Tag: sva theatre

EVENT SPOTLIGHT: BuzzFeed’s Lessons to Build Your Social Presence the Resourceful Way

Posted on by Tess Kaytmaz

In this interactive presentation, BuzzFeed social experts Rachel Christensen and Summer Anne Burton will discuss how they helped successfully build the largest social networks in media—by rethinking the way the industry sees social media editors, content, and distribution.

They’ll cover how BuzzFeed stuck to scrappy and unconventional ways of thinking about and creating content for social platforms, and how they used data to inform their strategies. There will also be examples of BuzzFeed’s biggest wins and fails (in the form of a quiz!), with insight to how, why, and where BuzzFeed experiments.

This event is targeted both at social media editors and their employers, and will include a short presentation via PowerPoint, along with a Q&A. Some of the biggest mistakes we see in media are caused by an outdated way that brands and publishers look at their social talent.

Participants will leave with a new way at looking to hire social candidates, the best ways to manage a social editor’s workflow, and how to create sharable content without a sizable budget.

Rachel Christensen, Managing Social Media Editor at BuzzFeed, will lead a session at SMW New York with Summer Anne Burton to discuss how they went outside of the box to rethink how successfully create large networks on social media platforms.

Rachel’s session “Building A Great Social Presence The Resourceful Way, Presented By BuzzFeed” will take place on Wednesday, February 24th at 11:00am at the SVA (EDU Stage).

★ Register today by purchasing your pass ★

View The Initial Program Of Events for SMW New York

Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. We’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.

Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!

Register for SMW New York

If you’d like to hear from visionary speakers, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in New York each year, register today by purchasing your pass. You can also save 20% until January 14th!

6 Events at #SMWNYC for Marketers That Want To Be Smarter With Their Data

Posted on by Tyler Becker

If you work in digital marketing, chances are you stress over things such as data, analytics, metrics, KPIs, insights, and sentiment for your brand and the content you create. Each of these terms have become more important year after year, and the current ecosystem of social media monitoring and analytics has officially matured.

At SMW New York, several sessions are confirmed to help both data-rookies and veterans of analytics explore how data and insights can help us make smarter business decisions every day. Here are six sessions already confirmed to learn about data in marketing and content.

1. How Data And Analytics Can Transform And Enhance Native Advertising Opportunities

(Presented by Forbes Media)
This session, led by Mark Howard (Chief Revenue Officer, Forbes Media) will cover the benefits of always-on native advertising, specifically looking at the benefits of ongoing publishing campaigns, value of data and analytics for improving content, and the evolution of thought leadership.

2. Find Your Customers Through Open Data, APIs, And Machine Learning

(Presented by Decoded)
This masterclass will focus on how to leverage the data you have, and the data you don’t yet have, to determine who will buy your product, pay for your service, or hire your team. Jeffrey Lancaster (Head of Product, Decoded), will take you on a whirlwind tour of how open data and APIs (social media and otherwise) are being leveraged by industry leaders to determine the best ways to connect to consumers.

3. Data Versus Gut

(Presented by Hearst Magazines Digital Media)
Kate Lewis (SVP and Editorial Director, Hearst Magazines Digital Media) will join three Hearst Digital site editors to explore how large scale increases in social followings are achieved, and compare the effectiveness of two differing social strategies: the use of performance metrics and audience data to inform social content, and following gut instinct to create posts that resonate with audiences.

★ Register today by purchasing your pass ★

4. Making The Invisible Visible: The Evolving Roles Of Data, Trust And Transparency In Advertising And Publishing

(Presented by The Economist Group)
Marketers and publishers are using more and more innovative methods to create, deliver and disguise digital advertising. Native advertising is the latest under scrutiny from the FTC, which released new guidelines last month, but it won’t be the last as more examples come to light where advertising is indistinguishable by consumers from content.

5. Building A Startup Under The Infrastructure And Data Of A Legacy Media Company: A Great Big Story

(Presented by Great Big Story)
In this session, you’ll learn how to build a content strategy that’s informed by data taken straight from your social media properties. Find out the secrets that can harness your data for audience targeting, distribution and much more. Great Big Story, a socially-distributed video network that covers real stories, will lead this talk.

6. Create By Numbers: How Insights, Data, And Paid Media Shape The Creative Approach

(Presented by VaynerMedia)
The volume of data and insights available for social media is changing how agencies and platforms strategize, spend, and steer clients. An analytics-driven world means an elemental shift in how ideas are informed by data to better reach audiences. This session features speakers from VaynerMedia and Pinterest, and will answer the question: Which comes first, big campaign ideas, or testing multiple creative pillars to identify the big idea?

