8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson's Welcome, Opening Remarks & Presentation:
Success With Social Media – The Key Steps To Take

Social media has rapidly grown to be the most common activity on the internet. It is a global phenomenon which has changed the way organizations communicate with their customers, employers relate to their employees and how people communicate with each other. Innovations in this long-term structural development will continue to revolutionize relationships, changing the speed of communication, the mechanisms of communication and even the voice and tone used to communicate.

Drawing from experiences in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, you’ll see how organizations deal with many of the challenges around social media.  You will also have access to the results from the Towers Watson communications ROI survey which will show some of the barriers organizations face when deploying social media and how to overcome them.

Finally, you will leave this session with:

• Key social media techniques that leading organizations have used
  to advance their reach
• Secrets to a successful social media deployment
• A list of the common pitfalls to avoid

Adam Wootton, PhD, Senior Consultant
TOWERS WATSON
Conference Chairperson

9:30 a.m.

Justifying Social Media To Management

Some communicators make the mistake of presenting a "social media strategy" to their leaders and wonder why their strategy is rejected. This session focuses communicators on identifying how specific types of social media can help them achieve the business goals their leaders care about—often at lower cost and faster than through traditional communication approaches alone. Some of the advantages of social media that are covered include enhanced ability to monitor stakeholder opinions, collaboration, innovation, and improved productivity.

• A need for perceived control of information
• Concern about whether customers and employees are ready for social media, and fears about what they might say online
• Costs and whether they would provide a return on investment
• Legal liabilities

Angela Sinickas, President
SINICKAS COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

10:15 a.m.

Break-Out Blitz: Network And Discuss Social Media Challenges With Your Fellow Conference Attendees

This session will open the conversation by connecting you with other conference participants and gain greater understanding into many similar issues, concerns, and challenges that your peers are also facing. Become acquainted with your fellow conference attendees in this fun and fast-paced forum!

11:15 a.m.

How To Increase Your Social Media Reach And Strengthen Traditional Communications Without Increasing Costs

Social media has been used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in health communications campaigns for several years to increase reach, improve the ability to target audience segments, and facilitate participation and engagement. Likewise, social media allows CDC to easily reinforce messages in multiple formats which can further improve message reach and access as well as audience perceptions of credibility and trust with minimal effort and cost. 

Hear how the CDC’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention (DUIP) has integrated social media into two initiatives to reach parents with proven tips to protect children and teens from leading causes of injury. The development process of a series of twelve topic-specific podcasts, badges, buttons, and an interactive quiz widget will be discussed and results and findings will be shared, in addition to future plans for the use of Facebook and Twitter to expand reach.

All social media items developed and promoted by DUIP were created in-house at CDC and required no additional financial resources – evidence that social media can effectively increase reach without increased costs.

During this session, you’ll learn proven ways to use Web 2.0 activities to strengthen and compliment traditional communications, including how to:

• Incorporate social media into your existing communication plans and strategies
• Reinforce print messages and broaden reach by using podcasts, badges, buttons and widgets
• Use internal resources to accomplish increased reach without increased costs

Ann Aikin, Social Media Lead, Division of eHealth Marketing
National Center for Health Marketing
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Shelley Sheremata Hammond, MMC, Health Communications Specialist
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

12:00 p.m.

How To Leverage Employees Using Social Media To Accomplish Business Goals

Can you manage and encourage hundreds or even thousands of social network contributors in your company? It’s not impossible!

Despite the challenges of working within a regulated and conservative industry, American Family Insurance has been described as the most aggressive company within its social network. The company manages and maintains more than 1,500 Facebook pages with contributions from local agents. The company also provides a framework that allows all of its 8,000+ employees to contribute on social networks.

Using specific examples from American Family Insurance's social media experiences, you will discover tactics for more efficient communications, including how to:

• Leverage employees using social media to accomplish business objectives
• Create social media policies that encourage participation and protect your company
• Deploy strategies that engage employees and minimize risk
• Effectively manage employee and customer participation on social networks

Troy Janisch, Digital Marketing Manager
AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE

12:45 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own -- But Not Alone!

Join a group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing social media concerns.

2:15 p.m.

Enabling Employees To Effectively Converse And Collaborate In The Digital Age

There's a digital conversation going on right now. All over the globe, individuals are sharing information, expertise, making decisions, building relationships, and more, without even leaving their seats. Sentiment and knowledge are being created around topics that could have a direct impact on your business. Are you out there? Are you part of the conversation? Are your employees? Are your competitors' employees?!

In today's digital world, employees and the relationships and conversations that employees have in the digital space, are defining their companies’ brands. Because of this, we need to ensure that employees have the tools they need to reach out so that they can effectively participate in it:  from conversing about topics they are experts in, to relationship building, to globally collaborating on projects with other employees, partners, clients, peers, and the general public. The more digitally active employees are both inside and outside of their companies, the more current, credible and responsive the companies will be viewed.

• Enabling your employees to build and share their expertise inside
  and outside the company
• Generating, aggregating and promoting social conversations of
  interest to your company
• Creating a globally collaborative employee culture both internally and externally

Kevin Winterfield, Socials Systems and Digital Influence
IBM

3:00 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

3:20 p.m.

Using Strategic Business Goals To Guide Social Technology Investments For Improved Communication Results

Does your organization have a social channel that isn't supporting your business in all the right ways? If so, perhaps it’s time to revitalize it by rethinking the strategy behind it and getting the right champions involved.

Whether you're looking to refresh your social technology channel, or are thinking of launching one, this inside look at how Ocean Spray injected their employee forum with new energy will provide inspiration and guidance. Plus, learn how to establish great strategy at the start and how to connect that strategy to business goals and operations.

You won’t want to miss the opportunity to learn:

• What steps to take to empower users and build trust
• What types of business needs are addressed by the different social technologies
• How to use your business goals to guide your decisions on social technology
• What types of metrics can help you prove your ROI

Kathie Cornelius, Manager Corporate Communications
OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES, INC.

Stacy Wilson, President
ELOQUOR CONSULTING, INC.

4:05 p.m.

Using Facebook To Extend Your Brand And Become
An Employer Of Choice

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – they’re the most popular social media forums for college students today. How can you get beyond the buzz and put these tools to use for your organization? How can you get Baby Boomer leadership to support these modes that are so foreign to their style?

In this session, you will hear from Ernst & Young, the first professional services firm to create a corporate page on Facebook to further extend their brand as an employer of choice.  In addition, you will learn how they built the business case, secured leadership buy-in and still sustained a meaningful presence amongst their target audience four years later. Practical strategies and tips for success around building a page, managing discussions on the page (especially the ‘scary’ ones), and figuring out the right resources to monitor the page will also be shared.

In addition, this session will provide you with guidance on how to:

• Overcome the challenges associated with gaining leadership buy-in
• Build a highly impactful social media presence among your target audience
• Be strategic with your time and engagement with the various options
• Build your fan base and promote your social media presence, while still staying true to your organization's culture
• Connect the generations!

Deborah Compagner, Americas Communications & Marketing Leader for Recruiting
ERNST & YOUNG LLP

4:50 p.m.

End of Day One

5:00 p.m.

Networking Reception: Please Join Us!

We invite you to join us for a drink as you relax with your peers. All conference attendees and speakers are welcome to join us for this special opportunity to continue networking. Don't miss this chance to benchmark new ideas over complimentary drinks!

Sign up during the day for dinner with a group. Take advantage of Atlanta's fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.