Online Sales for this event have ended. Same day registrations are welcome at a conference rate of $450.00 per person, and subject to availabilty. If you have any questions, please email them to kristie [at] socialmediaclub.org. Thank you. 

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SOCIAL MEDIA MASTERS: Advanced Level Conference Series for Marketing Professionals 

If you are a Social Media Professional wanting to take your skills to the next level, or an online marketer expanding your capabilities, this program is your chance to go beyond a typical introductory course and get advanced lessons learned from true Social Media Masters. This conference series is a unique opportunity to develop your own mastery of social media for Marketing and Communications, with an emphasis on engagement. Whether you are in charge of a department in a large organization, you are responsible for multiple clients within an agency, or you are an independent professional deepening your skills and knowledge, this special workshop will help you advance your career and accomplish your goals in key areas of social media marketing.

Produced by Social Media Club, the world’s leading association of Social Media Professionals, and Sensei Marketing, a firm specializing in customer acquisition and social engagement for the enterprise, Social Media Masters is a premium event for leading brands and social media strategists.

THE SCHEDULE

Thursday, September 8th - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Pre-conference tweetup with Social Media Club Los Angeles for participants, speakers, sponsors, supporters and local community members. The event is free to attend, but we do ask that you pre-register so we have an accurate head count.

Friday, September 9th - 9:00am to 6:00pm

On the day of the conference, we would appreciate it if you arrive no later than 8:45am to ensure we can get you checked in at the registration table and sitting in time for us to kick things off at 9am. We have a full day scheduled covering topics in Becoming a Social Business, Corporate Blogging, Measurement and Analytics, and more - and want to make sure we stay on track as much as possible to maximize the time we have together.

Session Descriptions:

BUILDING CORPORATE SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

It's no secret that C-Suite execs in most large businesses have been slow to acknowledge the social economy or to formalize and fund social engagements across their organizations. But the communication tidal wave that is social media cannot be stopped and many business silos have begun their own individual efforts given the lack of executive leadership in this area. Be it Customer Service Managers scouring Twitter feeds, HR teams monitoring LinkedIn, Marketers advertising in social networks or PR Professionals engaging social influencers, most enterprises are engaged in social relationships through disjointed efforts initiated by the customer or customer-facing departments. Therein lies the challenge for enterprise leaders; and the opportunity if they accept this call to action. How does the enterprise adapt to the internal communications changes that are pushing it to be more open? More social? The employee's adoption of social communication does not translate well to the kind of work groups that are formed in most businesses. So the inevitable introduction of social networking-style communication into an office culture will have powerful implications on how businesses are structured and managed. But you need to understand how to enable it without losing control of your business' corporate vision. In this session Sam will outline:

• The challenges that social communications will place on your workforce and business silos
• The needs, abilities and challenges of generational communications within the organization
• Cross-silo methodologies used to embrace and take advantage of the changes in how people communicate

Using real examples from the corporate world, you'll leave the session with a blue print for your own corporate cross-silo social communication plan.

Presented by: Sam Fiorella

Sam is currently the Chief Strategy Sensei for Sensei Marketing in Toronto & New York City. His expertise in interactive and social media marketing space has been earned through 20 yrs of senior level management within marketing departments and, most recently providing interactive strategy consulting to over 30 marketing agencies across the globe. Throughout this time Sam has been instrumental in creating world-first marketing software applications and innovative marketing strategies for clients that range from: Home Depot, Hitachi, AOL, Ford Motor Company, Hyatt Gaming Corporation, AXA Equitable, Snyder’s of Hanover, Johnson & Johnson, Hyundai, Chef Boyardee, and thousands more!

Sam is the creator and moderator of the #bizforum Twitter debate where business professionals discuss the pros and cons of trending busines-related topics each week.

Sam is also the author of the popular marketing blog: The Social Roadmap and author of the soon to be released business book by the same name.

DEFYING GRAVITY - INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO FUEL SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

What’s Gravity? That’s the status quo way of thinking and doing that limits our ability to grow. It's the number one reason many businesses flatline, or crash and burn. Gravity exists all around us – including in our social media strategies. We all know that audiences buy because of their perceptions. Today’s perceptions are created through the Internet and social media word of mouth. Businesses no longer have tight control over the way our markets see our business, the information that is available about our value or the buzz about your brand. Today’s buyers can research, compare and select products without our ever knowing they were looking. Everything changed. Your choices: change, too—or get left in the past. Social Media offers a breakout opportunity for shifting our interactions with our audiences. But social media is more complex than many realize. Marketing, the way we’ve always done it, doesn’t work when it comes to social media. Effective social media engagements demand out-of-the-box approaches. And that’s just what we’ll explore. We’ll examine:

• Gravity and how it comes to our businesses.
• The biggest Gravity beliefs limiting social media success today.
• Examples and case studies of Zero Gravity thinkers who have soared to social media success.
• Immediate, actionable steps that you can take to fuel social media engagement success.

