This year, SMWNYC is very excited to have LinkedIn on board as one of our official sponsors. What does this mean for you? Well, two pretty big things.

1. They help it all be possible- and free. Thanks to the generous support from our sponsors and partners- just like LinkedIn- events hosted directly by Social Media Week are free to attend and events hosted in conjunction with Social Media Week are primarily free or significantly subsidized. That’s a big plus.

2. They’re going all-in to bring some serious content and quality to our program. How? Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, is keynoting. And you can see him. Catch him Friday, February 17th from 8:30-9:30am at our Business & Innovation Hub at Bloomberg. He’ll be discussing how professionals- aka, you- can accelerate their careers by acting more like a start-up. Why? Well, you have to come to his session to find out. While Reid Hoffman’s keynote is a great addition, LinkedIn isn’t stopping with his session. We’ll have more information next week, but you can rest assured, LinkedIn is bringing their A-game to SMWNYC.

And did you know Reid Hoffman recently released his book, The Start-up Of You? It highlights the best practices of Silicon Valley start-ups and how you can apply them to your professional life, including how to adapt your career plans, develop a competitive advantage, and strengthen your professional network. The best part? The first 100 guests to his keynote on Friday, 2/17, will receive a complimentary copy.

Now, if you aren’t regularly using LinkedIn, you should go check it out. It’s grown tremendously in the past two years and the services it’s been rolling out are phenomenal. From their news platform LinkedIn Today to their latest app, Cardmunch, which scans your business cards and adds the information to your contacts, it’s a company worth being well-acquainted with. Join us in welcoming LinkedIn to the SMWNYC family, keep up with them on Twitter, and meet their team Friday, 2/17.

BigScreen LittleScreen: Web Video Content Screenings and Discussion

Deep Focus Presents: An Evening of “Connectedness“

Reflecting on 2012 Grammys Digital Partnerships, Social Media and Innovation

The Dawn of Companion TV

Get “Schooled” by the Class of 2015: The New College Orientation – Powered by Students, Enabled by Social 

…and more!

Needless to say, our Advisory Board members are some of the most talented, brightest people we know.

We caught up with one of our fiercest Advisory Board advocates, Steven Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net, author of Curation Nation and entrepreneur-at-large with New York City Economic Development Corporation for some of his wisdom.

What do you read for inspiration?

Well, that’s changed a lot in the past few years. It used to be books, magazines, and newsletters. But now,  it isn’t “what do I read” but “who I follow” on twitter. And that’s what is exciting! I follow over 3,000 people from a wide range of disciplines: some folks from digital and social media, some from film, others from book publishing and magazines, a bunch of startups I’m watching, and some VC’s and folks from the NY tech and economic development world.  It’s a wide array, and I like it that way. They help me curate my content and provide me with a diverse mix of voices and perspectives.

What advice would you have given to yourself 5 years ago?

Five years ago, I thought I had to move to Silicon Valley to build a tech company. I ignored the “Go West, Young Man” meme, deciding that NY was the place to build my next company. I can’t tell you how happy I am I made that choice. Today, I think the Valley is great if you need to write a lot of code, but if you’re building a company that is what I call a “hyphen tech company’,” for example Fashion-Tech or Media-Tech or Advertising-Tech, then New York has critically important ingredients you can’t find elsewhere. The vibrancy of our arts, fashion, food, and finance creates a buzz on the street that can be the secret sauce for startups.

What is your favorite aspect of your work?

Magnify.net is literally unlocking the frozen knowledge many of our partners have in their organizations. Putting powerful curation tools in the hands of publishers, brands, and organizations is making web video better. And not just a little better. TONS better. If you want to learn about what’s hot in NY, the video on New York Magazine is awesome. We power that. If you want to explore ideas worth sharing, TEDx has a collection of 10,000 incredible videos, and Magnify.net is the curation magic behind those pages. If you’re a brand that has something to say (like Patagonia‘s passion for the environment), video is what they’re going to use to share what they love. Plus, they’re amazing partners. For me, it isn’t about making content as much as it is about unlocking content — and making the world a better place by doing it.

What is the most challenging part of your job? 

