Under a view of the Empire State Building, guests will sample a selection of fine wine and cheese, whilst mingling in the good company of their online peers.

During the evening, remarks will be made by Dr. Walter Carl, founder and Chief Research Officer of ChatThreads Corp, and Converseon founder and CEO Rob Key on new developments in converging online and offline WOM. Their experiences in listening and engaging will offer some enlightening thoughts on where these two, traditionally separate conversations, are headed.

To join us at WOMMA Wine Wednesday on March 24, please register here: http://bit.ly/networkingevents – get in soon as space is limited!

You can also find more information at our Facebook event page

Date: March 24

Time: 6PM – 8PM EST

Host: Converseon

Location: 53 w36^th St. 8^th Fl

New York, NY 10018

(212) 213-4297 x302

Parking is available for $26

Dr Carl and Rob Key will also come together next week in a separate event, the WOMMA Webinar ‘Listening 2.0: Social CRM and the Future of Social Listening’. They will also be joined by Jeff Zabin, CEO of Gleanster and Amy Laine, Principal Client Research Analyst from IBM.

The March 18 event will focus on the next generation of listening and how companies can apply this technique to drive business results and sustainable competitive advantage. In a digital environment where unprompted and unsolicited conversation is continuously expanding, listening has become the key tool to allow businesses to gain “deeper insights and actionable analysis”.

You can find more information on the Webinar here: http://bit.ly/dl5Zil

The iMedia Summit is a unique event where attendees network with senior industry practitioners and together, explore, challenge and build the future of digital media. The event will feature top-level speakers, innovative vendors, as well as top brands leading in the European digital space (including Dell, Unilever, Cisco, Yahoo! and L’Oreal).

Rob’s presentation will focus on how our clients are using Conversation Mining to drive insights and strategy across the business, along with the process we’ve developed to take brands through a social media evolution and tactical tips on how to apply social media with your brand today to drive business results.

Rob Key | Thursday March, 18, 2-2.45 pm | Social Media is the New Online Porn. Now Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Social media has elected our president, become part of most companies’ marketing plan and overtaken porn as the number one activity on the web. And while most companies try to catch up, the landscape is changing faster than your Twitter followers are dropping you (okay, maybe not you). Social media is a quid pro quo game. Unless you’re Apple or Harley Davidson, companies can’t expect their customers to engage without getting them something in exchange. In this panel, 4 social media futurologists discuss how advertisers can take better advantage of this ever-changing space without being dismissed as, well, just advertising.

Mike Moran | Thursday March 18, 11.30 am – 12.15 pm | Is Your Company Spending Too Much on Search?

Search may be the last click for customers who are buying what you have to sell. But that click often comes at the end of the consumer’s online marketing journey — which includes exposure to banners, video ads, mobile messages and various other marketing techniques. Up to now, search has gotten much of the credit — and the budget — for making the sale. Smart search experts, however, recognize they don’t operate in a void, and more of them are studying and reporting how their discipline works in conjunction with other forms of marketing. They believe that by showing you the impact of marketing dollars spent “upstream,” they can accurately address if your company is spending too much or too little on search. Others, however, are not so sure. This panel will discuss the unpredictable effects of search’s evolving upstream approach. Could it be a minefield for the search industry or will search finally step into the role as your strategic adviser? Find out what you have to gain either way.

Last year at the excellent Coronado Bay event I polled the brands on their personal social media usage and the importance of SM for their business. This year I focused on internal processes for policy and listening, and of course I couldn’t miss a Superbowl related question.

Survey questions were asked to 24 senior marketers from brands including Coca-Cola, Zappos, Western Union, Kasier Permanente, Kraft, Taco Bell and Olive Garden. The same questions were asked to all marketers:

1) Does your organization have a social media policy?

2) Does your brand undertake formal listening to the online conversation?

2 – i) (if yes): What department/business unit is responsible for this listening?

3) ‘Thumbs’ up or ‘Thumbs Down’ for the Google Superbowl ad?

• Question 1 Results – Does your organization have a social media policy?

