Social Media

Presented by by Paul McClay (@paulmcclay), Director of Media for Definition 6 at Essential Social Media Skills Practicum, Atlanta

Launching a corporate blog takes more than an idea, it takes a plan. Successful business bloggers determine the needs of their audience, assess risks, get internal buy in and align the right resources for an ongoing dialogue with their customers. Get the tools you need to go from idea to action with two case studies from the pros. Learn how to scope a blogging project, get support for your initiative and manage a blog day to day.

What You Will Learn:

• Pros & risks of starting a blog for your organization
• Monitoring feedback & strategies for responding
• Strategies for including audio, video, photos
• Writing for authenticity and the right voice
• Managing multiple authors
• Policy dos & don’ts for employee bloggers

Questions that are answered:

• What should be included in a blogging plan?
• What resources will I need?
• What tools are available?
• How do I build internal support for a blog?
• How do I measure success? Determine ROI?
• What are the day to day best practices?

Presented by: 

Nicki Dugan, senior director of corporate communications at Yahoo!, is editor of the company’s official corporate blog, Yodel Anecdotal. It launched in August 2006 as “Yet another self-serving corporate blog” with the mission of providing insights into the company, its people, its culture, and the things Yahoos think about in the shower. The blog covers emerging trends, behind-the-scenes commentary, employee profiles, user stories, guest opinions, and includes video, podcasts and photo essays. All this while attempting to faithfully avoid regurgitation of product press releases. Contributing voices range from CEO to summer interns and Yodel Anecdotal has been lauded for having the cahones to accept comments of all flavors.

Prior to joining Yahoo! in 2000, Nicki represented consumer internet brands such as Yahoo!, Mapquest and Reel.com at Niehaus Ryan Wong, the tech-only agency that presided over the halcyon days of the Internet boom (and may it rest in peace). She also served as editorial director at Sheila Donnelly & Associates of Honolulu and as senior editor at Travel Holiday magazine. Nicki received a B.A. in English from Franklin & Marshall College.

About Paula Berg
Paula Berg is a spokesperson and Public Relations Specialist for Southwest Airlines, the nation’s leading low-fare carrier and the largest domestic airline in terms of Customers carried. In addition to handling the company’s corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest Blog, Paula specializes in strategic communication, regional media relations, reputation management, and special event planning. Paula also supervised on-location production for three seasons of Airline!, Southwest’s reality series for the A&E Television Network, which filmed Southwest’s daily operations in four cities. After brief stints selling beer on Phish tour and working for the Colorado and United States Senates, Paula woke up and smelled the jet fuel and began her career at Southwest Airlines in 2001. Paula is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned a bachelors degree in communication and a minor in Political Science.

About Brian Glover
As senior manager of market strategy for Biz360, Brian Glover is responsible for activities that support the company’s product direction and marketing communications efforts. He is the primary author of the company’s MarketIQ blog and has eight years of experience in marketing and public relations. Prior to Biz360, Brian was public relations manager for Documentum, acquired by EMC in 2003, and a Biz360 client. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Brands are living and dying on the 10-20 sites that come up in a Google search for your company, product, or executive names. This webinar will address two critical aspects of your brand’s dance with Google:

• Proactively — How do you create and place the type of content that will greatly improve the chances that you will be found on Google.
• Reactively — How do you react and manage issues that arise and sneak into your top Google results.

What You Will Learn:

• How everyone from celebrities to Fortune 500 companies are treating their “Google Homepage” as the key to their online reputation
• How top online players are combining search engine optimization (SEO) with social media to own all ten of their first page Google results
• Why PR  is the right business unit to own search engine reputation management
• Simple tools to monitor your reputation through search engines

Presented by:

Paul Dyer is eMedia Director of WeissComm Group where he oversees social and new media programming for the firm’s healthcare and consumer brands. Paul’s experience includes leading social media and search engine strategy for a broad range of significant and Fortune 500 brands. Having built and managed his own web property to acquisition in 2003, Paul is adept at creating top to bottom web campaigns that incorporate SEO, social media, web development, media placements, and interactive assets. Paul’s current and former clients have included Virgin Megastore, IBM, Symantec, Coors Brewing, New Balance, Hansen’s Soda, Macanudo Cigars, Nature Made Vitamins, and Elan Pharmaceuticals. Paul is a frequent speaker on social media and SEO and authors the popular industry blog, Dyer Situations.