I think that many people still think of video as the stuff they grew up on that their parents called “the boob tube.”  And I mean that in the most family-friendly way possible. They think it’s bubblegum or a time waster. But I think video has the power to transmit knowledge, share ideas, and cross boundaries and borders. It’s about breaking out of old ideas about what TV was and getting connected with all the things video can be. To share. To illuminate. To inform. That’s the coming revolution in web video, and the connection to the living room flatscreen.

So, tell us. What’s your dream job?

Easy: I’ve got it right now.

Look for other Advisory Board members throughout Social Media Week at the following events:

140 Characters Project: Lives Forever Transformed by Social Media

Socializing the NewsNGOs, Causes and the Original Interest Graphs – Interactive Panel Discussion

Getting to the Meat of the Tweet Redux (The Meatier and Tweetier Sequel): Applying Big Data Analytics to Social Media Data, Hosted by Opera Solutions

The Mobile-Social Living Room: How Emerging Media is Reviving the Live Television Experience

Creating Music for the Social Web 

Corporate Responsibility + Social Media – Are They Aligned in Your Organization

 
Can you tell us a little bit about how and why you decided to get involved with Social Media Week?
Social Media Week’s unique approach to viewing the transformational effects of social business on the world through the lens of each regional epicenter strongly aligns with the way Dachis Group views Social Business. In particular, New York has quickly become the global anchor of social media, so it was the appropriate venue for Dachis Group participation in Social Media Week.
 

Dachis Group helps design, implement and measure social business solutions for companies. What interesting trends have you seen emerging from the intersection of business and social technology and where do you see it going in the next few years?
The evolution of social has reached a critical inflection point. Brand Marketers have historically dabbled in social, funded largely out of discretionary or experimental marketing budgets. Most organizations have quietly been tasting, testing, and trying social, trying to understand the potential social has for their brands, its unique characteristics, and how to best integrate it into the overall marketing mix. At Dachis Group, we have witnessed a transformation in the latter half of 2011 as 2012 budgets began their planning cycles. For a significant percentage, social is a material and strategic component of their 2012 marketing strategy. For some, it is at the strategic center.

This has resulted in some interesting trends:

1) The rise of performance brand marketing: Organizations are moving from likes and followers as a metric for the value of social spend and getting more sophisticated about measurement. They are talking about socials ability to quantify meaningful business benefit in terms of brand marketing business outcomes like brand love, brand awareness, mindshare, and advocacy. Social’s unique attributes of deep, meaningful two-way engagement and the quantity of data available for analysis is powering this transformation.

2) The intersection of social media insight and engagement and the connected company: Companies are harnessing social’s capacity for deep customer insight and marrying it internally with social’s ability to self-organize employees to act on insights. They are using these same social organization strategies to mobilize diverse constituencies like employees, advocates, and partners to drive large scale mobilization for social media engagement.
 

Let’s talk a little about the Social Business Council, the largest peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing community for active social business practitioners. How does Dachis Group run this- and how are you able to move businesses beyond competition to collaboration?
The Social Business Council crosses organizational boundaries to help peers cross-pollinate best practices and crowd source social deliverables like policies, procedures, and frameworks. It also acts as a private meeting space for the pioneers in social to network, collaborate and build connections between organizations. Finally, the Social Business Council produces pioneering research that simply isn’t possible to create through traditional mechanisms and techniques.

A strict vetting process and robust rules of engagement have created a unique estuary where competitors, partners, and highly diverse industries can come together to accelerate social business adoption.

 
Dachis Group develops and maintains the Social Business Index, providing the only ongoing real-time ranking, analysis, and benchmarking of Social Business adoption and performance. What surprises have you seen from the Index and how is it affecting businesses listed?
The Social Business Index is the world’s largest quantitative analysis of social business performance, measuring real-time social of 30,000 brands.

One of the most interesting observations from scale of analysis is the sheer number of effective strategies that yield successful business outcomes for large, global organizations. Some organizations use tightly orchestrated marketing campaigns with brilliant and creative social integration. Others fuel massive participation, gently injecting brand attributes and messaging into the conversation. Without the large scale analysis of the Social Business Index and the rich organizational analysis capabilities to look for trends and patterns in specific regions of the world, industries, and engagement tactics, it would be impossible to detect these emergent trends.

