The Social Experience of Media - planning for our event next week with Internet Week

Next Tuesday evening I am moderating a discussion about how online and device-driven social behaviors are the way audiences engage with content and various forms of media - what this means for businesses, and how best to join the conversation productively, effectively and without waste or the 'me too' syndrome. After all - there's no point building a facebook page just because.

Sometimes, we say that people are changing because of technology - what did we used to do before cell phones, facebook, foursquare, something else? How did we stay in touch? Parents worry about the amount of time their teenage daughter spends im'ing her friends, or sharing pictures or texting. But at the same age, most of us would have instead been on the telephone for hours, perhaps dragging an extension cord into a closet for privacy if we weren't lucky enough to have our own dedicated number. Now there's a better platform for gossip and real-time constant communication. Not much changes.

Technology in itself does not change people – it merely facilitates our natural urges and enables or amplifies what we want to do.
Just a few years ago, if someone saw a TV show that they did not like, they might make a snarky comment to 2 or 3 people the following day. Now, if someone does not like a program, they can share a snarky comment with hundreds or even thousands of people via Twitter or other channels, who can then pass it along until it has potentially reached millions. This is not all bad news – as we have seen, ‘going viral’ works for positive feedback as well.

Most forms of media –whether in the form of magazines, films, television, music, written articles – have become a social experience in itself. What we watch, read, buy, listen to all become ways in which we can connect with friends and identify with like minded groups, express ourselves, differentiate ourselves, and give feedback to the brand or content creator about our needs and our likes and dislikes. These interactions then frequently become the vehicles that are used to influence what to buy/wear/watch and otherwise spend our time in the future, and can also shape the nature of the content that is available to us in itself because of this two-way communication potential.

The interplay between created content and social or earned media creates a huge opportunity for traditional businesses to set themselves apart from their competition, and to build trust, understanding and engagement with customers. But how exactly do we approach this, and how can we know what’s right for our particular situation?

Adrift as we are in a sea of possibility, within which we are more likely to perish from indigestion rather than starvation, it is useful to hear from practitioners about their current strategies and – perhaps more importantly – what has been effective in the past, and what’s working today.

That is the goal of the event.

The discussion will focus specifically on, and provide case examples of how brands, businesses and content creators have entered the social space, and reaped the benefits either through loyalty-building, audience building, increased sales or some other metric.

Here is our panelist lineup:

Caroline Waxler, Director of Online Content for Lucky Magazine

Dana Offenbach, Film Producer and Partner, Cinema Street Pictures

Nelly Yusupova, Social media expert and CTO of Webgrrls International

Angie Gentile, Asst Brand Manager, PepsiCo

The event is Women Leaders Speak: The Social Experience of Media, and it is an official partner of Internet week. Click here for tickets and further details

Comments

I attend to this event got to thanked the organizer of this what they done is perfect. Great speakers I learned a lot from this event.