Dan Schawbel, recognized as a “personal branding guru” by The New York Times, is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, LLC, and the author of the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future. Dan is the founder of the Personal Branding Blog, the publisher of Personal Branding Magazine, the youngest columnist at BusinessWeek, and has been featured in over 350 media outlets, such as The New York Times and ELLE Magazine. He’s spoken at Harvard Business School, MIT, Time Warner, IBM, and CitiGroup. Dan was named to the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 List in 2010. You can  follow Dan on Twitter or Linkedin. Read the full story

Tom H. C. Anderson is the founder and managing partner of Anderson Analytics, a full-service market research consultancy that takes a “next generation” approach to research by fusing advanced analytics and traditional methodologies with leading edge technologies. Named the “Uncrowned Father of Web 3.0 Market Research” (Research Business Report, 2009), Tom is also a prominent blogger, recognized authority on social media, and the founder of Next Gen Market Research (NGMR), one of the most active networking groups for market researchers on the Web. Tom served as the elected U.S. representative to ESOMAR in 2010, an international professional association for market researchers and is chairman of the Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring (FTO). You can follow Tom on Twitter , Linkedin or Facebook.  Read the full story

Joost de Valk is Web Development and SEO expert whose clients list is ranging from large corporates, such as eBay, Conrad Electronic and Salesforce.com, to smaller web based ventures. He has written over 20 plugins for WordPress which, combined, have had more than 3 million downloads. In 2010 Joost developed QuixApp.com– a powerful browser tool that has been featured on hundreds of websites including Mashable, Lifehacker and Web Worker Daily. He is one of the hosts of the WordPress podcast, where he interviews luminaries of the industry and discusses ways for bloggers to improve their blogs. Recent guests have included Pete Cashmore of Mashable and Matt Cutts, head of web spam at Google. Joost regularly shares his knowledge and experience via his blog at Yoast.com. You can follow Joost on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. Read the full story

­Trey Pennington is a marketing pro, business connector, and storyteller for business who’s passion is helping people uncover their hidden treasures and put them to work. He uses social media to connect with audiences around the globe. HubSpot ranks his Facebook profile as one of the most influential in the world and his Twitter profile in the top 0.01%. Trey helped start ten Social Media Clubs in the US, UK, and Australia and routinely speaks to groups about using social media to make connections and have conversations that lead to commerce.  You can follow Trey on Twitter or Linkedin.

G: I know that you will be speaking at Fusion Marketing Experience event organized by our friends at Social Marketing Forum. Can you give us a sneak preview of your presentation at Fusion Marketing Experience?

T: The explosive growth of social media affords the commercial world unprecedented opportunity. The opportunity is not where people expect it, though. Many are looking at increasing ROI and profits through efficiency. The real opportunity is more fundamental and we’ll explore it’s unexpected source.

G:  Why do many marketers still fail to integrate social media successfully into their broader marketing strategies?

T: Much of commercial communications comes from established professional disciplines like public relations, advertising, or marketing. Those branches of communication developed over long periods of time, have generations of experienced practitioners, and have developed substantial, documented bodies of knowledge to support their on-going practice. Social media popped onto the scene from a different source—it bubbled up from kids. The grown ups saw social media as kids’ stuff. Instead of embracing social media and applying disciplined thinking to incorporating the new media into marketing programs, the professionals let social media evangelist develop independent strategies for each emerging platform. The tide seems to be changing. Now each established discipline seems to be embracing social media and experimenting with it to see how it supports business objectives.  I’m hesitant to label the experiments as “right” or “wrong,” however, I do suggest those who see social media as a free broadcast medium will tend to have less fulfilling experiences with it!

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