Sometimes it’s good to step back and have someone help you re-think your strategy. 

That’s why we asked Christopher Barger, author of the new book, Social Media Strategist, to peel back the social media strategy onion. He has labored in the social media trenches at two big corporations (IBM and GM). He knows the potholes to avoid and the things you can’t skip over.

In this special webinar he will be sharing the critical questions, decisions and maneuvers you must choreograph to bring true business value to your social media efforts.

Don’t miss this no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase learning event, and if possible, attend with your entire team.

What You Will Learn:

• Who should own social media
• What internal potholes keep most social media efforts from truly taking off
• What departments and roles are critical to create a social marketing power team
• What are are the seven elements to a winning social media program for corporations and organizations
• Why organizations need to become content publishers to succeed in social media, and what that means
• How can a big company work effectively with bloggers to get social media results
• How to build a fire-proof social media crisis team and process
• How to create well-defined metrics and use the right tools to measure them

Presented by:

Christopher Barger is senior vice president of global programs at Voce Connect. He works with clients around the world to develop and execute social media strategies. Before joining Voce, he built and led GM’s social media program from 2007-2011 where he learned not only about how to build a corporate social program but about managing crises online. Before GM, he was IBM’s first “Blogger-in-Chief” for two years. His book, “The Social Media Strategist,” (McGraw-Hill, fall 2011) focuses on the unique challenges of building a social media program at a large brand or organization. Barger writes “The Social Media Report” for Forbes.com, where he covers the challenges companies are facing as they navigate the social web, trends and emerging technologies as they affect businesses and big brands, and how implementing social web tactics as part of your overall strategy can supplement and enhance your communications and marketing efforts.

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.

Internal Social Networks are starting to appear inside some organizations. Early adopters are finding positive business results by helping employees connect through “internal Facebooks.” By effectively harnessing these new networks, organizations are seeing positive impacts on internal brand building, as well as employee engagement, satisfaction and motivation — which leads to higher levels of productivity, revenue, and profit.

But the world of the internal social network is the opposite of command & control. That said, reasonable guidelines, a group of informal influencers, and a posse of community managers who help keep the dialog lively and the network on track.

It’s clear that no matter where your company is on the social media ladder, social networks and Web 2.0 skills are becoming a part of today’s work landscape. All businesses need to be aware of how to deploy networks for higher ROI, collaboration, innovation and customer service.

Listen to this webinar replay to learn what works and what doesn’t in this brave new world of internal social networks from companies that are already figuring out the path to success.

What You Will Learn:

• How to avoid pitfalls and leverage opportunities as you venture into the world of building and managing social networks and a Web 2.0 savvy workforce
• How best to overcome cultural barriers and introduce social networks into traditional organizations
• How to handle the sensitives of employee privacy; governing participants’ behavior; and ensuring that participants balance professional and social time.
• How to set up strategic, internal alliances which mitigate concerns of Command & Control leaders and help build positive momentum

Reasons to Learn About Internal Social Networks

• Get more out of your existing resources by finding, unlocking, and engaging hidden employee intellectual capital Reduce company cost, waste, travel expenditures, and carbon footprint
• Establish, grow and maximize a culture savvy with social networks.
• Further your PR and Branding dollars by unleashing the silent experts that exist within your companies today
• Enhance your employees’ motivation and satisfaction in your company as a place to work
• Develop products and offerings faster, without regard to organizational silo or organization
• Build a more sustainable company which should well serve your shareholders for years to come

Lee Aase is manager of Syndications and Social Media for Mayo Clinic. His team’s focus is developing quality medical news resources for mainstream media, and using social media applications to create more in-depth, extended relationships directly with key stakeholders. You can see examples of Mayo Clinic’s social media offerings through the Mayo Clinic News Blog at http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/

By night, Lee is Chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG), a free online higher education institution that provides practical, hands-on training in social media for lifelong learners. Visit SMUG.

Prior to joining Mayo Clinic in 2000, Lee spent more than a decade in political and government communications at the local, state and federal level. He received his B.S. in Political Science from Mankato (Minn.) State University in 1986.

Polly Pearson is VP Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement, EMC Corporation.

Polly Pearson is an employment branding leader passionate about Web 2.0 engagement tools with nearly twenty years of FORTUNE 500-level experience spanning marketing, human resources, branding, investor relations, public relations, advertising, and professional speaking.

Her employment branding work has recently been featured in media outlets such as CBS News, National Public Radio, Financial Times, Boston Herald, Dice.com and in the new Penguin Press business book, “Closing the Engagement Gap; How Great Companies Unlock Employee Potential For Superior Results.”

