Working with brands isn’t just about making money, it’s about building your brand and positioning yourself as a professional in this field.  The Collective Bias Community Management Team will discuss how to create content that brands are looking for when they activate blogger campaigns and how you can keep the brands coming back for more once you have landed a gig! Learn the difference between sponsored content and a review and what your responsibilities are as a blogger. The Team will share what brands are looking for when selecting bloggers and some helpful tips and tricks to make your blog more brand/PR friendly.

Kim Janocko (@CraftyMamaof4), Senior Community Manager; Mel Lockcuff (@mamabuzz), Community Manager; Brandi Jeter (@mamaknowsitall ), Community Manager; Kristin Wheeler (@MamaLuvsBooks ), Community Manager.

Ted’s philosophy is that Twitter is a tool that leads into other forms of social sharing. He considers Twitter a place to lay the groundwork where other people pick up things. Twitter is a seeding medium and a place to build engagement, interaction and relationships… its best use is not as a broadcast medium, so it is not about the quantity of people listening at once, but the ability to lay it out there for those whose attention are drawn to what you have to say at any given moment. Twitter is a river that continuously flows. You add content one second, and the next it is gone. Tweet to keep your brand on your followers’ radar, increase your following, and provide value that keeps followers listening, continuously having the opportunity to engage with you, and to stay top of mind. Ted and Sandy will discuss important goals and objectives for business, some of what they believe to be best practices, and of course, have some fun!

Ted Rubin is the Chief Social Marketing Officer of Collective Bias. He is a leading social marketing strategist and in January 2009 started using and evangelizing the term ROR, Return onRelationship, hashtag #RonR.

Many people in the social media world know Ted for his enthusiastic, energetic and undeniably personal connection to people. Ted is the most followed CMO on Twitter according to Social Media Marketing Magazine; one of the most interesting CMOs on Twitter according to Say Media, and one of the Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers, 2013. ROR is the basis of his philosophy… It’s All About Relationships! His book, Return on Relationship was officially released January 29^th. Connect with Ted…http://TedRubin.com or @TedRubin

Sandy Jenney is the cbSocially Senior Manager of Collective Bias. She has a team of six that handle the social media syndication of content from Social Fabric®, advertisers and Collective Bias. She helped to develop cbSocially and has helped it grow from a couple hundred impressions to several million impressions since it was established in June of 2011. She has her own blog, Organize with Sandy. She was a pediatric nurse, and is a Mom and Step Mom to eight children. Follow Sandy on Twitter @organizersandy. 

Social and digital media is no longer about just creating content. When businesses seek to be key players in the social media realm, they must do so with a goal in mind. This is where social media strategy comes in. We needed someone who could effectively communicate the best way to map our social media success with experience to back them up. Look no further than Umang Shah, Director of Social Strategy at Walmart.

Smarter Social Media Strategies 

Umang Shah, Director of Social Strategy at Walmart will share how Walmart has built better social media strategies with reputation management top of mind. Attendees will learn how Umang utilized a more analytical and data-driven approach to build smarter strategies and develop deeper relationships.

Umang Shah is the Director of Social Strategy for Walmart, where he responsible for leveraging technology to help protect, manage, and improve the Company’s reputation. Prior to this, he led Social Media efforts for Microsoft, focused on Small and Medium Businesses. Umang has had a diverse technology-driven marketing career, including launching innovative Customer Marketing programs for Xerox, BEA Systems, and VMware and founding Cubed Consulting, which providesintegrated marketing services to startups and emerging businesses. Follow Umang on Twitter and LinkedIn 

How Retailers Are Profiting from Social Campaigns, Influencers and Company Advocates  

Like it or not, social is changing how we do business, and social business expert Mark Fidelman firmly believes a social business is the best strategy to increasing profits and remaining competitive in 2013. That doesn’t mean you can hire a social media intern to throw just anything on your company’s Facebook page and expect a resoundingly positive response.  “The reality is today’s consumers expect more from brands, and they expect companies to be more in tune with their needs.”

Fidelman will offer sharp commentary regarding which retailers are us social technologies, data analytics andinfluencer management to increase profits and reduce costs; which retailers are doing social wrong; and what businesses need to change to be competitive in 2013.

Mark Fidelman is the CEO for Evolve! Inc. a Social Business consulting firm.  His experience includes more than two decades of technology sales and marketing with organizations including A.T. Kearney, EDS, CT Space and Autodesk.  Mark is also a contributing writer to Forbes.com, author of Socialized! and patent holder on a system for tracking mobile electronic loyalty cards.  He’s still younger than the oldest NFL player.  Follow Mark on twitter at @markfidelman

Our Social Immersion Day is going to be jam packed with expert professionals, who will provide our attendees with insight on the BEST approaches in the digital and social media world. One powerhouse in our lineup is Tami Cannizzaro. We think Tami is one of the foremost experts in digital marketing and social business and we know, after her session, you will too. Tami will be speaking on Three Guiding Principles for the Next Generation CMO

Three Guiding Principles for the Next Generation CMO
In the era of the digital native, the customer decides when, where and how the buying relationship begins, ends and whether it continues.  Earning customer loyalty – and most importantly advocacy –  requires marketing leaders to rethink their approach. To be effective, marketers must create  mobile, social, and web experiences that are relevant and targeted.  In this  session, explore three guiding principles for becoming a more effective marketing leader and  successfully  tapping today’s ‘always-on’ customers.

