Jeremiah Owyang

Social Technology and Interactive Marketing Expert

BIG IDEAS

• Adding Social To Your Web Strategy
  As customers make decisions within social networks for products, corporate websites are less relevant, what should companies do? Companies can’t respond quickly enough to customer needs–as a result, real-time isn’t fast enough! Customer support snafus in Twitter and other social tools can quickly become a brand nightmare, and then the ownership of corporate communications and PR. Leading with these examples, Jeremiah will present a customer strategy to lead—not react—to the needs of the changing marketplace as customers take control. Attendees will recognize the changes that social technologies have brought to business, and walk away with an actionable plan to respond to these trends.
• Recruiting an Unpaid Army for Word Of Mouth
  Letting go of your marketing and customer strategy can yield positive benefits. Companies aren’t trusted by customers–at least compared to the trust customers share with each other. As a result, companies know that to create a trusted relationship, the most effective strategy is to engage their own customers by word-of-mouth. Yet these advocacy programs aren’t limited to marketing alone, customers can self-support each other through on-line communities, and even provide product feedback for current and future products. Learn from business case studies what Microsoft, WalMart, and Starbucks have done to harness their own employees for these programs using social technologies. Develop an actionable checklist to get started –and which pitfalls to avoid. In this presentation, Jeremiah shows how companies should develop one of their most powerful and cost-effective programs, a customer advocacy program.
• The Customer Of The Future
  What happens when social and mobile technologies become pervasive and persistent? Humans crave social interaction and now have the tools to do be constantly connected regardless of space and time. Today, we’ve just begun to explore how simple self-publishing tools are interacting with early industries like journalism, PR, and marketing. Yet, despite these early advances, social technologies still have years to mature. During this presentation Jeremiah will answer: What happens when these technologies become pervasive and everywhere? How will websites change as a result of customers asserting their voices on every webpage? How will mobile technology fuel social behavior? This forward looking presentation will break down the trends that are coming from technology, their impact to business, and how customers will react. Attendees will walk away with a vision of the future as well as a plan to put into their long-term roadmap.

SNAPSHOT BIO

Jeremiah Owyang is a influential thought leader on web strategy, interactive marketing, and social technologies. He is experienced with emerging technologies that stem from the brand side, agency side, and industry analyst perspective. An accomplished speaker, Jeremiah has spoken all over the US as well as Asia and Europe and keynoted at prominent industry conferences including Internet Strategy Forum, Web 2.0 Expo, and SXSW.

Despite his industry credentials, he lives and breathes the social web and interacts with over 50,000+ Twitter followers, and has earned over 120,000 unique visitors to his blog “Web Strategy”, which focuses on how corporations connect with their customers using web technologies. According to Technorati, the Web Strategy blog is in the top 1000 of all global blogs, and it’s rated the #1 Analyst Blog according to Technobabble and analyst rating ranking, and ranked #27 according to AdAge’s “Power 150” top blogs.

In the realm of social technologies, Jeremiah is frequently sought after as he writes a regular column for the Forbes CMO Network, and has appeared on Bloomberg TV and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USAToday, the Associated Press, and other technology and business related publications.  He was featured in the 2009 “Who’s Who” in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Previously, Jeremiah was a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, focused on social computing for the interactive marketer. Prior to that, was the Director of Corporate Media Strategy at PodTech Network, a podcasting and online video startup.  From 2005-2007 Jeremiah held the title of Manager of Global Web Marketing at Hitachi Data Systems and launched the community and blog program.  He also served as the Intranet Architect at World Savings (now Wells Fargo) and was a user experience professional at Exodus Communications.

A Closer Look at Jeremiah

FOCUS AREAS
What is on Jeremiah's current research agenda?

Jeremiah’s research agenda is exploring emerging technologies such as social networks, online communities. Stemming from two years as an industry analyst at Forrester Research, he extends his research to the edge where social technologies are marrying other systems such as mobile devices and how location sensitive devices enable social communication–and the impacts that has to brands.  

He is also analyzing the intersection of public social networks as they integrate with existing corporate systems such as CMS tools, CRM systems, and internal collaboration.

ENGAGEMENTS
How have other organizations utilized Jeremiah's expertise, and what's ahead on his schedule?

Jeremiah currently is a strategy consultant and advises his clients in the social network software space, telecommunications and hardware, financial services, and web-based media space.  He provides strategic advice, primary research, internal education, and provides vendor recommendations.

RECOMMENDED READING
What's on Jeremiah's must-read list?

• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
• Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim and Guy Kawasaki

MIND FUEL
Which blogs, web sites, and industry events does Jeremiah tap into to feed his mind and fuel his creativity?

Jeremiah has a morning ritual he calls “paying himself first” as he invests up to two hours each morning to read the online news, blogs, and newsfeeds in his industry before opening email.  He often aggregates and synthesizes the trends in the industry and publishes blog posts designed to help the online web decision maker.