Spotlight: Advisory Board Member Peter Himler

smwnyc

Spotlight: Advisory Board Member Peter Himler

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Peter Himler, twitter: @peterhimler

Esteemed SMW NYC Advisory Board member Peter Himler has served as Senior Media Strategist for several of the world’s top PR firms (think Edelman, Burson-Marsteller, Hill + Knowlton, and Cohn & Wolfe) before forming his own Flatiron Communications, LLC.

Peter is a master of teaching communications professionals techniques and trends that will serve them best. Not only does Peter advise companies on how to best take advantage of the latest tools, he also leads the Publicity Club of New York, at which he’s organized SMW12 event The Socialization of News.

An avid social media user and author of award-winning weblog The Flack, Peter is more than qualified to moderate a discussion on the way in which news content is shared and marketed. Leaders from Bloomberg News, CNN U.S., NBC News, The New York Times and Thomson Reuters will be joining him.

Peter’s also responsible for The Dawn of Companion TV, to be held at Art & Culture Content Hub at Hearst Magazines. Recognizing that the TV industry has been changed by social TV and the “second screen,” Peter has created a conversation that will dive into the phenomenon of check-ins, content, and conversations with leading personalities from Bluefin Labs, Bravo (NBC Universal), Get Glue, HBO and Umami TV.

With so much going on in Peter’s world, we asked him for a few quick thoughts, hoping to get his advice on what —and who— we should be paying attention to.

How do you stay current on what’s popular?

I enjoy the News.me app on my iPad, which captures the articles linked to by those I’ve chosen to follow on Twitter. I also find inspiration in LongReads, the TED videos in the iTunes Store, and the current crop of non-fiction books about media and technology.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I love working with uber-smart entrepreneurs who’ve developed or are in the process of creating pathbreaking technology, apps and products. I appreciate people who recognize and understand the value communications professionals can add. It is especially gratifying to see the media engagement strategy you’ve developed yield notable, meaningful results.

You’re certainly an expert at organizing panels! Who’d be a part of your Dream Panel?

Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Tim Cook. David Carr and Nick Bilton as moderators.

You can pick one person to have coffee with. Who would it be?

Buzzfeed co-founder Jonah Peretti. I caught him at Business Insider‘s Ignition conference and was impressed by his uncanny ability (and track record) in both starting and fueling memes.

What do you do to recharge?

My wife and I live vicariously through our three sons’ lives, and most recently, our third son’s exploits as a Princeton University varsity lacrosse player. We also love to go to the Metropolitan Museum on Sundays when it first opens, grab headphones, and explore different wings. We’re out of there by noon when the crowds arrive.

If you could have any client in the world, who would you help?

I suppose it would be fun assisting Andreesen Horowitz or Kleiner Perkins discover the “next big thing.”

If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?

Discovering new tunes on Turntable.fm or Spotify.

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

To have attended SXSW in its early days!

Look for Peter during Social Media Week and share with him your thoughts on TV programmers, advertisers, and audience engagement. You can also follow him on twitter @peterhimler.

Tags: advisory board, Buzzfeed, Edelman, Flatiron Communications LLC, Hearst Magazines, Jonah Peretti, News.me, Publicity Club of New York, smwnyc, Spotify, The Flack, Turntable.fm
Posted in Advisory Board

Twitter: The Fresh Censor

Monday, January 30th, 2012

According to The New York Times’ Bits column, Twitter has sent a message that will flutter in the timeline. The social media microblogger will censor content viewed as inflammatory by selective nations. A grey widget will pop up in the time feed, stating that, “This tweet from @username will be withheld in: Nation X.” Disruptive content could range from banned literature written by Salman Rushdie to criticism of oppressive global regimes. Twitter’s previous policy included an absolute removal of content on a worldwide scale, rather than a selective process of elimination.

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.

Tags: censorship, digital censorship, microblogging, new york, smw2012, smwnyc, social media, social media news, SOPA, twitter
Posted in News

An Interview with Susan Halligan, SMW12 Moderator

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Susan Halligan, the former Marketing Director of The New York Public Library (NYPL), established the first-ever marketing department for the 100-year-old institution, transitioning the library from traditional communication platforms to new media platforms. The library’s “Don’t Close the Book” advocacy campaign was named by MarketingSherpa to the 2010 Viral and Social Media Hall of Fame. Today, she is a Social Media Consultant based in New York working with cultural organizations such as The American Museum of Natural History, various non-profits, startups, and authors on social media strategies spanning channel selection, content marketing, employee activation, stream management, listening and measurement. As a multidisciplinary marketer, her specialty is integrating social media into traditional marketing and communications channels.

