smw12 - Social Media Week New York (SMWNYC) - MAY 4

You Can Do It: Words of Wisdom from a Social Media Week Veteran

Posted on January 22, 2013January 22, 2013 by Lindsey Taylor Wood

This is a guest post from Joyce Sullivan, founder and CEO of SocMediaFin, which first appeared on our Global SMW blog. February is a tough time to be in NYC. It’s too cold; the holidays are over; spring is still far off; everything seems mundane, except for the arrival of one of the best networking events of the year: Social Media Week (SMW).

I got involved with SMW in Feb 2011, pitching my first event partner idea with an industry colleague. After filling out the very straightforward online SMW event form, we held our breath, and hit the ‘send’ button.

We waited to hear the results, and our topic was picked! Great.

Now, we wondered, could we possibly pull this off, and get anyone to sign up for our obscure topic? Or so we thought, at the time.

Not only did they sign up, we sold out within 2 hours of our selected venue space. What to do? How could we turn away an audience that was looking to soak up the info we were so passionate to share?

Serendipity, itself greeted us, when a larger venue became available and we were able to accommodate our 300+ attendees. For those who’d like to see what it looks like, here’s my very first SMW event info and the videotape: Financial Services Social Media Champions Tell Their Story

Having had such a great experience in Feb 2011, I returned in Feb 2012 again as both:

Speaker and Event planner: Social Media Strategy for Financial Services
Blogger and attendee: My Day as a Social Media Week Speaker

It does include lots of work; so you may ask, why be a SMW event host?

For me, the benefits include:

+ Increasing your online influence and reputation
+ Introducing your ideas to the world
+ Becoming a disruptive innovator

Why I Continue to Host SMW Events

As a veteran Social Media Week event partner, there are numerous reasons I continue to get involved. I love bringing what I know to others who want to learn about social media. It also gives me an opportunity to get to know the SMW team more. The SMW team vibe is positive and supportive. In addition, by hosting an event, I get to meet the most fabulous people from around the globe. I still keep up with folks I have met in person (aka IRL = In Real Life) and those who live-tweeted around the world.

What I’ve Learned as a SMW Host

+ The best way to hone your craft and knowledge is by sharing it with other from the SMW stage.
+ Even though you’re only in one city, you have access to over a dozen cities around the world participating in SMW events.
+ Even if your city is not on the list, you still get to participate virtually. I *attended* a September 2012 London event and blogged about the experience: SMW London: Export is Easier Than You Think

Tips for First Timers

I understand being intimidated. It’s work, but here are my tips to you if you’re considering taking part for the first time!

+ Just fill out the SMW event form! We were all first timers once. You can do it and your ideas are waiting to be heard.
+ Once you’re selected – congrats! Give your social media skills a workout by getting your friends and fans to spread the word about your event.
+ Remember to tweet me up @JoyceMSullivan for SMW love and support. SMW event alums are here for you first timers!
+ Keep working your SMW tweets and hashtags to get the word out about your event.
+ Get all your details squared away ahead of time and ask questions of the SMW staff earlier than later. They can ensure you are prepared so you can rock your audience.

You can do it. No matter which city you’re in, you can make it happen. Remember, you are the only one who knows what you know.

You are amazing. Let everyone at SMW know it. Let me know it, too!

Joyce Sullivan is founder and CEO of SocMediaFin, a social media consulting firm for financial services, specialty firms and industry executives: http://SocMediaFin.com. With over 20 years experience as Vice President with firms including, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo/First Fidelity, Ms. Sullivan brings a seasoned industry perspective to the emerging world of social media. As an advisory board member of the Financial Women’s Association, she serves as their Chief Digital Strategist. Ms. Sullivan holds an MBA from the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of NY in International Finance and Marketing, a BA in Education from University of Saint Joseph, Connecticut, and the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation from the Project Management Institute.

How to Become a SMW Top 10

Posted on December 6, 2012December 6, 2012 by smwnyc

This is a guest post from She’s the First volunteer Andrea Bartz.

Last February, the non-profit She’s the First (STF) had the opportunity to host an event for Social Media Week, in the official Social Good hub. STF, a social media-loving organization that funds girls’ educations in the developing world, started with all of the usual event ideas: Should we do a presentation? A regular ol’ panel? A (snooze) Powerpoint presentation?

Thankfully, we were struck with the idea we could shake things up with a talk show-style event featuring the most genius talking heads in social good, a DJ, Twitter cupcakes, and the best live studio audience ever. The presentation was, literally, standing-room-only, and the campaign around our event landed us a spot in the top 10 moments of Social Media Week worldwide.

