Last week, Social Media Club asked readers SMCQ7 In the era of social media, what do you do to control your brand?”
The answer: You don’t.
This revelation can be a blow to the best laid of plans. To whit, notice the current push by the pork industry to rebrand the swine flu epidemic. Talk about a nightmare for an industry. But whatever your product, service, or situation, a surrender of complete control in no ways means you don’t have the ability to influence and craft messages that are most accurate to what you offer. The good news is, Social Media is perfect for this task:
“It’s not so much about brand control as it is about brand management and appropriate representation,” wrote Pete Codella who also offered some tips for going forward in his “PR & Social Media” blog post: “…once you’ve had your come to Jesus moment — realizing you’re not really in control of your brand — what do you do about it? You become a master at using new social media tools to publish your own content which then competes in the marketplace of ideas for mindshare. The more creative, authentic and entertaining your content, the greater your chances of popularity.”
Justan Kownaki concurred: “No one controls their brand, but social media allows you better manage your brand’s perception in real time. More importantly, it helps you understand what others are saying about you (and why), so you can identify any disconnect between what YOU think your brand stands for and what OTHERS think your brand stands for.”
@mattceni: You can control your product, your service Then your customers will carry your message
Of course, social media will reveal other truths as Joellyn Detjen reminded us:
@JoellynDetjen: Social media rewards integrity, exposes moral faults. Control of brand is then a result of a company’s inner values.
The sum? Give up control, welcome creativity, and collaboration …and be prepared to revise!
On Friday, the SMC Editorial Board will reconvene on BlogTalk Radio 8am PST to talk further about the results. Tune in, & give us a call. We’d love to hear your opinion.
An amazing opportunity for new and established bloggers has just come my way. A globally recognized technology news agency is seeking talented writers and media enthusiasts to assist them with coverage of the latest and greatest in all manner of formats.
Biz-News is quickly rising as the go-to site for consumer electronic news in the field of HDTV, Smartphones, Storage, and and VoIP. The readership of the site extends across all professional markets specializing in said categories. This is an excellent opportunity for writers and bloggers to be featured on the site and gain international exposure as the expert in your field on behalf of Biz-News. Credit and bylines will be given to the writer, from time to time, passes to exclusive conferences and seminars for industry professionals will be granted for you to cover the event on behalf of the site.
Interested writers are asked to submit a portfolio of work to establish social proof and existing presence in the blogosphere. Interest in these fields is always a plus, and commitment to producing quality content is key. Biz-News focuses on high quality writing in order to maintain its established reputation amongst the numerous industry professionals that gather on the site. If you’re writing is not online, but you’ve got a body of work that includes printed articles in newspapers, journals, or magazines you are not excluded from this all call for writers.
The position does not offer any financial compensation, but does offer the following:
inclusion into the established professional writing team of Biz-News
FREE passes to major conferences worldwide as they become available for events in your area
exposure and experience in writing for a globally recognized consumer electronics news site
byline and attribution to all work done for Biz-News
Biz News is a platform of expression. We are eager to let the writer’s voice provide valid, informed, independent and relevant information in our columns.
Openness and access are social media’s trademark, making it at once immediately possible to craft and broadcast an image…and have it be modified if not downright tarnished with the same immediacy. Last week, SMC editorial board members Dave Peck,Chris Heuer,Kai MacMahon and Kimberly Turner covered a host of issues about social media, including language and control, and the recent Domino’s events in the social media space. The very public PR fiasco that resulted from the Domino’s employee-made Youtube videos demonstrated how a social media take on a a brand could go viral in the worst way. A week later, Domino reasserted its social media know-how and brand ownership by announcing how it would incorporate Twitter even more into its business and offer ‘Twitternships.‘
Domino’s willingness to host Twitternships, especially in the face of social media being used against it, was a great demonstration of its willingness to participate with its community even when it had good reason to lose its trust. In this day of instant access, as our board noted, the community tells a brand what it is as much as a brand attempts to assert itself. This of course, calls into question the traditional practice of branding and our perception of who owns and controls a brand. So we ask you:
SMCQ7 In the era of social media, what do you do to control your brand?
We look forward to your comments, posts and examples. Please tag your posts and tweets #SMCQ7
Despite Ashton, despite Oprah, and despite the countless other Twitter & social site users vying to increase their followers or otherwise inflate their friend numbers, the quality of that connection is the reason for many peoples participation in social media. At least going by views expressed by our SMCQ6 respondents. While TechCrunch pondered whether Twitter should simply remove its counts, SMC readers answered our Question of the Week #6: Is social media a popularity contest or is social media about genuine relationships? on the genuine side of the equation with a resounding wave of relationship-driven answersThe common opinion? Past a certain number of followers, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to maintain a real connection — the platform shifts to broadcast mode rather than conversation.
