Name

Patrick O’Keefe

Occupation

Founder, iFroggy network

Bio

Patrick O’Keefe is the founder of the iFroggy Network (ifroggy.com), a network of websites covering various interests. He has been managing online communities since 2000 and is the author of “Managing Online Forums,”  a practical guide to managing online social spaces. He has been responsible for the cultivation of communities like phpBBHacks.com, KarateForums.com and PhotoshopForums.com and blogs about online community at ManagingCommunities.com, his favorite record label at BadBoyBlog.com and more at patrickokeefe.com.

Speaking

Patrick will be a featured panelist in the Social Media Strategy Panel.

Name

Melissa Gibbs

Occupation

Strategic Marketing Consultant

Bio

With over 20 years of marketing and leadership experience in various industries, Ms. Gibbs helps organizations solve their business problems strategically—even some they didn’t know they had.  Ms. Gibbs’ strengths lie in evaluating and revamping programs and processes, and in creating and implementing integrated marketing plans that strengthen the brand.  She believes the trick to success is to communicate with constituents regularly and on their terms.

Speaking

Melissa will be a featured panelist in the Social Media Strategy Panel.

Name

Jon Rennie

Occupation

Vice President & General Manager of ABB’s Distribution Components business

Bio

Jon Rennie is currently Vice President & General Manager of ABB’s Distribution Components business which has manufacturing plants in both Pinetops and Greensboro. He started with ABB in 1994 after serving five years as a Naval Officer in the US submarine force.  Jon has a BS in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA, and a Masters in Manufacturing Leadership from Cambridge University in the UK. He and his wife, Valerie, and two sons, Zachary and Jacob, have lived in Greenville for the past four years.

Speaking

Jon Rennie will be our featured speaker, and will be speaking on using social media in a business situation.

Name

Crystal Dunn

Occupation

Production Assistant, ARAMARK at ECU

Bio

Crystal Dunn works as a Production Assistant ARAMARK at East Carolina University, where she manages the ECU Dining Twitter account.  She also works as an Independent Tupperware Consultant, serving Eastern North Carolina.  A Pitt County native, she currently resides in Greenville.

Speaking

Crystal will be speaking on finding a balance between your personal social media accounts and business accounts in “Balancing Personal and Company Accounts”.

Brad Proctor

Occupation

Director of Social Media Marketing at Round Table Toys

Bio

Brad is one of the planners for the Shift Conference and he is the founder of Greenville Tweets. Brad’s passion for social interaction using many forms of technology  has led him from a career based in IT to Social Media. Brad believes teaching that technology can easily be used by everyone, not just the “geeks”.

Speaking at Shift

Brad will be speaking the first night on the topics of “Building a Talent Pool with Social Media” & “Facebook 101″.

Name

Roger Conner

Occupation

Executive Director of Go-Science

Bio

Roger Conner is the Executive Director of GO-Science (The Eastern North Carolina Regional Science Center) as well as a nonprofit technology consultant working with large and small organizations across the state of North Carolina.

Roger is a former Vice President of Communications for the International Association of Business Leaders and holds an undergraduate degree in psychology and communications from East Carolina University, an advanced degree in nonprofit management from Duke University, and an advanced degree in nonprofit and social leadership from Michigan State University.

Roger believes that technology is a lens through which organizations can expand their reach, engage their constituents, and reflect positive change on their communities.

Speaking at Shift

Roger will be speaking the first night on the topic of “Why is New Marketing Necessary?”.

Derek Brown

Occupation

Web Developer & Social Media Consultant at DataGroup

Bio

Derek is one of the planners for the Shift Conference, a community leader through a local church, and a social media enthusiast. Married to Miranda Brown and a father of twins, Ava Grace and Emma Ryleigh, Derek lives in Winterville where he often enjoys a good album, a good beer, and a good book.

Speaking

Derek will be emceeing the event as well as moderating the final Social Media Strategy panel and opening the conference with a talk entitled “People Come First.”

You must go where your customers are

Ten years ago, you would never think about not being listed in the yellow pages if you owned a business. Why? Because that is where people were going to look for you. These days, more and more people are turning to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and others to find you and your company. Gone are the days of thumbing through your local index to find services and local businesses. When is the last time you even remember looking at a phone book? If you are like me, I can’t tell you where to find one in my house – we simply don’t need it. Every service and every product that I want can be found on the Internet, at my convenience, using my laptop or my mobile phone. Wait, will I find your business there? Will I find your competitor there?

