening of light-hearted panel banter, a highly entertaining, rapid-fire game of Pub Quiz, and free T-shirts, food and booze to boot! Relevant thought leaders from BuzzFeed, OMD Word, GE and AdAge engaged the audience with a brief debate on how good social content is almost always surprising, unexpected, and – of course – quizzical. The open bar and prizes that followed were just delicious icing on top of a very scrumptious #socialmediaweek cake.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
Social Media Week’s Creating Music for the Social Web panel, hosted by SoundCtrl, took place this morning at Hearst Magazines, the Art & Culture Content Hub for this week’s events. Pitchfork Media President Chris Kaskie kicked off the morning with a keynote speech, where he talked about Pitchfork’s role as a kind of music discovery curator.
In the evolving world of music, where listeners are not only discovering songs and artists through their friends, but also through automated listening processes like Pandora, Pitchfork is using social media in conjunction with its website as a means of maintaining contextual relevancy and trustworthiness for its fans. Kaskie pointed out how the definition of “music ownership” is changing, and that some day he’ll leave his kids with “logins to cloud accounts and not record collections.” And while it isn’t Pitchfork’s responsibility to figure out how musicians can continue to generate revenue in light of this change in music consumption, he feels it is Pitchfork’s responsibility to cover music that their audience is interested in.
At present, Pitchfork finds that Twitter and Tumblr are two social media networks that augment their audience’s music discovery experience–as platforms to have conversations (Pitchfork.com does not allow user comments) and also to find content that is re-contextualized from Pitchfork.com.
Creating Music for the Social Web
The panel included a range of industry professionals: Jessie Kirshbaum (Nue Agency and SoundCtrl), Maura Johnson (Music Editor at Village Voice), Josh Deutsch (CEO at Downtown Music), Asher Roth (rapper) and Chris Kaskie (President at Pitchfork Media).
The panel, lead by Josh Deutsch, discussed the role that the web has played in the music business. Asher Roth, the only musician on the panel, gave insight into how the musician is tasked with not only creating music, but also navigating the social space in a way that is effective and efficient. Because, as he remarked, it seems that right now there are “so many tools…I just need a knife and a fork.”
Creating music for the social web, however, can be a liberating process. The creative freedom that comes from being unbound by the expectations and constraints imposed by traditional record labels can be a major reward for an artist. Kaskie also pointed out that although there are many record labels doing great things, today people don’t pay as much attention to record labels. The production, distribution and success of an artist all come down to the audience’s interest level in the music and the artist. Fans are often artists’ greatest promoters, taking it upon themselves to tweet, share and blog about the music. So in essence, all musicians are on the same playing field. There are varying degrees of popularity and production quality, but because musicians now have the ability to create and release songs from their bedrooms, critics like Pitchfork, will treat the music the same. To quote Maura Johnson, “If the craft is there, it’s there despite the business side.”
Take-Aways From the Panel
The social web continues to create opportunities for musicians. Artists need to be able to find out what works for them. They must be mindful of focusing on those networks that will help achieve their specific goals. As Josh Deutsch answered when asked what the top things an artist should know to get their music in front of the right music curators and editors, “it all depends on who you are as an artist and what you want to accomplish.”
Laurie Amodeo is Senior Community Manager at Big Fuel, where she has worked on social media campaigns for clients such as General Motors, Nutrisystem and H&M. She has also created marketing and social media campaigns for public and private sector organizations including the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade and Peeled Snacks. When she’s not executing innovative social programs for clients, Laurie can be found singing, writing, hooping and cooking with veggies. flavors.me/laurieamodeo
As Brand Channel Manager at pure-play social media agency Big Fuel, Ross Sheingold focuses on trying to keep the “social” in social media by creating lifestyle content that consumers actually care about. Aside from the four years spent at Penn State University, Ross has been a New Yorker living in Manhattan for the whole of his nearly 30 years on the planet. When he isn’t staying up to date on the current digital and social media trends and “geeking out” on the latest tech gadget, he spends time on his fan advocacy cause as the man behind @StadiumInsider. You can follow Ross on Twitter @RossSheingold and on Google+ http://gplus.to/RossS
Social Media Week 2012 NYC started strong on Monday morning with a keynote by David Eastman, CEO of JWT America and a thought-proving presentation by Ann Mack, JWT Director of Trendspotting. Both Eastman and Mack touched on the fundamental shift in the ways consumers are connecting with brands, while providing marketers with ways to prepare for potential pitfalls that lie ahead such as “Facebook Fatigue, “de-teching” and “hyper-personilization” pushback.
Eastman discussed the perils of lazy social marketing (the false notion that “nobody ever got fired for marketing on Facebook”) and the importance of tapping into consumer passion points. Much to the delight of seasoned social media professionals, Eastman urged brand marketers to have genuine conversations with customers – if messaging is uninspired or boring, people will doze off. And this doesn’t only apply to what happens on social media channels. Eastman argued that “social” media should roll up into digital and any other form of media, even suggesting that next year’s “Social Media Week” should just be called “Media Week.” Mack would later support this by touching on the opportunities that exist with social commerce and integrating interactive screens in brick and mortar retail.
Eastman also didn’t shy away from sharing strong opinions on hot button items such as Facebook’s frictionless sharing and the rapid growth of Pinterest. Engaging social experiences are key, and to Eastman, Facebook’s frictionless sharing almost feels like spam. In his words “sharing should be active, otherwise it is meaningless.” As for Pinterest, he recognized that “pinning” has hit the mainstream, but isn’t sold on the long-term value. To Eastman, “over-pinning” is something to look out for – Pinterest might make it hard to separate what people really care about, the same way “over-friending” on social networks has devalued friendship.
Ann Mack followed with a lively presentation touching on social media trends to look out for in 2012 and beyond. As she said, “conspicuous living” has reached an all-time high. Between social media, the advancement of mobile technology and location based services, there is a radical transparency in all of our lives. This way of life is actually leading to social angst, a result of FOMO (fear of missing out). “Radical transparency remorse” (did I really tweet that last night?!) is becoming more prevalent and people are starting to become wary of the opt-out data culture that companies like Facebook have embraced. All of this can lead to “Facebook Fatigue” and eventually “de-teching” a very real concept that will only grow stronger as fledgling social networks such as Google+ and Diaspora gain more mainstream exposure.
Mack also warned about user pushback against “hyper-personalization” while discussing what she called “The Filter Bubble.” From ads on Facebook to news stories curated through Zite all the way to search results from Google Search Plus Your World, personalization has become the norm in our digital world. In a recent JWT study, 69% of respondents stated that they felt this tailored content was useful, but 79% said they’d prefer to see things through an unfiltered lens. Meanwhile, 86% were curious about what is being left out when content is tailored to them. “Reengineering randomness” by providing different POVs and serendipity is a trend that has caught on with social services such as Meetup.com, Grubwithus, Yobongo and Turntable.FM. Consumers will continue to expect personalization, but also want the option of randomness – it’s a delicate balance.
Both Eastman and Mack made it very clear that none of this is going to end “social” commerce – it will only enhance it. Human beings are wired to socialize and will continue to do so with the means they are provided. The key for brands and marketers is to create a message that drives people to socialize and overlay the social graph across the digital experience. Brands should use social as a driver for good, advocate for opt-in instead of opt-out data and should experiment with social commerce, collaborative consumption and digital integration at retail.
There was much to love (pun intended) about the Valentine’s Day edition (Day 2) of Social Media Week NYC 2012. The events throughout the day brought attendees much of the same excitement that defined Day 1, with an array of diverse offerings to choose from. Here are some highlights from the three in-person sessions I attended:
Global Brand Management: Best Practices in a Social World: Host Efficient Frontier led a panel discussion – with other key digitally-focused executives from Hyatt and Live Nation – on the challenges and best practices for maintaining a global social presence – one that is authentic, centrally governed, locally relevant, and engaging. Key takeaways from the session centered around success stories and challenges faced by each of the panelists, specifically on how to localizing content in various markets and leveraging more user-generated content (UGC).
Beyond the Like: Using Real People’s Real Stories to Drive Brand Awareness: Microsoft Advertising General Manager Jennifer Creegan kicked off a jam-packed session with a discussion about opportunities that let advertisers deliver word of mouth to their target customer in an interactive, powerful, and measurable way – focusing on creativity, connection, and relevance as the key dots to connect. The ensuing dialogue continued along this path, emphasizing the fundamental belief that “we [as social advertisers] have to bring consumer authenticity into advertising – we think that’s what these ratings + reviews do.”
The New Ghostwriter: This Hearst Magazine sponsored session focused on addressing the issues that arise when third party ghostwriters curate messaging on behalf of others, and what implications this reality has on brands that embrace social media as a means to create conversation and extend their reach. The ensuing conversation touched upon ethical concerns related to trust, authenticity, and transparency involved with ghostwriting – and addressed the convoluted question of whether ghostwriters can ever be a valuable, nuanced asset to a brand. There was no catch-all, resolute answer to this question, but the dialogue around it was both spirited and engaging.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
Nikhita Venugopa is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Reflecting on the 54th GRAMMY Awards.