Highlights from the discussion:
“I think the game-changing reality of social media is that genuine and authentic will be the victorious tortoise over the hare of popularity. Doing the right thing by your customers (and making it right when you don’t–even more important since nobody’s perfect) is no longer a “nice-to-have” for success–it is a defining prerequisite.” — Jay Cosnett
“Making relationships still involves an investment of time, effort, knowledge-sharing, reaching out, etc.” —Erika Kerekes
@gloriabell: SM is about relationships & conversations – celebrity is fleeting – Relationships influence & last
debmarkham: U want to be popular to make $. You want to forge relationships to find like minds, emotional support & make $ too
iMWConnect: #SMCQ6 intent is the real driver. SocMedia w/ right intentions leads 2 genuine rels = good fruit. Popularity is fleeting = rotting fruit.
Will these sentiments affect the many contests to a million followers (or five million as Jeff Pulver blogged this week regarding the next number for which to vie) that are defining a new form of competition?
Those who mulled the other side of the equation are already thinking about it:
“I think that most of us in Social Media actually reach a point of negative returns. The more “valuable” our message, the more followers we get, in theory. Yet, the more followers we get, the less likely that we can maintain relationships with our audience. It’s inevitable that we end up going to a broadcast model.’ — Shain Mate
apups25: @socialmediaclub it’s about FAST information about anything you want, including people
Our event committee reached out to The Melting Pot in downtown Salt Lake to see if they would be willing to host our event. We liked their Perfect Pairings Facebook application and they were willing to open for lunch exclusively for us (they’re usually only open for dinner; and this way we didn’t interfere with their evening guests).
The Melting Pot put together a special three-course salad, cheese and chocolate fondue menu, at a discounted price for the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City. One attendee posted on Twitter something to the effect of: “…you had me at fondue!” True enough!
As a leadership team, we were a bit apprehensive about trying out the new timeslot and actually charging money for the first time for people to attend an SMC of SLC event. But since we were getting a catered fondue experience, there was really no way around charging for attendance.
Combine the new timeslot and the cost to attend with today’s economy, and a keynote speaker — Jay Shaffer, vice president of marketing at Infopia — who was very accomplished but new to the Salt Lake scene, and we had reason to really publicize and work hard to get buzz about the exclusive opportunity.
Despite the frequent updates on our blog and other channels, SMC members and friends were a bit slow to purchase tickets. But true to the response we’ve received since our launch in January, our efforts really paid off.
Our event, at $30 a head, completely sold out the beginning of last week. We ended up with two groups being seated outside of the private dining room in an adjoining section of the restaurant. We were sold out and overflowing, and sadly had to turn a few walk-ins away.
So, here’s what we learned in Salt Lake City:
Although there’s something to be said for consistency — same bat time, same bat channel for meetings — there’s also an opportunity to mix things up every now and then.
Look for occasions to partner with restaurants and other venues that understand social media and the potential of reaching new customers through the Social Media Club.
Plan a program that’s topical — we focused on Facebook and Twitter, and either of them could have stood on their own as discussion topics.
Reach out to new presenters to bring fresh thoughts and secure new advocates for SMC.
This event, only our fourth one, has allowed our chapter to now have a positive bank account balance. We now have a little wiggle room for booking facilities and providing refreshments at events. And we can say that the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City is one of the hottest tickets in town!
In fact, we’ve decided to use some of our funds to purchase Pokens (they come from Switzerland, you know) and sell them to our members and friends, both online and at events, as a chapter fundraiser. The funds will be used to help us provide excellent programming and unique meeting experiences for our members.
So, the leadership team of the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City is officially and publicly thanking the staff at Salt Lake City’s The Melting Pot for being willing to partner with us and for doing a most excellent job with the food and service.
We’re also grateful to have reached out to Infopia and to now number the energetic and entertaining Jay Shaffer as one of our friends.
And finally, thanks to the Salt Lake Valley residents who believe in and support the Social Media Club.
Do you have examples of programs and approaches that have worked well for your Social Media Club chapter? We’d love to hear about them.
