You're Invited to a Social Media / Beer Event at ZAAZ: Thursday June 18th

ZAAZ is hosting the latest in our social media events series next Thursday, June 18th, at ZAAZ hq in downtown Seattle. Join us from 6 - 9 for a panel discussion on agency / client relationships in social media. Panelists will include folks from the agency side who specialize in digital, brand, and PR; along with client-side web and community managers. Here's the announcement:

How do agencies help clients develop richer, more valuable online relationships with customers? Should agencies moderate communities on behalf of their clients? How will budgets adjust to accommodate ongoing, as opposed to project-based, work? What skillsets are best suited for in-house groups? Which agency type owns social media strategy? Should corporations create social media teams, or distribute the work across groups?

Confirmed panelists so far are:

Dave Ballantine, Director of User Experience, DNA

Ted Zahn, Creative Director, ZAAZ

Jordan Williams, Online Community Manager, REI

Marty Collins, Group Marketing Manager, Windows Social Media Team, Microsoft

Teri Citterman, President, Citterman Ink

Expect a very lively discussion around the future of agencies--I'll be moderating, so if you have thoughts about topics, please drop them in the comments below.

We'll have a Facebook event up soon, I'll update this post with the link when we do. UPDATE: Here is the link.

I hope to see you there--come say hello!

Comments

[Nick Leggett]

I'd love to hear thoughts about how to measure social media participation. Can we demonstrate ROI at this point? If so, what are the best measures and methods?

[Pam]

As someone on the agency side, I'd love to hear about the challenges that non-agency teams deal with as it relates to infusing Social Media into their existing structures and organizations.

[Christine Thompson]

Let's tackle this subject for both B2C clients as well as B2B clients. My client makes enterprise software for global 2000 companies and governments. They've got a homegrown community (end-users talking to other end-users), but are struggling with their social media strategy. At issue: who does what, who funds what, how do you sustain the effort, how do you change the corporate culture to be more accepting of negative or poorly thought-out feedback, etc. Should this be a PR effort, should you unleash the SMEs, etc.

[Anders Rosenquist]

I'd like to hear about how you determine if a social media strategy even makes sense for an organization. What are the basic questions that need to be answered? What characteristics of the organization matter?

[Erin]

In addition to effective methods of capturing attention and engagement through social media channels, what are the most effective ways to close the loop and capitalize on that audience and interaction? Is it all about brand perception? Does the meaning of "conversion" change in this arena?

[ArielV]

I think a lot of people are overwhelmed by the sheer number of social media types, and then the various applications that have been developed to handle them... and I think this is an area of expertise that consultants can really help clients with.

As someone who needs to know about social media, but who does not prioritize keeping up with all that's emerging, I'd love to hear about the panelists' best sources for keeping up. An expert filter of all the noise out there, as it were.

[Doug Winfield]

Hi,

I'm trying to organize the kick off meeting for the Summer Twestival event next Thursday, and I think there may be a big overlap between our audiences. I'd be willing to be part of your panel and talk about Twestival. I'll also just be back from 140conf so might have some insights from that. Would love to be able to join forces for the evening.

Let me know @d2k dougwinfield@gmail.com

[Citterman]

Great questions. I'd love to hear any others related to PR, so I can be best prepared.