Category: Uncategorized

Girls Like Rachel Lloyd Can Turn Trauma Into Activism

Posted on by differencesmag

This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Jessica Bender, please click here. 

You wouldn’t think that Rachel Lloyd had been through any hardships just by looking at her. Decked out in an animal print cardigan and fiery red pants, the executive director and founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS)was the model for how powerful women should appear. When Lloyd strutted up to the podium at her own keynote at Thomson Reuters on Tuesday afternoon, she had a certain air of confidence to her, one that you can gain when you go through a traumatic experience like she has.

Lloyd is living proof that any girl, regardless of race or income, can be a victim of trafficking. For a good chunk of time in her teens (until she was 19), she was struggling to get out of the sex trafficking industry. When she eventually found a way out, she wanted to do nothing more than help other trafficking victims. “Squares would treat [these victims] like they didn’t belong,” Lloyd began. “If [society] didn’t change public perception about the way girls were being treated, nothing was going to change.”

With only a computer and $30, Lloyd started GEMS in the comfort of her own apartment in 1998. Although she first started to spread awareness about trafficking using typical grassroots techniques (petitioning, picketing, handing out flyers, etc.), Lloyd wanted to get the word out in a more creative fashion.

rachel-lloyd1

A book and a documentary put out by Lloyd and GEMS completely changed the future of the non-profit. Starting with the book Breaking the Silence, GEMS members told their heart-wrenching stories using personal stories, prose, photography and other forms of art. What really got GEMS the attention it rightfully deserved, though, was the film Very Young Girls. According to the non-profit site:

Very Young Girls is an exposé of the commercial sexual exploitation of girls in New York City as they are sold on the streets by pimps and treated as adult criminals by police. The film follows barely adolescent girls in real time, using vérité and intimate interviews with them, documenting their struggles and triumphs as they seek to exit the commercial sex industry. The film also uses startling footage shot by pimps themselves, giving a rare glimpse into how the cycle of exploitation begins for many women.

While the film had success at film festivals across the country, the documentary exploded on premium cable channel Showtime. Lloyd admitted that praise came from the strangest places, since the filmed aired during the late night on TV – even drug dealers in Rachel’s neighborhood raved about the movie to her!

Success may not have come overnight for the organization, but their achievements are undeniable. GEMS is currently the largest non-profit in the country working with sexually trafficked young women. They mentor over 300 girls each year through recovery and leadership programs, and currently have three distinct housing programs, providing the girls with services they need to conquer life.

GEMS’ current project has Lloyd hoping that sexual exploitation awareness will hit the mainstream. In partnership with trafficking organizations Free the Slaves and Polaris Project, mtvU’s Against Our Will Campaign was launched in September 2011. The campaign’s main focus is to empower college students to learn more about modern-day slavery and inspire them to take action to end trafficking for good. While being on mtvU is a big stepping stone, Lloyd dreams of getting the campaign on MTV by the end of the year.

Coverage of SMW12: Socializing the News

Posted on by Lisa Chau

Who

Moderated by Peter Himler – President — Publicity Club of New York
With Panelists:
Anthony De Rosa — Social Media Editor, Thomson Reuters
Craig Kanalley — Social Media Editor, NBC News
Elizabeth Heron — Social Media Editor, The New York Times
Jake Porway — Data Scientist, The New York Times
Mat Yurow — Social Media Producer, Bloomberg News and BusinessWeek
Steve Krakauer— Senior Digital Producer, CNN/U.S

What

The Socializing the News luncheon began with Publicity Club of New York’s President, Peter Himler introducing Jake Porway, the Data Scientist at The New York Times’ Research & Development Labs to demonstrate his company’s Cascade app, which I must say is likely the most *beautiful* tool presented during Social Media Week 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBOF7XeCE0

Project Cascade goes beyond the two dimensional graphs most companies currently use. It’s a three dimensional representation of how news is shared and how it spreads. The app uses data from the New York Times website and Twitter, well-worn territory but and it adds a key element: information from bit.ly, the URL shortener. By working with bit.ly, staff were able to see when New York Times links were shortened or expanded. Altogether, a full tapestry is exposed: Read; Share; Engage.

Person 1 browses the NYT site, reads an article of interest, uses bit.ly to shorten the URL, shares on Twitter; Person 2 clicks on the  bit.ly link, expands the URL to read the story; Engagement via returning to the NYT website, retweets and conversation. A very powerful data set emerges from these actions. Using the tool developed at the NYT, researchers can see the cascade of events which happens whenever someone tweets one of their news stories.

Project Cascade shows all the sharing behavior based on a tweet. All the layers of retweets. The echo effect across Twitter. The degrees of separation from the original tweeter. Analysts can see the reach of an article by seeing how tall the graph gets, built by layers of retweets. They can also see when others enter and leave a conversation, streaming over time. Consequently, they can also pinpoint influence by large spikes in the data. Who are key players and what are they saying? The app allows analysts to understand the nature of a tweet and how it spreads by looking at the backbone of influential people. Does it help when someone asks a question or adds their thoughts? Do they use a certain hashtag? How does conversation evolve? On which branch do people enter the tapestry? How do things change over time? Using the tool, analysts have quantifiable data to ask questions like “When is the best time to tweet?” They can test the hypothesis and see what works best. They can see who are consistently bringing people back to the site. Which articles are likely to spread and why. What are the sections which affect the flow of conversation? How do journalists become a part of the conversation? Should we retweet ourselves? Should stories be managed or should they be allowed to grow organically? Now, all these questions can be looked at because Project Cascade offers a lens into what is happening in social media.

But Socializing the News wasn’t all apps. Steve Krakauer shared on how social media has a real impact on what companies do. What happens on the digital space translates into more viewers on CNN. Now, the question is how to harness that. Piers Morgan is a great example of how Twitter can build a brand. He is a personality with a strong following. And it really is Piers who tweets. Google+ doesn’t have a good metric or analytics system, yet, and it hasn’t opened up the same way Facebook and Twitter have. For those reasons, people hesitate.  For big organizations to consider Google+, it will have to show more of the back end data. With Facebook and Twitter, you can have a community where you can hit people with what they are interested in. Cultivating a community that already exists is almost as important as reaching out to new people. But most important is people clicking on links, replying, retweeting and commenting, more so than follower numbers or likes.

Mat Yurow joined the dialogue, offering his perspective from Bloomberg. Bloomberg‘s wire service is its main source of revenue. In a world where Twitter is becoming the source for breaking news, how does a company balance service offerings which are free v. charged? Mobile apps have been optimized for sharing and discussion and that is where the organic growth will happen. At the moment, it’s about building a following. Each social network has its own strengths, and those strengths are primed to be taken advantage of.

His company has found that it gets much more traffic from Facebook and people spend three times as much time reading articles on the site, as opposed to the traffic from Twitter, while LinkedIn is used by reporters to find leads. Play the slow game and build relationships. There are few tools better at relationship building than Twitter. Social media editors are responsible for building their credibility and clout to make people listen to what is being said; PR people are responsible for checking-in periodically even when they are not pushing or selling a story. Become a familiar face on a journalist’s timeline, and journalists will be much more willing to respond.