Here are the three ingredients that made the event, dubbed “The New Face of Social Good – How to Create Your Own Social Media Magic,” such a blast:

A solid theme

Call it a shtick if you must. Sticking to the talk show theme, we booked a live DJ, gifts for every attendee (one-week yoga passes and some free app downloads from AppTerrier), and delicious cupcakes courtesy of Sprinkles. The organizing principle turned an ordinary panel into a party.

A cool campaign to spread the word and—more importantly—do good

In one night, we changed an entire year in the life of Eli in Tanzania — we encouraged fans to tweet #SMWMagic, and for every tweet, The Think Cloud generously donated $1. Thanks to the magic of social media, we sponsored her senior year of high school—an example, in real time, of how She’s the First’s work can directly empower young women to become the first in their families to graduate.

A killer line-up

Mashable’s (@mashable) managing editor, Emily Banks, introduced four dynamic and charming guests—Tammy Tibbetts (@shesthefirst), She’s the First Founder and President; Adam Braun (@pencilsofpromis), Founder and Executive Director of Pencils of Promise; Mike Padparvar (@HOLSTEE), Co-Founder of HOLSTEE; and Susan McPherson (@susanmcp1), Global Marketing VP of CSR/Fenton Communications—who each shared little-known stories on how ONE social media status update created a spark or started a ripple effect that ultimately launched huge movements and programs, changed lives, and achieved meaningful social change. Attendees (online and in person) were encouraged to tweet in their questions using #stfmagic; they walked away with solid techniques and tips for creating their own social media miracles.

International fashion icon Alek Wek (@TheRealAlekWek), the legendary Sudanese supermodel who had just turned to Twitter and Skype to be a stronger advocate for refugees in Sudan, introduced the event. The star-studded speakers were insightful and passionate, and by casting a wide net, the event drew in journalists, social entrepreneurs, and techies of all stripes—even the ones with an interest in fashion!

Check out the Storify recap of the campaign and event here. See you at SMW again in February!

Andrea Bartz is a STF volunteer and a freelance writer and editor. She lives in Brooklyn and can be found on Twitter at @andibartz.

A Student’s Perspective: The Future of Social Technology

Posted on March 20, 2012November 8, 2012 by smwnyc

Mehrunnisa Wani 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 Future of Social Technology.

Every day there are emerging social platforms, startups, which marketers are adapting to and focusing their campaigns on.

Time and time again, almost since its very inception, people expounded about the idea of too much engagement, that they aren’t interested in hearing about where their Facebook friend is headed, or what time they woke up. The conundrum is that designers are still discovering or defining the fine line between innovation and overload.

Kincaid’s worries are that social technology will penetrate too much of society and encroaching on privacy and life – and that there should be a cessation. When do we know to stop? For the future, with this oversaturation people are likelier to embrace niche networks and disconnectedness.

Ogince’s contention was that social technology needs to be humanized. He’s disappointed in it, saying it’s failed to a certain extent. It needs to be personalized and aim at assuaging to the general public with social health programs (for example, have physicians advise patients, or an app that encourages people to quit smoking).

If not that, at the very least, the programs that now exist should sharpen skills, or built on them.

Social technology is still in its infancy and it has a long way to go but both Ogince and Kincaid articulated the need for a shift in the direction that its heading towards.

http://vimeo.com/37374940

Mehrunnisa Wani hails from Kashmir, India. She is currently a masters candidate at the Columbia School of Journalism learning to report stories in various mediums, all the while familiarizing herself with the digital media boom so she can utilize those skills to connect the world one story at a time. In the future she hopes to cover conflict zones, learn to code and change the world – simultaneously. She resides in Queens, New York. Follow her on @mehrwani.

A Student’s Perspective: Rappathon- Hacking for Change: A New Way of Collaboration

Posted on March 20, 2012November 8, 2012 by smwnyc

Mehrunnisa Wani 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 Rappathon- Hacking for Change: A New Way of Collaboration.

“What’s the best thing you’ve created? I don’t know. Come around tomorrow.” – Camilo LaCruz

Believe it or not, the ingredients for social change are collaboration, creative minds, and a days worth of idea generating.

With their collaborative methodology RAPP hosted it’s first rappathon workshop, tailored to bring developers and designers together to explore concepts that might someday enrich thousands, if not millions, of lives.

In league, they worked towards creating technology that could work for the people, by the people. This hackathon, much like the others sprouting across the tech scene, are increasingly involving people.

