Buddy Media In Action

The social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, Buddy Media is truly a leader in their field- a global brand leading from right here in NYC. With their global presence, we’re excited to see what Buddy Media brings to SMWNYC. While hosting events in other cities, what this local sponsor is putting out in our fair city is exciting. Check it out:

Tuesday, February 14 at Hearst Magazines in New York, Social Syndication in 2012: Experiences First, Networks Second helps refocus on the “what” of social media. Featuring Sam Champion of Good Morning America, Kelly Balz of Avon, Michael Svatek from Bazaarvoice, Kristine Welker of Hearst Digital, and Jeff Ragovin at Buddy Media, this team will explore strategies for creating and distributing real-time social content and how social syndication powers monetization.

Thursday, February 16 at JWT in New York, Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media, Inc. will give a keynote sharing his expertise and experience. As an entrepreneurial leader, this is one keynote we’re stoked to see happen.

Thursday, February 16 at Ogilvy in New York, Social Commerce Is Here, Is Your Brand Ready? takes on e-commerce. As 90% of all purchases are subject to social influence, Myles Kleeger of Buddy Media, Jonny Cottone from Busted Tees, and Kelly Solomon at L’Oreal share the importance of implementing programs that turn social connections into revenue and conversions.

Proving their not a company that’s not all work and no play, they’re concluding the week with a cocktail hour Thursday night. A little bang to end their participation. Now, let us know which events you’ll be seeing Buddy Media!

Event Guide: Influence

We’re doing all that we can this week to help you optimize your #smw12 experience. While each of our hubs serve as homes for specific content areas, the number of sessions we host on a specific topic far exceeds the capacity we have in our Hubs.

To help you navigate the schedule and find sessions that are relevant and interesting for you, we’re constructing a series of guides, which we hope will surface new and interesting content you might not have otherwise been aware of. We’re talking influence and community.

Your Guide to Influence:

Monday, February 13th
9-11am: Keynote: David Eastman, CEO of JWT North America followed by Top Trends that will Shape Social in 2012
2-8pm: The Walking Gallery: An Exhibit
3-5pm: Keynote: Jermaine Dupri on Building a Community
6:30pm: Meet the Afropolitans: Digital Media + Culture in Africa

Tuesday, February 14th:
4pm: The Future of Sharing
6-8pm: Deep Focus Presents: An Evening of “Connectedness”

Wednesday, February 15th
11:30-12:30pm: Consumer Engagement and Online Community in Social Media
12-2pm: Keynote: Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, followed by GOOD Panel: Beyond Crowdsourcing: Using The Community To Report
1-2pm: Global Influence
3-5pm: Keynote: John Winsor, CEO of Victors & Spoils followed by Panel: Building Community: Combining Real World Experiences with Online Social Networks
7-11pm: Social Media Influencer Awards

Thursday, February 16th
1:30-2:30pm: We all have Influence Somewhere: The Next Great Social Media Transformation
3-5pm: Social Commerce Is Here, Is Your Brand Ready?
4:30-6:30pm: In the Twitter Kitchen: A Modern Cookie Bakeoff
5-7pm: Buddy Media Cocktail Mixer
6:30-8pm: Networking Reception with Sanofi

Friday, February 17th:
2-3:15pm: Let’s Get Ready to Tumblr: Building community by reimagining and redistributing your content
2-3:30pm: GAME/WORLD: The New Collaborative Community

New Events Added to SMWNYC

As we’re finalizing our robust schedule for SMWNYC, we realize some of our newer events might be overlooked. And to ensure you know all that’s happening and don’t miss a thing, we’re here to update you on these events. We think you’ll like ’em:

How to Create Facebook Custom Pages Workshop: Learn how a ‘custom’ Facebook Page can help you stand out.

Making government listen: Using Web 2.0 technology to revolutionize how we communicate with our government: Technology offers a powerful opportunity for empowerment and tech makes government more transparent and accountable.

The Agency of the Future: Hosted by our Global Supporting Sponsor, Ogilvy, we’ll discuss what new skills are needed and how they apply across key marketing and communications industries — social tv, social CRM, mobile and video distribution.

Fixing Health From the Outside In: Explore case studies on Ford’s collaboration with Healthrageous, Weight Watchers impact on “diabesity,” and Jawbone’s entry into health.

The LinkedIn Difference: How Brands Are Building Deep Connections with Professionals: Join our local sponsor, LinkedIn, for a discussion focusing on how top brands are at the leading edge by marketing on LinkedIn and hear about some of the emerging tools they’re using to carve out a significant presence on the platform.