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards, held on Feb. 12, 2012, was massively successful on a broadcast platform and in social media, drawing over 3.9 million mentions of their twitter handles. On Wednesday, Day 3 of Social Media Week in New York, Beverly Jackson, a member of the Grammy team talked about the Social, Digital and Mobile initiatives that went into the award show, a record-breaking feat that overtook this year’s Super Bowl numbers.
“We wanted people to be engaged and connected,” said Jackson, speaking at the Hearst Magazine Arts and Culture Hub.
This year’s Grammy Awards didn’t just have a strong presence on Twitter and Facebook, but they were also on Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Spotify to name a few. In some songs of the show, you could even use “Shazam,” an app that can listen to a song that’s playing and find it for you, said Jackson. “We wanted to be on every platform that was talking about music,” she said.
Jackson reflected on the previous year’s socialization of the Grammys and their change in strategy since 2009. For the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, the team just “pushed out tweets” without responding to social media comments, said Jackson. This year, they adopted an “interactive and organic” plan, replying to users and encouraging people to use the Grammy hash-tag.
As a result, the Grammy Awards are the number one social TV event, as reported by Mashable, with 13 million social media comments. The buzz peaked at over 65,000 tweets per second during the airing of the live broadcast.
In her presentation, Jackson maintained that they wanted to recognize importance of social media to the music industry. She talked about a new program for bloggers who were experts in a particular genre of music and would respond to tweets and social media comments. So an expert on Americana music could respond to a tweet about the importance of Glenn Campbell’s performance at the Grammys, she explained. Another event organized by Jackson and her team for the Grammy Awards was the 3rd annual Social Media Rock Star Summit that celebrates the influence of social media on the music world and vice-versa. This year’s summit featured the CEOs of Topspin Media, GetGlue, Shazam, and Turntable.fm.
The death of six-time Grammy award winner Whitney Houston was a widely discussed subject on several social media platforms. Jackson said during Jennifer Hudson’s tribute to the singer at the Grammy Awards, the Twitter traffic almost stopped.
“People were putting their keyboards down and sitting back instead of sitting forward,” said Jackson. She believes it was social media’s way of paying respect to Houston.
Jackson ended her talk by commenting on how viewers were not only tuned into the show, but they were also interacting. “It was important to us that people were engaged,” she said.
Nikhita Venugopal grew up in Bangalore, India. She moved to New York in July 2011 to attend Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree. Nikhita studied Media and Communications, Psychology and Literature in India and has interned at Ogilvy as a copywriter and Macmillan Publishers as an editor. You can follow her on Twitter at @niks_90.
Day Three of Social Media Weekend began at the Hearst Arts and Culture Hub with the keynote speech by Chris Kaskie, President of Pitchfork Media, a Chicago-based webzine and guide devoted to music criticism and news. Kaskie commented on social media’s role in music today and what Pitchfork hopes to achieve through Twitter and Tumblr.
“When it comes to social media, I find myself spending more time trying to figure out how to use it than actually using it,” he said. Kaskie also highlighted the importance of maintaining Pitchfork’s role as a trusted source for music journalism, regardless of their platform of communication.
“The biggest challenge that Pitchfork faces today is the expanding world of music online,” said Kaskie. It’s increasingly common to see people discover music through peer-to-peer interaction and recommendation. “I’m really bummed that when I die, I have to leave my kids logins to my Cloud account and not record collections,” said Kaskie.
The Internet is filled with opinions and comments on music but Kaskie said he hopes that Pitchfork can provide context to “all the noise,” whether it’s on Spotify or Twitter or Facebook. “To me, it’s very social that we’re interacting with people’s social music experience,” said Kaskie.
After Kaskie’s talk, a panel discussion commenced on social media’s effect on the creative process of the music industry. The panel included Kaskie; Maura Johnston, music editor of the Village Voice; Josh Deutsch, co-founder of Downtown Records; rap-artist Asher Roth and moderated by Jesse Kirshbaum, co-founder of Sound Control. In speaking on the role of social media, Deutsch emphasized maintaining the image of a trusted brand, echoing Kaskie’s keynote speech. The panel discussed the differences between creating an album for a major label and a mixed tape for the web. Asher Roth said social media had rewarded music artists by letting them be free. “It’s a more enjoyable experience to create music for just your fan-base,” he said.
From a journalistic perspective, both Johnston and Kaskie agreed that the music’s format does not affect their critique and commentary. “People can make some of the best music in world in their bedroom. It’s a level playing field,” said Kaskie.
Johnston believed that music is visceral and it’s that feeling determines the strength, regardless of whether it’s online or on an album. “It’s the way it hits you,” she added.
However, in response to what they felt was missing from social media, Kaskie said it lacked an editorial, personalized voice. Johnston also commented on the myopic view that can come from the digital world, referring to Spotify, an online music streaming service. She said social media users often forget that there’s more to music than what you can find online.
All four panelists agreed that while social media was a valuable platform for communication, people should step away from it once in a while and explore a world outside Facebook and Twitter. “Go for a walk. Ride a bike,” said Roth. “It’s going to make you a more interesting person. A better tweeter.”
Nikhita Venugopal grew up in Bangalore, India. She moved to New York in July 2011 to attend Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree. Nikhita studied Media and Communications, Psychology and Literature in India and has interned at Ogilvy as a copywriter and Macmillan Publishers as an editor. She is interested in writing on subjects like education, science, music, arts, social issues and the general eccentricities of the city. You can can follow her on Twitter at @niks_90.
Day 1 of Social Media WeekNYC 2012 was literally a buzz with engaging keynotes, panels, and networking session, far too many for one person to cover. Therefore, the best SMWNYC attendee strategy, from my experience, is to pick your spots for the in-person show-ups, and cover the rest vis a vie LiveStream feed. Accordingly, I was able to hit three Day 1 sessions, hashtagging and tweeting up a #smwnyc storm along the way. Here are the highlights:
Managing Social Media on a Global Scale: This first Opening Day session found hosts Syncapse and Amway discussing, debating and sharing their best practices for managing a global social media presence across multiple countries and languages, with multiple stakeholders, distributors and marketers involved. The key takeaway centered around the idea that ”social media fosters horizontal collaboration” within businesses. The speakers affirmed their tremendous support for this idea, and conceded that – while it’s an ideology that can be difficult to embrace at first – in the end is for the better good of the company.
Keynote: Valerie Buckingham on The Importance of Authenticity followed by Panel: Beyond Borders: Impact of Social Media in a Global Economy: Head of North America Marketing for Nokia Valerie Buckingham kicked off this noon event by focusing on the importance of authentic voice, asserting the idea that what you bring to the social media conversation can be enhanced by examples from around the social sphere. The panel that followed aimed to explore key trends, cultural behaviors and opportunities beyond American borders, especially in light of the accelerated pace of both innovation and appetite for interacting with brands in emerging markets. The key takeaway from this discussion was that – from a marketing perspective – as you move from market to market, you ought to ask yourself one question: do the digital tools you are utilizing tap into the regional social venues of interest? If so, then proceed.
Social Media Week’s Opening VIP Reception Hosted by Nokia: Crowdcentric, title sponsor Nokia, and SocialVibe hosted this lavishly awesome kick-off, invite-only opening party at the trendy Greenwich Village Country Club. Passed appetizers, complimentary libations from Heineken and Bulldog Gin, and – most importantly – exceptional conversation with engaged thought leaders made this the ideal way to properly kickoff the week.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
Ashley Mayo is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. Ashley is providing coverage of State Your Case: Research vs. Social Analytics, sponsored by ORC International.
“You shouldn’t still be having conversations about social ROI,” said Craig Hepburn, Global Director of Social Media for Nokia. “Since having conversations with people is such an important part of your business, how could you not be doing it?”
If 2011 was about convincing companies that social media is an essential tool, 2012 is about discovering ways to track it success. Are raw analytics more valuable than sentiment? Or is sentiment the most important metric? In an intriguing debate on Monday, four executives who manage the social growth of their companies addressed these very questions.
“Our approach is among the most pragmatic,” said Jeffrey Bodzewski, Director of Social Marketing at Aspen Marketing Services. “Our clients are on the direct marketing side and they value data. We’ve been pushing to truly monetize the social experience.”
Other kinds of projects, however, need to rely more heavily on the measurement of sentiment to accurately gauge success. Taulbee Jackson, President and CEO of Raidious, a digital communications company that helps build audiences for brands, oversaw the social media channels around Super Bowl XLVI. In addition to tracking reach, amplification, influence and activity, Jackson kept a close eye on sentiment. He seemed especially proud that sentiment metrics suggested that for every two members of the Super Bowl audience who had a negative experience, three had a positive experience. Since this ratio rarely reaches two-to-one, an overwhelmingly positive sentiment suggests that Jackson’s social media efforts were a resounding success.