After pairing up individuals and a tidbit of mix –and-matching, groups moved from station to station picking up where the last team left off so others could expand on the idea or share their two cents.

The web apps that came out of this aimed to improve the lives of individuals, or at the very least assist people in some regard. One of the ideas yielded was a map that would track a daily commute, keeping in mind the money, number of calories burned, and the carbon footprint. This would be linked to a social network, which would inform friends, family, coworkers of the commute and in the end, the data would be accumulated over a period of time so that the commuter can ascertain what method is cheaper, less time-consuming, or less arduous.

The apps weren’t launched but the organizers graciously shared the ideas in hopes of someone developing it. It’s still about experimentation and there are still ways of transforming life. If there is a social need, an app can fulfill it.

http://vimeo.com/37074187

A Student’s Perspective: The Guardian Interviews Alec Ross

Posted on March 19, 2012November 8, 2012 by smwnyc

“What does the Internet have to with foreign policy and diplomacy? In this day and age, if you care about human rights you have to care about the Internet,” said Alec Ross, senior advisor for innovation, Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As evident from the Arab (Internet) Spring, social media was an effective vent for the outrage and the wave of the frustration that swept through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and, most recently, Syria.

Tweeples, Facebookers, and YouTubers worldwide were all proponents of this change. With their succinct slogans, videos, and blog entries they encapsulated the depth of the oppression. The revolution was filled with narratives of twitter handles and even fact-checking was a collaborative effort, or what veterans would call a crowdsourcing activity.

Some dubbed it as the greatest tools of this age and others went as far as crediting it for fermenting the chaos and subsequently, toppling regimes. Despite the divergent views on the platform, it catapulted social justice campaigns worldwide, abetting and enabling leaderless protests.

The role of technology is, of course, integral –and now becoming closely intertwined with diplomacy. With governments realizing this, some are constricting expression and others such as the United States are allowing its ambassadors, some 195 have twitter accounts and 170 have Facebook accounts, according to Ross.

Ross, however, doesn’t credit technology—wholly—for the toppling of dictatorship-based regimes, but he is finding solutions to the gravest health, economic, social problems in developing nations through social media applications. It’s a new wave – the social networking-diplomacy era, where fostering ties between nations is done through programs like Apps4Africa, bringing fifteen nations and discussing solutions which, in the end, will yield innovative methods in tackling economic development issues and paving ways for sustainable long-term projects.

The consensus is that it is a tool for civic engagement, where information is readily available and movements are accelerated, but what happens when people achieve their goal, when governments are overthrown? Who helps with picking up the crumbs? Are plan of actions created?

“Though social media has proven to be a tool for dissent, it has not yet proven to be a successful tool for governance,” said Ross. With tools set forth by the State Department, Ross hopes that governance connects with the governing and social media takes out the implicit elitism in governing. Two things for sure, social media is equalizing the world and creating a forum of communication between the governing bodies and the people. Social media has become the weapon of the first world, but what about the third world?

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.

A Student’s Perspective: Investors in the Hot Seat Helps Entrepreneurs Help the Health Sector

Posted on March 9, 2012March 9, 2012 by smwnyc

Stephanie Vatz 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 Investors in the Hot Seat. You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @stephvatz.

The Saatchi and Saatchi Health and Wellness Hub displayed an array health tech devices on tables this Thursday, as entrepreneurs wandered around the space, mingling with investors and other business people all looking to use their start-ups to improve the world of health. They had all come to hear a team of health investors answer their questions about how to gain seed or development money for their projects.

Among the company heads was Kevin Dawkins, who runs CFFone, a mobile social network company that provides support for teenagers with cystic fibrosis. Ordinarily, Dawkins explained that cystic fibrosis prohibited the teens from spending time with other cystic fibrosis patients because of risk of infection, but the social network allowed them to share stories of their disease and support each other digitally.

CFFone had already received a grant from NIH, but the grant was going to expire in about a year so Dawkins came to the event to learn more about how to find the right investors and pitch to them.

“The people who spoke are exactly the types of people we are going to be pitching to,” Dawkins said after the event.

Those investors he was referring to were Steve Krein of Startup Health, Dave Whitlinger of the NYeHealth Collaborative, Todd Pietri of Milestone Venture Partners, Mohit Kaushal of West Health Fund, Maria Gorsch of the New York City Investment Fund and Brad Weinberg of Blueprint Health.

The six panelists took the stage to describe their own businesses as well as the model companies they wanted to invest in–organizations that could bridge the disconnect between the government stakeholders and patients on the ground in order to create better and more affordable health care.

