Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Social Media on Sunday 13th March

In 2009 the Iranian government expelled most foreign media organisations and jammed international broadcasts. For the BBC's Persian TV emails, video, Twitter and facebook postings from Iran became the main source of news. Groundbreaking stories were complied using material from viewers and listeners - often sent in with great personal risk to themselves.

The current protests in Egypt, seem to have begun on Facebook. In the Xingjian province of China government censors were defeated by a tweet - news of a popular uprising amongst the regions Uighurs in this remote province leaked out to the world's media. A military clampdown ensued, but not before foreign media got to the region and heard the Uighurs grievances. Conversely the oppressors use the same social media tools, partly to spread disinformation about their activities, but also in the cases of groups such as the Taliban, to push their beliefs.

The panel will discuss how censorship and suppression is made more and more difficult to hide by the social media revolution, and the impact of this for traditional media organisations.

Julian Siddle the inventor of the BBC's technology programme Digital Planet leads the panel with journalists from the BBC Chinese and Persian services who were actively involved in these stories. Examples of UGC - user generated content; videos produced by the public in places with repressive regimes, will be shown during the panel.

LEVEL: Beginner

What do science fiction stories tell us about how social networking and user-generated content will evolve? How it will affect us as a civilization? Futurists and SF writers will explore real possibilities for the next fifty years of social media - and debunk bad futurism that predicts either total abundance or complete apocalypse.

LEVEL: Beginner

Social media platforms create new challenges for healthcare practitioners and other professionals who actively participate in online communities that have emerged on Facebook, Twitter and similar applications. While it's not unusual for those with chronic health issues and long term medical problems to build close relationships with care providers "in real life" - legal, ethical and practical issues emerge when patients/clients seek to add care providers to online networks.

How, for example, should a pediatric nurse respond when a cancer patient's mom wants to become a Facebook "friend"? What parameters must be established now that these public conversations could become of an official medical record? What else is preventing medical staff and healthcare organizations from adopting social media?

Engage with panelists - patients and healthcare workers - who actively use social media and are articulate advocates for its benefits in the complex world of healthcare delivery. Panelists for this session have developed ways to establish appropriate boundaries without creating barriers to health education and empowerment.

Attendees will develop a more sophisticated awareness of privacy and engagement within online communities. They'll learn how those in the healthcare community have dealt with significant concerns and developed effective ways to resolve ethical conflicts, and will leave the session with a framework for addressing similar concerns within their own networks.

LEVEL: Beginner

Online advocacy groups traditionally focus on demanding change from Congress, which is largely unresponsive to these efforts. Find out how citizen activists are changing the face of civic participation by using social media to mobilize people in their neighborhoods, schools and cities to successfully fight for local change every day.

LEVEL: Intermediate

If you’re in charge of social media for your company, you’re likely struggling to show the executives what exactly all that hard work does for the business. You know it’s worthwhile, and you know there’s ROI, but you don’t have the tools or the resources to scientifically measure exactly what it all means. In fact – it’s probably getting to the point where you’re fed up.

This panel will gather experts from the social media monitoring and analytics world to share insights into the best ways to measure your social media campaigns without having to go to the ends of the earth to do it. What should you be paying attention to? What doesn’t really matter? How can you make measurement less of a burden and more of a strategic advantage?

Panelists will share real-world examples of how you can start measuring with accuracy and ease without losing any more sleep.

LEVEL: Beginner

You cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a “social media expert” (that is an expression, I am not suggesting kitty homicide). These “experts” are self anointed, often re-publishing sound bytes. But perhaps the best answers come from practitioners, like you. Join this session to get real answers from your peers on the toughest questions in social media. Format will be a quiz game show where audience volunteers are asked a question. The worst answer will lose their seat. There will be a final round to anoint the “social media expert”. The winner (determined by the audience) will win a valuable prize, in addition to the glory. You will learn real answers to real questions, but perhaps most importantly learn that the real experts getting business results are not necessarily the ones who who spend the most time to pimping themselves on Twitter.

LEVEL: Beginner

Tribalism has become a new buzz concept for social networking, but what is a tribe really? In this panel we will explore what Native Americans know about tribal systems and what holds them together, motivates membership and how to tap into that to support or create lasting tribes. There are 3 fundamental components: leadership, vision and ritual that can be the basis for tribal identification.

Check out http://www.dgtltribe.com for more info

LEVEL: Beginner

While many businesses and corporations have started to adopt social media as part of their marketing, communications, and other business practices, regulated industries - such as pharmaceuticals, financial services, and the automotive industry - often face challenges and restrictions that other industries do not need to consider, such as federal regulations and industry guidelines.

