Valley PR Blog

Social Media AZ highlights

By Angelo Fernando on August 21st, 2009 In Professional Development, Social Media

Many people I spoke to at yesterday’s  Social Media AZ conference were there, not just to hear something they hadn’t heard before,  (in an industry that’s changing every three seconds) but to exchange ideas, and connect.

Al Maag, Chief comms officer of Avnet set the scene with a keynote on a topic that almost everyone there has wrestled with: How to tell your bosses it’s time to get embrace social media.

He spoke  of not just the successes, but the mistakes along the way. A refreshing thing, once you’ve heard a lot of great case studies,  often leaving you with the feeling there’s no tolerance for error. His main approach to the C-Suite was to tell them the train has left the station.

Some great quotes and highlights:

• “LinkedIn is the new Rolodex, videos are vital, Twitter is not for everyone” – Al Maag

• “In social media, do you want to measure the media, or the social?” – Ed Brice

• “Don’t sweat the metrics question too much. The ultimate metric is trust.” – Jay Baer

• “There is money for social media –it often peels out of different buckets such as SEO, marketing, advertising…” Sheila Kloefkorn

• “Tap into the expertise of your organization, and create a ‘content stew” – Pam Slim

• “Humanize your company” – Jay Baer

• “Focus on the bottom of the marketing funnel” -  Chris Hewitt

• “Segment your audience before forming tactics.” – Michael Corak

• “Social media doesn’t scale.  It’s a commitment.” -Ed Brice

• “Sales and leads are not the objective.  People don’t want to be sold to.  Conversations are not about ROI.” – Ed Brice

Incidentally, here are some of the presentations:

• The anatomy of a social media plan – Mike Corak & Chris Sietsema

• The Seven-Step Program – Jay Baer

• Cutting through the social media noise – Moderated by Kathy Sachs, the panel included Jay Baer, Chris Johnson, Cindy Kim and Tiffany Winman
  Note: there are just two slides, but it captured the whole audio

• The ROI of Social Media – Ed Brice

• Amp up the Personal in your Brand – Pam Slim

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