Tag: Hearst

Digital Quicksilver – How Marketers Can Harness the Power of Influence on Social Media to Drive Brand Affinity

Posted on by smwnyc

This is a guest post by Rob McLoughlin, SVP Consumer Insights at Buzzmedia

Influence is a fluid social currency connecting those who possess knowledge or topical expertise and those that seek it. At Buzzmedia, we study these dynamics every day to provide insights into the complex relationships between brands, content and millennial consumers.

To that end, we partnered with NewStream Research on original research project to explore this important topic and are thrilled to present the results for the first time this Friday at the Lifestyle and Culture Hub at Hearst.

Here’s a preview of what we found:

+ Social media plays a critically important role in the dynamic relationship between brands, content and influencers. Seventy-six percent of millennials follow brands on social media and when seeking to obtain information about brands and products, social media influences four in ten millennials. Recommendations from friends and family are most influential, but recommendations from a perceived topic expert carry nearly equal weight in social media. Over 70 percent of millennials share items from brands and nearly 40 percent of millennials have had their view of a brand and site changed positively due to a mutual association. Branded content on social media is influential and helps drive positive and sometimes immediate action for brands. Influential content has driven over 82 percent of millennials to visit a brand website and over two-thirds of millennials have purchased, saved or shared something that they viewed as influential or interesting.

+ There exists a strong synergistic relationship between brands, online content and individual influencers. Each element adds logic and strength to one another in the consumer mindset. The combination of all three can help to reinforce the core values of the consumer, but it is a relationship that has preconditions and needs to be actively managed with care in order to truly be considered influential. Over 80 percent of millennials rank “trustworthiness,” “credibility” and “authenticity” as either the first, second or third most important element that impacts whether content, brands or people (influencers) are influential to them online.

+ Millennials consumers hold strong and definitive impressions about brands. These impressions are developed over time based on a mix of both online and offline experiences. Eighty-one percent of millennials view brands as a “measure of quality” and 77 percent consider brands to be “what distinguishes a product,” and therefore they are seen as “more than just companies.”  In order to build trust and foster credibility and authenticity, brands need to actively manage interactions to ensure that each exposure is constructive and fostering increased affinity and loyalty towards the brand.

+ Brand characteristics are incredibly important in creating influence among millennials. Brands that are viewed as “creative,” “innovative,” “compassionate” and “stylish” are key characteristics cited by millennials as helping to create and sustain influence. Female millennials in particular are slightly more likely to think that creativity is what makes a brand influential. Females are also more likely than men to consider “compassion” and “style” important brand characteristics for driving influence.

+ Brands can also drive influence via actions to connect with millennials and increase affinity. Millennial consumers see value in brands that provide “excellent customer service,” that create and share “humorous and engaging advertising” and “contributing to charitable causes.”  Additional actions that drive affinity include brands that “sponsor online content or events of consumer interest” and brands that “partner with companies that are perceived as cool or cutting edge.” Brands that execute these actions for consumers stand to reap significant rewards in terms of increased affinity and loyalty.

+ Millennials have strong opinions about the relationship between the type of information they seek online and the person they deem most credible at delivering that information. We asked millennials to rate four different types of influencers based on their credibility when delivering information on various product categories as well as their influence on a variety of brand dimensions. Across all product categories, topical expertise is most important for driving influence. Millennials feel that topic experts with broad fame and topic experts with contextual fame are most influential for sharing credible information across every product category.

+ Brands, content and influencers live a complex and ever changing ecosystem. In order to obtain, build and sustain influence and affinity with millennials, each must build a relationship that is based on a foundation of trust, credibility and authenticity. Influence is not an entity and therefore does not reside within one individual, site or brand. Influence is a process – and every piece of the process needs to be managed properly to have an impact.

Join us tomorrow to learn more!

New Events! Snag A Seat!