Presented by: Rebel Brown

Rebel Brown is a Market and Positioning Master Strategist.  For over two decades she  has positioned and repositioned technology companies for high-velocity growth.  She’s recognized for her expertise in business and market strategy, corporate and product positioning and go-to-market launches.

Rebel’s bestselling business book, Defy Gravity, is a guide to creating breakout market strategies - in any economy. What's Gravity?  That's the way we've always done it, the status quo thinking and doing that's the reason for the mess we're in.  Defy Gravity teaches all of us to think differently, about our Value, Markets and Opportunities  - and  most importantly, how we can successfully position to power profits, in any economy.

Rebel has been featured in media including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Business Insider, Startup Nation, First Business TV, Exceptional People and more. She is a member of NSA and an executive speaker for conventions, conferences, workshops and corporate events.

HOW TO BLOG LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT!

Web Site vs. Blog - do you really need both? In this session, Tin helps you figure out what you are good at, and will share advanced tips and tricks to develop a content strategy to support it. He'll show you how to connect with other bloggers in your field, act as a portal to enable your visitors to learn, and help you prevent falling prey to spammers and dirty SEO tricks.

Presented by: Tin Dizdarevic

Tin has over 15 years of experience in startups ranging from online communities to interactive advertising with a few years in between spent in the culinary world.

Tin heads marketing at Zemanta, mainly focusing on user acquisition. Zemanta is blogger's best friend. It is a service that allows the bloggers and content creators to make the process of creating their content simpler and easier.

LESSONS FROM THE FACEBOOK TRENCHES: THINKING BEYOND "LIKES"

The power of Facebook for businesses goes beyond the number of people who click "Like" to connect with your Page. It's about building relationships where people want to engage with and share your content, and it's about building an authentic persona for your company that talks with people on their terms. This session will explore how to make your Facebook Page and other activities more personal and engaging through a mix of real-world tips, case studies, demos and group exercises. Topics to be covered include:

• Advanced features for managing and setting up your Page
• Developing a voice for your Page and creating the best mix of content
• How to compete for attention in News Feed
• Emerging opportunities beyond the Page and off of Facebook

Presented by: Matt Hicks

Matt helped build the communications team at Facebook as one of the first members of its PR team. Most recently, he led social media and content strategy for it main communications channels--including the Facebook Blog, official Facebook Page and Twitter account—which reach millions of people every day.

Before that, he managed the company’s advertising and business communications and worked with top executives to position Facebook as an essential tool for marketers and consumers.

A former journalist, Matt moved into PR and marketing in 2005 to work with Silicon Valley startups such as YouTube, FeedBurner and Topix.net, first at ZENO Group and then at SutherlandGold Group. In 2003, he served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in Washington, DC. He previously was a writer and editor for Ziff Davis Media and eWEEK in San Francisco, and earlier worked at various daily newspapers. Matt graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

ONLINE COMMUNITY BUILDING

The question isn’t whether or not you have a community. Your community – the people who love and support what you do – is out there. The question is how you engage with them. In this session, we’ll talk about community management and engagement in spaces you control and spaces you don’t, from Facebook and Twitter to forums and blogs. This is the art of community building on the web, both the good and the bad, steeped in real world experience.

Presented by: Patrick O'Keefe

Patrick is the founder of the iFroggy Network, a network of websites covering various interests. He has been managing online communities since 2000 and is the author of “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online social spaces.

He has been responsible for the cultivation of communities like phpBBHacks.com, KarateForums.com and PhotoshopForums.com. He blogs about online community at ManagingCommunities.com, his favorite record label at BadBoyBlog.com and more at patrickokeefe.com. On Twitter, he’s @iFroggy.

SOCIAL BUSINESS, HOLISTIC STRATEGY

After spending the past 12 years on the top of search results for "holistic business strategy", Chris Heuer believes the day has finally come for his insights to become part of mainstream management thinking. As the disruption caused by social media reverberates across all aspects of organizational operations and culture, market leaders are turning to social business to transform the enterprise and seize a competitive advantage. The rise of social business is not only the sucessor to eBusiness, it signals the dawn of the post digital era. Today, being digital is expected, it's the price of entry. If you can't think holistically, collaborate across traditional organizational boundaries, optimize your organization to act as one and earn the trust needed to truly serve your market, your business may soon be extinct. Chris will share his insights on how to think and act like a social business along with the perspective from his colleagues at Deloitte Consulting LLP on the dawning of the post digital era.