The conference comes at a time when the stimulus package that President Obama passed was like giving “rocket fuel to this sector”, when West Coast investors are beginning to invest in East Coast companies and when health industry is looking to the private sector for new software and technologies.

Like at many of the other SMW events, the speakers mentioned “Big Data” and discussed how it could be a valuable tool for emerging technology companies to offer, whether it be through software for hospitals or analysis and access to data for patients themselves.

“Everything we do is around lowering the cost of health care,” Kaushal said.

A Student’s Perspective: The Sanofi Open Innovation Challenge Discusses its Own Challenges (and Advantages) to Putting Together An Event of Its Magnitude

Posted on March 9, 2012March 9, 2012 by smwnyc

Stephanie Vatz 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 How We Did It: The Sanofi Open Innovation Challenge. You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @stephvatz.

Last year, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi partnered with Data Design Diabetes for the Sanofi Open Innovation Challenge. The Challenge took young entrepreneurial innovators and health experts alike to develop a way to improve the quality of life and care for the over 25.8 million Americans living with diabetes.

To explain how the Open Innovation Challenge came to be, Michele Polz, Senior Director of Patient Solutions at Sanofi, and Aman Bhandari, Senior Advisor to the CTO of Health & Human Services came together on Feb. 15, discussing their initial project and upcoming the 2012 competition.

Polz described her desire to move “beyond the drugs” as a diabetes franchise and look at new models for treating diabetes including new technologies and designs. From this, stemmed the challenge–a five-step process that gives away over $200,000 in prize money and grants health entrepreneurs the chance to raise seed money and get their name out.

This year’s process is as follows: first, Data Design Diabetes and Sanofi use online crowd-sourcing to figure out what areas of diabetes care need the most repairing. Next, everyone can submit ideas for designing a product that addresses what matters most to people living with diabetes in the United States. Five of these entries are picked to win $20,000 and to enter an intensive project mentorship program and design boot camp. From there two are selected and given an additional $10,000 to bring their projects to real communities and one winner is chosen.

Last year’s winner, Ginger.io also appeared at the Health and Wellness Hub talk to describe their behavior analytics company that uses a mobile sensing platform to change patient behavior depending on health conditions and symptoms.

For the 2012 Challenge, the crowd-sourcing online survey has just been closed and the company is selecting a focus for this year’s competition, but the team seems almost as excited for other company challenges that have been inspired by Sanofi.

“It’s great to see someone who’s an entrepreneur and innovator, up there on stage with someone who is a major player in their field,” said Bhandari. “We are very serious about spurring innovation and entrepreneurship, whether it be in the public sector or private sector…We just want to promote the best ideas.”

My Day as a Social Media Week Speaker

Posted on February 27, 2012December 4, 2012 by smwnyc

This is a guest post by SMW veteran Joyce Sullivan.

This is my 2nd year as a Social Media Week NYC speaker and attendee. After getting my feet wet last year curating and moderating a panel on the emerging world of social media for financial services, I thought I’d dive in again talking about Social Media Strategy for Financial Services.

We finished our setup work on Monday with our live event on Tuesday, Feb 14th – and yes, I wore red on stage for Valentines Day! The planning and prep paid off, as we had a full house at @NYITManagement Auditorium. We had good feedback in person, and via our Twitter feed using our hastag#SMWFinServ. If you missed us, and want to know about all the fun facts on how to do social media in the highly regulated financial services industry, this link’s for you! We also Storified our tweets! You can also catch me on Livestream or on Twitter @JoyceMSullivan and @SocMediaFin.

My Day as a Social Media Week Attendee

With my SMW presentation complete, it was now time to enjoy the talks from the other side of the stage. I had a full day starting at Big Fuel bright and early listening to Rachel Stearne (whom I met in the elevator on the way up!). So great to hear what’s going on in the NYC digital space with Rachel at the helm as Chief Digital Officer for Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Free wifi in the parks is today a reality but just a beginning. It may be a bit longer before we have it on the subways, which Rachel mentioned was one of the biggest requests. However, the city will be providing lots of support for the NY Tech start up community. Rachel encouraged all to check out all the NYC Digital happenings.

As part of her first 90 days with the City, she created the Road Map for the Digital City outlining a path to build on New York City’s successes and establish it as the world’s top-ranked Digital City. They make it easy to keep up with these news making and news breaking innovators: @rachelsterne @edpilkington @nycgov @NYCDigital.

