Tuesday, February 14th: 10:00am – 10:50am
Moves Like Jagger: Customer Service Evolved

Get Satisfaction co-founder Thor Muller conducts an in-person “fireside chat” with gyro senior vice president Roland Deal about people-powered customer service. This discussion will explore how customer community service software evolved and where is it heading.

Thursday, February 16th: 10:00am – 10:50am
In Search Of: 1-On-1 with Google’s Rikard Steiber
Google+ Brand Pages, Google’s mobile business as well as what’s next for the search giant, gyro CEO Robert Ray will cover it all with Steiber, global marketing director mobile& social at Google.

Registration is filling up fast, so sign up now!

Writes Aaron, “Our perspective is that any tool, no matter how robust, needs an overarching social strategy to be truly successful.”

Read more on the Socialarc blog!

Plus: Don’t forget to see Jeremiah Owyang, not once, but twice at Social Media Week SF 2012! Spaces are filling up fast, so register soon.

Monday, February 13th at Adobe: Keynote Address: Social Data is a Crystal Ball 

Tuesday, February 14th at Cisco: Social Business: Incorporating Executives and Growing Your Program

Every blog post, Facebook like, retweet, and YouTube view is a new data point. There is more data readily available on more platforms than ever before, and marketers are looking for the best ways to capture that data to help drive strategy. Given the volume of information produced by social media channels, brands are faced with the challenge of filtering out the noise to gain meaningful insights.

Social media data may appear overwhelming at first, but it can be a highly powerful tool, helping reveal what types of content people find engaging, what kind of stories are resonating in the media, and what groups of people are influential in certain topics. Analysis of social media data aids in identification of potential customer service issues, and provides a platform for testing messages with a targeted group of brand advocates. Analyzing the data requires a set of tools to collect information and identify key content, but also the trained eyes of humans to make sense of the content.

As social media continues to evolve, brands must understand how customers discuss their brand over social media channels in order to effectively engage with their customers. Methods for deriving insights from social media conversations will be explained in the Social Insights Shoot-Out, as representatives from analytics firms will debate the best way to gather and analyze data on social media discussions.

Other Social Media Week sessions will dive into how current customer behavior can help brands predict future trends. The Future of Sharing will explore why Facebook users choose to share certain types of content with certain groups of people, and Jeremiah Owyang will deliver his keynote address on Social Data as a Crystal Ball.

Extracting value and ROI from social data is another key concern for brands. Sessions like Social ROI: Show Me the Money! and Measuring the Value of a Fan will show brands how this data can translate into dollars. There will also be sessions to help brands new to the game understand where to start with analytics, in sessions like Let the Compass Guide You: A Framework for Social Analytics and Social Measurement Best Practices Across Tech Brands. Social media week will also enlighten brands on who is influencing conversations, in Topical Influencers: Who Are They and How Do We Reach Them?.

As consumers’ online social behavior continues to change and evolve, it won’t be enough for brand to merely have a social media engagement strategy. Brands will need to leverage data to inform their strategy and better understand their customers.

Until now, it’s been safe to say that hardware and later channel selection opportunities have been at the center of Television’s evolution. But as we embarked into a new decade, developments in hardware and channel selection are still important –  but with the advent of smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks, consumers are carrying around more compact and connected devices than ever before and this promises to have great implications for the future of TV.

What’s becoming increasingly clear  is that the rise of social and digital media are starting to strongly influence how people consume what was traditionally deemed as TV content. A recent MIT Technology Review article named connected TVs one of the 10 most important emerging technologies to look out for and are expected to enter the homes of 137 million Americans in the next three years, and In-Stat reported shipments of connected TVs with integrated TV apps will grow by an average of 36% over the next five years.

And while the technology and concept is still in its infancy, consumers can expect to see more personal, social television with engaging user experiences that don’t differentiate between channels and platforms. In fact, it’s becoming safe to say, that Social/Connected TV will be the next wave of evolution and future of the TV industry.

On Friday, February 17, during Social Media Week at the Adobe SF campus, Ryan Lawler of GigaOM along with a panel of experts from Comcast Ventures, IntoNow, ClipSync and Dijit will discuss the latest trends, opportunities and future of social TV.