Where do you personally go to inspire yourself and then to inspire your company?
I get the most inspiration from some of the amazing innovation of our customer base. With over 40% of the Fortune 100 as clients, we are honored and privileged to watch the transformative power of social as it unfolds. Our internal social tools buzz daily with anecdotes from our partnerships with these organizations.
 

How do you personally use social and digital media and has your work influenced that?
When you look across the hundreds of Dachis Group employees, you see a similar sight. Everyone has TweetDeck, Hootsuite, and other Twitter power tools open. They all have a set of browser tabs open to the large social platforms like Google + and Facebook and well as a more personal collection of smaller or niche networks like Pinterest. That is paired with an array of internal social tools used to bind together our team, that is distributed between over a dozen offices globally and a host of mobile solutions as they flow between offices and client sites. We are an extreme example, but every Dachis Group employee lives and breathes social daily.
 

This year’s theme for Social Media Week is Empowering Change Through Collaboration. How are you seeing this played out locally and globally?
Social Media represents a paradox. Social provides deep intimate engagement, but an audience at Super Bowl scale. Early collaboration strategies in social for organizations to engage with their markets have been simplistic. Hundreds of tools have flooded the market to help these small social teams maximize their ability to coordinate their activities. The challenge is that they are attempting to engage with millions, tens of millions, and in some cases, hundreds of millions of fans/followers/subscribers. To engage at scale, organizations are going to have to bring other constituencies to bear. They will need to activate their employees. They will need to coordinate with their partners. They must engage their advocates. These mandates require collaboration strategies at a massive scale and are spawning innovation at a fantastic rate.
 

SMW NYC is fortunate to have you keynote this February. What is in store for attendees?
I’m honored to be able to participate in SMW NYC. Attendees should look forward to seeing a vision of social, inspired from the front lines of innovation and thought leadership with hundreds of the world’s leading companies. We will follow that keynote up with a pragmatic workshop to couple that insight and inspiration with tangible education to make it real for the attendee.

Amanda McCormick, twitter:@amandamccormick

She’s responsible for the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s first blog, as well as a blog with longer pieces covering social media trends and best practices, Social Media at Work.  She was the architect of the first co-branded web destination for New Directors/New Films, a copresentation of the Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which yielded the fest’s best-ever online ticket sales. She created the first social media rich website for the New York Film Festival, and has been seen speaking in places like:

• Social Media Week New York
• Wordcamp NYC
• OMMA Social Media Conference/Internet Week New York
• The Arts, Culture and Technology Meetup
• The British American Business Association Marketing Roundtable.

Just recently, Amanda teamed up with the startup SocialFlow and focuseson delivering social media optimization technology to publishers and brands.

SocialFlow applies science/math/analytics to drive engagement in social media.  What are some trends you’ve seen working for the company?

Lots of really interesting ones — as we have a top-notch data and research team who harness the full Twitter firehose as well as a number of other rich data sources to generate incredible studies. A few of the lessons that have made the strongest impression on me: we increasingly use social media to break and talk about news. We did two rather extraordinary stories–one about the way the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death filtered out via the well-timed Tweet of a gentlemen that you may not have pegged as an “influencer,” as well as an interesting data visualization of the spread of news about the East Coast earthquake in the late summer.

One trend that’s been particularly fascinating is how important language is in defining who a person is and how they will engage (or not engage) on the social graph. The old holy grail of marketers–demographics–really only skims the surface. When you are capable of looking at the language people use to talk about themselves and what they care about, you have an incredible edge on predicting their behavior and likeliness to engage. That’s something we are able to do at the massive scale of the social networks and in real time at SocialFlow.

What were specific strategies you used when you created the New York Film Festival‘s website?

When I arrived at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which produces the New York Film Festival each year, I knew there were tons of people, especially young people, who were out there who had heard of us and were highly receptive to our mission to present and preserve interesting world and art cinema, we just weren’t providing the tools that would make that happen. In my two and a half years at the Film Society, I developed their first blog and integrated presence across social networks, but when it came to marquee events like the New York Film Festival, I really wanted to do more, despite not really having any budget to work with.

In 2010, as we planned to world premiere David Fincher’s The Social Network at the festival, and I seized the opportunity to integrate cutting edge social tools on the web to create a new experience for festival-goers. In WordPress I found a framework that I could rapidly develop a flexible platform for our programming that easily integrated Facebook and Twitter in-page. While Facebook Open Graph was relatively new, and most film festivals were slow to adopt it, we were able to offer our audience easy, seamless sign-in and live updates from our events. It helped us capture and connect to a tremendous amount of dynamic discussion among our audience — for the first time, for web visitors, the New York Film Festival encompassed conversation through the web.

