A big thank you to those that attended the Social Media World Forum in New York.

Also a special thank you to all the speakers, sponsors, exhibitors & media partners we enjoyed working with you and look forward to meeting you all again next year!

Greg Cargill kicks off the Social Media Hub with the Fundamentals of Social Media.

Panel Discussion: Examining strategies for using social media for business to business marketing

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Linette Gomez, Senior Director, Internet Marketing – Social Media,CA Technologies
Jeannine D’Allegro, Marketing Director, Social & Digital Engagement Strategy, Dun & Bradstreet
Price B. Floyd, Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems

Keynote Panel Discussion: What is Social Reputation and why this should matter for your business

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Garth Holsinger, VP of Sales and Business Development,Klout 
Ted Rubin, Social Marketing Strategist & Brand Evangelist & Chief Social Marketing Officer,Collective Bias
Paul Papadimitriou, VP + Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Jason Wellcome,  Head of Digital Group, Weber Shandwick

Networking bar

Social Media Hub chair Greg Cargill introduces Adam Singer from Lewis PR

Exhibition

Some great discussion this morning at SMWF in New York, Ted Rubin, social marketing specialist and social media entrepreneur Pete Shankman hosted an engaging discussion about how the meaning of the word ‘friend’ is being warped by peoples’ use of social media.

Clicking on a box does not make us friends, was the gist, and the way the immediacy and ease of connection is ameliorating the term friend had the panellists concerned. “I want 2012 to be the year of taking back the word friend,” said Ted Rubin.

Pete Shankman shared his prediction for the future of the friend-trend. It can’t go on like it is, he said; people he hardly knows are inviting him to birthday parties on the other side of the world, where’s the relevance, where’s the friendship?

In the next 24 months, he continued, the trend will develop to the point where our levels of online friendship are determined not by clicking a button, but by a measure of two peoples’ relevance to each other. The more you interact, both online and in the real world, the more relevant you are.

Whatever platform we use by then, Facebook, Google (Shanklin suggested it could be called FaGoogle), would do well to be able to measure and correlate two peoples’ relevance via online interaction, checkins, emails, messages etc…

Brands need to understand the meaning of relevance, said the panel. Businesses who either deliver irrelevant interaction with their social media connections, or simply strive to generate as many fans or followers as possible are missing the point of the channel, and could be harming their relationship with the very people they’re attempting to engage.

“You’ve got to work your connections,” said Pete Shankman. “A connection is only as strong as the last time you used it.

“It’s easy and quite cheap. What people want to know is that they’re not speaking into the ether. It doesn’t take a lot to interact with people; just the odd comment now and again.”

Follow #SMWF for constant show updates as Social Media World Forum 2011 North America continues today and tomorrow at the Javits Center, NYC.

For all those driving to the event next week here is a list of all the car parking facilities near the Javits Centre in New York. There is no parking at the Javits Center.  However, there are a variety of lots open nearby, ranging from 24-hour, 7-days a week, to more limited service.

Advance 249 West 43rd Street, 212.221.8902
Astor Parking Corporation 1515 Broadway at 44th Street, 212.869.3543

Central Parking System www.parking.com
• 441 9th Avenue (between 34th and 35th Streets)
• 416 West 36th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues)
• 417 W. 35th Street (between 9th and Dyer Avenues)
• 1 Penn Plaza (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
• 305 West 34th Street (at 8th Avenue)
• For rates and hours of operation call 800-836-6666.

Enterprise Parking System www.enterpriseparking.com
• 455 West 37th St.
• 505 West 37th St.
• 404 West 37th St.
• 451 10th Ave.
• 444 10th Ave.
• 447 West 35th St.

MP 41 LLC 475 West 41st Street, (212) 594-2000
MP Manhattan Plaza LLC 471 West 42nd Street, (212) 279-5213
Square Industries 306 West 44th Street, 212.247.5807
Times Square Park 220 West 41st Street, 212.730.1777

For information on other transport options please visit our event info page.

Related articles

• Staying over for Apps World & Social Media World Forum, N. America? (apps-world.net)

Social Media World Forum N. America is almost upon us. The event is designed specifically to help delegates build valuable connections in New York and the rest of the digital world. We have compiled a few of suggestions suggestions for how you can get the most out of getting connected at the show.

