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Most companies now recognise the importance of having a strong presence across different social channels in order to drive revenues, engage customers and expand market reach. Unfortunately, too many rely on small teams to generate, curate and nurture that presence. In today’s real-time, multichannel environment, that is not enough; what is required is an organisation-wide focus on the value social and digital technologies can bring to your business. But is your organization ready to embrace the changes necessary to become a truly social business? And what steps do you need to take? This panel will show you.

Key takeaways:

• Understand why culture eats strategy for lunch, and why aligning the right culture to your business goals is the key to being a successful social business

• Build a brand army – involve people who are passionate about what you do and want to be part of it

• Create a social business agenda to help you develop an integrated plan for achieving ROE – a return on everything you do socially

This year, measurement and analysis were cited as the biggest internal marketing bottlenecks in an annual survey from Unica, with 57 percent of marketers naming it as one of their top three issues. In addition, marketers said their top two priorities are “turning data into actions” and “attributing success to marketing,” ahead of picking media channels and integrating marketing across them. What does this mean? That monitoring, measurement and metrics are more important than ever, and that data analytics is the new black. 

With smartphone penetration across the US approaching 40 percent and over 18 billion iPhone Apps downloaded to date, brands have to identify how to communicate to their audience via the mobile device and take this channel seriously. People genuinely enjoy using technology that allows them to interact with the world they live in, and it is now more important than ever to fully engage with your customers in the world of mobile. The rules of conventional marketing and customer engagement are being rewritten; make sure you stay in the game. 

Key takeaways:

• Understand your mobile customer-base, and learn how to increase brand loyalty and customer spend

• Truly engage your customers in the growing world of mobile

Let’s face the hard truth; most digital advertising today is ugly and uninspired. For years, marketers and creatives wrestled with how to convey a compelling message within a 728 x 90 square. Aside from Buy Now or Click Here, there was no captivating way to engage a consumer. It’s no wonder DR topped the digital ad spend. While the standard banner may be increasingly seen as an under-performing, dinosaur of DR, new high impact ad units featuring sight, sound and motion are helping marketers tell persuasive brand stories that are reminiscent of the kind of traditional ads associated with higher engagement. During this interactive workshop, you’ll discover the imaginative and innovative opportunities at your fingertips so you can design ads that don’t suck.

Key takeaways: 

• Introduction to the IAB Rising Stars ad units

• Understanding of performance and engagement of these ads

• How to incorporate paid, owned and earned media in a single ad

• Creative ideas to build the perfect ad

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Aaron Shapiro is CEO of acclaimed digital agency HUGE, where he helps companies re-imagine how they interact with their customers and manage their business in the online economy. Shapiro has spent more than a decade as a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and management consultant, is the author of Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business, and is a regular commentator on the impact of digital technology on businesses and the economy for the Huffington Post and Fast Company. Join him for what is sure to be one of iStrategy's most compelling keynotes from a genuine industry pioneer.

What is the real SEO value of having a popular profile or link on Twitter? And with links to articles from popular profiles being relentlessly retweeted around the world, how can companies benefit? This masterclass will serve to highlight the emerging SEO benefits of Twitter by juxtaposing them with more traditional SEO techniques. It will also put forward the argument that an SEO strategy should not dictate the social media strategy, but instead be able to prove a further benefit of social media activity.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how to refine your tweets to fit the conversational voice and entice high retweet rates, leading to ultimately optimised content

• Discuss whether the authority of a Twitter account bears any weight, or if it’s simply about the volume of tweets that brings success

• Look at search engines’ next generation search pages, incorporating the world of social media – and how to get ahead of the game

This year has witnessed an explosion in the popularity of online video. But it has also seen a shift in the way we consume that content. According to a recent report from Unruly Media, one of the more notable trends of 2011 was a significant increase in shares compared to views. In 2011, the top 20 ads generated 25 million shares, a nearly five-fold increase from 2010 levels, while the ratio of shares to views changed, too – in 2010, only one in 39 people who viewed video content went on to share it online, whereas this year that figure was one in 10. So how can brands capitalise on this paradigm shift? And what potential does social video have to help companies build a high-impact, long-term emotional connection with their audience?

Key takeaways:

• Best practice: what are the panel’s top tips on creating a successful viral video?

• Virality versus views: is the number of times a video is passed on and shared a better metric than the total number of eyeballs reached?

• Connected TV: what challenges/opportunities does the convergence of TV, online and social channels present to marketing teams?

A recent study from analyst firm Berg Insight predicts that total app downloads will reach a staggering 98 billion by 2015, with app-generated revenue set to top billion. But what makes a good app? How do you achieve that perfect balance between great content, great user interface and mass-market appeal? And once you’ve created your successful app, how do you maintain engagement levels and capitalise on your initial success? This session will explore the whole app creation pathway, from initial concept through development and marketing to ongoing support.