Posted on by Lindsey Taylor Wood

In the last few days we’ve added a number of incredible events, and we want to make sure you don’t miss them! Take a look at the schedule below and snag a seat while you still can:

JWT:
Thursday, 9:30 to 11:00am: FORTUNE Interview w/ Bonin Bough, Followed by panel: The Secret Sauce of Native Advertising? Authenticity
Friday, 9:30 to 11am: Lessons from the Tumblr-verse: Creating Advertising People Love
Friday, 12 to 1:30pm: All Earned Media is Not Created Equal: Winning Hearts, Minds and Wallets via “Experience-Driven Social Marketing”

Bloomberg:
Tuesday, 9:00 to 10:00am: Social Wheels in Motion: Ford’s Lessons in Social Media
Wednesday, 2:30 to 4:00pm: Social as The Great Equalizer: Interviews With Companies Large and Small
Wednesday, 9:30 to 11am: Innovate or Die: Are You About To Have A Kodak Moment?
Wednesday, 6:00 to 8:00pm: The Problems Entrepreneurs Should Be Solving Over The Next 3 Years
Thursday, 2:30 to 4pm: Purpose: Driving the New Economy
Friday, 9:30 to 11am: Fostering Collaboration within Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Hearst:
Tuesday, 9:30 to 11am: Culture and Community on Tumblr
Tuesday 2:30 to 4pm: Vivisection Live: The Inner Working of a Web Series
Wednesday: 2:30 to 4pm: Daria Musk and Google: Social Media and the Rock Star
Wednesday 12 to 1:30pm: Running: Social Implications of the Global Equalizer
Thursday 9:30 to 11am: The Shift from Presentation to Participation, A Discussion With HuffPost Live’s President Roy Sekoff

92Y:
Wednesday, 9:30 to 11am: Girls Education and Women’s Empowerment in Real World Social Networks
Thursday, 6 to 9am: Connections: How the Internet of Things is Transforming Our Social World
Thursday, 9:30 to 11am: Half The Sky Movement: Using Transmedia to Inspire Real Impact
Thursday, 12 to 1:30pm: Healthy Living: How Behavior and Patients Can Fix Healthcare
Friday, 9:30 to 11am: Keynote: danah boyd on the Ethics and Challenges of Dealing With “Big Data”

AND we’re still selling passes to Ideas Connected at our Global HQ! Check out the schedules for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 — then swing by and pick one up!

We look forward to seeing you there!

Event Spotlight: Internet Zero to Rock Star Shero

Posted on by Lindsey Taylor Wood

If you didn’t think Google+ alone could make you a household name, think again. Singer songwriter Daria Musk went from internet zero to rock star Shero in the span of a 6.5 hour online concert.

To learn more about Daria’s remarkable story and the ways in which social media can double as a star making machine, join her along with iCrossing’s Vice President of Marketing, David Deal, and Google+ Business Marketing Manager, Caro McCarthy on Wednesday, February 20th from 2:30 – 4:00pm at Hearst’s Lifestyle and Culture Content Hub. Register here.

For a quick look at Daria’s back story, check out this video:

A Student’s Perspective: Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed CEO, discusses the state and future of our social world

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.

Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, took to the stage at Social Media Week NYC recently to discuss online trends and the future of content sharing. With Facebook going public and the relative success of new sites like Pinterest, it’s an important, big question and one that Peretti might be qualified to answer. In a packed auditorium at the Hearst building in Manhattan, he rolled out his vision.

“There’s a big shift happening and we’re at the beginning of it,” he said. “There are still industries to be disrupted. You need to think from the perspective of a user that wants to share something…The real key to a lot this stuff is emotional intelligence.”

Peretti cofounded the Huffington Post, a site that has revolutionized blogging and news online by mixing the two. Now he runs BuzzFeed, a hub for headlines like “Goat Massage” and “40 Things That Make Corgis Happy,” based on a type of emotional intelligence. In his address, Peretti referred to BuzzFeed as a “giant content site for the social world.” He described this world as one identified typically through social networking sites Facebook and Twitter but getting more social by the minute.

The socialization, so to speak, of content online happened in stages, according to Peretti. The first stage was that of portals like Yahoo, which catered to a general audience. They were the sites, with big home pages and categories, through which users had to go for content. The next step was the search stage. Think Ask Jeeves and About.com. Users began finding content by requesting it. The Internet was opening up and users were starting to have an influence on the creation and promotion of content. That led to the social stage.

