Social Media Success Summit 2011

This year’s Social Media Success Summit is jam packed with some of the top people in the field of social media and social networking.

Twenty-four of the world’s most respected social media experts have come together to share their newest social media strategies. They’ll reveal all the latest techniques and proven business-building tactics you need to know to immediately benefit from social media.

Location: Your home or office! Attend this live event using your computer.

When: Starting May 3, 2011 (spread over four weeks to accommodate your schedule; click here for the full schedule). All sessions are recorded and transcribed as well.

Why Attend this Conference: You’ll be able to quickly implement effective social media marketing techniques, attract great customers and prospects and gain a unique competitive advantage. You’ll also discover how to best measure the effectiveness of your social media activities and the newest social media tactics. This event will ensure your business is maximizing the full potential of your social media efforts.

Registration is strictly limited to the first 2500 People. NOTE: Social Media Success Summit 2010 sold out.

Michael Stelzner shared how Social Media Examiner has grown so quickly and how your business can benefit from social media

Here are just SOME if the presenters:
Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Guy Kawasaki (author, Enchantment), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Frank Eliason (Citigroup), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Erik Qualman (author, Socialnomics), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Dan Zarrella (author, The Social Media Marketing Book), Andy Sernovitz (author, Word of Mouth Marketing), David Meerman Scott (author, Real-Time Marketing & PR), experts from Boeing, Intel, Cisco and Verizon; Jay Baer (co-author, The Now Revolution), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), Steve Garfield (author, Get Seen), Mario Sundar (LinkedIn), and Ann Handley (MarketingProfs)–just to name a few.

Make the most out of Social Media

Using social media is the best way to promote your business brands. And with the explosive growth of social media, it is no wonder that a lot of companies are using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

A lot of marketers are now using social media and the numbers keep on growing. But these companies must understand how to employ effective methods and tactics in order to make the most of using a social media platform.

Remember that setting up an account is not enough. What is important is that there is participation and interaction among you and your audience. If none of this is happening then you are wasting your time. If you commit to making an account on a social networking site then you must be able to stay visible and active to your audience by doing regular updates. Keep them interested by constantly giving them useful information that is at the same time relevant to your brand.

Be humane. When people go to your account do not slap your company’s logo everywhere. Post a face to your profile, have a person’s name and have a good description. Make it more personal. Without doing so, people might think that you are becoming too self promotional. This could instantly make them lose interest because they will be thinking that you will just be pushing your products on them. It is ok to promote something but it should not be the main focus of your account.

You must be able to engage with your audience. Try to start conversations by posting articles, videos and links that is relevant to your business. You should also comment on other people’s sites or pages so that they can check your own site as well. Having a social networking account is also a great way to listen to your customers and potential clients. By interacting with them, you get to harness trust and loyalty from them as well.

Aside from making use of social networking sites, you can also set up a blog. It is actually a great place to start employing social marketing strategies and you can set up links going to your blog from your profiles. Your blog can be your home base wherein you can directly promote your products to entertain those audiences who are interested and want to know more about your business and the services you have to offer

iMedia Summit Survey Shows Marketers Will Focus on ROI Above All

Results indicate most marketers recombining current resources to get the most out of them and carefully spending new dollars on ROI-Driven new technologies and programs.

Culver City, CA (PRWEB) February 17, 2009 — A survey of the attendees of last week’s iMedia Brand Summit in Coconut Point, FL, showed that in these economic times, brand marketers are focusing less on innovation and more on results. There were more than 100 marketers in the room, which included such companies as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola, American Express, Kimberly-Clark and many other major brands, and 56% of the marketers polled said they plan to “heavy up” on more measurable, ROI-driven strategies, saying “if we can’t prove it’s working we’ll slash it.”

About 35 percent of the responders said that they’ve had cutbacks in their marketing strategies, but they’re planning to stay the course without altering their marketing mix significantly, and nine percent said they plan to revert to tactics they are most familiar with, slashing the new and least proven strategies, including digital.

Looking forward, brands said that in terms of customer usage and marketing dollars, the biggest winners in 2009 will be online video (29 percent of brands predicting this media channel as the winner), blogs and social media sites (28 percent), conventional online publishers (21 percent), email (10 percent), ad networks (9 percent) and distributed content (widgets, apps, RSS) in last place with three percent.

When asked about social media, 48 percent of brand marketers said they’re already moving dollars toward those channels, while 52 percent said they’re personally spending a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others, but not moving any dollars there.

Significantly, 41 percent of marketers said the primary reason for their companies not spending more on digital forms of marketing and advertising is “dependence on TV, FSI and other traditional measures.” Corporate culture/political considerations, lack of metrics, lack of creative options and “inertia or fear” were the other reasons for holding back, with 21, 19, 11 and 8 percent respectively picking those options.

Another interesting revelation in the survey was brands’ views on collaboration between themselves and their marketing partners. Forty seven percent of marketers said collaboration has improved and 44 percent said there a lot of talk about collaboration but it’s “still business as usual”. Interestingly, the same question asked of the vendor and publisher side yielded 55 percent saying “it’s business as usual,” 25 percent seeing an improvement and 19 percent saying “it’s every man for himself” rather than “let’s work together.”

For more information and stats (including the breakdown in opinion between brand marketers and publishers/vendors) please visit http://www.imediaconnection.com/summits/surveys/.

About iMedia Communications:
Since 2001 iMedia Communications has built a reputation for creating industry events that bring together senior marketing executives from the world’s largest brands and leading interactive marketing agencies with service provider and publisher partners. The goal: to help build the growth of interactive marketing. These invitation-only summits have become must-attend events as online advertising budgets continue to grow at double-digit speed year-over-year. Based on current online advertising spending estimates from Advertising Age and other sources, iMedia estimates it is delivering access to companies spending more than 70% of the total online advertising market.