Brafton will be in attendance at this year's Social Media Week event taking place in New York City February 17 through February 21.

Modern marketers are faced with the challenge of harnessing social media and understanding how to use new channels to reach always-on customers. This is why Social Media Week is a global event spanning dozens of cities that attracted 10,000 participants last year, and it’s coming to New York City the week of February 17 through 21.

Brafton’s Social Media Managers Kristen Fritz and Ty Scheiner will be in attendance to exchange ideas on how communication technology impacts conversations and interactions between customers and brands.

This year’s global theme is “Always Connected” and aims to explore how social media and technology break down communication barriers and introduce new challenges. For the first time in history, people can participate in conversations from hundreds or thousands of miles away in real time. However, brands must find appropriate and effective ways to respond to target audiences at the right moments. Keynote presentations include ‘fireside chats’ between successful leaders, including BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti and Social Media Week Founder and Executive Director Toby Daniels on the best distribution channels for branded content, and Revolution CEO Steve Case and ThinkUp CEO Anil Dash on finding sharing opportunities. Other notable speakers include Robin Chase, Founder of Zipcar, Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder of Warby Parker and Eli Pariser, CEO of Upworthy.

“I’m looking forward to hearing different examples and case studies that the speakers can share – everyone has his or her opinion on certain topics, but actually getting to learn from what’s worked in real-life strategies is extremely valuable,” said Scheiner.

Visit the Social Media Week website for schedule details and the speakers in attendance, and follow @SMWNY and @Brafton for updates and coverage via the event hashtag: #SMW14.

Going to Social Media Week this year? Let us know so we can say “Hi!”

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.