SMC France is proud to announce its partnership with SPSS, leading worldwide provider of predictive analytics software and solutions. SPSS and its team will be actively supporting the SMC France during the first SMC Workshop, which will be held on May 15th, in Paris. As seasoned marketing professionals, SPSS chose no to be a “sleeping sponsor” and decided to be directly involved in the workshop: its managers will attend the whole day and help attendees to design their social media projects!
By associating its name, image, expertise and energy to SMC France, SPSS actively contributes to the development of SMC, and positions itself as a thought-leader in the marketing industry.
Many thanks to SPSS for its support and its trust!
About SPSS Inc.
SPSS Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSS) is a leading global provider of Predictive Analytics software and solutions. The company’s Predictive Analytics technology improves business processes by giving organizations forward visibility for decisions made every day. By incorporating Predictive Analytics into their daily operations, organizations become Predictive Enterprises – able to direct and automate decisions to meet business goals and achieve a measurable competitive advantage. More than 250,000 public sector, academic and commercial customers rely on SPSS technology to help increase revenue, reduce costs and detect and prevent fraud. Founded in 1968, SPSS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. For more information, please visit www.spss.com.
With celebrities and ‘average joes’ alike racing to build their number of followers and friends on Twitter, the divide between the various approaches to social media has become increasingly deep. A popularity contest for some, a broadcast medium to others and a valuable tool for relational communications, social media use is as diverse as its users. Most on the Social Media Club board agreed during Friday’s call that it’s the strength of the relationship, not the quantity of relationships that makes social media work. However, we’d like to hear from you.
Social Media Club Question of the Week
#SMCQ6 Is social media a popularity contest or is social media about genuine relationships?
@davegray: we’are all #journalists now & we’re all accountable 4 understanding media & using it responsibly.
I’m happy to report SMC readers have standards! Responding with a resounding wave of ‘yeses,’ in answer to our question of the week regarding the responsibility of bloggers to get their facts right, online media participants proved their commitment both to quality information as well as deep thinking about the nature of influence and the oft-malleable definition of ‘integrity.’ Do check the original post for a lively comment thread. Below is a summary of some of our favorite responses throughout the blogosphere.
SMC Board Member and former print journalist Kimberly Regator wrote a compelling post on the top at her Regator Blog.
“Regardless of your topic or where you fall on the highbrow/lowbrow scale, I believe that someone creating a publication for public consumption—and that includes blogs—should make decisions with their readers’ best interests in mind. That is the key,” she writes, comparing her former fact-checking process at magazines and how this process applies to the blogosphere, she offers up some invaluable tips on writing it right.
Likewise, Kenneth at The Letter Two concurred with Kimberly about taking cues from journalists…but threw in a word of caution:
“Bloggers should have journalistic integrity and offer up some sound truth with supporting evidence to back up. …. Regardless of whether they have evidence, research, or other data to back up their claims and no matter what the content is, if you read what they write, take it with a grain of salt. It doesn’t matter what the topic or who it is. You are your own person and bloggers should just give you different perspectives.”
And a bit more from the Twitterverse:
@johnrhopkins: Bloggers and anyone who portrays themselves as providing the facts do have a responsibility to get them right. TheOnion gets a pass
randalltodd: @robvallejos Yes. Bloggers should be responsible to the facts. Those that are not fact-based should be dumped in the compost bin.
@amorris_wfed: Re: To be trusted & taken seriously, have facts straight b4 posting. Social media is a new broadcast tool, like TV/radio
.
@jpgardner: ANYBODY needs to be responsible w/ the facts if they want to be taken seriously. You can be honest & still be provocative
A couple months ago I was emailed the following as an insight for the day:
The Thread of a Dream
When I was researching the history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge as a major illustration for the ideas of success and motivation, I became engrossed with the story of how the first bridge was built over Niagara Falls. You see, to build a bridge over a giant gorge, first you have to get a line over the canyon, from one side to the other. Easier said than done at Niagara Falls.
The engineers couldn’t cross the falls in a boat to take the line from one side to the other because the boat would go over the falls. And the airplane hadn’t been invented yet. The distance was also way beyond the bow-and-arrow range, which had been a common method at the time of getting the first line across to build a bridge.
The designing engineer, Charles Ellet, pondered the question until he came up with a revolutionary idea. He decided that, while solving the problem, he would also have some fun and generate some publicity for the project. Ellet sponsored a kite flying contest and offered five dollars to the first person who could fly a kite across the gorge and let it go low enough to the ground for someone to be able to grab the string. In 1849, five dollars was a prize similar to a small lottery today. The boy who won the prize relished his accomplishment until his death, nearly 80 years later.
