Posts by admin

Update: If you missed the presentation or want to study up, You can access Rob’s slides on Slide Share.

Rob will be speaking at PRSA’s  Digital Impact Conference taking place on Thursday April 30, 2009.

Rob will be speaking on:

Listening to the Conversation — The New Communications Imperative: New Listening Techniques to Gather Intelligence for Communication and Product Strategies

He will discuss how the use of listening technologies can help companies learn how people are relating to their brand, product and customer experiences.

The Digital Impact Conference was created to bring Digital Thought Leaders to demonstrate how to:

• Build a business case in the boardroom for public relations-led online communications and ensure ROI for your company from online initiatives.
• Assess your risk and successfully navigate the often rocky rapids of Web-based communications channels for public relations purposes.
• Ensure your future in the realm of digital communications.

The conference be held at:
Conference Location
101 River View
101 Sixth Avenue
New York, NY 10013

You can catch Rob on Thursday from 1:45 – 2:45 pm in Grand Hall B.

If you’d like to join us Register Here
You can also check out the Conference Blog for more information from some of the speakers

On Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Rob Key will leading a Vocus webinar on “Monitoring the Social Media Conversation from Twitter to Facebook.” With Jenna Petroff, manager of PR for Hardee’s at 2:00 p.m.

Together they will cover:
• How to positively impact your company’s online reputation
• Monitor your online reputation – and that of your competitor’s
• Uncover potential sales opportunities for your company

You can join us for the Free Webinar Here

Secondly, Paull Young will be speaking at the Society for New Communications Research NewCommForum on Monday, April 27 2009.

He had this to say about it on his blog:

“I’ll be appearing on a panel led by Susan Getgood discussing blogger relations with a focus on my work with Converseon client Graco (who received a commendation of excellence for blogger relations in the 2008 SNCR awards).

We’re also going to cover the FTC’s proposed regulations on online testimonials & blogger outreach, while I’m planning on ranting a little bit about my concerns about the ethics and sustainability of all the blogger bribing I’m seeing out there, along with my thoughts that blogger relations shouldn’t be carried out by agencies to generate ‘coverage’ – all to often the PR 2.0 solution I see getting sold to brands.”

If you’re interested in more information about why you should attend NewCommForum09 check out Paull’s post on 10 Reasons Why You Should Attend NewCommForum.

Or you can register here and save $100 with the code SNCRFREIND.

We hope to see you soon.

Re:think 2009 ARFConvention

On March 30 and April 1st 2009 Converseon is participating to the prestigious Re:think 2009 – The Annual Convention and Expo organized in New York by the Advertising Research Foundation. The conference provides brands an unprecedented opportunity to understand and evaluate the industry’s leading and newest solutions, and it’s bound to be a crucial event in the research industry’s effort to reinvent itself and regain its relevance in the social media age.

At Re:think we’re presenting our solutions and process for establishing an effective “listening zone”, based on our proprietary technologies. If you’re at the conference please come and meet us at our booth in the Expo hall. We’ll be happy to meet you and discuss about Converseon’s “next generation” Conversation Mining™ solution that is rapidly being adopted by leading brands around the world.

Early this morning New York time Converseon partner Vivaki launched their Real Social Suite for the EMEA region in London.

Converseon is proud to be at the core of this service offering alongside brands like Facebook and strong Publicis agencies such as Digitas. Converseon’s UK lead was in attendance at the London event and we’re looking to provide more updates about our continued expansion in EMEA throughout the year, be sure to subscribe to the blog for updates.

Brand Republic covered the launch in depth, here’s the highlights from their report:

LONDON – Vivaki, the Publicis Groupe strategic media unit, has partnered with a number of social media firms, including Facebook, as part of its launch and plans a range of tools of its Real Social Suite launch.

The launch of the Real (Reach, Engage, Amplify and Listen) Social Suite brings together social media firms from across Publicis Groupe and in the wider world.

