8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson's Welcome & Opening Remarks

Andrea Baker, Chief Social Engineer
ARBPR
Conference Chairperson

8:45 a.m.

How To Integrate Social Media Into Your Communication Efforts To Effectively Engage The Public And Increase Reach Without Increasing Costs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is using social media to improve the reach of health messages, increase access to content and foster engagement. Specifically, CDC has demonstrated success in strategically utilizing Facebook and Twitter to communicate health messages in an interactive, social environment to allow for deeper engagement with the public in support of the agency’s mission. CDC’s consumer audiences on Facebook and Twitter continue to grow as the agency explores innovative ways to use these channels for effective communication, interaction and engagement with credible, science-based health messages.

In this session, you will learn from CDC’s use of social media how you, too, can effectively communicate with and engage your audiences. Specifically, this session will provide practical tips and lessons on:

• Integrating social media into your public communication efforts
• Engaging with the public to support your organization’s mission and goals
• Using internal resources to accomplish increased reach without increased costs

Jessica Schindelar, MPH
Health Communications Specialist, Division of News and Electronic Media
Office of the Associate Director for Communication
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)
@CDCgov

9:30 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!

10:30 a.m.

Using Social Media To Strengthen Relationships Between Your Organization And Your Community

Fort Huachuca is a vibrant military community in rural southeastern Arizona. Their primary missions are military intelligence training, signal operations and electronic testing. In addition to speaking to a diverse military audience, they communicate with family members, retirees and parents of trainees who know little about the Army. 

Using social media, Fort Huachuca regularly communicates with all of their customers even if they aren't physically located in Arizona. They’ve turned negative talk about Fort Huachuca into a strong sense of community pride not just outside their gates, but inside as well.

• Turn around negative sentiments and create a proud and engaged community
• Build relationships within your organization to contribute to the strength and effectiveness of your social media programs
• Incorporate features into your Facebook page that facilitate a two-way dialogue
• Make all of your hard work pay off in times of crisis

Tanja Linton, Media Relations Officer
FORT HUACHUCA PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE, U.S. ARMY
@Fort_Huachuca and @Talks2Media

11:15 a.m.

Life-Changing Communications: Using Social Media To Exponentially Expand Your Reach To Multicultural Audiences

Health disparities have been and continue to be a public health challenge. When it comes to cancer, these disparities are particularly pronounced as many members of special populations experience a greater cancer burden by some measures. In response to this, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) developed a special communications component to reach special populations with important news and information about cancer. In the past year, NCI's minority outreach effort has reached new heights through pioneering and embracing social media. Through principally Twitter and YouTube, NCI's multicultural media outreach function has expanded and enhanced its reach exponentially in 2009 and 2010.

For the Multicultural Media Outreach team, social media has actually served as an intermediary to the minority communities as the feedback through social media has helped NCI tailor its outreach approach to be more culturally relevant. The results from employing social media are promising, whether it be steady growth of followers on Twitter or hits for cultural cancer awareness ideas on YouTube.

• When social media is presented in a culturally relevant way, it is more likely to be used by media outlets that serve minority populations
• How social media tools can enhance and increase the reach of traditional media tools, including the reach of special populations/communities
• YouTube, and how this tool provides a dynamic way to personalize the dissemination of communications; it can work especially well for tailoring information to minority populations
• How to point people in multicultural communities to government resources

12:00 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.

1:30 p.m.

10 Weeks To A Web 2.0 You:
Tools You Can Use To Leverage Social Media With Less Work

The University of Georgia Libraries spread far beyond the local university community and have been involved in social media for several years to increase outreach, publicize events, and better connect with their users. Departmental web editors within the Libraries and other library staff write content for the News & Events Blog, participate in social media sites, and submit ideas about the web site. What started out as an internal training program for library staff has recently expanded to a University-wide initiative.

• Meeting the needs of a more diverse and more dispersed group of staff
• Spreading the word about benefits of social media in the workplace
• Creating social media content on behalf of an institution or department
• Drawing the line between personal and professional social media interaction
• Maximizing social media without taking time away from other duties

The "10 Weeks to a Web 2.0 You" program centers on common social media technologies including blogging and Twitter, organizational tools (RSS, project collaboration online, bookmarking), collaborative image editing, maximizing social media with less work, branding, and identity management. Presentation materials and class assignments have been folded into an online training program, which is available for anyone to use.

