by Colin Wallis, Kesah Schmitt, Mark Himmelsbach, Scott Orn and Dave Dobbins
Passion for social issues has been an American ideal from the start. For hundreds of years, foundations and nonprofit organizations have been forming groups to provide support, comfort, and solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Dialogue and subsequent action happens when dedicated people rally together in communities - live or virtual - to impact health issues, advance social causes, and make the world a better place.
With the ever-changing landscape of new digital community-building platforms, these socially responsible groups are taking advantage of new technologies to reach and engage their audiences. The panel will uncover the organizational strategies of community building, maintaining engagement over time, and uniting a group of people who may have never met face-to-face. From helping people quit tobacco to establishing support groups for rare diseases and supporting healthy lifestyles, each organization approaches community engagement in a unique way. Come hear the successes and set backs of community building that strive to bring social issues to the forefront and address them in modern ways.
by Amy Parnell, Benjamin Smithee, Elizabeth Sartin and Thomas Marks
In today’s online social world, most people maintain several different social profiles that span across friends, business networking, online dating and entertainment/lifestyle. One person’s public persona on each of these different types of social sites could be vastly different than the information they will share on the others. What are the psychologies and mental models at play that provide a preconceived notion of what personal information should be shared in different contexts? What challenges does each profile team face in overcoming such pre-existing beliefs?
Discuss why online social users create unique personas between these different sites, why the content that is shared across these different communities can be so dramatically different and what challenges the social media industry faces in regards to contending with fundamental human psychology. Particants on this panel include leads from Match.com, LinkedIn and TripIt.
by Dhruv Bansal and Flip Kromer
Where are all the coffee shops in my neighborhood?
Seemingly easy questions can become complex when you consider ambiguity. This one sounds simple until you consider that folks may define “coffee shop” differently and the boundaries of your “neighborhood” differently. One person’s Central Austin, may be someone else’s South Dallas.
How about instead of working too hard to define the parameters in an attempt to completely remove the ambiguity, we instead look at what people do, interact with and talk about. We can watch what people do and decide from there what a coffee shop is and where the boundaries of your neighborhood are. It might not be the “truth”, but it can be darn close.
When we learn to embrace ambiguity, not only can we still find the answers to our questions, but we can also find answers to questions we hadn’t even thought to ask.
by Evan Hamilton, Frank Eliason, Maria Ogneva and Megan Berry
Marketing is social. We're all sold. But how do you maximize your return in social without appearing like a douchebag? One the one hand, top influencers in the social space are the ones who can truly drive action back to your brand. Yet, on the other hand no one likes a brand who refuses to interact with the little guy. As social marketing becomes more serious, more serious metrics are being demanded -- learn what works and what doesn't. And what about service -- should influence affect whom you help first?