You are driven by a passion for grass-roots initiatives, entrepreneurs and those working on behalf of the public good.  Can you share some success stories? 

I really love the challenge of building something from nothing — and finding creativity within limitation. When you’re talking about grass-roots cause marketing and nonprofits, often you’re dealing with organizations that have a wealth of what most brands would kill for — genuine affinity in spades. Social media has leveled the playing field in a lot of ways for causes that have vocal and passionate audiences, so part of what I do through my blog and speaking engagements is to help people leverage that passion.

By that token, small businesses and nonprofits would do well to look within and really mine internal resources. When I worked at the British Tourist Authority, I formed and led a social media “working group” that brought together employees to brainstorm tactics for using social media to market British Tourism to Americans. The working group was egalitarian in natureand included members from all departments and seniority levels, from senior management to customer service reps in the call center. The tactic we came up with, a Facebook fan page about British Film and Television, is still going strong four years later with lots of daily engagement and over 55,000 enthusiastic fans. I think all it took to get there was a little collaborative ingenuity that was able to piggy-back on affinity that was already out there.

Your blog Jellybean Boom shows nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, artist, and writers how to harness digital and social technology to amplify their message on a low budget. How do you do that?

Here’s the unifying quality of the people that I meet who are in nonprofits, working in small business, or doing their own thing in the arts — none of them are “phoning it in” or punching a clock. They all radiate passion, so the thing that I aim to do with what I blog about is to help to capture that passion in the service of raising awareness around whatever they are trying to raise awareness around. Not everyone’s a writer, but I think everyone can be coached to help translate that passion into communication tools, whether it’s a presentation, a video, or a Tweet.

On onehourwebsite.org, you advise nonprofits AGAINST blogging. What is the difference between a blog and a website?

Blogs completely democratized the process of getting a presence out there on the web — but the wonderful thing about platforms like WordPress is that they have grown and developed so much in terms of their complexity and capability they are incredible platforms on which the budget-strapped or budget-conscious can build a fully fledged website. I tell people to “make it not a blog” so that they take away the most obvious parts (comments, list of posts) that might signal to the visitor “this is a blog.” However I am a big advocate of having a blog be a part of the effort as well. 

What’s your advice for people just stepping into the ever-changing social media landscape?  

On the most basic level social should feel fun or connected to something that you or your organization feels passionately about. I always advise people to “dive in” and learn from the process. Rome wasn’t built in a day and many of us are better and more conversant on one social network than another. The trick is to start somewhere and find your niche.

You’ve co-organized the “Literature Unbound” panel discussion as part of Social Media Week NYC 2012. What was your inspiration?

I come from a background in both both film (I graduated from NYU film school and worked in production and development for many years) and fiction writing (I did an MFA in the subject at Columbia and worked as a reader for both the New Yorker and the Paris Review). At the same time, I am a lover of technology and felt a bit of frustration with the pace of innovation in both environments as digital and social media have transformed the audience’s relationship to interacting with stories in all media. Thispanel was a chance to bring together people I knew were working at and testing the boundaries of what storytelling and literature can be in the social age. We have innovators, entrepreneurs, founders, developers and academics on the panel — I can’t wait to hear what they come up with in regards to where “social literature” is going!

What do you hope to gain from Social Media Week NYC 2012?

I’ve been a part of Social Media Week as either a panelist or attendee since 2009. I’m just excited to see new types of organizations get involved and see what they are doing in the social space. I plan to attend as many events as possible.

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.

Keynote: Valerie Buckingham of Nokia followed by “Beyond Borders: Impact of Social Media in Global Economy” kicks off with Global Headline Sponsor Nokia’s Director of Brand Management, Valerie Buckingham. Her keynote address will be followed by an in-depth discussion of key trends, cultural behaviors and opportunities beyond American borders. When? Monday, 2/13 at 12-2pm at our Business & Innovation Hub at Bloomberg.