He said one of the most interesting trends he’s spotted in the social stage is the tide of users who go to BuzzFeed looking for something to share on their Facebook pages. He said it represents a shift from how content was consumed before. It’s a sign that the audience sees themselves less as just that. They’re aware that they’re more than an audience. They’re participants.

Peretti’s big prediction was the streamlining of content online. “Facebook is the best example of content expanding from friend updates,” he said. “As Facebook matures, there’s news now and people are getting comfortable with a social world where everything their friends care about is mixing together.” In preparation for this, BuzzFeed has made changes like the addition of ex-Politico writer, Ben Smith as editor-in-chief. Their first scoop with Smith was Sen. John McCain’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. According to Peretti, BuzzFeed beat CNN by 30 minutes.

His strongest case study seemed to be his own company. BuzzFeed, with its simple headlines and variable content, is mostly directed by the interests of its users and their reactions to content all over the World Wide Web. In fact, the site goes as far as to organize content into categories based on users’ reactions. With one click, you could vote something as a “fail” and with another, browse a lists of “wins.”

During the presentation, Peretti brought up a slide of basset hounds running, their droopy folds flapping in the wind. He said such content is decidedly shareable because of its common appeal. It can go onto your best friend’s Facebook wall or be sent to your grandmother in an email. The key to creating sharable content in the social age is finding material that defines a moment, said Peretti. “Let the user become invested in the story…People are the gatekeepers in the social media world, not Google’s algorithm.”

Creating Music for the Social Web

Posted on by kimberly reyes

Social Media Week’s Creating Music for the Social Web panel, hosted by SoundCtrl, took place this morning at Hearst Magazines, the Art & Culture Content Hub for this week’s events. Pitchfork Media President Chris Kaskie kicked off the morning with a keynote speech, where he talked about Pitchfork’s role as a kind of music discovery curator.

In the evolving world of music, where listeners are not only discovering songs and artists through their friends, but also through automated listening processes like Pandora, Pitchfork is using social media in conjunction with its website as a means of maintaining contextual relevancy and trustworthiness for its fans.  Kaskie pointed out how the definition of “music ownership” is changing, and that some day he’ll leave his kids with “logins to cloud accounts and not record collections.” And while it isn’t Pitchfork’s responsibility to figure out how musicians can continue to generate revenue in light of this change in music consumption, he feels it is Pitchfork’s responsibility to cover music that their audience is interested in.

At present, Pitchfork finds that Twitter and Tumblr are two social media networks that augment their audience’s music discovery experience–as platforms to have conversations (Pitchfork.com does not allow user comments) and also to find content that is re-contextualized from Pitchfork.com.

Creating Music for the Social Web
The panel included a range of industry professionals: Jessie Kirshbaum (Nue Agency and SoundCtrl), Maura Johnson (Music Editor at Village Voice), Josh Deutsch (CEO at Downtown Music), Asher Roth (rapper) and Chris Kaskie (President at Pitchfork Media).

The panel, lead by Josh Deutsch, discussed the role that the web has played in the music business. Asher Roth, the only musician on the panel, gave insight into how the musician is tasked with not only creating music, but also navigating the social space in a way that is effective and efficient. Because, as he remarked, it seems that right now there are “so many tools…I just need a knife and a fork.”

Creating music for the social web, however, can be a liberating process. The creative freedom that comes from being unbound by the expectations and constraints imposed by traditional record labels can be a major reward for an artist. Kaskie also pointed out that although there are many record labels doing great things, today people don’t pay as much attention to record labels. The production, distribution and success of an artist all come down to the audience’s interest level in the music and the artist. Fans are often artists’ greatest promoters, taking it upon themselves to tweet, share and blog about the music.  So in essence, all musicians are on the same playing field. There are varying degrees of popularity and production quality, but because musicians now have the ability to create and release songs from their bedrooms, critics like Pitchfork, will treat the music the same.  To quote Maura Johnson, “If the craft is there, it’s there despite the business side.”

Take-Aways From the Panel
The social web continues to create opportunities for musicians. Artists need to be able to find out what works for them. They must be mindful of focusing on those networks that will help achieve their specific goals. As Josh Deutsch answered when asked what the top things an artist should know to get their music in front of the right music curators and editors, “it all depends on who you are as an artist and what you want to accomplish.”