Ultimately, a combination of tangible metrics and sentiment provides the richest depiction of a social media campaign. And an emerging trend is getting to know exactly who an organization’s fans are.
“We’ll see an increase in the understanding of the customer,” said Bodzewski, who cited Facebook Connect as allowing companies to know not only more about their fans, but also about the social graph of those fans. “More companies will prompt for this information.”
While the panel referred to a few specific tools they use to track such social metrics—Hootsuite plugins, Radian 6, Bit.ly, Viral Heat, Social Motion and Socialbakers—they were quick to point out that there is no magic tool that will help a company measure social media.
“It’s so frustrating when you hear people say that social media is free,” said Hepburn. “It requires a lot of resources and a lot of effort to pull it off. You have to put a lot in to get a lot out, and that’s something a lot of social media evangelists never say.”
Devotion to such resources, however, is no longer a bonus. It’s a necessity.
“At Nokia we now pit social media at the center,” said Hepburn. “The world today is connected. Instead of starting from a traditional perspective, we’re putting social at the center and building things around it. We’re socializing everything and putting people at the center of our decisions.”
Ashley Mayo joined Golf Digest Publications in 2007. As the associate editor, her responsibilities include writing monthly equipment articles, overseeing various aspects of golfdigest.com, and initiating social media campaigns. Mayo graduated from the University of Virginia in 2007, and she’s currently a part-time student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she’s studying to get her Master of Science degree in Digital Journalism. She currently lives in NYC, where she has miraculously managed to maintain a 4 handicap.
Fatima Muneer is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from 10×10: Educate Girls, Change the World held Monday evening at Big Fuel.
In a Northern Ethiopian village, 14-year old Melka arrived home from school one day to hear her mother say, “You’re getting married.” Before she knew it, she was standing next to an old man in her bridal dress, and was coerced into his bedroom after the wedding by his friends.
When she awoke in pain, she found herself in a hospital. The nurses found out what had happened to her and informed the police. Right after, her husband, stepfather, and mother, were jailed but released sometime after. She could not afford to go back to school so she stayed at home.
Today, she is twenty years old, and with help from World Vision, she has started her own school in Ethiopia where she educates girls about their rights. “No one asked me to do this. I’m doing this because I can’t let what happened to me, happen to anyone else,” says Melka. Since then, she has been involved in numerous forced child marriage cases. Her story has been shared to many organizations through this video and continues to inspire many till today.
The short movie finishes and the crowd at the Big Fuel headquarters who have gathered to attend the Social Media Weekend, applaud. Justin Reeves, manager of NGO partnerships at 10×10, is dressed sharply in a black suit and a grey shirt. Two giant Mac screens on his left and right play videos from 10×10 every now and then, during his speech. 10×10 is a campaign to reach support from a global audience and to help underprivileged girls all around the world. “10×10” refers to the upcoming motion film that will combine 10 different stories about 10 girls, coming from 10 developing countries, and written by ten globally acclaimed female writers from those 10 country, to create a powerful story of hope and change.
“How sustainable is this work because you are working from here to Ethiopia and how do you change deep-rooted traditions that have existed for generations?” asked Mohammed Ademo, who is from Ethiopia, who now lives in the U.S. and is pursuing a Masters degree in digital media journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
“It is indeed a very long process,” Reeves replied. The plan is to acquire grassroots help for the field like in China where the practice of binding feet of girls was eliminated in one generation by getting the support of religious leaders, who educated men about it.
What happens in this campaign, which has support from diverse NGOs, is that it gets to approach these girls from a holistic perspective as the girls get different kinds of help from all these organizations. Some get formal education while others get awareness lessons etc. The idea is to make that story into a video, and then share it. Every video needs to be edited by locals of that country so that the message is understood on all sides. The organization aims to convert “Challenges to opportunities” by offering hope to these girls.
Manhattan has now become home for Fatima Muneer, who is an international student from Oman at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is focusing on digital media. While at Columbia, her articles for class have been picked by numerous online publications and include news wires from Forbes magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, and USA Today. She is a 2011 graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and holds a BSFS in International Affairs. In her free time, she loves weaving the streets of New York to find new subjects for photography, watch documentaries, and google places around the world to figure out where she wants to travel next.
This is the first of a part of a continuing series of posts spotlighting our 6 #SMW12 Content Hubs. We’ll be posting profiles of all the hubs throughout this week so keep checking back for more!
The Art & Culture Hub is your go to location for all things music and tv and funny and style. We’re excited about the eclectic breadth of these events and look forward to seeing you there!
You can view all of the events from the art and culture hub by clicking HERE but check out a handful of our favs below!
On Monday check out The Mobile-Social Living Room a panel on how emerging media is reviving the live television experience from 9-11am. From there, be sure you don’t miss this, newly added to the schedule, keynote by Media Personality and Founder of Abrams Media, Dan Abrams from 12-2pm. Then spice it up by heading over to a keynote by hip hop legend Jermaine Dupri on Building a Community (3-5pm) before digging into a panel on social sharing and the Art of Doodling from 4:30-5:30pm.
Tuesday morning– get up and at em with a panel on Digital Voyeruism from 9-11am before heading over to a keynote from Entrepreneur Kevin Slatin with a corresponding panel on E-Commerce (12-2pm). Take a quick lunch break and then head over to The New Ghostwriter from 3-5pm OR maybe decide that this panel on Social Syndication from 3:30-5:30 is more your style. No judgement either way.
Okay. On to Wednesday. I know, all that and we’ve still got THREE MORE days of events for you. Kick the day off with a Keynote from Chris Kaskie, President of Pitchfork from 9-11am then make your way over to a panel on Street Style blogs from 12-2pm or maybe you’d prefer a discussion on the Grammys and digital from 1:30-2:30pm. I know, it’s a touch decision. I promise. You will survive it. Once you’ve made that call the rest of the day is easy. Head straight on over to a panel on how to be funny on twitter from 3-4pm then take a quick breather before going to a panel on the state of curation.
Phew.
Thursday. I know, I can’t believe it either! Start your day with a keynote from Elisa Camhort with a corresponding panel on Companion TV from 9-11am. Then dive into a keynote from Jonah Peretti founder and CEO of BuzzFeed with a corresponding panel on Start Ups from 12-2pm. What a morning.
Grab some lunch and recharge before heading over to a panel on Transmedia and Social Media from 3-5pm. After that there’s a panel called IN THE TWITTER KITCHEN: A MODERN COOKIE BAKE-OFF. It’s happening from 4:30-6:30pm. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about. You can click through to find out for yourself. But I will tell you that maybe you should go.
Friday? Friday! Already. This week will absolutely fly by but if you’ve waited until the last moment to get your fill of #smw12, no worries, we’ve got you.
Throughout this week, we’ll be giving you a heads up on everything that’s going on at our content hubs this time next week. Events are filling up fast so check out what’s going on this time next week and click on the corresponding event link to register!
Many of your fine social media-savvy folks are aware that the official floodgates for Social Media Week 2012 registration have opened. As a resident New Yorker, I’ll be hitting the pavement hard throughout the NYC boroughs, blitzing innumerable SMWNYC 2012 events for the second consecutive year. As a returning attendee, I figured it apropos to offer some helpful suggestions to newbie attendees mapping out Social Media Week schedules. My attendee tips for planning your Social Media Week visit:
Don’t fret if your schedule looks kind of sparse right now. As of this writing, even I – as an overzealous, overenthusiastic attendee – have some gaps in my week-long schedule. But have no fear…there are TONS of events that are going to be added in the next days.
Be sure to actually register for the events you want to go to. So often last year naive attendees thought that just because SMWNYC events were free, they could just walk in…NOT TRUE. Planners are understandably strict about having your registration with you, so just make the reservation. It’s quick, painless and FREE!
Vary your schedule with “different” kinds of events. While obviously every event is centered around social, digital media and tech, it’s important to keep your schedule of events diverse with events that you are passionate about. Be bold! Sign up for events that are related to your true personal interests: music, fashion, the arts — whatever it may be. The great thing about the week is that it brings ALL kinds of worlds together to speak about social, so there is a tremendous depth and breadth to the schedule for attendees to enjoy. It’s totally worth it, for both mental stamina and sheer happiness. Happy Planning!
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com.
December 29th has been officially dubbed “Leave GoDaddy Day.” Organized by Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh and backed by an army of Redditors, the internet is planning a global walkout from the domain registration and hosting company. To encourage customers to act, tutorials have been circulating on “How to transfer domains from hosts”, along with a slew of articles about the company and SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act).
Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh has organized a website walkout.