Introducing NYPL Labs: Making Collections Accessible Through Collaboration comes together to rethink what a public research library can be and do and how new tools can bring together communities. When? Monday, 2/13 at 12-2pm at the New York Public Library.

Ushering Your Company into the Social Media Age features the Queens Library as a case study to help organizations and businesses learn the basics of creating a social strategy. When? Tuesday, 2/14 at 2:30-4pm at the Queens Library in LIC.

Supercharging Your Facebook Marketing, led by our Small Business Sponsor, Constant Contact, will show small businesses and organizations how to maximize their Facebook marketing and combine it with your email marketing strategy. When? Tuesday, 2/14 4:30-6:30pm at our Social & Environmental Change Hub at Thomson Reuters.

Can Media Companies Get Social? has our global media partner FT looking at how media and publishing can jump into the digital and social world. When? Wednesday, 2/15 at 2:30-3:30pm at our Global Society Hub, Big Fuel.

Branding and Social Media: The Inseparable Duo, hosted at the SVA Branding Studio, marries branding and social media- and explains why you should too. When? Wednesday, 2/15 at 6:30-8pm.

Email and Social Media: The New Rules of Engagement, another session headed up by our Small Business Sponsor, Constant Contact, highlights the changes in email marketing and what small businesses need to know. When? Wednesday, 2/15 4:30-6:30pm at our Social & Environmental Change Hub at Thomson Reuters.

How can Advertising Self-Regulation Benefit Social Media and Marketing? brings representatives from the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum to discuss must-know aspects for companies incorporating social platforms into their advertising campaigns and marketing strategies. When? Wednesday, 2/15 at 10-11:30am at IAB Ad Lab.

HackEDU- How Tech is Disrupting Education in Order to Save It asks the founders of SkillShare, General Assembly, Unigo, and Tutorspree just how is technology transforming the future of education. When? Wednesday, 2/15 at 7:30-8:30pm at General Assembly.

Crossing the Chasm: Healthcare Innovation Matchmaking Session dives into alternative sources of funding, featuring organizations who are sources of alternative funding and healthcare innovators receiving that funding. When? Thursday, 2/16 at 3-6pm at our Health & Wellness Hub at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness.

Creative Diaries: Why You Should be Blogging in Some Way Shape or Form pools together a diverse group of bloggers using blogs successfully to supplement or even launch their careers. When? Thursday, 2/16 at 6:30-8:30pm at Getty Images.

Register now- as events are filling up fast! And if an event you’re dying to get into is already full, there is still one other option! Don’t forget this year, for the first time, we’re offering all-access passes to either individual Hubs or to all Hubs.

We spoke to Luminary Labs CEO Sara Holoubek on what’s hot at the Health & Wellness Hub.

 
1. It’s about people.
Given the rate at which social technologies are changing the face of healthcare, it is quite easy to get caught up in the tech. And yet solving for health is about humanity. Or as keynote Michael Graves says “People first.” We’ll kick of the week with a human-centered approach to health, from a big data to hospital design to Regina Holliday’s personal story of how she became a patient advocate. Later in the day, participants will roll up their sleeves with Jessica Hammer to learn how to design for desire in health. Also in the spirit of humanity, Johnson & Johnson will close the day with a networking cocktail reception.
 

2. It’s about tech.
We’re going to explore, demystify, and even challenge the role of the technology that is changing the face of healthcare. Frank Moss kicks off the day with a lively discussion of the 2012 MIT Health and Wellness Innovation Hackathon. J.C. Herz will help us unpack the quantified self, followed by a panel on the role of sensors in health. We’ll also explore gaming in the panel, “This Game Will Make You Healthier.”
 

3. We’ll collaborate.
There is no silver bullet in health, and change requires partnership and collaboration. Michele Polz of Sanofi and Aman Bhandari of Health & Human Services will detail how their two organizations partnered to identify new innovations in diabetes. In the afternoon, well take a look at the role of collaboration in wellness, with a keynote from Dr. Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic and a panel on how our perception of beauty affects our behavior and purchase patterns. Last, but not least, participants will get a chance to crowdsource the ideal FDA social media guidelines, as well as comment for the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.
 

4. We’ll Accelerate.
Jay Walker, founder of Priceline and TEDMED chairman & curator will set the stage on Thursday as startups, investors, and strategic partners converge to make it happen. We’re putting the investors in the hot seat, asking them to “pitch” the startups. Later in the day we’ll connect strategic investors and startups via an interactive matchmaking session.
 