Interesting to see that the savvy iMedia marketers have generally already put a formal policy into place. This flies in the face of the recent Manpower study showing only 29% of brands have social media policies, this is not surprising given the savvy brands attracted to iMedia. Interestingly, Zappos – a poster child for excellent social media engagement, was one of the few brands to say ‘no’ to a formal policy… though social media is deeply ingrained in their customer focused culture.

• Question 2 Results – Does your brand undertake formal listening to the online conversation?

As a leading provider of Conversation Mining it’s great to see that brands are clearly starting to understand that the ‘ostrich approach’ of sticking your head in the sand and not listening to the online conversation is no longer an option. Across the board brands are listening… but I’m sure the approaches and effectiveness of each brands efforts differs widely.

• Question 2, i Results – What department/business unit is responsible for this listening?

A wide variety of answers here as brands struggle to define who best ‘owns’ social media and listening within their organization. Interesting to see the different approaches in action here – in future I’d like to see some case studies of different brand approaches to organizing for smart listening.

• Question 3 Results – ‘Thumbs’ up or ‘Thumbs Down’ for the Google Superbowl ad?

Widespread approval for the Google Superbowl ad, and it was certainly the most discussed ad on the floor of the conference this week. Personally however, I must side with the minority that gave it the thumbs down. My feeling is that Google (and Facebook and others) will soon be fighting a push back from society on privacy, and the Google ad really came across to me as downright ‘creepy’ (and also quickly parodied).

How do these results line up with your organization or your assumptions about brand approaches to social media?

The biggest talking point with this crowd: Google’s ad. Most love it (in fact I just polled 24 brand marketers & 15 loved it while only 2 didn’t like it). Yesterday during the Superbowl my CEO Rob Key leant over to Craig Daitch & I seconds after the spot aired and said “how long until we see a parody of that online?”

Well, Slate didn’t disappoint with this satirical take on the ad seen through the eyes of Tiger Wood’s search history after that fateful day in November:

Hat tip to our good friends at Agency Spy! And stay tuned to our @Converseon Twitter account for updates from the conference.

We’ve been supporting iMedia events for some time as they tend to bring a mix of the biggest brands, smartest minds in online marketing along with an arry of innovative vendors. We anticipate this summit to be no different with presentations from the likes of Bob Garfield of AdAge & NPR fame and attendance from senior marketers from Kraft, General Mills, Zappos, American Express and more.

Rob’s presentation will focus on how our clients are using Conversation Mining to drive insights and strategy across the business, along with the process we’ve developed to take brands through a social media evolution and some tactical tips on how to apply social media with your brand today to drive business results.

We’ll be live tweeting the event via our @Converseon Twitter account so make sure you’re following us for updates, we’ll also be taking another poll of the brand marketers in attendance on some key social media issues, as we did at the  San Diego Brand Summit last September.

Yesterday, amid crepes, mimosas and business card exchanges, a sold-out crowd of people, ranging from self-proclaimed “social media newbies” to seasoned social media practitioners, descended on Converseon’s headquarters for a morning of listening and of course, conversation.

Rob Key, CEO, kicked off “The Road from Listening to Activation” panel with a reference to an ancient Buddhist proverb (isn’t that how all the events kicked off this week?) “If you see Social Media on the road, kill it” challenging those in this quickly growing industry to think bigger, deeper and broader about the possibilities of the social web.  Rob went on to say that “the Year of the Social Media checklist is over,” (2009) “and that 2010 is the Year of Enterprise Activation.”  How does “Enterprise Activation” happen exactly?  That’s precisely what the panel discussed.

Rob then introduced the panel made up of Jon Burg, Emerging Channels Specialist at Digitas; Craig Daitch, SVP of Activation at Converseon and Andy Von Kennel, SVP, Growth Director at Rapp to discuss the role listening plays in social media activation.  Here are some of the highlights… (Tweet-style per @PaullYoung’s great twitter notes!)

