Shoutlet - Social Media Week New York (SMWNYC) - MAY 4

Friday Finale… Finally For Me

Posted on March 12, 2012November 8, 2012 by smwnyc

This is a guest post by Anna Choi.

While the end was near for dedicated attendees of Social Media Week New York City, Friday was just the beginning of my experience. There was no time to waste and after debating over the serious line up of various events, I was ready for my first SMWNYC gathering.

What Real Time Marketing Really Takes
Emily Steel from the Wall Street Journal led the panel discussion including Beth Waxman-Arteta of JWT, Ryan Davis of Blue State Digital, Bill Wolff of Primetime Programming, and Mike Sommers of Viggle at the Advertising and Marketing Content Hub at JWT. Topics from preparing for and challenge with real time marketing were touched on with much talk about the type transition period social media is fueling.

And what did I take away?

HR/human power is essential behind real time social media, real thought processing and relevance is needed to sustain engagement.
Every brand could use real time marketing, how it’s executed may differ.
Advertising agencies will transition into “brand content” agencies so the meaning of CMO may be defined as editors of content. Simply put, “real time” marketing will be just marketing in the future.
People/consumers are looking for substance and authenticity.
Filtration of information is diminishing, as communication is becoming more real/raw.
Currently real time marketing is a mixture of PR, social media, and brand management.
The thing about authenticity is that it’s imperfect sometimes. Mistakes happen.

Future of Social Technology
Michoel Ogince of Big Fuel and Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch discussed their predictions/opinions on the future of social networks/technology at the Global Society Content Hub at Big Fuel Headquarters. The conversation circled around the topic of humanization and the complex human behavior that social technology has yet to mirror perfectly. It was great to hear the opposing sides that Michoel and Jason brought especially when Path was brought up. They did agree that this is still the early stage of social technology and that if we think it’s really social right now, we’re wrong.

But the discussion also touched on:

Facebook: is it a place to dump a ton of content?
Social gaming (Zynga in particular): gamers invest a lot of money and time in the beginning but it dies off, they hit a wall.
App Store’s future: currently it’s a challenge to find/access specific apps.
Far future: social technology will be penetrated in every aspect to “friending” objects such as your fridge.
Advice for entrepreneurs: be driven by passion, don’t cling on to every “success story advice”.
There will be “niche networks” for social media/technology in the future.

Left Brain Meets Right Brain –The Blueprints for a Sophisticated Social Marketing Campaign (hosted by Shoutlet)
Jason Weaver, the CEO of Shoutlet, led this discussion including David Armano of Edelman Digital, Doug O-Reilly of MWW, Chris Eichman of Rayovac, and Brenda Schmerl of Reader’s Digest. The hour-or-so long conversation revolved around the controversial topic of left brain, right brain, or both. Planning and organizing people who are left-brain dominant among those who are right-brain dominant seemed to be key in finding the balance for a company. There was a debate over people who were both, or a hybrid, and if this category even existed. David Armano walked everyone through what he called a community engagement blueprint when touching on the subject of scenario planning. Improvisation seemed to be a theme for reacting effectively, with the main focus on being able to utilize the strengths of those who are creative and those who are analytical.

My overall impression of Social Media Week NYC was great. (especially since is FREE!) Being a student that is always seeking for more real world information, besides a textbook or some year-old case study, these events left me satisfied. Actually, I take that back, SMW has left me hungry and on the edge of my seat in excitement for what’s next. Being a part of the generation that really digs deep into the data of this social realm is fresh and transformational. I truly can’t wait to see how what’s trending now transitions into traditional.

Anna is a quirky senior at Virginia Tech studying Marketing and International Business. She is curious and thirsty for anything related to social media and brands. Anna aspires to work in an environment that’s constantly battling between the trending and traditional. When she’s not geeking over new digital happenings you can find her working on her new healthy lifestyle and obsessing over froyo. Follow her on twitter @achoi12 or dig deeper on her personal blog, achoi12.tumblr.com, or marketing blog, annanciate.tumblr.com.

See You Wednesday! A Guide for Day 3

Posted on February 14, 2012February 14, 2012 by Nicky Yates

Day 3. It’s the middle of Social Media Week, and it’s only getting better. With 2 days down, we think these events might be the right fit to vary up your schedule for this week!