Yurow instructed attendees to find a way to add value to your followers, and play to the vanity of people. Mention them in a newsletter, and then let them know they have been included. Send out tweets at different times, depending on when people read. Understand your audience and find out when you can offer most value.  Consider scheduling tweets to post at night or on the weekends because social sites may be blocked at your followers’ workplace. Don’t lose your audience because they are not able to be at a desk when you are.

Then the New York Times’ Elizabeth Heron offered her views. On Twitter, the company uses the main @NYT account to break news. However, each desk has its own account and is responsible for its own social media strategy, so things don’t need to be completely centralized. “Hashtag Science” is used to create short hashtags which clearly identify the story and invite people to contribute. For example, #iEconomy to discuss how Apple is affecting the economy; how does Apple differ from other major companies that manufacture in China; do factory conditions affect people’s choice to buy iPhones?

To give readers access to journalists, the New York Times also holds live chats on Facebook, as well as on Google+ hangouts. The company likes to give direct access to reporters who work on series. And this international contingent of reporters is great for crowdsourcing. NYT considers the journalistic value of social media. It’s difficult to quantify, but if the company finds sources it would not have found otherwise or it’s able to cover breaking news more comprehensively, then it is significant. On the business side, the company cares about referral traffic. Engagement metrics are much more important than number of followers.

Craig Kanalley expounded on the role of the social media editor: to tell stories. Carve a niche and innovate to use social media creatively. There are endless possibilities. It’s also part of the employee’s responsibility to break out of a Twitter Monkey role. Engage journalists on Twitter by offering timely information.

Keep in mind that Pinterest is sustainable because it appeals to the mainstream audience, not the tech-geeky crowd. Finally, it’s better to post in real time in possible. Scheduling tweets can make you look outdated if not done correctly, so be careful.

The panel concluded with Anthony De Rosa. He stated that in order to be the place where people go for news, you should be the beacon for all news – it makes you valuable. You shouldn’t feel like you can only report those stories coming from your newsroom. However, make sure to validate; due diligence is necessary. Be a megaphone for your own content, but also act as a curator so you’re the central source for everything. The difference between social media and headlines is that you don’t have to be as literal with the former. Social media writers are aiming to grab attention rather than gain the SEO system. Ride the line of interesting and engaging, but don’t mislead.

Pinterest popped up again as a great distribution channel for videos, and LinkedIn was positioned as good for gathering information because it allows users to filter others by who people are: which companies do they work for and which positions do they hold? Listen on LinkedIn. This function doesn’t exist natively on Twitter, but can be maximized on LinkedIn.

Peter Himler helped us end the event by pointing us to MuckRack, which tracks thousands of journalists on Twitter and social media.

At the end of the event, I walked away feeling like I had a great sense of the myriad ways the news can get social and how companies are doing it.

 


Lisa Chau has been involved with Web 2.0 since graduate school at Dartmouth College, where she completed an independent study on blogging. She was subsequently highlighted as a woman blogger in Wellesley Magazine, published by her alma mater. Since 2009, Lisa has worked as an Assistant Director at the Tuck School of Business. In 2012, she launched GothamGreen212 to pursue social media strategy projects. You can follow her on twitter.

A Student’s Perspective: Social Media Week Ends with a Tribute to A Great Journalist

Posted on by smwnyc

Hoda Emam is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism, and one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC. This is her account, both written and photographic, of “Challenging Conventional Wisdom of Social Media: Socmedia Editors Share Their Latest Ideas.”

In the same room that Anthony Shadid’s work was twice decided as worthy of a Pultizer Prize for International Reporting, Social Media Week attendees gathered to celebrate his life.

When news of his death broke out on February 16, the online community took to various social media platforms to mourn his loss. Anthony Shadid was even trending worldwide on Twitter.

At the Columbia School of Journalism Joseph Pulitzer World Room, guests of the event placed down their smart phones and laptops to stand for a moment of silence. Several of the attendees of Social Media Week approached the podium to express their thoughts.

Professor Ann Cooper, an internationally known journalist and executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists said, “It feels like I have lost a trusted guide to what has happened in the Middle East.”

In April 2011, Anthony Shadid and three of his NY Times colleagues were released from captivity in Libya. Their first public event after their return was at Columbia University. In response to why Shadid covers stories that takes him to dangerous parts of the world, Cooper read a comment that Shadid made during the discussion, “We are taking these risks because these stories wouldn’t be told otherwise.”

Shadid was also a great influence for many aspiring journalists including, Namo Abdullah, a graduate student from Kurdistan. Abdullah’s voice trembled as he reminisced Shadid’s support and inspiration over the two years of their friendship. “If there were no Anthony I wouldn’t have understood even my own country, as good as I do now.”

Liz Heron, the NY Times social media editor, had worked with Shadid and his wife Nada Bakri for a period of time. She took to the podium and commented on Shadid’s passing. “It also makes me realize that you know his brand of foreign correspondence is so vital today, even among all these new different models of foreign correspondence that we are coming up with now,” said Heron. “It’s really complimentary to the kind of social media correspondence that is coming up and it can’t be left behind.”

Shadid, 43, was known for his gifted eye for detail and his contextual writing. He leaves behind Columbia Graduate and NY Times reporter Nada Bakri and their two children.

Before moving into the final panel discussion for Social Media Week attendees were reminded of Shadid’s humble character. His twitter page was displayed showing his title as simply a “Journalist and Writer.” In a time when social media is understood to be a platform to display ones credits and experiences, Shadid’s profile is a model of selflessness.

 
Hoda Emam is currently an Master of Science candidate in Digital Media at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Hoda’s recent experience includes working with ABC News and the United Nations.

A Student’s Perspective: What the hell is transmedia?

Posted on by smwnyc
Donovan X. Ramsey is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism and one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC.

What the hell is transmedia? It was certainly the question on my mind. Having been trained as a print journalist, I considered it a feather in my cap to have digital media skills. In fact, I was live tweeting the “Collaborative Storytelling” panel as a part of New York’s Social Media Week. Twitter is something journalists are just starting to really understand. Now this? So there I was, and iPad in my lap for note taking, my digital camera around my neck and cell phone in hand for tweeting. Was I creating in transmedia? The panelists would attempt an answer.

The panel was lively, made possible in part by gag slides displayed behind the speakers. It included Lina Srivastava, Mark Harris, Brian Clark and Aina Abiodun, who served as moderator. The diverse group was often funny and consistently thoughtful.

Srivastava studied law at New York University and now runs Lina Srivastava Consulting, where she promotes transmedia activism. She also makes documentaries like “Born into Brothels” and “The Devil Came on Horseback.” Mark Harris makes films too and unlike the other panelists he might be considered something of a techie. Harris develops software to “facilitate transmedia experiences.” Brian Clark is the CEO of GMD Studios, a company I deduce is an ad agency that works across platforms. He calls himself an “experience designer.” Our moderator, Aina Abiodun, said she stumbled into transmedia while working on a film. She is yet another filmmaker that has expanded the reach of her work through the elusive “transmedia.”

In an interview with Ad Geek in 2011, Abiodun defined transmedia as “a style of storytelling in which one core narrative idea sprouts many rich, new story tentacles across media platforms.” The discussion kicked off with each panelist’s individual definition of the term. This led to the first tangible revelation surrounding transmedia: no one can agree on exactly what it is. There were words that came up regularly however. There was talk of storytelling, experiences and collaboration. 

