dani klein - Social Media Week New York (SMWNYC) - MAY 4

“From Listening to Activation”: a Conversation at Converseon with Crepes 2/4/10

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Dani Klein

About this Social Media Week Guest Blogger: Dani Klein is Founder and Blogger at YeahThatsKosher.com, Founder/Consultant at SocialCity Marketing and Social Media Director at StandWithUs. You can follow Dani on Twitter @YeahThatsKosher.

Today’s #SMWNYC event for me was the most insightful event of the week. It was held at the Converseon offices in Midtown, which hosted an intimate crowd, albeit a packed room, enjoying breakfast crepes, freshly squeezed OJ, and Mimosas. Why couldn’t all of Social Media Week be this tasty (& educational)?

The event was moderated by Converseon’s CEO: Rob Key

On the panel were 3 well-informed & knowledgeable digital marketing professionals who had much to share:

Jon Burg – Emerging Channels Specialist at Digitas (@jonburg)
Craig Daitch – SVP of Activation at Converseon (@cdny)
Andy Von Kennel – SVP Growth Director at Rapp (@avkthinks)

Rob kicked off the event by asking us to “stop using the term ‘social media’ (would defeat the purpose within Social Media Week) since it is a limiting term when discussing it as a business solution.” “The next steps in social media won’t be about the next Twitter account or viral video.” It’s beyond that. Rob introduced us to Converseon, the agency, which leads the way in Social Media listening tools and metrics.

The purpose of the panel was to discuss listening while participating in social media campaigns – something not discussed at the other #SMW events I attended this week. The overall concept of the panelists discussion was to think of social media as a listening tool. By listening, we can gather insights into brand perception, brand awareness, be able to provide appropriate customer service, etc.

Let’s hear from the panelists…

Listening & Challenges
Jon – brand marketers need to be listening and engaging an active vocal audience. Get to know your audience as people / as human beings. This is the first time that we can listen to what millions of people are doing and saying. Social media gives us those tools.

Andy – social media allows us to get specific guidance from listening for products and branding.

Jon – the challenge with our clients is getting out of the perception & expectation that social can do everything. It is not the end all and be all. The social fluency of your client will affect how you are able to run your campaign, or your campaign in general.

Craig – another challenge today is that CMOs have little time to prove results. We live in a world of accountability – it is no longer about the checklist anymore (do we have a Facebook & Twitter acct?).

ROI
Rob – Social Media ROI is like dark matter in the universe.

Jon – there are different ROI models depending on the agency. We’re trying to remove “media” from “social media” –> different forms of ROI will come together.
Today, we can demonstrate that social media does things, but we don’t have the full picture yet. What agencies claim they can do, they often can’t.
It’s not about technology. It is about the insights & value the social media intelligence brings to the company. The technology is just the tool or platform to get us there.

Craig – (agrees) it is not technology, but the human intelligence behind it. In social, human power trumps technology.

Andy – (also agreeing) understanding sentiment takes a human element.

Jon – sentiment is a metric, but it doesn’t necessarily give insight.
Twitter is disposable. It is only valuable if RT’d or blogged about (which has a longer lasting affect).

“The social media space is still very new, the industry is still taking shape.”

Social Media Intelligence
Andy – we were able to use social media with a client to figure price and a new flavor. Social media was used as a means to do market research.

Jon – social media intelligence helps brands define the company components and how we work with people.
–> “The Web is the world’s largest focus group”

Craig – Consumers don’t care what position you hold within the company, they just want to get what they want. Social media professionals can be on the clock 24/7. Consumers are agnostic to your position.

Rob – we (agencies) need to talk about (social media as) business solutions & what social media listening can do to help their company. We need to talk about what social media does and stop talking about what it is.

Jon – an important question to ask is: How do we bring social media to your business, and how do we bring your business to social media?

—-

Great questions were asked, and of all the events I had to attend this week, this one gave me the most insight into ways marketers need to be approaching their clients concerning social media as a tool.

I will be posting videos of the event shortly.

Also, shout out to @AmandaRykoff who also Tweeted some great quotes from this event.

‘What is your $ocial Music Currency?’ Presented by SoundCtrl; Sponsored by dotMusic 2/3/10

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Dani Klein

Ironically held in a space known as “Former Tower Records Space” on Foursquare, ‘What is your $ocial Music Currency?’ discussed the role of Social Media within the music industry. The event was sold out / standing room only, which sure makes me glad I had a press pass.

Admittedly, the music industry is not where I consider myself super-knowledgeable, thus I decided to focus on the words of wisdom relating to social media, marketing and business (which I have a background in).

While the event was advertised as discussing Social Media currency, specifically within the music industry, the panel didn’t really touch on it as much as I would’ve liked. The term “currency” wasn’t really used. Rather they discussed either their personal experiences using social media, mainly Twitter & blogging, or the recent changes to the music industry [caused by technology].

The panel consisted of:

?uestLove

Andrew Katz

Marisa Bangash

The panel was moderated by James Andrews* – Co-Founder of BeEverywhere.tv

*I found ?uestLove and James to be quite interesting characters.