“Most brands think  ‘What can I do on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube?’ not ‘What do people want us to do for them?” @jonburg

“It’s not just about mining conversations, we need to think about & analyze what people are doing with Search” @avthinks

“If I listened (re: traditional methods) to my customers, they’d tell me they wanted a faster horse”  Henry Ford quoted by Rob Key

“Time to stop talking about what social media is, and start talking about what it can do” Rob Key

“A prospective customer doesn’t care what part of the company you’re in – they care about whether you can solve their problem” @cdny

@JonBurg: Just because you have ski poles, doesn’t mean your in the Olympics (Just b/c u have data, a FB Page, Twitter, etc…)

“It’s not the technology that matters, it’s the human intelligence behind it” @cdny
(also echoed by Jeff Doak, CTO of Converseon, in a presentation earlier in the week about the Science of Social re: listening technology and the importance of humans in listening)

“The SM Monitoring technology field is still the Wild West and what most vendors claim to do, they still can’t do” @jonburg

@avkthinks “We were able to use social media with a client to figure price and a new flavor. Social media was used as a means to do market research”

“The connections in social media is like ‘dark matter’ in the universe – we know it’s out there but we can’t quite see it all yet” Rob Key

@cdny: “Agencies look at listening as validation, but often miss the rich context that informs deeper planning”

“The big challenge is taking large volumes of online conversation & dragging out the insights that can inform your business” @jonburg

“Clients are more sophisticated on listening: word clouds & volume don’t cut it” @avthinks

@jonburg: “You can use listening for everything: call center structure, media strategy, product design & naming”

We were also happy to hear that yesterday’s panel “…was the most insightful event of the week” from Dani Klein. Thanks Dani! And thanks Amanda, for sharing your thoughts on yesterday’s panel as well. Sounds like the crepes might have been your favorite part!

It would be incredibly difficult to summarize the event not just because so many topics were touched on but because different people take away different things.  For me, I’m passionate about watching industry evolve. Companies that are listening to their consumers, actively listening through some of the amazing technologies available to us today, will emerge triumphant over the next several decades because they’ll have recognized the transformative possibilities for growth when their consumers, through the digital expression of their likes, their wants, their needs; actually determine the future of their business.

“The Road from Listening to Activation” – Thursday Feb 4, 10am

Our SVP of Activation, Craig Daitch, will be discussing social media monitoring to inform media and engagement strategy alongside Digitas Emerging Channels Strategist Jon Burg & Andy Von Kennel SVP at RAPP.

The event sold out in a few hours, so apologies if you missed out on a ticket. We’ll be covering the event here on the blog and Twitter (along with photos and video) so be sure to subscribe for the update.

“The Science of Social Media” – Tuesday, Feb 2, 2.30pm

Converseon has been deeply involved with the Advertising Research Foundation for some time precisely for their scientific approach to marketing, and this event should be no different.

Our CTO Jeff Doak, who steers the continual development of our Conversation Mining and other proprietary technology,  will provide our point of view on how “social psychology, user experience, site design, and an effective marketing strategy play into social media participation”.

He’ll be joined by Ned Winsborough, CI Manager, Consumer Networks at General Mills and highly regarded Yahoo! researcher Duncan Watts. Duncan Watts research with Yahoo! has been widely referenced, in particular Smart Company’s interview with him last year ‘Is the Tipping Point Toast?‘

As with the Converseon event above, we’ll be covering this event in-depth here at the blog with our Director of Social Media Constantin Basturea to provide post-event analysis.

In addition our Converseon team will be attending several other events, so keep an eye out for Paull Young at the New York Times ‘Social Meida and the Haiti Disaster‘ event on Monday and you can have a beer with a number of us at the MediaBistro Tweetup on Tuesday night.

“We think there’s tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface.”

Watch this video to find out why:

We think Google Social Search is only going to continue to gain traction.  Expanding your company’s and employee’s social presence could begin to have a much more meaningful impact on search rankings, that goes beyond social media’s current influence on rankings.

Ignore your Google Profile at your own risk!

The Internet has added new ways for companies to listen, augmenting surveys, focus groups, and other traditional market research. Learn how Web listening is changing, and how you can organize internally in order to discover better insights through listening and take advantage of them to deliver maximum business impact. You’ll also get a sneak peek into what you should expect in the future, so that you’re company is ready.

Damage control in social media: discussing effective strategies for turning negative into positive. In the age of web 2.0, unhappy customers visit social networks and blog about their complaints. It is therefore essential for businesses to have a contingency plan on how to minimise the damage done to a brand during a ‘viral outbreak’.

Rob Key, CEO, Converseon: Social Media from the Inside-Out