IanSchafer.com

Social Media for Social Good at the Ad Council.

I spoke today at the Ad Council's Partner Conference, where many of the causes the Ad Council supports get together to discuss the burning issues around raising awareness of their very important initiatives.

At this event, the focus was squarely, 100% on social media, and understandably so.

In doing my part to set the table for the day's discussion, I gave the following presentation where I talked about some significant research findings, best practices, and case studies including our recent major effort with the Ad Council, SHARE YOUR VOICE.

Enjoy!

Social Media for Social Good

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

Watch My Panel on The Self-Serve Revolution @ MIXX.

Curious as to what I said on my panel on the future of self-service and automation in online media?

Consider your curiosity a think of the past. This is actually an interesting topic, that could make for an interesting debate -- not just a panel.

Here's the panel, in it's entirety. Agree with my points? Disagree? Let me know in the comments...

Deep Focus Partners with The Ad Council to Launch the Exponential Action Network.

What you see above is one of the first widgets deployed as part of the Exponential Action Network, a major social media initiative we created in partnership with the Ad Council.

When we were invited to work with the Ad Council we were flattered, and inspired.

We wanted to reimagine the Ad Council in today's era. For decades, the Ad Council worked because of donated media by cable and broadcast networks. But what if the Ad Council was rebooted today? We live in a world where people aren't just consuming media -- they are creating media. And if media were people-powered (like so much of the web is) we could create a whole new distribution and interaction mechanism for PSAs and their associated causes.

But wait, there's more. What if people that were donating their own media could actually see how much of an impact their advocacy had on others? And what if we got millions and millions of impressions donated by the likes of Facebook, MySpace, imeem, Netvibes, Clearspring and others to promote it?

Thus, the Exponential Action Network was born.

Check out the press release here -- it pretty much says it all.

We're proud to be doing good, and we're proud to be working with the Ad Council. Support a cause and share your voice today!

Watch My Panel on Branded Experiences in Social Networks.

From the Social Ad Summit last week in NYC, watch this fascinating (yes, 'twas) panel on Branded Experiences in Social Networks, featuring:

Me
Don Steele, MTVN
Scott Monty, Ford
Deborah Korb, JP Morgan

There's some great insight here into what brands think of branded experiences in a social networking environment, what they're spending, and how they're spending it -- now, and in the future.

Live at NY Television and Film Festival.

Paul Kontonis @ For Your Imagination blogs it best:

It's real, it's live and its all on the line at the NYTVF's "Creativity Live" mass participatory brainstorm on Tuesday, September 16 at 2:30pm at the New World Stages in NYC. Bringing together the sharpest and most creative minds in digital media - Toby Daniels from MintDigital, Paul Kontonis from For Your Imagination and Ian Schafer from Deep Focus -  with a 150 strong audience, all will be given just one hour to develop three cross-platform entertainment concepts. Can it be done? After the event people will be able to go to the NYTVF website, where they can vote on the ideas they would like to see taken forward. This promises to be a really exciting event. See you there!

This should be LOTS of fun, so if you'll be at the NYTVF, check it out!

Upcoming Events You Should Consider Attending.

The next two weeks are flush with events in NYC, orbiting around the sun of Advertising Week.

I'll be flush with events too, so here's a heads-up on how you can catch me...

Monday, September 15th

Social Ad Summit

Tribeca Rooftop, NYC

11:15am - 12:00pm

Branded Experiences on Social Networks

Large brands spend billions of dollars every year on advertising. Hear from a few of those large brands about how much they are allocating to social networks. Find out what has worked and what hasn’t as well as the hurdles for brands getting on social networks.

Thursday, September 18th

OMMA Global

Marriott Marquis, NYC

4:45pm - 5:30pm


Getting Social Sites to do your Work for You

Are you looking to precisely target based on demographics or activity? Targeted ad networks are showing promise for delivering more precise demographic segments for marketers than the big global networks. Could the same be true for vertical social networks? Social shopping, reviews, and more targeted groups can provide better engagement for those people you want to reach.


Moderator:

Brant Barton, Founder, Bazaarvoice


Speakers:

Adam Cahill, SVP, General Manager of Carat

Michael Carrier, CEO, StyleHive

John Riordan, Director-National Sales, Yelp.com

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Thursday, September 22nd

MIXX 2.8

Crowne Plaza Hotel, NYC

4:45pm - 5:30pm


The Self-Service Revolution


It sounds too good to be true: A completely automated process for setting up and executing highly-targeted ad campaigns. But how do we separate the hype from the reality? In this interactive session, you'll hear from marketers and platform-providers working together to define the automated future.

Moderator:

Michael Wolf, Partner, Farrallon Point, Inc.