Sam Michelson is CEO of RepRelations. Sam’s first foray into Reputation Management came over 5 years ago when dealing with his company’s own reputation management crisis. Realizing there were no tools available to handle Reputation Management crises, he set out to develop a unique PR-based methodology, which is still the basis for the company’s RepRelations service offering. Prior to launching RepRelations, Sam created several online businesses, YouNeverCall (a leading cell phone website) CondominiumCentral (a licensed online luxury condos broker) and Five Blocks (a Search Engine Optimization firm). Sam is the inventor of two US Patents – one in text categorization, the other in interactive advertising. Sam holds a BA in Psychology from Yeshiva University and a Masters of Science in Management from Boston University.

Shana Costarella is Communications Manager, Community & Social Media at PetSmart in Phoenix, Arizona. PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. Shana ushered PetSmart into the strategic use of emerging media for crisis/issue communication, reputation management and brand awareness. She oversees social media community and online reputation approaches for the retailer’s PR and marketing initiatives. In addition, she counsels business units on social media strategies for listening and engagement to achieve key customer service, recruiting, associate relations, loss prevention and philanthropy objectives.  With more than a dozen years experience in marketing communications, Shana has spent the last 10 years honing and employing Web and web-based solutions to illuminate and involve audiences. In 2005, she joined PetSmart’s Corporate Communications department, responsible for developing and managing web-based communications projects for internal and external audiences. Shana holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Ottawa University.

You understand the incredible transformative power of social media in the hands of millions of users. You know that a properly executed strategy can propel your firm well past the competition in the hearts and minds of your consumers. But how do explain all of this to your boss? In this engaging and informative seminar, leading social media practitioner Maggie Fox will share her numerous experiences in getting corporate buy-in at the highest levels, giving you the understanding and ammunition you need to get the Web 2.0 ball rolling within your firm.

Learning Topics:

• Statistics and Usage
• Best Practices/Case Studies/Benefits
• Metrics, Measurements and ROI
• Risks/Risk Management
• Resource Requirements/Planning for Success

Questions that
will be answered:

• The numbers – bosses may not know social media, but they know numbers. We’ll talk about how many people use web 2.0 tools and platforms and provide you with the ammunition you need to provide context and justification for your social media plans.
• Who’s doing what? Using practical facts and case studies we’ll examine emerging best practices and give you examples of how companies have successfully leveraged social media.
• How can you measure the success of a social media program? There are no metrics “formulas”, but we’ll talk about setting benchmarks, measuring engagement and touch on the idea of calculating ROI
• The risks – what are they, and what do you need to be careful of? How can you neutralize them? Do’s and don’ts.
• Resources – using real-world examples, we’ll talk about basic resource requirements and how planning ensures success.
• Open Q&A – bring your questions. There will be an open Q&A session following the formal presentation.

Presented by:

Maggie Fox, founder of Social Media Group, Canada’s first agency devoted exclusively to helping business navigate the world of Web 2.0, is a communications and content expert who has never met a medium she didn’t like. Over the course of her career, she’s marketed, written and produced television content for some of the biggest and best-known brands in North America, including Sears, Deloitte and Disney.

Pioneers in their field, Social Media Group has created and implemented successful Web 2.0 strategies for major firms like Yamaha Motor and Harlequin Publishing, and Maggie often speaks to the press and business groups about the importance and use of social media in the enterprise. Read the Social Media Group blog.

How to Put Fizz In Your Social Media Strategy

Natalie Johnson (@NatalieJohnson), Manager of Digital and Social Media Communications, Coca-Cola

Businesses are rightfully demanding metrics and ROI from social media marketing. How can you pull that rabbit out of the hat?

Sally Falkow APR, is the co-developer of PRESSfeed, the social media newsroom.  A veteran of the PR industry, Sally has translated her extensive experience in marketing, PR and communication to the Internet and her blog, Proactive Report, is a resource for PR professionals who want to learn about digital PR and social media. Her book, Mastering Social Media Strategy: a handbook for PR professionals will be available in May 2011. She is an adjunct professor at the Annenberg School for Communication  and Journalism at USC lecturing in  Social Media Strategy, Content and Tools. Sally is also a Sr. Fellow with the Society for New Communication Research, a new media research think tank based in Palo Alto, CA.

Tony Adam  is currently Director of Online Marketing at MySpace where he heads up all aspects of SEO, Social Media, and Viral Marketing. He is also the Founder and Principal of Visible Factors, an online marketing agency, a Startup Advisor, and Internet Entrepreneur. He speaks at many of the top online marketing conferences and writes a column at Search Engine Land about InHouse SEO.