Clark brought up the popular “It Gets Better” campaign as an example. “It Gets Better,” the series of videos across the Internet is certainly collaborative. Everyone from President Obama to average Youtube users has recorded themselves to share stories of adversity in youth with the underlying mission of preventing suicide in LGBT teenagers. Abiodun didn’t think that was transmedia. She argued that the medium was still practically the same: video.

Then Abiodun asked a question that was sure to raise some dander “Is the bible transmedia?” The panel bounced the idea around for a while. There is the story told by a cathedral for example and that of the text. There are sermons and stained glass windows depicting biblical scenes. Heck, there are even movies like “The Ten Commandments.” The debate fired up. Srivastava offered that transmedia can’t be accidental, there has to be some intention. Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John intend on a multi-platform experience?

A slide appeared behind the speakers that read, “You’ve grown old and died at this panel.” I looked to my phone and saw tweets flooding in with the hashtag #smwtransmedia. The audience was uploading and sharing pictures of the slide, arguing about the concepts of transmedia while the panel did. One Twitter user wrote, “#smwtransmedia wondering if the slide experience is dependent on the conversation.”

If Srivastava, Harris, Clark and Abiodun couldn’t agree on a definition, they may have designed an experience toward one.

 

The New Face of Social Good: How To Make Your Own Social Media Magic!

Posted on by differencesmag
This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Opal Vadham, please click here. 

What do you get when you put a Managing Editor, A Director of Global Marketing, 3 Founders, and A supermodel in one panel? A whole lot of inspiration, and not one seat left unattended. 30 Floors above Times Square, people were excited and anxious to hear about the panel that was about to take place. It was none other than the highly anticipated panel that was all over our Twitter feeds-The New Face of Social Good: How To Make Your Own Social Media Magic! Hosted by none other than my favorite organization She’s the First (who we have previously featured on our website.)

The event started out with an introduction from supermodel Alek Wek who She’s the First connected with through Twitter. I was lucky enough to meet her before and she specifically said she was completely against getting on twitter, the only technology she could use is email and that was good for her. But after many people persuaded her she caved in and joined in November, and since then she says it’s such a positive thing that raises awareness, it’s an outlet that we take for granted because countries like Africa don’t have it. I had to ask her, since I am at a She’s the First sponsored event what she is the first in her family to do and she says she’s the first to be a model (even though her mom at first told her NO), and her memoir is translated in up to 10 languages. And my favorite question of all- her advice to all of our readers out there-“Be YOURSELF. Even though sometimes you feel shy, there are people who are going to love you and identify with you and grow with you. One thing I thought to myself is that I couldn’t do this as long as I did if I wasn’t myself with the people who knew me. Be Yourself, Believe in yourself, and even though some people won’t, if you have few good friends you can count on your fingers, you’re set. ” 

After Aleks incredible introduction the panel which featured Adam Braun founder of Pencils of Promise, Susan McPherson director of global marketing firm at Fenton Communications, Michael Radparvar cofounder of Holstee, Tammy Tibbetts founder of She’s the First, and was moderated by none other than Mashable’s Managing Director Emily Banks. All of the panelists agreed that Social Media changed their life. The advice that was given was priceless, Michael said there is nothing more important then the first people you work with, and you love them like a marriage because you end up spending countless of hours with them. Adam said it’s okay not to start something; you can still be the head of marketing or the head of something. Find what you’re most passionate about, and seek work within it. And Susan made a great point about there are 3 times as many non-profits there were 10 years ago, but far less income. One of the best quotes of the nights was “A good tweet is like a good headline, it’s what grabs you to read the article, has to be catchy, that way your twitter is like your own magazine publication.”- Tammy Tibbetts The panelists agreed that the two biggest things of social media is transparency and storytelling. 

Adam Braun also took few minutes to answer questions for our Differences readers, he told me that a lot of hard work goes into overnight successes but if you believe in something relentlessly, it will happen. He also gave the advice for our teens to find your passion and find an organization out there and work with them, and if it feels right, you know you’re doing the right thing.

Throughout the event many people were also tweeting and connected because they were apart of changing a girls life. The Think Cloud agreed to donate a dollar to every tweet with the hash tag SMWMagic, and at the end of the night 1,137 #SMWMagic tweets generated 1,725,630 impressions, reaching audience of 621,260 followers! All of us were apart of something bigger than the event itself, we sponsored Eli’s senior year of high school in Tanzania!

It’s so funny because around a month ago I had a meeting with Tammy and she was telling me about all the exciting upcoming events she was in the process of doing. And I remember her specifically telling me about this Social Media Week event and all she had planned for it. And to see it all come to life, all run smoothly without a glitch was incredible. It was the most popular Social Media Week event, and I can honestly say the most inspiring as well.

Sports, Gaming, and Social Media

Posted on by differencesmag

This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Vivian Nunez, please click here. 

 

Watching any kind of sports game has always been considered a very social experience, but in the last few years that social experience has transitioned more and more into a social media experience. Many of the questions that were addressed in the first half of the panel had to do with social media and whether its involvement in sports would take away from the integrity of the sporting event. The overall verdict was that a balance needed to be reached between physical “in the moment” interaction and virtual interaction with sporting events.

Sports networks have begun to use mass relevance as the perfect gateway to incorporate social media into the sports experience. They have also been using mass relevance as the perfect way to bridge the gap between those experiencing the event live and those tuning in through other platforms. The advantage to this particular kind of interaction is the conversation that emerges as a result. Many young adults are as plugged in to the TV set as they are to their smart phones while watching sports; the use of mass relevance really allows their voice to be heard regardless of where they are watching the event from.

Social media has also been incorporated into the everyday life of sports through its athletes. MLS, NBA, NFL, MLB, and the NHL all have athletes that connect to their audience through Twitter and although that interaction really helps leverage the brand as a whole, its most important contribution is the relationship it establishes. The use of social media cuts out the middleman that tends to exist between a fan and his favorite athlete. For the young adult demographic it is monumental to be able to speak or share thoughts with your favorite athlete or sports personality through Twitter, Google+, or any other social media platform.

The integration of social media into the sporting event really assists each sporting channel because as stated in the panel “fans are the insider perspective of games”, a lens you can get no where else. As a result, the Millennial generation can relate more to a game if they are also able to capture the moment and update their friends about it. The best aspect of being able to use social media through the season is that it is also as easy to get information during off-season, a win-win for both the sports brands and the sports aficionados.

The same theory of social media interaction in sports events is found in the gaming world. The gaming world might even be using it to a greater extent because it is their only base to be able to compare how good they are versus how good everyone else. Nonetheless the idea is the same, if social media was incorporated correctly and information was not only stated but used to start conversations the sports industry and it’s audience would benefit endlessly from it.