Social shindig – come join the party at the Social Shindig, this year hosted by I AM DIGITAL at Studio Twenty Onein Chelsea kicking off from 7.30pm, an excellent opportunity to catch up over a few beverages in a chilled atmosphere.

Social Media Passport  - We’ve  partnered with Social Media Passport to enable you to connect with our show exhibitors more easily online. Simply visit, www.socialpassport.net and download your Social Passport onto your smartphone, tablet or mobile; you can even print it out. Have it handy to be scanned when you’re touring the SMWF/AppsWorld exhibition to get access to exclusive prize draws and special offers. Social Passport is also available as an Android or iOS app.

Tweet our speakers – twitter will of course be the order of the day, below you can find a list of many of our speaker’s and special guests twitter handles so you can get the conversation started ahead of the show. If you have a question for one of the speakers don’t forget to use the #SMWFQ and #AppsWorldQ hashtags.

You can view all of this year’s speakers here.  

Abell, Jon, New York Bureau Chief, Wired, @johncabell

Britton, Matt, Founder & CEO, Mr Youth, @Mattyb123

Cann, Jeff Manager of Accounts, Marketwire @JeffCann

Cargill, Greg VP Client Services, Social & Media,BLITZ , 4As / Blitz Agency, @GregCargill

Carter, Sarah Vice President of Marketing, Actiance @SarahActiance

Choy, RogelioChief Operating Officer,Formspring, @rochoy

Coatney, MarkMedia Director,Tumblr, @markcoatney

Contreras, EstebanSocial Media Manager,Samsung @samsungesteban

Davar, Sara, Head of Business Development – Sales and Growth, Meltwater, @sdavar

Díaz Ortiz, Claire, Corporate Social Innovation & Philanthropy, Twitter, Inc. @claireD

Donnelly, Michael, Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company @MichaelDonnelly

Donnelly, Margaret, Director of Marketing, Meltwater @mwdonnelly

Espersen, Peter, Online Community Lead (Global), Lego @VirtualPeter

Floyd, Price B. Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems, @pricefloyd

Fraietta, Mike, Enterprise Community Manager, News Corp. @MikeFraietta

Janin, Keeran, Creative Director, Infindo Technology,  @keeranj

Gold, Kate,  Social Media Director, Scripps Networks, @katefgold

Gomez, Linette , Senior Director – Internet Marketing – Social  Media, CA Technologies, @LinGos

Guest, Phil, Chief Commercial Officer, Peer Index, @philguesty

Heindl, Matt, Head of Social Media, Razorfish, @matt_heindl

Hempstead, Sebastian, VP – North America , Brandwatch, @sebhempstead

Heron, Liz, Social Media Editor, New York Times, @lheron

Heuer, Chris, Social Media Club, @chrisheuer

Holsinger, Garth, Head of Communications, Klout, @garthsklout

King, Lila, Participation Director, CNN, @lilacina

Lagier, Eric, CEO & Co-founder, Memolane, @elagier

Liebling, Rick, Director of Digital Strategy, Coyne PR, @Rick_Now

Marsh, Josh, Founder and CEO, Conversocia, @joshuamarch

Napolitano, Anthony, Director of Sales and Business Development, Stumble Upon, @stumbleupon

Neale, Nicole, Social Media Director, Four Seasons, @Nicole_Neal

Papademitriou, Paul, VP and Principle Analysyt, Constellation Research, @papadimitriou

Peters, Meghan, Community Manager, Mashable, @petersmeg

Ramers, Justin, Active Network Events, Director of Social Media, @JustinRamers

Rezab, Jan, CEO, Social Baker, @janrezab

Rosenthal, Jason, CEO, Ning, @jasonprosenthal

Sain-dieguez , Vanessa, Director, Social Media – Planning and Integration, Hilton, @VSDieguez

Schafer, Ian, CEO & Founder, Deep Focu, @ischafer

Schactel, Jane, Director of Social Media Bing,@seejanesays

Schierholz, Stephanie, Head of Social Media, NASA, @schierholz

Sharma, Tom, P Emerging Products, NBC, @TomSharma

St. Amand, Wayne, VP of Marketing, Crimson Hexagan, @WayneSaint

Weiswasser, Gayle, VP of Social Media Communications, Discovery Channel @gweiswasser

According to a study by SAS and the Harvard Business Review, by 2012, 88% of companies will use social media worldwide.