GoDaddy is trying to maintain a stance of diplomatic neutrality on SOPA after pulling its support. Last week alone, GoDaddy lost over 70,000 domain names, including over 20,000 in one day. At an average cost of $6.99 each, that amounts to nearly half a million dollars, not to mention potential revenue loss from subscription renewals. GoDaddy has also seen domains transferred in, though overall the company is seeing a big drop in net domains gained.
In a desperate attempt to retain customers, GoDaddy began calling those who recently transferred domains to survey if a different SOPA stance would impact their decision. GoDaddy has even been accused of blocking transfers. On Twitter, its “social strategy” was to @reply users with the placeholder message: Go Daddy no longer supports SOPA legislation. Click here to find out more [link].
It’s a PR nightmare for GoDaddy and an empowering reality for the forces of the internet. In just 24 hours after the anonymous social networking site Reddit launched their boycott threat campaign, the company reversed its commitment to SOPA.
Even with the reversal, Redditors are still prepared to go forth with “Leave GoDaddy Day.” If successful, it could be the tipping point for SOPA debates. A real financial loss may persuade other companies with commercial interests to re-evaluate their stance.
So why is GoDaddy the poster child for the internet hate machine in the SOPA campaign?
First of all, the company is a service provider for low cost domains. Its’ customers are directly impacted by this bill.
Secondly, it’s a high profile corporation that has had direct involvement in shaping legislation. Publically attacking GoDaddy puts pressure on a company that can influence congressional decisions.
Lastly, and likely most overlooked, GoDaddy is disliked by many internet denizens. It’s notorious for its terrible service, has not had a favorable image recently (read: a viral video of the CEO shooting an elephant) and customers are annoyed with its over the top marketing antics, from celebrity spokespeople and SuperBowl ads to a lot of website bling. The company was primed to be the perfect target for a stop SOPA takedown.
It’s hard to say exactly what GoDaddy could have done differently to avoid this disaster. Perhaps they could’ve posted a statement on their site and enabled commenting from the community. They definitely could have been better about listening to their customers and responding in real-time.
And when a fiasco like the GoDaddy affair dominates the news cycle, we’re all reminded of the importance of crisis management on the social web. Arming your social team with the right tools is crucial for monitoring customer satisfaction and engaging with those who threaten to leave your business and ruin your reputation.
GoDaddy’s lack of preparedness is a wake up call for all of us in the industry. If you think social media doesn’t impact your bottom line, then follow the story of GoDaddy, which is sure to make an excellent case study for years to come. It’s the business of politics in action, with social networking as the catalyst for influencing change in the 21st century.
For more information on SOPA and how it’s affecting us all, check out the SOPA for Dummies Google Doc, created by an anonymous concerned citizen fighting for internet freedom.
@Jen_Charlton is a contributor to the Social Media Week Global Editorial Team based in New York City. Formally the Marketing Communications Manager of social media analytics startup @PeopleBrowsr, she is now working in social @Night Agency. Jennifer is also teaching herself Python and believes in a free and open web.
On February 10, 2011, over 120+ journalists, bloggers and media makers joined us for discussion on “The Future of Real-time Publishing“. This event was hosted by and produced in conjunction with The New York Times (@nytimes). Brian Stelter moderated a panel which included Ann Curry, Andy Carvin, David Clinch and Josh Harris. See below for part one of this two part video.
Throughout this week we’ll be posting on the ground accounts from individuals that attended New York Social Media Week events. To participate, email a blog submission to info@socialmediaweek.org
Check out the hashtags #socialgood and #smwsapient for more insight into the conversation surrounding this event. For the event description, click here and to watch the entire panel via Live Stream, click here.
The final day of Social Media Week NYC 2011 included a panel from New York City sponsor SapientNitro, and was one of three incredible panels that they graciously curated over the course of the week. I had an opportunity to attend the first two of their fantastic sessions and their last panel was no different. The panel entitled “Social Good for All” proved to be an excellent source of information, knowledge and expertise. The panel began with some pretty shocking quotes about consumers, companies and social good. Below are a two data points that were particularly striking:
“90% of consumers want companies to tell them the ways they are supporting causes”
“Nearly 50% of consumers will seek out similar products from a different brand if they hear that a company’s corporate behavior is especially bad”
The panel was moderated by Cindy Gallop, Founder & CEO of If We Ran the World.com and goes to show that finding the right moderator for your panel is the key. With an introduction by Janice Chow, the panel began with a short video on “Brands Doing Social Good” which consisted of consumer interviews and covered their thoughts and feelings on social good.
The findings were very split, while many interviewees indicitated that where they shop depends largely on the level of philanthrophy exhibited by a company, many others said it played less of a factor. Others simply said that they were skeptical and believed that companies were just trying to show off and often showed no follow through. The panel leveraged the footage to debate whether or not companies are actually willing to make doing good part of their brand’s DNA.
Cindy was a riot throughout the panel and opened up with the disclaimer that she believes in a panel that is controversial, lively and sparks debate. She then transitioned with a few provocative words about sex to explain that she wants to make doing good “sexy “, a philosophy exhibited through her website makelovenotporn.com. Below, I will attempt to give a broad overview of the topics and points made in the panel, but I highly suggest watching the entire recap on Livestream.
Speakers
Shiv Singh, Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages, America
Alnoor Ladha, Head of Strategy, Purpose
Paull Young, Director of Digital Engagement, Charity Water
Max Schorr, Co-Founder, GOOD Magazine
Christopher Bishop, Senior Communications, IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs
Cindy asked the panelists to provide their thoughts on the title of the session, Social Good, and the overall consensus was that it did not fully illustrate what the discussion was about. That somehow it implies that there is a lot of social bad out there. Many agreed that we should be moving away from the need for a panel about social good altogether and that doing good should no longer be looked at as dorky or a chore. Rather, doing good should become standard procedure and it shouldn’t matter where or why someone is doing it, but that they are simply doing something.
The words “good intentions” were being thrown around quite a bit in the context of companies doing great things, but the consensus was that even those companies still having a long way to go. The panelists discussed the barriers that make it extremely hard, barriers not faced by non-profits, like shareholders, employees and profit; a corporate entity will always be driven by the need to make money.
The panel leveraged the dynamic of donations via text message after the earthquakes in Haiti as an example. While it was a great idea in theory, mobile phone companies remained in the middle and thus prevented consumers and non-profits from really connecting.
The panelists then discussed the importance of demanding that businesses incorporate social good into their overall business strategies to create something more sustainable and that the process to executed in a way that was transparent.The discussion was lively, helped by the fact that panelists included representatives from all sides of the spectrum, Pepsi and IBM, but also, Charity Water, Purpose and GOOD.
The panel then delved into how society overall might adapt to embrace social good in its varying forms noting the cultural and behavioral barriers, impacted by business and government, that make a more holistic transition difficult to achieve. We still drive cars, use oil and eat processed foods in part because there aren’t electric charge stations and organic fruit stands available on every corner.
The panel concluded by acknowledging that there’s been a huge shift in perception of a variety of activities that were at one point considered to be nerdy. What’s left to be seen is if we can arrive at a point where doing good is sexy, and taking action is cool.
Amanda Mullahey is a contributor for the Social Media Week NY Blog and a digital strategist, social media enthusiast and freelance blogger. You can check out her website here.
Emmy Award Winning Journalist Ann Curry (@anncurry)
Against a large screen featuring live status updates from Egypt, MSNBC journalist Ann Curry and a panel of seasoned reporters discussed “The Future of Real-Time Publishing” at The New York Times Building.
This was a timely topic as the world focuses on Twitter updates from citizens of Egypt to learn the latest developments from Tahrir Square. The panel primarily discussed how social media has empowered citizens to become reporters who can share their experiences immediately across a span of social networks on location.
Readers have often aided journalists by providing key details. But in the world of real-time reporting, journalists are faced with the challenge of report now and redact later. An interesting solution to this problem was mentioned by an audience member who claimed NPR writes “unconfirmed” when reporting a story in real-time. This helps the audience understand that a correction/further clarification may follow the news update.
After the session, I asked Associated Press’ Social Media Editor Eric Carvin for his views on the difficulty of trying to spread information across so many social networking sites. I mentioned how NPR is leveraging Tumblr to deliver news to its followers but that it’s yet another social networking site that NPR needs to place on its radar.
Eric’s answer was the complete opposite of what I expected. Eric believes the number of social websites will eventually decrease because not all of them can reach profitability. This belief is actually in alignment with the “Web 2.0 Bubble” that is currently being discussed by the social tech community. While Eric does bring up an interesting point, I actually explained that in the future I see more social networks being created to focus on a variety of interests instead of broadcasting to large audiences. But that’s another story.
The proliferation of smartphones is drastically simplifying the ability to record and publish videos, snap photos, and send status updates that can be shared with the world. Today’s panel recognized social content is constantly being refreshed and it is important to separate the facts from gaping inaccuracies for the benefit of us all.