Presented by: Chris Heuer

Chris Heuer has been engaged in interactive communications since 1993, and launched his first agency, Guru Communications, out of South Beach, Florida in 1994. Over the years he has helped numerous startups with go-to market strategies, product design, web site development, online marketing campaigns, ecommerce and what is now widely referred to as social media.

Seeing similarities between the rise of the Web as a vital communications technology and the current rise of social media, Chris formed Social Media Club in March 2006 to help more people understand the greater significance of what it means to be social and how media production/consumption has changed. To this end, Social Media Club is promoting digital media literacy, encouraging the sharing of lessons learned, promoting industry standards such as Creative Commons and discussing questions of ethics.

Chris is a Specialist Leader, Social Media for Deloitte. In addition to his direct endeavors, he serves as an advisory board member for Buzzlogic and my6sense. He is a frequent speaker, workshop leader and a trained facilitator and has organized numerous unconferences for the community and private organizations of all sizes.

SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING AND MEASUREMENT: UNDERSTANDING HOW TO TURN DATA INTO BUSINESS INSIGHTS

With Social Media and Digital Communications becoming part of how business gets done, businesses are wondering how should they use social media to enhance their business. When social media first started, companies reacted by putting up Facebook pages, signing up for a Twitter handle and adding a blog to their website and other basic social/digital interactions. Now the game has gotten far more complicated. Without a lot of knowledge or framework around how to make sense of all the social media and digital interactions, professionals from all walks of life—PR, Marketing, Customer Service, Production Development, Engineering, etc… want to know, “How does social media affect my business? Does it:

• Increase Marketing conversion rates and Sales?
• Reduce Marketing and Sales costs?
• Reduce costs for building and maintaining brand reputation?
• Shorten Product Development cycles?
• Increase positive word-of-mouth and awareness?
• Decrease agent-assisted calls in Customer Service?
• Decrease overall costs by reducing items like return merchandise (RMAs)….

Yes, it does. And the question on everyone’s mind is How." This session will use real-life case studies to illustrate with examples so you’ll leave with tools, tips, strategy and tactical capabilities to monitor and measure the success of your social media and digital communication programs. We’ll cover the how’s, the what’s and the why’s to social media monitoring and measurement:

• Monitoring: What to monitor and why. Who and what to monitor. Where to find the audiences to monitor. Understanding what your audiences want and care about. What free social media monitoring tools to use. What paid social media monitoring tools to use. How to set-up social media monitoring searches to make sure you get what you need.
• Measure: Once you have the data, how to turn it into business value. Secrets to taking data and turning it into insights. What metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs) and measurements you need. How to connect metrics, formulas and calculations. Social media ROI calculations, models and methodologies to show business value.

Presented by: Natalie Petouhoff

Dr. Natalie has served as a Forrester Analyst in Social Media, CRM (Marketing, Sales and Service) and ROI, and as the Chief Strategist for Social Media and Digital Communications, with a world-wide practice role spanning client work, practice development and thought leadership.

She's lead the development of consulting practices in management consulting as well as organizational change management at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Benchmarkportal and Hitachi Consulting. Dr. Natalie’s focus is to consult with clients on their strategy for social media, marketing, PR, customer service and integrating them using organizational change management, new technology deployment and social media analytics, measurement and ROI.

Dr. Natalie is credited with writing the world’s first social media ROI model for PR, Marketing, Product Innovation and Customer Service. Dr. Natalie the President of Social Media Club LA, participates in Girls in Tech and is a Guest Lecturer at UCLA Anderson School of business, teaching in the MBA program on Social Media and Digital Communications and an Adjunct Professor at USC Annenberg’s School for Communication, teaching PR Measurement. To follow Dr. Natalie, check out her musing on Twitter.com/drnatalie ; her website where she blogs about all thing social and digital, www.drnatalienews.com and can be reached at doctornatalie [at] gmail.com. 

Venue

Writers Boot Camp Bergamot Station Arts Center

2525 Michigan Ave, Bldg. i

Santa Monica 90404

Website | Map

Hotel Rooms

DoubleTree Suites By Hilton  

1707 Fourth Street  

Santa Monica, CA  

Tel: 1-310-395-3332

Website | Map

We have negotiated a small room block with a rate of $269.00/night with the Doubletree. If you are in need of accommodations, please book today as the rooms will go fast!

The hotel is about a five (5) minute drive/taxi ride from the conference venue:

PLEASE NOTE: All ticket sales are final. No refunds will be issued, although tickets are transferable. If you would like to change the name of the attendee on your ticket, please contact Kristie Wells at kristie [at] socialmediaclub.org. Thank you.