I had planned to head over to another venue but since I had a front row seat at Big Fuel (check out my pics of the stage!) I thought I’d hang a bit longer and see what’s going on with social TV. Yahoo! kicked off the event with Patrick Albano on stage introducing the next talented panel for Social Television: Opportunities for Broadcasters and Advertisers. I absolutely loved the Into Now app demoed by the sartorially resplendent Edwin Wong of Yahoo!.

Though I’m trying to stay neutral (for now!) with the upcoming 2012 US election, the talk by Edward O’Keefe of ABC News demoing their new OTUS News app they developed with Blue Fin Labs is a game changer. And for the finale we had Beth Reilly of Kraft Foods showcasing the success and fun of engaging their audience with their latest Cheesy Skillets Liquid Gold spots. Who would have thought Velveeta could get this much of a rise out of folks.. well, the Liquid Gold Blacksmith guy has a little bit to do with it! Keep up with these app makers: @intonow and @OTUSNews and @kraftfoods.

Next up was my fave Joe Fernandez of Klout interviewed in front of a digital fireplace by Big Fuel CEO Jon Bond. I’ve been an early adopter of Klout and have watched them soar and swoop down – a bit – in the last few months. They continue to be the digital global influence leader. It was interesting to hear after the US, the next biggest countries for Klout are #2 Brazil and #3 Japan.

Joe told some inside tales about the handlers of the rich and famous coming to see him and asking why some other big star had a higher Klout score. For such a successful global influence disruptor, Joe is very down to earth and approachable. See what I mean: @JoeFernandez and catch Jon Bond at @JonBond57.

Time to walk around and check out the rest of the goings on at Big Fuel. Yummy (and free!) food from @wholefoodsNYC in the back was a good way to refuel. The charge stations throughout the floor gave me a chance to charge up my devices and meet others. As I turned around to say hello to the folks around me, I met @BeVisible, whom I have followed for the past year but had never met in person. Always great to meet old school in real life.

It was a double header day for Joe Fernandez who was also on the Global Influence panel. Along with Joe, we got an insightful and fun perspective on how this group influences their online community from Funk Flex aka @FunkMasterFlex, along with Brandon Evans of CrowdTap, moderated by Ben Luntz of Big Fuel. It was especially fun to have Funk and Joe sharing their views on how to be influential. Joe said he started following Funk right before this event to get to know him. This Livestream is definitely worth another listen. It’s on my replay list.

It was time to get some fresh air and check out another venue. I decided to go to a non-hub event to check out the ‘indie’ SMWNYC scene. I picked “Can We Tweet Yet, Social Media in Financial Services” hosted by Joanna Belbey of Actiance a few blocks away. It was a nice sized group and with a slide show, and some handouts, Joanna took the group through the ins and out of social media regulation in a clear and approachable manner.

This was great live theater; no livestream for this one, folks, though you can follow more of Joanna’s insights on twitter: @Belbey and on BelbeyBlogs.

I wanted to also attend Email and Social Media up at Thomson Reuters taking place at the same time uptown. I had heard Wendi Caplan-Carroll of Constant Contact speak at other events and wanted to catch her latest insights. Next best thing?.. watch it on Livestream and find out what Fanbruary is all about! Great intro by Brady Hahn of Crowdcentic introducing Nick Hahn (any relation?), Wendy Caplan-Carroll, Noel Descalzi, Gabby Bernstein, and Josh Mendelsohn. So many great insights of how to use email marketing as part of social media to reach your target audience. Being authentic is key, and you can see all the insights here.

And my day is done! Being on the Social Media Week stage and watching the events on stage, are both exhilarating AND exhausting. Everyone have fun out there!

Joyce Sullivan is a recognized industry expert in social media networking through emerging social media networking tools. A financial services industry veteran, Joyce speaks frequently on the convergence of social media and the financial services industry. She’s been recognized for her social media networking expertise through seminars, and you can watch Joyce’s interview with CNBC anchor and journalist, Maria Bartiromo, on career reinvention and the use of social media networking on “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo.” Keep up with her online.

You Don’t Have to Be a Sinner to Be Social Media Savvy

Posted on February 24, 2012October 16, 2014 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 can watch the SMW NYC event on livestream here.

Being a social butterfly takes a lot of energy; along with constantly juggling your Facebook and Tumblr feeds, you have to make sure to be smart about what you’re doing on your beloved social networks. Add another thing to your list of things to be concerned about – you might be a social media sinner, and you might not even know it.