Well, 2012 is just around the corner, and if you haven’t taken the steps to make your business socially active and aware, now is a great time to start! Meltwater Buzz, our social media monitoring, engagement and management platform, is the perfect tool to help you build and drive your social business.

How?  We’ve broken it down to six core steps.

1. Listen. Many organizations have already taken this first step—they’re monitoring social media for conversations about their brand or business. This first step is vital—it gives you a basis for understanding the volume, sentiment, tone and topics that surround your brand. You can use it as a baseline to measure how your initiatives are impacting these metrics over time. You also need to constantly monitor your brand to ensure that any crisis situation comes your immediate attention for swift and positive action.

2. Plan. Use the knowledge that you gain from monitoring your brand to determine what you really want to accomplish through your social presence. Define the “why”—the use case(s) for your social media presence. Do you want to reach out and draw customers closer to your brand? Provide better service and customer care? Gather feedback and ideas for new products? Sell more widgets? The choice is yours. After you define the “why” then detail the “how.” Create a strategy and plan, get everyone on the same page and define roles and responsibilities. Train ALL your employees on your strategy and draft your social media policies and procedures for everyone.

3. Engage. Now that you’ve done all that planning, start engaging! Make sure to publicize your social presence through email, your website, your advertising and more! And start getting active on your social accounts. Post great content to share with your community. Canvas social conversations to find potential new contacts to draw to your brand. And start making connections with your brand’s social fan base!

4. Measure. As you’re growing your social community, make sure you’re constantly measuring value. Which content drew the most re-tweets? The most likes? The most comments and shares? Which activities drew the greatest engagement? How has your activity changed the volume of conversation around your brand? How have your other marketing initiatives impacted social chatter? Regular measurement will give you an idea of what works (and what doesn’t) for you brand and market. Let those measurements be your guide to zero in on the things that resonate with your community.

5. Evaluate. Along with measuring key performance indicators, you need to evaluate your long-term results to see what ROI you’ve achieved through your social campaigns. Did your Facebook contest generate a huge new fan base? Did you see a rise in dog bed sales after you created a “star dog” photo promotion? Which social channels are generating the most engagement? Are you doing the right things for the channel that’s lagging?

6. Evolve. The answers you see in the metrics and results you see for particular campaign types are going to change drastically over time. That’s because this market is changing and evolving every day. New marketing ideas and campaigns are driving new business opportunities—and rules for social engagement. By being a part of this movement, you’ll be able to evolve with the market rather than be left behind.

This is a lot of food for thought. We’re here to help you make all this happen. Meltwater Buzz is a great tool that can help you manage through the steps of building your social business, and our Social Advisors are a great resource to guide you through the process. We’ll be at Stand 79 at Social Media World Forum in New York.

Please come by to see us and find out how we can help you drive your social business to success.

About the Author:

Margaret Donnelly, the former VP of Marketing & Business Development of JitterJam, spearheads the marketing efforts for Meltwater Buzz. Meltwater Group acquired JitterJam in March 2011.

Margaret has over 25 years of technology marketing and business development experience in the social media, telecommunications, services, and computer hardware and software industries at companies such as Firetide, ArrayComm, SkyTel, Commtouch and Pyramid Technology.

Margaret co-founded the Personal Broadband Industry Association and has served as an industry analyst and marketing advisor for a diverse set of businesses. A transplant from Silicon Valley now living in the wilds of New Hampshire, Margaret is active in the local arts community.

Twitter: @mwdonnelly

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdonnelly

This November the Social Media World Forum will be landing in New York and we are giving you the chance to win an access all areas workshop pass as well as an invitation to the evening networking party.

What can you expect from #SMWF N. America?

SMWF North America will be providing a format for networking, engagement, and lots of social media debate around the latest tools, technologies, platforms, and emerging trends within social media marketing.