Laurie Amodeo is Senior Community Manager at Big Fuel, where she has worked on social media campaigns for clients such as General Motors, Nutrisystem and H&M. She has also created marketing and social media campaigns for public and private sector organizations including the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade and Peeled Snacks. When she’s not executing innovative social programs for clients, Laurie can be found singing, writing, hooping and cooking with veggies. flavors.me/laurieamodeo

Art & Culture A Fit For Hearst

Posted on by Nicky Yates

One of the ways SMW NYC helps attendees follow events easily is by segmenting the events into different Content Hubs. This content is hosted by iconic institutions, leaders in the area. And one of those is Hearst Magazines. Stimulating dialogue centered around the arts, fashion and cultural shifts, Hearst Magazines will serve as our Art & Culture Hub. We chatted with David Carey, President of Hearst Magazines, to give you a peek at what to expect at this vibrant hub.

This isn’t Hearst’s first time serving as a Hub for SMW NYC. How did Hearst first get involved?
The folks at Social Media Week approached us to host the Art & Culture hub in 2011, and we jumped at the opportunity to get involved in this initiative, particularly since social media has become so integral to what we do here at Hearst. We were thrilled to showcase our position as a leader in the digital space and there was no question we were going to participate again this year.

 
Our global theme for SMW12 is “Empowering Change through Collaboration.” How does Hearst support this?
Hearst has always been about collaboration. We’re known for being a great partner, whether it’s through our partnership with MSN on top-10 food site Delish.com, with Scripps Interactive on Food Network Magazine or with Amazon on e-commerce initiatives. We’ll also see more collaboration within the organization, between digital and print, across our brands domestically and with our international editions. Hearst is a global company and our employees can and do share ideas and best practices around the world.

 
What major trends are you seeing in the publishing space with digital?
We are bullish on the tablet and e-reader space and expect that as it grows to scale, there will be a huge upside for magazine publishers to create new and additional revenue streams for consumers to get paid content that we don’t feel is going to replace or duplicate our print business. We’ve sold 450,000 digital subscriptions to date and hope to reach 1 million by end of year. Digital editions also enable us to create a more social and interactive experience for our readers.

We are also very focused on the area of e-commerce. Magazines have traditionally been a gateway to purchase for our retail partners so we are now looking at ways to benefit from that influence by striking e-commerce partnerships to promote our brand expertise and drive revenue share opportunities. Recently we’ve made an investment in-home design site Dering Hall, with whom we also have an editorial partnership with ELLE Decor, House Beautiful and VERANDA; with Amazon on e-commerce initiatives; and, even globally, where Elle.com Japan is an e-commerce site.

This February, Hearst is serving as the Art & Culture Hub throughout the week. What can SMW NYC attendees expect to see from the Art & Culture Hub?
We have a great, engaging lineup of programming happening in Hearst Tower that week– including a Tweet-off between comedians, a panel on the influence of street style blogs, a conversation about the “new ghostwriter” on social media, and a keynote Q&A with music artist/entrepreneur Jermaine Dupri and our very own Adam Lavelle, chief strategy officer of iCrossing, the digital marketing agency Hearst acquired in 2010. I’m personally very excited to attend some of these sessions and learn from them.

 
Why Art & Culture at Hearst?
Our brands at Hearst fit in very well with the Art & Culture theme, as we cover subjects ranging from fashion and home to politics and pop culture across our magazine and digital portfolio. We have our finger on the pulse of what’s being talked about — the latest trends, technologies and cultural touchpoints, so it’s only natural that we would host this hub.

 
Hearst is pulling together some phenomenal events for the week. What event should attendees not miss but might not be on their radar quite yet?
In collaboration with the folks at Social Media Week, we’re pulling together some fantastic keynotes throughout the week and we’re also hosting the opening press conference on February 9 to kickoff this year’s festivities. We’re proud to be able to host the conference at Hearst Tower for the second consecutive year and hope that the attendees throughout Social Media Week will enjoy a fun, insightful roster of programming.

 
A big thanks to David for taking the time to speak with us. And you can see the full lineup of events at the Art & Culture Hub here, and make sure to keep up with the major speakers at this location on Twitter with our Art & Culture Hub list and by using #SMWHearst.

