Social Media Week NYC – That’s a wrap!
I’m a big fan of Social Media Week all over the world. But, as all good things have to come to anend, the 4th annual SMW12 NYC (#SMWNYC), officially ended on Friday. It seemed to me that SMW NYC with their packed schedule and multiple events was changing the world one session at a time!
Some of the most memorable events started out over at Bloomberg World, with prominent keynote speaker, John Bell, Global Managing Director of Social Media at Ogilvy. Heading up a team of 500 social media employees over the span of 35 countries (incredible); John stressed the urgency to socialize our own businesses to socialize our enterprises.
Of course, I attended the “close quarters” Valentine’s Day gathering. There was love in the air as Shana Dressler of Social Innovators Collective put on a fabulous networking event, match making entrepreneurs and non profits for Social Good. Social Innovators Collective brings together the brightest, most innovative individuals and companies serving non profits. Find ways you can contribute to the collective!
On Valentine’s day I was heartfelt to meet Yao Huang who told me about “The Hatchery” (Are You Serious?) event the following 
night. It was indeed a great event covering marketing, finance, technology, etc. Presenting in a rather unique way, the panelists included, Bill Reinish of Paladin Capital Group, Kirill Sheynkman of RTP Ventures, Sachin Jade of Klifer Capital, and Brad Harrison of BHV. The Hatcherty and Yao are also doing some exciting things with new new startups. One of my favorite projects is Win4Causes.com… Check it out.
Next night, it was time for the #SUXORZ: the worst social media screw-ups of 2011. I attended the event with friend Brittany Brady of Sysomos and we had a blast! The event took place at the Gershwin, with panelists Brian Clark, BL Ochman, Jessica Amason, Brian Morrissey, moderator (Blogads CEO) Henry Copeland and Social Media DJ Jon Accarino. Fortunately I was able to laugh (and not cry) about some very poorly executed social media initiatives. All in all, the winners (or losers) made some brave attempts; just came up a little short….and ‘lost’. I guess we should thank the winners for helping us know what not to do! Sometimes you can learn more from failure than success. Last week I wrote about some other Social Media #Fail lessons learned here.
David Eastman, CEO of JWT North America, focused his talk on Facebook coming up with his own definition of the big four tech companies as GAFA. You guessed it; Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. According to Eastman, whichever of these four giants that first position themselves to control the formula - Digital Identity + Digital Media Consumption +Mobile Devices will control the market. He also emphasized that Facebook is a tactic, not a strategy. (Great) A strategy is always needed for successful marketing.
Ann Mack, Director of Trendspotting (coolest title ever) for JWT, shared details on claims that “73% of American adults agree 
that people use social media to brag about their lives. – Ann Mack #smwjwt. Ann outlined trends that are shaping social media. “Between social media, the advancement of mobile technology and location based services, there is a radical transparency in all of our lives. “Conspicuous living” has reached an all-time high. She continued to project that we’ll see more services like Turntable.fm and Yobongo, which make it fun to discover new music or people.
So what’s happening with Non Profits? The New York Public Library, Angela Montefinise, quotes Toby Daniels (@tobyd), the CEO of Crowdcentric and the Founder & Executive Director of Social Media Week. “Non profits have been able to start quickly, experiment, invest very little and incrementally build on successes over time, learning as they move forward from their mistakes and from the interactions they have with their users. There’s nothing, essentially, holding them back or making these kinds of strides.” Specifically, he referred to social media’s impact on non-profits like The New York Public Library, which hosted four events plus the opening reception at its landmark building on 42nd Street. “I think what the Library is doing is phenomenal. I think it’s some of the smartest and most interesting stuff out there. …I don’t see very many libraries using social media. The future for any organization, obviously libraries included, is in being able to reach and engage your community through multiple mediums. The physical pieces will continue to be very important, but continuing to engage them elsewhere is incredibly important.”
One of the panels early on in the conference highlighted NYPL’s successful Twitter model, which won a PR News Non-Profit PR Award in 2010.
There’s no doubt, if you wanted all the tricks and tools of Social Media, SMW NYC12 was the place to be! What was so true to the topic was that the presentations, panels and events from all over the world were live online! Tweet your question and lo and behold – an (almost immediate) response! And check out the screen shot (below) of Social Media Week Real Time Infographic.
Can’t wait ‘til next year!
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