Last night the Daemon TWO crew attended the sixth Digital Citizens event and this time around we were talking “Startups, Small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business”

A new venue and a new format saw higher audience participation and more questions which worked really well (despite a few technical sound issues). The panel consisted of Jeremy Somers (@itsartdammit) designer and co-founder of We Are Handsome, Craig Macindoe (@chefmumu) head chef and owner of Mumu Grill, Annalisa Holmes (@transcribe) director of Transcribe and Lara Solomon (@LaRoo) creator of Mocks, and author of Brand New Day.

There were lots of good points made during the course of the evening, here are six tips taken from the panels discussions on using social for small business:

This post originally appeared on Daemon TWO’s blog. Read the rest of the post there.

Tomorrow is the sixth Digital Citizen’s event – Startups, small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business – and I’ll once again be live blogging the event for posterity and for those who can’t make it. I’m putting the code up early as you can sign up to receive an alert when the show starts. All you have to do is enter your email below.

I’ll be pulling in tweets which use the #digicitz hashtag, or you can participate below. If you’re wanting to ask the Panel a question, please use the #digicitz hashtag, and also chuck in a #question tag so we know it’s for the Panel.

I’ll leave you with that for now. See you on the night, either in person or online!

~Warlach

Never has there been an advertising world where small businesses can compete with large corporations to get the attention of consumers.

Now, with the advent of social media, we’re seeing what used to be classed as small-fry companies increasing their bottom line, reaching their customers directly and building their reputations through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogging, to the point where they become our case studies for social media success.

But it’s not all peaches and cream – there’s a real margin for error, as well as the need for adequate resourcing. Sometimes conversation about customer service rages far out of control when social accounts are left untouched for long periods of time. How, then, do small businesses actually safeguard against all these things, participate in social media and find the time to run their day-to-day?

All of these topics – and more – will be discussed at the next Digital Citizens event, “Startups, small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business”.

Confirmed speakers for this event are Jeremy Somers, designer and co-founder of Sydney-based swimsuit line We Are Handsome and Craig Macindoe, head chef and owner of Mumu Grill in Crows Nest (@chefmumu) . Two more speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. The panel will be moderated by the Digital Citizens committee, along with the audience.

This event will hosted at the new home of Digital Citizens, TAO at Mr B’s ( 396 Pitt St , Sydney NSW 2000). Finger food will be served from 6:30 until 7:00 , generously sponsored by Sticky Tickets and Centric Consulting.

Three ticket types are available for purchase: $10 for a single, $18 for a pair and $30 for a group of four people. It’s a great opportunity to bring clients or friends along for what is sure to be an interesting, informative and lively debate.

50% of ticket sales will be donated to charity. Should you wish to nominate a charity, please contact the Digital Citizens committee at contact@digital-citizens.org

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Grab your tickets now

“Startups, small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business”

Next step is for us to find speakers. If you have anyone in mind who you have heard speak before, or perhaps has a really interesting story to tell, please let us know. We are especially keen to get speakers from outside of the normal pool, and perhaps a couple of people who have had bad experiences with social media and digital PR.

It’s Beaney here, running this month’s liveblog, covering Crisis and reputation management Digicitz. I’m filling in for Warlach who is your usual CoverItLive-er-er for Digital Citizens.

I’ll be pulling in tweets which use the #digicitz hashtag, or you can participate below. If you’re wanting to ask the Panel a question, please use the #digicitz hashtag, and also chuck in a #question tag so we know it’s for the Panel.

I’ll catch you at the event tonight (either IRL or on the interwebz)!

~ Beaney

When conversation on social networks gets ugly, only the prepared survive. Brands can take months, or even years to recover positive sentiment after an online backlash – especially the attention traditional media gives to social networks nowadays. We’ve seen some disasters – Nestle, Dell and Jetstar deal with massive retaliation – and in some cases it seems no-one is safe from the wrath of a consumer scorned.

So, how do you safeguard against disgruntled conversations online? How do you deal with the repercussions once the chatter has begun? Once again, Digital Citizens has assembled a crack team to discuss this month’s topic, “Crisis and reputation management: How to deal when the web gets antisocial”. Confirmed speakers for this event are Matthew Gain (Edelman) and Rachael Falk (Telstra); Karalee Evans (Amnesia Razorfish) will be moderating what is sure to be a lively yet respectful debate about this topic. There are more speakers to be added – so stay tuned!

Digital Citizens is at the Burdekin Hotel on Tuesday, 20th of July. Tickets are $10, half of which will be donated to a charity to be crowdsourced at the event. If you would like to nominate a charity or propose your own, send a message on Twitter to @eCitizens or email contact@digital-citizens.org.

Panel sponsorship for this event is very generously provded by Centric Consulting.