The social media partners, including SocialMedia.com, BzzAgent, Converseon, GoViral and Techlightenment, will combine with a number of Publicis Groupe agencies, namely Denuo, MS&L, Digitas, BlogBang and Performics, to help clients engage with social media and work out how best to talk to consumers.

At the heart of the Real Social Suite are the three steps (reach, engage, amplify and listen) each of which focuses on a specific step in social media.

The various partners will each plug into one of the three steps other than Facebook, which will work with across all three areas through its Facebook Ads system and marketing tools.

The three steps of the Real Social Suite:

Reach – Publicis agencies will tap into the mass reach of social media across brand and performance marketing, and working with partners to expand both CPM and CPC buys.

Through partnerships with Socialmedia.com and Techlightenment, VivaKi agencies will have the ability to access social performance media at scale for their clients.

Engage and Amplify – The VivaKi partners enable clients to participate directly in the social web through the development engaging social experiences.

Techlightenment and Digitas develop social campaigns across social environments that it is hoped will increase and extend a brand’s reach through consumer engagement.

BzzAgent, Performics and MS&L will seek to deliver outreach services across the blogosphere and other consumer generated content.

Through partnerships with GoViral and BlogBang we are also able to offer highly effective video seeding in social environments.

Listen - Using proprietary tools developed in partnership with Converseon, Vivaki will frame social media content alongside search, traditional media and UGC data.

Nick Burcher, VivaKi’s social lead in EMEA, said: “We are effectively helping to build the social media marketplace with the help of premier social media partners and some of the top thinkers in the space.

“We will continue to welcome other social media leaders and pioneers, as we continue to create solutions that allow for engaging conversation with consumers.”

Rob will be speaking with Sandra Fathi, President, Affect Strategies on Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder at SocComm09 on February 10, 2009 at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in New York.

SocComm09 is conference focusing on “Social Communication.”

So what exactly is Social Communication?

Jeff Pulver the founder and director of SocComm has this to say about it:

“It turns out that Social Communications is a pretty broad term which could mean many things to many people. [The goal of SocComm is] to bring together a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and industries and together explore the future of where things are going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there. I expect to bring together people from across the worlds of: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment. Something I would call a “MICE” event.”

SocComm09 will have a mixture of individual talks, on-stage interviews / conversations and a number of “group chat” sessions. Including sessions with Jeff Jarvis, Chris Brogan, and others.

If you are interested in attending you can register here.

OMMA Social is an opportunity for industry leader and enthusiast to get together, share ideas, and learn from each other.

Specifically:

OMMA Social is designed to guide marketing and media professionals through the terrain of social media. This one-day conference will address social marketing challenges and provide insights into how to make social networking work for companies now, and in the future.
Rob Key will be speaking with Cam Balzer, SVP Social, VivaKi Americas, on:

The Odd Couples: What Happens When Social Media Agencies and Advertising Agencies Hook Up?
Advertising agencies have long specialized in one-way blasts to the masses; social media agencies specialize in two-way conversations that are often one-on-one, and yet, as mass media fragments into millions of interactive channels, the two need one another to help advertisers connect with users. A look at how social media agencies and ad agencies are partnering to the benefit of all involved.

They will be drawing on past experience from previous integrated marketing campaigns as well endeavors from the recent partnership between VivaKi and Converseon.

If you are attending we hope that you’ll stop by and say hello.

Last Friday, everyone here at Converseon gathered around for some piazza and Social Media Friday.

Social Media Friday is a time when we get together, share links, talk about recent trends, informative sites and current news about social media.