It all starts with monitoring. Learn how to be all ears. Session from Communitelligence Conference:  S.M.A.S.H. Social Media Advanced Skills Huddle, Los Angeles, 2010

Presented by:

Eric Schwartzman, @EricSchwartzman is an online communications consultant to businesses, the US Military, government agencies and nonprofits. He has extensive experience helping organizations leverage online communication technologies and platforms through the development of social computing policies, media audits, pilot programs and training seminars. Eric is a frequenter speaker at professional conferences and instructor of social media seminars. He has been producing the award-winning podcast “On the Record.Online” (@ontherecord) about how technology is changing the way organizations communicate since 2005.Eric has provided online communciations counsel to Boeing, BYU, City National Bank, Environmental Defense Fund, Government of Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, Southern California Edison, UCLA, US Dept. of State, United States Army, US Embassy of Athens, the United States Marine Corps and many small to medium-sized companies and agencies. He is currently co-authoring a book on business-to-business applications of social media communications with Paul Gillin, to be published by Wiley.

Jason Kintzler is a former anchorman turned pr guy. He is the founder and CEO of PitchEngine, a social PR platform that’s putting an end to the “word doc PR” era. He writes about jumping fences and rethinking the process here on New Media Cowboy.

David Murdico @DavidMurdico is the Executive Creative Director and Managing Partner ofSupercool Creative, a Los Angeles-based digital creative agency specializing in online video creative, production, viral, social media and integrated marketing initiatives for brands including T-Mobile, Pizza Hut, THQ, Atari and IBM.A graduate of The University of Southern California, David is also a contributing writer for media, marketing and advertising publication MediaPost as well as online video and internet marketing publication ReelSEO. David writes from experience, mixing up observations, postulations and humor for topics that include “Online Video and Social Media Marketing Advice for Marketing Executives,” “Online Video Marketing ROI: Five Ways To Make Sure You Won’t See One,” and “Chasing Dragons: The Case for Creating Original Video, Social, Interactive and Integrated Media Campaigns.”David’s background also includes commercial TV spot directing, TV comedy writing and commercial and TV art direction.

Adam Christensen Adam Christensen is responsible for the worldwide social media strategy and execution at IBM. In this role he directs the efforts of the global marketing and communications function in support of IBM’s strategy of enabling and activating IBM’s 400,000 employees as representatives of the brand. IBM has the largest employee population active in social media anywhere in the world.Prior to his current role, Adam held a number of positions within IBM communications and marketing. Before joining IBM, Adam worked at Brodeur Worldwide in New York City leading the firm’s financial services public relations practice. He’s also held related jobs at Novell, Inc. in Provo Utah, and Coltrin & Associates in New York City. Adam can be found on Twitter and his personal blog.

Presentation from Essential Social Media Skills Practicum at Georgia Institute of Technology

Debbie Curtis-Magley is Public Relations Manager, Debbie leads social media strategy, policies, and practices at UPS.

Should you roll your own social network? If yes, how do you build it so they will come, and take action?

Presented by:

Mike Bonifer, writer, director, producer and author of GameChangers. The author of GameChangers – Improvisation for Business in the Networked World, and the co-founder of GameChangers, LLC, Mike Bonifer has consistently been in the forefront of emergent media in the workplace.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Business and Philosophy, he has been a writer, director, producer and creative executive in entertainment and the internet for most of his career.

Beginning with his work as the publicist for the motion picture TRON, and his association with Toy Story, through a stint as the Chief Storyteller for 2007’s Live Earth concerts for the environment, his work at the edges of emerging business cultures has given him tremendous insight into the creation of wealth in the Networked World.

Past and present clients include The Walt Disney Company, JohnsonDiversey, DreamWorks, Frito-Lay, Mountain Dew, Hot Topic, Smithsonian Online, and a host of smaller, innovative new media companies like Pandora, ignition, Twelve Horses and myPractice.

In creating GameChangers, he has produced a curriculum that helps organizations and individuals communicate, learn and transform.

Wendy Cohen, Director, Digital Campaigns & Community, Participant Media. Wendy led the social action campaign for Waiting for Superman.