Panelists:

Dan Ballister, Chief Operating Officer, TRAFFIQ

Aaron Finn, President & CEO, AdReady

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Jay Sears, EVP, Strategic Products & Business Development, ContextWeb

Tuesday, September 23rd

Advertising Week

Paley Center (formerly the Museum of TV and Radio), NYC

12:00pm - 1:00pm


Social Media: Giving Voice to Social Causes



The explosion of social media has created countless new ways for advertisers to engage consumers. It’s also created countless ways to promote social causes and increase civic engagement. Whether it’s social networks like MySpace and FaceBook or bloggers, widgets, twitter, or friend feed, these powerful tools can and are being used for the greater good. This panel brings together the best of the best to discuss where social networking meet social change.

Panel:

Moderator: Bob Greenberg, Vice President, Corporate Brand Marketing
Panasonic Corporation of North America

Douglas Atkin, Chief Community Officer, Meetup

Chris Colborn, Chief Experience Officer, R/GA

Lexi Reese, Head of Media Platforms, Google

Ian Schafer, Founder & CEO, Deep Focus

iMedia Connection on Me on Deep Focus on Social Media.

Take a moment to read an interview I did with iMedia Connection on Deep Focus, social media, innovation, and killer creative.

Here's a brief excerpt:

Harris: Building a community of fans is an important step for these entertainment campaigns, and is gaining ground in other business sectors. It's a natural fit to leverage existing communities that support a particular brand, but what suggestions do you have for starting from scratch?

Schafer: When building a community from scratch, perhaps the most important thing you can do involves asking "why." For example, you should be able to answer the basic question of "why are you building this community in the first place?" You should have a clear understanding of the goals you aim to achieve by connecting to your consumers -- and connecting them to each other. These could very well be different than your typical business goals. Rather, they may be goals that don't result directly in attributable sales but, rather, in the alignment of a brand with, and focus of a community on, a particular cause or lifestyle inherent to the brand.

The other "why" question that should be asked is "why would I join this community?" What does the consumer stand to gain by being an active (or even a passive) member of this community? What appropriate incentives exist for participants? You can prepare for this question by doing the appropriate market research before embarking on a social media "hunch."

From a technology and strategy perspective, it is also important to embark upon a discovery process to identify your development and distribution partners, who may very well be one in the same. Should you roll-your-own social network? Should you build on a modular platform? Should you build a community within an already existing social networking property? An understanding of your goals, your consumers and their behaviors and of your brand's personality will make finding the answers to these questions an easier task.

Read the whole shabang by clicking here.

Question o ’ The Day: Martha Stewart Edition.

Should MarthaStewart.com be running this ad? Does it harm the user experience or even the brand itself?

Recap: Creating a Successful Social Media Website.

I recently participated in a KickApps webinar called Creating a Successful Social Media Website along with the brilliant Stephen Merrill, the GM of Budget Travel.

It was a great discussion, very well attended, and if you missed it, you can check out the recap here, watch an archived video of the session (registration required), or download the slides here.

If you've been thinking about building your own community, or extending one's reach, this one's for you.

My First Webinar: A Blueprint For a Successful Social Media Website

I'll be co-hosting a Webinar with the fine folks at KickApps on July 23rd at 2PM ET/11AM PT. Here are the sordid details:

On July 23rd at 2PM ET/11AM PT, we’ll be hosting a webinar where we’ll share tips and best practices for creating and running a successful social media website. If you’re in the process of putting together your social media website or are looking for ideas to take your website to the ‘next level,’ this webinar is for you.

Topics we’ll be covering:
1.Designing your social media strategy and experience
2.Leading and managing your online community
3.Programming your website’s social media experience
4.Social marketing for growth

We’ll be joined by a couple of special guests who are leading minds in their respective fields:

Ian Schafer is the CEO of Deep Focus, one of most innovative marketers around whose award winning agency has developed numerous social media marketing campaigns for brands like HBO (Flight of the Conchords) and Vitamin Water. Ian will share some ideas and thoughts around putting together a social media strategy and marketing a social media website.

Stephen Merrill is the general manager of BudgetTravel.com. Stephen recently launched My Budget Travel, inspired by the magazine’s daring, user-generated June 2008 10th Anniversary issue that showcases a reader-submitted cover photograph, and feature-length articles written entirely by readers. The KickApps powered social media section of the website gives readers and travel enthusiasts the opportunity to share their fondest travel experiences and adventures, and discover new ones. Stephen will talk about how to integrate social media and user-generated content successfully with editorial programming.

Sign up for the webinar at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=49150.
Once you’ve registered, just click on the link above to attend the webinar. If you need to use another machine, just re-register. We’ll send you a reminder a day prior to the event.

If you've been thinking about whether or not to build a social media website (or a social network itself) rather than advertise within a MySpace, Facebook, or Bebo, this one's for you.