My Social Media Week: Food for the Mind, Body & Soul

Posted on by Ashok Kamal

I can’t recap my first day of Social Media Week NYC without mentioning the night that preceded it. Speakers at 9am always seem more colorful when they’re presenting on the heels of a crazy party. And Social Media Week’s 2012 Opening Reception – hosted by Nokia and held at the Greenwich Village Country Club – included an open bar and competitive sports. I knew I was headed for a great week when I hit, not one, but TWO hole-in-ones over 7 holes of mini golf! Given that we live in a digital world, I’m shocked and saddened that nobody filmed my moments of glory (okay, luck). Nevertheless, the tone was set for a special week – and the following day’s events did not disappoint.

 

Keynote: Gabe Zichermann on The Business of Fun: How Gamification Will Change Your Organization: I’m in the (green) gamification business and Gabe Zichermann is my guru. While my personal focus centers on leveraging gamification to promote sustainability, if you’re even remotely involved in game-based marketing, you can thank Gabe Z for evangelizing the movement and making it tangible. He literally wrote the book on gamification, which he defines as “the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage people and solve problems.” As always, Gabe’s talk was a mix of thought innovation, business application and unadulterated fun. While I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Gabe speak numerous times, he drops new gems with each appearance. This presentation included my first exposure to the concept of “fluid intelligence,” which characterizes the ability to think critically and solve problems. It’s juxtaposed with “crystalized intelligence,” which essentially translates to book smarts. It turns out that – despite popular conception – children are becoming smarter if you measure wits by fluid intelligence. Early and frequent exposure to games and technology is wiring their brains for multi-tasking and tackling complex challenges. This is one reason why renowned experts ranging from Dr. Jane McGonigal to Raph Koster argue that games have the power to change the world for the better. Considering Social Media Week’s 2012 global theme of Empowering Change Though Collaboration, Gabe was the ideal catalyst to press “game on” and kick off the festivities.

 

This Game Will Make You Healthier: My next stop spoke directly to my lifestyle. As a vegan and exercise enthusiast, I take great care to manage my diet and health regimen. Along with refreshing my body with Vita Coco, I came away from this event – organized by Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness – with a greater understanding of the intersection between health and information technology. As a perfect segue from my morning session, the panelists discussed how game mechanics like challenges, points, rewards and leaderboards can lead people to better physical fitness and nutrition. The drivers are grounded in principles of behavioral psychology and the innate human desires to achieve, be social and get appreciated. Executives from companies such as MapMyFITNESS and HealthPrize demonstrated how their mobile apps and interactive web platforms provide real-time feedback to keep people motivated and on track toward better health.

 

 


Chocolate Tasting Networking Party for NYC’s Social Good Community: Being an entrepreneur can be lonely. The long hours, nonexistent vacations and constant pressure are enough to depress the spirits of even the most passionate founder. But being a social entrepreneur is unique: in addition to making money, we are driven by a mission to create a better world. The most valuable currency for an entrepreneur is inspiration. I received a full plate of it (and ethically-sourced chocolate), courtesy of COMMON, Design for Social Innovation at SVA and the Social Innovators Collective, who collectively brought together a diverse, dynamic and dedicated group of people – most of whom were also dateless, considering it was Valentine’s Day and we were all still “working.” I write “working” in quotes because, as the saying goes, when you have a job you love, you never work a day in your life. This event reminded me how fortunate I am to align my personal values with my professional career, and meet the coolest people in the world along the way.

 

The bottom-line. My experience at Social Media Week NYC wasn’t business or personal: it was both.

 

Ashok Kamal is the Co-Founder & CEO of Bennu, which is the leader in green social media marketing. Connect with Bennu at @Bennuworld. Ashok organized and moderated the Social Media Week panel on “Green Gamification: Combining Social Media and Game Mechanics to Promote Sustainability.” The recording can be viewed in its entirety on Livestream.

At the Crossroads of (Higher) Education, Social, and Standards

Posted on by smrushford

Conventional thinking dictates that technology—including social media— and education are at odds with each other. Between the amount time student spend of Facebook, and the rise of pay-for-papers sites, many administrators and teachers have permanently blacklisted all of these programs in their schools. However, social media cannot be valued in such a constricted prism. There are many unorthodox uses for social media, which would engage the nation’s children.

One teacher who is experimenting with such social media tools in her classroom is Melissa Seideman, a history teacher from White Plains who was a part of the Social Media Interview: John Katzman and Jeremy Johnson on The Future of Higher Education: Will Colleges Survive? followed by Panel: The Classroom of The Future: How Social Media Can Better Our Education System.

Ms. Seideman goes beyond the traditional use of a Blackboard/WebCt component for her classes; during one occasion, she asked her students to take out their cell phones and reach their parents to answer a question about the Vietnam war , within minutes there were texts from parents and relatives offering many views on this war. During the panel, she explained that she wanted to bring the ‘world into her classroom.’ Moreover, I asked her what fueled her passion about social and bringing into the classroom, she stated, “I created my blog as an outlet for me to actually share my ideas about a year ago, and now I have 11 thousand people who have been to it, which I think is pretty amazing. I was sharing ideas with friends but I was never getting the responses I wanted back. And by going on twitter and other social media sites, I was able to expand my teaching and improve it. I think that is what inspired me, I wanted to meet teachers like myself.” 

In addition, the use of social media hasn’t only had a positive affect for Ms. Seideman’s teaching, she sees the transformative effect it has on one of her students: “I have one student who will use My Big Campus or edmodo and post articles and things he has from class, and I think that is the epitome of what you want education to be, where they are going outside of a classroom and online to find resources and things to add to the online community. And he will actually find things that add to our discussions and post them on to our virtual class.” Furthermore, for all of those teachers— who like Melissa—want to include social media in the curriculum for their classes, she kindly shared with me a few of her favorite sites: “I get a lot of ideas from Free technology for teachers. Technology Tidbits. Teaching paperless is a wonderful site, their whole blog is about teaching a paperless classroom. Polls Everywhere is a cell phone service to use in the classroom. And Teaching Generation Text is all about texting.

Yet, the learning experience does not end with a high school diploma. In the beginning of the session, 2tor Co-Founder Jeremy  Johnson —whose online learning system partners with universities to create  online course programs for their students—- stressed the importance of social interactions of the university setting, and how he implemented that into his online business model: “In order to get the  benefit of a high quality of education, you need to interact with other smart students, you need to only let in students who get into [the university] and you needed to actually interact with them the way we are talking right now, and to see them in real time and to actually engage in conversation.”  Like Ms. Seideman, 2tor saw the potential and value that Social Media added to their online business, “What we set out to do was to essentially build a learning management system that actually looked far more like Facebook than Blackboard…in order to let people recreate those hyper campus conversations. Because inherently, what social media is doing is allowing you to connect online more deeply with other people. We felt we needed to bring that into academia,” said Johnson.

In the same vein that high school is changing because of social media, college will adapt and reform as well. 2tor CEO John Katzman stated in his panel that perhaps colleges will never be completely done online, however, that taking a semester online to either travel, do philanthropic work, or even having job would be a quite attractive alternative to student—especially since the price of college is incredibly expensive. Perhaps, a complete and robust online high education experience is not that far off from reality.

Beyond The Like: Microsoft and Bazaar Voice Introduce “People Powered Stories”

Posted on by kimberly reyes

During a Social Media Week 2012 panel at JWT on Tuesday, Jennifer Creegan, General Manager, Brand Advertising Business for Microsoft Advertising and Brant Barton Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer for Bazaar Voice announced an ad platform partnership dubbed “People Powered Stories.”

