Thanks to the “social smoosh,” with social platforms becoming ever more tightly integrated into every area of our lives - from purchasing to family photos and everything in between - living outside of social media is a bit like living without electricity: You can do it if you really want to and are willing to change your life dramatically, but that life will be more isolating, frustrating, and boring. Marcy Massura, Weber Shandwick digital strategist and community manager for some of the world’s most iconic brands, will explain why opting out of the social space is increasingly no option at all - and what that means for your business.

Orabrush’s “Reverse Marketing Model” creates high levels of global awareness with social media, online purchase and offline retailer distribution at far less cost and in much less time than traditional methods. The company has gone from no awareness and no purchase to 40 million views on its YouTube channel, 170,000+ subscribers to its channel (3rd most subscribed sponsor channel on YouTube behind Old Spice and Apple) and global retail distribution in 9 countries, 50 retailers and 25,000 stores in less than 18 months. The Orabrush story is one worth watching.

When Company X, which had over 200,000 Twitter followers and more than 25,000 employees on LinkedIn, promoted a video on Twitter, the video was retweeted 25 times over 6 weeks. Yikes. Where were the employees—how come they weren't amplifying the company's message into their online networks?

Turns out, a corporate policy forbidding employees from engaging in social conversations on behalf of the company had muzzled them all.

In limiting the risk of a a rogue tweet, the company had destroyed its ability to create traction around its content. It had also eroded its employer brand by forcing employees into a position that made them look apathetic about where they worked.

In this session, we'll take a more nuanced look at specific elements of digital media policies, guidelines, and training programs and their impact on social media strategy execution.

Key takeaways include:

3 hidden risk factors that can sink your social media campaign before it launches

3 keys to designing an effective "workforce marketing" program—and why it's important to have one

A rubric for determining if an issue should be addressed by policy, guideline, or training

Succeeding at social media means finding your audiences where they live, and joining conversations as they happen. Looking at the kind of information we share and the kind of information we read (and the differences between those two categories) can tell us a lot about who we are, who our audiences are, and how we can create a strong, relevant signal amidst an everexpanding sea of noise. What can we learn about ourselves and our audiences from the 8 billion monthly clicks on bitly links?

There is no debate that Facebook is the destination for a lot of consumers around the world. And businesses have taken notice. Growing your fan base and engaging effectively on Facebook is more art than the science. In the social digital realm where the News Feed Optimization is becoming critical, it is important to know what you can do to get your status updates seen and engaged with every single time. On Facebook engagement equals brand exposure and exposure equals fan growth.

This session will discuss lessons learned, tips and tricks of effective engagement. It will show the variety of practical/creative tactics and actionable tips that can help improve your Facebook marketing efforts and grow your fan base.

Attendees will learn:

Actionable and immediately implementable tips that will help you boost your Facebook engagement and grow your fans organically;

A wide range of creative marketing tactics and strategies; and

Examples on what strategies other brands are using to increase their fan engagement and brand visibility.

Launched by Google in 2011, Google+ is the latest social networking tool on the block. Businesses of all types, but especially those in the consumer goods market, are giving the platform a try. In this presentation, attendees will discover the pros and cons of using Google+ from a business point of view, while also learning about how other brands are using the platform.

Social media is sharing at the speed of light and is amazing wonderful for connecting people to information and one another. But what happens when that light turns into lighting and your organization is under attack? In this session, you can learn strategies for managing through online attacks and her case studies how one of the world’s most recognizable brands deals with the social spotlight.

Emerging media is recognized as today’s front and center star in the branding and marketing arena. Beyond branding, emerging media provides organizations with additional immediate opportunities to enhance their results in many areas of businesses including sales, customer service, public relations, recruitment, and research and development. In this 45 min presentation, Carisa (@carisamiklusak) takes participants on a deep dive into utilizing social media as a business-to-business and businessto- consumer tool, addressing the most critical new media issues faced by organizations. Presenting impacts and opportunities, Carisa will share multiple case studies, best practices and tactics that illustrate how to build a commanding and sustainable social business strategy.

At a time when consumers increasingly resent being marketed to, interactive campaigns like sweepstakes, contests and giveaways are a form of marketing that consumers actually like. This session will provide top tips for using social promotions like contests, sweepstakes, coupons and deals to grow your fans, followers, newsletter subscribers and ultimately sales. Stephanie will share the knowledge she’s gained from studying the more than 50,000 social promotions that have run via her company’s social media marketing technology. Her presentation will include tips that have been found to double or even triple a company’s fan page engagement, campaign ideas that have generated 5x ROI and numerous case examples from large brands, small businesses and non-profits.

One of the well-documented effects of this social media age is the influence of a consumer’s personal network in making purchase decisions. The majority of consumers (74%) rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. (Reported by Gartner, July 2010). When it comes to directly selling a product, the power of persuasion is now in the hands of consumer influencers. Chances are if you have a decent customer base or your solution is one that resonates with a number of people, you already have influencers publicly advocating your brand. But have you identified these specific influencers? Maybe you are aware of who they are because you’ve seen their positive testimonials or heard from them directly. If so, what are you doing to cultivate their loyalty such that they will continue to support your product and endorse your brand? In this session, you will learn, through Boingo’s own Superfan development, how to harness the power of your biggest brand advocates by leveraging your social media channels (e.g., blog, Facebook page, Twitter) to identify and deepen the relationship with your brand’s biggest advocates.