5. We’re going to change the game.
We’ll wrap up the week with the ideas and case studies. Participants will get the opportunity to take part in an socially-enabled feedback experiment, learning how little acts of willpower help train your willpower muscle. The week will wrap up with Feast on Health, hosted the fabulous Jerri Chou.

This isn’t Hearst’s first time serving as a Hub for SMW NYC. How did Hearst first get involved?
The folks at Social Media Week approached us to host the Art & Culture hub in 2011, and we jumped at the opportunity to get involved in this initiative, particularly since social media has become so integral to what we do here at Hearst. We were thrilled to showcase our position as a leader in the digital space and there was no question we were going to participate again this year.

 
Our global theme for SMW12 is “Empowering Change through Collaboration.” How does Hearst support this?
Hearst has always been about collaboration. We’re known for being a great partner, whether it’s through our partnership with MSN on top-10 food site Delish.com, with Scripps Interactive on Food Network Magazine or with Amazon on e-commerce initiatives. We’ll also see more collaboration within the organization, between digital and print, across our brands domestically and with our international editions. Hearst is a global company and our employees can and do share ideas and best practices around the world.

 
What major trends are you seeing in the publishing space with digital?
We are bullish on the tablet and e-reader space and expect that as it grows to scale, there will be a huge upside for magazine publishers to create new and additional revenue streams for consumers to get paid content that we don’t feel is going to replace or duplicate our print business. We’ve sold 450,000 digital subscriptions to date and hope to reach 1 million by end of year. Digital editions also enable us to create a more social and interactive experience for our readers.

We are also very focused on the area of e-commerce. Magazines have traditionally been a gateway to purchase for our retail partners so we are now looking at ways to benefit from that influence by striking e-commerce partnerships to promote our brand expertise and drive revenue share opportunities. Recently we’ve made an investment in-home design site Dering Hall, with whom we also have an editorial partnership with ELLE Decor, House Beautiful and VERANDA; with Amazon on e-commerce initiatives; and, even globally, where Elle.com Japan is an e-commerce site.

This February, Hearst is serving as the Art & Culture Hub throughout the week. What can SMW NYC attendees expect to see from the Art & Culture Hub?
We have a great, engaging lineup of programming happening in Hearst Tower that week– including a Tweet-off between comedians, a panel on the influence of street style blogs, a conversation about the “new ghostwriter” on social media, and a keynote Q&A with music artist/entrepreneur Jermaine Dupri and our very own Adam Lavelle, chief strategy officer of iCrossing, the digital marketing agency Hearst acquired in 2010. I’m personally very excited to attend some of these sessions and learn from them.

 
Why Art & Culture at Hearst?
Our brands at Hearst fit in very well with the Art & Culture theme, as we cover subjects ranging from fashion and home to politics and pop culture across our magazine and digital portfolio. We have our finger on the pulse of what’s being talked about — the latest trends, technologies and cultural touchpoints, so it’s only natural that we would host this hub.

 
Hearst is pulling together some phenomenal events for the week. What event should attendees not miss but might not be on their radar quite yet?
In collaboration with the folks at Social Media Week, we’re pulling together some fantastic keynotes throughout the week and we’re also hosting the opening press conference on February 9 to kickoff this year’s festivities. We’re proud to be able to host the conference at Hearst Tower for the second consecutive year and hope that the attendees throughout Social Media Week will enjoy a fun, insightful roster of programming.

 
A big thanks to David for taking the time to speak with us. And you can see the full lineup of events at the Art & Culture Hub here, and make sure to keep up with the major speakers at this location on Twitter with our Art & Culture Hub list and by using #SMWHearst.

Guest post by Meg Akabas

I recently ventured into the world of Twitter with the encouragement of friends, colleagues, and my kids who convinced me it was an important medium to help link me to people who might benefit from my new iphone app ParentSmart. I was told Twitter is the way to find people who want my parenting expertise.

A few weeks into my Twitter journey, I’ve seen a whole new community of parents and discovered that while one might assume parents, especially those of young children, might be too darn busy for social media, moms and dads alike are thriving online.