Recent research by Microsoft’s Bing shows that consumers trust sources outside of social networks when making purchasing decisions – mainly online reviews. Based on this research, Microsoft will soon introduce a new ad format for brands and publishers aimed at providing consumers with the purchasing information they need, when they need it – all around the web. Think Facebook sponsored stories outside of the Facebook domain.

In order to do this, they’ve enlisted the services of Bazaar Voice, a “a Software as a Service (SaaS) company that turns social media into social commerce by enabling authentic customer-powered marketing.” In simpler terms, Bazaar Voice is the preeminent source for customer reviews, powering the review platforms for many of the top Global brands.

Starting soon, Microsoft’s ad publishers will have the option to activate this new type of targeted display ad featuring a brand message and highlighted consumer reviews. The initial test campaign was for Windows 7 and was targeted at college students. The ad ran across Microsoft properties that offered audience targeting capabilities to assure college students would see the Windows 7 reviews at sites they visited frequently online. The results Microsoft reported back were impressive:

Ad believability increased 20 points above the market norms for technology ads

6.3% lift in purchase intent

13.5% lift in unaided brand awareness

Example of "People Powered Stories" creative

Despite the encouraging sales pitch and test results from Microsoft and Bazaar Voice, there are some still some pending questions about the product. For example, will consumers trust that the advertiser and Bazaar Voice are serving up authentic customer reviews? Bazaar Voice prides themselves on this very concept, but consumers tend to be wary.

Further, there isn’t any connection to the social graph within the ad unit. If someone decides to click on the ad, they can’t easily share what they’ve learned with their own social graph. Although Microsoft is trying to “go beyond the like,” it is important to recognize the importance of the social graph and layer it across all media properties.

Finally, the quality of review curation remains to be seen. The reviews will be contextual, based on the interests of the consumer being targeted. But will this targeting have as great of an impact as Yelp’s “highlighted reviews,” which take the most mentioned terms in a database of reviews and bring them to the forefront? That might be a feature that is integrated in the future, but in the Windows 7 example, reviews weren’t curated in that manner.

Leave a comment if you’ve come across any of these ads yet, or what you think of the idea.

As Brand Channel Manager at pure-play social media agency Big Fuel, Ross Sheingold focuses on trying to keep the “social” in social media by creating lifestyle content that consumers actually care about. Aside from the four years spent at Penn State University, Ross has been a New Yorker living in Manhattan for the whole of his nearly 30 years on the planet. When he isn’t staying up to date on the current digital and social media trends and “geeking out” on the latest tech gadget, he spends time on his fan advocacy cause as the man behind @StadiumInsider. You can follow Ross on Twitter @RossSheingold and on Google+ http://gplus.to/RossS

 

 

 

SMWNYC Day 4: Transmedia, Deadly Sins, Tangible Action

Posted on by Greg Bodenlos

Penultimate Day 4 of Social Media Week NYC 2012 was an amalgamation of transmedia storytelling, social media anti-best practices, and social good discussions, all centered around the integral importance of collaboration. Here are some of the day’s highlights:

  • Collaborative Storytelling: Transmedia and Social Media: A panel of creators from Broadcastr, GMD Studios, Lina Srivastava Consulting, and host Storycode dove into discussion on how exactly the transmedia form enhances collaboration and innovation platforms, and what it means for the future of entertainment, activism, marketing, branding and business. Amidst the debate, the speakers utilized an interactive demo of an innovative digital storytelling tool to outline how social media storytelling in a variety of sectors can benefit from the practice of Transmedia.
  • How and Why We Share: The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media: A fine group of panelists from various advertising, digital media, and publication backgrounds came together to address how social media vices and virtues drive our actions online — from cyber-bullying behaviors to blind re-tweeting and rampant over-sharing. The highly interactive conversation between the panelists and audience alike incorporated various trends, research findings and real life examples that added a layer of necessary concreteness to a largely anecdotal panel theme.
  • New Business Models to Convert Human Intent into Tangible Action (followed by free after party): The evening came to a close with a fascinating discussion – held at the very cool Brooklyn Brewery – from an expert panel addressing how new business models they have created leverage social media to unlock underutilized human intent for social good and convert it into tangible action. From living greener to hitting the gym more often, the diverse panelists from StickK, Purpose, Oceana, Opower, Yoxi.tv, and host The Mutual highlighted some very enlightening ways that social media can guide us to better lifestyle choices. The Mutual sponsored after party that followed – featuring an amazing open bar of Brooklyn Brewery drafts and enormous spread of appetizers – capped the evening off with perfection.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
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A Student’s Perspective: Beyond the Like: Using Real People’s Real Stories to Drive Brand Awareness

Posted on by smwnyc

Trinna Leong is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Beyond the Like: Using Real People’s Real Stories to Drive Brand Awareness, hosted by Microsoft.

A highly-anticipated event, with over a hundred guests in attendance, Beyond the Like was filled to its capacity with guests even standing throughout the presentation.

It was the launch of Microsoft’s new product, “People Powered Stories.”

Microsoft Advertising collaborated with Bazaar Voice, a software as a service (SaaS) company that integrates customers social data to help brands leverage content. Microsoft Advertising’s General Manager for Brand Advertising, Jennifer Creegan, and Bazaar Voice’s co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Brant Barton, came to introduce the product.

Using the “Back to School” campaign as their test pad, Microsoft took reviews of Windows 7 from their target audience, high school students, and displayed them on their banner ads. Microsoft is aiming to make banner ads content more social to add relate-ability with clients. And they were did it. “Back to School” was a success for Microsoft, who now looks toward marketing “People Powered Stories” to other brands.

The move to produce “People Powered Stories” came when Bing, a Microsoft company, conducted research that showed audiences look to reviews more than to social networks for advice on products. This prompted Microsoft to look into developing a user-generated reviews to market a product. The company believes that having users submit their reviews adds believability to the ad on sites.

The company still uses engagement time as a metric to determine relevancy of ad with consumers, a metric that was dismissed by another panel: Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N. When interviewed, Creegan stressed that Microsoft isn’t using engagement time as the only metric but does factor it into their evaluations.

“That’s why we have three metrics: purchase, believability and engagement time,” said Creegan, making their process a sound launching pad.

 
Trinna Leong is from Malaysia and had two years of work experience in the online advertising industry before deciding to trade the sweltering tropical heat for a chance to pursue journalism at Columbia University. Prior to switching fields, she has worked on projects for Nike, IKEA and Citibank. You can follow her on Twitter at @trinnaleong.

A Student’s Perspective: Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N

Posted on by smwnyc

Trinna Leong is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N, hosted by SocialVibe.

“If you are asking for someone to pay attention, you are probably doing the wrong thing.”

Engaging consumers has been a difficult task for all advertisers in today’s fast paced age. The day’s panel of five industry experts in the field of advertising and marketing came together to discuss what works and what doesn’t in capturing audience’s attention.

“People are more interested in being the curator, purveyor,” said Vanessa Montes, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Fuse. All panelists agreed that consumers usually pay attention through “word of mouth” when friends introduce an item or brand.