?uestLove discussed the idea that there is little success in the music biz without a tribe / crew / group surrounding it. Even solo artists have their groups. Today, an artist’s crew could be online (especially with the emergence of social media). Andrew added that the world doesn’t need another Britney Spears or Beyonce. As a brand that is entrenched in the music industry, Pepsi is involved in connecting audiences to different tribes. Artists today need their own social network for them to have worth to brands. Are they involved in the network? Do they embrace social media? Brands are looking for those that do, and piggy back on their success.

?uestLove sees the music labels as the middlemen of the music world, which in essence they are. Marisa added that globally, labels aren’t necessary anymore. Due to the emergence of social media, artists can bring their message directly to the consumer. However, ?uestLove added that as an artist today, you need to do a lot more than just spin or produce… Can you blog? Can you represent your brand? He implied that beyond being a good musician you must also be a good marketer / promoter.

Pepsi uses music to find new ideas. Ideas get voted on, and receive grant money from brand. Artists are encouraged to use their social networks (blog & tweet) to gain votes. Andrew claims that Pepsi is new to Social Media (he named Facebook & Twitter specifically), but an upcoming crowdsourced campaign should boost their presence. According to Andrew: Brands are curators (of content). It is easy to sponsor content, much harder to be a creator of content.

Marisa discussed the licensing of indie music by big brands. Brands & bands can go hand in hand, especially if it is organic and authentic.

As a popular tweeter, ?uestLove (~1.3M followers) has been approached by companies to tweet, which he deemed a bit scary. A quarter million dollars is a large carrot to push a brand’s content. (It seems he hasn’t taken a bite, although he said he may sell eventually sell out to Twitter, but not yet). ?uestLove uses Twitter to push new music & bands, and demos that come his way. Causes are important, but can be problematic if they are not properly vetted. This is similar to what I heard Monday evening at the Social Media & Haiti event.

In response to an audience question, ?uestLove noted that Business, Art, and Commerce are a dirty combo. Concerning blogs he mentioned that journalists / writers today are lazy since they are copying content from popular music blogger and just re-purposing the content. This leads to writers not forming their own ideas, which is dangerous. Andrew added that blogs are the new [music] charts. Marisa added that blogs have replaced print and magazines; magazines folded because of blogs, which today has become a crowded space.

And finally, to wrap up the review of the event, the best quote went to an audience member: “Fans today are no longer clapping, but rather are Tweeting.” Too true.

#SMPR in NYC Discusses Social Media Uses within Public Relations

Posted on February 1, 2010February 3, 2010 by Dani Klein

Packed into a bar near Times Square, #SMPR kicked off on the 1st night of Social Media Week in NYC. #SMPR events, organized by Elliot Schimel (Director @ Source Communications) & David Teicher (Social Media Manager @ McCann Erickson), are for Public Relations professionals using social media. This event involved a panel of PR professionals, and included plenty of time for professional networking, which was appreciated by all.

[Check out the video interviews with some of the panelists & attendees]

Moderating the panel was Leslie Campisi, VP & Partner @ Affect Strategies. The panel consisted of 5 PR professionals:

David Teicher, Social Media Manager @ McCann Erickson
Alex Payne, Digital Media Coordinator @ MWW Group
Danielle Mancano, Account Manager @ SHIFT Communications
Allison Martin, Assistant Account Executive @ Zeno Group
Keith Trivit, Account Executive @ RLMPR

Here are some snippets and quotes from the insightful conversation that took place:

Working with Clients:

David:

Keith: Social Media takes time, work, and effort to implement; Clients want to jump right into Social Media … important to slow things down.

Alex: “Viral” has become a dirty word.

Danielle: Small client marketing budgets are now given Social Media, however clients often lack goals; important to listen first and pay attention, followed up with action; bloggers need something tangible to write about.

David: Use an app like CoTweet to manage a Twittering team for a client. Social Media can be used as a way to respond to Customer Service issues, Sales requests, or for the Marketing team to pitch a product.

Apple / iPad:

Group:

Great Quotes:

David:

Keith: PR is not rocket science, it’s common sense.

Keith: Treat consumers like real people.

Crisis Management:

Danielle:

Alex: PR teams should be anticipating issues, not responding frantically.

Danielle: People will be talking about your industry or brand with or without your involvement.

David: Have upfront protocol to anticipate as much as possible.

Video & PR:

Since the panel spent most of the time discussing Twitter & Facebook, I asked a question about the use of video within Social Media PR (I used Gary Vaynerchuk’s example of Domino’s Pizza dealing with a video PR crisis in 2009)

Keith:

David: Videos can position a client as an authority. Example: Home Depot has “How-To” videos. Videos give a face to the faceless organization.

Danielle: Video testimonials help build a community organically. Can be educational for consumers.

ROI:

Allison:

Alex: Use Google Analytics for micro-sites. On Facebook, measure # of engagements, # of fan growth, and # of status updates (for pages exceeding 10k fans).

Danielle: Check # of RTs, “Likes”, Comments, to create your own metrics.

David: ROI has always been fuzzy, especially with traditional media. After a specific campaign ends, is there still buzz about it? Are people still discussing the campaign? That’s a good way to measure if you’ve been effective.

As you can see, lots of topics were covered at this insightful panel discussion. I am looking forward to the next #SMPR event in NYC!

Dani Klein regularly vlogs for JewishTravelTV (YouTube Channel)