This panel brings together an esteemed group of social media pioneers within regulated industries, who have not only transformed their organization's approach to social media, but also successfully planned and executed numerous social media programs, while adhering to their respective industry regulations and limitations. The session will cover:

• A general overview of some regulated industry regulations/ limitations
• Championing organizational change, with respect to digital communication
• Developing internal policies/guidelines for social media
• Working with internal legal/regulatory departments for reviews and/or approvals
• Developing social media strategies within highly conservative corporate cultures

LEVEL: Intermediate

Influential people, from journalists and entrepreneurs to investors and developers are idea-generators shaping the ideas we drool over and discuss et infinitum. But who are these people leading the charge? How did they come to be, and rise above the rest to gather a following?

Sites like Twitter and Facebook are now testing grounds for quantifying the world’s leaders. But do we understand what influence means and what variables are really at play? We all know that a follower count means nothing, but what does a RT mean? Or better yet, what does an @reply by Scoble mean vs. one from Arrington? Beneath the surface is where the science gets really interesting.

In this panel you’ll hear from the experts who are distilling influence down to it’s basic components. They’ll explain tips for increasing influence, which variables really matter and the types of influence they are discovering across the web.

LEVEL: Intermediate

This presentation will highlight the Connecticut Health Foundation’s (CT Health) partnership approach to decreasing racial and ethnic health disparities through social media. CT Health’s social media goal is to build public will that will move people to act(ion) – and along the way – create a social movement to toward health justice. Cited as one of few foundations of this size that is investing in social media to create dialogue about health disparities beyond academic circles, CT Health has partnered with social media experts, public health professionals, and community advocates and influential leaders. Recognizing there is no clear blueprint for philanthropy using social media to do this work; CT Health will share its path to raising awareness about the consequences and implications of health disparities via social media.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Online supporters are working to save the world one Tweet at a time. But how can nonprofit and philanthropic causes take their efforts to the next level and stand out from the crowd to increase the success of social campaigns? Hear from technologists and nonprofits on how to define and implement the ideal strategy and get advanced with metrics to make social a key component of online fundraising and advocacy campaigns.

LEVEL: Beginner

#Amazonfail, United Breaks Guitars, Motrin Moms: These are just a few of the social media PR disasters caused by inattention, poor service, or a failure to understand the target market. In the age of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, one customer service mistake can be all over the web before you can say “non-apology form letter.” Enjoy a history of edifying and often hilarious social media misfires, and learn how to avoid being on the receiving end of user-generated campaigns that can cost thousands or even millions in bad publicity.

LEVEL: Beginner

Measuring the reach of your social media efforts is a good first step--but it's not enough. Sean Brown will show how MIT Sloan Management Review uses analytics to turn data into insight, and insight into action. Chris Traganos will describe the social tools that aggregate, syndicate, and amplify Harvard's message to the world, including integration with Facebook's open graph and real-time Twitter collaboration via Social Flow.

LEVEL: Beginner

Social strategy is quickly stretching across various areas of organizations, landing anywhere from customer support to marketing and more. The reality is that customers and prospects are talking about your brand right now, on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Find out how brands are adapting quickly, and addressing customer inquiries in a timely manner in a variety of industries, resulting in better organic word-of-mouth recommendations and more.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Monitoring. Listening. Tracking. Measuring. No, this isn't a covert CIA operation: It's the way brands and businesses are marketing...and selling...to YOU, Customer 2.0. Is it creepy? Regardless, it's also a reality, and it's working tremendously, as well as being adopted at a rapid rate by everyone from your local coffee shop to Best Buy to enterprises like Adobe. From social CRM to mobile-social tech to community management, 2011 is the year of full-blown execution after, well, two years of panels discussing 'the future of social business.' Come hear about the truly effective processes and best practices around social customer relationship management and intelligence, and walk away with an actual plan for your business in social marketing and selling.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Social media is to blame. It's not destroying productivity at work — it's enhancing it. Why then are social tools being blocked by 54% of businesses, and how can we make the social business proposition so valuable that businesses can't afford to ignore it?

In this panel, we will look at the discrepancy between how people connect and share knowledge in businesses today and how they (separately) are using social media. The panel will consist of social interaction designers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and enterprise executives who will explore the causes of today's misapplication of social networking in the workplace. Our cornerstone question will be: can Twitter save us all? Could the simplest solution to solving the "social media in the workplace problem" be to get everyone using the simplest tools available, instead of the overly complex applications being deployed in many workplaces.