It all began with an idea and one thin kite string. The kite string was used to pull a cord across, then a line, then a rope. Next came an iron-wire cable and then steel cables, until a structure strong enough to build a suspension bridge was in place.
I’m struck by how that string is like a single thought. The more vivid and clear the thought, and the more you come back to it, the stronger it becomes — like the string to the rope to a cable. Each time you rethink it, dwell on it, or layer it with other thoughts, you are strengthening the structure on which to build your idea, like building a bridge over Niagara Falls.
But unlike a kite, there is no string attached to how high and how far your goals may take you. They are limited only by the power of your imagination and the strength of your desire.
I share this story in its entirety because Denis does a better job of telling it than I could, and I wanted to give him credit.
But my take away from this, for whatever reason, was focused on social media (perhaps because it seems like I eat, sleep and breathe it).
This story exemplifies what I think is an appropriate approach to engaging through social media. It’s like taking baby steps. It’s like the string, then the rope, and finally a cable in this story.
You should engage first as an individual. Test the water. See what tools work best for certain activities.
Slowly you build a social network, a group of virtual friends.
As you give something of yourself and contribute to the conversation, everyone benefits.
Social media builds upon itself. A video posted on YouTube only goes ‘viral’ after enough people have seen and shared it.
After experiencing the benefits of social media as an individual, you’re in a better position to counsel your employer, client or colleague on what tools to use for which circumstances. You can help them build a virtual network and become part of a larger community.
Using the Internet as a tool, social media allows us to be more connected in faster, more efficient ways than ever before.
Just as our forbearers built the Niagara Falls Bridge with ingenuity, patience and hard work, we can build and contribute to online communities.
Your Turn
How do you think The Thread of a Dream story represents an effective approach to engagement through social media?
The Social Media Club French Chapter is proud to unveil some details of the first Social Media Club Workshop, which will be held on May 15th, in Paris, France.
After reviewing two years of monthly conferences and sessions and having conducted many training and consulting missions, we came up with a detailed list of issues companies need to address to design an efficient social media strategy. Through an original format, the finest social media experts will train professionals and enable them to forge their own approach. This won’t be a series of lectures nor discussion sessions, this will be about designing your own social media project for your company and implementing it right away!
All right, but how will it be different from other conferences and seminars?
Instead of just listening to lecturers and trying to apply others’ best practices to your case, you’ll be asked to build up your own project throughout the day. You’ll be provided with the basic analytical tools at the beginning of the training and the different session, held in very small and interactive groups, will be as many inputs for your reflections. Organizers and workshop leaders will stay available at any time to support you and challenge your project. At the end of the day, you and your team will present your project to the SMC experts and get their feedback immediately.
Workshop leaders and sessions will include:
Chris Heuer, “Introduction: how to design a social media strategy” + “Social Media Tools for beginners”
Rue89, “Communty Management: Make your users work for you!”
Participation is limited, so if you are in Paris, don’t hesitate to apply now (and save some money, with the “early bird” pricing). We are also currently still seeking sponsors for the workshop, contact us for more details.
We are very excited to unveil some details of our upcoming Social Media Workshop which will be held on Tuesday April 27 in Birmingham Alabama. After taking the pulse of the market, reviewing the result of the Social Media Buyers Guide and discussing anecdotal evidence, we came to realize pretty quickly that almost everyone is in need of a clear strategy for integrating social media into their marketing and communications mix so companies can start to engage. It was also clear, that the biggest challenge social media champions face is selling it internally and educating coworkers, so our plan for this latest series of workshops pretty much wrote itself.
For only $295, you will benefit from the experience and creative insights from some of the leading practitioners in social media for business. Join Mack Collier, Scott Schablow, Ike Pigott and Chris Heuer for a full day workshop where you get to leave with the framework for your social media strategy and insights on how to sell the plan to management so you can begin to make it real.
So roll up your sleeves, this isn’t a bunch of pseudo-celebrities trying to show you how great they are while talking about how many followers they have on Twitter, this is about you making social media an integrated part of your business strategy. We are doing a WORKSHOP so that you can put social media to work for you. In fact, when you register, you can tell us what you are specifically trying to accomplish and we will work to tailor the final agenda and related discussions to your specific needs.
So what will the Social Media Strategy Workshop look like?
We will start the day discussing the impact Social Media has on your business and why so many people are turning to social media for an up turn in their business during the economic downturn. How does social media change things? What exactly is it? What is possible and what is not? How can it help your business? Why is everyone talking about it? What are the most important principles you need to understand? What’s the different between a status update, a Tweet, a poke, a nudge and all those other silly sounding terms?
