First Annual Spredfast Social Summit Engages Top Social Media Minds

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 200 social media practitioners from 85 companies gathered in Austin several weeks ago to attend the Spredfast Social Summit, the company's first annual user conference designed around a series of smart discussions on social engagement from the top social media practitioners and industry analysts. The conference included more than 15 customer-led breakout sessions where speakers from organizations such as Whole Foods Market, Jason's Deli and AARP shared social media best practices and Spredfast use cases. 

"Spredfast works with some of the most talented social media practitioners in the world. We wanted to provide an opportunity for them to come together in one place to discuss their best practices to learn from and grow with each other," said Rod Favaron, Spredfast CEO. "This gave us unique insight into social media trends while also allowing us to see what is top of mind for practitioners and users of our software. We're thrilled that our customers found the event as beneficial and informative as we did and we can't wait to see what next year's event brings."

This year's Social Summit focused on elevating social strategies to enable more people to have more meaningful conversations across more social places. While engagement continues to be the cornerstone of any social program, attendees discussed ways to create the most compelling content, leverage analytics to connect social to business impact, take customer experience to the next level and get the most out of social networks.

Altimeter Group's Rebecca Lieb kicked off the conversation with a keynote on the convergence of paid, owned and earned media and the increasing need to not only use promoted content, but to do so tactfully and authentically. With audiences savvier now than ever before, industry experts from Edelman, Facebook and Twitter gave first-hand examples of the growing need to provide a consistently compelling social experience while social media practitioners from WCG, FeedMagnet and AT&T shared their "playbooks" for planning, scheduling and assessing social content efficiently.

The conference also took a specific look at the opportunities presented by the social networks to elevate social strategies for brands. Jive Software led a Facebook discussion on techniques, tactics and lessons learned for targeting, promoted content, sponsored stories and Timeline for brands while Spredfast's Rod Favaron explored the road ahead for social networks and major brands.

"I think the Spredfast Social Summit was great.  Even from the opening welcome reception, I had already met other people who are doing similar things to what I'm doing and using the platform in new and different ways," said Jodi Gersh, director of social media and engagement at Gannett. "I'm excited to be back in the office to try out some of the new things I learned while at Summit."

For more from Social Summit 2012, watch video commentary from Summit attendees at http://summit.spredfast.com/ or view select slides from the conference at www.slideshare.net/Spredfast.  

About Spredfast:
Based in Austin, Texas, Spredfast provides social media management software that allows organizations to manage, monitor, and measure their social media programs at scale.  Spredfast enables more people, in more places, to engage in more conversations from a single platform on supported social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, and popular blogging platforms. Some of the enterprise and agency adopters on board with Spredfast include AT&T, Jason's Deli, Warner Brothers, Whole Foods Market, AARP, AGAIN Interactive, Coty Beauty, HomeAway and WCG. For more information, visit www.spredfast.com

Media Contact:
Brittany Edwards
Spredfast
[email protected]
(512) 359-6055

SOURCE Spredfast