With predicted numbers of 2500 + attendees the show has grown significantly and will host a variety of free to attend Social media Hub & paid conferences for marketers, PR professionals, brands, agencies and SME’s.

The workshop sessions will feature leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Stumble Upon, Nike iD, Sears Holdings and Yahoo!  Key speakers include:

• Dennis Maloney, VP Multimedia Marketing, Dominos
• Robert Harles, Global Head of Social Media, Bloomberg
• Michael Donnelly, Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
• Claire Díaz Ortiz, Corporate Social Innovation & Philanthropy, Twitter, Inc.
• Anna Lingeris, Public Relations Manager, Hersheys
• James Jeynes, Global Brand Manager, Nike
• Mark Coatney, Director/Media Evangelist, Tumblr

And many, many more

Find out more information about this year’s event here.

How can you win a free workshop pass?

To win a free ticket to this year’s event simply email rachel@sixdegs.com using the subject title ‘SMWF New York Competition’ with the reason why you deserve to win the free workshop pass. You have until the Oct 21st at 0530pm EST/ 1030pm GMT.  The team at SMWF will select the winning entry and that lucky person will be emailed & announced on Twitter.

Re-tweet this and let your friends know! We look forward to reading your comments – Good Luck!

Ted is a leading social marketing strategist and coined the term ROR: Return on Relationship,  a concept he believes is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database, many of whom are vocal advocates for the brand, like the one he built for e.l.f. Cosmetics as the Chief Marketing Officer between 2008 and 2010, and the one being built for the new updated OpenSky where Ted was Chief Social Marketing Officer until the end of April.

Currently the Chief Social Marketing Officer at Collective Bias and Social Marketing Strategist for MARS Advertising, Ted be will taking part in  the Keynote Panel discussion ‘What is Social Reputation and why this should matter for your business’.  With less than a month to go until SMWF N. America, we caught up with Ted for a chat about his experience in the world of social media.

1. How did you get your start in the industry?

In 1997 I was looking for something exciting and new and was determined to move back to NY from South Florida and get back into the action. I decided this new thing called the “Internet” was the way to go. I read an article about Seth Godin and since he mentioned he was always on the lookout for talent I was determined to work with him at his start-up Yoyodyne. I sent resumes to probably 100 companies and when Yoyodyne called I knew it was meant to be.

2. What is the biggest challenge facing your industry?

The biggest challenge facing the industry is integrating accountability and measurement with an understanding that the true value of Social Media is the ability to engage, interact and build long-term relationships for brands.

3. What is the method to your blogging success? What inspires your blogs?

My blogging success it totally due to the emergence of this unique and extraordinary publishing platform call Twitter… maybe you have heard of it . Twitter helps me to think things through, express, and wrap my arms around ideas before writing a post. It also allows me to express myself and my thoughts at a moments notice and preserve and develop ideas as they come to me.

4. What’s your view on how social media will evolve?

The marketing paradigm is shifting with much greater “power to the people” facilitated by social media. If you want to continue to reach your market, it’s not about advertising any more, but about building relationships. Just activating your audience, however, is not enough. A brand always needs to be working to keep these valued influencer and advocate relationships alive and strong and build an emotional connection. Always remember that brand loyalty declines due to lack of relevance — this has been evident for years and is clearly a direct result of not listening… and NOT hearing when you do listen. When building a social media presence, building relationships through engaging as many people by truly interacting with them, and doing what I call “looking them in the eye digitally,” is what will build value and loyalty for the long-term. Always keep in mind that Social media’s incredible power is in allowing us to instantaneously connect to, interact with, and build relationships with our audience of thousands to gain high-value end results… but if you do not make them feel valued and speak to them on their terms, and bring value to the table, the results will be underwhelming and you will not be utilizing social for its true value. It will just be another tool in the marketing toolbox.

5. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

Get started now. Do not wait to develop a comprehensive strategy… just jump in and start engaging and interacting.

6. Where can we find you on the web/on Twitter/Facebook/etc.

Finding me is easy… just look for Ted Rubin: @TedRubin, TedRubin.com, Facebook.com/TedRubin, LinkedIn.com/in/TedRubin, YouTube.com/TedRubinUSA and of course TedRubin@gmail.com.