Mauricio Godoy is a contributor for the Social Media Week NY Blog and aSocial Business Strategist. You can follow him on twitter @MauricioSWG
by @Rachel Shechtman
Founder | Cube Ventures : Connecting Innovative Storytellers with Brands
Lucky Magazine debuted at Social Media Week NYC with a new all-day conference called “FABB” (with two b’s!), a fashion and beauty Bloggers conference. The shopping magazine’s editor-in-chief Brandon Holley welcomed a crowded room at the amazing new Apella building complex by proclaiming, “you all created a democracy and that is what lucky style is all about!”
The day was packed with an impressive line up of diverse Bloggers, industry executives and entrepreneurs. I enjoyed kicking off the day with coffee with fashion star Rebecca Minkoff; bloggers in attendance included John Jannuzzi who after his day job covers fashion and style on Textbook, to the energetic and distinctive Karla Sugar who came in from Dallas and MsSpinach who arrived from Washington, the notable Jessica Quirk from What I Wore, and the list goes on….
The first panel, Big Brands and You, included executives ranging from Coach to Bergdorf Goodman. There was clear consensus among the panelists that they are thrilled to see magazines embracing Bloggers and social media, although I am not sure they had a much of a choice in the matter. Many referenced Polyvore and one campaign that received a lot of buzz was Bergdorf Goodman’s partnership with Polyvore to dress its fashion director Linda Fargo for this Fashion Week – we the people dressing a front row fashion icon!
Kerry Diamond from Lancôme said “Bloggers are one of the most exciting things that have happened to the industry in years …” however, she went on to comment on the over saturation of blogs and lack of quality control. So then exactly how do you appear on her radar? No, it’s not by garnering the most followers or traffic but in Kerry’s words by having a strong “point of view”. In her words “if your blog doesn’t have a point of view we won’t be working with you.” She closed saying that blogs help sell products as much as magazines. One blogger stood up and commented after these remarks “Bloggers are experiencing a moment of popularity like supermodels did in the 80’s.”
Lucky Magazine Editor in Chief Brandon Holley and Fashion Designer Tory Burch
Holley Brandon, Editor in Chief of Lucky Magazine, welcomed Tory Burch to the stage for a great conversation about the growth of her business, her Madison Store opening this coming fall and hiring Honor Brody away from the traditional publishing world to run and build her media presence online. Tory was very candid about her learning curve and using twitter to be dynamic, not just push sales and product; however she went on to say “ there is a fine line between being private but interesting.” When asked about her favorite blogs, she said there were too many to name but two that came to mind were industry favorite satorialist and new buzz worthy svpply.
Lucky Magazine Editor in Chief Brandon Holley with Entertainer and Entrepreneur Joan Rivers
Fashism co-founders Brooke Moreland and Ashley Granata did a great social shopping demo which was followed by lunch with Joan Rivers. I could write pages on Ms. Rivers after her dynamic talk but Brooke summed it up perfectly. “Yes she is a celebrity, a legend and downright hilarious – but she also had poignant, honest words of wisdom that relied on her years of experience as an entrepreneur. Joan is a brand- she is a self-made woman who has learned from many mistakes and is still out there every day hustling and building her brand. Also, she says ‘fuck’ a lot, which is cool.” Later during Q + A DIY Author and Blogger Erica Domesek asked, “Do you make things?” Joan replied, “ I needlepoint and paint terribly.”
A notable start-up which is the ultimate fashion democracy is StyleTrek. Founder Cecilia Pagkalinawan shared insights into their business and partnership with Lucky.
• Site launched Sept 2010
• Selling to Customers in 91 Countries
• 500% sales increase from November to December
• Featuring 25 designers from 5 continents
It is impressive to acknowledge that it’s not only democratic as it pertains to social engagement and marketing messaging, but also in the sourcing. “Styetrekkers are empowered entrepreneurs who get a percentage of sales from designers they acquire for StyleTrek” Not only are they enrolling their consumers to co-create their inventory and supply flow but the participatory experiences makes them feel like stakeholders and further results in their loyalty and consumption. Leveraging supply to create demand!
An image from Lucky Magazine that highlights Styletrek.com
The day ended as energetic as it began with a conversation between Brandon and Jenna Lyons, J.Crew’s creative visionary. “She’s in the building” someone commented. Jenna has endless wit, charm and intelligent insight. She spoke about the importance of storytelling and debuted a new video, About a Thread Count which is the second in a three part series. While it isn’t online yet you can see the first About a Shoe shown below
All filmed in Italy, you get an intimate sneak peek into the J.Crews design, discovery and inspiration process, which makes this big brand feel so accessible that you wonder if it just might be the result of a small designer working in Italy. Brands spend so much time looking to outside sources for inspiration and marketing messages, and the J.Crew video series is a testament that there are golden nuggets of consumer marketing in your existing business practices – just look!
As you can tell it was an action packed day with amazing people and content. The day’s conversations were captured thanks to Livestream and are available online – check it out. Cocktails and photo fun concluded the amazing day. Thank you @LuckyMag
Fab @FABB – Social Media Week Attendee and Friend Elspeth Rountree enjoys a photo moment
Throughout this week we’ll be posting on the ground accounts from individuals that attended New York Social Media Week events. To participate, email a blog submission to info@socialmediaweek.org
Ever since I first learned about the Shorty Awards existing I’d wanted to hear Greg speak about how they came to be. The Sawhorse team’s lecture was more of a conversation than a lesson.
…and an intellegent one at that.
The title, “Over 500 million people are using social media. How to find the 50 you need to know about,” defined the overall mission of Greg’s team and their products. The team spoke about three Sawhorse sites; Listorious, Muckrack, and Global Quad. Each of those sites has a different focus (i.e. Muckrack helps organize the best tweets in Journalism, and Global Quads is for the best in Colleges), yet all three operate based on the same overall mission, which is to help you locate the most influential tweets. Their sites help de-clutter Twitter, and I think they’ll be around for years to come simply because there’s a need for them.
In addition to those three sites, The Sawhorse Team also run The Shorty Awards, which honor the best producers of short real-time content. I’m extremely excited for this year’s unveil of who the best producers of 140 character content are. I was also pleased to learn that this year’s Shorty Awards on March 28th will be live-streamed. (#score.)
To access clips from past Shorty ceremonies, including everyone from MC Hammer, to Sesame Street, visit youtube.com/shortyawards.
The Sawhorse Team further inspired me to always think before I tweet. Seeing myself holding a future Shorty Award is going to be my inspiration to refrain from oversharing.
There’s only day left to meet people at Social Media Week. Spend the time tonight to use our community page or mobile AttendeeApp to track down several “must meet” contacts.Tweet them, find them, and make a meaningful connection on Friday.
When you depart the conference tomorrow night, don’t feel overwhelmed by the hundreds of business cards that you will have to sift through on Monday. Rather than spending the tedious time looking up the right “John Smith” on LinkedIn, use the SMW Community Page to quickly find all of the online profiles for a specific contact. Check out their blog and company… and then friend, follow, and connect on LinkedIn in one fell swoop.
Reinforce your connection and lets continue this exciting conversation!
David Berkowitz, Senior Director of Emerging Media at 360i, is incredibly excited about the opportunities in the mobile social media space. He sees six types of mobile social media activities:
Noah Elkin, Principal Analyst at eMarketer, has seen a tremendous growth in how mobile users are utilizing social networks to communicate. Mobile has become core to the social networking experience, and social networking has become integral to the mobile experience. While the number of location-based service users is still small, those who use them regularly tend to be well-connected influences and an ideal target for marketers.
The motivation for users to check-in is driven by two items: finding useful information and finding deals. Game mechanics are fairly low on the list of motivators, but they are important to get the ball rolling. There are concerns about check-ins becoming a commodity, but ultimately they remain a database of intentions (as search has likewise been described.)
Craig Davis, CEO of TextualAds, spoke about adding context to SMS advertising and engagement in order to better engage users. Tom Dorf, Director of Advertisitng Sales at MocoSpace (“the biggest social network that you’ve never head of”) discussed the Mobilista badge that MocoSpace developed for Nokia.
Over the next few years, the over a billion new mobile devices and over a billion new mobile uses will enter the marketplace, according to Adam Mirabella, Head of Music Services at Nokia. As this growth occurs, he sees a few key trends
Communication
Companies will have to be socially responsible and give back to the marketplace
Marketers don’t own the conversation any more, the whole company has to get involved
The role of social and mobile marketers is to educate themselves and their consumers. Being social is about sharing knowledge. Only after this knowledge is gained and spread can the market accelerate.
