IBM SUPPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK: FEBRUARY 13-17, 2012

Social Media Week is a week-long series of interconnected activities and conversations regarding emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. Social Media Week has expanded to 21 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Istanbul, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Glasgow, Berlin, Moscow, Beirut and Hong Kong. Starting in 2012, SMW is adding Tokyo, Singapore, DC and Miami.

Social business harnesses the power of social networking concepts we've become so familiar with over public platforms and integrates them within an organization's work flow to enhance innovation, increase collaboration and drive profits. The shift to embracing social is no longer about just blogs, wikis and tweets. Now, social concepts are fundamental to real work getting done, and to collaborating with partners and clients. Building on this expertise, IBM is poised to help organizations exploit this transformation of a social business.

From Monday, February 13 through Friday, February 17, experts from IBM will share their ideas, strategies and insights regarding social business, an emerging category that Forrester Research predicts to grow to a $7 billion market by 2015. By incorporating social networking concepts such as blogs, wikis and tweets into an organization's work flow, organizations are better able to collaborate with partners and clients, enhance innovation, and drive profits.




Snapshot of Social Media Week Schedule

Monday
In New York City, IBM's Ethan McCarty will serve on a panel of experts to discuss how IBM has transformed itself into a social business both through the adoption of social technologies and also by embracing what it means to be an open, social, transparent organization. Hear several examples of social networking concepts IBM has integrated internally to better identify expertise within the organization and to educate employees on how to best utilize the social tools at their disposal to get work done.

Tuesday
IBM's lead analytics visionary, Rod Smith, will keynote an event in San Francisco focused on social analytics, how it is the “next big bet” in the enterprise and how IBM is leading the charge in helping organizations tap into the valuable data created via social networking sites internally and externally.

Wednesday
IBM's Sandy Carter will host a Social Business Agenda Coffee talk where she will discuss how organizations can apply social techniques to their business to gain competitive advantages in customer service, HR, product development and marketing. She'll also offer best practices for creating a social business agenda.

These are just a few of the events scheduled for Social Media Week- there are over 100 sessions and events taking place! For a complete list of events, online registration, and additional information, visit http://socialmediaweek.org. If you can’t attend Social Media Week in person, you can still join into the conversation on Social Business throughout Social Media Week by using the hashtag, #IBMSocialbiz and then following along with the conversation on the Social Business Social Media Aggregator.