Microsoft and the Business of Social Media

Social Media and Community Engagement session
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
4:00 pm

As many global brands embrace social media channels within their own organization, how do you leverage social media investments to drive conversions? How do you navigate numerous divisions and groups within your organization to be effective, yet allow for flexibility as new social media tools emerge onto the market? In this session from Chris McLaren and Umang Shah you will learn how Microsoft effectively drives awareness, engagement and measurable conversion for its Business (SMB) division through strategic use of emerging media tools, tactics and technologies.

What were the risks involved when addressing a large audience of 100,000s of partners to be engaged in a national campaign? How were these risks overcome?
How do you get buy in from senior management and incorporate social media into other marketing initiatives?
How is Facebook being leveraged to drive direct engagement between customers that want to buy and partners that want to sell to those customers?
What was the cadence for rolling out the various techniques through social media? Why?

2011 MIMA Summit | Social Media and Community Engagement: Microsoft and the Business of Social Media from MIMA on Vimeo.

Umang Shah

Umang Shah is a Social Strategist at Microsoft, responsible for engaging customers and partners in the US Small and Midsize Business market. Prior to Microsoft, he founded Cubed Consulting, a small integrated marketing consultancy providing services to emerging and evolving businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his time at the Xerox Corporation, Umang became a recognized thought leader in customer marketing and social media. He led a digital marketing team (unofficially) tasked with “making Xerox cool again” through the creative application of emergent technologies. Umang has served as the Social Media Strategy Advisor to VC Taskforce and was also responsible for launching innovative customer marketing programs for BEA Systems and VMware. Umang is currently based in Bellevue, WA.

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Chris McLaren

Chris McLaren leads the Emerging Media & Strategy practice at Gage Marketing. Gage is a technology-savvy, strategically-driven, and results-obsessed agency with offices in Minneapolis, Redmond, and Los Angeles. Clients include Microsoft, 3M, Coca-Cola, Best Buy, BMW, and Thomson Reuters. Chris is a marketing and technology professional with 14 years experience in agency, financial services and retail. Chris holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management with focus on marketing and technology management. A veteran interactive and emerging media marketer, Chris is constantly working on behalf of Gage clients to find the point at which emerging media hype ends and real business value begins. You can connect with him socially via http://bit.ly/cmclaren1.

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