When they find you, what will they see?

Don’t think that you aren’t in these social spaces already. Even if you haven’t made an effort to create a Facebook Fan Page, start tweeting, or post a video on YouTube about your products and services, your customers and critics may have. Are they talking about you? If so, what are they saying? If you can’t answer these two questions, I encourage you to stop reading this article right now, and spend the next hour or two combing those sites to find out. You may already have a thriving fan community that your company could tap into. Then again, you might have a PR nightmare on your hands. Not knowing should scare the crap out of you.

You cannot afford to do nothing

Regardless of whether you find yourself or your company in either position, thriving community or PR nightmare, what message are you sending by not participating in these conversations? The opportunity here cannot be ignored. Think about this. If you knew that 150 of your best customers (those that love you and spend money with you frequently) were all going to be in one place, ready to hear from you, would you turn down the chance to connect with them? On the other hand, if one of your best customers was suddenly upset with you and decided to share that frustration with the entire world, how can you afford to not engage and attempt to make them happy again?

The time is now

Have you been reluctant to jump into social media? Perhaps you are worried about losing control. Maybe you don’t know enough about social media, or you are even intimidated by it. If you aren’t willing to take on the challenge of educating yourself and experimenting with these rapidly evolving tools, you are effectively planning to lose. The best advice I can give you about social media is to explore. You will never understand something that you aren’t willing to play with, and you can be assured that your competition is already or will soon be doing this. By the way, it’s free! The only thing you have to invest is your time. So go ahead, do some research and start exploring social media today. Either catch up, or you and your business will be left behind.

However, in this new economy, there are other investments besides your financial capital. There are therefore other returns on your investments that, while not financial in nature, are just as important.

Here are some categories of investment that aren’t financial, but are definitely worth your time, effort, and yes, your money.

Social Capital

Social capital is not a new concept, but is rapidly gaining more traction as an important phrase when talking about ROI in the world of new media. Social capital are basically assets in the form of connections and networks. It’s not always what you know or what you can pay,  sometimes it truly is who you know. In this burgeoning creativity and information based economy, with the speed of business and the cheaper costs of education, who you know is becoming the dividing factor between the good and the great. Often times, the amount of knowledge between two people or firms is equal. What separates the two is who they know, now what they know.

For the smart business, social networks provide tools to both create new and leverage existing social capital, whether in the form of conversations with potential customers or interactions with a long-standing client. These processes, over time, create social capital which is priceless in terms of word-of-mouth marketing and influence within a given community. Which brings us to the next type of non-financial capital, cultural capital.

Cultural Capital

Cultural capital are assets in the form of an atmosphere provided. While this may not seem to be vitally important at first, when the market is saturated with similar firms to yours, even the little things count. When a potential client walks into your office or job site, they have pre-formed expectations that they are expecting you to meet. If you fall short of those expectations either from a first impression or subsequent interactions, you have diminished your cultural capital with that particular client. So how does social media assist with this?

When using social media as a smart business, it allows you to shape and mold the expectations formed in the potential client’s mind, before they even walk in the door. This is a huge privilege! While you don’t have ultimate control, giving your potential audience an idea of who you are before they walk in the door is a great advantage to have. This cultural capital should not be abused nor neglected, because it is one of the rare types of assets that are self-regulating.

Human Capital

Closely related to social capital, human capital deals not in connections and networks, but flesh and blood people. Social media deals with information exchanges and entire networks, whereas human capital brings people to your firm in the form of employees, subcontractors, and clients who will vouch for your service, which are basically unpaid sales people. As a smart business, human capital is invaluable because it only makes your company/firm more influential and increases the talent pool from which you have to draw.

The smart business uses social media to sort through the potential talent pool, and handpick candidates that fit both the culture and needs of the company. Social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Craigslist, Monster, and even Facebook are viable places to find talented people to increase the amount of human capital for your business. It requires little effort, often no cash, and a medium amount of time to find a person who can greatly increase the success and influence of your business.