Key takeaways:

• Understand that the way an application looks and operates is imperative to its success, so a good understanding of what users will expect from an app is paramount

• Learn why free-to-download monetisation strategies such as in-app advertising and in-app purchasing will be increasingly important

Customers are increasingly social. They learn about news, events, products and brands through social channels and trust their networks to provide honest feedback in real-time. They are open to relevant information, but not one-way messaging. And they expect you to listen and engage with them – and respond to their needs fast. The bottom line is that the social customer owns the relationship, and you need to earn their trust. Welcome to social CRM.

Key takeaways:

• Recognise why, in a social world, a brand is no longer what you tell your customers it is; it is now what your customers say it is

• Learn to involve the customer: the more you let go of your desire to control the message, the more you will be able to shape it collaboratively with them

• Understand why transparency, taking risks and providing a ‘no-matter-what-it-takes’ kind of service are part of the corporate DNA of best-in-class companies

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In this live chat show-style session, Adam Burns – iStrategy MC and Editor-in-Chief of Meet The Boss TV – interviews some of the industry's leading players about today's most pressing social and digital issues, examines the secrets of their success and gets their thoughts on the key trends to emerge from Day 1 of the conference.

Join Wildfire CEO Victoria Ransom as she offers insights on the way social media is transforming marketing and how you can take full advantage of the possibilities of social. The growing number of social media options is requiring brands to become increasingly sophisticated in their approach to social marketing. Victoria will share case studies of brands that have successfully integrated social media across the scope of their marketing strategy and seen incredible results. Learn how to leverage ads, Timeline and mobile options to stay competitive in 2012 and explore ways to address an increasingly sophisticated user population through engaging content.

Much hype surrounds the topic of gamification. Largely seen as a technique to add engagement to existing tasks, projects, marketing campaigns and initiatives, the term often lacks the seriousness it deserves. But make no mistake, the benefits of introducing platforms that can help measure and influence real-time user behavior into the enterprise are huge – and gamification offers just that. This workshop will show you how.

The growing popularity of social and mobile channels – along with the widespread misuse of email as a marketing tool – led many commentators to predict the decline of email as a meaningful part of the marketing mix. Yet for savvy marketers, the rise of social and mobile channels is actually opening up new opportunities for email marketing. According to a recent report, organizations combining email marketing with social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn increased their success with an estimated 10 million additional impressions via social. And mobile is equally compelling for small business marketers, with 88% of us now checking email on mobile devices. So how do you take advantage and make sure email marketing is working for your business? This workshop will show you.

A brand is the most valuable economic asset a business can own. Brands drive choice, command premiums and engender loyalty. And while online branding is a way to get more exposure for your brand on all levels of the online marketing spectrum – especially search and social – building authority takes online branding to the next level by making each online presence authoritative, credible and trusted. But how do you build authority across customer touchpoints?

Key takeaways:

• Understand what the aim of your digital branding strategy is. Is it to increase revenue? To improve customer relationships? To enhance brand loyalty? How about all three? Get your expectations right from the outset

• Learn how to build authority across the whole spectrum of your marketing activities and channels

• Discover how to use word-of-mouth, advocates, expert opinion and user-generated content to build brand credibility

Marketing ROI has become so important that no one questions its validity. But the truth is, marketing will never produce an ROI – because ROI is not what you think it is. People who use the term ROI see marketing as something to buy. But smart companies see marketing as an integral part of doing business – a necessity no less important than the company email system, their computers or their office lease. Marketing activity is not an investment; it is an expense. So is it time you embraced a new definition of marketing success? And what does this mean for your measurement, analysis and monetization strategies?

We have entered a new era where tablet devices have become the norm for both businesses and consumers – providing new challenges as well as new opportunities for digital marketers. It’s not enough to simply push your web content to the tablet, just as it’s not enough to regurgitate that same content for a smartphone. People consume content on these devices in a fundamentally different way. So how do you adjust to shifting communication patterns and consumers who are demanding more relevant messages, content and experiences? In short, are you prepared for tablet ubiquity?

Key takeaways:

• Understand why tablets represent a different user experience, and why content and messages must adapt to reflect this new reality

• Learn how to create a uniform way to both standardise new advertising campaigns and measure performance

An effective search strategy is about much more than just SEO. As the concepts of inbound marketing, earned media marketing and reputation marketing become more commonplace in our thoughts, this session lays out some paths in current search marketing trends and provides a clear look at what to expect in the coming months. If you are responsible for devising successful marketing strategies, you need to be armed with this information.

Content marketing is at the heart of making a digital impact for your brand that is memorable, connects with your audience, and drives action and ROI. The right content strategy can take your branding and marketing efforts to a whole new level by focusing on content-driven experiences for customers and consistent messaging across channels and devices. Find out why this approach is so successful – and how it helps prevent the biggest mistakes many companies make in their digital outreach strategies. Kim Caviness, TMG Custom Media’s Senior Vice President of Content, and Andrew Hanelly, TMG’s Director of Digital Strategy, lead you through a fun, interactive discussion that is sure to get you thinking about new strategies you can implement at your company.

Synopsis to follow shortly. Thanks for your patience!

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