Announcing Social Media Week NYC’s Content Hubs & Partners

Posted on by Nicky Yates

Building on the success of SMW NYC 2011, we are excited to announce the initial lineup of Content Hubs which will serve as the primary locations for official SMW programming throughout the week of February 13-17.

Building off the Global Theme of Empowering Change through Collaboration, each Content Hub, will host programming at iconic institutions throughout the city and reflect key areas of focus for conversations on the societal, economic and cultural impact of social media.

These areas include Advertising & Marketing; Social & Environmental Change; Health & Wellness; Art & Culture; Music, Media & Entertainment; Business Innovation; and Global Society.

Advertising & Marketing


JWT will serve as our host for guiding conversations on the impact of the world of marketing through social media. The Marketing & Advertising Hub will focus on broad themes including Monitoring & Analytics, PR & Communications, Location-based Marketing, Community Management, Creative & Brand Strategy, Media Buying & Planning, and Crowdsourcing & Co-creation.

“JWT is delighted to serve as the advertising and marketing hub at Social Media Week for a second year,” said Social Media Week Board Member David Eastman, who is North American CEO and Worldwide Digital Director at JWT. “All brands need to consider the role of social media in nearly every aspect of their businesses, and through hosting and participating in this series of events, we can help to lead the conversation about this increasingly important part of our industry.” — David Eastman, CEO, JWT

Art & Culture

Stimulating dialogue centered around the arts, fashion and cultural shifts, Hearst Corporation will serve as our Art & Culture Hub. Content will focus on Art, Fashion, Lifestyle & Beauty, Travel, Food, Theater, Luxury, and Comedy.

“We’re thrilled to be hosting the opening press conference and the Art & Culture hub for Social Media Week NY again this year. As a company, Hearst has embraced digital and social in a major way and we applaud SMW for creating a dynamic, global conversation about how it has become an integral part of all of our lives.” — David Carey, President, Hearst Magazines

Health & Wellness

Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness will lead the conversation around emerging changes and the future of wellness and healthcare as the host of our Health & Wellness Hub, with Luminary Labs lending their expertise to help curate events. Events will be centered around Innovations in Health & Wellness, Global & Future Wellness, Preventative Health & Medicine, Sports & Fitness, Emerging Tools, Healthcare & Health Plans, Nutrition, Sustainable Living, Mental Health/Enrichment, and Human Resource Management.

“Through social media, the world is becoming a smaller place and nowhere is this more apparent, or will it have a potentially bigger impact on people’s lives, than in wellness and healthcare. Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness is honored to host a forum where thought leadership will shape and empower a revolution in communications and marketing—welcome Social Media Week.” — Ned Russell, Managing Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness

“Luminary Labs is honored to curate the Health and Wellness Hub during Social Media Week in New York. We look forward to fostering collaboration between science, technology, the arts, and design to deliver change for one of society’s greatest needs- our own health,” — Sara Holoubek, CEO, Luminary Labs

Social & Environmental Change

 

Our Social & Environmental Change Hub will examine the role of social, digital and mobile media in affecting change for the greater good. Hosted by Thomson Reuters, the Social & Environmental Change Hub will explore Education, Energy & Climate Change, Non-profits, Social Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Social Justice & Human Rights.

“I am excited to have our Reuters headquarters at 3 Times Square be a hub for this coming Social Media Week. I was lucky enough to moderate a Social Media Week panel on the role social media played in the Arab Spring earlier this year, on a historic day for Egypt. I’ve also been a captive audience member for many other great Social Media Week events over the years. Toby Daniel, Michelle Welsch and the rest of the Social Media Week organizers are a fantastic team we’re thrilled to be working with. We look forward to hosting some great events at our hub which we will be announcing soon.” — Anthony De Rosa, Social Media Editor, Reuters

Business Innovation
The way in which consumers and businesses interact and how business is handled has been deeply impacted by social media and technology. The venue for the Business Innovation Hub will be announced soon but will guide these conversations and examine E-commerce & Mobile Payments, Enterprise & Startups, Trading & Investment, Regulation & Legal, Business Systems, Business Information Design, Customer Relationship Management and Human Resource Management.
 
