Reflecting the global impact of social media – and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, economic, political and social change in developed and emerging markets – Social Media Week is one of the world’s most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. Social Media Week is a truly global phenomenon – showcasing borderless brands and communications, via the power of social media.
The 21st century is witnessing an explosion of internet-based messages transmitted through these media. They have become a major factor in influencing various aspects of consumer behavior including awareness, information acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behavior, and post-purchase communication and evaluation.
Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for philanthropy. Such models provide a means for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested users. Social networks are providing a different way for individuals to communicate digitally. These communities of hypertexts allow for the sharing of information and ideas, an old concept placed in a digital environment.
Social media continues to move forward toward business integration. In a joint study from Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO's label social as a high priority. Facebook, Twitter, Google have brought many more people into the online conversation. They’ve pretty much minced the barriers to creating online content – which is also good news for brands that are smart enough not to throw too much money into too many channels. But another part of the story is that more channels create a larger need for content. Many millions of those people now active online are not, however, content producers. They are sharers and curators.
The internet and its myriad of websites, blogs, social networks, forums and other spaces have become the principal place where consumers find and share information, converse and form their opinions and perceptions. This dynamic raises several critical questions for organizations and brands. I feel the need to revisit the definitions of these key words. While innovation, invention and entrepreneurs are important and somewhat interconnected, they aren't synonyms and they have different needs, intents and purposes. Whether accidently or on purpose, we can't allow them to mean the same things.
First, the definitions:
While an entrepreneur is a person who starts a new business, but that's not necessarily innovative. However, it can create new jobs and new wealth, so it is valuable. Sometimes, entrepreneurs create new businesses based on new ideas, either inventions or new innovations. However, a person running a McDonald's is also an entrepreneur, but not necessarily innovative.
An inventor is someone who creates a new to the world product or solution. Inventions become interesting when they create value for the inventor or consumers or the world at large. Inventors are often innovative, but innovative solutions don't have to be inventions. Many innovations are new business models, new services or new experiences that aren't necessarily "inventions".
An innovation is a new idea that is put into valuable or profitable action. An innovation can be created by an inventor who then licenses her invention to others to commercialize, or commercializes the concept herself as a small business person - in this case as an entrepreneur.
Jay Byrne (pic) is the person who has all the above criteria.
Byrne is an American writer, former senior government official and entrepreneur. Byrne is president and founder of v-Fluence Interactive, an online market research and software development firm. He is a frequent public speaker on the use of the Internet and has published several articles on new media and communications. He is a contributing author to “Let Them Eat Precaution” published by the American Enterprise Institute.
Jay Byrne’s career spans 20 years with experience in public relations, campaign communications and government affairs. He has held senior communications positions at the White House, U.S. State Department, Monsanto Company and for the City of Boston. Jay has directed communications and media relations for various U.S. political campaigns, global activist campaign responses and other international public relations initiatives.
His media relations and interactive campaigns have won numerous awards and recognitions including: B2B Magazine’s top ten corporate web sites, Best Corporate Web Site from the Creativity in Public Relations Awards, and Reputation Management Magazine’s "Netty" award for Best Public Affairs Web Site. An alumnus of Tufts University, Jay has also completed post-graduate studies at George Washington and Iowa State Universities.
As former political campaign operative Byrne is credited with executing a range of aggressive communications tactics. He also served as a White House spokesperson for numerous presidential and administration foreign policy initiatives including the 1994 G7 Jobs Summit and the Greater Horn of Africa Famine Initiative. Prior to joining USAID Byrne held communication positions on the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign, for Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn and for Congressman Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (D-MA). After serving in the Clinton Administration, Byrne headed up corporate communications for Monsanto Company from 1997 to 2001. A native of Massachusetts, Byrne attended St. John's Preparatory School and graduated from Tufts University.
v-Fluence is his brainchild. v-Fluence Interactive, is being recognized as a leader in the field of online marketing and public relations. True to its word, v-Fluence has been utilizing all platforms of social medias existed as their marketing strategies- Twiitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
What is so special about v-Fluence interactive? It is different than most online marketing and public relations agencies because all of the work flows directly from the proprietary data-mining and analytics that is being deploy to ensure clients take advantage of the opportunities and manage the risks that occur across the rapidly evolving Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 spaces that matter to their target audiences. Their success as one of the nation’s fastest-growing online marketing and public relations agencies owes to their analytics-based approach and experiences in creating more balanced and favorable online environments for clients.
2012 is primed to be the year of social. In particular we can anticipate a blitz of publicity around social business. In particular we can anticipate a blitz of publicity around social business.
Jay Byrne will be featured as one of the speakers in the second World Bloggers & Social Media Week’s Summit. He will be giving a talk on 'Freedom of Speech & Blogging: Creating a Harmony' on Feb 14 at the Putra World Trade Centre. The World Bloggers & Social Media Week’s Summit is part of the inaugural Malaysia Social Media Week (MSMW) 2012 which will take place from Feb 13 to 17.