That said, brands would want to generate positive talk-ability amongst its audience. Examples given by the panel included the Chipotle ad that aired at the Grammys; an ad that Adrian Barrow, Head of Planning at JWT’s New York office, thought was “artful” (while stating that overall “brands have developed the touch on how to behave on entertainment channels”); and the PETA ad that Michael Learmonth, Digital Editor at Advertising Age, felt strongly against. With the PETA ad, Leamonth felt that the message was that being vegan increases sex drive, but by painting a woman who looks sexually abused, PETA was not sending out a positive message.

Another key point brought up by the panelists is that in social media networks, brands have ended up looking at numbers instead of content. Quantity has been ranked higher than quality, causing brands to lose sight of engagement with their audience.

“Social media is a media that exists between people. For it to pay off, it has to be nurtured,” added Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of Deep Focus.

“Instead of focusing on number of likes and posts, advertisers should focus on what people are talking about on the page,” said Schafer.

The general consensus from the panelists was that advertisers in the midst of trying to pull in more fans end up failing to determine what to do with the fans they have on social media. The worst metric to measure is one that measures how long users spend on a page.

Barrow also argued that consumers now want “something that can help them make the best use of their time” because then “they’ll award brands with some attention.” This defines a new role for agencies to produce new ideas that is useful for consumers.

Panelists also commented on the importance of brands making sure that their brand stays relevant by encouraging audiences to talk about the brand instead of the celebrity that endorses it. Ultimately, the main takeaway for brands is to have engagement fueled by consumers not by brands.

 
Trinna Leong is from Malaysia and had two years of work experience in the online advertising industry before deciding to trade the sweltering tropical heat for a chance to pursue journalism at Columbia University. Prior to switching fields, she has worked on projects for Nike, IKEA and Citibank. You can follow her on Twitter at @trinnaleong.

SMW Day 5 Recap: Connecting, Reimagining, VIP Party

Posted on by Greg Bodenlos
The final day of what was an exhaustingly inspiring Social Media Week NYC 2012 was fittingly characterized by informative, engaging sessions covering the LinkedIn, Tumblr, and – of course – complimentary open bar bases. Here are the finals words from Day 5, capping off a tremendous week of activity:
  • The LinkedIn Difference: How Brands Are Building Deep Connections with Professionals: Linkedin Director of Eastern Region Marketing Solutions Dale Durrett led an enlightening panel discussion highlighting ways top brands are at the leading edge by marketing on LinkedIn to both businesses and consumers alike. Key takeaways from the session were that the LinkedIn space – which as of this writing has 150+ million users – is a largely untapped marketing opportunity for B2B and B2C outreach, and is ideal for companies to humanize their brands. “People buy from people!” was a tweet that was often re-tweeted during the panel, and its message is clear: with emerging tools available on the platform to carve out a significant presence, @LinkedIn truly allows brands to really add many faces to whatever they are selling through their employees.
  • Let’s Get Ready to Tumblr: Building community by reimagining and redistributing your content: In what was surely the most cozily, “alternative” venue for a Social Media Week session – the Chinatown headquarters of start-up Record Setter – a group of panelists shared their various positions on Tumblr as a serious method for gathering and sharing information with communities. While the panelists universally agreed that millions of people are sharing more than ever on Tumblr, surely a direct reflection of the new ways in which people are engaging with entertainment, news, and fashion content, they were surprisingly hesitant to – and in fact steered clear from – endorsing Tumblr as the go-to blogging platform for brands to engage on. Until Tumblr is ready to take analytics more seriously, the look and feel advantages it provides over the WordPress platform far from outweigh the latter’s platform leg-up on its competition.
  • Social Media Week Closing Party: The VIP invite-only closing bash of Social Media Week was characterized by much of the same Opening Party frivolities: an expansive open bar (thank you sponsors Bulldog Gin and Heineken for providing), lots of engaging conversations, and a terrific space (thank you District 36 for hosting). To top it all off, attendees were treated to music from an amazing DJ that expertly knew how to keep the party rocking all night; a memorable way all around to end what was a likewise tremendous week of activity.
Until next year folks…see you on Twitter!
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
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A Student’s Perspective: The Agency of the Future

Posted on by smwnyc

Janet Upadhye is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from The Agency of the Future.

“YouTube will not kill TV,” said Robert Davis, Director of Ogilvy’s Advanced Video Practice. “And actually, video never really killed the radio star.” What Davis meant by his colorful introduction is that agencies of the future need to stop thinking in absolutes. And instead focus on common threads.

Davis highlighted content as the most obvious common thread. The content remains the same in any medium, but how companies think about content needs to change. Davis, accompanied by Mitch Bernstein, Client Strategy Director and Martin Lange, executive Marketing Director of Digital Strategy, laid out ten strategies to create, what they called, a “Content Revolution.”

Briefly, those points included speaking in languages that audiences understand, making content more interactive, creating good distribution methods, measuring success rates by more than just views, creating content that is liberated from the interface, focusing on hand held devices to deliver content, and identifying who the target audience is and when and how they best receive content.

Social TV is one of the most important emerging strategies. A panel comprised of Peter Naylor of NBC Universal, Kimberly Meyers of GetGlue, Matt Crenshaw of Discovery Cannel, and Mark Ghuneim of Trendrr talked about how to socially activate TV audiences.

Ghuneim identified “calls to action” as great ways to get viewers involved. For example, American Idol asks viewers to discuss and vote for their favorite competitors. According to Trendrr, 420,000 people mentioned American Idol on social media sites during its premier on January 18 of this year. This shows increased involvement and a new way to measure a show’s success.

Meyers talked about one of her clients, Pepsi, and one of their new social media campaigns. Viewers that checked into watching the Super Bowl on Foursquare and Facebook received a sticker in the mail worth a free Pepsi. Without mentioning numbers, Meyers said that they strategy was very successful.

Social TV can actually change the artistic direction of a show. The USA Network allowed viewers to tweet about the new opening credits of the television drama White Collar. After an outpouring of negative comments, the network decided to change back to the old opening. “USA took the opinions of its viewers to heart,” said Naylor. “That is what social TV is all about.”

The way that people are watching TV has changed and Social TV is the networks’ response to that change. “People want to be able to discuss the shows that they love with other fans,” said Ghuneim. “Social TV allows viewers to do just that.”

Janet Upadhye is a multimedia journalist covering Hunts Point in the Bronx. In a past life, she was the Development Director at San Francisco Women Against Rape. During her decade in the Bay Area, she also organized within queer and trans communities for safety and justice. You can follow her on Twitter at jupadhye.