Tami Cannizzaro is an Executive Director of Marketing at IBM where she is responsible for driving IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative and working with companies to better connect with today’s always on customers.  Her organization oversees global marketing activities for IBM Industry Solutions Division, which includes communications, channel development, demand generation, digital and social media.   Before coming to IBM, Tami worked as a Wall Street analyst in the retail sector.  She has her MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.  Tami has a passion for digital marketing and speaks internationally on the topics of Digital Marketing & Social Business.

She writes a blog for marketers www.digitalageofmarketing.com and tweets under the name @TamiCann.

Video creates such a rich experience for blog readers. Vlogging, instructional videos, and engaging brands through video is an important aspect of our Social Fabric Community and all blogger communities. So when it comes to creating engaging video, learning how to leverage local media, and how to make the most of your 15 minutes of fame, we know it can be easy to become overwhelmed. This is why we’ve enlisted Danielle Smith for the SoFabCon! Danielle is the woman to help our attendees navigate the video process. Not only does she have an impressive resume, she happens to be one of the most entertaining and approachable personalities around. We can’t wait for you to experience Danielle’s session where she will share video tips and media training pointers.

Danielle is a digital correspondent, host, storyteller, speaker, media trainer, vlogger,  author of “Mom, Incorporated: A Guide to Business + Baby” and the soon to be released, Social Media Engagement for Dummies. In her “free time”, she juggles work as the founder of Extraordinary Mommy and Danielle Smith Media as well as hosting and producing her lifestyle series Keeping Style in Your life, creating original content for Babble and SheKnows and sharing video tips and media training with people wanting to jump on camera. She has covered everything from the Red Carpet at the Academy of Country Music Awards to the Vancouver Olympics Games and the NFL ProBowl in Hawaii and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, NPR, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News as well as in USA Today, Publishers Weekly and Pregnancy & Newborn. Most importantly, she is mom to two sweet and sassy small people, Delaney, 8, and Cooper, 6.

The SoFabCon is proud to announce Calvin Peters, from DUANEreade™, as our Brand Keynote Speaker. Calvin is a gifted speaker and leader in public relations and digital communications. We are certain that Calvin will provide our brand attendees with fresh ideas as well as insight into DUANEreade’s “GET SOCIAL” framework. Calvin’s presentation is “The Omni-Channel Shopper: Increase Social Share of Voice and Retail Sales with User Generated Content” Find out more about Calvin Peters here and here

The core of the “GET SOCIAL” with DUANEreade™ initiative is our VIP Blogger activations. These VBA’s are flexible and powerful digital/social amplification vehicles, allowing DUANEreade™ and our vendors to take full advantage of consumer-generated media for corporate and supplier exposure/sales initiatives.

*         The DR VIP Blogger Team concept

*         Vendor Amplification Programs-Monetizing digital/social while building serious CGM

*         QR Codes in-store presence for DR web-based mobile optimized landing page

*         Digital/Social Platforms strategically utilizing “path-to-purchase” UGC

*         Mobile gaming and retail: DR & Google Ingress initiative

Want to make money from your blog? Of course you do! This is what we call “monetization.” The SoFabCon is happy to announce Andrea Deckard and Dawn & Elizabeth from The Party BluPrints Blog. We think these ladies are rock-stars and will give our conference attendees all they need to know about how to improve their monetization. This panel of women have built their brands, and they’ve learned many ways to diversify revenue streams while creating value for their audiences. This panel will share many of those revenue models during this session including affiliate marketing, CPM advertising, teaching, and consulting. When you leave, you will understand the true potential that your blog and brand have to increase your income.

Meet Your Panel!

Andrea Deckard

Andrea Deckard, is a former HR professional with 10 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies. After leaving Corporate America to stay home with her children, Andrea took her passion for saving and technology and started her site to help others save.

Through the years, Andrea has learned many ways to earn through diversified revenue streams as a professional blogger. She has also partnered with many brands including SC Johnson, Tide, Savings.com, Coca-Cola, Bing, World Vision and Walt Disney World. Andrea has been featured in national media outlets including All You Magazine, Good Morning America and World News Tonight. She works regularly with local media including a weekly segment with WGRR radio station in Cincinnati.

Andrea is a co-host of the Savvy Blogging Summit and writes at SavvyBlogging.net. Both offer information for others to learn how to blog, work with brands, turn their blogs into successful businesses and find a community for great blogging support.

When not attending one of her three boys’ sporting events you can connect with Andrea at @SavingLifestyle, on Facebook,Instagram or on her site SavingsLifestyle.com.

Dawn and Elizabeth

Dawn Sandomeno and Elizabeth Mascali are lifestyle and entertaining experts. Their mission is tohelp hosts enjoy simple and special entertaining at home through their passion and practical party advice. Dawn and Elizabeth put the heart back into Home Entertaining in their first book, Plan to Party, and enjoy sharing their daily dose of inspiration on The Party Bluprints Blog. In addition to their own platforms, they have also shared their savvy strategies, tips and recipes on NBC’s TODAY Show, Fox TV Good Day NY, Martha Stewart Living Radio and with Good Housekeeping and Redbook Magazines to name just a few. Dawn & Elizabeth have worked as Spokeswomen, Social Media Marketers and Content Providers with iconic brands such as: ConAgra Foods, 3M’s Command Brand, Unilever, and Microsoft plus many other brands you know and love.

Panel Moderator:  MELISSA GARCIA | STRATEGY – COMMUNITY RELATIONS.

 Melissa was a Walmart Mom for almost four years. She has been featured on the Today Show, Oprah Radio Network, All You Magazine and many more. She’s been a Social Fabric® member since the beginning and is the owner of ConsumerQueen.com, a very successful consumer site focused on savings.