It seems like everyone today is pitching the next great social tool for the enterprise, yet many deployments suffer from low adoption, and struggle to prove ROI; even anecdotal evidence seems to be lacking. In this panel we will discuss how the best solution for the social workplace is one that is flexible enough to accommodate the existing workplace social construct while at the same time being simple and easy to use to encourage adoption.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Social media is a powerful medium, and can really improve patient outcomes. It can also add some much needed life to marketing plans, and help brands build relationships with patients. With any luck this will be a win/win for patients and brands.

Right now the entire Pharma world is busy figuring out how to jump into social media. The problem is very few people are thinking about whether or not someone really wants a relationship with their Rx. Imagine announcing to the world on Facebook that you "like" your prescription Rx cream. Really? You want to do that? Well, different strokes and all.

In this session we'll talk about how to chose the right social technologies to achieve the brand's marketing goals. Part of that decision matrix is understanding people and how and why they use social technology. We'll definitely talk about why Pharma should never say they want "viral" marketing.

In a best case scenario, this will be a highly interactive presentation taking live suggestions and questions from the audience and discussing their unique situations. Tell me your product, we'll talk about your audience, and we'll discuss the appropriate use of social media technology for you.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Social media has become a critical channel for organizations to plan and communicate with customers or communities in times of crisis, but these efforts often fall flat or are overshadowed by an explosion of conversations. Whether flooded with inquiries on Facebook and Twitter, or proactively communicating or monitoring across social channels for important updates, organizations need strategies and technologies that will effectively scale and integrate with all other business touch points. This panel will highlight examples of crisis communications harnessing social channels done right (and wrong).

LEVEL: Intermediate

You may have heard it called online word of mouth, peer-to-peer organizing or online grassroots outreach, but one thing is for sure: online advocacy movements can be started now more easily than ever with the ubiquity of social media and the power of internet organizing. Learn how innovative nonprofit organizations are paving the way for driving social change through the use of social technologies and how you can emulate these strategies for you own personal causes.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Our goal is to present new research techniques which the academic world has developed that can benefit the industry in areas such as market research, advertising, and consumer relations management. Blending together computational linguistics, natural language processing, computer science, marketing, and advertising the panelists have managed to use Twitter and other social media for research. The results, and the processes leading to them can greatly benefit the industry.
The panelists are world renowned professors know to be at the forefront of technology as well as the Online Managing Editor of the Massachusetts' Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Sloan Management Review, a publication targeting top industry executives.

LEVEL: Beginner

Worldwide introduction of Guy's new book. This presentation is for people who have a great product or service but not a lot of money. Learn how to enchant people using word-of-mouth marketing, Twitter, Facebook, and presentations so that they become your raging, inexhorable thunderlizard evangelists.

LEVEL: Beginner

Web and mobile technology have developed differently in Japan than any other country with hardware, features and social communities which are completely unique to this singular market. But Japanese companies are now realizing this introverted market position isn't sustainable and are now looking towards technology from outside and exploring way to create technology for outside of their country.

Japan has ubiquitous high-speed coverage and a voracious appetite for tech gadgets, however, their tools have developed with entirely different features than other countries. For example: Japan's "Galapo-phones" commonly include streaming TV and multi-character sets, Mixii and Gree each have more than 30 million users on their social networks, and Yahoo is a whole different experience from US counter-part.

With meteoric growth in Twitter and network tools, Japan aims on becoming the regional leader for emerging social web technologies -- much like their early leadership in consumer electronics and gaming industries. This presents opportunities for collaboration and partnerships but localizing requires more than translation.

This panel will discuss the unique characteristics of Japanese web and mobile market including tactics for connecting to markets, identifying opportunities, and outreaching to audiences, plus understanding unexpected cultural nuances and consumer expectations.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Enterprise organizations love to talk about all the successes they've had implementing and executing their social media campaigns, but you rarely hear about the (gasp!) failures. This is really too bad because it is from both these successes and failures that enterprise marketers learn from to be better armed to deal with their own challenges within their organization. Well, lucky for us, we have had the opportunity to talk to dozens of the largest enterprise brands out there and can tell you that there are many stories of social media challenges and failures that you haven't heard.

Mike Lewis, VP of Awareness, Inc. recently traveled across the country meeting these large enterprise brands. During this eye-opening road trip, Mike learned about many of the challenges each of these organizations were faced with as they were trying to either get their social media strategy rolling or just manage it all. During this session, Mike will share some common social media challenges and failures the big brands didn’t want you to know about along with some social media success stories you haven’t heard. After this session you will walk away with some actionable strategies that you can apply to your social media programs immediately.

LEVEL: Beginner

Where would we be without South by Southwest?