Hear more from Ted at this year’s Social Media World Forum N. America on Nov 1 -2 at the Javits Center. Ted will taking part in  the Keynote Panel discussion ‘What is Social Reputation and why this should matter for your business’  alongside:

• Garth Holsinger, VP of Sales and Business Development, Klout @garthsklout
• Chris Heuer, Specialist Leader,Social Media Club and Deloitte @chrisheuer
  
• Paul Papadimitriou, VP + Principal Analyst, Constellation Research @papadimitriou
  
• Phil Guest, Chief Commercial Officer, PeerIndex.com @PhilGuesty

To secure your place at this year’s event please click here.

On Nov 1 -2 at the Javits Center, Robert Harles, Global Head of Social Media for Bloomberg will be discussing how to integrate social media into a traditional organisation. We caught up with Robert to ask him a few social media based questions:

1. How did you get your start in the industry?

A road less traveled…I started in consulting with McKinsey & Co. I did two start ups including comScore where I learned how to build customer communities, from there I was asked tojoin Sears Holdings to build and run their social media program five years ago. We created the mysears.com community which now has over 1M registered members and drives Millions of $ in direct revenue. That gave me a lot of solid experience: dos/don’ts, building capabilities, moderation and measurement, developing and executing social strategy, integrating these activities within a business.

2. What is the biggest challenge facing your industry?

Seeing social media as a separate activity with limited or no real ROI. If social media is going to have value, it has to have a direct connection to driving real business objectives. (see my recent comments here)

3. What is the method to your blogging success?

What inspires your blogs? Be honest, think about what would interest your audience. If you wouldn’t read it, why would others? Understand that we are moving from a publication/broadcast model to one where successful stories live on beyond their publications dates. One needs to keep the story going and involve readers in the process of developing that story.

4. What’s your view on how social media will evolve?

It’s not just a conversation. As social media becomes more widely adopted in business, it should simply become part of the business communication toolkit. The real value comes from building digital relationships that can be ultimately monetized

5. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

Don’t think of social media as just twitter and Facebook…an activity or thing; think of social media instead as the digital representation of making friends and building relationships in the real world – the essentials of business 101. In this sense, your personal brand and the brand of an institution you may represent merge. If you are not honest, engaging, responsive…that is what will color customers’ image of the company also. On the flip side, social media enables the individual to have a real impact on the company and its customers: shaping the brand, breaking down barriers (internally and externally) and driving insight, innovation, and loyalty

6. Where can we find you on the web/on Twitter/Facebook/etc.?

You can find on twitter at @robharles

Hear more from Robert at this year’s Social Media World Forum N. America, to find out more about this year’s speakers and book your place at this year’s event please click here.

Image via Wikipedia

Back in 2010 NASA rolled out a new branded partnership with Foursquare, straight off the heels of announcing the space agency was teaming up with another geo-location based social platform, Gowalla. The partnership features a customised section on the Foursquare website, where NASA provides official information about the space program in locations throughout the US and encourages users to “explore the universe”.

To launch the Foursquare campaign, NASA left tips at visitor centres across the US to encourage visits and create awareness about the facilities. By following NASA on Foursquare and checking in at the visitor centre locations, science museums and planetariums users could unlock the new NASA ‘Explorer’ badge and receive a free scoop of Astronaut Ice-Cream.

It wasn’t just those on planet Earth using the location platform, in October 2010 Col Doug ‘Wheels’ Wheelock became the first person to make an extra-terrestrial ‘check-in’. In a stunt designed to mark the launch of the partnership Cmdr Wheelock checked in at the International Space Station as well as tweeting photos and mission updates from his @Astro_Wheels account.

Dennis Crowley, Chief Executive and Co-founder of Foursquare was reported to say ‘Check-ins from around the world has been cool, but this blew my mind. We’re psyched to partner with NASA to help users explore the space program and the universe’.

1. Two days of action packed engaging content within 30+ sessions, across three tracks covering all aspects of the social media & apps ecosystem.

Click here to book your pass today!!