Last week I spoke at an event and the definition of social media came up. Some people refer to social networking tools when they speak of social media while others refer to the notion of engagement and content on the web. I'm more of a "gelato in a cone" kinda gal. I view social media as engagement and content (gelato) that lives in some kind of an "online container", such as a social networking site or another web platform (cone). I'm looking for both. I would even argue that customer experiences, whether social or not, could and should be connected to optimize their journey. For example, social content can live on your web site and your social networking sites and conversations can be prominently featured at your events.

Building on the "gelato in a cone" interpretation of social media, we (@CiscoSocial) will be hosting a social media event for the savvy marketer in San Jose on April 18 and 19. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend this free event as we bring together some super bright practitioners for 2 days of live chats and presentations. The practitioners that are lending their expertise and time to our event come from Twitter, LinkedIn, Kaiser Permanente, Walmart, Adobe, SAP, Intel, VMware, Citrix, ABC, eBay, Salesforce.com, MindShare, Engauge, Percolate, BuzzFeed, Performics, Digby, Blinq Media, Cisco, and more.

You may attend in person or via webcast, justplease register ahead of time.

Register for the in-person event: http://cs.co/SMevent.

Register for the webcast: http://cs.co/SMEventWebcast.

Hash tags:#CiscoSMT,#SocialSavvy

Ping us at @CiscoSocial

We have a wide range of topics lined up for you, check out some details here: 

DAY 1 TOPICS:

• The Importance of Social Leadership
• The Convergence of Search and Social
• Developing Strategies for Multi-Screen Experiences
• The Evolving Role of Data in Creativity
• How Mobile and Social Combine
• Data: Clever vs Creepy
• Social Influence Marketing
• Mingle at our End-of-Day Cocktail Hour and tour Cisco's Social Media Listening Center

DAY 2 TOPICS:

• Social CRM
• Gamification: What It Means
• Content Marketing for B2B
• Socializing Your Video Content
• Driving Social into Business
• Visualize  It
• Battle of the Generations

Agenda is subject to change.

Jeanette Gibson has talked about Driving Social Into Business, How Mobile and Social Combine, and The Convergence of Social and Search in her earlier blog post, so I'd like to highlight 3 more sessions in this post...and a bonus offer:

Developing Strategies for Multi-Screen Experiences

It's unavoidable - an increasing number of people are on screens of all sizes at all times of day. And they use those devices differently, motivated by urgency, situation, convenience and entertainment. This means strategies can no longer be rooted in a single screen, or worse, retrofitted into smaller screen experiences. Companies must consider the portability and utility of their content first in order to enact a "big idea" that can shape-shift or even allow a participant to chase new content down different screens.

The Evolving Role of Data in Creativity

Data and creativity generally seem diametrically opposed, and while organizations typically understand the role of data when it comes to articulating an audience strategy, media plan or user experience, they may not realize that there are also huge opportunities for creative optimization using testing and data across Web, search, email and social.  These technologies help us to understand what type of creative content and messaging is resonating with people, which allows us to make the content we produce smarter and ultimately more engaging for audiences of all kinds, whether they're buying software, soap or services.

Battle of the Generations

We know various generations do things differently. Attitudes about brands, use of technology, decision-making, comfort with social sharing - all of these vary from generation to generation. Studies tell us what many of these differences are, and we use them to inform decisions about how we go to market. Yet nothing quite compares to hearing it from the horse's mouth - in a "battle of the generations."

BONUS: Cisco Social Media Listening Center Tour

Stay for the cocktail hour on Thursday, April 18 and get a tour of the award-winning Cisco Social Media Listening Center. More information on how to join the tour will be available on site at the event.

We hope to see you there live or virtually for an out-of-world "gelato in a cone" experience. Just as a bonus, if you have ever wondered which ice cream flavor is the most popular, it's vanilla.

"Vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor in the world simply because of its simplicity or how good it tastes with toppings."* Same is true for content, isn't it? Keep it simple and create new flavors of the same content by presenting it in different ways to your different audience segments.

Source:
*Edublogs: Food, Entertainment and Society