Join our panel of experts to explore:

• What the future holds for the television space
• How will social TV will transform our digital entertainment experience
• How participation in the creation of TV content will be an integral part of our experience in the future

To register for this panel click here.

+++

Hosted By: Bite Communications

Date: Friday, February 17

Time: 4:00 p.m.

Location: Adobe SF

Panelists: Ryan Lawler, GigaOM (Moderator); Amy Banse, Comcast Ventures; Adam Cahan, IntoNow; Itzik
Cohen, Clipsync; Jeremy Toeman, Dijit

Image Credit: Slashgear

Join Rick, YouTube, and the Social Media Week crew at the Social Entertainment and Games Hub, at Adobe SF, hosed by thismoment.

Click here to see the full SMWSF schedule.

Register for a discussion with producers Denny Tedesco (The Wrecking Crew) and Tim Partridge (A Life In A Day).

Hint: Valentine’s day, but that’s not all. Cisco’s Petra Neiger from just published an overview of the Social Enterprise Day. If you like the number 8, it’ll be your lucky day, with 8 different topics covered during 8 hours. Check it out, but there’s a lot of interesting things are going on here.

And don’t forget to register …

How to register?

• On theSMW home page, hover over “Attend” (towards the top of the page), and then click on “How Do I Attend?”
• Login or create an account as the page instructs
• Visit the SMW Schedule page
• Towards the top left under “Select a City,” filter the results by events in “San Francisco”
• Click on the web pages for any of the events that you’re interested in, and click on “Attend.” You will receive an email confirmation shortly. (Note: You must register for EACH INDIVIDUAL SESSION SEPARATELY).

At the IBM 100 Anniversary Gala in NYC in September 2011, Joichi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab, proclaimed to an audience of 700 world leaders that World of Warcraft (WoW) provided better leadership training for tomorrow’s world than the MIT Sloan School of Business. For those who don’t have teenage gamers in the house, WoW is one of the most popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) with over 10.3 million playing the game around the world. Ito’s comment made me reflect on my stance as a “tiger mom”, who’d previously ranted and raved against my teenage sons playing WoW, and made me wonder if there might actually be some value in online gaming.

Well, for starters, since playing the game, my sons have picked up some business skills. After banning the boys from using my credit card to pay for WoW’s monthly fees, my son Zac, 11 years old at the time, figured out how to buy a personalized VISA debit card at the grocery store using his Chinese New Year’s red envelope money. Voila!  Who needs mom’s credit card? They had their VISA card to make those on-line payments. Of course, Zac then charged his older brother a premium to use his VISA card. (Maybe he’s a future Bank of America CEO with all their added fees?)

It seems Zac wasn’t the only one learning business skills from gaming. Max, now 19 years old, recently came with me to a business meeting with the CEO of a new client. While we were discussing business models, Max jumped into the conversation and said that there could be different revenue models for businesses, similar to how they’re set up in gaming. He explained the evolution of the gaming industry from the one-time purchase of games for use with gaming consoles (eg. XBOX, Wii) or handheld devices (eg. Nintendo DS, Sony PSP), to the evolution of online games with monthly subscriptions (eg. WoW). Max went on to describe the new online revenue models like pay-as-you-go for more gameplay (eg. Borderlands) and the now wildly successful virtual goods (eg Farmville) where players make micro-payments for virtual boosts or items like a virtual tractor for their virtual farms. Zynga built its $6.5 billion dollar business on virtual goods. Yes, Max is ready to get his MBA after he finishes his engineering degree.

More important than acquiring business skills is that my boys develop social skills. And how would they develop social skills glued to a screen with animated characters and not talking to real people? To my surprise, today’s games and their complex organizational structures provides for a lot of social interaction and learning. Most of the online games have chat functionality so that kids are communicating with their friends and interacting. And then they often use Skype on another computer to talk live with other players (without running up mom’s phone bills, thank you!) I’ve sat on the couch on a Friday night as the kids are talking to other people all over the country — they even have me say hi to their cyber-friends. They once sent home-made cookies to a kid in New York so they all could eat them together while they played. Lots of social interaction here. (Note: Very important is making sure the kids use judgment in who they interact with and what info they share.) In another instance, Zac recently broke the rules while playing MindScape; the rest of his group then penalized him by prohibiting him from playing for a week. He walked around for a week dejectedly hanging his head wishing he hadn’t broken the rules and gotten himself kicked out of the game. MindScape social interaction – a gentler way of teaching kids to follow rules than going to juvie or to jail!