View The Initial Program Of Events for SMW New York

Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. We’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.

Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!

Register for SMW New York

If you’d like to hear from visionary speakers, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in New York each year, register today by purchasing your pass. You can also save 20% until January 14th!

Attend These 5 Events To Take Your Content Marketing and Storytelling to the Next Level

Posted on by Tyler Becker

Today “storytelling” and “content marketing” are two extremely abused buzzwords in our industry, but that doesn’t mean that they are not valuable tools to share your brand’s stories and experiences in order to connect with online audiences.

The abundance of content (not just stories) out there, the dramatic competition for our attention, and the staggering speed at which these stories spread and are consumed (or discarded) has made it more difficult to break through the noise and reach our audiences.

Here are five sessions taking place at SMW New York this February 22-26 that will teach, inspire, and think ahead to the current and future state of content marketing and storytelling.

1. The High Stakes Of Content Marketing As Seen By A Brand, Agency And Publisher

(Presented by Digiday)
When it comes to brands creating engaging content, the stakes have never been higher considering the growth in programmatic and ad blockers. The content needs to be at Hollywood scale, and at the quality of best-in-class digital journalism. Shareen Pathak (Brands Editor at Digiday) will examine how leading brands, agencies and publishers are finding success.

2. Mediapocalypse! Are Platforms Killing The Business Of Media & Advertising? And Why Won’t Anyone Talk About It?

(Presented by Deep Focus)
Platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter are up-ending the media business. Publishers and advertisers, content producers and creators, advertisers and agencies are all dealing with the repercussions of distributed media models. Hear from executives at Deep Focus, College Humor, and Starcom Media Group on this always-evolving battle.

3. Atomization Of Business: Content Strategies For Speed, Quality, And Efficiency

(Presented by Code and Theory)
Code and Theory’ Co-Founder, Dan Gardner, will introduce attendees to Atomization, his agency’s approach to helping today’s businesses take advantage of strategic opportunities via social media. Attendees will learn: 1) How to reach multiple audiences with multiple stories; 2) How to take advantage of trending culture and conversation; 3) The importance of matching content to context; and 4) How to design for natural behaviors online.

★ Register today by purchasing your pass ★

4. Building A Great Social Presence The Resourceful Way, Presented By BuzzFeed

(Presented by BuzzFeed)
In this interactive presentation, BuzzFeed social experts Rachel Christensen and Summer Anne Burton will discuss how they helped successfully build the largest social networks in media—by rethinking the way the industry sees social media editors, content, and distribution. They’ll cover how BuzzFeed stuck to scrappy and unconventional ways of thinking about and creating content for social platforms, and how they used data to inform their strategies.

5. A Writer’s Guide To Viral Storytelling

(Presented by Wattpad)
In this MasterClass with Wattpad’s #1 fantasy writer and #1 Amazon Bestseller Sally Slater, you’ll take a deep dive into the business of viral storytelling and learn how you can leverage an online community to market your brand, attract an audience and share your story with millions–whether you’re an aspiring novelist or a creative marketer.

View The Initial Program Of Events for SMW New York

Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. We’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.

Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!

Register for SMW New York

If you’d like to hear from visionary speakers, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in New York each year, register today by purchasing your pass. You can also save 20% until January 14th!

When to Use Data vs. Gut Decisions at #SMWNYC with Kate Lewis, SVP & Editorial Director of Hearst Magazines

Posted on by Tyler Becker

Hearst Magazines Digital Media is comprised of 24 sites, including digital brands Cosmopolitan.com, Esquire.com, Elle.com, CarandDriver.com, and HarpersBazaar.com, and pure-plays including Delish.com. One of the visionaries behind these brands and publications is Kate Lewis, SVP and Editorial Director of at HMDM.

Kate will lead a session at SMW New York with a few of her HMDM editors, each of which experienced the largest increase in social followings in 2015. Speakers will provide examples of times that data helped increase social following, and other times when gut instinct showed immeasurable results. This session, “Data vs. Gut” will take place on Tuesday, February 23rd at 3:00pm on the EDU Stage at The SVA Theatre.

★ Register today by purchasing your pass ★

About Kate Lewis

“Kate Lewis, VP of Content Operations & Editorial Director at Hearst Magazines is responsible for managing content groups across the Hearst Magazines Digital Media platform, collaborating with editorial teams on content strategy as well as with technology and product groups. Hearst Magazines Digital Media is comprised of 24 sites, including digital brands Cosmopolitan.com, Esquire.com, Elle.com, CarandDriver.com, and HarpersBazaar.com, and pure-plays including Delish.com. In 2014, Kate led the company to its best month ever in November with 75 million unique visitors, an increase of 30 percent year over year and 729 million total page views.