 
Music, Media & Entertainment
The Music, Media & Entertainment Hub will guide dialogue on the way in which we entertain ourselves as a culture and how the social, mobile and digital field has revolutionized this area. The host for the Music, Media & Entertainment Hub will be announced soon, and events will explore broad areas including Music, Artists, Television, Journalism, Publishing, Film, Radio, and Telecommunications.
 
 
Global Society

At Big Fuel, the Global Society Hub will be our central headquarters, providing attendees opportunities to interact with interactive installations, co-create with other participants, engage with other SMW international locations and presentations, and take in a fuller SMW experience.

“We are tremendously excited to host the Global Hub for Social Media Week New York in February 2012. The dialogues about social media that are taking place in this conference, all over the world, really excite us. We look forward to facilitating those conversations, across all the partner cities, and showcasing social media’s global impact.” — Jon Bond, CEO, Big Fuel

 
With these iconic institutions leading the way as platforms for content and conversation during Social Media Week, now is the time to submit your event ideas and help to shape and influence the experience for our attendees.  Submitting your ideas is easy and we encourage you to do so as soon as possible as submissions close on January 20th and the earlier you submit the greater the chances of having your idea chosen.

Hub Focus: Hearst Magazines at Hearst Tower

Posted on by Isabella de Medici

The Arts & Culture hub, hosted by Hearst Magazines at Hearst Tower, is home to a publishing magnate that revolutionized the media industry.  It is a symbol of this diverse sector, with its innovative architectural design located in the heart of Manhattan.

Still waiting to start your New Year’s resolutions? Join us Monday, which kicks off with a panel hosted by PepsiCo on governmental guidelines, nutrition and how the digital realm is impacting how this information is shared.  After you figure out how to fit back in your skinny jeans, get in touch with your inner fashion guru hosted by Hearst, and see how shared online shopping experiences are influencing fashion/editorial revenue models.  Finish up with an exciting session on brand strategy 2.0 hosted by Hearst, which examines the blurring lines between brands, media and consumers, and how you’re shaping the creation process engaged at every stage of product development.

Get Tuesday started with the chance to be on TV in our Bar Karma workshop hosted by games creator Will Wright (The Sims) and Albie Hecht of Spike TV.  If you liked restoring sanity and/or fear in September 2010 with Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert, check out the afternoon rally hosted by Comedy Central that discusses the integrated, digital strategy used to amass over 250,000 people in Washington, DC with one of the largest volumes of live streams in MTV Networks history.

Engage the global technology community on Wednesday, with a multicultural panel hosted by Freddie Laker, head of digital strategy in Asia for SapientNitro.  You can see how even the furthest country, separated by mere ocean and land, is within your reach with the advent of social media forums and real-time sharing.  Then you can get in touch with your inner rebel in a new age of uprising, hosted by Personal Democracy Forum. Wikileaks revamped infowar in the digital age, and industry experts are predicting an increase in these events. Finally, join our host Hearst to examine celebrity brand strategy’s evolution with social media.  It’s going to be a great discussion on ever-innovating revenue models for web and mobile, and how the the traditional modes of fame are dwindling alongside print media.

It’s time for spring cleaning on Thursday; MTV and Text 100 want to outfit your brand with tailor-made techniques to increase awareness and productivity by concentrating on industry-specific social media forums.

Everyone’s a critic! Our next panel, hosted by Hearst, will whet your appetite for great restaurants and vendors, and our panelists will chat about the growing influence of personal blogs and their impact on getting you to sample cuisine absent from the pages of ZAGAT.

On Friday, come check a truly avant-garde session hosted by Guggenheim – the integration of social media and promoting the arts.  You can hear speakers from the MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, and Whitney Museum addresses strategies for launching these institutions forward painted on a digital canvas.

Who doesn’t love Betty White? She is not simply a platinum-haired cougar, but a messenger on the tidings of web 2.0.  The host of our final panel, TV Land, took a (Facebook) page out of her book.   They used an adaptive marketing approach for their show, “Hot in Cleveland”, and the heart of the campaign was based in consumer feedback through social media.

Isabella de Medici, author of polichic.com, is a contributor to the NY Social Media Week blog.