During this session, you will learn new ideas and strategies for:

• Engaging staff to participate in social media (and general social media guidelines)
• Using blueprints for designing your own program
• Reviewing materials used in the program, and adopting them into your own program

Robin Fay, Head of Database Maintenance, 10Weeks Trainer/Coordinator,
Social Media Group, Mobile Group, Web Advisory Group Member
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA LIBRARIES
@georgiawebgurl

2:15 p.m.

How To Engage The Public With An Agency Blog

On January 30th, 2008, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) jumped into the blogosphere with the Evolution of Security Blog. Since then, TSA’s social media team has strived to lead the way in innovative and transparent communications with the public. With over 450 airports nationwide and 2 million passengers traveling through TSA checkpoints daily, communication with travelers is mission critical. The use of social media has allowed TSA to reach a wider audience while gaining a positive reputation for openness with the public.

• Engage the public
• Debunk myths and false allegations
• Explaining the "why" of your agencies' policies & procedures
• Humanizing your workforce
• Defending your agency
• Announcing new initiatives
• And more!

Don’t miss this top-rated session from a practitioner with lots of experiences and ideas to share!

Curtis "Blogger Bob" Burns, TSA Blogger & All-Around Good Guy
Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs
TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
@TSABlogTeam and @bigbobburns

3:15 p.m.

How To Use Social Media To Successfully Communicate
During A Crisis

After receiving up to 31 inches of snow and temperatures as low as -31 degrees in some areas, February 2011 marked both historic blizzards and historic frigid temperatures for Northeast Oklahoma. The City of Owasso, Oklahoma received the largest single-day snowfall in the region. Emergency responders utilized every resource available during this “100 year blizzard” to respond to stranded motorists and residents facing critical situations.

Through this in-depth peek at Owasso’s blizzard communications response, you will leave this session with new information and understanding on how to maximize local coverage in a regional crisis by effectively communicating through multiple social media sources, both internal and external to the agency.

Specifically, you will leave this session with steps on how your organization can thrive in times of crisis by: 

• Developing a communications strategy as a part of your disaster plan, even in small organizations
• Coordinating communications for multiple departments to provide consistent, timely updates
• Partnering with local social media “power users” to maximize communication coverage
• Effectively monitoring social media to respond to citizen questions and concerns

Teresa Willson, Information Technology Director
CITY OF OWASSO, OKLAHOMA
@OwassoCity

4:00 p.m.

Integrating Social Media To Enable Conversation, Collaborate With Citizens, And Accomplish Your Goals

The City of Decatur and the City of Marietta,GA integrated social media early on to enable conversation and collaborate with citizens.  In addition to active Facebook pages, Twitter, YouTube, and using QR codes, Decatur created blogs penned by different authors and dedicated to specific topics – taxes, events & happenings in the city, active living, and tourism – to add to the tools in their ongoing communication practices.  And Marietta found a creative way to promote the opening of a new dog park and increase their Facebook fan base and citizen engagement at the same time.  
 
In this session, you will learn how these two cities overcame local government’s natural resistance to change and reluctance to dive into the social media world; how to enhance your government’s online relationship with citizens, build trust and humanize your organization; and gain strategies for integrating social media tools into ongoing communications practices, including:

• The importance of two-way dialogue with citizens and how to convince management it’s necessary
• Identifying opportunities to solicit opinions, generate ideas and answer questions
• The ins and outs of the blogging world
• Tactics for recruiting existing staff to join your social media team
• Ways to measure the effectiveness of your efforts

Matthew Daily, Public Information Officer
CITY OF MARIETTA, GEORGIA
@ cityofmarietta

Linda Harris, Assistant Director, Community & Economic Development
Catherine Lee, Development Services Coordinator
CITY OF DECATUR, GEORGIA
@DowntownDecatur

4:45 p.m.


More “How To's” To Help You Get The Work Done:
An Interactive Panel Discussion With Today’s Speakers

Need to dive deeper into specific topics?  Want more details?  Here’s your chance! 

Available speakers from today’s sessions will answer your questions to help you innovate your own social media plans.  Digest what you’ve learned and apply it to your own initiatives to get feedback and ideas for improvement.

5:15 p.m.

End of Day One

5:20 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.