Here is a look at last week’s links:

Election Day Links:
Dominos Pizza Tracker Takes Political Poll (Republicans order specialty pizzas)

Celebrities work on viral video to “Get out the vote”

Twitter site we users can report voter lines, times, and snafus in real time

Social News:
Ever wish the headlines had a sense of humor? Fark news delivers the news with snarky glee and a forum to make your own comments on the day’s events

Delicious Popular offers the most popular items bookmarked today.  While it is a mix of different things, it’s a bit heavy on programming and design

Keeping track of the most tweeted Urls: Twitturly

Sphin, a social new site for the SEO and Search Marketing Crowd

Twingly, blog search that allows feeds of search terms, this one is for “social media”

Companies in social media:
Pepsi Launches a New Social Media Campaign a gets some constructive criticism

GM’s Social Media News Room shows off blog press release, high-res flickr photos and corporate tweets:

IBM’s Center for Social Software opens news doors for creating collaborate software and research

HP’s Social Computing Lab offers up their research on crowd sourcing, incentive design and other social media topics

Microsoft builds new interdisciplinary research center in New England

Converseon worked in partnership with Graco Children’s Products (a Newell Rubbermaid brand) on a full scale social media strategy. The success of the community building, relationship driven approach has led to us submitting the following case study for the Forrester Groundswell awards on Graco’s behalf.

The Challenge
Connecting a 66 year old brand in a tightly-regulated environment with a highly-interconnected online community of influentials with a proven skepticism towards brands.

Graco needed to assess a complex and fragmented online conversation that occurred across multiple websites and environments including message boards/forums, hundreds of parenting blogs, numerous parenting social networks, Twitter, YouTube and many other social media venues.

The Concept

Graco first “listened” to the conversation to develop a clear understanding of the conversation landscape in the parenting category. This informed a strategy to:

- Make Graco an accepted and welcomed participant in the online parenting conversation.
- Humanize the Graco brand and build lasting relationships with the community by demonstrating that behind the brand are a group of concerned and engaged parents.

Implementation
Listening (“i.e. Conversation Mining”) activity found that there was a robust, active parenting conversation that was largely resistant to commercial efforts to engage them in conversation.

A core thrust of the strategy: Don’t force the brand into the conversations, but instead environments to facilitate relationships between influentials and be invited to the conversation.

A core component: A series of Graco blogger “Get-Together” events across the country t to allow Graco to engage in an acceptable manner. This laid the groundwork for the subsequent launch of a corporate Graco parenting blog authored by a multi-disciplinary team of Graco employees. The blog was carefully crafted to focus on “parent first” issues, stories, advice.

The blogging effort was supported with the complimentary use of other social media tools, including Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and more.

Successes

• Conversation Mining results showed the volume of the online conversation for the Graco Brand nearly doubled, while the polarity of online mentions rose from 68% positive in 2007 to 83% positive in 2008
• Amongst this shift, 100% of posts sparked by proactive outreach have been positive
• A significant increase in positive recommendations/reviews – this desirable topic became the most common discussion of the Graco brand
• Graco featured on the Today Show, Business Week and as a case study at BlogHer Business conference
• In just 6 months is ranked as the 59th top parenting blog in the hundreds strong Parent Power Index
• Thousands of monthly unique visitors to the Graco Blog, increased traffic and conversions at main Graco site
• Graco Blog ranks on the front page of Google for many relevant search terms
• Technorati Authority of 88 resulting from 224 blog reactions in 6 months (higher than many Fortune 500 blogs)
• 155 posts at the Graco blog garnering 530 comments

Hear What Others Have To Say

• Company Blog Check Up: Graco – Mack Collier (5th Best Score so far in Mack’s extensive series of corporate blog reviews)
• Graco Blog is Fantastic and Graco Continues to Rock Their Corporate Blogging Efforts – Jake Mckee (The Community Guy)
• Social Networking is Personal – Kelby Carr
• So You Want To Talk to Mommy Bloggers? – Erin Vest (Queen Of Spain)
• Rubbermaid Unit Gets Parents Talking Online – Atlanta Journal Constitution

To connect with Graco online subscribe to their corporate blog, see parenting blogger videos at the Ready For The Road Ahead car seat site, follow them on Twitter and see pictures from their blogger events on Flickr.

The Converseon team is in mass conference mode this week as CEO Rob Key, Constantin Basturea and Paull Young each appear at leading online communications conferences around the USA. Details follow, if you will be attending any of these events please be sure to seek us out.

