Audio Archive: Social Media as a Small Business Tool | Social ...

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Social Media as a Small Business Tool

For small to medium businesses (SMBs), performing sales and marketing while providing attentive customer service often means stretching a narrow, if not nonexistent, budget to its limits. More recently, social media has proved to be a valuable - and affordable - tool to improve customer relations when used intelligently. More customers can be engaged more directly, instantly, and personally through Web social platforms than has ever been possible using older forms of media. But putting the power of social media to work requires internal changes to the companies staffing and skill sets. The company itself may need to undergo cultural shifts to adapt to new scales of customer interaction and technical adaptation, and remain agile as the web continues to change. In this webinar, our moderator and panelists will discuss:

? Effective practices for sales and marketing for the social SMB

? How to build collaborative internal teams and best social media practices

? Customer service realities in today?s online social environment

? Forming a social media strategy in a marketplace of shifting social platforms and features.

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About the Panel:

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Matt Trifino?

Matt Trifiro is the SVP of Marketing at Desk.com, a salesforce.com company. Desk.om is the new social help desk for small and medium businesses, making it easy for teams and whole companies to provide customer support in the social era, seamlessly combining traditional and social channels. Prior to Desk.com he was a co-founder of two venture-backed companies, 1000 Markets (sold to Bonanza) and Wink Communications (IPO: Nasdaq). He has built customer support organizations and, at different times in his career, has been a real estate investor, a technical writer, a magazine editor, and a video game designer. He is a professionally trained cook (Tante Marie?s Cooking School) and lives near San Francisco with his wife, Lisa, and his two adorable sons.

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Laurie McCabe

Laurie McCabe brings more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry to her current role at SMB Group. Laurie has built widespread recognition for her capabilities and insights in the small and medium business (SMB) market in several areas, including cloud computing, software-as-service (SaaS), collaboration, business solutions, social networking and managed services. Prior to SMB Group, Laurie worked in analyst roles as a Partner at Hurwitz & Associates; Vice President of SMB Insights & Solutions at AMI-Partners; and Vice President at Summit Strategies, where her original research of the emerging cloud computing model earned her broad recognition as a thought leader in this area. Ms. McCabe is frequently quoted in leading business and trade publications, has been a featured speaker at many industry events, and contributes to Small Business Computing. She is a 2011 Small Business Influencer Champion in the Gurus category, and blogs often at http://lauriemccabe.com/.

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Jason Stoddard

Jason Stoddard is the Chief Evangelist and Community Lead for Firefly LED Lighting, Inc., consultant, and cross-media lead generation specialist. He is also the Founder and Principal of Stagira, Inc.?The entrepreneur's entrepreneur, Jason is frequently called-on to catalyze revenue and create business opportunities for partners and clients by bridging service and product to new market. Due to his hands-on experience and personalized engagements with clients, in addition to his prowess for streamlining idea to cash flow positive in nine months or less,Jason is asked to work directly in and on the clients' business.His current work focuses on disrupting the lighting industry. Jason holds a MBAIM from Thunderbird School of Global Management with an emphasis in marketing, but attributes most of his thinking and strategy to philosophy. This is Jason's first webinar with Social Media Today.?

Lauren Simonds, moderator

Lauren Simonds is the Managing Editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com and Ecommerce-guide.com. Lauren is a long time journalist covering the small business market. As Managing Editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com she serves mainstream small business owners, bringing them technology insights for more than a decade. Follow her on Twitter: @laurensimonds

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/474138/audio-archive-social-media-small-business-tool

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