After a brief introductory presentation addressing these key questions, each of our workshop leaders will host smaller conversations in breakout groups so we can more directly support your specific needs. Each workshop leader will then host a conversation that includes some presentation materials as well as demonstrations of important services, software and web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, YouTube and more. We will also highlight important areas of focus which may be a part of your final strategy inlcuding:
Review of current marketing plan (do you have your’s? bring it.)
Building and maintaining relationships
Looking, Listening and Responding
Producing Media
Engaging with the Market
Managing Community
Social Media Campaigns
Metrics and ROI
Becoming a Social Organization
Social Media Campaigns
Measuring Influence and Maximizing It
After lunch we will review case studies from leading companies such as Dell, H&R Block, GM and Zappos as well as from smaller everyday folks applying the same insights in distinct ways. While the cases are all unique to the specific situation at hand, they do offer incredible insight into the perspective required to be successful. Participants are encouraged to share their own case studies as part of this discussion too so that we may learn from each other throughout the day.
The remainder of the afternoon will focus on developing a social media strategy for you to take back to your business. In addition to discussing in-depth details behind key strategic decisions you need to make, we will also discuss how you can get support for these activities within your organization. So you will leave at the end of the day with a strategic plan and a plan for how to begin putting it to work within your organization.
Participation is limited, so if you live in or near Birmingham, we hope you will consider spending the day with us figuring out how to apply social media to your business. It’s a transformational step for you and your career as well as your business. So, please register today and join us in Birmingham on Monday April 27.
We are also currently still seeking sponsors for the workshop. If you are interested in sponsoring the event, $5,000 will make you the title sponsor for the workshop. If you are interested in supporting your local community and you are looking at buying 2 tickets, you might be interested in becoming a participating sponsor for $1,500 which includes 2 tickets for you and your company in addition to 2 tickets for a non-profit organization and traditional workshop sponsorship coverage. Contact us for more details.
San Antonio is proud to be the hotbed for so much activity. From the popular buzz at SXSW for the amazing start-ups locally to the involvement of local media experts in one of the hottest mayoral races to date. Coming off the heels of the recent presidential race, local candidates have not wasted time in incorporating social technologies as just one of many tools to reach out to prospective and current supporters. With so much buzz on networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and other chat forums, it is no surprise that San Antonio has been thrust into the spotlight of yet another ground breaking event, the SA4Mayor initiative.
Begun as a passion and labor for love, the project has catapulted into mainstream media by highlighting the mayoral leaders for this highly contested position. While each of the candidates has held their own townhall meetings, SA4Mayor plans on bringing the candidates into one room for what is sure to be an amazing night of discussion, debating, and progress. This ground breaking event will cover this race both live and online to ensure that all supporters have alternatives in experiencing this event.
“Our goal is to open the door to everyone. We want to go beyond traditional candidates forums, and complement the richest of local media,” says Patricio Espinoza, Emmy award winning journalist and Founder-Managing Editor of SA4Mayor.com. “We have built an online 24/7 stage, they – the people – are coming, and now it is up to the candidates to meet the challenge.”
Social Media Club San Antonio has been asked to participate in this event, and take lead in bringing together top caliber bloggers, tweeters, and other online community members who look to share their voice, opinions, and concerns with the direction of this amazingly progressive city. There is no doubt, that when the dust settles it will be the voice of the people that will come out on top, so the candidates must be at the top of their game.
Join us for this historic townhall event to be webCast LIVE Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 6:30-7:30pm CST. To reach the broadest audience possible, SA4Mayor.com has teamed up with the Current, San Antonio’s award-winning alternative news-weekly.
Kudos to everyone involved in proving that San Antonio, TX is more than just the Alamo!
Blogs are full of opinion, insight, fact and fiction… and bloggers can tend to fall in one of a handful of camps: watchdogs, troublemakers AND authorities! This all, of course, renders the blogosphere such fun and eye-opening reading. However, the SMC Editorial Board wonders, is there an equivalent of ‘journalistic integrity’ in social media? We’d like to hear from YOU.
Our Social Media Question of the Week: Are bloggers responsible for getting the facts right?
Please tag your comments, tweets and posts #SMCQ5 and look for the conversation results on Thursday.
com·mu·ni·tynoun 1: a unified body of individuals: asa:state , commonwealthb: the people with common interests living in a particular area ; broadly: the area itself <the problems of a large community>c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location (from Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Given that the common location is online, and that the Internet makes possible extremely diverse unifying factors, our Social Media Question of the Week #4 focusing on community was ripe for discussion among our readers and SMC members.