While adoption of mobile social networks and technologies is growing, there are still challenges. Some potential uses may not understand how a channel is used. For example, many people who are comfortable with Facebook do not understand Twitter and may not be trying to. Additionally, users may have existing perceptions, fairly or unfairly, that limits use or prevents adoption. For example, people may not use Foursquare because they see it as just a game or because they fear an invasion of their privacy.
Kevin Haughwout is a contributor for the Social Media Week NY Blog and a social media strategist and blogger at the freedmarketer. For more comments on this event, you can check out a cross-posting of this entry here.
Tuesday night at 4Food, whose goal is to introduce healthier fast food to us burger-lovers, food media folks engaged their inner tech geeks and got together for Eats+Apps as part of Social Media Week NYC. The event was sold out, which just highlights that connection between new technology ideas and those of us who love food and cooking and that many of us are looking for ways to communicate that to a broader audience. While the internet is fantastic and has, for many people, like myself, been a way to explore recipes and menu ideas, the navigation of all of that information can sometimes be daunting and frustrating.
This event was an opportunity for food community networking as well as for those of us who write about food topics to preview some interesting new apps (iPad, iPhone, and Android) that might be valuable additions to anyone’s media library. As someone who test-drove the iPad for about a week and who is in the market for an iPhone now that Verizon is a carrier, I am just the kind of candidate for several of these products. It was great to have an opportunity to talk to their creators in person last night. Some of these are definitely on my must-have list.
I’d met co-founder Mike LaValle at the Feast.up picnic in September of last year, so it was great to see his concept in action last night. A collaboration between technology, food information, and D’Agostino’s grocery stores, this site, with the aid of your rewards card number and a logon, will help you to track your spending and create a budget, assist you with nutritional details about your purchases, and even give you recipe suggestions and food tips based upon the items that you do buy. This is an amazing integration of the kind of information that most of us try to cobble together every week. The only downside for me, however, is that there’s no D’Ag in my neighborhood, so I’m hoping that this is picked up by other stores sometime in the near future so more folks can have access to this terrific resource.
This is already available as an iPad app. Baking bread is one of those things that I wish I could do better. I have taken a cooking course on it and have a great book on the subject. Still, I feel as though I can never quite get it right. Perhaps this is just what I need to download, as the cost of it is cheaper than buying an artisanal loaf from my local bakery. What is appealing is not only are there detailed instructions and photos of every step of the process but that there are also hints about the theory part as to how to make great-tasting bread in your home kitchen.
The cookbook by renowned food-writer Michael Ruhlman is now an app. The concept behind this is that by understanding some of the fundamental ratios of basic cooking inputs (like butter to flour in baking cookies), those of us who want to move behind our recipe files can gain the tools to create and develop our own culinary ideas. Having this on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch is a great way to figure out how to work with the ingredients you have or, more likely, what to do if you’ve run short on something and need to adjust a recipe on the fly. This app is also available for the Android.
This app is designed to give you a personal helping hand from some of your favorite television chefs. Having access at your fingertips to shows and recipes is a huge help for someone like me, who cooks from things I’ve seen on some of the programs I’ve watched on this network. It would save me hours of time not to have to run back and forth to the computer (or to draw upon my fading memory) to be able to bring up a show for that, “Now, how did he/she do that again?” moment that usually happens when I’m trying to recreate a recipe. Another very useful aspect of this app is that you can also build your shopping list from it, and there is a feature to share your list in case other folks are chipping in with the shopping and prep work. It’s like having a virtual supper club, except that you really get to eat the results. This is available for the iPad, iPhone, and Android.
For those who enjoy eating out, here is an app that can help you make your food choices. You can share dishes that you’ve eaten at various restaurants, get tips on what other folks have enjoyed at their favorite haunts, and see what might be some options for dining wherever you might be. This is a great way to get some suggestions for cities and neighborhoods where you might not be as familiar with the dining options. They also pull together recommendations from some of the top food guides, including Tasting Table, Anthony Bourdain, and Zagat, so you can get opinions from a variety of resources to help you decide what you will do for your next meal away from home. This is available on iPhone and Android
Another resource for tracking your restaurant reviews and resource lists to create mini dining guides is this site. You can type in a wide range of criteria (I like the one about number of subway lines you want to take.) to come up with a list of choices that match and then see what other folks have had to say about dining at them. Additional lists that have been created by magazines and other guides are also available for viewing.
This is a great wine app for the iPhone, so I’m glad that I’m soon going to be getting one of these devices. Have you ever been at a wine tasting or restaurant and wanted to remember what was that fabulous vintage that you sampled? In those settings, it’s probably a bit gauche to tear off the label for your files. After a few glasses, those photos you took with your camera phone are also a bit blurry. If you’re like me, the other way you handle this is to write down the information on some piece of paper, never to remember where it is or what you did with it. This will take care of all of that for you. This will help you browse for selections, find a store where you can buy it, and help you manage your own personal wine library.
Along with many other members of the food-lovers community, I was sad when Gourmet magazine folded its print edition in 2009. I have so many fond memories and great recipes from this publication. I’d heard a while back that all was not lost for this iconic brand, however, as it was going to be re-born in an on-line version. As the representative at last night’s event put it, this is the digital re-imagining of the magazine. I actually think that she was being modest, as to me this is the one app that would have made me keep the iPad that I ended up returning (too expensive, didn’t really do what I needed it to do). I love this app. It is flexible, timely, and combines great stories with useful tips and menu ideas, as well as the ability to get more information at your fingertips. Content is updated weekly with new stories and recipes as well as old favorites pulled from the print magazine’s archive.
Overall, this was a fantastic event. I got to see some people with whom I hadn’t caught up in a while, get to know some newer contacts, and to meet some new food media folks. I love seeing what new technology can bring to the world of recipes and ingredient resources, so this was a perfect fit for my areas of interest. Thanks so much to 4Food for hosting it (I need to get over there for lunch someday.) and to Danielle Gould, Emily Cavalier, and Brian Quinn and Jonny Cigar (great idea to come to us with the wine last night, as we were all chatting away downstairs!) for pulling this all together. I look forward to the next one and to see what is going on in the Food + Tech movement.
This event started with a surprise introduction by Toby Daniels (Social Media Week founder in case you didn’t know) and then remarks by Freddie Laker. Then we were treated to a combination live and virtual panel from around the world.
The insights and conversations were amazing and enlightening. I’ve always had a fascination with globalization and have led an English to Japanese site globalization project. Just as direct translation doesn’t work for a website and you need to consider the cultural differences…the same can be said for social.
The speakers were:
Moderator: Freddie Laker, Head of Digital Strategy – Asia, SapientNitro
Katarina Graffman,Owner & CEO of Inculture, Stockholm, Sweden
Justin Barkhuizen, Ex-Director of Social Media, MediaCom
Mark Leong, Digital Strategist, RAPP, Tokyo, Japan
Zarul Shekhar, SapientNitro + TV Producer/Anchor Delhi, India, Manager of Digital Media
Mehdi Lamloum, Digital Planner, OgilvyOne, Tunisia
The speakers shared information about global trends, similarities, and differences to social media here in the USA. To see the real highlights or what attendees thought were most interesting just take a look at the hashtag #smwlake
Key points or thought provoking topics that interested me:
Are we creating a global social “brain”– a giant collective intellect that is increasingly global?
A small percent of penetration in Asia still equates to a massive audience due to the number of people.
Can you imagine a future where there is an “internet of things” and all your items have chips? Imagine being able to use GPS and a chip to find those pesky missing glasses or keys.
People in different countries use social for different reasons. In India people are using it for arranged marriages so the term relationship manager has a different meaning than you might expect.
In Japan people are slowly moving away from anonymous avatars and personas online.
In Tunisia social media IS the media. People trusted social media more than traditional sources.
Predictions for the future included social media for rural markets and cheap (under $100) smart phones.
Foursquare Keynote/360i Panel:
Toby Daniels also opened this event and then Austin Carr from Fast Company interviewed Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley. Read more using hashtag #snwcrowley. This was followed by a panel that included:
Moderator: David Berkowitz, Sr. Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, 360i
Adam Mirabella, Head of Music Services, Nokia
Noah Elkin, Principal Analyst, eMarketer
Craig Davis, CEO, TextualAds
Tom Dorf, Director of Advertising Sales, MocoSpace – @Mocospace
Dennis described his original approach as: throwing ten things against the wall the see what sticks…and they all did! He also described some of the initial ideas for Foursquare on yellow notes on his wall that said: Find a ramen place near me. Find a ramen place my friends go to. Find a ramen place that is the most popular. (It was all about ramen.) He also said that his users show them the use cases instead of the other way around.
When asked about the future, Dennis talked about how Foursquare should know you and your habits so that it would use what it knew about things you did in one location and make useful recommendations in a new location. He said that Foursquare is only 10% done. This means exciting things to anticipate for the future!
Dennis talked about applications people have made using their API. The one that the audience really liked was: http://donteat.at that can send you a text message if you “check in” at a restaurant on the list to be closed due to health code violations.