Lewis joined Hearst’s digital team from Say Media where she was SVP and Editorial Director overseeing content operations, editorial strategy, and development for Say’s portfolio of digital brands including xoJane, Remodelista, and ReadWrite. Lewis also managed a network of partner sites as well as the shared services department that provided support and strategy for audience development, social media, and partnerships.

Prior to Say Media, Lewis was a Senior Executive Director of Human Resources at Condé Nast Publications. Before that, she was managing editor at Self for 10 years, overseeing editorial and production, digital projects, book publishing, events, and television partnerships.” (via Hearst)

View The Initial Program Of Events for SMW New York

Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. We’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.

Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!

Register for SMW New York

If you’d like to hear from visionary speakers, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in New York each year, register today by purchasing your pass. You can also save 20% until January 14th!

Image Credit: Digiday

Using Data and Insights to Shape Creative: Pinterest’s CPG Lead to Speak at #SMWNYC

Posted on by Tess Kaytmaz

The volume of data and insights available for social media is changing how agencies and platforms strategize, spend, and steer clients. An analytics-driven world means an elemental shift in how creatives work. Designers, writers, photographers and video producers need to think about execution and ideas informed by data on how to better speak to our audiences.

At SMW New York, Pinterest’s CPG East Lead of Creative Strategy, Raashi Bhalla, will take the stage with executives from VaynerMedia and Fast Company, to cover how creative and strategy should collaborate — and work with platform partners — to make content that wins on results, as well as look and feel.

Raashi’s session, “Create By Numbers: How Insights, Data, And Paid Media Shape The Creative Approach” will take place on Friday, February 26th at 1:00pm on the EDU Stage at The SVA Theatre.

★ Register today by purchasing your pass ★

View The Initial Program Of Events for SMW New York

Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. We’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.

Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!

Register for SMW New York

If you’d like to hear from visionary speakers, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in New York each year, register today by purchasing your pass.

Image Credit: Startup Camp

Announcing The Launch of SMW New York’s Initial Program of Events for 2016

Posted on by Tyler Becker

Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. Today, we’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.

Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!

Session Spotlight

This year’s SMW New York event will feature 60+ official sessions between The TimesCenter and SVA Theatre. Some of the topics include: data & analytics, paid media, video, content marketing, mobile messaging, virtual reality, ad-blocking, growth marketing, and much more. Take a look below at a sampling of the events we’re excited for, and click here to view the initial 30 sessions that are confirmed for next month’s event.

  • “Mediapocalypse! Are Platforms Killing Media and Advertising? And Why Won’t Anyone Talk About It?” presented by Deep Focus
  • “Bracing for the Ad-Blocked Future: How Brands are Moving Beyond the Impression” presented by Crowdtap
  • “Hello Founders: Meet the Generation After Millennials, and What Sets Them Apart” presented by MTV

First Round of Confirmed Speakers

Individuals from leading organizations across marketing, media, and technology will join us in New York to direct the conversation. This year, we’re thrilled to announce some of the speakers confirmed for February 22-26, with more to be announced in the coming weeks:

  • Mark Thompson, CEO of The New York Times
  • Alex Blumburg, CEO of Gimlet Media
  • Evan Shapiro, EVP, Digital Enterprises, NBCUniversal
  • Jennifer Betka Wakeford, CMO of StubHub
  • Dan Harmon, Creator and Executive Producer, “HarmonQuest,” “Community” and “Rick and Morty”
  • Kate Lewis, SVP and Editorial Director of Hearst Magazines Digital Media
  • Ian Schafer, Founder and Chairman of Deep Focus
  • Ricky Van Veen, College Humor & IAC
  • Lisa Weinstein, President of Starcom Media Group
  • Glenn Minerley, VP Group Account Director of Momentum Worldwide
  • Scott Carlis, VP Digital & Social Media of AEG Global Partnerships
  • Camille Hackney, EVP Brand Partnerships & Licensing of Atlantic Records
  • Kevin Knight, Head of Creative and Brand Strategy of Pinterest
  • Joe Rospars, Founder and CEO of Blue State Digital (and President Barack Obama’s chief digital strategist for 2008 and 2012 campaigns)
  • Garance Franke-Ruta, Washington Editor of Yahoo News
  • Tina Cervera, SVP and Executive Creative Director of VaynerMedia
  • Addie Conner, former Chief Innovation Officer of SocialCode
  • Sean Foster, Chief Executive Officer of Crowdtap
  • Afdhel Aziz, Brand Director of ABSOLUT Labs
  • Joahne Carter, VP of Marketing of Ricola
  • Ron Pinelli, CPA (FL), VP Digital Research and Standards of MRC
  • Peter Fasano, Global Consulting Principal of OgilvyRED

How to gain access to these speakers and events

If you want to gain access to these events, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in NYC each year, register today by purchasing your pass. You can also save 20% on your purchase until January 14th!

