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.

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

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.

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.

Follow us at @socialchorus and Greg at @gregshove for live discussions from the event. You can register to attend here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What does the power middle mean to you?

To me, the power middle means the way the world communicates has completely shifted. The idea that anybody, from anywhere in the world, can build an audience based solely on the strength of their content and power of their words represents democracy at its finest and is organic to the core. Brands have no choice but to be transparent, and consumers have no choice but to engage. The consumer-brand relationship is changing at a rapid pace.

What brand do you think is doing an awesome job in social? Why?
As cliche as it may be to go with one of our clients, I think PepsiCo does an awesome job of trying a little bit of everything. They’re not afraid to put their content out there using tons of different vehicles.

What’s your must read blog?
Daily I’m reading Gothamist, Videogum, and Deadspin. I’ve probably checked Punknews.org everyday for over a decade.

Best restaurant you’ve eaten at in the last month.
Rye in Brooklyn. If I could afford to eat there every day I would, but that’s mostly because the selection of quality Mexican food in NYC in limited.

What’s your average day like working at SocialChorus?
A day in the life of SocialChorus goes something like this: I start off with a meeting, follow that with a call, and then another meeting. After that it’s decks, team collaboration, and strategy sessions. Then it’s another meeting or call. Eat lunch, and then repeat! Luckily, I like bouncing around and doing a million things at once.

What was your craziest pre SocialChorus gig?
I’m not sure if it counts as a pre SocialChorus gig, but the early days at YouCast were pretty crazy (Halogen & YouCast merged to form SocialChorus earlier this year). There were only a few of us, and like any small company we all wore a lot of hats…even if that hat didn’t fit or we didn’t know why we were wearing it in the first place. It was startup insanity in its truest form, but I learned a lot, and got to work with some amazing people and amazing brands.

What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
I’m a pretty big music nerd and I’m a pretty big baseball geek. Anything involving collecting vinyl or meticulously studying box scores is a good time for me. I also love to cook and play with my dog.

Band of the month: GO!
I’m really digging the newest Lucero (the country / punk band – not Lucero the Mexican pop star) album, “Women & Work.” That came out last month so I guess it’s still pretty new and relevant now.

You can check out the full post here or re-tweet and share below!

Greg Shove, CEO of SocialChorus, shares his effective influencer engagement tactics on The All Things WOM Blog. ow.ly/a3JxS

— WOMMA (@WOMMA) April 3, 2012

What does the power middle mean to you?
For me, these are the “real” people of influence who work at it in earnest; influencers/blogs who are relatable, conversational, culturally relevant and passionate about a brand, lifestyle, hobby or cause. They have a certain influence among others who appreciate well-crafted thoughts about a particular subject, product or service.

What brand do you think is doing an awesome job in social? Why?
You mean besides us? American Express. I love how they’ve recently partnered with Twitter to offer no-hassle discounts/rebates on purchases by simply tweeting a current given hashtag deal. Recently, I tweeted a deal about Sports Authority, used my AMEX to purchase, and got $15 (off $75) back in my account within three days. Love it. No muss, no fuss. #winning

What’s your must read blog?
If I were to only pick one, I’d say Thinking For a Living. Beautiful, easy-to-use layout and great “just-enough” content. Great use of keyboard navigation!

Best restaurant you’ve eaten at in the last month.
It’s been a little more than a month now, but I went to Sons & Daughters on Bush St. in San Francisco for Valentine’s day. AMAZING. Perhaps the best restaurant I’ve eat at EVER.

What’s your average day like working at SocialChorus?
As the UX + UI designer, I sit with the Dev Team All-stars (our developers). Typically, I work through Pivotal Tracker (project tracking software) which lets me see what’s in the queue and what the priorities are since things can change pretty quickly in an agile development environment. My day is equally split between trying to figure out the next iteration of any given aspect on our platform while addressing any immediate needs. For me, it’s really about story-telling. I try to help figure out what the story is we’re trying to tell on the platform as a whole, and within each of it’s features and then interpret that visually.

What was your craziest pre SocialChorus gig?
I was a technician/personal assistant for Meshell Ndegeocello on the ’99 Lilith Fair tour for the East Coast leg. Basically, I’d tune her bass, guitars, wire pedal boards, sound check etc. I got the gig by jamming in a musical instrument store by myself during my lunch break. She came over and asked me if I wanted to go on the road. I said, “sure.” Sadly, I don’t play much anymore, but keep saying that I’ll get back into it.

What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
Golf. I’m fairly obsessed with it. As a skateboarder dude, I remember growing up and thinking it was the lamest NON-sport ever. But, just like everything else in life – once you understand it deeper than just what’s on the surface, you find an appreciation for it.

Band of the month: GO!
I’ve been looping Hey Marseilles – To Travels and Trunks, pretty frequently. Not necessarily “new”, but so great. I saw them perform at the Fillmore late last year and they were simply great.

What else can you tell us? 
We have such a great team of people all around that I’m thankful for working with. I really enjoy working on our platform. It’s not easy; but if it were, everyone would be doing it, right? It’s quite a unique set of challenges that can change every day! I appreciate being a part of creating the SocialChorus story and look forward to helping design a world-class platform for brands and influencers.