SVTweetUP: Social Selling or Selling Social?

 

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of mentoring an ambitious and innovative marketer named LaSandra Brill.  It wasn’t long before she blossomed into a leading edge authority on social media. LaSandra is the change agent visionary behind one of the top five product launches in Cisco’s history. At Cisco, she leads a team responsible for implementing a mix of innovative digital, mobile and social media techniques.

Photo credit

You can find LaSandra rocking social media on:

• • • • Twitter: @lasandrabrill
      • Blog: Cisco Blog

Following are a few LaSandra and Cisco social snipets:

• LaSandra Brill:  25 Women Who Rock Social Media in 2012 by Lee Odden
• Cisco and the Social Web: Listening and Responding to Your Customers and Prospects [SlideShare]. More on “listening” via  @lasandrabrill, Senior Manager Social Media at Cisco
• Marketing Cloud: Intro to Social Listening featuring @lasandrabrill of @Cisco, start at 8min through to 33min mark | via @Radian6 – YouTube
• Read Jeremiah Owyang comments about Cisco’s Social Media Listening Center launch event

• Read Cisco’s blog post describing the launch of its Social Media Listening Center

Cisco Unveils Social Media Listening Center – Oct 23 2012

Silicon Valley Tweet Up

One of LaSanadra’s Facebook updates caught my eye.  I’d always wanted to attend an in person TweetUp (a meet up (virtual and/or in person) of people that ‘tweet’ about a specific topic using Twitter) but never got around to doing it.

HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup by Stuart Foater

The one featured in LaSandra’s Facebook update was especially appealing because of its location, the topic (Social Selling or Selling Social?) and the panelists: Ted Sapounitz, Jennifer Leggio, Michael Brito, and LaSandra Brill – la crème de la crème of some of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest social media minds.

Silicon Valley Tweetup combines networking with philanthropy by raising money for family-oriented charities. Run by @britopian (Michael Brito), @gabrielcarrejo (Gabriel Carrejo) and @mediaphyter (Jennifer Leggio).

Michael Brito is a senior vice president of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at San Jose State University teaching social business to undergraduate students.

Jennifer Leggio describes herself as a raconteur, comedienne, hockey lover (no wonder I like her!) and “Security Twits herder emeritus”. She is VP of Corporate Communications for Sourcefire. Forbes.com tech contributor.

As of last week, Ted Sapountzis is head of Marketing and Product Management at NextPrinciples– he was formerly VP Social Marketing at SAP.

Sponsored by onemedical, the event was held was held at the Palo Alto Women’s Club. The format for the event was one part networking, two parts highly entertaining expert panel and one part free going twitter chat.

Needless to say, I felt far more comfortable at this event.

Inperson introvert and online extrovert? | You’re not alone!

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Gabriel Carrejo moderated the evening with engaging questions that uncovered the following themes:

• Content is the currency of the social web

• Make your content social friendly

• Repetition and Consistency: Jennifer Leggio’s Keys to Social Media Success

  • Jennifer Leggio:  25 Women Who Rock Social Media in 2012 by Lee Odden

• Shift away from inside out content

  • How to Keep Your Marketing Engine Chugging With Community-Generated Content via HubSpot

• It’s okay to experiment: fail fast, learn and move on

  • LaSandra Brill touches on Cisco’s SecondLife and Jennifer Leggio makes us laugh with her spelling mistake video anecdote.

• Brand exposure with Twitter handles gone wild …

  • StubHub’s Tweeter Was Obscenely Happy to Leave Work on Friday. Another day, another brand fail by Tim Nudd via AdWeek
  • KitchenAid Mistakenly Tweets Joke About Obama’s Dead Grandmother Apology doesn’t stop backlash after debate by David Griner via AdWeek

• Jennifer Leggio’s Keys to Social Media Success: repetition and consistency (For effect, she said it several times throughout the evening!)

• Bad Press / Good Press: Making the most of a bad situation with mistake marketing?

  • Chick-Fil-A’s Brand Approval Rating Plummets After Anti-Gay Controversy via HuffPost
  • Chick-fil-A restaurants become rallying points for supporters by the CNN Wire Staff

(from left to right) Ted Sapounitz, Jennifer Leggio, Michael Brito, and LaSandra Brill | panelists for SVTweetUp “Social Selling or Selling Social?” – October 2012

Photo credit | More SVTweetUp photos

Everything you wanted to know about Twitter Chats via @markwschaefer

What makes for a great Tweet Up?

• Topic
• Format
• Moderator
• Panelists
• Participants

What are some of your favorite Tweet Ups and why?

Related post:  High-Tech Wizardry and Entrepreneurial Witchcraft: What Makes Silicon Valley The World Capital of Innovation?

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