#SOHOseminar {Video}

TGIF! The weekend is just around the corner. Any plans to do something you’re passionate about during your two days off? We hope so!

Our experience at the #sohoseminar yesterday was absolutely amazing. We can’t thank Jeff Willinger enough for the opportunity to attend the two-day conference, which is entitled, “Using Social Media to Align the Corporate and Personal Brands.” The sessions provided an incredible opportunity to gain information, network and learn more about how to align who we are personally with what we are doing professionally. Here’s a brief description of each presentation:

Barbara Rozgonyi (@wiredprworks)

Which brands do you love? Which brands do you hate? Which brands do you think care about you? These were just a few of the questions that Barbara asked during her presentation on corporate brands in the social media landscape. In the words of Alice in Wonderland, for brands to survive in social media, it’s sometimes necessary to be “as mad as a hatter.” Barb also introduced Leslie Banks (@lesliebanks and @redinthecity) from Morningstar, who discussed what her company is doing in the social media space (@mstaradvisor).

Jason Weaver (@shoutlet)

Jason discussed how to develop team incentives and opportunities in social media. Some of the key takeaways from his presentation were:

• Studies show 93 percent of people think companies should have a presence on social sites
• 85 percent of those believe companies should interact with them
• More than 50 percent say they feel a stronger connection with brands on social media
• 60 percent feel they are better served by the brand

Steve Glynn (@spreenkler)

Steve generated a great discussion on who actually owns social media. It’s an interesting question: if you’re working at a company and doing social media on their behalf, who owns those relationships when/if you decide to leave? Does the company own them? Do you personally own them? Who decides?

There were a lot of differences in opinion, and we’d be interested in hearing YOUR thoughts on the subject, too. Perhaps the best quote came from Brian Kalma of Zappos, who once said, “If you’re afraid at the thought of your employees talking to your customers, you’ve hired the wrong people.”

Who do you think should own the social media relationships if you decide to leave a company?

Erin Nevicosi (@ENevicosi)

Erin had a great presentation on thought leadership and how to use it to your advantage. Thought leadership combines your expertise, voice, personality and passion. You can’t learn it, teach it, fake it or force it: it’s a way of being. It’s a strategy that she uses at the company she works for, 100 Monkeys PR. We discussed the belief that it’s necessary to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way because you never know where it might lead you. Life can take you in crazy directions.

We know a little bit about that!

Matthew and Diana Matigian (@dcmjd and BlueWorldAM.com)

Matthew and Diana provided a very informative presentation on the legal issues surrounding social networks, namely blasphemy, defamation and libel. It’s a real issue with brands and people today — if someone complains about a brand in a way that damages that brand, can legal action be taken? What if a person accidentally spreads a false rumor about a company? There are a lot of fine lines, but Diana brought up four basic tenets that are important to remember:

1. Transparency
2. Ethical Conduct and Communication
3. Accuracy
4. Confidentiality

By ensuring that employees and individuals are educated in the company’s social media strategy and code of conduct, business owners can help prevent issues such as defamation of character from occurring.

Olivier Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder)

Our keynote speaker for the conference yesterday was Olivier Blanchard. He has built up a very successful personal and professional brand for himself by blogging about “building strong brands through passion, innovation, creativity and common sense.” You can read more here.

Olivier is a “brand strategist with 15 years of marketing and operational management experience across a variety of B2B and B2C .He currently manages BrandBuilder Marketing — a brand consulting and marketing management firm based in Greenville, SC.  His “Basics of Social Media R.O.I.” presentation helped redefine social media measurement in 2009.”

Perhaps the most important piece that we took away from his presentation was that he is a down-to-Earth, genuine person who cares about the people he is speaking to and wants to continue the conversation long after he has finished talking.

As a result, we were fortunate enough to shoot a video with him — just for you, our readers! In it, Olivier provides his best tip for anyone starting out in small business and also discusses what he feels is most important to remember when engaging in social media.

You can check out the video below — and by subscribing to ChiPassionistas on YouTube!

We hope you enjoyed this summary as much as we enjoyed the conference! Follow us @jennkorducki and @felska today as we continue to tweet about #sohoseminar. More videos and information to come!

This has been a week we will never forget. We are so excited to share a recap of the events, thoughts and emotions that have occurred during our first week in business. More of that to come this weekend — we hope that you will stop by while you’re relaxing on the couch!

Dream bigger,