3 reasons you should attend the edSocialMedia Summit

Education-focused social media conference comes to SF April 4

Editor’s note: Socialbrite attended last year’s edSocialMedia Bootcamp in San Francisco, and we’re media partners for the edSocialMedia Summit coming to Fort Mason in San Francisco on April 4. Get $50 off your admission by using discount code ‘Socialbrite.’

Target audience: Educators, students, nonprofits, foundations, social enterprises, cause organizations, Web publishers, general public.

Guest post by Madeline Senkosky
Community Manager, edSocialMedia

With the edSocialMedia Summit fast approaching, we wanted to share some insight into the thinking behind our collection of presenters and topics. Founded in 2008, edSocialMedia explores the role of social media in education by putting on a series of workshops and professional development events at schools across the nation and facilitating training at regional and national conferences. We expect the Summit to be the biggest event yet.

Hear from presenters who deliver practicality

1We’re ready to hear from the pros, the ones who do this for a living and can tell us where we should spend our time. Our goal with the Summit is to deliver an incomparable slate of speakers with a seasoned track record. We found presenters who would share their personal playbook and their own experiences, leaving you with practical strategies to implement in your own organization. They have tested (and sometimes broken) the methods that they will share. You can be confident that their approach to social media is defined by real experience.

Just take a quick look of who is on the docket:

• Brian Carter (@briancarter), best-selling author on Facebook, promises to deliver 99 ways that your school or organization can encourage your fans to listen and interact.

• Rand Fishkin (@randfish), the CEO of SEOmoz, is often dubbed as one of the best names currently in the inbound marketing and SEO space. Rand will talk about how organizations can best manage the creation and promotion processes for their social media content, including how to effectively use analytics to gain better traction.

• Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy), founder of Crosstown Digital Communications and co-founder of MeetContent, will focus on how you can tap the resources of your community to craft a more accurate and authentic story for your organization.

• Erin Swanson (@explodingsoul), the marketing programs manager for Water.org (@water), is going to talk specifically about how nonprofits can leverage their social networks to raise money for a great cause.

• John Hill (@linkedinjohn), the higher education evangelist for LinkedIn, will talk about how organizations can leverage their alumni to make stronger resources for current students and development offices.

• Andy Shaindlin (@alumnifutures), the Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations & Annual Giving at Carnegie Mellon University, will share his thoughts on how education and nonprofit leaders can balance the weight of creativity in leadership roles.

• Ian Symmonds (@symmonds) will talk about how organizations can employ video to show their story in a more compelling light. His examples will provide creative and content standards to shoot for.

At the end of the day, it would be hard not to walk away with a head full of ideas about how to elevate your social media strategies to help create an active, giving community.

Carve time out of your schedule to network and brainstorm

2We can all relate to the notion that we’re short on time. That’s why the schedule for the conference is designed to maximize networking time along with professional development. Attending the conference will give you the inspiration to come up with new ideas on how to generate stronger, more engaged social communities, and the time to talk it out with other’s who are looking for the same thing. This is time well spent, and it will pay dividends.

Give and get with the same ticket

3edSocialMedia is donating 25 percent of the profits to local, education-focused charitable organizations. As an attendee, you can get and give back with the same ticket.

Know a good organization that could use the support? Send us a note or leave a comment below.