Best SXSW 2010 Social Media Panels – Go Vote

South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) opened its panel picker on Monday allowing the community to vote for the panels that should be added to the event. You can vote until September 4th 2009. The actual interactive event will be March 12 – 16, 2010. For those who are not aware, there are also music and film events before during and after the interactive week.

The SXSW panel picker process is one of the coolest ways of developing conference content and validating market and attendee interest. Over 2,000 sessions are submitted because it is one of the coolest events around and everyone wants to be on the panels.

Since I want to make sure my interests at the event are represented, I want through all of the social media submissions and picked the top 10 panels that I wanted to attend and voted for. Now, just because this is my choice that does not mean you have to vote for them.

Top Social Media Panels (in no order)

How (Not) to Get Banned on Social Networks!

This panel looks interesting and I think with all of the hype around social media we need at least one that tells people the damegers of constantly pimping products and services and not giving back to the community. It will be John Adams from Twitter and Jennifer Leggio who blogs at Mediaphyter and ZDNet

Social Media for Unsociable Companies

This one will help you understand why big companies don’t get social media. This session will be the Todd “Turbo” Watson from IBM and myself and Julio Fernandez from Global Strategies. We will examine the challenges, issues, and opportunities of adopting social media marketing practices in large, Web 2.0-unfriendly organizations that don’t “get it.” The panelists will come prepared with war stories, dirty laundry, and practical guidance on how to get your CEO on (or off) Twitter in no time at all.

Scaling Social Media: Getting Credible Content To Mass Audiences

This panel strikes at the heart of why many big companies don’t get social media – they want mass audiences not smaller highly focused audiences. This panel has some of the top social media marketers that can walk the walk on this panel – Jim Cuene, General Mills, Yaron Galai, CEO, Outbrain, Scott Kelly, Ford Motor Company and Brett Wilson, Tubemogul

Understanding Social ShelfSpace & Creating Actionable Deliverables

I am sort of biased to this panel since this is my old team from GSI and I was the first (I believe SMX Stockholm 2007) to have used this term Social ShelfSpace at a conference. This is the next generation of search marketing to “own” multiple search results incorporating text, images and video as well as social commentary. Come hear how you can make simple workflow changes and collaboration with others result in ownership of the first page of Google. The integration of search marketing and social media will enable organizations to achieve a new level of success with their online activities and intersect with more relevant consumers.

Building Social Strategies at Fortune 100 Companies

This panel looks interesting since we may finally get some real actionable tips on how to crack social media in the F100 arena. A new of us on the consulting side have been trying but this panel own social media in these companies and will, hopefully, bring loads of tips and ideas. Jon Storer, Community Roundtable with Scott Monty, Ford, Shawn Morton, Nationwide, Rawn Shah, IBM, Marty Collins, Microsoft, Mark Yolton, SAP and Lionel Menchaca, Dell .

Prove it! Exploring Social Media ROI for Business

This is one of the big open switches in social media right now. How and what do you measure. This panel’s description will make the attempt to answer those big questions and give actionable insights.

Adobe and Julio Down by the Social Schoolyard

This looks like a great case study session I am just not sure Adobe will allow Julio and gang to spill all the goods but if they do open the kimono and walk us through how they are leveraging loyal fans (like me Adobe Lightroom rocks!) and their evangelists then this will be an awesome session of how to really deploy a social media program.

Combining Online/Offline to Strengthen Brand

This panel caught my attention right away since I don’t hear anyone talking about integration of traditional media to social media to continue the conversations. This panel should be able to give some great examples of how to really do this. On the panel are Doug Meacham, IBM, Kaitlyn Wilkins Ogilvy PR and David Armano, Dachis Corp.

Social Media Marketing for Your Business

This is a panel of seasoned pros who actually do this for a living and just don’t talk about it. The session includes, Chris Winfield, Tony Adam, Brent Csutoras and Todd Malicoat, all are great speakers and know what they are doing. They will tell us how to develop solid strategies, how to measure success, and all the tools we need to succeed in the fastest growing marketing medium on the web.

On the fence sessions:

Social CRM: Managing Conversations to Protect/Shape Brands

I am on the fence on this one. The idea of Social CRM and generating “earned media” and how to reengage those evangelists is what I was looking for in this session but the description did not match my hopes. It has Brian Solis who is a great speaker so this one may have hope.

Measuring Brand Engagement in Social Networks and Communities

I am not sure there is a lot to say in this one – the description cites a focus on innovations in measuring online engagement and discuss experiences and case studies in measuring ROI from the agency and brand perspectives as well. If they can do it that will make this a great session.

Bonus Session

Armed with Social Media: The US Air Force

While I am a loyal Marine and not necessary known for promoting the Air Force, this does sound like a very interesting session for military and business alike. The moderator is David Meerman Scott who is a brilliant speaker and author and I am sure will have these guys deliver a rock’n panel with some great social media best practices.

Go and register and vote for these or find your own. If you plan to attend SXSW and you don’t vote you loose the right to bitch that there were no interesting sessions.

Disclaimer: these are my opinions based on my interests and what I am currently working on with companies. If I did not pick yours I am sorry. Leave a comment and tell me why I should add it to the list. If you come to SXSW and these sessions suck don’t blame me either.