As a parenting educator, I wanted to understand why so many parents are gravitating towards social media. I examined the content and found four main areas of attraction for parents on both Facebook and Twitter:

1. Community

Taking care of a newborn or young child can be an isolating endeavor. No longer! Parents need not rely solely on meeting other new parents at the playground or through mothers groups to stay connected. They can immediately tap into a community of parents on Facebook by joining groups, on Twitter by following other parents or parenting experts, and on any one of the thousands of mommy blogs by joining and participating in discussions. Social media provides an accessible forum for discussion with other moms and dads about public policy concerning families. This is the stuff we used to talk about at our weekly mothers group while our babies crawled around on the floor and spit-up on our shoulders.

2. Product Recommendations

When I was popping out babies (four of them), in order to get a full picture of what was available in stores or to compare products, I had to load the stroller/baby carrier/bags/etc. and visit the baby supply or toy store. Now, parents can quickly compare and review all possible infant seat models AND get recommendations from other parents through social media channels. Twitter parties and give-aways abound as a way for marketers to reach an audience eager for products and services that make life easier. On www.CoolMomPicks.com, recommendations are linked to thoughtful reviews and product details fly fast and furious from their twitter feed.

In addition, product recall information hits social media sites quickly, giving new parents piece of mind that they are aware of any safety hazards that arise.

3. Health Information

Linking with other families or professionals who can share tips on almost any health issue saves worry and time.  It’s one thing to look up symptoms in one’s dog-eared copy of Dr. Spock, but quite another to get the benefit of hundreds of other parents first-hand experience with curing a nasty diaper rash. When my son recently ran into trouble trying to take his first un-chewable pill without gagging, a swift online connection with parents who had faced this problem resulted in a perfect solution…feed him the pill in a spoonful of applesauce or pudding; it worked like a charm.

4. Parenting Advice and Inspiration 

Because babies don’t come with a “how to” guide, one is constantly trying to figure things out. When I was a new parent, I read lots of books and relied on guidance from my own parents. Social media provides much easier access to a wealth of parenting advice, and it has completely crumbled the barrier of shame or embarrassment that formerly plagued parents who thought they were the only ones struggling. Sorting through so much advice, much of it conflicting, can be difficult, but mothers and fathers are finding experts or other parents whose strategies ring true for them, and they are developing a trust in those sources.

In addition, life as a parent of a baby can be extremely tiring and often feels tedious. Now, parents are just a smartphone away from ideas for activities, recipes, positive thoughts and humor. Social media enables moms and dads to tap into the larger community, helping them to ”know better,” “do better” and “feel better” in their parenting role, which represents an opportunity for those with products or messages aimed at helping them achieve those goals. This is good news for parents, good news for me — the parenting educator — and excellent news for anyone who wants to reach this eternal market.

I just hope that all this connecting through social media isn’t distracting parents from interacting and being present with their children! (For my thoughts on that issue, click here).

Meg Akabas is a mother of four, a parenting educator, and the founder of Parenting Solutions. Meg specializes in working with parents of children up to age 10 both individually and in workshops. She helps parents tackle non-medical issues such as communication, discipline, learning, sibling rivalry, separation, and sleep problems. Download her ParentSmart app on itunes and follow her on twitter.

The U.S. Government would alert Twitter of content it wished to be removed for security reasons. A few users have speculated that government officials are looking to manage the influence of offline sociopolitical movements (Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring) that mobilized in the content stream. Others are enraged after the company voiced its disapproval of the SOPA bill, but did not black out with Wikipedia two weeks ago. Some analysts feel that Twitter wants to penetrate market sectors with competing platforms and stronger firewalls (China). Their strategy’s motive will be revealed in time.

In my mind, the message is clear. Content may be king. Censorship wants to be the checkmate. The volume of communication across platforms has evolved to such a high degree that governmental intervention is not surprising. Social media is a young communication device. The medium has empowered the voice of many users, giving strength to the disenfranchised. Consumers express their beliefs in unlimited community forums. As opposed to prior forms of expression in world history, digital censorship has no tangibility. Firewall proxies are solved by hackers within minutes. The facts are simple. Borders do not exist in cyberspace. Censorship cannot control the unseen.

Abdul Fattah Ismail is a digital marketing specialist with expertise in content development. He lives in New York and is an MBA graduate in Marketing Management from St. John’s University. He has contributed articles for Blueliner Marketing and Talent Zoo.  