Wendy Cohen joined Participant in November of 2007 as the Manager of Community and Alliances and the founding editor of the TakePart.com blog.  Wendy has developed innovative online and mobile initiatives for Charlie Wilson’s War, The Visitor, Food, Inc. and The Cove. She shepherded the digital component of the social action campaign for Waiting for “Superman”

Wendy was born and raised in Montreal and graduated first in her class from Concordia University’s Communications and Culture Studies program.  Prior to Participant, Wendy was the first Community Manager for The Huffington Post in New York City and she co-founded the Screening Liberally film series, of which she remains the National Director. A native of Montreal, Wendy began her work in film in 2004 as the Programmer and Outreach Coordinator for the Media That Matters Film Festival and Media That Matters: Good Food project.. She also worked as the researcher and creative assistant on The Art of the Documentary (New Riders Press) and served as co-chair on the Urban Pathways Young Professional Board. She has been the co-curator of the Netroots Nation screening series since 2007 and continues to be a guest lecturer and panelist at festivals and schools around the country. In 2009, Wendy produced “Every Third Bite”, an award-winning short documentary about bees hailed as a “better bee movie” by New York Magazine. Wendy is a recipient of the 2010 New Leaders Council’s 40 Under 40 Leadership Award.

Social media poses some important new challenges for the internal communicator. On the one hand, the influx of new communications platforms has the potential of transforming how organizations work and communicate. On the other hand, as conversation channels expand and are available to everyone in an organization, how do you keep key messages from being diluted, and the corporate culture intact? Bottom line, what should the role of internal communications be in the age of social media? This panel continues the opening keynote discussion started at the Communitelligence Employee Engagement, HR & Social Media 2010 Conference in Chicago. Join this critical conversation and make sure you and your program stay relevant in this new age of internal communications.

Learning Topics:

• Key steps to ensure you and your department remain relevant and have the right impact.
• The role you should be playing: what is new and what remains the same
• Why clarity of message has become more critical with the decentralization of communication.
• What key skills communicators have that are the best antidote to obsolescence
• What are the best antidotes to obsolescence?

• “Excellent session! Worth the time investment!”
• Excellent high-level view”
• “I learned how important it is to know your intenal audience.”
• “The Avoiding Extinction piece by Cathi Killian was great.”
• “The greatest single benefit was learning about specific tools that were being using by other companies such as Yammer for “employee jams” and thinking like an intern by hiring a teenager.”

Presented by:

Gary F. Grates is President/Global Managing Director of Edelman Change and Employee Engagement, the organizational communications counseling practice of Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations/communications counseling firm and the third largest overall. He has more than 25 years of corporate, marketing/brand, labor, and strategic communications experience with a particular expertise in change management/employee (internal) communications.  Grates has counseled more than one hundred organizations including PepsiCo, Starbucks,  Guardian, General Motors, Volvo, Nissan, Caterpillar, Shell, Visa International, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart,  British Airways,  ITT, GE Healthcare, eBay, and Dell, to name a few. Prior to joining Edelman, he served as Vice President-Corporate Communications/North America at the General Motors Corporation. In this role, Grates was responsible for brand, product, media, internal, financial and public policy communications for GM’s North America Region, the largest in the company.  He was also the global process leader for internal communications reporting to Chairman/CEO, G. Richard Wagoner, and a member of General Motors’ North American Strategy Board, the senior most governing body in North America.  In addition, he was on the teaching staff at General Motors University (GMU) and selected to join the company’s exclusive Senior Executive Program – a leadership development program. 

Jill Feldon LaNouette is vice president of Internal Communications in the Public Affairs Department at Cardinal Health. In this capacity, she counsels senior executives in effective communication strategies and leads her team in developing and implementing communication plans and programs to support the company’s objectives. She also is responsible for crisis communications and issues management. Ms. LaNouette joined Cardinal Health in 2003 as director of Organizational Communication where she provided communication support on several major change initiatives and brand-building projects. In her 30 years of helping organizations effectively communicate with different constituencies, Ms. LaNouette has received numerous awards for marketing and communications from various organizations including the Gold Quill from the International Association of Business Communications and the Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America. She has worked with companies from healthcare to Hollywood, including Victoria’s Secret, The Procter & Gamble Company, Kaiser Permanente, Lucasfilm Ltd., and public radio. Also Jill is a free-lance writer and consultant, has been published in several publications, and worked as a sports reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cathi Killian is Vice President, Internal Communications at Walt Disney Company. In her role leading internal communications and corporate responsibility, Cathi is responsible for enhancing the reputation of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts through strategies driven by excellence in internal communications, stakeholder engagement and community outreach. She develops the strategic plan for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts internal communications, which leverages communication to reinforce our values and brand and foster the visibility of executive leadership. She works with the internal communications teams at each business unit in taking an integrated approach to delivering relevant information to inform, motivate and engage Cast Members, Crew Members and Imagineers. Additionally, she leads our efforts focused on issues management and stakeholder engagement to identify issues, track trends and understand the impacts to our business, while developing allies that support our goals.