Matthew Gain is a digital PR practitioner who lives in Sydney Australia. A passionate traveller and a keen yet very amateur photographer, he is fascinated by the internet and social media. He currently works for  Edelman in its Sydney office and am responsible for leading digital strategy for Australia. He has previous held roles at Microsoft and Edelman in the UK, and Ogilvy PR and Weber Shandwick in Australia.

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Working as a Communications and public relations professional for nearly ten years, Karalee Evans is passionate about effective and transparent communication and the future of the PR industry. Advocating the use of social media and online engagement as part of the communications mix, Karalee started out in public relations consulting, before transitioning to in-house public relations and marcomms roles, commencing with a Victorian Government agency. With an emphasis on strategic thinking and continuous measurement and evaluation, Karalee has advised many industries on best-practice communications, from media relations to crisis management and community consultation to online engagement.  Now working back in agency-land as Social Strategy Manager at Amnesia Razorfish, Karalee regularly advises clients on strategic thinking and planning for digital and social media including issues and crisis management.

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Rachael Falk is Telstra’s Lead Legal advisor on social media issues. Rachael has an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and challenges corporate Australia faces from social media.

Rachael is responsible for providing legal advice and strategy for Telstra’s social media campaigns and corporate websites and was instrumental in developing Telstra’s Social Media Guidelines and training for approximately 38,000 employees.Having recently returned from an externally funded study tour of the United States, she brings an international perspective to the field.

Rachael has been a member of Telstra’s Legal Services Group since 2002 and worked in a range of business units including Dispute Resolution and Public Policy and Communication Group. Before joining Telstra, Rachael worked in private practice in Sydney and in London.

Gavin Heaton, well known as Servant of Chaos, and a Social Media practioner within his own organisation will MC a Panel of experts discussing the topic.

The panel will include Dr. Glen Fuller, Assistant Events Manager at Gleebooks, and Napoleon Biggs the Hong Kong Based founder of Web Wednesday from Fleishman-Hillard.

We expect another vigorous yet respectful debate.

Questions might include;

• how can you turn a lone cheerleader into a Mexican Wave?
• how do you get buy-in from the CEO as well as opt-in from the overworked frontline team?
• Can you effect change on multiple fronts at once, or is it a case of picking your battles?
• Is using social technologies to share knowledge internally the most effective way to demonstrate their potential?

Feel free to add more in the comments section below!

In addition to our top-notch panel, we are delighted to announce our Charity Partner for this months Event.

This month’s donations  will go to Fictillimanjaro. Evan Smith is climbing Mt Kilimanjaro to help raise funds for the Humpy Dumpty Foundation and is using Social Media to document his efforts

The Humpy Dumpty Foundation purchases vital medical equipment for children’s hospitals right across Australia and now also in East Timor. Check their website to see more about their work.

Tickets for Digicitz 4 are available now for just $10, half of which will be donated to the Humpty Dumpty Foundation.

About our Panellists

Gavin is the author of Servant of Chaos, one of Australia’s leading marketing blogs. He is the co-publisher of the ground-breaking collaborative marketing book, Age of Conversation. Gavin has worked in agencies, but is currently holed up on the client side.

Gavin is an in demand speaker on topics around Social Media, Marketing and Community. Recently has spoke at the following events:

• MarketingNow! – lead generation, community and social media
• ADMA – diving into social media
• AdTech – the relevance of twitter

Napoleon has worked for 17 years in media in Asia, 13 years on the Internet, 4 years in social media, 9 months in Fleishman-Hillard and 2 days in Sydney.

As the founder and host of Web Wednesday, an independent networking community for Asian digerati, with monthly gatherings in Hong Kong, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, Napoleon is more accustomed to moderating than speaking.

He heads up Digital Integration across Asia Pacific for Fleishman-Hillard and is based in Hong Kong.

One of Napoleon’s key topics will be “Will Social Media Kill the Corporate Intranet?”

Company intranets are typically clunky and badly structured. It’s an ongoing challenge to get users to effectively engage with them, share information, brainstorm ideas, and find relevant content. Will social media become a more effective way to share ideas and manage knowledge within your company?

Next Tuesday is the fourth Digital Citizen’s event – Ch-ch-changes (Turn and Face the Strain) – and despite @Acatinatree‘s obsession with Bowie and the social media lessons to be taken from his lyrics, I will once again be live blogging the event for posterity and for those who can’t make it. I’m putting the code up early as you can sign up to receive an alert when the show starts. All you have to do is enter your email below.

The tool is actually pretty neat – we’ll be pulling in tweets from people using the hashtag, adding questions asked through CoverItLive and getting down as many juicy thought nuggets as possible. You can see the last blogs here and here.

For now I’ll leave you with that, see you on the night either in person or online,

~Warlach

Our MC’s

Our Panellists

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(You may need to use headphones for this video. Sound is a little quiet at points.)