SocialChorus Blog

Event: Benchmark NYC Wrap Up

by Anna Eschenburg on May 14, 2012

This post comes to you from Melissa Murphy, our Senior Manager, Influencer Activation & Collaboration here at SocialChorus. You can follow her on Twitter at @melmurphytweets.

Last week, SocialChorus sponsored the Benchmark NY – ‘Setting Standards for Success in Social Media’ conference. Putting a spin on the traditional format, Benchmark featured the opportunity to sit down with the day’s presenters over lunch and delve deeper into conversation about case studies and presentations, and the event’s truly engaging format did not disappoint! Attendees sat at round tables and actually chatted between sessions. During lunch people bounced from table to table, casually interacting with speakers, sponsors, and attendees – it was so refreshing.

Benchmark poster 768x1024 Event: Benchmark NYC Wrap Up

The presentations varied, from brands like Pepsi presenting case studies along side their agencies, to a panel of social savvy women advising about the ROI of actually listening to them.

One of my favorite panels was moderated by Rachel Sklar and featured power women that had the same overall message. How could a group of men in a board room possibly have better ideas on marketing to women, then women themselves?

Women: The Secret ROI engine w/ @rachelsklar @cindygallop @meganberry @kmaverick @redstamp_erin @lisajoyrosner #bnchmrk

— SocialChorus (@socialchorus) May 9, 2012

Womens Panel 1024x768 Event: Benchmark NYC Wrap Up

One of my other favorite panels was with Britta Schell, Director of Digital Strategic Insights at MTV. She spends her time with Millennials to find out what makes them tick, so she can report back to MTV. During her most recent project, ‘Millennials, Decoded: Inside Millennial Digital Culture,’ she awarded this generation (who has grown up with digital media) as born publicists. They know and understand social marketing platforms, and have no problem creating and maintaining their personal brand.

Overall, my key takeaway of the day was to really know and understand your target audience.

May 14, 2012

Event: BDI’s Social & Mobile Financial Services Communications: Case Studies and Roundtables

by Anna Eschenburg on May 10, 2012

What: Business Development Institute’s Social & Mobile Financial Services Communications: Case Studies & Roundtables

When: May 17, 2012

Why: This conference will demonstrate the best case studies of how major financial brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile and social communications. Our CEO, Greg Shove, will moderate a roundtable discussion on Overcoming Compliance Challenges to Social Media. Other speakers of the day include Michal Shapira, Assoc VP, Digital Marketing, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network; Scott Gulbransen, Director of Social Media, H&R Block and Jay Mandel, Leader, Global Digital Marketing, MasterCard.

May 10, 2012

SocialChorus in This Month’s AdAge!

by Anna Eschenburg on May 9, 2012

We’re very excited to be listed in this month’s Advertising Age! Our growth stems from the expansion of our influencer marketing services all powered by our technology platform which provides agencies and brands the tools to deliver efficiency, scale and meaningful results from their influencer marketing.

May 9, 2012 ad age

Events: WOMMA, Benchmark, Word of Mouth Crash Course & OMMA Social

by Anna Eschenburg on May 7, 2012

The next few weeks are busy with events for SocialChorus. Let us know if you’ll be attending, we’d love to connect!

What: WOMMA WOMM-U
When: May 7-9, 2012
Where: Radisson Blue Aqua Hotel, Chicago
Who: Greg Shove, CEO, @gregshove

What: benchmark.
When: May 9, 2012
Where: Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC
Who: Joe Burton, President & COO, @joeburtontwtr, Craig Katz, VP of Sales, @craig_katz, Melissa Murphy, Senior Manager, Influencer Activation & Collaboration, @melmurphytweets
Discount code: bnchmrksc (case sensitive for $130 off your registration!)

What: Word of Mouth Crash Course
When: May 10, 2012
Where: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, Austin
Who: Greg Shove, CEO, @gregshove

What: OMMA Social
When: May 15, 2012
Where: 82Mercer – Internet Week Headquarters, NYC
Who: Greg Shove, CEO, @gregshove

As always, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter as well @socialchorus.

May 7, 2012 events

Event: SocialChorus at Benchmark NYC and a Giveaway!

by Anna Eschenburg on May 3, 2012

What: benchmark.

When: May 9, 2012

Where: Metropolitan Pavilion, New York

Why: Benchmark isn’t your average social media conference, and is instead an interactive conference for an interactively engaged crowd. Putting a spin on the traditional format, Benchmark features the opportunity to sit down with the day’s presenters over lunch and delve deeper into conversation about case studies and presentations. At Benchmark, you’ll meet the people that matter and have made a difference in the social media world. Jon Steinberg, President of BuzzFeed; Frank Cotignola, Category Insights Manager, Kraft Foods; Matthew Knell, Social Media Director, AOL and Todd Wilms, Senior Director, Global Social Media, SAP are just some of the big names on the list.

Discount Code: Register with our discount code to receive $130 off registration: bnchmrksc (it’s case sensitive!)

And even better…we’re giving away a ticket for you to join us! Enter for your chance by retweeting the tweet below or this blog post. Just make sure to include the hashtag #socialchorus! We’ll announce the winner on Tuesday, May 8th.