SMWNYC Day 3 Recap: Crowdsourcing, Community, Quizzical

Posted on by Greg Bodenlos

Social Media Week 2012, NYC hump-day edition continued the momentum built up during the week’s first forty-eight hours of events, featuring an exceptional keynote from Behance‘s CEO, as well as two spirited, highly interactive discussions around creating community and social engagement. Here were some of Day 3 highlights:

  • Keynote: Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, followed by GOOD Panel: Beyond Crowdsourcing: Using The Community To Report: Behance CEO, and Cornell grad (Go Big Red!), Scott Belsky kicked off the full-house session with a keynote addressing many his company’s initiatives to organize and empower the creative world to display and find talent every month. Named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business”, Scott kept packed audience compelled by sharing dynamic examples of how companies can harness their creative energy to yield the optimal output. The ensuing “Crowdsourcing” panel was a more broadly focused discussion on media’s relationship with its community – addressing media’s failures and successes to get authentic, meaningful anecdotes from its communities directly.
  • Creating community around your blog: Savvy self-promoting bloggers and freelancers alike came out in droves to the quirky Gershwin Hotel to enjoy an animated and refreshingly candid debate, hosted by Blogads, addressing ways bloggers can build strong communities. The discussion benefitted from each of the panelists’ divergent backgrounds and their keen willingness to offer very specific, actionable advice to the hyper engaged audience they were speaking to. Big kudos to the bloggers at GalaDarling.com, JessicaHarlow.com and ConcreteLoop.com for a job well done.
  • A Quizzical Evening in Social Media, hosted by BuzzFeed: Closing the day at JWT meant an early evening of light-hearted panel banter, a highly entertaining, rapid-fire game of Pub Quiz, and free T-shirts, food and booze to boot! Relevant thought leaders from BuzzFeed, OMD Word, GE and AdAge engaged the audience with a brief debate on how good social content is almost always surprising, unexpected, and – of course – quizzical.  The open bar and prizes that followed were just delicious icing on top of a very scrumptious #socialmediaweek cake.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
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Monday Funday: SocialVibe Engagement & Opening Party!

Posted on by Sara Haile-Mariam

It’s hard to believe it’s almost Friday and the end of #SMW12.

Before we bring this year’s festivities to a close, we wanted to post a little throw back to a Monday night and Tuesday morning not too long ago.  We began #SMW12 with two epic SocialVibe collaborations; the first being our #SMW12 opening party which took place at Greenwich Village Country club and was hosted by Nokia and sponsored by Social Vibe.

The evening was centered around engaging activities, like miniature golf and pictures with animal statues, epitomizing the social nature of SMW12- and SocialVibe. Surprises littered the evening from Nokia’s special room to the SocialPix photobooth immediate upload to Facebook.

Then on Tuesday at our Advertising & Marketing Hub JWT, SocialVibe hosted a panel entitled Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N that featured Digital Editor Michael Learmonth, SocialVibe SVP of Sales Mike Barbeau, Head of Planning at SocialVibe Adrian Barrow, VP of Integrated Marketing at Fuse Vanessa Montes, and CEO of Deep Focus Ian Schafer

The panel focused on consumer engagement in digital advertising and consumer “exchanges.” Looking at services, R&D, and creativity as critical aspects to earn value and enhance engagement. By creating opportunities to do social good, giving your community attention or creating unique experiences will increase the likelihood that consumers will do things for you.

Citing case studies from companies like HP’s use of consumer forums to DuoLingo for translation services, SocialVibe really highlighted what you can do and the type of thinking that truly resonates with consumers. “If you have to ask your consumers to pay attention, you’re not doing it right,” just may characterize the views of the event. And with over 600 views on their Livestream and more than 15 comments, we think they get the hang of engagement and meeting people where they are, making this one event you’ll want to see if you missed it in action.

Many thanks to SocialVibe for partnering up with us at this years #SMW12! Partners like them are what make Social Media Week everything that it is.

You can check out more photos from the opening party by clicking here or here! 

See You Friday! A Guide to Day 5

Posted on by Nicky Yates

The end is near! One more day before SMWNYC closes out- and that means one more day for you to take part! Tomorrow hosts a powerful lineup and we're very excited to for you to be a part. Haven't registered? These events should get you in the SMWNYC mood.

8:30-9:30am at Bloomberg: Keynote: Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn on The StartUp of You: A revolutionary new guide to thriving in today’s fractured world of work

9-9:30am at Big Fuel: The Guardian Interviews: Alec Ross

9-10am at Hearst: Where is social media taking the travel industry in 2012?

9-11am at Thomson Reuters: Keynote: Jeremy Heimans, CEO of Purpose, followed by Panel: Building A Transnational Human Rights Movement

10-11am at Big Fuel: RAPP presents RAPPATHON- Hacking for Change: A New Way of Collaboration

10-11am at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Biomarkers & Technology: Can Age be Reversed?

10:30-11:30am at Hearst: Untapped Drive: How innovation and entrepreneurship is revolutionizing daily life through social media & tech platforms

12-12:30pm at Big Fuel: Digital Fireside Chat: David Hirsch on Venture Funding

12-2pm at Hearst: The New Role Models: Chefs, Cooks, Bloggers & You — An Interview with Amanda Hesser, Robyn O'Brien & Bun Lai, followed by Who is Kale's PR Agent & What Dictates a Food Trend?

12-2pm at JWT: The LinkedIn Difference: How Brands Are Building Deep Connections with Professionals

2-3pm at Quirky: The Freelance Revolution: Independent Worker Collaboration & Innovation Through Online Communities

2-3pm at NY Public Library: GAME/WORLD: The New Collaborative Community

2:30-3:30pm at Big Fuel: Peer Pressure: Using the skills we learned in 6th grade for good

2:30-4:30pm at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Feast on Health

3-4pm at Thomson Reuters: Leveraging online platforms to inspire social good

3-4pm at Hearst: Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll: Social's Steamy Side

3-5pm at Bloomberg: Keynote: Jalak Jobanputra on What in the World? The Global Startup Scene: Micro and Macro Trends Fueling Tech Growth around the World followed by Panel: NYC’s Digital Growth through Public Private Sector Innovation: The Role of Government in Fostering NYC

5-6pm at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: TEDx New York Salon Explores Health & Wellness

6-8pm at Columbia Journalism School: Challenging Conventional Wisdom of Social Media: Socmedia editors share their latest ideas

6:30-8:30pm at ShowBiz Cafe: Getaway To A Healthier Gorgeous You: How Social Media Empowers Change In Medical Tourism (sponsored by Medaway Health)

Keep your eyes posted on Twitter (and maybe ensure your phone's camera is intact…) for some fun closing activities tomorrow. And don't forget you can get around in style this week: Download the (free!) GroundLink mobile app now, and you save $20 on your first ride. Just use Invite Code “SMW20” when you set-up your account.

See you tomorrow!

