SocialMedia.org Peer Practitioner Forum at NAMLS’25

As social media leaders, we can be overlooked or not taken as seriously as our counterparts in more traditional marketing or communications roles. So how do you effectively represent the impact you make for your business? Join Temeka Easter Rice, Vanguard’s Head of Social Media, in a conversation about how we can project confidence, build authority, and ensure our contributions are more accurately valued.

How can big brands with little budget successfully grow and scale their employee advocacy program? Do you focus only on top leadership, feature on-the-ground employee stories, or prioritize enabling sales teams? Should the focus be culture, talent, sales, or something else? Join Vanessa Villescas, Manager of Employee Advocacy, and Ryan Boyles, Senior Manager of Communications and Social Media at AMD, in this guided workshop where we’ll discuss everything from which employee segments to include, how to resource this function, and processes that make all this work a lighter lift for overextended social media leaders.

When it feels like every brand defaults to being cheeky on the internet, is a distinctive brand voice still relevant? Some might say that redefining your voice and tone is more important now than it’s ever been. Kikora Mason, VP, Community – Social Media at JPMorgan Chase, will moderate this workshop to uncover our collective strategies for revamping our voice, building out personas, and developing style guidelines with considerations in mind for the world we’re living in. When the playbook doesn’t exist for navigating the current climate, social media leaders have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to construct a thoughtful presence across channels.

How do you incentivize and encourage employees to activate and engage in your employee advocacy program?  In this session we’ll share openly about how to structure a program that can scale efficiently – we can discuss everything from overcoming challenges with legal to increasing engagement during seasonal lulls and product launches, and even how to templatize your gamification strategy so it’s easier to reproduce.

What does a robust social listening function look like for your brand in 2025 and beyond? How do we position this function as an essential part of digital intelligence, or digital research? In this session, Kyle Brown, Vice President & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at CoxHealth will guide us through how we can take social listening to the next level. We’ll discuss how we’re monitoring across multiple channels and media formats, the tools we’re using, where generative AI fits into our strategy, as well as how we’re sharing this digital intelligence with leadership to influence and inform business decisions.

It’s golden question we all get asked, “What’s the return?” and it’s also only getting harder to answer. Between channel diversification, shifts in consumer behavior and even AI coming into the mix, ROI becomes both more complex and more essential. Join Derek Schoen, Vice President of Integrated Media at MGM Resorts, as we collectively share current best practices, tools (including MTA, MMM, and incremental testing) and the philosophies needed to better understand what is driving business and how you can make the right choices with your resources.

How can brands adjust their social selling strategies to stay competitive while responding to shifting market conditions? How can we build trust and continue to generate leads in an unpredictable world? Join Cathy Lee Fredrickson, Director, Brand Strategy – Social Media at Transamerica, for a workshop exploring innovative approaches to BtoB social selling in an uncertain economy. We’ll talk through how we’re approaching budget constraints and changing customer behavior, as well as how we’re leveraging data-driven insights to continually demonstrate the ROI of our social selling programs.

As social media continues to mature as a business-critical function, the question of how to structure and scale social teams has never been more pressing—or more complex. Join Kirsten Hamstra, Executive Director of Global Social Media COE at Lenovo, for this workshop exploring how leading brands are rethinking their organizational design: from centralized Centers of Excellence to hybrid and embedded models. We’ll dig into what’s driving change—from expanding into new markets and business groups, to absorbing adjacent functions like SEO, web, and influencer strategy. Come prepared to share how your organization is adapting and learn how others balance flexibility, innovation, and global governance in an era of constant evolution.

Looking to elevate your influencer program from an awareness driver to a growth engine? This workshop explores how to tie influencer strategy directly to business objectives, with a sharp focus on performance metrics that matter. From reach and resonance to conversions and ROI, join Britt Farrar, Senior Director for Social Media and Influencer Marketing at Hilton, as we discuss how to evaluate partnerships, optimize spend, and demonstrate real value to stakeholders.

As politically charged and toxic content proliferates on social media, what’s your strategy for mitigating potential risk to your brand? When are the right moments to hold back, and when is it best to go all in? How do you define where risk lies? And how, if at all, do you respond or support your organization when your brand is swept into the news? Join Sherry Roper, Director of Enterprise Brand Social Media and Content Strategy at Capital One, as she guides this candid workshop. We’ll discuss the practical side of this work – leveraging brand safety frameworks and strategies, as well as the human side – setting expectations and boundaries with yourself, your team, and your leadership. This community of peers is here to hold space for the most challenging aspects of your job.

How can we get our leadership to approve AI for social media strategy? The possibilities inherent in this emerging technology could be saving you time, money, and resources. In this practitioner-led workshop, join Leslie Douglas, Global Head of Social Media at Intel, to discuss how to identify top problems to be solved by AI, and how to sell it as a way to benefit the business – from content creation to RFP comparisons to social media strategy building, and more. None of us want to feel left behind, so lean on the SocialMedia.org brain trust to understand how you can get leadership to support the future of business and marketing on social media.

When is it necessary – or recommended – to go back to the drawing board and reimagine your brand’s social media ecosystem? What are the signs your program needs an overhaul, and how can you get it done? In this workshop, join Kristi Daraban, Head of Social Media at The Aspen Group, as she guides our discussion on how to rebuild your program to ensure its relevance, agility, and impact in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. We’ll talk through how to redefine social media’s role in your brand’s future, reprioritize content types and platforms, update policies and governance protocols, and restructure workflows for agility and creativity.