We’re giving away a pass to the @benchmarkNY social media conference May 9th! RT & include #socialchorus to enter bit.ly/JWw3Lc

— SocialChorus (@socialchorus) May 3, 2012

Hope to see you there, let us know if you’ll be there by tweeting @socialchorus.

May 3, 2012 events

In the Hot Seat: Our New VP of Sales, East: Craig Katz

by Anna Eschenburg on April 18, 2012

The last few months have been a very exciting time for the team at SocialChorus. This week was no exception, as we brought on Craig Katz as our new VP of Sales, East. Craig has been in leadership for almost a decade building start-ups and managing multimillion-dollar sales organizations. The majority of his media career began with CareerBuilder.com where he built and led two different business units to multimillion-dollar results. Recently, Craig has been immersed in social media working for Janrain, selling social authentication, loyalty & rewards and CRM. His responsibilities included building an International and Regional US sales organization. Craig is also finishing his MBA from Penn State University, which will be completed in June 2012.

1) What does the power middle mean to you?
The power middle are influencers that matter, these are people who have a good following of loyal advocates and can expand engagement of a product, brand or topic. As an aggregate the power middle can deliver millions of social action very quickly.

2) What brand do you think is doing an awesome job in social? Why?
I would say Starbucks is doing a great job, they engage their advocates through multiple channels such as as Facebook (29 Million+ fans), Twitter (2.3 Million+ followers), YouTube, My Starbucks idea, mobile apps and their blog. Starbucks gives their advocates choice and many different experiences to engage with their brand.

3) What’s your must read blog?
All Things Digital and Mashable are the places I go to first for information.

4) What are you most looking forward to at SocialChorus?
I’d have to say that everyone that I’ve met at SocialChorus has been extremely helpful and incredibly smart. I’m very excited to be a part of the team. I’m looking forward to collaborating and working with the team, ultimately delivering strong sales results to the organization.

5) What was your craziest pre SocialChorus gig?
My craziest pre SocialChorus gig was probably back in high school, I used to get up at 3am on Saturdays and put together hundreds of Sunday papers with the print advertisements inserts for the local 7-11 store. This was definitely NOT a fun job!

6) What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
Outside of work my favorite activity would be spending time with the family. My wife Shanon and I have two children, Nina who is five and Craig Jr. who is one. I’m also an avid snowboarder. I learned 15 years ago after watching a bunch of 5 years olds kick my butt on the slopes. I’m hoping to get back on the board in the near future.

April 18, 2012 employee spotlight, in the hot seat

Influencer Marketing was Everywhere at SXSW

by Greg Shove on April 9, 2012

While SXSW was almost a month ago, the lessons in influencer marketing it offers are invaluable.

Influencer marketing was everywhere at SXSW, and what brands did at the conference mirrored real world influencer marketing efforts. Influencers were wooed in large groups (giving away umbrellas to the rain-soaked crowd), small groups (lunches at the CNN Grill), and with one-on-one meetings in the lobby of the Four Seasons or at the W Hotel bar.

SXSW is unique – it’s an event with a very high concentration of social influencers (who can amplify brand messages), but the tricky part is navigating the ‘quality vs. quantity’ challenge. The ask of the influencer immediately sets the tone of the relationship you want with them: what are you asking them to do for the brand? Is the goal quick brand awareness (“tweet this”) or do you want something more? The more you ask from influencers, the more you need to forge an enduring relationship, with more value exchange. A one-time brand tweet by an influencer is an Influencer Transaction – and it could also be the first action in an ongoing Influencer Relationship. At SXSW, brands were doing all of the above – from tweets to test drives, to 60 minute meetings in the bar.

For the marketer, the challenge is how to scale their influencer marketing efforts, as there are now hundreds of thousands of potential influencers (and just not enough time or lobby bars).

Here are some possible solutions:

1. Find the right influencers and incentivize a transaction. Services like Klout or Peerindex make it easier to assess who to offer these discount codes to in exchange for a tweet or share. The brand/influencer relationship is basically rented, and after the onetime transaction, no further ROI is typically accrued.

2. Find the right influencers and collaborate with them. At SocialChorus we ask influencers to collaborate directly with the brand, whether that means testing a newly launched car, smartphone or drink. Influencers then mash-up their opinions with brand content, and share it with their audiences. These kinds of programs typically unfold over several months, and usually involve several activities between the brand and the influencer. The relationship is typically more collaborative, and enables the brand to reward the influencer over time.

3. Find the right influencers and meet them. At SXSW, brands and agencies hosted one on one meetups throughout the conference. The Samsung Blogger Lounge was one place where I hung out for a while – no alcohol, but lots of cool technology and other influencers to meet and compare notes with. This type of high engagement outreach, usually includes a high value ask from the brand (Hey, take an hour out of your day and visit the lounge!), and results in high value influence and consumer engagement.

Most brands will probably use some or all three approaches during the next 12 months. The good news is that there is MORE influence now (created by more influencers), and it’s more readily identified and measured. Additionally, using technology platforms, influencer marketing programs can be scaled and tracked. Managing ongoing relationships with thousands of influencers was just not possible a year ago – now it is. Next year, some of our clients will be using our platform to manage tens of thousands of valuable influencer relationships.

April 9, 2012 influencer marketing, sxsw