How do communicators speak truth to power?

Top down, bottom up, lateral and inside-out communication have all been around forever.  But the arrival of social technologies is dramatically changing the way people communicate with each other, their friends and their colleagues both inside and outside the corporate walls.

Is it already out-of-control?  Or are their powerful ways to support and channel this “social communication” so that it builds positive synergy around your brand, focuses organizational activity, and reduces friction in the path of change and performance.

This webinar explores this brave new world of social communication and takes a hard look not only at the tools–but at strategies and stories of how this works in reality. Our three experts will address the topic from the vantage point of

• “stakeholder re-engagement” (mutual recognition of changed business climate and required new ways of working)
• “brand advocacy” (the essential steps to identifying internal advocates, develop guidelines and training, and how to create an integrated communications strategy that gives your employees a reason to live and socialize your brand)
• Technology (moving from facilitating and growing relationships likeTwitter to fundamentally changing tone and content of internal dialogue)

What You Will Learn:

• How to identify your organization’s key social communicators and how to best engage them
• Starting a pilot, nurturing it, and making the case for broader implementation
• Encouraging and managing participation
• Identifying what if any extra technologies to use
• Processes for keeping your organization’s values and messages present
• Figuring out the metrics

Who Should Attend

This webinar is primarily aimed at those in the early stages of implementing or learning about social media, although it will also help more advanced practioners to focus their efforts. It is especially suitable for:

• Small and mid-sized business leaders
• Corporate executives who are new to social media

Mike Klein–The Intersection/CommScrum is a Brussels-based strategic communications pro specializing in social, network and tribal communication in organizations and in the public sphere.  An MBA graduate of London Business School,  Mike is a partner in Commscrum, a blog for alternative voices in the internal and business communications world.  Mike was a political campaign manager for state and local candidates and initiatives in the United States from 1987-1996, and has worked for Shell, Cargill, easyJet Airlines, the US Department of Transportation and Smythe Dorward Lambert in ten years as an internal communicator.

Elizabeth Lupfer is Senior Manager, Web Technologies and Interactive Media, at Verizon, where she drives the employee experience of the corporate intranet. Elizabeth is a member of Verizon’s Social Media Council, and advocates the use of social media within internal and external communication channels to drive employee engagement — recently working with colleagues to launch the pilot of Verizon’s Social Media Ambassador program. Prior to Verizon, Elizabeth worked in Corporate Employee Communications for AOL, where she honed her passion for leveraging web technologies to support integrated communications efforts. Elizabeth also authors strategies to drive engagement, collaboration and productivity through the judicious use of social media tools through her blog,The Social Workplace.

Georg Kolb is Business Director at communication software firm straightto. Prior to straightto, his roles included social media director and key accounter at Ketchum Pleon Germany, chief of innovation at Text 100 Global PR in New York, and Managing Consultant for the same firm’s German business. Georg was a lecturer for international PR at the Munich University and for PR on the Internet at the Bavarian Academy for Advertising and Marketing. He is also a regular speaker on the future of communications and blogs on his Corporate Communications Compass.

If employees weren’t getting fired for what they are saying and doing on social media channels, your organization might simply pass on writing a social media policy, and this webinar. But they are, and a sound social media policy is a company’s first line of defense against risk in social media marketing. Which means you must embark on the delicate balancing act that is required to write or evolve your organization’s social media policy. If you policy is too complex or restrictive, you will scare employees and diminsh the significant business value that social media offers. And if you’re policy is too lax, or nonexistent, some of your employees may wind up as another social media horror story, fired for doing something they shouldn’t have. In this important webinar, our expert panel will share their experiences and advice on writing and enforcing a social media policy that does more good than harm. Attend and put your process ahead of policy.

“Gave me a lot to think about and actionable items for my organization.”

Learning Topics:

• Why your organization needs a social media policy
• What’s the best process to assure your policy is positive?
• What are the must-have elements of a social media policy?
• Do you need one policy, or many?
• What departments should be involved in policy creation and enforcement?
• What are some excellent policy writing resources you should review?

