If you are a business owner or professional interested in learning more about social media and how it can help you increase revenue, improve your professional standing and connect more effectively with customers and other professionals, then the SoMeBizLife Conference (Social: Media, Business & Life), June 1 at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown is a great opportunity for you. Thirty speakers will cover a broad range of topics, including Social Media Marketing, Facebook Business Fan Pages, LinkedIn and other social media for career development, Blogging, Video Marketing with YouTube and other platforms, relationship building, brand storytelling, social business strategy, Enterprise 2.0, Social Customer Relationship Management and more.

This full-day event begins with breakfast at 7:30 a.m., June 1, 2011 and concludes at 5:00 p.m. It will be held at Delaware Valley College, which is conveniently located in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with easy access from Routes 202 and 611, as well as the SEPTA Doylestown Regional Rail Delaware Valley College Station. Registration for the Conference is by advance ticket only. Regular Admission is $249 per person, and a special admission rate of $129 per person is available for full-time college students. You can register for the SoMeBizLife Conference by clicking on the button below:

 

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Here’s The List of Speakers and Topics for the SoMeBizLife Conference:

Main Platform: 8:30-10:00 a.m.

• Chuck Hall
  Networks of Communication & Value

  From the beginning of recorded history, people have been organized in networks to communicate and exchange value. How have human relationships changed over time? In this brief presentation, we will look at how communication, relationships and value have evolved.

  We’ll look briefly at history, such as Moses and the 10 Commandments, the American Revolution and 20th Century business life. Today, our society is moving rapidly toward self-organizing networks, a phenomenon described by sociologist Niklas Luhmann in the 1980s and 1990s. We are living his theory today in the age of social media.

• Rob Kall
  Welcome to the Bottom-Up Revolution

  Prolific blogger Rob Kall, founder and developer of Opednews.com and a regular contributor to Huffington Post, will share insights he has discovered through his work and research. Rob will demonstrate that our world, our culture, and even our brains are transitioning from Top-Down to Bottom-Up ways of seeing, doing, working, promoting, and using power.
  
  Bottom-Up is quickly becoming the way things work for everyone, going way beyond Twitter, Facebook and the usual “social networking” palette.  It changes the way we work with and manage others, create and promote products and services, and make a living. Not understanding the power of the Bottom-Up revolution could easily get you into trouble if you use top-down approaches in a bottom up world.

  The Bottom-Up revolution has led to a major shift from an information era to a connection era – and a new economy. Rob has applied this approach to website policies and designs, increasing traffic, income and user experience. He will share his insights on how we can all use this approach in our businesses and lives.

• Janice Presser

  Social Is a Team Sport

  What does it take to build a presence in the world of social media? That depends in part on where you are active online, but as IRL – in real life – social exchange demands that people ‘team well’ with others. And no matter where you go these days, being a ‘team player’ is more important than ever. So, what can you do to make the most of your current status? Consider these questions:

  Why do you want to participate in social media?
  Do you have a specific goal for your social media activity?
  Who do you need to team with in order to reach your goal?
  Where will you find them, and how will you get them to recognize the value of connecting with you?
  What’s your contribution, and who wants to know?
  How will you measure your success?

  All of these questions have a common theme that applies to all platforms – from social networking and social marketing to social broadcasting and new channels yet to come. It involves the secrets of teaming with people in ways that build loyalty, generate positive energy, motivate people to act, and create value.

  In addition to frequent social media and live networking activities, Dr. Presser’s research in behavioral science has produced new technologies that measure and predict how people will behave in teams. Her work can help people – both leaders and followers – to understand and apply deep truths about social interaction.

• Det Ansinn
  Social Plays, Social Rulz

  How is Social Media changing the way we interact with each other socially in the gaming world, in business with a wide variety of apps, and in government as social media helps us communicate with each other more in the great experiment of democracy?

• Mike Krupit
  How Social Media Has Innovated Innovation
  Social Media is more than a means to connect with friends and colleagues, keep up with news, market our products, or service our customers.  It is a transforming influence on how we communicate and interrelate, and one of the results has been to accelerate the ability to innovate.

  Ever since the coffee houses of the 17^th & 18^th centuries, heterogeneous communities of personalities, skills, and beliefs have found ways to congregate and share ideas, ultimately affecting a renewal of or change in thinking.  Today, Social Media has dramatically accelerated such innovation.

  We will explore the concept of innovation, how it happens, and the impact of Social Media.

