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.

With the conference agenda really starting to take shape, we thought we would update you on one of the highlights taking place on day 1!

Argha Sen, Head of Marketing and CRM, for Toys R Us Asia – the world’s #1 toy retailer, will be sharing his experiences of how Social Media fits into the marketing mix at Toys R Us.  His 20 minute speech will be taking place at 1430, and will be covering the following points:

1430       Case- Study -Social Media Marketing @ Toys R Us: THE INTEGRATION STORY
•    Integrating Mass Media, Events, PR, CRM, Digital Marketing and Social Media to create the Toys R Us magic
•    Case Studies – Transformers Revenge of The Fallen and Lan Kwai Fong Carnival: Taking Social Media to the Streets
•    The Good, The Bad, the Ugly
•    What Next: The Future is Here

If you are looking to hear specific examples of how a global brand has been heavily involved in Social Media, then this is a session not to be missed!

Argha Sen is responsible for managing Toys R Us marketing programs across 8 countries, spanning more than 100 retail stores. He also directs the multi-country Toys“R”Us Star Card CRM program, which was recently named the Best Loyalty Program in the ASIAN BRAND MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS Awards for the third year in a row.

Now based in Hong Kong, Argha travels extensively both for work and pleasure, loves to explore new cuisines and tastes, and blogs about food, drink and travel in his spare time.

If you would like to be considered as a speaker at this year’s SMWF Asia, check out our speaker submissions guidelines here

For SMWF Asia 2010, we are looking to create a cutting edge, thought provoking, interactive conference line up covering the advances of Social Media in the dynamic world of online marketing.  In true Social Media style we want to hear from you guys, on your thoughts, ideas and views to ensure the event provides a fully educational and inspiring experience for all our delegates SMWF Asia 2010 will take place on the 22nd & 23rd Sept at Suntec Conference Centre Singapore.
SPEAKER SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE:  30th JUNE 2010
Conference Facts:

Day One         Social Media / Social TV stream (intermediate > advanced level)

Day Two        Social Media stream (intermediate > advanced level)

Each conference session will last between 20 mins > 50 mins depending on the content level and format of the sessions.  Conference sessions will have between 100 > 250 delegates in attendance.  Sessions can feature single speakers, co-presentations or panels.

If you would like to be considered for a speaker slot at this year’s SMWF Asia, take a look at our proposal guidelines here.

Good luck with your submissions!

Penny Power, Author, International Speaker, Entrepreneur and founder of Ecademy talks about the role of social networks for modern professionals. Penny Power is a published author, a highly engaging speaker and one of the UK’s most inspirational and successful female entrepreneurs. Penny founded Ecademy, the UK’s first social network for business, in 1998 at the age of 33 with her husband Thomas Power.

Penny will be speaking and chairing at the Social Media World Forum event taking place at Olympia, London in March.

How important is understanding social media for modern professionals?

I often think about how executives feel about all the noise going on in the world of social media. The desire to see it as a fad, or as something not relevant to their business must be very strong for some. Many will say, and I have heard it said “oh, that is something my kids waste time doing, I am a busy person, I don’t have time for that stuff”. I wonder if I might have felt that if I had stayed in the old world 12 years ago.

The danger is that they are right, there is a lot of hype, noise, errors, time wasting; I can credit them with that insight, but it is not a fad, it is not just for kids and it is not going away and it is working for an increasing amount of business who have taken time and invested resources to learn. Learning to be a networked business takes time, a certain leap of faith and a real commitment to the future of the business they work for. Executives can just about, I repeat, just about, get away without embracing social media but for how long? The world is becoming connected and the conversations taking place are strategic, tactical, consumer led, channel led and they help businesses find solutions and needs for the future apart from finding potential clients or managing unhappy ones.

What would be your top tip for using social networks?

My top tip is belief, trust and take a leap. Not just a leap into using it, but also a leap into belonging to communities and having conversations. To engage, be a friend, be Open, Random and Supportive©  . This is an experiential form of learning, this cannot be learned through a manual, you can only see the benefits to your business when you directly experience it, then you will understand what your strategy should be.

Company social media accounts – should they be personal or professional?

At all times the reader must know who is creating the conversation, I would not go into a pub and have a drink and a chat with a logo! I can understand a brand wanting to ‘own’ the space and brand they are creating online so it can be past from staff member to staff member, like a job role, however, when I visit the Tweet or Profile of a brand I want a person to be revealed and to talk to them

Ecademy Workshop –

Thomas Power is Chairman of Ecademy founded in 1998 with Penny Power and Glenn Watkins will be running a workshop alongside the Social Media World Forum , The workshop provides and introduction for those wanting to get into social media. It will consist of a roundtable format, highly interactive, and focus on the practical elements of setting up your own social media marketing plan, managing your personal and brand performance, and using leading social networks to build your online reputation.

What should we expect to learn and take away from the Ecademy workshop?

Penny and Thomas Power are Community Builders, they have supported businesses in the online world for over 12 years through building the ‘worlds most popular social network for small business’, they know what it takes to build a brand. It starts with understanding why someone would want to know you; how to become known, progressing to being liked and then what it is that would make someone ‘follow’ you online. The most successful brands and individuals will achieve ‘Connectedness’. Penny and Thomas will ensure you have an insight to what this means.

Workshop Host:

Thomas Power is Chairman of Ecademy founded in 1998 with Penny Power and Glenn Watkins. Ecademy is the oldest
social network on the Internet built with private capital. 300,000 people use ecademy each month source: Quantcast

Workshop passes available at £199 – click here to register.

]]> http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/blog/2010/01/london/penny-power-author-speaker-entrepreneur-talks-about-the-role-of-social-networks-for-modern-professionals/feed/ 0 Penny Power Workshop Thomas Power http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/blog/2009/12/london/orange-confirmed-to-speak-at-social-media-world-forum-after-announcing-co-operation-with-twitter/ http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/blog/2009/12/london/orange-confirmed-to-speak-at-social-media-world-forum-after-announcing-co-operation-with-twitter/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:50:20 +0000 admin http://www.socialmediaseries.net/blog/?p=47

We are very excited to have Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Development and Innovation at Orange UK confirmed to speak at the SMWF 2010.

Orange recently announced that Twitter users in Europe will soon be able to tweet to each other via their TV sets while watching entertainment and sports shows, following a     deal between Orange and the micro-blogging service. Under the deal, Orange is aiming to integrate Twitter into football coverage, news, entertainment shows and films.

Mark commented “ We’ve seen over the last year how Twitter is transforming the dynamics of real-time search and breaking news.  So were delighted to extend the value of the service by bringing it to mobile, enabling our customers to view and update their Twitter streams and giving them the unique ability to upload photos directly via MMS.

Orange, which is owned by the telecommunications giant France Telecom, runs TV services in France, Spain and Poland and mobile and internet services internationally, including in the UK.

For more information about the Orange and Twitter collaboration click here