Susan Halligan, twitter: @srhalligan

A familiar face at Social Media Week, Susan moderated 2011 panel, “The Inner Workings: Social Media Success Through Coordinated Staffing,” and co-keynoted “The Connected Network” at the Arts Marketing Association’s Digital Marketing Day in London in November 2011. On February 14, she will moderate Literature Unbound: Radical Strategies for Social Literature at NYU during Social Media Week New York 2012. I spoke with Susan to learn more about her work and experiences.

You have quite an impressive biography. How did you become involved in social media?

Thank you, Lisa. I began to explore Facebook and Twitter in the early fall of 2008. Honestly, I originally started playing around with the platforms, because I had a very small marketing budget and was lured by the fact that the platforms were free. It was very much a “let me see what we can do with this” undertaking. I had no idea, actually, what I was doing, but spent a lot of time exploring and learning, and began to see that social could be integrated into traditional communication channels and that it was an opportunity to take the library’s brand and initiatives to entirely new audiences in a very powerful way. I became very passionate about social and remain so. While paid media remains an important component in any marketing campaign, the trend for marketers is to spend more resources on social and less on paid.

You established the first-ever marketing department for The New York Public Library. What changed?

Most of the library’s outreach efforts prior to my hire were concentrated on print advertising. I was hired to create and implement an integrated marketing effort across multiple channels.

In 2010, you helped The New York Public Library win the PR News Non-Profit PR Award: “Use of Twitter, Success through a Coordinated Staffing Model.” What went into this work?

I built a teamapproach to content marketing at the library. Non-profits have limited resources (i.e., people) to push messaging. But a big organization like the library has multiple message points: programming, customer service, circulation, collections, to cite just a few. It’s a matter of coordinating outreach. Though internal education and training, a regular working group of key stakeholders, the creation and implementation of polices, including a Crisis Plan, Best Practices and an Editorial Calendar, we were able to dedicate staff throughout the organization to message on a daily basis using team tools like HootSuite and Socialflow.

What kind of metrics were used to determine that The New York Public Library is #1 public library in the world on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare?

Community growth, brand mentions, interactions and referrals. We published a monthly Metrics Dashboard using Facebook Insights, the HootSuite and Socialflow Twitter clients, Twitter Counter, Radian6, AddThis and Google Analytics. We shared the data with key stakeholders and examined it closely for insights about messaging, engagement and content.

How does social media for a library differ from social media from other companies?

It doesn’t. Like any business engaged in social, we had a long-term customer-centric vision. One of our major goals was discoverability. We wanted social users to be to be surprised and delighted to find us online (and to discover online and offline resources, like free databases and thousands of programs) and to think “Wow, I didn’t know you could do that at The New York Public Library.”

Have your ideas ever been challenged? Which ones and how did you overcome resistance from others?

If an idea isn’t challenged, it may not be that good. The first step in social media iteration is to identify the organizational challenges: internal resistance (turf, legal, security), lack of resources, lack of skills, an ever-changing technology space and the ongoing challenge of measuring ROI.

Alignment is key: the ability to rally internal resources and stakeholders is the #1 skill in successful social media integration. Evangelizers must be able to maneuver adeptly within an organization and rally the “deciders” for support.

Does Foursquare have any real purpose in relatively remote towns with a maximum of 30 retail businesses?

As part of its 2011 Centennial, NYPL was the first in the world to secure a Foursquare badge. The badge was yet one more way to introduce the library to new audiences and it proved a very successful partnership in terms of unique users, check ins and check outs.

AdAge recently did a post about Foursquare’s connection to “mainstream” retailers. Chris Copeland wrote: “Foursquare is a regional play that masks what it is not – a middle America, mainstream tool.” He suggested that Foursquare needs to continue to educate businesses about the benefits of its platform.

What do you think is Foursquare’s future?

Mobile location-based social networking will continue to be adopted.

Of all the campaigns you’ve led, which was your favorite?