If you’re desperate to run to confession to have your soul detoxed, don’t freak out too much. According to a survey conducted by marketing-communications brand JWT, 71 percent of people over the age of 18 have committed at least one social media sin. On top of that, the average person is guilty of doing two sins out of seven.

So, let’s get to the bottom of this. What, exactly, are the seven social media sins? Answer: they are much like the seven deadly sins we’re all very familiar with. The rundown of the scorching sins are:

1. Greed of social media attention

2. Gluttonous towards consumption of online and social content

3. Lust and desire – think of spending too much time sexting with your boy/girlfriend of the week or watching too much Internet porn

4. Social media enabling you to be a lazy bum

5. Acting angry or lashing out towards people on your social network

6. Social media arrogance

7. Jealousy towards what other people in your network are doing

The topic of teens’ sins on social networks came up heavily during the How and Why We Share: The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media panel on February 16th at JWT Headquarters. Editor-in-Chief of Seventeen Magazine, Ann Shoket, knows first-hand about teens’ online behavior, since she and her team interact with teenage girls all the time. “[It’s great] that girls have a voice and can make a mark,” Shoket comments. “[However}, teens have to be incredibly smart about their own PR and making their own image.” If they’re not, teens are going to abuse their power of free speech and spew obscenities and TMI facts that their followers don’t want to hear.

Another problem that teens may face thanks to their social media use is acting shallow about practically anything they encounter. “Liking something has become such a shallow act,” said JWT Digital Strategist Jinal Shah. “Blogging’s better because it pushes people to think and get into a conversation.” More importantly than that, it enables readers of blog posts to construct new and original thoughts upon reading a piece of stellar writing. That’s definitely something that most teeny-boppers have a hard time doing on Twitter, with the very-limited character space and all.

It’s evident what the Big Baddie of Social Media is, though; the utterly despicable act of trolling and cyber bullying (or, as Shoket prefers to call it, “digital drama”). It feels like every day a new story comes out about teens being tortured by their peers or complete strangers on the Internet.

The perfect example of Internet trolling at its worst (at least in my eyes) was the sad situation involving Florida tween Jessi Slaughter. If you don’t know about this, let me clue you in. 11 year-old Jessi liked to post semi-inappropriate videos and self-portraits on MySpace and YouTube. This would usually go unnoticed and ignored by everybody except her friends. Unfortunately, a poster from the infamously trollish 4chan picked up on one of her videos and posted it all over the site. The Team of Trolls couldn’t help but harass her from all sides, from calling her names via email and IM to sending her death threats via text. Long story short, the trauma of the online harassment landed her in several mental institutions.

Cyber bullying may be hard to defeat, but it’s not immortal. For instance, Seventeen launched a social media campaign called Delete Digital Drama last summer to fight back against it using Facebook and Twitter badges to start the conversation. With a growing community of teens against this harsh form of bullying, it should be harder to get away with harassing people on each other’s Facebook walls.

Now that you’ve been enlightened of your possible online wrongdoings, it’s now up to you to check yourself before you go off being a social media menace. You’ll feel a heck of a lot better not being a troublemaking troll or a jealous lazy bum.

Get to know us and get yourself a paper writing service friend who will be completing papers for you cheap and fast!

Monday Funday: SocialVibe Engagement & Opening Party!

Posted on February 16, 2012 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 February 16, 2012February 16, 2012 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!

Microsoft Launches People Powered Stories

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Nicky Yates

This Tuesday, partner Microsoft hosted “Beyond the Like: Using Real People’s Real Stories.” During this engaging and insightful session, Microsoft announced the launch of their social advertising solution, People Powered Stories. Jennifer Creegan, General Manager for Display Advertising Experiences at Microsoft Advertising, shares with us the story behind it.

Yesterday at Social Media Week in New York, I introduced a new social advertising solution I am pretty excited about. We’re calling it People Powered Stories (PPS) ™. With it, advertisers can incorporate real peoples’ ratings and reviews about their products within a rich brand ad. The solution will be available next month and we believe it will give marketers the ability to create ads that tell powerful stories and create brand relevancy beyond just a “Like” by adding the authenticity and believability of real people’s real stories.

To bring PPS to life, we’ve partnered with Bazaarvoice, (a company that has powered more than 290 billion customer conversations for brands across the globe) to integrate consumer ratings and reviews into the rich PPS ad format. Advertisers will be able to tap into Microsoft’s highly social and engaged audiences across multiple screens and deliver relevant ads in a way that is targeted and more measurable than is available for social advertising on the web today. PPS is the first in a suite of social ad solutions that we will create in the coming months.

