March 28, 2012#Austin2Boston

JimStorer

Co-founder and principal

at The Community Roundtable

@jimstorer

Lauren Vargas

Community Management Strategist at

Aetna

@vargasl

Margot Bloomstein

Principal of Appropriate,

Inc.

@mbloomstein

JessicaPaar

Sr. Public Relations Manager,

Boston Beer Company

@samadamsbeer

AdamCohen

SVP Digital and Social Media at

Fleishman-Hillard

@adamcohen

#Austin2Boston

Valuable, Useful and EntertainingBRANDS: TO WIN MAKE YOURSELF…

@adamcohen

• Innovate• BEWARE: Official vs.

Unofficial• It’s not for everybodyF O R B R A N D S

I T ’ S B E C O M I N G M O R E D I F F I C U LT

@adamcohen

• Engagement is king

• This all still applies to B2B, Financial Services and other industries

• “Surprise and delight” customers is never a bad approach

• Go back to the beginning:Start with insight about the audience

Keep It REAL

@adamcohen

Returning to Boston with #SxSARS

@vargasl

Playing by the Rules

@vargasl

• Manage the gray of personal/professional boundaries – Build and socialize governance documents

• Understand legal, compliance and privacy policy and guidelines

• Encourage workforce to embrace community manager responsibilities – 3E’s via @Oxfam: Educate, Entertain, Engage

( c u l t u re c h a n g e t h ro u g h e d u c a ti o n - w i t h o u t i n c i ti n g fe a r )

Legal-Up

@vargasl

• Encourage transparency and context of industry-regulated policies and guidelines

• Develop processes that amplify the humanity of an organization and scale social media as a customer service tool (not just marketing)

• Explore the meaning of intellectual property in a social organization

• Don’t be afraid to say “No.”

Walking the Talk“It’s hard to be a rabid fan of a process.” – Debra Askanese (@askdebra)

@vargas l

What’s Your Super Hero Back Story??

The BIG Fish

@jimstorer

What’s Your Super Hero Back Story??

The BIG Fish

@jimstorer

1. Community builders on the brand side are getting tired.

3. Work/Life Balance? How about Life Balance?!?!

2. Serendipity happens, but not if you’re focused on your phone. The Small Frye

@jimstorer

This just in!!

@jimstorer

Stay true to yourself and to your audience.

Crowd Craft Project: B’Austin Ale

“…this is pretty much one of the most brilliant uses of social media

in the beverage business I have seen so far.”

“Now you can do something useful on Facebook for once.

Help make a beer.”

“The final brew, B’Austin ale was a big hit during the Girl + Guy Interactive party on

Saturday night.” 

“Well, consider this my official request that the

beer be brewed year-round, bottled, and sold in six-

packs. Sam Adams sent me a bottle of the beer to sample, and man, is it

good.”

@samadamsbeer

• There’s a lot of noise. You have to be creative, not just look shiny, to actually engage the audience.

• Relationships move the needle. Great opportunity to network with smart, creative people.

• Measurement is tough.

• Focus on local. Bringing a little piece of Boston to Austin resonated.

Other key learnings from SXSWi

Crowd Craft Project

@samadamsbeer

• Customer engagement is key. Continue to engage in a dialogue with drinkers.

• Partner with the right people.

• Leverage social media tools to share, broadcast, and curate.

Continuing the Dialogue

@samadamsbeer

SXSW = LAYERS…on existing interests…on existing knowledge…on existing relationships

@mbloomstein

@mbloomstein

@mbloomstein

@mbloomstein

• Don’t expect anything new—even you, Billy Corgan—but embrace what you have.

• Enrich what you know or suspect.• Enhance relationships by layering and

adding contexts.• Engage with your audience and

community.

Layers > novelty

Embrace, enrich, enhance, & engage

@mbloomstein

• Grow up. Now is the time to mature our thinking, processes, and budgets.

• Invest in core communication goals before chasing new channels.

• Fight FOMO in platforms and parties.Be where you are.

What now, what next?

@mbloomstein

JimStorer

Co-founder and principal

at The Community Roundtable

@jimstorer

Lauren Vargas

Community Management Strategist at

Aetna

@vargasl

Margot Bloomstein

Principal of Appropriate,

Inc.

@mbloomstein

JessicaPaar

Sr. Public Relations Manager,

Boston Beer Company

@samadamsbeer

AdamCohen

SVP Digital and Social Media at

Fleishman-Hillard

@adamcohen

Thank you! #Austin2Boston