The Centennial of NYPL’s flagship Fifth Avenue building in 2011. It was a perfect storm of owned, earned and paid media: there was an exhibit; a microsite; multiple programs; an advertising campaign that included print, radio, outdoor, transport and online; publications; signage; ecommunications; and a deeply integrated robust social effort across Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. I secured VIK sponsorships from The Wall Street Journal, Titan Outdoor and the MTA to support the efforts. One interesting metric from the campaign was the incredibly high level of engagement with the library’s social content.

What is the most innovative use of social media that you’ve seen?

I am a big fan of Coke’s social strategy and tactics. I love that their Facebook Page is governed by regular fans, not “experts.” At the library, much of its social success is owed to the contributions of its staff. Power to the people!

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. View her online portfolio or follow her on Twitter.

Tags: analytics, award, content, Coordinated Staffing, engagement, foursquare, Hall of Fame, HootSuite, insights, Metrics, non-profit, NYPL, smwnyc, Social Media Week, Socialflow, The New York Public Library, twitter
Posted in Interview

SMWNYC Attendee Tips…from an Attendee

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

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.

Tags: conference, event spotlight, hubs, JWT, new york, smw, smwnyc, Social Media Week, Social Media Week NY
Posted in Advisory Board, Announcements, Coverage, Events, News, Uncategorized

Branding Social Change; The Persona of Change Through Social Media

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

El Lissitzky, 1929

The use of the words branding and social change in this title is not an attempt towards commercialization or to cheapen movements such as the Socialist Revolution, Women’s Suffrage, or Civil Rights Movement, but to more clearly identify how we are reaching individuals, giving expression, and creating the tribe around a movement.

The internet may be a phenomenon of our generation, but social change has utilized the benefits of branding since the invention of large format printing for posters during the Belle Époque era of the late 1800’s. One of the greatest examples of branding social change of this kind is the Communist society’s use of previously banned modern art and movies as the perfect platform to attract, inform, and motivate the illiterate masses.

Not intended as a history lesson, I’ll fast forward to the current tides of social change: the uprising in Egypt, Occupy Wall Street, The Tea Party. All have used social media as a conduit to the masses and each other, giving their own unique voice and persona that distinguishes them not only from each other but to the media. This is where we come full circle. This, my friend, is known as branding.

An adviser to small businesses and start-ups, Darcey launched the Solo-Preneur Success Program based on brand strategies and corporate citizenship platforms. Her work has been chronicled in The New York Times, Forbes, TIME, and AOL Online; she has keynoted at IBM, the SBA, MORE magazine Re-invention Convention, Staples, BDO Seidmans, T-Mobile, and on her own DVD “The Essential Guide.”

Tags: brand relationships, Branding, Civil Rights, Egypt Uprising, El Lissitzky, Occupy Wall Street, smwnyc, Social Change, social media, Social Media Week, The Tea Party
Posted in Business & Commerce

Event Spotlight: WikiLeaks and Online Civil Disobedience

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

This blog post is a contribution from Daniel Teweles, the VP of Business Development and Marketing for Personal Democracy Forum (@pdfteam). You can follow him via @dteweles and www.danielteweles.com.

Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) has been experimenting with and documenting how politicians and governments are using social media long enough to appreciate having the term “social media” to describe these technologies!

In our role as conveners abroad and domestically (PdF’s annual conference in NYC is the world’s leading conference exploring and analyzing technology’s impact on politics and government), PdF regularly gets to interact with, learn from, and promote social media innovators and applications. In our editorial role on techPresident.com (the web’s leading blog covering the intersection of technology and politics), we regularly analyze, dissect, and explore the implications of the growing role social media plays in affecting change.

And so, with the idea of taking our ever growing and (often) random assortment of community all stars and zeitgeist tapping topics, we’re thrilled to announce our event at Social Media Week NYC 2011: WikiLeaks and Online Civil Disobedience, Hosted by Personal Democracy Forum, hosted at the Art & Culture Hub at Hearst.

On December 3rd, noted cyber-libertarian John Perry Barlow tweeted:

Internet freedom activists using distributed denial of service attacks to shut down websites say they’ve invented a new kind of online civil disobedience. Critics worry that the tactic can backfire, and moreover, that the internet is more an ally of authoritarian regimes than we think.

