Selfish Plug – Vote for Me!!

by deirdrewalsh

I’m reaching out to my loyal blog readers for some help. I’ve submitted a proposal for the 2009 SXSW Interactive Conference titled, “Nerd Network: Building an Online Community for Developers.” Here is the summary:

Although often laggards in interactive marketing, B2B tech companies are successfully tapping into the groundswell to improve products, reduce support costs, and energize brand evangelists. This panel of technical community managers will examine techniques for launching a developer community, share social marketing strategies, discuss benefits of user-generated technical content, and relay metrics.

I’ve secured some AWESOME community managers, including Pauline Ores from IBM, Jim Cahill from Emerson, and Susan Zellmann-Rohrer at EMC. Additionally, I have compiled a list of the ten questions we promise to answer in this session, including:

1. How do you sell your community project internally and get past legal at a large, tech company?

2. What are the goals, strategies and metrics surrounding a successful B2B online community?

3. What marketing tactics work best for launching, promoting and recruiting members into a B2B community?

4. What are the differences between marketing to nerds and geeks?

5. Who “owns” technical communities (marketing, support, product, Web, IT) and what is the team structure?

6. How do you reward participation in a technical community (i.e. access to product roadmaps, escalated support, discounts, merchandise)?

7. Which social sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and technologies (wiki, blogs, RSS) resonate best with a technical audience?

8. What’s it like doing social media strategy for “the man?”

9. How do you integrate online and offline community strategy?

10. What is the next big thing in B2B communities?

In conclusion, I ask that you PLEASE vote for my session!!