Executive Summary
PR News' Social Media Summit
Aug. 12, Westin, San Francisco, CA

8:45 a.m. - The Wake-up Call: The Realities of Being a “Social Business” and the Opportunities for Visionary Communicators

Ann Barlow, Partner & President - West Coast, Peppercomm

  • Being a truly social business does not mean talking about yourself.
  • Being a truly social business means having something worth saying.
  • Being a truly social business means realizing people are not numbers.
  • Social businesses must pay attention to the culture around them and not just a narrow definition of their brand.
  • Serve your organization/client through serving your audiences.
  • Provide strategic counsel to the organization/client through advocating for those audiences.
  • Make ethics a priority.

 

9:15 a.m. – Your Most Trusted Brand Communicators: How to Create Brand Advocates Through Social Sharing

Lt. Stephanie Young, Deputy Chief, Social Media, United States Coast Guard
Heather Dopson, Social Operations Manager, Infusionsoft
Connie Chan Wang, Social Media Strategist, LinkedIn

  • Create guardrails that employees can operate within.
  • Use metrics to guide you to the right platform.
  • Celebrate your advocates.
  • Embrace authenticity, even the mistakes.
  • Think beyond the traditional when recruiting ambassadors.
  • Encourage employees to connect.
  • Provide ongoing education on using social media and becoming an evangelist for your brand.
  • Stay true to your brand.

 

10:15 a.m. – Blogs That Break Through: Strategies to Amplify Your Trusted Content

Maureen McCarty, Associate Director of Digital Data, Human Rights Campaign
Kelly McGinnis, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.

  • You have to start somewhere. Slow is fine; don’t scare them off.
  • Synchronize blogging and social media activity and content.
  • Build an internal review process.
  • Develop an editorial calendar to include consistent posting.
  • Tell the same story, many ways through social integration.
  • Test and try new avenues, platforms, channels.
  • Know your audience and target them with content.
  • Amplify your content to find new followers and establish deeper connections.

 

11:00 a.m. – No Visuals? No Problem! Foolproof Ways to Find & Create Shareable Visual Content for Your Brand

Danny Olson, Director of Digital, Weber Shandwick
Serena Ehrlich, Director, Social & Evolving Media, Business Wire

  • Engage customers by encouraging them to share their content.
  • Provide value to your customers and get them involved.
  • Take advantage of free and inexpensive tools for creating visual content.
  • Build a bank of approved images.
  • Utilize free resources from the web and social networks to create more appealing content.
  • Perform an asset audit that identifies internal creators and existing content.
  • Categorize your assets by date,  file type, usage history, text vs. image, description.
  • In creating visual content, determine your brand voice. What’s your brand story? What sets you apart? Who is your ideal customer?
  • Who is your audience and what do they consume?
  • Align your content to the correct platforms.
  • Measure shares and views of your visual content and adjust your strategy accordingly.

 

12:00 p.m. – Luncheon Keynote: A Conversation with Digital Futurist Brian Solis

Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group

  • If you thought Gen Y was processing information quickly?  Just wait until Gen Z comes of age. You should be scared.
  • Company's that don't adapt or understand how their customer has changed fail. Kodak or Blockbuster are examples.
  • PR has never been more important. Keep pushing forward.
  • When it comes to ROI - we all know the investment of PR and social media, but do we understand the return?
  • Everything is changing and communicators have a role to play.

 

1:00 p.m. – Social Media Tactics for the First Hour of a Brand Crisis

Lexie Riegelhaupt, Director of Marketing and Communications, Mashable
Rick Wion, Director of Social Media, McDonald;s 

  • Live in the same ecosphere as your community.
  • Create consistent messaging and maintain a dialogue across all channels.
  • In the digital age a crisis no longer comes in the form of a call or a letter.
  • Your brand’s social networks should be seen as a place for questions, company information, and public statements.
  • In a crisis, remember to tailor your message to the social network’s audience.
  • PR crises happen but you can learn from your mistakes.
  • Don’t panic when a crisis hits, get some data to measure knowns & unknowns.
  • You don’t have to respond to everything. Know what’s important and what’s not.
  • The most underutilized media platform is your employees. Utilize them.
  • Use scenario planning and canned materials to increase response time.
  • Have a backup plan.

 

1:45 p.m. – How to Develop Social Media Metrics That Matter to Your Senior Leaders

Nikki Mitchell, Vice President of Public Relations, Baylor Scott & White Health
Matt Dunn, Vice President, Digital Publishing & Social Strategies, Franklin Templeton Investments

  • Consistently drip the little successes early on. Celebrate the big ones.
  • Get internal alignment on what success looks like (beyond the share) and meet to review.
  • Metrics give an overview but don’t tell your story – KPI’s explain what is happening over time.
  • Develop a KPI that is comparable across channels – not just channel specific (i.e. per post KPIs).
  • Don’t settle for a template or “best practices”: choose how you define success and effectiveness in your business.
  • Key items to measure include size of community, engagement, click-throughs, who’s in your community.
  • Set expectations with senior leaders and relate to metrics they understand.

 

3:00 p.m. – Case Studies: Twitter Campaigns That Affect the Bottom Line

Allan Gungormez, Enterprise Director of Social Media Strategy, Transamerica
Jessica Henry, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Not For Sale

  • Be aware of current events.
  • Pick an easy-to-use hashtag.
  • Leverage tools like Tweetdeck to monitor the conversation.
  • Include a clear call to action to maximize engagement.
  • Promoted trends should be used to drive awareness and kick off events.
  • Use Twitter to align with business goals.
  • Do what you say you will. Report on findings and what they mean for the team.
  • Leave room in your budget for experimentation.

3:45 p.m. – Case Studies: Effective Brand Storytelling on Facebook

Jennifer Lashua, Editor-in-Chief, Intel Corp.
Lauren Friedman, Head of Social Business Enablement

  • Content is still king, but page likes are irrelevant.
  • Short copy, educational, but not complex, action-packed image all lead to higher engagement.
  • The root of social media is connecting people to people.
  • Use an editorial calendar to schedule content in advance.
  • Use measurement tools like Adobe Social to track against KPIs.
  • Tell stories through visual content.
  • Publish different types of content throughout the day to gauge what works best when.
  • Encourage your community to engage with each other.