We are pleased to bring together a ridiculous group of luminaries to provide their assessments of this ever changing status quo, while taking your questions. John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, Evgeny Morozov, author of the new book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, and Deanna Zandt author of Share This: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking will all be there. Will you?

Tickets available here.

Tags: Deanna Zandt, event spotlight, Evgeny Morozov, John Perry Barlow, Online Civil Disobedience, Personal Democracy Forum, smwnyc, Social Media Week NY, wikileaks
Posted in Uncategorized

Social Media Week Announces Dates & Cities for February 2011 Event

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Hot on the heels of the immensely successful Social Media Week September, we at Social Media Week are pleased to announce our next global conference, scheduled to be held this February 7-11, 2011.

The next iteration of Social Media Week will take place simultaneously in New York, London, San Francisco, Toronto, São Paulo, Paris, and Rome, with more cities to be added in the next couple weeks. The first five are all returning cities from February 2010 and Paris and Rome are new additions to the community.

Social Media Week has quickly become one of the world’s most unique conferences, providing a global perspective on emerging trends in social & mobile media. In 2010, New York-based organizers Crowdcentric hosted over 450 individual events in eleven cities, reaching more than 18,000 attendees with over 200,000 users connecting through the online and mobile experience, generating millions of impressions throughout the social web.

Unlike many traditional conferences, Social Media Week strives to maintain a model where free access to content, programming and events is made possible by support from brand partners including PepsiCo, Vodafone, Nokia, Meebo and SalesForce.com.

“Over ninety percent of our content and programming is free and accessible to all attendees”, said Toby Daniels, CEO of Crowdcentric and Founder & Executive Director of Social Media Week. “We believe that access to high-quality learning experiences, business networking and buyer /seller market places should not be exclusive to a limited number of executives and organizations that can afford it.”

The driving force behind Social Media Week in each respective city is the local city partners. In Toronto, Entrinsic will be returning to produce Social Media Week for the second time. Chinwag will be leading the effort in London. São Paulo-based SixPix Content will produce the Brazilian conference. Social Media Week San Francisco will be co-produced Swirl Integrated Marketing and Social Media Club, and La Netscouade will lead in Paris.

Paris city partner Benoît Thieulin said, “The opportunities to sit together for a moment and think collectively how social media will transform and further our relationships with the world (ourselves, the media, brands, institutions) are still rare. It was natural to La Netscouade, as a leading social media agency, to step up and take care of introducing this global event to Paris and its flowering of initiatives on the social web.”

Milan-based Augmendy, producers of Social Media Week Milan, will also be bringing the experience to Rome. Augmendy leads Marco Montemagno and Marco Antonio Masieri said, “We are absolutely delighted that Social Media Week Milan was such a success. Over 5,000 people attended our ninety events during the week, with 20,000 more people visiting our headquarters, proving that 2010 is the tipping point for growth and development in the Italian web world. We’re looking forward to an even bigger event in Rome in February.”

Beyond the Crowdcentric organizers and regional city partners, Social Media Week is made possible through its framework of globally connected organizations and individuals who contribute a significant amount to the programming of the conference. If you or your organization would like to get involved as a city partner, event organizer, host, speaker or brand partner, please go here! Or, if you are a brand looking to reach a global audience of hyper-social influencers, either locally or globally, please contact Ben Scheim by email at ben@crowdcentric.net for more information.

Stay tuned for more exciting information about Social Media Week February 2011!

Tags: smwnyc, Social Media Week
Posted in Uncategorized

Milk, Cookies, and Social Media at Whole Foods

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

One of the closing events of Social Media Week took included snack time at a grocery store, as Whole Foods presented Afternoon Snack: A New York New Food Media Panel.

On the menu were:

Liza Mosquito de Guia, Founder & Chief Storyteller, food. curated.

Cathy Erway, Not Eating Out In New York.

Nick Fauchald, editor-in-chief, Tasting Table

Emily Fleischaker, Associate Multimedia Editor, Bon Appetit

Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, Food 52

Nicole Taylor, host, Hot Grease Heritage Radio Network

Moderated by Josh Friedland, Editor & Publisher, The Food Section & GastroBuzz.com

The event started the way every event should: with milk and cookies. But then the panel got sizzling. Here’s a recap of highlights:

Question: How is social media changing things?

Amanda: Publishing used to be more top down and social media changed that dramatically.

Merrill: Our commenting system keeps conversation going.