Yes, this tiger mom has decided that gaming is okay. Perhaps, the guy from the MIT Media Lab is right, playing games is training the kids to be tomorrow’s leaders. So… since Zac, now 15 years old, is learning so much from playing MMORPG’s, don’t you think he is perfect for MIT’s freshmen class for 2014?Perhaps a joint engineering and business degree!

My teenager gamers overtaking my living room…

You can reach Gigi on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter at @vlab

On February 15^th, 2012, as part of global Social Media Week, SAP will host a full day of social media sessions at their offices in Palo Alto. You are cordially invited to join the event onsite or via a live feed on the  SAP Facebook page. Attendance is free but requires pre-registration.

• SAP Social Enterprise Hub:  A mix of presentations and panels that shine the light on social culture, social audience, and social technology (sponsored by SAP).

 WHAT TO EXPECT

As a Social Media Week Advisory Council Member, I’ve been organizing SAP’s Social Media Day as a volunteer for the last few months. In my consulting practice, I am constantly confronted with the angst of new comers to social media, and a lot of information that is available on the Internet creates more hype than relief. 

Hence, for this event, it’s important for me to make sure we show the reality of social media and make it digestible for our audience.  I’ll consider our social media day at SAP a success if attendees walk away feeling confident to tackle their own social media challenges.

I am particularly excited about the high caliber of presenters that have agreed to support the event:

• SAP’s CMO Jonathan Becher
• Ray Wang of Constellation Research
• Maggie Fox of Social Media Group
• SAP’s Mark Yolton, Brian Ellefritz, and Timo Elliott
• Many great panelists that will be announced soon

THE FULL SAP AGENDA (a light breakfast, lunch, beverages and snacks will be served throughout the day and at the networking reception)

Our friends from Cisco are kicking-off the discussion on the Social Enterprise on February 14^th:

• Social Enterprise Hub Part 1: Examining how businesses develop and maintain relationships via social platforms and communities, and how these platforms and communities are informing B2B operational decisions (sponsored by Cisco)

Also check the Social Media Week schedule for events at Adobe and eBay!

HOW TO REGISTER

Simply follow this link to the SocialMediaWeek.org website and register for the tracks you are interested in (if you want to attend the full day at SAP, you have to register 4x times = 1x for each track shown in the picture below):

There is no registration needed for the breakfast, lunch and reception 

WHERE (Pre-registration mandatory)

• SAP, Bldg.1, 3410 Hill view Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (Silicon Valley) see map
• Or watch the event streamed live via the SAP Facebook page
• Use the hashtags #SMW12 #SAP in all your Tweets, and follow event-related blogs on SAP.com, SAP Community Network, my social media marketing blog, and SocialMediaWeek.org. 

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO

• SAP: Brian Ellefritz (invaluable guidance on the agenda, sessions and hands on support for AV/streaming and more!), Diane Johnson (logistics goddess!), Joseph Kelly (blogging strategy), Alycia de Avila (keynote), Barbara Holzapfel (SAP Labs), Thia Parodi, Nancy Uy, Brian Rice, Inga Bereza, Sylvia Santelli.
• Beyond: Mitchell Linden, Jillian Mackintosh, Faith Chihil, Sarah Wulfeck.
• Other: Petra Neiger (Cisco), Rachna Lal (VSSOD), Maria Poveromo (Adobe)

About Social Media Week

Social Media Week is a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries.

In just under three years, Social Media Week has expanded to 21 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Istanbul, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Glasgow, Berlin, Moscow, Beirut and Hong Kong. Starting in 2012, SMW is adding Tokyo, Singapore, DC and Miami.

Annually, SMW attracts more than 60,000 attendees across thousands of individually organized events, with half a million connecting to the conference online and through mobile.

For more information about Social Media Week visit http://socialmediaweek.org/.

Catch the real interview and more about Cisco’s exciting sessions for the Social Enterprise Hub on the Cisco Social Media blog!