Breakout I: 10:15-11:15 a.m. (Choose one of the following)

• Cari Sultanik
  Building Your Social Plan

  Whether you are a big brand, a small business, or a non-profit, your target market is already talking about your brand, products and services or cause. They are virtually defining your social personality and you know you have a huge opportunity (and risk) to ensure that the message is what you want it to be.

  Where do you start? Facebook page? Twitter? YouTube?  Actually, these questions should come much later in your journey. Find out how to identify your audience, define meaningful objectives, craft a strategy that puts people first, develop success factors by which you will gauge your progress and then determine the technology you will need to put the pieces together.

  We will also touch on tools you can use to manage your social media program whether you are a one-man (or woman) show or a full team of players so that you can still focus on your full time job if social media is just one more thing on your to-do list. You will also walk away with a list of resources you can use to learn more on your own without sifting through the myriad of articles, blogs and books to find the gems.

• Eric Ziegler
  The Enterprise 2.0 Future 

  Curious to hear what other companies envision for E2.0 in the future? In the past couple of years smartphones, social media, and technology have transformed the enterprise. Imagine what could happen in the enterprise in the future.  This session will provide a view into a day in the life of a financial enterprise, in a world where an associate is no longer tethered to a desk, and able to securely leverage E2.0 technologies any place, any time.  This session will describe Vanguard’s  vision for E2.0, including the plans to help manage challenges with people, process, and technology.

• Lynda Mitchell
  Social and Your Nonprofit Mission

  Based on her social media experience with Kids With Food Allergies Foundation, a nonprofit online community, Lynda will share practical insights to help others who work in the nonprofit arena. She will share practical tips, explaining what has worked well for her. She will cover Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace experiences in her presentation.

• Don Lafferty
  Social Channels Extend the Reach of Every Business

  Are you trying to decide if your business is ready for Social Media?

  Do you know how Social Media fits into your customers’ lives and impacts the way they choose products and services?

  Would you like to know how businesses like yours are using Social Media to raise their visibility, grow their market share, or dominate their zip code?

  Social Media is not a fad, but many small businesses and individuals are still on the sidelines not knowing how to harness the power of these tools. Join me for an informative and interactive discussion about how your company can get the most from social media.

  At this seminar we will discuss the best practices of harnessing the internet to raise your visibility and extend your brand. I’ll show you how to:

  Define your Objectives
  Define your Target Audience
  Choose your Communication Channels
  Design your Tactical Calendar
  Measure success

• Moderator TBD
  Pro Session I: Are We the Gods of Social?

Breakout II: 11:15 a.m. -12:15 p.m. (Choose one of the following)

• Kim Graziano
  Building Social Relationships Online and Face to Face

  Relationships are the bedrock on which we build our social lives, both online and face to face. And whether online or face to face the rules for building relationships are the same: Connect, Listen, Engage, Grow. This breakout session will discuss how these rules apply to building powerful and authentic personal and business relationships that thrive in the “virtual” and “real” worlds and at the intersections where these worlds meet.

  We’ll discuss practical steps and explore best practices for building and growing relationships using the most popular social media tools including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Blogging.

• Dave Polinchock
  New Brand Opportunities: Social Places, Spaces and Faces
  

  Social Media creates new brand opportunities for businesses to deliver outstanding experience for customers online and in person. In this session, we will look at ways that businesses are effectively connecting the online and face-t0-face aspects of their brands.

• Steve Levine
  Tracking and Measuring the Social Media

  Customer experience and communication are going through an evolution.  We continue to listen to customers, elicit their opinions, and analyze the associated information but in ways that are evolving.

  Social networks and media are playing an important role. Much of the information has qualitative and/or quantitative elements to it.  Because customer information is so accessible today, it is easy to misinterpret its meaning. After all, few of us have the time to keep up with social media evolution. As business professionals, there is a laundry lists of social networks, tools, and abundant information.

  So where do we begin? We do not live in a one size fits all society.  There are many segments of the population with individual needs and desires.

  In this presentation, we will take a chronological ride on communication…where we have been, where we are today, and where we are going. In the digital age we can be confident that we will continue to experience change. Rather than feel overwhelmed we will break it down and apply social that will make us more informed and better engaged with each other.

• Barry Dalton
  Social Customer Relationship Management

  How are leading companies using social business strategies to deliver optimal service to customers? In this information-packed session, you’ll learn best practices and insights, and receive advice from somone who is living it every day.

• Greg Lowe
  Pro Session II: Where Do I Fit in All of This?