Her leadership in Investor Relations contributed to EMC being the NYSE Stock of the Decade for the 1990s, when it outperformed all other listed stock and increased in value nearly 90,000 percent.  Polly was the first woman at EMC to be promoted to Vice President. Polly writes a popular blog dedicated to careers, culture and cool.

Paul Pedrazzi heads a small team of professionals (AppsLab) focused on emerging technology and novel business practices. Most recently, his interest has been on Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and the transformation of the enterprise in light of these new modes of operation. Additionally, Mr. Pedrazzi spearheaded the creation of Oracle’s first two social network projects; Connect for internal users and Mix for customers, partners and media. Before heading AppsLab he ran product strategy for PeopleSoft’s Portal Product Suite, catapulting the flagship product into the leadership position in Gartner’s annual product evaluation. Prior to PeopleSoft, Mr. Pedrazzi held various other product strategy, marketing and consulting roles in organizations such as Deloitte & Touche LLP and Groundswell, Inc. Mr. Pedrazzi holds a BS in Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Who Should Purchase:

• Individuals responsible for employee communications, public relations, IT, corporate affairs, human resources, media relations, and issues management.

“The two case studies were excellent. Polly was a wonderful presenter; Paul was good too.”

“We’re in the process of developing a number of employee engagement communities so very timely.”

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

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.

Simplify Your Social Media Strategies and Relations (and now….Breathe)

Q: What if you had five simple principles you could apply to all your social media initiatives instead of chasing after all those “best practices” and the coolest, newest tools, and then trying to mash them up to meet your specific situation?

A: You could confidently face your social media planning, campaigns or learning without panic, feeling overwhelmed or behind the curve.

Linda will simplify your life and arm you with just five principles that you can apply as “universal truths” in implementing social media. These five principles can act as your “check list” and be your guide whether you are trying to learn about social media, are embarking on engaging in social media relations or are building out a social media strategy. We aren’t saying you won’t have work to do afterwards, but it will be clearer what social media work is the right work.

If you ever asked yourself “how to I get started in social media?” “what social media tools should we be using?” “how do I keep up on it all?” or “how do I stop all the social media noise in my head?” purchase this webinar replay and start simplifying your life – really.

Replay 

What You Will Learn:

• The difference between social media “best practices” and “best principles.”
• Why relying on best principles is better than continually searching for best practices.
• The five principles anyone can apply to be effective in doing social media relations, creating a social media strategy or learning about social media
• What is truly necessary to focus on to be successful in social media.
• Learn about at least ten resources that will simplify your social media life or learning.
• How to decide on the best social media tools to use.
• How to bring your newsroom into the social media century.
• At least one way to convince your boss on the value of using social media.
• Why you need a Creative Commons copyright license.
• How to limit the “social media” noise that can confuse you and your efforts and help you stay focused on what’s really important.

Presented by:

Linda Zimmer is a digital media consultant and modern marketing strategist, serving an international clientele. She specializes in assisting organizations in benefiting from, managing and innovating with new media for marketing, communications and internal and external collaboration.

Linda is CEO of Marcom:Interactive, sits on the Advisory Board of Web Wise Kids, and is a consulting council analyst for the Gerson Lehrman Group. She is founder of the Modern Media Institute, a professional development institute for new media practices (launching September 2008) and she regularly trains public agencies for the State of California. She currently is an advisory board member for the Extension University at California State University, Fullerton on developing Web 2.0 curriculum.

Ms. Zimmer has more than 25 years of experience in applying emerging media to organizational issues. During her career she has provided digital services to many of the Fortune 100/500 companies and Internet startups; the FDA, U.S. Forestry Services, and U.S. cities and counties; non-profits of all sizes; colleges and universities, and entertainment properties. Linda serves as a resource to the news media and she publishes extensively on the Web. (http://freshtakes.typepad.com)

There’s no shortage of theory, hyperbole and pure BS (or baloney, or hot air) about social media marketing. Learn what social media’s challenges and opportunities really are – in plain English – via case studies from three experts who are in the trenches with household name corporations.

Heads up … this is not another web conference about social media tools such as blogs, vlogs, podcasts, social networks and microsharing. The technology is important, of course, but not nearly as crucial as the need to understand how to engage in instant, two-way conversations stripped of safe corporate-speak or spin. Grasping that reality and executing it is the sweet spot of social media, and that’s where this webinar is focused. Learn by successful examples and studies of major brands who have pioneered in the space.