Networking Reception with Sanofi: Sanofi and the Data Design Diabetes team invite you connect and collaborate with the next generation health tech innovators.

Fireside Chat: The Creative Social Revolution – What in the world is going on?: Join our fireside chat discussing what was breakthrough/groundbreaking in Health and Wellness this year.

Biomarkers, Technology, and Age-Reversal: Help us explore the case of Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow, who engaged in a four-month experiment to turn back the clock on decades of drinking hard, smoking, and eating a lot of processed food.

Power to the Patient: What does it mean to be a patient in 2012? Or rather, an e-patient? Join us as we debate.

Guardian Interview with Jalak, sponsored by Nokia: Don’t miss our Global Media Partner, The Guardian, as they interview one of our keynotes, Jalak Jobanputra, up close and personal.

Food + Tech: With a growing number of startups entering the food startup community, it’s not only difficult to differentiate yourselves, but also monetize your ideas. We’ll dine and chat- join us.

Buddy Media Cocktail Mixer: Cocktails. Buddy Media. Need we say more?

My Social TV App Thinks I’m My Dad: Privacy Issues In The Age of Convergence: TVs are rarely personal devices. So how do you make sure that Mom and Dad’s Cinemax movies aren’t posted to their kid’s Facebook walls? Let’s talk privacy.

More than “Likes” Can Say: Join Microsoft, as they’ve assembled a panel of people who can show and tell how people’s activities and contributions online can contribute to a better overall web experience – in some very unexpected ways!

Covering the 2012 Election Socially: With NYT, Washington Post, and CNN, this panel discussion will focus on how social media is changing the way we’re reporting the presidential election this year.

Guardian Interviews Don, sponsored by Nokia: Global Media Partner gets to know our global keynote from Canada, Don Tapscott.

We’re All Social Now: Why B2B Marketers Can Get With the Conversation: How do B2B marketers adjust their strategies? Is there a difference in the way workers interact with their professional versus personal networks online? This panel will explore the kind of differentiated marketing programs leading companies are putting into place and lay out the new roadmap for engaging followers in a B2B world.

Social Media Week’s Opening VIP Reception Hosted by Nokia: Our invite-only special opening party.

Reflecting on 2012 Grammys Digital Partnerships, Social Media and Innovation: Following the 54th GRAMMY Awards, Beverly Jackson of the GRAMMY team will head to NYC to recap the Social, Digital, and Mobile initiatives that went into planning and executing the award ceremony this year – What did and didn’t work?

We all have Influence Somewhere: The Next Great Social Media Transformation: Kred CEO Andrew Grill and a panel of senior marketers will discuss the science and philosophy behind Influence, and why used properly it is an essential tool for building rich engagements and brand loyalty.

BtoB’s New York NetMarketing Breakfast: This breakfast will feature a panel discussion between B2B marketing executives on how they’re using social media ato drive response and the tactics and tools that are working from them.

Leveraging online platforms to inspire social good: Hear from experts on how they’re taking control and making a difference in the world through their use of the internet to leverage the power of community.

Rich Media Stories: Presenting case summaries from leading brands we will demonstrate how they are using rich experiences to make their social outreach more tangible, meaningful and valuable.

Getting to the Meat of the Tweet Redux (The Meatier and Tweetier Sequel): Applying Big Data Analytics to Social Media Data, Hosted by Opera Solutions: We’ve assembled some of the best to discuss what’s state-of-the-art for applying Big Data analytics to social media data and what it all could mean for business, politics, government, and the rest of us.

Keynote: Howard Lindzon followed by Panel: The Evolution of Reg-FD: How Social Media Has Changed Investor Relations, Hosted by StockTwits: Howard Lindzon is founder and CEO of StockTwits. Howard will share insights on how firms can best leverage social media to enhance investor communications, followed by corporate communications leaders sharing their experience.

Maintaining Authenticity and Transparency: How Financial Advisors Are Using Social Media to Build their Business, Hosted by Actiance: Listen to case studies that show how financial advisors are using social to build their book of business, and discover these industry leaders’ predictions on where the industry is headed in 2012.

Retail Banking Redux: Can Social Media Create a New Paradigm?: At this event, we describe how social media, particularly Foursquare and Facebook, increases consumer loyalty and the bottom line.

Social Media HAS Changed the World: With The Red Cross and DonorsChoose, this panel takes a look at how non-profits are using social media to get the word out about their specific programs and to listen to the problems facing a community.

