By Nick Johnson - February 18th, 2010
Hi there, I thought I should go over why we're putting together the Corporate Social Media Summit - and our aims for the event. Basically, I want to put together a place for big companies to talk...
Hi there,
I thought I should go over why we're putting together the Corporate Social Media Summit - and our aims for the event.
Basically, I want to put together a place for big companies to talk about social media - and specifically (at this version of the event at least) for external comms and marketing executive audience.
I want the conference to offer a few things:
1) Great sessions that are ALL highly targetted, that are practically useful, and deliver you benchmarks, best practice and insight you can use
2) The best line-up of corporate speakers on the topic that has ever been assembled
3) Interesting case studies to drill down into how some of the best companies out there take advantage of social media
4) Big picture discussions on broader strategic social media goals
5) A place for corporate SM professionals to gather, network and build relationships - with less of a 'service provider' focus in both the agenda/speaker roster, and our attendee list.
All the above's very admirable - and pretty easy to type out. But I want to set out how I think we've managed to succeed:
- Our agenda was written after consultation with 20+ corporate social media executives in big companies. Any workshop topic has been suggested by them, not me. It's completely independent - so there are no contributions from service providers eager to create a space for them to sell their latest service/product.
- We now have 19 expert corporate speakers confirmed. 74% of them are Department Heads, Directors, of Vice-Presidents. We have representatives from tech, pharma, FMCG, hospitality, finance, telecoms, from all over the USA. It's a senior, diverse, experienced and above all, insightful, set of executives. I haven't seen a conference agenda out there that brings together this many in-house SM experts.
- We've got 3 distinct session formats: a) 'Super-Panels'. Each of these bring together 3 expert speakers to discuss broad SM issues. Either implementing a cohesive strategy on social media, or learning more about the 'conversational skills' you need to succeed. (There's more in the agenda). This is big picture discussion on broader issues than you'll find anywhere else on the agenda. b) Workshops: Our workshops form the core of the agenda. There are 7 of them - and they cover 7 distinct topics highlighted by CSM execs. From leveraging the power of your employees to assessing ROI as a viable SM metric; from using SM data to inform brand strategy to implementing your own personalised set of SM KPIs, we will cover every issue being faced by SM execs now. And we will do it in detail, and together. With 2 short 10 minute speeches from experienced companies, followed by in-depth grilling from moderators, and then, for about 50% of the session, group discussion on the problem to find common solutions. These sessions are a dynamic, focused and above all, interactive way for SM execs to come together to solve the biggest CSM problems they face. c) Case Studies: In our 4 - 5 case studies, we will focus exclusively on how one company has succeeded in one particular area of using SM for external comms/marketing. We'll cover Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and corporate blogging in depth, giving you the insight you need to set up a successful presence in each of these SM spaces. The companies selected to deliver these case studies are those that have proven, quantifiable success on these networks - success you can use to strengthen your own SM strategy.
- Whilst we will put together an exhibition for the best social media solution providers to gather and show you their products and services, we will not allow them to dominate our agenda. We're pretty protective of it. Any speaker at the conference (and this includes corporates!) will have to create a tailored speech, specifically for this event - and it will need to be vetted by Useful Social Media before we let it be presented to our audience. This should ensure that each of our sessions sticks to topic, attendees hear what they expect (and need) and there are no vague sessions on nothing in particular.
Anyway, as you may be able to tell, I am pretty excited! Hopefully this seems pretty appealing for you too.
If you've got any questions or feedback, just get in touch - either in the comments below, or with me directly on nick.johnson@usefulsocialmedia.com.
Cheers,
Nick