Presented by:

Chris Boudreaux is SVP of Management Consulting for Converseon. He created SocialMediaGovernance.com to provide tools and resources for leaders and managers who want to get the most from their social media and social application investments. Chris leads teams of business and technology professionals to improve their Marketing, Sales and Customer Service capabilities, from strategy through execution. In the past, he led product development and business transformation initiatives at Fortune 100 companies and online start-ups, and I am a former Naval Officer.

Jennifer Cisney, Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager, has been with Eastman Kodak for eleven years, resulting a broad knowledge of the various businesses and in depth experience with the corporate website, kodak.com. Her contributions to Kodak’s online experience have been inspirational photography, design expertise and creative content. She helped create and now manages the corporate blogs. After launching Kodak’s social media initiatives, she oversees Kodak’s presence on social media sites Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.

Laurie Buczek is Platform Vision Team Manager & Social Media Strategistwithin Intel Corporation’s Digital Marketing organization.  Prior to joining Digital Marketing, Laurie spent over two years as the Social Computing Program Manager where she was responsible for the major enterprise wide strategy & implementation of social computing for employees to connect & collaborate internally. Laurie began her social media journey three years ago while blazing a new trail for online marketing efforts by helping to launch & manage the first external social media community for Intel.  Laurie’s work has been published and showcased across the industry.  She is also a member of the 2.0 Adoption Council and Social Media Business Council. In addition to the experience within the social media space, Laurie has almost 18 years in high technology working in marketing, consulting and sales. In her life before Intel, Laurie worked for Forrester Research and Gateway, Inc.

Because they have access to the tools that personally connect them to their friends, family and peers, employees are jeopardizing their organization’s brand stature, reputation and competitive edge, often without realizing it. Without thinking, employees are sharing candid and damaging thoughts and updates — intentionally and unintentionally – that possess an uncanny ability to surface when least expected and be discovered by people who were never supposed to see them in the first place. And, perhaps accidentally, employees are sharing company secrets and information that should never see the light of day, and are doing so simply because they aren’t aware of the reach and power they have on the social web. This CD is aimed at helping corporate communication, marketing and PR professionals understand and lead their organization’s into the new world of online engagement, where the most operative rule may be simply: Don’t be stupid.

“I have attended a few “freebie” classes from other services, but found yours to be much more informative on the action side.  Giving real life, no kidding ideas on how to do things.”

“Very informative and worthwhile. The speaker was articulate and knowledgeable and made me think.”

What You Will Learn:

• What are the absolute rules of engagement that all your employees should know
• Social media horror stories and some policies to avoid them
• Building marketing and service teams around social media programs
• Top 10 guidelines for social media participation
• Teaching employees to talk: it’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it
• Who answers what … the best processes to manage brand conversations
• New roles and responsibilities in the era of emerging media
• How to guide the rise and evolution of social media in your organization

Presented by:

Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. BrianSolis.com is ranked among the top of world’s leading business and marketing online resources.

Brian’s newest book is Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web.

Solis along with co-author Deirdre Breakenridge released Putting the Public back in Public Relations in 2009. Published by Financial Times Press, the book has become a best seller and is highly regarded a must read by anyone in marketing, communications, and also journalism.

In concert with Geoff Livingston, Solis released Now is Gone in 2007, an early, award-winning book that helps businesses learn how to engage in Social Media. He has also written several ebooks on the subjects of Social Media, New PR, Customer Service, and Blogger Relations.

Social media is a two-edged sword. We tend to only talk about the positive side — how social channels creatively deployed can greatly expand your organization’s marketing reach. Not much attention is paid to the dark, destructive side of social media — how a single customer complaint ignite a firestorm sweeping the Web and causing the most hardened organizations to panic. What to do? What to say?

This webinar explains the dynamics of customer activism in today’s democratized media world. It offers practical, actionable avoidance and response strategies for business executives and professional communicators. It also outlines processes to building an attack-proof culture that centers on customer satisfaction.

The good news is that bad buzz can be countered by earnest and savvy customer engagement. You can actually turn the angriest customers into raving fans.

“Great information that I can share with others who handle social media. Very informative and loved hearing the case studies.”

What You Will Learn:

• Why common business responses to customer complaints often make matters worse;
• Why complaining customers can be some of an organization’s most valuable assets;
• How vocal critics can be turned into raving fans with an active response strategy;
• How to manage and respond to comments on customer review sites;
• Customer support strategies for Facebook and Twitter;
• How to organize a team to identify and respond to attacks in minutes; and
• How to create a culture that puts customers first.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is designed for everyone who would like to help their organizations react to any online crisis that might erupt. It is especially suitable for:

• Brand managers, marketers, PR pros, social media managers, communications department staffers, public affairs, security, employee communications, media relations and issues management professionals.