SMWNYC Day 2: Best Practices, Real Stories, Ghostwriting

Posted on by Greg Bodenlos

There was much to love (pun intended) about the Valentine’s Day edition (Day 2) of Social Media Week NYC 2012. The events throughout the day brought attendees much of the same excitement that defined Day 1, with an array of diverse offerings to choose from. Here are some highlights from the three in-person sessions I attended:

  • Global Brand Management: Best Practices in a Social World: Host Efficient Frontier led a panel discussion – with other key digitally-focused executives from Hyatt and Live Nation – on the challenges and best practices for maintaining a global social presence – one that is authentic, centrally governed, locally relevant, and engaging. Key takeaways from the session centered around success stories and challenges faced by each of the panelists, specifically on how to localizing content in various markets and leveraging more user-generated content (UGC).
  • Beyond the Like: Using Real People’s Real Stories to Drive Brand Awareness: Microsoft Advertising General Manager Jennifer Creegan kicked off a jam-packed session with a discussion about opportunities that let advertisers deliver word of mouth to their target customer in an interactive, powerful, and measurable way – focusing on creativity, connection, and relevance as the key dots to connect. The ensuing dialogue continued along this path, emphasizing the fundamental belief that “we [as social advertisers] have to bring consumer authenticity into advertising – we think that’s what these ratings + reviews do.”
  • The New Ghostwriter: This Hearst Magazine sponsored session focused on addressing the issues that arise when third party ghostwriters curate messaging on behalf of others, and what implications this reality has on brands that embrace social media as a means to create conversation and extend their reach. The ensuing conversation touched upon ethical concerns related to trust, authenticity, and transparency involved with ghostwriting – and addressed the convoluted question of whether ghostwriters can ever be a valuable, nuanced asset to a brand. There was no catch-all, resolute answer to this question, but the dialogue around it was both spirited and engaging.
Greg is a motivated Cornell University Hotel School alumnus, affectionately known as a Hotelie for life, with keen interests in social and digital marketing for hospitality and lifestyle brands. He’s passionate about sales and marketing in the hospitality industry, specifically as it relates to the dynamic online space. In his free time, Greg obsesses over growing his musical intellect (both modern and past-time artists apply), tennis, and running skills. Check out his lifestyle blog covering these topics at http://www.thesocialsonictraveler.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter.
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A Student’s Perspective: Reflecting on the 54th GRAMMY Awards

Posted on by smwnyc

Nikhita Venugopa is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Reflecting on the 54th GRAMMY Awards.

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards, held on Feb. 12, 2012, was massively successful on a broadcast platform and in social media, drawing over 3.9 million mentions of their twitter handles. On Wednesday, Day 3 of Social Media Week in New York, Beverly Jackson, a member of the Grammy team talked about the Social, Digital and Mobile initiatives that went into the award show, a record-breaking feat that overtook this year’s Super Bowl numbers.

“We wanted people to be engaged and connected,” said Jackson, speaking at the Hearst Magazine Arts and Culture Hub.

This year’s Grammy Awards didn’t just have a strong presence on Twitter and Facebook, but they were also on Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Spotify to name a few. In some songs of the show, you could even use “Shazam,” an app that can listen to a song that’s playing and find it for you, said Jackson. “We wanted to be on every platform that was talking about music,” she said.

Jackson reflected on the previous year’s socialization of the Grammys and their change in strategy since 2009. For the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, the team just “pushed out tweets” without responding to social media comments, said Jackson. This year, they adopted an “interactive and organic” plan, replying to users and encouraging people to use the Grammy hash-tag.

As a result, the Grammy Awards are the number one social TV event, as reported by Mashable, with 13 million social media comments. The buzz peaked at over 65,000 tweets per second during the airing of the live broadcast.

In her presentation, Jackson maintained that they wanted to recognize importance of social media to the music industry. She talked about a new program for bloggers who were experts in a particular genre of music and would respond to tweets and social media comments. So an expert on Americana music could respond to a tweet about the importance of Glenn Campbell’s performance at the Grammys, she explained. Another event organized by Jackson and her team for the Grammy Awards was the 3rd annual Social Media Rock Star Summit that celebrates the influence of social media on the music world and vice-versa. This year’s summit featured the CEOs of Topspin Media, GetGlue, Shazam, and Turntable.fm.

The death of six-time Grammy award winner Whitney Houston was a widely discussed subject on several social media platforms. Jackson said during Jennifer Hudson’s tribute to the singer at the Grammy Awards, the Twitter traffic almost stopped.

“People were putting their keyboards down and sitting back instead of sitting forward,” said Jackson. She believes it was social media’s way of paying respect to Houston.

Jackson ended her talk by commenting on how viewers were not only tuned into the show, but they were also interacting. “It was important to us that people were engaged,” she said.

 

Nikhita Venugopal grew up in Bangalore, India. She moved to New York in July 2011 to attend Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree. Nikhita studied Media and Communications, Psychology and Literature in India and has interned at Ogilvy as a copywriter and Macmillan Publishers as an editor. You can follow her on Twitter at @niks_90.

A Student’s Perspective: Chris Kaskie Keynote with SoundCtrl’s Creating Music for the Social Web

Posted on by smwnyc

Nikhita Venugopa is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Keynote: Chris Kaskie, President of Pitchfork Media followed by SoundCtrl’s Creating Music for the Social Web.

Day Three of Social Media Weekend began at the Hearst Arts and Culture Hub with the keynote speech by Chris Kaskie, President of Pitchfork Media, a Chicago-based webzine and guide devoted to music criticism and news. Kaskie commented on social media’s role in music today and what Pitchfork hopes to achieve through Twitter and Tumblr.

“When it comes to social media, I find myself spending more time trying to figure out how to use it than actually using it,” he said. Kaskie also highlighted the importance of maintaining Pitchfork’s role as a trusted source for music journalism, regardless of their platform of communication.

“The biggest challenge that Pitchfork faces today is the expanding world of music online,” said Kaskie. It’s increasingly common to see people discover music through peer-to-peer interaction and recommendation. “I’m really bummed that when I die, I have to leave my kids logins to my Cloud account and not record collections,” said Kaskie.

The Internet is filled with opinions and comments on music but Kaskie said he hopes that Pitchfork can provide context to “all the noise,” whether it’s on Spotify or Twitter or Facebook. “To me, it’s very social that we’re interacting with people’s social music experience,” said Kaskie.

After Kaskie’s talk, a panel discussion commenced on social media’s effect on the creative process of the music industry. The panel included Kaskie; Maura Johnston, music editor of the Village Voice; Josh Deutsch, co-founder of Downtown Records; rap-artist Asher Roth and moderated by Jesse Kirshbaum, co-founder of Sound Control. In speaking on the role of social media, Deutsch emphasized maintaining the image of a trusted brand, echoing Kaskie’s keynote speech. The panel discussed the differences between creating an album for a major label and a mixed tape for the web. Asher Roth said social media had rewarded music artists by letting them be free. “It’s a more enjoyable experience to create music for just your fan-base,” he said.

From a journalistic perspective, both Johnston and Kaskie agreed that the music’s format does not affect their critique and commentary. “People can make some of the best music in world in their bedroom. It’s a level playing field,” said Kaskie.

Johnston believed that music is visceral and it’s that feeling determines the strength, regardless of whether it’s online or on an album. “It’s the way it hits you,” she added.

However, in response to what they felt was missing from social media, Kaskie said it lacked an editorial, personalized voice. Johnston also commented on the myopic view that can come from the digital world, referring to Spotify, an online music streaming service. She said social media users often forget that there’s more to music than what you can find online.

All four panelists agreed that while social media was a valuable platform for communication, people should step away from it once in a while and explore a world outside Facebook and Twitter. “Go for a walk. Ride a bike,” said Roth. “It’s going to make you a more interesting person. A better tweeter.”

Nikhita Venugopal grew up in Bangalore, India. She moved to New York in July 2011 to attend Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree. Nikhita studied Media and Communications, Psychology and Literature in India and has interned at Ogilvy as a copywriter and Macmillan Publishers as an editor. She is interested in writing on subjects like education, science, music, arts, social issues and the general eccentricities of the city. You can can follow her on Twitter at @niks_90.

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