The People Powered Stories offering integrates customer ratings seamlessly into a rich ad format.

And expands to give consumers a deep dive on the reviews of the product / service submitted by real people.

As an industry, we intuitively know the power of social and the potential it holds for advertisers to engage with consumers. We also know that people want to hear what others have to say about various products and services. Despite the brand dollars that are flowing toward social media, advertisers have told me they continue to be frustrated at how difficult it is to measure ROI and confirm whether they are successfully engaging their target audiences.

We recently commissioned a study of 713 social media marketers around the world to solicit their opinions on social advertising. Here’s what we found:

The top two reasons advertisers invest in social media is to drive word of mouth and brand awareness (27% and 26% respectively).
72% of advertisers said measuring ROI on social media campaigns is too difficult.
Advertisers believe 65% of word of mouth misses the intended audience.
73% of those advertisers surveyed said they want to make sure the ratings and reviews they curate online reach their target audience (which is more than ‘Likes’, ‘Tweets’ and any other source we asked about).

Windows 7 ‘Back to School’ Campaign
We’ve already seen the power of the ratings and reviews within PPS in action. As a part of a pilot, Microsoft integrated the PPS ad format into a Windows 7 “back to school” advertising campaign (from our Microsoft Advertising People Powered Stories Case Study – September 2011), targeting college students in the market for a new computer. The campaign 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 campaign delivered. With the authentic voice of the students included in the advertising, other college students found the Windows 7 ad units “believable” and “relevant.” The campaign drove great improvement across many marketing metrics, including:

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.

After the campaign I spoke with Brenda Bown, Director of Windows Consumer Digital Marketing, and she had this to say about what PPS delivered for the Windows 7 brand: “Being able to harness the power of ratings and reviews from Bazaarvoice and incorporate it into our online marketing efforts strengthened our value proposition and established credibility by putting forth students’ voices to impact other students just like them.”

Not only is it important to be able to reach and measure the effectiveness of social ads, it’s important that the industry re-examine how we think about social. Instead of focusing just on having a Facebook page or a Twitter handle, advertisers need to focus on consumers and what they need.

Why do we believe PPS will be successful?

We know that consumers who are looking to make large purchases rarely turn to their social network first; rather, they turn to online reviews. This is one of the main reasons we’ve integrated ratings and reviews into our first social format.
As we saw with our Windows pilot, the ads lifted brand favorability, purchase intent and brand awareness.

While we are still in the early stages of unlocking the potential of social advertising, I am confident that we are moving into a world where the impact of social advertising will move beyond a ‘Like’ to a world where you can create and measure the value of social ads. We believe that the People Powered Stories ad format is critical to continuing this movement and helping brands gain credibility and relevance with their target consumers.

We’re excited to share more momentum from our People Powered Stories solution and other social ad formats in the coming months, but in the meantime, if you have questions or feedback, please feel free to post in the comments section at the bottom of this blog post. We’re always listening.

Jennifer Creegan interviewed by Mel Carson on People Powered Stories

See You Thursday! A Guide to Day 4

Posted on February 15, 2012February 15, 2012 by Nicky Yates

We’re building up steam, so don’t lose energy now! The final two days are packed with some incredible speakers, which are still open for you to register. Not sure what options you have? We’d recommend checking these out.

9-9:30am at Big Fuel: The Guardian Interviews Gabe Zichermann

9-10am at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Keynote: Jay Walker on To Change Faster, We Must Decide Better

9-11:30am at Thomson Reuters: Keynote: Douglas Rushkoff on When Change is Always On followed by Panel: Just Like The 60’s: How Social Media Has (Or Hasn’t) Changed Civic Movements

9-11am at Hearst: Keynote: Elisa Camahort Page on Rewriting Keystroke by Keystroke followed by Panel: The Dawn of Companion TV

10-10:45am at Dominion Theater: A Conversation with Nick Jonas, moderated by Jason King

10-11am at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Investors in the Hot Seat: Leading Health Investors Pitch To StartUps

12-12:30pm at Big Fuel: Digital Fireside Chat: John Winsor on Connections 2.0

12-1pm at Ogilvy: We’re All Social Now: How B2B Marketers Can Get With the Conversation

12-2pm at Thomson Reuters: Weapons of Choice: The Design of Insurgency

12-2pm at Hearst: Keynote: Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed on the Future of Sharing followed by Panel: Creating Start-Ups Inside Traditional News Organizations

12-2pm at Ogilvy: Keynote: Rohit Bhargava on The Seductive Myth Of Brand Storytelling: Why Some Stories Work And Most Don’t

3-5pm at Thomson Reuters: Keynote: Jeremy Gilley, Founder of Peace One Day followed by Panel: Should we occupy Occupy Wall Street?