Well, that was a quick round-up of my day. I hope you get to participate in some of these great events and if you can’t, I suggest watching some at http://www.livestream.com/socialmediaweek.
This blog post was written by Beth Granger, a contributor to the NY Social Media Week blog. When she isn’t helping organizations interact with the digital revolution and all the power it holds, she can be found tweeting @BethGrangerSays.
The mid-afternoon session of Social Media Week New York at the Business, Media & Communications content hub at JWT opened with an interview with Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare, by Austin Carr of Fast Company. The hub was holding a capacity crowd for the interview, as they were eager to see what Crowley had to say.
While Foursquare has enjoyed a lot of success, Carr noted, it’s still a young company. It still must be concerned with growth and scale. People check into Foursquare for a variety of reasons. Users may use it as a diary of where they’ve been, use it to find friends, or use to to discover tips about venues. As Crowley explained, it’s like they threw ten things at the wall to see what would stick, and they all stuck. Rather than telling people how to use Foursquare, they want the users to tell the developers how they use it.
The Foursquare office is filled with white boards of lists of projects, including several that they’re looking to complete before SXSW. Projects may focus on new users, on super-users, and for brands; the trickiest part for the company is how to determine which ones they should work on first.
There’s a piece of paper hanging behind Crowley’s desk describing the use cases that they want to achieve (which, oddly enough, all focus around ramen.) While the cases vary, they tend to center around recommending venues for users who find themselves in a new place based on their past experiences.
Can you use game mechanics to encourage people to live richer lives? Crowley finds himself not leaving the East Village for weeks at a time, so how can he encourage him and his friends to visit a hot new venue in Brooklyn? Specials came about from venues who wanted to reward loyal customers.
Crowley believes that there is something unique about Foursquare that speaks to big brands. Users’ endorsements of venues in the form of check ins are like miniature ad impressions for a brand or venue. An advantage for media companies is creating a portable “best of” list for users. Rather than dog-earring a page in a magazine and hoping that you remember to check out a recommended restaurant, Foursquare could be used to remind users when they approach the restaurant.
As Foursquare grows, a challenge for them is to remain focused. Crowley feels that it’s his role to keep the team on track. The company displays its ideal use cases and credo in the office to remind them which direction their new features should follow. The creation of a new product isn’t the challenge for Foursquare; the tricky part is developing the organization and growing it in order to keep up with the development. Delegation is something that Crowley has had to learn on the fly, but it’s been made easier by hiring the right people. They’ve been able to bring on passionate people who have their own side projects in the same space. Their passion and expertise create a sense of trust that makes working together very easy.
While Foursquare is not looking to adopt activities like checking into television shows, they are starting to embrace event check-ins as part of their strategy. When they added a badge for checking into the 2010 elections, it was intended to get people to brag about checking into their polling places. The recent Super Bowl check-ins were less about watching a program than it was what fun things could be gleamed from Super Bowl parties (photos of dips, house party stories, etc.) Checking into events has been user-driven (e.g., Snowpocalypse) and will be expanding as Foursquare grows. Ideally, it’s about recording memories about people’s experiences in the offline world.
One of the biggest surprises to come out of Foursquare, according to Crowley, was the success of the API. The passion of developers has created a variety of mash-ups ranging from mobile device apps to dating apps to one that warns you about poor health grades at restaurants to which you check in. As the ability to craft recommendations grows, interest in using the Foursquare API has grown with it. To this end, the Foursquare team is doubling down again to make their API even friendlier for developers.
Kevin Haughwout is a contributor for the Social Media Week NY Blog and a social media strategist and blogger at the freedmarketer. For more comments on this event, you can check out a cross-posting of this entry here.
Throughout this week we’ll be posting on the ground accounts from individuals that attended New York Social Media Week events. To participate, email a blog submission to info@socialmediaweek.org
Follow this conversation online using the hashtag #smwnypl2
If you weren’t at the Inner Workings: Staffing for Social Media, hosted by the New York Public Library, you missed a fantastic event. The conversation was interesting, knowledgeable, and even funny. It was great to be able to compare the methods, policies, and challenges between a large regulated organization like Citi, a non-profit like the NY Public Library, a start-up like ReverbNation, and a publishing house like Knopf.
My key take-aways include the below;
Brick and mortar organizations have been shaken by the recent changes in the online world and need to adapt.
There is no one right way to do things–it depends on the organization, your customers or constituencies, and your goals for getting involved in social media in the first place.
Even if your organization isn’t “ready” to be on social media, your customers are already here.
Ok, I must tell you that the tone of this event was set by walking up the steps of the New York Public Library and into the room that was used during the filming of the movie “The Day After Tomorrow”. What a beautiful building. I could write many posts just about what I’ve discovered in here. Did you know they have an actual Gutenberg Bible!? But enough of that…
This event was described as a panel discussion to showcase the different approaches for social media staffing juxtaposing representatives from companies in the private sector and non-profits, but it truly became a conversation between the panelists, the audience, and all of the people participating via twitter.
The panelists included:
Susan Halligan, Marketing Director at the NY Public Library
Johannes Neuer, eCommunications Manager at the NY Public Library
Paul Michaud, Senior VP of Social Media at Citi
Jed Carlson, COO of ReverbNation
Mary Buckley, Associate Manager of Advertising and Promotions at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pamela Cortland, Associate Marketing Manager at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Each of the panelists had great stories about how their organization handled voice and tone, policies, approval process, tools to use, inserting personality into the communications, and other topics.
The consensus among panelists was that there is no one right way to do things–strategy should rely on the organization, the customers or constituencies targeted, and the organization’s rationale for getting involved in social media in the first place. Each of the groups represented had different ways of staffing from the 16 cross departmental authors who were trained to use the system (as was the case with the NY Public Library using Hootsuite) to the two people at Knopf who “are the department” within their area of their company. One thing that Mary and Pamela from Knopf did that I found interesting is alternate days of tweeting, so in addition to scheduled tweets they both had specific times where they could give their full attention to the conversations taking place online.
This event was great and from all the buzz I’m seeing and hearing, all the other events are as well. I look forward to joining more conversations tomorrow. You can participate in person, online, and even watch events through Live Streaming.
This blog post was written by Beth Granger, a contributor to the NY Social Media Week blog. When she isn’t helping organizations interact with the digital revolution and all the power it holds, she can be found tweeting @BethGrangerSays.
We are so grateful to Red Bull for hosting our Entertainment, Gaming & Sports Hub throughout the week! In addition to the several content related events taking place everyday, Red Bull is also hosting a Gaming Happy Hour!
Sip on a Red Bull and Vodka during your liquid lunch break and challenge seventeen-year old, pro-Halo player “Enable” at some good old fashioned video game fun! Let’s see who has the best game: YOU or this high school kid?
Seventeen-year-old professional Halo player, Ian Wyatt - better known to his fans as “Enable”
Don’t worry, you won’t have to challenge this pro in Halo ( we know you’d lose!)–here is a description of the new game you’ll get a chance to test drive:
Imagine being able to speed around your own custom-built racetrack at speeds of up to 200 mph. Oh, and you get to show it off to your friends, have them race it and create their own tracks for you to race on. Now you don’t need to be a professional driver to do so. All you need is your iPhone or wifi-enabled iPod Touch and some cans of Red Bull to experience the brand-new Red Bull Augmented Racing app, which will make its public debut in March. Stop by Red Bull Space everyday this week between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. for your personal sneak peak of Red Bull Augmented Racing, as well as the chance to drive the Holy Grail of Gran Turismo 5 – the Red Bull X2010 prototype.
Other games include; Shaun White Snowboarding, Halo: Reach, Moto GP, Dead Space 2, FIFA, Grab Turismo 5 Stimulator, and others!
Get your game on at the Red Bull Space tomorrow, February 10th from 2-4 PM.
(We wouldn’t plan any meetings or calls after 4 PM.)
Throughout this week we’ll be posting on the ground accounts from individuals that attended New York Social Media Week events. To participate, email a blog submission to info@socialmediaweek.org
Check out the hashtag #smwlake for more comments on the event.
Day 3 of Social Media Week NYC kicked off with a presentation from social media experts across the pond. The first few minutes at the Art & Culture Hub at Hearst Tower were spent reconnecting with old friends, sipping coffee and riding out the few minutes of technical difficulties. It can be quite funny when you walk in a room and there are 4 people on the screen all trying to talk simultaneously from around the world, but no one can hear each other. Although the fact that we have technology that can even connect us all, is truly amazing. A huge thanks to Watchitoo for making it all possible.
Toby Daniels, Founder of Social Media Week, was there to kick-start the panel and truly brought into perspective how important social media is, not just here, but everywhere. It is a global phenomenon that connects us all and is truly where emerging trends are born. Our host for the morning, Freddie Laker (Head of Digital Strategy in Asia for SapientNitro) begins with a keynote on his key learnings, take-aways and predictions for the future, after moving to China and becoming apart of a rapidly growing social and digital nation.
