How Big Companies Use Social Media
New York City | April 29, 2009
Rhonda Lowry
Turner Broadcast System
“Social Collaboration –
Together, We Tell Better Stories”

Social Collaboration
Together We Tell Better Stories
Rhonda Lowry
Vice President, Social Media Technologies
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
rhonda.lowry@turner.com

The Web is more a
social creation
than a technical one.
I designed it for a social effect
- to help people work together -
and not as a technical toy.\"
– Tim Berners – Lee, Weaving the Web p123

WTF is
Collaboration ?

Socio–cultural bricolage
CC image courtesy
http://flickr.com/photos/annamatic3000

What is your mix of capital
assets?
Social
Human
Organizational
Cultural

Is there a means to our
individual ends?
CC Photo courtesy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/omarrun

Can you evolve?
1994
2008
CC image courtesy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bielmcr

Can you get out
of your own way?
CC image courtesy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsaint

The Perfect Storm

What will your
Facebook status say when
Obama becomes President?
Event Page Status
Total Responses
1,944,001
Yes
1,211,280
Maybe
567,937
No
164,784
Awaiting Reply
247,258
CNN.com Live / Facebook

CNN.com Live/Facebook

“In an inauguration defined by a sense of change,
the experience of watching Barack Obama take
office was fittingly revolutionary.”
Jake Coyle, AP
“The early winners in the battle for inauguration-
media-coverage supremacy were CNN and
Facebook.”
Andrew Hampp & Abby Klassen, Ad Age

1.2 million Facebook RSVPs
26 million Live video streams**
1.3 million Concurrent streams**
2 million Facebook status updates
11.3 thousand iReport submissions**

A Brewing Storm

We started with a squirrel ..
2/06

8/07
MN Bridge
4/07
VA Tech
10/06
10/07
HA Quake
CA Fires
9/06
Irwin
.. but got better .

What is news in a
virtual world?
I don t know, but
Second Life residents do.

I m learning to talk to
real people about real
issues, in real time.
CC Photo courtesy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/omarrun

As well as writing for
CNN ...
CC Photo courtesy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/omarrun

Collaborative
Newsgathering Community Storytelling

Together we tell
better stories

Thanks for listening
Rhonda Lowry
Vice President, Social Media Technologies
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
rhonda.lowry@turner.com

How Big Companies Use Social Media
Learn more about upcoming and past BlogWells:
http://gaspedal.com/blogwell
or
live@gaspedal.com