The UnPanel: The Place for Brands to Leverage Twitter

The UnPanel, a solution that enables companies to initiate a purposeful discussion around their industry or business via the microblogging site Twitter, kicks off the first of its online events Tuesday, March 31st at Noon EST at http://hashtagsocialmedia.com. The first event is an open forum focused on the potential of social media in business.

Naples, FL (PRWEB) March 31, 2009 -- What's wrong with Twitter, is what's right for brands. The UnPanel (http://theunpanel.com) is for the untraditional, unencumbered company that believes social media is turning business on its head and that getting the job done depends on interaction with the collective knowledge of many.

Initiate a purposeful discussion around your industry or business via the microblogging site Twitter. The UnPanel kicks off the first of its online events on Tuesday, March 31st Noon EST. The first event is an open forum focused on the potential of social media in business, which invites participants to tag their posts with #socialmedia and track the discussion at http://hashtagsocialmedia.com. The goal of the UnPanel is to help brands break through the chatter on Twitter by putting the brand in the driver's seat.

When a company launches the UnPanel, it can hold periodic events focused on any aspect of their business. Participants respond through Twitter and include the appropriate hashtag within the post. Those posts are pulled into a central website where the brand can track the conversation and capture constructive feedback. Better yet, a moderator guides the discussion, responds to participants in real-time, and ensures they stay on topic. The UnPanel can filter out bad language and unrelated posts so conversations are constructive and on point.

The concept for the UnPanel is that of founder Jason Breed, an executive at Neighborhood America (http://www.neighborhoodamerica.com), an award-winning enterprise social software provider. Jason has been developing social media strategies for leading brands for several years, many of which have changed the landscape of whole industries.

"Twitter has now surpassed Facebook and other online communities to become the fastest-growing site. Brands need a way to connect with the caliber of members that participate and the wealth of knowledge that's available," says Jason. "The UnPanel enables companies to decipher what's relevant and what isn't and capture the dialogue for future use -- effectively building a center of knowledge around an industry or brand."

WHO: Beth Harte (http://twitter.com/BethHarte) principal of Harte Marketing & Communications is this week's discussion leader. Beth offers nearly 15 years of experience in all things marketing and communications, and she's applied that experience for a range of companies-from startups and SMBs to mid-market and Fortune 500 companies.

WHAT: The UnPanel, the Future of Social Media in Business

WHEN: Tuesday, March 31, 2009; 12pm EST

WHERE: Visit http://hashtagsocialmedia.com/ and click on the Events tab to follow the discussion. Participate through Twitter by including #socialmedia in your posts.

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