Presented by:

Paul Gillin is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is a popular speaker who is known for his ability to simplify complex concepts using plain talk, anecdotes and humor.

Paul is a prolific writer who has written five books and more than 200 published articles since 2007, in addition to two blogs. His award-winning 2007 book, The New Influencers, chronicled the changes in markets being driven by the new breed of bloggers and podcasters. His most recent book is Attack of the Customers. It documents the increasing incidence of online customer negativity and  tells of businesses can avoid being victimized.

There’s a new social media world order and its tentacles are reaching inside organizations.
Employees expect to connect and have conversations with coworkers as easily as they do with old high school chums on Facebook. Meanwhile, corporate communication, HR, IT and leadership are struggling with how to unleash social tools in a way that amps up communication, collaboration and employee engagement.

Dan Pontefract, head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS, believes strongly that traditional management styles are obsolete and that organizations need to adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach, one that engages and empowers all employees. This inevitably means social software.

In this webinar, you will learn from someone who’s paving a trail through this new terrain. Pontefract, author of the new book, Flat Army, will give us a tour of the TELUS intranet and tell how he has driven a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS communicates, collaborates and learns.

What You Will Learn:

• The importance of social tools to an organization’s culture, leadership programs and learning model
• How leaders can provide context, content and a vehicle for conversation through social tools
• Specific examples of social tools in leadership action

Who Should Attend

Social business is a team sport. Business leaders from many disciplines have a role to play and should attend this webinar, preferably as a group:

• internal communications, HR , learning, marketing, corporate communications, public relations, customer service, legal and media relations.

Presented by:

Dan Pontefract is a passionate leader in social business, Enterprise 2.0, learning, leadership and collaboration. He is author of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization.

As head of Learning & Collaboration atTELUS, Dan championed the introduction of the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP), an open and collaborative-based leadership framework for all 40,000+ TELUS team members. He further championed the use and deployment of collaborative technologies to complement both the learning and leadership frameworks. In 2010, Pontefract was acknowledged as a Vanguard Award winner and is a two-time winner of the Corporate University “Best in Class Awards” for the Leader of the Year. In 2012, SkillSoft awarded him the “Learning Leader of the Year” for his work at TELUS. Pontefract holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Bachelor’s of Education, and multiple industry certifications and accreditations. His first book, Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization publishes in March, 2013.

As Twitter takes off as a branding tool there is an overriding sense of uncertainty. What is the set of tools (video, text, photo, audio, search, clients, etc.) that comprise microsharing? What does it do? What can we use it for? How do we reach our audience here? How is this different? How can we measure success? How do we govern it? What works? 

Smart businesses understand how best to approach the microsharing opportunity. In this webinar, we’ll learn and develop standards of excellence, authenticity and engagement that will work for your organization.

Testimonial: “At first I thumbed my nose because Twitter struck me as a mile wide and an inch deep; but Pistachio knew her stuff and quickly engaged me with relevant material.”

What You Will Learn:

• Understand the territory and shortcut your learning curve
• Innovate productive, valuable, profitable uses of microsharing
• Save time and money
• Avoid damaging mistakes
• Be engaging, genuine and use the medium to its fullest
• (and… have fun doing it!)

What You Will Learn:

• Understand the territory and shortcut your learning curve
• Innovate productive, valuable, profitable uses of microsharing
• Save time and money
• Avoid damaging mistakes
• Be engaging, genuine and use the medium to its fullest
• (and… have fun doing it!)

Questions Answered:

• Landscape for business use of Twitter and microsharing generally
• How to think about brand opportunities in microsharing
• What’s on the horizon? What trends should we watch for next

Who Should Purchase

Brands …engage more deeply with their consumers and markets in strategic and powerful ways that microsharing makes possible.

Individuals …build your network, access better professional relationships, faster knowledge-sharing and leveraged problem-solving. Microsharing is particularly valuable for Executives, sales and marketing professionals, consultants, freelancers and celebrities.

Anyone … develop dynamic and engaging “behind the scenes” personalities, content, sneak-previews and other genuinely engaging “teaser” content during the normal process of producing your product.