Here’s how some of our members asnwered: What makes a community real?When does a web site feel like a place to and be, instead of simply a page of information to visit?
Recurring themes? Some of the most recognizable (and oft criticized) sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), were named more than once as truly communal, as did the need to stay active with connections on and offline. The link between online and off serves as a strong measurement for many:
mercurycomm: Is Twitter your community? Can we call something a community when most people have never met face to face?
@wordspring What makes an online community real is when you really *want* to meet your online friends for coffee
Nonethless, many consider these online sites alive with communal aspects:
“I know if I ask Twitter a question, someone will answer it” Francine Hardaway commented, going on in her blog to expound on the multiple ways and meanings of ‘connect.’”LinkedIn, however, is not a true community, as Twitter is, or Friendfeed. Or even Facebook. If you lose your job, your wife, your 401(k) these communities offer empathy, help, alternatives. LinkedIn only offers a chance to do the “work” in networking. But what we really need is the “net” — the circle that draws us in so we don’t feel alone.”
“For me, a community becomes real when the communication flows both ways,” –Catherine Novak
ltbeyer: When members are interacting – creating, managing and sharing content & ideas through conversation – online & off
JGrossman_PRPro: I think the importance of keeping community within the social sphere is making sure that everyone is engaged and promoting activity.
Other examples of sites that work included Yapstar (now 500 members strong), and Ning groups (such as TechHui).
But what makes them truly useful? Diverse (i.e.: customizable) user experiece (Gravity7), banning automation (Carl Beckelheimer), clear leadership (Roxanne Darling), skillful collaboration (Joerg Wittkewitz) were some top picks for a sites ability to stay active and engaged.
Nate at Big Bags defined community by flexibility:
“When you have people of common interests gathering in a common place, and you facilitate their ability to share information and ideas, your website is no longer a static page lost in the endless ocean of interwebs. It becomes a hangout, or a second home for web surfers.”
How did our members think these interactions will change in the future?
“To the next generation of Web goers, real-time connections seem to be more important than the amount of connections possible. At the same time, Twitter’s growth is beginning to make those real-time connections more wide-ranging and meaningful. A combination that appears to be the holy grail of future social communities: Communities with seemingly endless connection possibilities and second-by-second interaction.”
The financial industry is just one of many utilizing the popularity in social technologies. As the medium becomes more popular we will see its integration into mainstream business more often. Already the adoption rate is rapidly increasing, and that is what we will be looking at in the meetings to come.
This week Social Media Club San Antonio kicks off Spring with a presentation by Frank Wisehan. An integral part of all our lives is the fact that finances is the root of everything we do. Whether we’re buying a house, a car, shopping for groceries, or even planning our retirement, finances are something that we come across on a daily basis. It’s hard to exist in this global economy without having your life touch the concept of money, and as such it’s wise that we are all on board with how to use it, how it make it work for us, and how to get the most out of it. Frank represents Mass Mutual Financial Group, a company that understands the community’s need to manage their money.
Mass Mutual Financial Group has undertaken a complete change in the way they do business with the introduction of social technologies. This new world of online interactions has been an opportunity for them to make connections with users on the other end with more care and understanding and less of a salesman approach. The company understands that in order to develop relationships you have to have trust. Frank leads a team that goes out and fully utilizes these tools and he and his partner will share their experiences, and how they’ve benefited. Surely along they way there have been rough patches and as a business it’s important to overcome those tough spots or fade into non-existence.
We’re honored to have Frank share his experiences both personally and professionally with the integration of social technologies and look to our members both new and old to engage in a dialogue in their experiences as well.
This week’s meeting is being held at Luca Ristorante attached to the beautiful Fairmont Hotel in Downtown San Antonio. Located across from Hemisphere park this upscale restaurant will play host to San Antonio’s social media leaders as the professional community converges to share their ideas, concerns, and implementation of new online technologies to help their own brands marketing efforts.
Dress code is strictly enforced for this event and is business casual. If you have questions regarding the attire, please contact either Jennifer Navarrete at 210… or Luis Sandoval at 210…. Please make sure you reserve your spot as space is limited for this event. Reservations can be made at the Eventbrite page here ! Share with your friends and others in the community. Professionals in Downtown San Antonio are highly encouraged to join us on this night as we look to learn more about the professional diversity that has grown tremendously in our city.
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