Imagine it: Less connected. Less culturally forward and exciting. Less innovative.

For years, the event has been at the forefront of emerging trends in technology and culture. Before they were household names, platforms like Twitter and Foursquare got their start in Austin. SXSW continues to be the gathering place for the top innovators and entrepreneurs in the digital space, as they come together to chart the future not only of technology, but also for a society that is approaching 100% digital.

B. Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital and Social Media at PepsiCo, will explain how the tremendous pace of change today makes the SXSW community more important than ever, especially for businesses. While society at large has embraced the digital transformation, organizations have fallen behind, to the peril of many. Digital Fitness - having the right mindset, capabilities, and resources to thrive in a digital world - is now a primary factor in driving long-term business success for many global companies. And as Bonin will detail, the personalities and emerging technology start-ups that make up the SXSW community are some of the most important partners contributing to Digital Fitness inside organizations like PepsiCo.

In his presentation, he will share highlights from a pre-event interview series where innovators are asked to tackle the same question: "what would the world look like without South by Southwest?" He will also discuss his personal history with SXSW, how a euphoric day seven years ago at SXSW changed his own life when he won a People's Choice Award and met the love of his life on a single night. Bonin will talk about why he continues to fall in love year after year with everything this event has to offer, and the role he sees for the SXSW community in driving digital fitness at PepsiCo and beyond.

The goal is to understand how people behave in online social media and what impacts their behavior. Video providers take efforts to contribute videos on YouTube in order to get attention, build up reputation, and eventually enjoy the benefit of good reputation. Their behavior strategically in video creation and promotion. They not only consider their viewers’ reaction to their videos but also their competitors’ behaviors when making movies. Twitter provides a complementary platform for YouTube users to advertise themselves, to reach more potential viewers, and to learn their audience’s preference in videos.

LEVEL: Beginner

The blurring of the internet and the real world is happening more and more. Over 70% of today’s TV audience also goes online while watching their shows. Social media is an everyday part of our lives. What does the next form of broadcasting and storytelling look like? This presentation will take a look at case studies, explain the technologies and broadcasting partners that allow real time streaming and provide an in-depth examination of our recent project, DavidonDemand.com. This social media experiment sent David Perez to Cannes, France as his life was streamed live 24/7 to the internet with every move controlled by requests from Twitter.

LEVEL: Intermediate

This interactive session is based on a key theme in the book, The Networked Nonprofit (http://www.bethkanter.org/the-ne...), co-authored by Beth Kanter.

We will explore how nonprofits can unleash the power of social good by transitioning from stand-alone institutions to networks energized by abundant resources in their ecosystem. In order to do this, they need to work with free agents, hyper-connected individuals who are passionate about social change, but don't work within institutional walls.

Free agents use social-media channels like Facebook and Twitter and can create social movements in the palms of their hands. They organize supporters, raise attention to important social and political issues, seek donations, and organize supporters to walk, run, shout, protest, and vote, things that were once done mostly by nonprofit organizations. The free agents do it when and how they please, making them distinct from and more powerful than traditional volunteers.

But free agents are smashing headfirst into nonprofit fortresses—organizations with high walls and wide moats that work very hard to keep insiders in and outsiders out. Our session will explore how and why this needs to change. Kanter will bring together a group of highly visible free agents working on important social change causes, including those in Middle East, and representatives from different nonprofits for a lively discussion with the audience.

LEVEL: Intermediate

I won't lie and say that until twitter & facebook came onto the scene our lives were perfect - but after 11 years - all through high school, college & most of our 20's - we were still together.

Then Social Media entered the picture and the world turned upside down.

Hear and learn the unseen impact these new relationships can have and the new extremes that controlling boyfriends/girlfriends/etc are using to keep tabs.

Learn how NOT to have your relationship ruined by the online world we are all so heavily a part of and how I turned the bad into a successful blog & twitter persona - leveraging the same online community to help walk me through the divorce process and learning how to date for the first time since I was 14!!!

LEVEL: Beginner

The notion of “social” on the Web is continuing to change as people look to connect more seamlessly online, no matter where they are. For the first time, the idea of an algorithmic-driven Web experience is challenged by a people-centric one where it is discovered through shared connections. People and interests define the next great organizing principle of the Web. This talk will discuss the evolution of discovery on the web--from directories, to search, to people--and what lies ahead.

Oversharing is over. Now we're told opening up online is the most valuable currency there is. What's the real value in relating the most painful, awkward, potentially humiliating parts of our lives on the internet? Is there a line anymore between authentic self-expression and savvy marketing? If The New Transparency is really what we're being sold, how transparent are we ready to be?

LEVEL: Intermediate