Emily: For traditional media, it’s a challenge. Our systems are optimized to send out a magazine to a million+ people and not get much back. “Changing that is a challenge but it’s an extraordinary opportunity.” Our product improves with feedback. We use it to engage with our users, to promote our content, and for inspiration.

Liza: I can’t believe the power of social media. “I was a nobody six months ago.” Social media helped fulfill a dream.

Nick: We forget that email is the core of social media – “it’s the mother ship… Today, we take that for granted.” Replying to their newsletters goes to his inbox. Facebook and Twitter are important – “Twitter is a means of filling in the gaps between stories.”

Nicole: Social media is the sole reason Hot Grease has been so popular. “I try to remember that everyone is not on Twitter” as she’s not a big Facebook person.

Cathy: I thought there was something a little unfulfilled with having so many nameless friends. I don’t want to forget the real-life social aspect of food. “When you come to a table, it should be about meeting people” and sharing the experience with them. It’s great to have two ways of social connections.

Amanda: Last week we used Hot Potato to run a virtual Sunday supper and all cooked it at the exact same time, taking pictures, uploading them – it doesn’t replace cooking in a kitchen with someone but it was a valuable community experience.

Question: There’s some debate over whether this is all good or all bad. Amanda, you got in a dust-up with Christopher Kimball at Cook’s Illustrated.

Amanda: He challenged us to a duel about crowdsourcing recipes. We had about eight conference calls with him. We agreed to all of his rules but he wouldn’t agree to any of ours.

Emily: We need a new revenue model. Social media almost makes it too easy to share content. There’s value in professional test kitchens. But the pros of social media outweigh the cons.

Moderator: Any other cons?

Nicole: There are some people in small towns, say an expert in canning, who aren’t online and get left out of this. This is our life – we live and breathe social media. There’s a group of people who will never be a part of the social media movement.

Cathy: If we’re all plugged into all these blogging and tweeting and creating content, when are we going to come up with the content, and when will we enjoy ourselves in the moment?

Question: Is this enhancing our discussion of food? Is it dumbing it down?

Liza: I think it’s making it more exciting. Social media’s all about developing relationships. You start to learn who you really trust. There are certain people who I’ve seen their content and I know I can trust them. When you’re using social media to get good ideas and feedback, you need to rely on trust.

Emily: It’s becoming so much easier for small producers of quality food products to sell them, thanks to sites like Foodzie. That’s a pro. One of the cons that Liza brought up is that there are a lot of stories that can’t be told in 140 characters. When I’m reading a great piece in the New York Times elsewhere, I always think, “How does David Carr turn off his Twitter feed long enough to write good stories?” The challenge is putting out a quality product while communicating with our fans, but we won’t have a quality product if we don’t communicate with our fans.

Question: What does the future hold for food writing?

Nick: Food writing is becoming more like being a potter – it’s generally more of a hobby, but if it turns into a career, great. “It’s becoming harder and harder to make money writing and selling words about food.” Part of the blame comes from writers in general because we started giving away the milk for free and no one wants to buy the cow.

Amanda: It wasn’t that long ago that the old media model was very exclusive. It’s always been a very limiting field. The limits are in a different landscape now.

Liza: I think there’s a big future for video. Advertisers want video content like that that they can sponsor. Hyperlocal is also a big opportunity.

Cathy: It’s not just about writing. There’s radio, there’s video – there are more things we can do. It doesn’t have to be limited to writing for a magazine anymore.

Tags: food, smwnyc, wholefoods
Posted in News

Higher Education’s Future: Collaboration, Augmented Reality, Faculty Education

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Friday’s Future of Social Media in Higher Education hosted by McGraw-Hill Student Innovations offered five great professors (matched with a masterful moderator) to explore the challenges and opportunities in using social media to advance higher education. The faculty included:

Adam Ostrow Editor in Chief, Mashable.com – @adamostrow

Dr. Kathleen P. King Professor, Fordham University; President, Transformation Education LLC – @drkpking

Greg Verdino VP Strategy & Solutions, Powered; author of microMARKETING – @gregverdino

Mary Casey NYU Student and Founder of Jatched.com

Vineet Madan VP Strategy & Business Development, McGraw-Hill Education

Yianni Garcia (Moderator) Marketing Specialist, GradeGuru.com – @yiannig

On to the panel coverage…

Yianni: One in four students in 2 or 4 year programs are taking at least on course online.