What You Will Learn:

• What your audience expects from your social media efforts
• What resistance you’ll meet from inside your own organization — and how to overcome it
• Top 6 reasons your company should not blog
• Top 5 reasons you should have a blog
• Why most corporate social networks fail
• How smart companies are using social networks now and how you can too
• The way to get your company banned from a social network
• Which social networks matter and which ones don’t

Who Should Attend

This webinar is primarily aimed at individuals responsible for corporate communications, public relations, corporate affairs, human resources, employee communications, media relations, and issues management. It will help 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:

Christopher Barger is Director, Global Communications Technology. In this role, he leads the social media (blogging, podcasting, user-generated content, wikis, social networking, etc.) efforts for General Motors – both in developing the company’s own content and building relationships with influential voices outside the company. Barger is a communications professional with nearly 10 years experience at Fortune 20 companies. He is a seasoned media spokesperson, communications strategist, and public speaker. Barger’s specialties are “Social Media”/Web 2.0, social networking and media; public speaking.

B.L. Ochman helps companies integrate social media tools and blog advertising into their communications to engage their audience and increase their sales. She is an Internet marketing strategist to Fortune 500 companies including IBM, McGraw-Hill, American Greetings, Ford Motors, Simon & Schuster, Cendant, Kaneka Corporation and others. She is internationally respected blogger whose blog about Internet marketing, What’s Next Blog, is rated in the top 50 in the world by Ad Age Power 150, where she also is Number One among women business bloggers. She heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. Her articles and case studies about Internet marketing trends appear in MarketingProfs, MediaPost, Businessweek Online, and several other publications. Before turning her talent to the Internet in 1995, Ochman ran an award-winning New York PR firm that she grew to one of the 100 largest independent PR firms in the US, with clients including Stew Leonard’s, Miracle-Gro Plant Food, The American Dairy Association, Kaneka Corporation and many more.

Mike Prosceno runs “new” media relations at SAP. He is also a social media evangelist inside the company promoting both the internal use of social media for productivity gains as well as its use externally for reputation enhancement. Having been in corporate or marketing communications for 18 years he has held a variety of management and non-management positions in the IT, manufacturing and financial-services industries.

Attendee comments:

• “BL definitely added value for my particular perspective on what I am trying to accomplish.

• “Great overview by Ms. Ochman. Good, practical experience from GM.”

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.

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.

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 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?

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

What’s the bottom line on gamification, that strange new word creeping into business conversations? Cha-ching … plenty. 

Companies on the front of this new wave of social are seeing unprecedented engagement and stronger business outcomes in areas such as employee communications, HR benefits, training, sales, health and wellness and call centers.  According to Gartner, more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application by 2014, and more  than 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes by 2015.

In this special webinar, three experienced gamification pros will describe why, where and how game mechanics works in the workplace, and how to play some serious games in your organization. 

They will present gaming case studies from organizations such as Michelin, Yahoo! and Fugifilm, and offer practical advice on helping your organization exploit the competitive advantages of blending work and games. Join us for an educational and fun and session.

What You Will Learn:

• Why gamification works (psychology)
• Where game mechanics are being used in the workplace 
• How different game types resonate with different employee segments
• What processes can be gamified?
• Best practices and examples
• How to get some gamification started in your organization 

Presented by:

Omar Divina is responsible for leading Badgeville’s sales and business development efforts out of our New York office. Over the course of his 15-plus-year career,Omar has held a variety of senior positions in sales, business development and operations, with the past four years focused on growing SaaS companies. Prior to joining Badgeville, Omar was at enterprise social collaboration leader Socialtext, where he established critical footholds in media/entertainment, publishing, advertising, financial and professional services sectors, among others. As vice president of client services for SunGard Trading Systems/BRASS, he managed a team responsible for driving the adoption and increased usage of high-speed trade order management and execution platforms. Omar has a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

In medical school, Rajiv Kumar M.D. realized that many of the worst health problems we face as a nation–diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, osteoarthritis, depression–are related to our collective unhealthy lifestyle. He also learned through his clinical encounters that the patients who succeeded in adopting and sustaining healthy behaviors were those who leveraged their trusted social network for support, motivation, and accountability. By launching a community non-profit organization (Shape Up Rhode Island) and a for-profit company (ShapeUp), Kumar has dedicated his life to helping people reverse and prevent obesity-related illnesses through group behavior change models. Gamification is playing an important role in ShapeUp’s goal is to build the largest online social application that connects people around the world to improve their health.