3-5pm at JWT: Harnessing the Power of Social Content for Advertisers

3-5pm at Big Fuel: Edial Dekker on The Rise of the New Sharing Economy followed by The Trust Economy

3-6pm at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Alternative Funding for Healthcare Innovation followed by Crossing the Chasm: Healthcare Innovation Matchmaking Session

4:30-5:30pm at Hearst: In the Twitter Kitchen: A Cookie Bake-off

5-6pm at Edelman Worldwide: My Social TV App Thinks I’m My Dad: Privacy Issues In The Age of Convergence

6-8pm at JWT: How and Why We Share: The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media

6:30-8pm at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Networking Reception with Sanofi US Innovation Challenge

Enjoy the lineup and we’ll see you Thursday!

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!

SoundCtrl Presents SMWNYC’s Music Hub

Posted on February 13, 2012February 14, 2012 by Nicky Yates

This is a guest post by SoundCtrl.

SoundCtrl is excited to announce our Music Hub at Social Media Week, featuring two days of programming. On Wednesday the 15th at the Hearst Tower in New York City, we will present the panel “SoundCtrl’s Creating Music for the Social Web,” which will cover the evolution of digital tools for music discovery and consumption. Following that will be our panel, “Reflecting on the 54th GRAMMY Awards: Digital Partnerships, Social Media and Innovation,” which will feature Beverly Jackson, the Director of Marketing and Social Media for the GRAMMY Awards.

On Thursday the 16th, SoundCtrl will present our Music Hub at Dominion Theater. The full day of programming will begin at 10:00 AM with “A Conversation with Nick Jonas, Moderated by Jason King.” Jason and Nick will discuss how social media plays into the creative process and identify the most effective platforms to engage and leverage a fan base. Following that will be “Nightlife Disrupt: Social Media’s Impact” at 11:30 AM. Then, at 1:00 PM, SPIN presents “Music Criticism Is Dead; Long Live Music Criticism,” where panelists will discuss the merits of social media and music criticism and consider what the future holds for music journalism.

At 5:30 PM, Translation will present “Connectivity: Discovering the Power of Social Communities in Music.” Experts with perspectives in social discovery, promotion, performance & contest creation will demonstrate how to better leverage relationships in the new music landscape. At 7:00 PM, Zev Norotsky of Elektro Magazine will moderate “I Know The DJ: How Social Media Has Fueled the Explosive Growth of EDM in America.” The evening will wrap up with a cocktail mixer and a DJ set by Junior Sanchez from 8:00 to 10:00 PM.

Learn more and RSVP to any of these events here.

SoundCtrl is NYC’s premiere event platform for the convergence of music and digital media conceptualized by a group of music industry professionals and senior executives in digital media and technology. In addition to building a vibrant online community, SoundCtrl also hosts a series of monthly events featuring industry leaders and New York based music and technology companies.

A Guide to the Guides

Posted on February 10, 2012February 10, 2012 by Nicky Yates

We know that the influx of information and content can be overwhelming. With all the emails, tweets and the more than 350 events happening in NYC next week, how does one break it all down? Well, we’ve established a system. We’ve been creating guides around various topics that we think will be relevant to you. From Small Business to Social & Environmental Change. But what good is a system if you, our community, doesn’t know about it? So, here’s a Guide to the Guides.

If you’re interested in:
Startups & Entrepreneurship
Small Business
Social & Environmental Change
Business & Innovation
Influence

Or you’re a fan of:
Yahoo! And Social
LinkedIn & Professional Connecting

Or you want to be in one place all day:
Art & Culture Hub
Health & Wellness Hub from their perspective and Health & Wellness Hub from ours

If you’re a young adult or how old we wish we were.

If you’re not sure what to do on Valentine’s Day.

And if you like to see the big names, see our keynotes:
Dan Abrams
David Eastman
Don Tapscott
Chris Kaskie
Ben Kaufman
Carol McCall
Alex Bogusky
Jeff Dachis

Finally, if you’d rather just see one list of it all:
Events Guide

Or just what’s been recently added, here or here.

We’ll be continuing to add more guides to our blog over the next couple of days, so keep an eye out for your topic of choice. With just 2 days until the start of SMWNYC, registering now is key. Please note, there will be no waitlists or walk-ins- so get your name on the list today!

Event Guide: Influence

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Sara Haile-Mariam

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