Renowned Social Media Experts to Speak at “Social Media Today” Conference

Chris Brogan and Jeffrey Hayzlett are among the presenters at upstate New York’s premier social media conference for mid- to large-size businesses

Rochester, N.Y., October 28, 2009—Some of the biggest names in social media will be in Rochester on Wednesday, November 11, for Social Media Today (SM2Day)—the first conference of its kind to be held in upstate New York. The keynote speaker will be Chris Brogan, a ten-year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies. He will be joined by other prominent experts in the field in discussing social media marketing tools and strategies for mid- to large-size businesses. SM2Day will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery, located at 500 University Avenue in Rochester.

SM2Day aims to educate and inform marketing professionals, senior executives, business owners, and advertisers about the evolving marketing and communications landscape—providing them with the tools they need to start a social media strategy or improve the one they have. Presentation topics will focus on social media for business, branding, development, measuring return on investment (ROI), legal policy, and corporate blogging, among others. The conference will also feature case studies from Kodak and Freed Maxick & Battaglia, CPAs

“Social media undoubtedly has changed the way people communicate, and therefore businesses must adapt to not only connect with their audiences but also to remain competitive,” said Ana Roca Castro, CEO, Premier Social Media and SM2Day organizer. “Social Media Today is a momentous conference for upstate New York, as it’s the first to bring the cream of the crop in social media to the area. The all-star roster of speakers will help to educate senior executives on the business applications of social media to round out and improve their communications strategies.”

Brogan is among the lineup of featured speakers that includes: Jeffrey Hayzlett, chief marketing officer and vice president, Eastman Kodak Company; Ana Roca Castro, founder/CEO, Premier Social Media; Aaron Newman, founder and president, Techrigy, Inc.; Kevin Flynn, partner, Martino Flynn LLC; Eric Majchrzak, marketing manager, Freed Maxick & Battaglia CPAs; Nicole Black, counsel to Fiandach and Fiandach and founder, lawtechTalk.com; and Luis Martinez, managing principal, Gran Altura, LLC.

Registration is required. Tickets are $170 each, and may be purchased online at www.SM2day.com. The cost includes lunch, beverages throughout the day, and insight from event speakers. Brogan will also be signing copies of his book, “The Trust Agent,” and will be giving a complimentary copy to every attendee.

SM2Day is hosted by Premier Social Media, a Rochester-based company that provides social media consulting for businesses and offers Facebook, Twitter, and iPhone application development services. The conference title sponsor is Martino Flynn, LLC, a Rochester-based full-service advertising, public relations, and digital media agency. Other sponsors include Mashable, Oracle, Accenture, and Freed Maxick & Battaglia, CPAs. The recipient partner will be Latinas Unidas.  Proceeds will support the non-profit organization’s annual Rally, which provides young Latinas with an opportunity to celebrate their heritage and explore career choices in the greater Rochester area.

For more information about the conference, visit www.sm2day.com. For event updates on Twitter, follow www.twitter.com/AnaRC or www.twitter.com/sm2day.

As some of you know already, SM2DAY conference registration includes a Trust Agent Book written by Chris Brogan.  We have them here now so please contact Jenny at admin@sm2day to arrange a pick up.  If you don’t have time to pick it up at our office, don’t worry, we’ll bring them to the Memorial Art Gallery on November 11th.  However I would strongly recommend you start reading it early.  It can be a great preparation for the event and Chris will be happier to sign it if he knows you’ve read some of it.  Corporate registrations with more than 4 seats can get the book delivered to their reception.  In case you haven’t registered, what are you waiting for? Register now.

For some people, social media is all about the numbers.  How many followers you have on Twitter, how many friends you made on Facebook, etc. When you first get into this method of promotion, that’s what seems to be the best way to measure your success, but is it?

While having plenty of followers is definitely a good thing, it doesn’t mean you aren’t successful if you have just 900 people following you on Twitter. The real test is whether or not these are active friends, people who will either buy from you or promote you. If you have 100,000 followers and only 50 of them are really interested in your product, then you don’t really need the remaining 95,000 . . . it’s just more noise.

Does this mean you should get rid of everyone who isn’t actively retweeting or sharing your links? Not necessarily. But it does mean that you should reevaluate what you equate with success.

What is Social Media Success?

Each company will need to determine exactly what they consider to be success. Numbers of followers are rarely a good place to start. You can easily gain hundreds of “friends” simply by befriending everyone you come across on a social media site. So what should you be looking at? There are several ways to distinguish the your success:

• Traffic. Aim to bring in a certain amount of traffic with social media and then work on that. While this is still a numbers game, it is far more specific.
• Sales. An increase in sales as a direct result of your social networking efforts is a good way to judge how successful you are.
• Publicity. When other people start talking about you, on blogs, Twitter, and newsletters without you asking them to, you can use this as a measurement of success, as well.

Of course, each business will have their own methods of measuring success and you can come up with your own. What you hope to accomplish with social media is a goal that you and only you can set for yourself.

Once you know what you want and how you are going to know when you reach it, a plan is in order. Write down how you will reach your goal, step by step. This might be something simple, such as tweeting 3 times a day, or adding 3 new, related friends on LinkedIn each day, or holding a contest or giveaway each month. Multiple methods are often best for really getting your name out there. You’ll find that most popular social media users are active in a variety of ways across their chosen networks, often gaining plenty of publicity in the process.

While number can be significant, don’t get too hung up on them. Instead, look for more tangible methods of measuring your success with social media.

Whether you like it or not, whether you are in or out, there is a conversation going on. Social Media Today (sm2day) will help business executives learn from the best players in the field.  Millions are now using social media tools to raise their voices and have them heard via electronic communities.  How involved are you? Is your business part of “the discussion” as social media is often termed? How can you get started? Can your business really benefit from Social Media? At sm2day we provide answers communicators and business people need to make use of these valuable tools. We reveal this much needed advice and information through an objective group of speakers and experts who work, develop and brief social media innovation for businesses around the world.

This blog is not intended to market any one event, we would have created a static website for that.  It is intended to be the start of a social media conversation.  Tell us what’s missing on the agenda, what else you would like to see, give us your questions in advance so the speakers can prepare a great presentation. One which will enhance the conversation, provide invaluable advice and strategy for those who need it most, the people who want to engage the digital world.

We will also use the blog to give you updates and to post great links related to social media and business. At the same time, we’ll offer you some tools that will help you prepare for the events that shape the ways in which we should and will communicate in the future.

Let the this conversation officially begin…..