Vlad Gyster is the Cofounder and CEO of H Engage, a SaaS platform that uses social, gaming, and mobile technologies to make HR programs more engaging and measurable. Vlad has spent his career introducing concepts from the consumer world to HR. Prior to starting H Engage, Vlad spent five years with Towers Watson where he cofounded and led the social media practice, helped Fortune 1000 companies such as 3M and American Express adopt emerging technologies, and partnered with MasterCard to develop prepaid products related to wellness and health care reform.

Who Should Attend:

•  This webinar is specially geared for internal communicators, PR, marketing, HR, learning and development, innovation, and customer service professionals.

Attendee testimonial: “I liked that the three presenters gave overviews of their produces and how they were being applied (case studies). That’s a good way to go from the conceptual to the practical with a relatively uninformed audience… like me.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

PR & Marketing Is Changing – Are You? Online PR provides the means to reach target audiences directly, with or without participation of the news media. Internet marketers have been doing that for years, but public relations professionals have been slow to get on board. No PR professional can afford to ignore online PR or outsource it to specialists; it is an essential part of the skill set all PR professionals must have. It’s as fundamental as writing, pitching and building relationships.

So, what must you know to thrive in this ever-changing online environment? If you’re like most public relations pros, you need a broader knowledgebase, greater online skills – and perhaps, a new mindset. PR pros are doing a better job with social media than keyword research and SEO, which much change. To define online PR simply as social media is short-sighted and will lead PR pros astray. This jam-packed webinar will give you a critical understanding of the basic online PR skills you need to master fast, for the sake of your clients, employers and your career.

Learning Topics:

• When SEO meets PR: how to write effectively for sites, releases, articles and newsletters
• When PR meets social media: which sites, what to monitor, and how do you know it’s working?
• How keyword research for Online PR differs from online advertising
• Online PR best practices for your website

• Optimizing online press releases—what’s most effective now

What You Will Learn:

• 4 results-driven SEO techniques for online PR
• A 10-minute keyword research method that always yields insights
• The right and wrong role websites play with Online PR
• 3 proven ways to write copy for both humans and search engines
• Traditional vs. online releases: the real data may surprise you
• An overlooked yet powerful method to gain consistent web site traffic
• The Online PR Social Media blueprint: it’s not what you think
• Buzz and reputation monitoring: recommended tools and tactics.

Presented by:

  Jim Bowman has broad experience in all functional areas of public relations and corporate communications, with an emphasis on media relations. As Vice President of Corporate Communications for Nokia Inc., he was part of the global team that established Nokia as one of the world’s top 10 brands. Jim’s strategies and creative thinking have helped build the brands and images of some of the world’s most respected companies and get small companies known. As owner and President of J. R. Bowman and Associates, LLC, Jim now concentrates on serving small-to-medium-size businesses. Jim’s ability to diagnose PR problems and suggest solutions earned him the name, “The PR Doc®” among his associates. He has launched http://www.theprdoc.com to help small agencies and individual public relations practitioners get affordable access to PR tools and expert help from senior practitioners. Jim was recognized by his peers with election to the Arthur W. Page Society, a selected-membership organization of senior public relations executives, and appointment to the client advisory board of the Council of Public Relations Firms. 

Mike Moran, is author of the acclaimed book on Internet marketing, Do It Wrong Quickly, on the heels of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Mike Moran led many initiatives on IBM’s Web site for eight years, including IBM’s original search marketing strategy. Mike holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing, and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also writes marketing columns for Internet Evolution and Search Engine Guide. Mike frequently keynotes conferences on Internet marketing for marketers, public relations specialists, market researchers, and technologists, and serves as Chief Strategist for Converseon, a leading digital media marketing agency. Prior to joining Converseon, Mike worked for IBM for 30 years, rising to the level of Distinguished Engineer. Mike can be reached through his Web site (mikemoran.com), which is also home to his Biznology newsletter and blog.

Marc Harty is CEO of MainTopic Media, Inc., a strategically focused, values-driven, marketing consultancy and training company. Ever the entrepreneur, Marc has owned an ad agency, a web development firm, and a search marketing firm. A marketing strategist with over two decades of distinguished service, Marc has won over 200 local, national and International awards, including two Clio’s and “Best Of Show” from The Dallas Ad League. Marc speaks regularly on Online PR, Thought Leadership, Social Marketing and Internet Business Transformation. His true passion? Developing proven marketing programs that can help anyone get the visibility and results to successfully manifest their life purpose.