Discovery Blog

Obsessive readers of this blog (do they exist?) may have noticed that we didn’t post yesterday. That’s because we were too busy learning, connecting with other social media enthusiasts/professionals and presenting at GasPedal’s BlogWell Conference, hosted by SAP outside of Philadelphia. The theme of the conference this time around was “How Big Brands Use Social Media,” and the afternoon consisted primarily of case studies about successful social media efforts from a range of very impressive companies.

For example, we heard Scholastic talk about how they use Facebook to energize their customers and create community among teachers, parents and students around books. We also saw their new site — YouAreWhatYouRead.com — which encourages book lovers of all ages to share the books that shaped their lives.

We also had the opportunity to hear from Hershey’s about their S’mores Snacktivity Suite  at BlogHer earlier this year, inviting bloggers to relax by their campfire and enjoy the classic treat (several even received special kits and took the S’mores train from D.C. to NYC). Great presentation, even if it did make the audience (Amber included) crave their gooey goodness.

Additionally, we had the fun experience of doing our own presentation about how Discovery Channel used social media to amplify fan enthusiasm around Shark Week. Thank you to Andy Sernovitz, Kurt Vanderah and the entire GasPedal team for bringing us all together!

If you’re looking for more (we could go on and on about all the great presentations), please check out the live blog coverage (courtesy of the SAP team) from our session and others and the #BlogWell hashtag on Twitter.

-Gayle & Amber