  In this participatory “Pro Session” social media thought leader Greg Lowe will lead professionals in an exploration of “Where Do I Fit in All of This?” Are social media and social business practices the domain of IT, marketing, public relations, human resources, corporate communications, customer service, project management, innovation, production development, consulting or training professionals? Yes — so how can you make it work for you?

Breakout III: 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. (Choose one of the following)

• Sharlene Sones
  Storytelling 2.0

  How do you create and build your own world for communicating the ideas of what you are most passionate about and then socialize those ideas into reality? We’ll examine the value of story for building your brand and engaging in this social world. How does social media fit within in an environment in which everyone is a storyteller?

  The problem with storytelling:

  Why should I have a storytelling mindset when it comes to social media?
  What gets people to believe in my story and how can I do more of it?
  Purposeful design: understanding how your story plays out
  Key considerations before posting anything

• Rick Toone
  More Better Video in Social Media

  Video is everywhere. Thereʼs good, bad and just plain ugly. Not everyone possesses the skills and knowledge to create video worthy of watching, but Rick has the experience to do just that. In this breakout session he will talk about:

  The importance of using good video in your marketing
  Why your “set” matters
  The reasons to use lights and get a microphone
  How to be a better spokesperson on camera
  No one knows you made a mistake but you
  Message, message, message – break it down
  (And probably a Hollywood story or two!)

  In todayʼs competitive world where everyone has a Flipcam and thinks quality doesnʼt matter, Rick will teach you that quality content always wins. Social media is a part of our lives and video is quickly replacing text as a means to get your message out. (How many video distribution sites can you name? ) Understanding what it takes to create quality content will put you leaps and bounds above your competition. While you may not need to upload video to NBC, thereʼs no reason not to understand how your video can be good enough for the networks and at the very least make you stand out from “the rest.”

  If you want to understand how video can increase your marketing efforts, come experience this session with someone who has created video messages you all remember.

• Tom Knoble
  Facebooking Your Business

  As Facebook continues it’s growth into the business arena, you can’t ignore the opportunity to extend your presence on this platform. There are a range of strategic marketing tools that are presented in this session. The individual Facebook features offer different strategies for growing your business and broadcasting to the audience that is on Facebook.

  The focus to remember in Facebook is increasing your “fans” and directing traffic onto your other on-line vehicles such as your website. Fans are the method for on-line engagement and lead to more valuable customers and followers of your business.

  We will cover the creation of custom fan pages for your business, creating events and offering Facebook-specific deals. A coordinated campaign from Facebook advertising, fan pages and landing pages on your website will be covered.

  Many companies today large and small are using Facebook successfully and engaging their customers on a continuing basis. It’s time for your business to use the tools that are available on Facebook.

• Eric Lepping
  Balancing Tech, Balancing Human

  As Social Media evolves we’re given new management tools all of the time.  Programs like HootSuite and TweetDeck allow us to keep an eye on those we follow and get our messages out when we want them to go out and get those messages out from multiple accounts.  While these tools can optimize our messaging they can also allow us to become “social spammers”.

  “Balancing Tech, Balancing Human” will examine how these tools can work for us and against us.  We’ll talk about how to best use automation, how to be authentic in our messages, and how to avoid the dreaded over-share.

• Skip Shuda
  Pro Session III: Demonstrating the Value of Social Media to Organizational Leaders

  How do social media professionals show leaders why they should invest in social media for their organizations? In this interactive session, Skip Shuda will lead social media professionals through a discussion of how we can most effectively demonstrate the value of social media to business, non-profit and other leaders.

  We’ll work through a series of questions together, using real world prompts to start the conversation on topics like:

  Is this client ready for Social Media?
  Reluctant participants. What are the common objections we hear from managers?
  “Prove it to me.”  How can we demonstrate value to our prospective clients?
  Setting expectations for social media noobs
  What is our mission as social media evangelists?

Breakout IV: 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (Choose one of the following)

• Angela Giovine and Tina Paparone
  Social Entrepreneurship: Creating a Business that Couldn’t Have Existed Before

  You’ve heard about how social media is changing everything.  You’ve even heard that it has created new business models.  But what does that mean for you, and how can you find the proven, long-term models for success?  Join Angela Giovine and Tina Paparone, founders of Happenings Media, as they explore the X factor that is Social Media for Entrepreneurs and Startups.

• Harrison Kratz
  Blogging 2.0: Going Beyond the Typepad

  Blogging and its influence has grown exponentially in just the past few years. With so many people blogging, it is easy to get lost in the clutter and even more difficult to differentiate yourself from others who are talking about the same thing you are.  Luckily, there are many different ways beyond words and typing to express your thoughts, knowledge, and stories that you can take advantage of.

