1:00 — GasPedal’s Andy Sernovitz opens BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media here in Cincinnati, hosted by Duke Energy.
1:01 – Kurt Vanderah introduces the conference and logistics.
1:02 – Kurt says that blogging and tweeting is encouraged – #blogwell. All sessions will be filmed and shared on www.SocialMedia.org for free.
1:03 – Kurt tells us that the giftbags include chocolate to be used for emergencies
1:04 – Kurt thanks to sponsors and partners.
1:05 – Kurt tells us that the Social Media Business Council has helped to make this event possible. The Social Media Business Council is a community for social media leaders at large companies. It provides fast answers and real-time collaboration for big businesses and big brands only. The focus is on your company and not campaigns.
1:06 – Kurt Tells us that tomorrow members of the Social Media Business Councilwill be participating in a session at the P&G Global Headquarters to share and discuss.
1:07 – Kurt shares the conference schedule — The conference will include 4 case studies, followed by a break and an Ethics Briefing and then an additional 4 Case Studies. Each case study is 20 minutes with 5 minutes of Q&A. Speakers are from companies including: P&G, Hilton WorldWide, Graco, Tyson, Social Media Business Council, AT&T, Duke Energy, General Mills and Dell.
1:09 – Kurt tells us that we can see the live blogging at www.socialmedia.org/blog
1:10 – Kurt introduced Michelle Pearson from Duke Energy who works with social media at Duke Energy. Duke Energy helped to host the conference at the Duke Energy Center.
1:10 – Michelle expressed her excitement at hosting the BlogWell Conference.
1:10 – Kurt introduced Andy Sernovitz.
1:11 – Andy Sernovitz shared the goals of the Social Media Business Council “Here is why we do what we do – and specifically social media and social media with big companies”
1:12 – Andy says that when companies engage with social media and open the door to conversation and start listening it changes a company and makes them nicer and more fun to work with and easier to deal with. Things are nicer when the engagement happens – they understand people better and treat people better.
1:12 – Andy says that the Social Media Business Council wants to support the values of the people in big companies who have stood up and said that they want to make this happen at their company.
1:13 – Andy says that it’s not always the most rewarding job to be the one to take the lead and try to make the change happen in a large company. They have to deal with the process and issues that exist in big companies plus the lashback that sometimes comes from the blogging community.
1:14 – Andy tells us that if you are a person in a big company you don’t need to do this alone. We are a big group and are generous with our time and information.
1:16 – With an extra 5 minutes we’ll start the conference!