Presented by:

Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton is one of the first prominent “microbloggers,” with roughly 6,500 readers on Twitter. An early beta tester of Seesmic and Qik, she connects people to new ideas and innovations using all the tools of microsharing.

Her innovative use of social media has also gotten the attention of the top minds in technology, as profiled by Naked Conversations author Shel Israel for his Global Survey. Laura has also been quoted in The New York Times Magazine, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The LA Times, Newsweek.com, Inc.com, CIO Magazine, CNET, ZDNet and many other magazines, publications, web shows and blogs. She speaks at technology conferences, private industry and guest lectures at Bentley College.

Laura is a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University’s eclectic College Scholar program. In “past lives” she studied science writing with Carl Sagan, rock climbed, sailed on a schooner, raised a niece, ran a hobby farm, traveled and lived abroad.

Today she lives in Boston with two toddler daughters and a giant Leonberger. She practices Ashtanga yoga and plays ice hockey in her “spare” time, and is a stroke survivor dedicated to raising awareness.

Do you know where your social media payoffs are? Unfortunately, most organizations don’t.

Now that we’ve done a few years of toe-dipping and experimentation it’s time to treat social media like any other PR or marketing activity.  Do the research, find the audience, figure out what their needs and wants are, what they’re interested in, what they want to hear, what’s motivating them, what they share.

In this unique and insightful webinar, you’ll learn simple and straightforward ways to monitor and mine social media intelligence to get you to your business goals. This session introduces the most popular social media intelligence tools and and offers step-by-step advice on how to put them to work.  Data mining is the way to hit the jackpot.

What You Will Learn:

• Find the right conversations to listen to
• Dig into the data in those conversations and find insights
• Discover the communities and groups that talk about you
• Figure out your share of voice in a particular conversation
• Decide where to spend your time and resources
• Evaluate opportunities and threats

Who Should Purchase

This webinar is primarily aimed at those in the early stages of implementing or learning about social media, although it will also help more advanced practioners to focus their efforts. It is especially suitable for:

• Small and mid-sized business leaders
• Corporate executives who are new to social media

Presented by:

Sally Falkow is the co-developer of PRESSfeed, the social media newsroom.  A veteran of the PR industry, Sally has translated her extensive experience in marketing, PR and communication to the Internet and her blog, Proactive Report, is a resource for PR professionals who want to learn about digital PR and social media. Her book, Mastering Social Media Strategy: a handbook for PR professionals will be available in May 2011. She is an adjunct professor at the Annenberg School for Communication  and Journalism at USC lecturing in  Social Media Strategy, Content and Tools. Sally is also a Sr. Fellow with the Society for New Communication Research, a new media research think tank based in Palo Alto, CA.

How to wrap a blog into your overall content and communications strategy

Corporate blogging means the use of company-sponsored blogs as a way to connect with internal and external audiences. Interactive, instant, efficient, often revelatory, corporate blogs are no longer optional.  With the total number of blogs surpassing 55 million, we’ve entered the era of Corporate Blogging 2.0. You need to know now how can you can use this new communications channel. Organizations as various as Dell, General Motors and McDonald’s are using blogs to spread their message, learn from stakeholders and create a body of knowledge encapsulated in a digital trail.

What You Will Learn:

• Who should write your blog and what the topic should be
• Case studies on what works – and what doesn’t in a corporate blog
• Blogging guidelines and other nuts & bolts of managing an internal or external corporate blog
• How to measure results
• How to assess whether your organization is blog-ready

Presented by:
Debbie Weil is a corporate and CEO blogging consultant and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Penguin Portfolio 2006). She also writes BlogWriteForCEOs, considered one of the most influential blogs about business blogging.

As a consultant, she shows the big dogs how to use blogs as a next-generation marketing and communications strategy. She invites you to download Chapter 1 of her new book for a meaty introduction to the topic of CEO and corporate blogging.

Debbie has a unique background as a veteran journalist with an MBA and corporate marketing experience. She has worked as an Internet marketing consultant with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies (including HP and Wells Fargo) for over a decade.

She’s the publisher of award-winning WordBiz Report, an e-newsletter read by nearly 20,000 subscribers in 87 countries.

She has been quoted on the topic of corporate and CEO blogging in Fortune, the New York Times, BusinessWeek.com, the Washington Post and numerous other publications.

A graduate of Harvard with a degree in English, she has an MBA from Georgetown University and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin. She is based in Washington DC.

http://www.debbieweil.com
http://www.BlogWriteForCEOs.com
http://www.TheCorporateBloggingBook.com