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.

Playfish’s Andrew Mo is the latest addition to the growing number of speakers at this year’s #SMWF Asia.   Mo, the general manager of the China Studio, is a leading creator of award winning social games and will be chatting about his experience in the area at this year’s conference.

Recent years have seen a shift in video game users to an older and more predominantly female demographic than first envisioned. This new gamer demographic seeks games that are easier to learn, less time consuming, and that allow them to interact with friends and strangers online. This perhaps explains the recent success in social media gaming….

Playfish is a creator of social games for friends to play with each other over social media networks such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace as well as mobile devices.  The company has enjoyed huge success in the social gaming arena with all seven of the company’s games being a top 10 hit on Facebook, including Pet Society, which see’s an impressive 11 million users each month.

Andrew and many others social media experts will be speaking at the Suntec Centre, Singapore on the 1-2 September, for more information and details on how to register your place at the event please visit www.socialmedia-forum.com/asia/.

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/facebook-bebo-netlog-viadeo-tweetmeme-speakers-at-social-media-world-forum/ http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/blog/2009/12/london/facebook-bebo-netlog-viadeo-tweetmeme-speakers-at-social-media-world-forum/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:04:00 +0000 admin http://www.socialmediaseries.net/blog/?p=41

The Social Media World Forum Conference and Exhibition, taking place on 15-16 March 2009 at Olympia in London announced new line up of social networks speaking at the show.

The event has also announced a 25% discount for early bird registration until 22nd December.

The five conferences at the show combined will feature more than 200 speakers over Social Media, Social TV, Enterprise, Mobile Social Media and Cloud Computing.  Speakers at the Social Media World Forum include:

•    Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning, EMEA, Facebook
•    Stephane Panier, Global Head, Bebo
•    Lorenz Bogaert, CEO, Netlog
•    Nick Halstead, CEO, Tweetmeme
•    Justin Kan, Founder and President, Justin.tv
•    Peter Crosby, COO, Viadeo
•    Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Development and Innovation, Orange UK
•    Jason Baker, Head of CRM and Digital Media, IKEA UK
•    Michael Smith, Deputy Director of Interactive Services, COI
•    Penny Power, Founder, Ecademy
•    Markus Berger-de Leon, CEO, VZ networks
•    Lucas Herscovici, Global Marketing Manager, Becks

“Social networks have given a fundamental shift in the way we communicate, collaborate, and organise ourselves. Social networks are among the most far reaching word of mouth mechanisms we have seen, and we are delighted to have leading social networks like Facebook, Bebo, Netlog and more speaking at the event.” Commented Ian Johnson, MD, Six Degrees Events.

The two-day event will be co-hosted with four other conferences: Social TV Forum, Mobile Social Media, Cloud Computing Congress & Enterprise Social Media.  The amalgamation of events will be accompanied by carefully selected exhibition and series of workshops providing a unique platform to network and meet face to face with peers as well as new and existing clients.

Delegates can keep up-to-date with the latest news, speakers & offers by following the event on:
•    Twitter/SocialNetworkWF
•    Facebook
•   LinkedIn

The 25% Xmas discount ends on 22nd December, delegates can register online www.socialmedia-forum.com or via the telephone booking hotline +44 (0) 117 321 8303.