Question: How does social media play a role?

Kathleen: Distance education is moving more swiftly in community and 2-year colleges. Community colleges can respond more quickly to changes in demographics, the economy, etc. Four-year-universities and research centers can’t move as fast. Distance ed is a good connection for us with social media – the faculty’s already using technology, and students are embracing it. Working on using other tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc. We also must address the needs of non-traditional students – this used to mean older students in their 20s through 70s. That term “non-traditional” are outnumbering traditional students.

Mary: Beyond distance learning and online courses, there’s the trend around open content. There are intellectual property issues, but they can spark interest from those not present in a class.

Vineet: Of 12 million college students, only 6 million are 18-24. A big reason for dropouts is lack of engagement. We need to promote engagement more than just enrollment.

Greg: Students want to text with deans or people admissions offices.

Adam: Social tools present new ways for students to participate, rather than the old way of getting graded just for showing up.

Question: How do you use various tools to engage students?

Mary: Blackboard is great, but it’s not collaborative and archival. You can only collaborate with students in your class, that semester. NYU has taken the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn under its umbrella. They’ve tried to develop collaboration between that and Stern Business School. Needed: apps for collaboration. Gradeguru is one that fits in, provides incentive for collaboration – “it’s kind of revolutionary.” Facebook’s Courses application: you can submit which classes you’re enrolled in to get opinions of a class. Another: Dropbox – lets more than one user edit documents at a time.

Question for Mary: Are you using Google Docs extensively?

Mary: Yes, a fair amount.

#SMWNYC’s Crystal Ball Panel: What’s Next in 2010

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

About this Social Media Week Guest Blogger: Though Rebecca recently graduated from The University of Texas at Austin’s Advertising program, she has been a social media enthusiast for years, and is honored to guest blog at #smwnyc. To learn more, visit her blog and follow her on Twitter @rebeccaweiser.

What’s Next: Social Media in 2010
Panel at the Roger Smith Hotel, NYC

Panelists: BL Ochman, Howard Greenstein, David Berkowitz, Brian Simpson.

What expectations, measurements and results do we plan on seeing in 2010?

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the way Social Media will shape the business and communication landscape. Addressing these speculations, the panel outlined expectations, measurements and results we can hope to see in 2010.

Expectations: “Big companies need to take it seriously.”

As explained above, one reason why big companies don’t engage in Social Media is because they are scared.

In 2010, the panel unanimously agreed that many more big businesses will realize how valuable of a communication tool Social Media can be. Not only is it challenging, interesting and fun, “but it has the potential to be very lucrative.

Every client wants long-term strategies, and the panel predicts that in order to achieve this, clients will begin investing 5-7 figures into social media campaigns.

Less about what we do, and more about the reason they talk. A good business practice uses social media as means for proliferation, not an improvement to the service/product. It’s easy to get carried away, but a successful business model has a truly quality offering, while providing the means with which to share the experience it provides. Social media allows others to talk about how great business-x is.

Measurement: “Social Media should come at the beginning.”

Traditional measurement will have to change, as Social Media carries different weight. For instance in the old model, 20 impressions were no big deal. However, now whenever 20 impressions are served through Social Media, they are each an invitation to interact and communicate with one another.
Each social media channel holds different weight. A YouTube video response has different implications than a retweet.
For more information, visit David Berkowitz’s blog post – http://bit.ly/100ways

Results: “Social Media should come at the beginning.”

Ideally, an increased focus on social media will result in an increase of sales. Howard Greenstein brought up an example of a local barber shop that, through social media, was able to successfully increase its customer base for next to nothing cost.
David Berkowitz explains the 4 major social media necessities for producing results: Goals, Assets, Rules and Volume.

Tags: 360i, BL Ochman, Brian Simpson, David Berkowitz, Howard Greenstein, nyc, predictions, roger smith hotel, smw, smwnyc, socialmedia
Posted in News

Networked News Gatherers Panel Share How Social Editors Work at #SMWNYC

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

David Berkowitz is Sr. Director of Emerging Media & Innovation at 360i. You can follow David on Twitter @dberkowitz.