With events like these, you don’t want to waste any time. Register today- and tell your friends! We’re looking forward to seeing you in 6 days!

Spotlight on Buddy Media

Social Media Week is possible due to the great support of our global and local sponsors. This year, that group includes some major players in the social and digital space, all of them taking a a very active role in shaping Social Media Week New York. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing you to these individuals and companies- helping you get to know them and how you can take part in what they’re planning for SMW12.

To kick this series off, we’re starting with Buddy Media, an analytics and connections-based digital organization. Co-Founder Jeff Ragovin shares more on the importance of cupcakes on birthdays, having a focus, and choosing the right partners.

Jeff, can you tell us a bit about your role at Buddy Media, and how Buddy Media got involved with SMW?
As Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Buddy Media, I’ve been with the company since the very start and have seen us grow from three people in one office to more than 200 in offices around the world. In my role, I work with our largest clients, advising them on how our social marketing software suite can help them grow their business. I also drive revenue generation strategy and adoption of our software suite by global brands and agencies.

With 60,000 attendees across 21 cities, including the four cities where Buddy Media has offices– New York, San Francisco, London & Singapore– Social Media Week is one of the biggest events of the year for Buddy Media. While Buddy Media is a global company, our headquarters is in New York, so we’ve known Toby and Ben, the organizers of Social Media Week, for years, and continue to be big supporters of the event. We’re doing more this year than ever before, with events in cities around the world. There is a lot of noise in the social marketing space, so we are laser focused on research, case studies and best practice guides for our customers and for the industry at large. The more we can help make things less confusing, the better.
 

How does Buddy Media support this year’s global theme, “Empowering Change through Collaboration”?
What makes social media so powerful is that it has turned everything on its head. No longer is marketing or communications about shouting your advertising messages to people. Social media has made all communications a two-way dialogue. This is something that marketers have to come around to, because they realize the potential is beyond anything the world has ever seen before.

We’re supporting this year’s theme by collaborating with our partners, and the greater community on our content. Just one example is our “Power Your Connections™ Illustrator Contest,” which asks artists to submit their illustrative interpretation of the art of connections in a social world. All of our new Buddy Media advertising creative is artwork, because art gets people talking. It is unique and exciting. So we’re super excited to open this up to everyone to submit their ideas. Not only are we interested in seeing how the community mashes up their own creative ideas with our existing work, but we’re giving away $5,000 to the best interpretation.

 
Buddy Media is known for its excellence in analytics and connection-based softwares- something that wasn’t needed 10 years ago. How do you see the increased use of social and digital media changing the way business is done? 
One of our clients, Ford Motor Company, recently said that social media is bigger to them than advertising. It’s very straightforward: companies that power connections and build their community and content to create deep, meaningful connections will create shareholder value. Those that don’t, will not.
 

How does Buddy Media stay on top of the quickly changing nature of social and digital media and technology? 
We developed strong partnerships with the major social networks early on. Buddy Media is the only company to be a charter member of the developer partner programs for Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. We work closely with all of our partners, whether it be the social networks, our agency partners, or integration partners like comScore.

At the end of the day, you have to be genuinely interested in social media and how it is changing global marketing and communications. At Buddy Media, we’re never satisfied with the amount of white papers, research and best practice guides that we release. We always want to do more.

Culture is important to Buddy Media. How do you maintain an innovative, passionate and compassionate culture? 
We’re very invested in the culture at Buddy Media. We eat cupcakes on everyone’s birthdays. We buy all of our employees athletic sneakers once a year so that they can work out and stay fit. We have a food program to cater meals for our offices. We have quarterly events like our kickball game and scavenger hunt. We dress up on Halloween. Literally, everyone in the company dressed up on Halloween.

We give custom bobble-head dolls to employees at their one-year anniversary at Buddy Media. That is something no one ever forgets. Our CEO Michael Lazerow likes to say that work doesn’t have to suck, and I couldn’t agree more. We pride ourselves when our employees write on Facebook or Twitter about how much they love working at Buddy Media. There’s even been a bit of a trend with a Twitter hashtag called #ProudToBeABuddy.
 

What can New Yorkers expect to see from Buddy Media this SMW? 
Our CEO Michael Lazerow has a keynote speaking session in New York, which we’re very excited about. We’re also hosting events in London, San Francisco and Singapore. As usual, expect to see us delivering valuable insights and data. We take our relationship with the community very seriously and always make sure that we’re delivering valuable content. It’s going to be an exciting week!