In this interactive presentation, Mark Stein, a partner with Higer Lichter & Givner who focuses his practice on Internet usage issues, including Cyber and Social Media Law, as well as Intellectual Property Law, will discuss the latest hot topics and emerging trends, including:

The most important issues regarding social media and Internet usage in the workplace, including Internet usage policies, liability risks for employers, what companies must, should and should not be doing

Risks created by mobile devices and specific policies and steps to consider, as well as the challenges created by mobile devices

The current issues raised by the SOPA/PIPA bills in Congress and the use of social media

The blending of social signals in Google Search continuously gains momentum. This keynote focuses on Google Search, Google+, and the +1 button, with the goal of helping you understand Google's features and objectives so you can best prioritize your social strategy.

Where audiences get their media is changing rapidly. These changes depend on the type of content you are pushing and whom you want to be receiving that content. How do all these new social channels fit in with the story or message you are trying to tell and engage your audiences with. The idea of what is media and the different types of media continue to shift. The paradigm of Paid, Owned, and Earned Media collide with these new channels, furthering the importance and emphasis on the story and message. Michael will talk about how these can work with your message and how marketing departments are beginning to look and work a lot more like Agile Developers.

In 2008, Dunkin’ Donuts launched its Facebook brand page as a community and forum for its passionate fans to interact with one another and communicate with Dunkin’. Dunkin’ Donuts used a healthy amount of experimentation and risk-taking to evolve. DD’s Facebook page is widely considered, by fans and industry pundits alike, to be one of the top brand presences on Facebook due to the various and continuous engagements provided for the fans. Jessica’s presentation will provide an overview of Dunkin’s approach to social media and a review of some of their noteworthy Facebook campaigns and promotions from 2011.

Ramon De Leon will explain how he developed his Six Domino’s Pizza stores with Social Media and Word Of Mouth marketing. He’s even created the concept #RamonWOW that has become synonymous with outstanding service. This is a High Energy session that will leave you feeling like you just got hit with “Visual Caffeine”.

Social media influences organic search listings on the search engines

Google shows real time feeds from Twitter in trending stories

Your search results can display results and recommendations from your social graph

Organic search is still a large traffic driver for most businesses (and if it’s not for yours, you’re missing a huge opportunity), but the influence that social media has on organic search is more than it’s ever been, and it’s going to grow as adoption rates continue to grow. Is your company positioned to take advantage of this growing influence? What social networks should you care about? Twitter? Facebook? +1? Digg? Mixx? This session will walk attendees through the ways that social and organic search interact, and how that relationship is becoming more intertwined. Simon will share case studies and examples from AOL, AOL-UK and the Huffington Post Media Group properties.

Mobile usage is growing at a phenomenal rate. Over 5 billion people globally own a mobile device and over 30% of them use the mobile web. Although, marketing in this new medium is increasing, it still remains relatively under utilized. This represents an opportunity for marketers who want to make an impact and provide value to consumers through deeper integration and partnerships. Linda’s presentation will introduce the audience to mobile opportunities that allow for deeper brand integration, specifically in social, location based, gaming and activation. In addition, Linda will share examples of Volvo’s recent work and best practices that have been garnered along the way.

Social Media Advertising used to be about getting your ‘fans’ to your page. This is still one of the most useful tools in achieving fan growth. However, if you’re only using ads to initially target those who may be interested in your brand, you’re missing the bigger picture. Some of the best known, most highly trafficked, brands in the world are using digital advertising to not only make that first introduction, but to continue to foster greater relationships that will drive traffic and result in trackable ROI. Attendees of Facebook Advertising…Maintaining and Optimizing Engagement will be armed with tools to determine the appropriate channels to use, tactics for social advertising, strategies for engaging brand advocates and practical ways to build a trusted brand through internalized advertising campaigns. This workshop will give brands the potential to break out of their social media comfort zone to create a more engaging way of turning fans into customers. You will leave this workshop with a clear understanding of:

The values of Facebook advertising

When to use ads to achieve campaign goals

How to optimize Facebook landing tabs to convert visitors

The most successful campaign strategy based on business type

How to best engage with those who “Like” your brand

How to use Facebook analytics to your advantage

Top Do’s and Don’ts for Facebook advertising

Get beyond the hot topic of Social Media and get to selling! Join Carisa for this in-depth look at how a sales force can cultivate passionate, engaged fans, followers and brand advocates to drive wild offline and online sales success. Carisa will share the values of the social media user and how an organization can leverage those values in social efforts to drive sales to the bottom line.

Social promotions are an excellent way to engage your audience and encourage them to take action. The challenge with social promotions is ensuring they are effective, compliant and interesting.

This workshop will address the following social promotion considerations:

How does a social promotion fit into your overall marketing plan?

What type of promotions will be most effective for your audience?

What is the effort versus the reward?

Are your promotions legally compliant?

By attending this workshop, you will have a chance to learn how to create a social promotion and the right questions to ask your legal counsel to create a successful social promotion. This workshop will take you from the initial planning stages through the execution and analysis, and will review some of the major compliance issues and solutions to ensure your promotions aren't violating any new media laws.

Social Media 101- Back to the Basics, will walk attendees through important, foundational, how-to’s, tips, tricks and instructions for any organization hoping to find success in social media. While there are many social platforms this session will focus on the three most widely used, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs.

This workshop will use a variety of Meaghan’s most popular articles to reveal important social media strategies including;

Best ways to engage customers

Top ways to get customers to “Like” your brand

Effective methods for measuring ROI

Social media pitfalls to avoid

How to handle customer feedback

Social media goals every enterprise should set

This workshop is geared towards the social media beginner and experts looking for a refresher course.