You can instantly predict how truly funny and brilliant Freddie is, something I think makes for an excellent speaker. After being in a global role for a short time and still living in the states, he realized that he should “put his money where his mouth is” and actually make the move to Asia. Something he describes as being both truly humbling and inspiring. Although he doesn’t speak the language very well, he knows how to order food and give directions to taxi drivers. He quotes, “If this is Communism, I don’t know what Capitalism is anymore.”
Social media has changed the world as we know it and it’s hard to wrap your head around it sometimes because it gives us the opportunities to communicate, collaborate on new ideas and even enable revolutions. China is a huge part of that movement with over 500 million internet users and countless popular platforms only available to those living in China. Freddie goes on to explain what when we start these platforms over here in the states, we fear we are “westernizing” the rest of the world, when in fact, we are actually broadening our own horizons. America is often criticized for being too closed off, instead, we are becoming more worldly be creating platforms that connect the world. Social media is also creating a whole entire new set of youth, youth that are hyper-connected, worldly and cultured and that will be drastically different than the generations and generations before them.
From an outsiders perspective, we view China as being cut-off and closed in from social media because their government doesn’t allow Facebook and Youtube, but what we are missing is that instead, they have created multiple social, video, real-time and gaming platforms of their own, that are more popular and more innovative than platforms available to the rest of the world. Just because they don’t have Facebook, doesn’t mean they aren’t wired in.
Freddie continues to get the crowd engaged and laughing with some examples of popular Internet culture in China. He describes their “Triad of Internet Power” as: Ninjas, Animals and Little People. Going on to describe examples of hilarious memes and viral phenomena’s that have infiltrated China’s highly developed Internet world.
Hot trends in Asia that will have a significant impact on global social media:
- Social gaming: entire networks are already in place that are driven by social games.
- Location-based services: a trend that is taking more time to become popular in China, but growing as smartphone penetration grows.
- Collective buying: thousands of Groupon-type platforms are already in existence.
- Real-time everything: status updates, wall posts, feeds…growing more and more towards everything being set in real-time.
Future predictions for Asia and social media, according to Freddie Lake:
- Facebook is developing virtual currency as we speak, an idea that was first introduced in China. Due to its widespread success, it transitioned into a payment portal, which Freddie thinks, will be what Facebook will eventually turn into, think PayPal meets Google checkout.
- Development, ideas and platforms to reach rural areas of the world. In many parts of Asia, India, etc. people don’t have access to the same technology the rest of the world does. Freddie ideates that some of the best new developments (think Facebook Zero and Facebook Lite) will be to reach out and connect with people who don’t necessarily have internet and maybe only a WAPP connection.
- The rise of cheap smartphones. Phones that will be under 100 dollars, easy to use and accessible to more people around the world.
- The birth of hyper-relevance. Basic storytelling ideas where we now live in a world where we know where you are and who you are. The idea that companies and governments will be able to leverage this information as a database. Does Facebook want to become this? If China doesn’t have Facebook or Opengraph, who will be the Chinese Opengraph of information? By 2013 most of the internet sites will be in Chinese, what does this mean?
- The Internet of things. Meaning everything we own could be scanned and searched for. Example: missing car keys with and RFD barcode on them. Freddie doesn’t think that American necessarily has the power to collaborate with every company and manufacturer to do this, but China does. He is extremely humbled by the focus and dedication their government gives on new initiatives.
What’s next? He has no idea. He will even pay you money if you know. But all he does know is that Asia and South America are places to watch, some great innovations and developments are going to come from them. He has a suspicion that new millionaires will be born in America trying to copy what they are doing.
The second part of the presentation consisted of a panel of 5 social media experts from across the world. One that was actually present in the room and the rest via digital video. Below are excerpts of the questions and answers given to the panelists, moderated by Freddie Laker.
Speakers:
Katarina Graffman,Owner & CEO of Inculture, Stockholm, Sweden
Justin Barkhuizen, Ex-Director of Social Media, MediaCom
Mark Leong, Digital Strategist, RAPP, Tokyo, Japan
Zarul Shekhar, SapientNitro + TV Producer/Anchor Delhi, India, Manager of Digital Media
Mehdi Lamloum, Digital Planner, OgilvyOne, Tunisia
1. Describe a day in the life of someone in your country using social media:
Zarul: Presented a wonderful video showing how people in India use social media in their daily lives. They update Facebook, blog about life, send SMS to their friends and can even order things through SMS and email. Social media has definitely changed the way people communicate in India and has made Internet and advertising popular. Zarul even shows an example of him taking a picture of a car crash, uploading to the police Facebook and getting a quicker response than any other method. Amazing!
Mark: Shows how in 2005 he was using SMS, email and phone a lot >> fast forward to the present and you can find him barely using SMS and phone, mostly using Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Foursquare, etc. He says that in Japan it’s not necessarily about how many platforms we use, but about which ones we choose to connect with friends on.
Justin: Showed a video about people in South Africa using social media to find parties, connect with friends and promote events in their towns. They are so excited about using social media. Justin comments that in South Africa, there is free wi-fi everywhere. There are so many things they can do that they couldn’t do before. People use social channel for betterment instead of tracking Kim Kardashian.
2. Describe shifts in the ways people live their lives and certain user behaviors that are specific to your country.
Zarul: A huge user trend in India is online matrimony. Arranged marriages are still very prevalent in India and thus there are many resources available to help you get married, such as livestream channels, programming, case studies, counselors and relationship managers that help you get married. Another trend, blind dating online.
Mark: People in Japan hide their true identities online behind fake names, pictures and avatars. This is slowly starting to change and for the first time, people are using either their real names, or combinations of their real names/pictures so that friends can easily find them on Facebook. Mark describes having trouble finding friends because he was unable to remember their Foursquare nicknames. Mark also describes how these trends are mostly on American social sites, on Chinese specific platforms, fake identities and avatars are still being used.
Katarina: People in Sweden used to be very scared of the internet, but now people are getting used to posting things on the internet. A lot of people have online diaries and are sharing the stories of their lives for everyone to see. Also, their blogging/diaries are great marketing tools because people are absorbing the information and sharing it.
Mehdi: There are a limited number of internet users in Tunisia. Social media is THE media in Tunisia. The media they have available to them, tv, newspapers, etc. is so awful that social media has become the best option.
Justin: Only 5 million people use the internet in South Africa but mobile data is huge. WAPP experience is the best way to reach people which is why the government is focused on building platforms for youth empowerment and to raise awareness about HIV and other social issues. Education needs to take place.
3. What are Apps, Platforms and Tools unique to your countries.
Zarul: India is fad driven. We don’t join Facebook because we think it’s cool, we join because is popular and everyone else is doing it. There are many localized social networks, such as ibibo.com, that cater especially to gaming with Indian street names, facts, etc. Making the experience just that better because it is culturally built. Big brands are able to advertise, run competitions and offer the people of India free gifts and giveaways. Another great tool is the ability to send SMS through ibibo.com and to update status through voice for people that don’t have internet access.
Mark: The top platforms in Japan are Mixi and GREE, both of which have 20 million users, where as Facebook only has 2 million. What will happen in the next few years with these platforms will be exciting to watch.
Katarina: It is interesting how people in Sweden use social networks to talk and discuss very private topics like sex. Especially when everyone used to be so scared of the Internet. People are not afraid of being really open.
Medhi: The only social networks available in Tunisia are Facebook and Twitter, the rest are all socialist sites. 1 in every 2 Internet users in Tunisia is on Facebook. They use it as Youtube, Flickr and as a dating site because there is nothing else available. Facebook blogging in popular and so is an site that aggregates tweets called Tnlabs.org.
4. Thoughts on the future of social media.
Justin: The top 10 Facebook pages in South Africa don’t contain any brands. There is a magazine, a tv personality, but no brands. Brands need to figure out what to do and get their message out there. Cultural perspective: there is so much to do, so much to mobilize. I think we will continue to see stuff getting out there and people buying into it.
Zarul: There is a lot of illiteracy, language and education lessons are the biggest need. One example of how that is changing is through Nokia phones, they offer a service to learn English, this is a great resource. Fisherman are also using apps to help them determine the weather and if it is safe to go out that day. Social media is really influencing and helping the ordinary man in every day life, someone who is illiterate.
I absolutely enjoyed this panel and glimpse into the wide stretch of social media around the world. We are all constantly evolving and connecting and as the speakers all described, moving towards a completely wired in and connected world. A huge thanks to Social Media Week NYC and Sapient Nitro for giving us this excellent presentation.
Amanda Mullahey is a contributor for the Social Media Week NY Blog and a digital strategist, social media enthusiast and freelance blogger. You can check out her website here.