9-9:30am at Big Fuel: The Guardian Interviews with Rachel Sterne, Chief Digital Officer of NYC

9-11am at Hearst: Keynote: Chris Kaskie, President of Pitchfork Media followed by SoundCtrl’s Creating Music for the Social Web

9-11am at Birch Coffee: Get Bold! Creating a Social Business Agenda Coffee talk and Book Signing with Sandy Carter

10-10:45am at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: How We Did It: The Sanofi Open Innovation

11-12pm at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Keynote: Dr. Pam Peeke on Rx for the Sitting Disease – Medicate with Movement

12-12:30pm at Big Fuel: Digital Fireside Chat: Joe Fernandez on Klout

12-2pm at Hearst: How Street Style Blogs Affect Retail and Design

12-2pm at Digitas: Social Media Week at Digitas — What’s Your Secret Weapon in Social: A Panel and Luncheon Discussion

1-2pm at Big Fuel: Global Influence

1:30-2:30pm at Thomson Reuters: Crowd Sourcing Human and Monetary Capital for Social Impact

1:30-2:30pm at Hearst: Reflecting on the 54th GRAMMY Awards – Digital Partnerships, Social Media and Innovation

3-4pm at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: The changing face of technology: Click Here For Beauty

3-4pm at Hearst: @HAHAHAHA: How to be funny in 140 characters or less

4-5:15pm at The Gerswhin Hotel: AgencyWare: Agency as maker

4:30-6:30pm at Thomson Reuters: Email and Social Media: The New Rules of Engagement

4:30-5:30pm at Hearst: The state of curation: An examination of the human element and the promise (and drawbacks) of algorithms

6-7pm at Thomson Reuters: The New Face of Social Good: How to Make Your Own Social Media Magic

6-8pm at JWT: A Quizzical Evening in Social Media

Make sure you swing by the Shoutlet Power Station to recharge your batteries and then end your day with a Happy Hour, courtesy of Big Fuel. See you Wednesday!

Spotlight on Jason Weaver, CEO & Founder of Shoutlet

Posted on February 9, 2012February 9, 2012 by Nicky Yates

It’s not often we have a company based in the Midwest take on SMWNYC as one of our local sponsors, but this year, Shoutlet has is defying tradition. An enterprise social marketing software company, Shoutlet leads social media management in many areas. And we couldn’t think of a better partner to keep SMWNYC fully charged. You’ll be able to find Shoutlet all week at our Global Society Hub with their Power Lounge and at their energizing panel on Friday in the Advertising and Marketing Hub, but until then, meet Jason Weaver. Jason is founder and CEO at Shoutlet, and can be found on Twitter at @jasondweaver. We thought we’d let him share a bit about who Shoutlet is and why you should take note.

Jason, the global theme for SMW 2012 is “Empowering Change through Collaboration.” How does Shoutlet support this idea overall?
As an enterprise social marketing platform, we’ve seen firsthand the changes in social media over the past several years. From a brand perspective, collaboration has become a critical part of running an effective social media program. Companies are hiring more professionals to handle social media, and reports from Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang found companies are managing an average of 178 social media accounts. Finding processes and tools to collaborate with colleagues within an organization to execute engaging, creative social campaigns and maintain a level of one-on-one dialog with customers is more important than ever for global brands.

Shoutlet produces enterprise social marketing software and recently was honored as the first social media management system to meet the High Standard of Security. Can you tell us how you balance efficiency and usability with something as important as security? How is Shoutlet leading the way in this area?
We’ve worked very hard to ensure the highly secure, highly technical back-end functionality of social media management does not impede usability or creativity. We’re very proud to have been named the first, and currently the only, social media management platform to have met the high standards of a SOC2 audit.

You recently released a White Paper on Making an Informed Decision on Social Media Management Systems. What are the top aspects companies should be aware of?
We’ve outlined many considerations to weigh when making such an important choice, but chief among them is to know what you want to accomplish before embarking on the selecting process. This will help prevent adopting a long-term platform that really doesn’t mesh with your unique social program. Check out Altimeter’s “A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation” as well; they’ve laid out some excellent guidelines for companies.

As most of our sponsors are local to NYC, how does your location in the Midwest allow you to bring a different perspective to Social Media Week?
The beauty of social is physical location has become nearly irrelevant. We all work in the same spaces online. That said, having our headquarters in the Midwest has really illustrated to us that talent is everywhere. We have Shoutlet staff in 15 cities around the world, but Madison is where most of our crew is based. And from there, we support our product for customers in nearly 50 countries. So our message is amazing, innovative things are happening everywhere.

We’re excited to hear that Shoutlet will be activating the Shoutlet Power Lounge in the Global Hub this year. How does the theme of your lounge fit into your brand’s current initiatives?
This year we’re emphasizing some of the feedback we’ve heard from brands, especially the need to be able to take full control of their social media. Our Shoutlet Power Lounge plays into our mission to provide all the power of social media to brands – all in their hands. Social media moves too quickly to be limited by the tools you’re using, and we’ve built Shoutlet to be a maneuverable and flexible platform for companies. (It also moves too quickly to have your phone or laptop lose power, so we’ll have plenty of ways to recharge in our lounge.)

Shoutlet will be hosting a panel led by some notable CMOs and Community Managers. What sort of engagement do you hope to receive from top brands?
We feel there’s a very lively discussion to be had around where data, strategy, and timing meets creative execution to result in the optimal social experience for both consumer and brand alike. Relevant, thoughtful, and timely engagement can be coupled with sophisticated data acquisition and targeted segmentation to meet everybody’s needs – should be a powerful dialogue.