SMX ‘Master Social Media Marketing’ Conference– Rob Key Promotes Social Media Evangelism

Location: Long Beach, CA
When: April 22-23 (Rob’s panel is on Wednesday April 23 from 10:40am-12:00pm)

Rob Key will speak on the ‘Evangelist – The Marketer’s Role in SMM’ panel discussing the importance of evangelizing social media as an active participant in online communities in order to truly succeed in social media marketing. The session will also provide tips on how to authentically engage in online communities.

SNCR New Communications Forum – Constantin Basturea Looks to the Future of Public Relations

Location: Sonoma County, CA
When: April 22-25

Converseon has long been a proud supporter of the Society for New Communications Research as it is one of the most forward thinking organizations focusing on the rise of social media. Converseon director of social media and SNCR Fellow Constantin Basturea will be appearing alongside Brian Solis and Darren Barefoot on a panel entitled ‘Detour Ahead: Closing the Road to PR 3.0′.

Authentic Communications Conference – Paull Young Discusses New Methods to Measure Communications ROI

Location: CUNY Graduate Center, New York
When: Thursday, April 24 (Paull’s panel is from 1.30-2.15)

The Authentic Communications conference’s tagline is ‘Beyond Web 2.0’ and it aims to ‘bring together the best minds in the industry to showcase and explore success, failures and discuss how the industry can make sense of and take advantage of the rapidly changing environment facing us‘. Paull Young will be moderating a panel on measurement and ROI featuring Allison Murphy from PR Newswire, Kirsten Osolind of Re:Invention and Edelman’s Steve Rubel.

Converseon will be involved in wide range of upcoming conferences. We’re looking forward to seeing old friends, and making new ones. Don’t hesitate to give us a shout if you’d like to connect at one of the following.

Rob Key will be speaking at Search Engine Strategies in New York on March 17-20th. He’ll be hosting a panel focusing on using Conversation Mining to find new language/keywords. The session, which will take place on Wednesday March 19, is described as follows:

If search engines are tapping into human knowledge more widely through tagging, click through tracking, search history features and other methods, so can search marketers. Social networks, blogs, feeds, tagging, social bookmarking and immersive game environments provide 24/7 real-time focus groups. Learn how Buzzmetrics, Cymfony (and Converseon) and others help quantify and reveal critical insights.

If you’re interested in attending, please leave a comment and we can give you a code for a 20% discount.

The Converseon team will also be present at BlogHer Business in New York on April 3-4 as Christin Eubanks joins our client Graco presenting a social media outreach case study on the successful Graco Get-Together events. BlogHer Business promises to be an informative and exciting conference (check the full agenda here) as some of the leading female bloggers and corporate online marketers combine to share best practices.

For those with a more academic bent, our CTO Jeff Doak will be at the International Conference on Blogs and Social Media (ICWSM) on March 30 to April 2 where he will be engaged in discussion on new research and technologies for social media analysis. Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the Conference “brings together academic and industrial practitioners to present and to discuss new research, applications, thoughts and ideas that are shaping the future of social media analysis.” We’re always interested in meeting those who share a similar passion for the field and are doing interesting research and development, so contact us if interested in meeting.

Converseon will be exhibiting at Ad:Tech San Francisco on April 15-17. Please come by and say hello. Our focus will be discussing best practices in developing social media strategies, with a special emphasis on social media monitoring – what we call Conversation Mining. Please contact us if you’d like a demo of the service.

Also upcoming, Converseon will be speaking and exhibiting at the ACCM show in Orlando on May 19 – 22. As the site describes,

“ACCM is the only conference that provides education in all the areas of multichannel marketing you need to increase profits, control costs and grow your business.” With the continued rise of social media and a renewed focus on performance based acquisition programs (such as through “Affiliate 2.0”), it should be an interesting event. Converseon provides an array of innovative social media, search and affiliate marketing services to multi-channel marketers.

These are just a few of the upcoming events, keep an eye on our Upcoming.org account for more. We’ll update everyone with more details and events in the coming weeks and we hope we’ll see you at one of the conferences.