Let’s meet our panel for today on Networked News Gatherers: Defining the Social Media Role, hosted by Time Inc:

Moderator: Melissa Parrish, Director, Community Strategy for Lifestyle Digital, Time Inc
Jennifer Preston, Social Media Editor, The New York Times
Rachel Sklar, Business/Project Development, QAbrams Research and Writer for Mediaite (and she admitted she doesn’t know what Farmville is… so embarrassing)
Cyndi Stivers, Managing Editor, EW.com

Question: How are you involved with using social media across your organization?

Jennifer (NYT): Twitter usage there started when one developer wanted NYT Twitter headlines on his phone. There’s a big team involved with a lot of different constituents across different departments.

Rachel (Abrams Research): I’ve learned a lot. There’s not much of a filter in what I post as my own brand in this space. ”It’s very much an authenticity thing… and being conscious of the user experience as well.” It was funny watching Huffington Post get fully on the Twitter bandwagon – at the Democratic National Convention, all I had time for was checking what was happening on Twitter. We’ve gotten to the point where we can use the word Twitter without flinching.

Cyndi: We have a really active community. We were on Facebook before it opened up. By summer of 2008 we were on Twitter – last year in January Twitter was 138 on the list of referring domains, and then by May it was number 7 (leveled off around number 5). We feel like a startup even at a huge company.

Question via Twitter: How is social media changing relationships people have with writes?

Rachel: You can update something very fast. Writers are called out publicly things.

Jennifer: It’s made a big impact in terms of crowdsourcing. Brian Stelter has been a real leader in the newsroom, showing colleagues how to use Twitter in a very effective way. In the newsroom, many journalists use Twitter. Beyond crowdsourcing and engaging with users, we found there’s tremendous benefit in using social media just to get into the real-time web. When Fort Hood broke, we put up a Twitter list, and on our Lede blog, we took content from the Twitter list and put it in a module. An important thing about journalists is trust – Ann Curry mentioned this at yesterday’s panel. In breaking news situations you need to provide real-time information but you have to verify it.

Question: What’s it like using social media in a crisis?

Jennifer: My first month I wanted to hide under my desk. I was learning in a very public way. Through colleagues and friends in the space I found these incredibly welcoming, helpful, kind people. … Instead of imposing many rules we’ve encouraged people to get out there and experiment and innovation.

Question: If you’re hiring for a position called a Social Media Editor or Social Marketing Manager, is it more important that they have personal experience in social media or that they have an editorial/web/print background?

Rachel: I’d say it all together would be perfect. The most important thing is enthusiasm. Understanding the rules of sharing is important but common sense is key.

Question: How do you determine the line between editorial use and promotional use?

Rachel: If we’re going to survive as an industry we need to figure out new models. Old models aren’t working. There have to be creative solutions. With the McFlurry scene in 30 Rock, I don’t know if it was paid for [it wasn't - and it directly led me to buy a couple McFlurries - Ed.], but I didn’t care.

Cyndi: Didn’t help that it was funny? It’s not traditional advertising by any stretch.

Question: As editors, are you just as happy to get people talking even if it’s negative?

Rachel: When Mediait launched there was some perceived backlash due to some misconception. That never came to anything and is not attached to the brand but it drove me bananas. You also have to be careful how you respond. Monitoring how your brand is being perceived is important.

Jennifer: People have been talking about New York Times content for a very long time – the dinner table, water cooler, the horse and buggy. We want to be wherever that conversation is taking place.

Audience question: How will NYT’s plan to charge for content effect things?

Jennifer: The metered model won’t be put in place for another year. In that time, we’ll make sure the user experience in terms of the payment process will be frictionless. A lot has to be worked out. For people coming to our site through Twitter or Facebook or a recommendation that will stay open. [So that means just find what's posted on Twitter everyone, and you don't have to pay! Yeah, let's see how long that lasts... -Ed.]

Question: Is the social media editor role here to stay?

Cyndi: Everyone needs to have those skills. Curiosity’s a trait of our business. It’s just another element in the toolkit, and I think it’s not going away.

Rachel: I think both – you have to do everything, and you have to promote your own stuff, but it takes time. The bigger you get the more you need that person.

Jennifer: [I missed the first part of her response due to my exceptionally loud sneeze. - Ed.] We’re turning over the keys to our different desks and they’ve done a fabulous job with Twitter, modules, etc. That’s the real challenge of a Social Media Editor – to push it out through your organization.

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February 13-17, 2012

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