 
Mike, our global theme for SMW12 is “Empowering Change through Collaboration.” How does SocialVibe support this?
The theme is very fitting for what SocialVibe is doing to try to change the way advertising works today. Collaboration in digital media is something that starts in the media itself as consumers are finally being brought into the fold when it comes to advertising online. Instead of being bombarded by advertising desperate for their attention, consumers are being invited into experiences or even initiating ad experiences on their own.

This focus on a consumer’s attention is one that requires advertisers and publishers to work together to respect that attention and deliver a positive consumer experience. The beauty of this transition is that it means the experience starts with the consumer. Solving the “attention riddle” is something that requires collaboration at every level of the digital media world, and we need to empower each other with the tools and know-how to fix online advertising.
 

What new trends do you expect to see more of in 2012? 
From a creative standpoint, I expect to see more consumer-driven ad experiences. Not just interactive ads, but ads that are built to let the consumer truly control the experience. We’ll be seeing more ads that are built where the consumer is at the forefront and the brand is actually “helping” them get something they actually want in the form of information, offers or content. Mobile will probably be at the forefront of this as it’s the most personal platform for consumers and one in which the market is ripe for innovation. I also expect to see new forms of accepted online ad measurement and accountability making their way into digital discussions. Lastly, I think we’ll see more publishers adopting new, alternative ad models to monetize their sites and provide better experiences for their users.
 

SocialVibe has reinvented digital advertising, and been awarded by Forbes “Best Social Media Campaign” in 2010 for your work with Bing. Why have your campaigns been so successful, and how have you been able to engage such large number of users around brands? 
It’s actually pretty simple — we put the consumer first in the experience. By giving them something of value endemic to their online experience, we built a model around the one thing all advertisers want: consumer attention.

In exchange for social currency, access to content, or charitable donations, we’re able to drive millions of consumers to invite themselves into ad experiences. In doing so, we solved for the core goal of media anywhere — to get consumers to pay attention to a brand message. Instead of needing 1000 impressions to get a single user to see a brand message, we only need one experience to drive over a minute of active attention on a message. This performance brand advertising model guarantees that the message is actually seen, and it helps brands achieve their intended back-end effects (i.e. purchase, signup, etc.).
 

SocialVibe is digital advertising company with a charitable component. Can you tell us a bit more about the platform and how it got started? 
SocialVibe started out as a cause-motivated social media community where people could complete brand activities in order to generate free micro-donations to charity. The engagement advertising model that you now see across Zynga games, Pandora, IMVU and other consumer sites was born out of this innovative technology, and we’re really proud of our charity roots.

The work that SocialVibe is doing to fundraise for users’ personal causes is inspiring. How has this evolved and what have been some of the most inspirational or motivational stories from this? 
Many of us started working at SocialVibe at least in part because of the aspect of philanthropy, and it remains at the center of our culture even as we build our ad model into other types of partner sites. One of my favorite stories was very early on when the folks at PowerBar’s marketing center got a call from a consumer who wanted to thank them for supporting their cause. The call center had no idea what the consumer was talking about, and it ended up getting passed along all the way to the brand manager who had bought the campaign with us. It was a pretty fun way to show that consumers actually cared about the impact a brand could make in the real world.

We also did a campaign one year with a brand supporting Dress for Success, a non-profit that provide professional business attire for low-income women. During the campaign,SocialVibe received a call from a woman who wanted to donate boxes of clothes but didn’t have a “drop” center near her house. We ended up paying for her to ship the clothes to the nearest center, whereupon the brand got a call saying it had been their biggest individual donation from a consumer, ever. Pretty cool stuff.

What are you hoping to see in this year’s SMW? 
Besides the industry’s greatest minds bellying up to the bar, I’d love to see people working together to identify new ways to measure the digital landscape. We all need to define a metric for the industry, because online measurement seems to be heading in the wrong direction. So whether it’s on a bar napkin or in a panel, getting a few people to sketch out how we can define successes in the industry would be a great start as we head into our 3rd decade of digital media.
 

What can New Yorkers expect to see from SocialVibe at SMW this February? 
Hopefully no singing from any member of the SocialVibe team, no one sleeping through my panel, and also no snow. (But I can’t promise any of these.)