  In Blogging 2.0: Going Beyond the Typepad, Harrison will lead a social presentation and discussion on new media and its place in blogging, as well as how you can fully utilize video, audio, and standard blogging to grow in a social economy. We all have a voice, and there are more tools than ever to share it. Harrisonwill draw upon personal experience, passion, and stand out examples in the blogging world to ensure that you will be ready to have your voice heard.

• Matthew Levy
  How to Manage Your Career Using Social Media

  Because only 3% of jobs make it onto the big job boards… Because an average of 300 candidates apply to the those jobs…

  AND

  Because 75% of jobs are filled through networking… And social media enhances your ability to network effectively…

  I would rather spend more time hanging out at the social media ”party!”

  In this discussion, Matt will provide an introduction to the “wireless world” of social media (including but not limited to: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Blogging) to augment your job search and therefore effectively network your way into your next position!

  Matthew Levy is an HR Executive, Career Coach, keynote speaker and author.  His job seeker blog has received 20,000 visitors and his articles have been run by nationally recognized career management websites and guides.  Learn more at www.cornerofficecoach.com.

• Chris Beadling
  Turning Social Into Sales

  Over the course of the last year more than one million foursquare accounts, twitter handles and facebook business pages have been set up on behalf of business men and women looking to ride the social media wave to widget-sale-superstardom.  After a week or two of tweeting madly, however, most of these practictioners give up and declare “social media isn’t for serious business”, leaving others to pick up the ball and carry it across the goal.

  During the course of this 50-minute presentation we will revisit the basic principles of selling; trust, understanding, knowledge of the product and presentation skill and tie them back into the social media arena.  We will look at just what it means to be a “trusted adviser” and how listening, not broadcasting, can turn your social media efforts into successful sales.

  This will not be a tactical overview of specific tools and/or social platforms but will discuss how to use each of the tools online (and off) to create a general selling strategy.  We will also revisit some of the fundamental building blocks of selling and review their practicality in a social media-dominated environment.

• Steve Lubetkin
  Pro Session IV: What’s Next for Social Media Professionals?

  In this interactive Pro-Session, Steve will lead participants in a discussion of what lies ahead for social media professionals. Steve will draw on his years of navigating the twists and turns of technological innovation in both the corporate world and his own consulting practice.

Closing Session: Social Changes Media, Changes Lives – 3:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

• Mike Maney
  Balancing Social and Traditional Media

  Balancing traditional and social media is a challenge and an opportunity for many businesses, nonprofits and community organizations. Traditional news media such as newspapers, magazines and television have been challenged and/or threatened by the advent of social media. How are news organizations in our region evolving in response? How are people who rely on media to get their messages out responding? Are there new media models that are coming to the surface? Are these an improvement or a step back in the quality of journalism?

• Christina Kristofic
  Integrating Social with Print Journalism

  For a couple hundred years, the only way you could get news was by reading a newspaper or talking to the town gossip. Then radio news came along, and everyone said, “Oh, no, newspapers are going to die.” (They didn’t.) Then television news came along, and everyone said, “Oh no, newspapers are going to die.” (They didn’t.)

  Then, the Internet came along, and everyone said, “Oh no, newspapers are going to die.” (Some people – politicians who don’t like being questioned or local folks who thought their newspaper was biased in the wrong direction – said, “Yippee! Newspapers are going to die!” They didn’t.)

  And now we have social media, and everyone is saying, “Oh no, newspapers are going to die.” (They haven’t, though some aren’t doing too hot.)

  A young reporter will tell you why she thinks the traditional news medium still matters, and how she uses it and the new media to give people the information they need and the stories they want to read.

• Sarah Larson
  Journalism Goes Totally Social Media

  A veteran journalist shares her perspective on professional journalism that now resides totally online, without print, radio or television.

• Jim Donovan
  One Boomer’s Perspective on Social Media

  Baby boomers are using social media to reconnect with friends from days gone by, enhance communication with far away family members,  and create new and improved business relationships. As “Social changes how we communicate — our media — it also changes our lives. As part of the closing panel of the SoMeBizLife Conference, Jim will share his insights from the point of view of a Boomer. Not the entire generation, but one person who may or may not see and interact with the world differently than other generations.

• Amanda Walsh
  One Millennial’s Perspective on Social Media

  As “Social” changes how we communicate — our media — it also changes our lives. As part of the closing panel of the SoMeBizLife Conference, Amanda will share her insights from the point of view of a Millennial. Not the entire generation, but one person who may or may not see and interact with the world differently than other generations.