Six Apart News & Events: Social Media

Those of you who've followed us over the years have seen us through a number of changes as Six Apart, and the industry we helped to create, has evolved.

What started with a simple goal to make creating and publishing content for the web easy, became a social publishing platform that today powers some of the biggest brands on the web, as well as passionate individuals—those of us who simply want to express ourselves, share our expertise or insights, and reach an audience of like-minded others.

Six Apart helped empower people and companies to publish. And they did. With amazing content they created valuable publishing properties with massive and engaged audiences—the influential audiences that advertisers want to reach. Over the past several years we have grown another side of our business, Six Apart Media, which has focused on helping publishers turn their passions into businesses and on helping marketers authentically engage these publishers and their audiences.

Today Six Apart announced its intention to join forces with VideoEgg to form a modern media company called SAY Media. The new entity will combine the engagement platform and insights of VideoEgg with our social publishing platform, conversational marketing tools, and robust network of publishers.

SAY Media will be a force—powering more efficient, useful and social advertising programs that tie rich and engaging advertising experiences to online communities with meaningful and measurable results. Good for publishers. Good for advertisers.

We believe SAY Media will become one of the world's most significant modern media companies, while still embracing the same goals we've always had at Six Apart—to empower people to create great content and make money doing it. Soon we'll have the capabilities to do it that much better. When you know more, I think you'll be as excited as we are. Get a glimpse of our future at www.saymedia.com.

Chris Alden Chairman & CEO Six Apart

P.S. You can follow SAY Media on Twitter at @saymediainc or like us and join the conversation on Facebook.

Is your company active in social media? Then you’re probably asking yourself where to allocate your budget: to paid media or earned media - or some combination of both. If this is on your mind, we hope you’ll join us at the OMMA Global conference in NYC on September 27th for a panel discussion entitled, Is Your Budget Being Well Spent in Social?

David Tokheim, EVP & GM of Six Apart Media, will weigh in on the discussion, joining panelists from Deep Focus, Catalyst, Bling Media and Rey Interactive. Tokheim will share his insights on how to decide where dollars should be spent and will delve into the role of the media team in a world where not all advertising is paid.

Come, listen, get some advice, and see how to apply this paradigm shift to your own business and budgets.  For more information go to: http://www.mediapost.com/events/?/showID/OMMAGlobal.10.NYC

Join us in Las Vegas October 14th-16th for BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the world’s largest New Media event, and take advantage of our special Promotional Code SIXAPART20 to receive a 20% discount!

You’ll learn about content creation, distribution and monetization strategies, as well as step-by-step techniques, and the most productive, bleeding-edge tools—all from the most successful bloggers, social media pros, podcasters and Internet TV and radio broadcasters.

Not to be missed: our own Michael Sippey, Vice President of Corporate Development, will discuss The Future of Blogging Platforms on October 15th 4:00-5:00PM.

For more information: www.BlogWorldExpo.com

Last week Facebook announced a new version of the “Like” button that gives marketers and publishers the ability to embed a content-sharing button on their websites. Users can now signal the content they like on the Internet via their Facebook News Feed with a single click.

As we work on ways to help our clients distribute conversations around their brands across the web, Facebook “Like” will be an exciting and effective way to amplify those conversations.

The “Like” button allows publishers and marketers the ability to deliver a compelling social web experience on branded sites without the design constraints of a Facebook fan page. Just adding the Facebook “Like” button to your website or blog integrates it with Facebook.

Typing your company or product name into the Facebook search bar will display the site to which you’ve added the “Like” button. In short: ANY web page can now take the place of a Facebook fan page.

Most importantly, fans of your brand will get a consistent experience no matter where it’s accessed. Our powerful publishing and community solutions now have the ability to behave just like Facebook fan pages, leveraging the network for each engagement. And that is great news for everyone.

As we noted last week Six Apart was chosen by Facebook as an official launch partner for this release. Stay tuned for more announcements from Six Apart on how we can help you leverage social media as part of our conversational marketing platform.