All Aboard New York’s Nostalgia Train

Posted on by Tyler Becker

Riding the Nostalgia Train sounds like something you do when you’re lost in reverie and memory, pining for what used to be. If that’s what it is, then many New Yorkers are casting backwards through time on Sundays this month, riding antique subway cars along the M Line, from Second Avenue to Queens Plaza and back again.

The people on the Nostalgia Train are a different breed.

Some come dressed in period costume, Depression-era hats and coats, shoes and neckties, dark lipstick shades of another epoch. These otherworldly anachronisms dance on the station platform to the music of a little swing band, the slick-haired singer crooning “Night and Day.”

Others come in MTA paraphernalia, railfans dressed in t-shirts and knit winter caps proclaiming their favorite subway line. The F and the 6 are tops. One young man sits grinning, running through a near constant patter of conductor announcements. He’s got the script down and compulsively, giddily recites its length and breadth. “This is Broadway-Lafayette,” he calls out. “Transfer is available for the 6 train. Stand clear of the closing doors.” Another young man, wearing an Amtrak t-shirt, holds his iPhone by the open door between the cars, audio recording the clickety-clack in the dark tunnel’s roar.

Haloed by warm incandescent light bulbs, an older man stands and pontificates on the state of today’s New York, city of yuppies, cell phones, and drunk Santas: “Is this the city you and I were raised in? It’s become alien. I have no feeling for it anymore. It’s scary!”

But no one listens. They’d rather pretend it’s the past.

Retired motormen trade stories. Clasp hands. Greet each other warmly, saying, “Hey, I ain’t seen your ugly mug for a hundred years.”

Among the fanatics and nostalgics, other New Yorkers climb aboard, acting like the everyday subway riders they are–tired, bored, going to work, coming home from a long day already. They’ve got no time for reminiscence.

The Nostalgia Train doesn’t sound or feel or smell like today’s bright and whispery subway cars. Heavy in its bones, it broadcasts a loud symphony of sound, rattling and wheezing through the underworld. Inside, ceiling fans whiz overhead. The air is olive drab or else some shade of sea foam.

Open windows let in the smells of the tunnel, which shift from swampy organics to a fragrance you’d swear was burnt buttered toast.

Soot flies in and lands in your eye. In these old cars, you are not sheltered from the city. You are joined to it.

There is no stillness here. The rattan benches bounce your spine up and down as the jolting car keeps all bodies in motion.

But the best part comes when the train dives beneath the East River and launches forth to Queens. The driver lets out the throttle, like letting loose the reins of a horse, and the whole thing torpedoes ahead. It dives deeper, faster, jerking from side to side, shuddering in its bolts. A gritty wind blasts through the openings, strong enough to knock off a hat, if it tried.

In this unbridled speed, the riders are giddy. It is a relief to feel the city thrumming in your gut, to not be insulated from it, to not be held in some sterile, hospital-lit tube.

This feels real. This knocking around. This sucking down the filthy wind. This robust mechanical jolt.

This is New York.

Event Submissions for SMW New York Close on December 9th

Posted on by Tyler Becker

Entering its 8th year, SMW has brought together more than 200,000 people across thousands of individually hosted events on six continents and connected millions of people online. You and your organization can gain recognition as a thought-leader by hosting an event at Social Media Week 2016! Our global theme for 2016 is “The Invisible Hand: Hidden Forces of Technology (and How We Can Harness it for Good).”

Event submissions close December 9th for SMW New York!

You have until December 9th to submit and join organizations such as Forbes, New York Times, Code and Theory, Digiday, IAB, MRY, Betaworks, The Economist and The Barbarian Group.

Why become an event partner?

  • Engage in the conversations relevant to your cause or industry
  • Gain recognition as a thought-leader or influencer in your field or industry
  • Amplify your message using the Social Media Week platform
  • Attract brands and networks of relevant hyper-social influencers
  • Position your organization on the global stage for exposure and credibility
  • Develop valuable relationships with new partners and existing clients

How can you become an event partner?

  • Fill out the submission form with your event or session idea before December 9th
  • The SMW New York programming team will review your submission (and provide feedback if necessary)
  • If your event is accepted you will be notified shortly after December 9th
  • For information on becoming an event partner or submitting your event, check out the Social Media Week website
  • If you have any questions, email us at: newyork@socialmediaweek.org