March SAO Tech Pub: Increasing Your Business Through Social Media: What's Important and Why You Should Care March 11, 2010

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

5:30pm - 8:30pm

Location: Renaissance on the Riverfront
136 SW Washington Ave.
Corvallis, Oregon 97333

Google Map

RSVP TO: SAO by emailing sao-coordinator [AT] corvallis.sao.or.us or on the Willamette Innovators Network

$5 for SAO members or students, and $15 for non-members

Includes finger food and no-host bar

AGENDA:

5:30 - 6:15: Business Networking Time with finger food, no host bar
6:15 - 6:25: 30-Second Mic (give us your technology business elevator pitch!!)
6:45 Program: PANEL - Increasing Your Business Through Social Media: What's Important and Why You Should Care



PROGRAM:

Social Media Panel -- Increasing Your Business Through Social Media: What's Important and Why You Should Care

Social Media is here. Facebook has 300 million members. Youtube is the second largest search engine in the world. Twitter is approaching 50 million tweets a day.

Companies large and small are embracing social media to help get the word out, connect with customers, and provide another way to reach customer service. Comcast is turning its image around largely due to its Twitter account for customer support (@ComcastCares). This year Pepsi decided not to air any Super Bowl ads in favor of their Social Media campaigns. A Portland food-cart, Whiffies, does nearly all of its marketing on Twitter and is expanding to Seattle.

Are your Social Media efforts floundering? Don't know where to start? Feeling overwhelmed with all of the information? Come learn about how you can do things better, smarter, or just get started.

Join us for a night of networking and to get your social media questions answered.

PANEL:

Loyan Roylance, ProWorks

Loyan is a 9 year web professional. As the Director of Marketing at ProWorks Corporation, Loyan helps businesses match marketing, sales and service objectives with useful technologies and web tools to create new opportunities. He is an user and evangelist of the social web, social networks and social media from a personal and business perspective. Aside from various business client projects, a few social-web projects that Loyan is associated with include the Willamette Innovators Network (www.willametteinnovators.com), Social Media for Business (http://www.proworks.com/blog/social-media-for-business) and the emerging Corvallis Social Media Brigade (http://www.welovecorvallis.com/corvallis-social-media-brigade). Loyan is a regular user of many established social media tools and networks and enjoys exploring new and emerging ones.

Tony Jones, Intel

Tony Jones currently leads consumer product research for Intel, his work guides the company on future product development and informs on current customer trends. Previous to this Tony lead social media analytics for Intel, working with a team of social media marketing professionals he provided customer insights through the monitoring of social media conversations that were use to provide feedback on current products, programs and marketing efforts. Previous to his work at Intel Tony spent 5 years at HP leading consumer market research for inkjet printing supplies.

Ryan Lewis, Bonfire Marketing

Bonfire Marketing LLC is a consulting firm dedicated to developing unique connections between companies and customers. Our system allows businesses to easily tune into social media for marketing opportunities and communication crucial for customer loyalty. Bonfire also consults businesses on the proper methods and social norms associated with a quickly developing delicate form of marketing.

Official Website: http://www.sao.corvallis.or.us/drupal/node/160