Now, social is personal. From finance site Mint.com's anti-immigration blog post gaffe to YourTango CEO Andrea Miller's "How to Date an Indian (Advice for the Non-Indian)," social media fuses personal with public in a way never seen before. Whether sharing taste in hiphop, dating preferences, provocative political ideas, or insider information about a soon-to-be-launched business, social media strategically develops personal and professional reputations. Stories can build audiences, grow support for campaigns and change mainstream ideas about social issues. They can also alienate various communities, compromise business information confidentiality or damage brands. If social media has shown us anything, it's that stories still matter. This panel will be a concrete conversation on how successful online personalities have managed their personal and professional lives using social media: telling authentic stories about our experiences, and using those stories to build powerful, engaged communities.
Andrea Miller is the founder and CEO of YourTango, a digital media brand dedicated to love and relationships. YourTango offers award-winning content, community and connections to relationship experts. No matter which lovestage its users are in--single, taken, engaged, married, starting over, or complicated--YourTango helps them live their best love lives.
Andrea is featured frequently in the media, including multiple appearances on The Today Show, The Early Show, Better TV, CNN, E!, Fox News, ABC, and radio stations across the U.S., as well as in national publications such as USA Today, The New York Post, The Los Angeles Times, and Business Week. Here is a recent appearance on The Today Show. Andrea is a frequent panelist and guest speaker on industry panels as well as classes and events at Harvard, Columbia, Fordham, Wharton and NYU.
Andrea is a graduate of Tulane University (B.S. Mechanical Engineering) and Columbia Business School (M.B.A.) where she was the managing editor of The Bottom Line, the school’s student newspaper.
Prior to launching Tango, Andrea’s career was in finance and consulting, including positions with Goldman Sachs, ICF Consulting and Enron’s international finance team. While with Enron, Andrea was based in Mumbai, India for three years.
Andrea is a licensed private pilot and actively working on her black belt in karate. She served as one of the original co-heads of the New York Chapter of 85 Broads, an independent global network of female professionals and students. Andrea also actively seeks to promote entrepreneurship among women; she is the co-founder of the Women Entrepreneurs Network, an active network of females who represent some of the tri-state area’s most talented and promising young entrepreneurs, affiliated with Columbia Business School.
Andrea lives with her husband and son in New York City.
Cheryl Contee, Partner at Fission Strategy, specializes in helping non-profit organizations and foundations use social media to create social good. She is also the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics writing as “Jill Tubman” on one of the top 10 black blogs online. Cheryl is included in The Root 100 list of established and emerging African-American leaders. Fast Company has named her one of their 2010 Most Influential Women in Tech. She has over 13 years of award-winning interactive expertise and previously served as Vice President and lead digital strategist for Fleishman-Hillard’s West Coast region in San Francisco. Cheryl has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, BBC, and CNN, among other media appearances. She is also proud to serve on several boards and advisory committees: Netroots Nation, BlogHer, Blogging While Brown, Applied Research Center, and CommonGoods.Net. She received her B.A. from Yale University and has an International Executive M.B.A. from Georgetown University. In her spare time, Ms. Contee enjoys hiking, yoga, movies and tai chi sword.
Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and the author of "Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking" (Berrett-Koehler, June 2010). She is a consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and Jim Hightower’s Hightower Lowdown, and is a Research Fellow at the Center for Social Media at American University. Zandt specializes in social media, is a leading expert in women and technology, and is a frequent guest on CNN International, BBC Radio, Fox News and more. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise. She has spoken at a number of conferences, including Netroots Nation, SXSW Interactive, Personal Democracy Forum, the National Conference on Media Reform, Facing Race, Web 2.0 Expo, Bioneers, America’s Future Now (formerly “Take Back America,”) Women Action & The Media, and provides beginner and advanced workshops both online and in person.
In January 2009, Deanna was chosen as a fellow for the Progressive Women’s Voices program at the Women’s Media Center. She also serves as a technology advisor to a number of organizations, including Feministing, The Girls & Boys Projects and Women Action & The Media. She is on the board of the Applied Research Center, a racial justice think tank and home for media and activism.
In addition to her technology work, Deanna writes and illustrates graphic stories and comics, and volunteers with dog rescue organization Rat Terrier ResQ.
Twanna A. Hines is a Manhattan-based writer and sexual & reproductive health / rights advocate. With student loan debt from New York University, her B.S. and M.A. degrees are in sociology. Called one of “the internet’s sultriest sharers” by the Village Voice, details about her rendezvous have been printed in Glamour magazine. AfterEllen.com calls her the “straight-but-not-narrow” sex columnist. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius Satellite Radio as well as CBC (Canadian National Radio) and Paris Première (French Television). She has written for Lifetime, Nerve, New York Press, Fast Company and has a blog on the Huffington Post. AOL recognized her award-winning site FUNKY BROWN CHICK®. She has also been quoted in New York magazine, Gawker Media, The San Francisco Chronicle, EbonyJet, The Baltimore Sun, Vibe and elsewhere. She is currently finishing her debut memoir.
Before moving to New York, Twanna enjoyed a career in international affairs and published work on immigration, ethnicity and race relations after a brief stint working at an American Embassy in Europe. Having lived in London, Chicago, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and The Hague, she speaks English and Dutch fluently as well as conversational French. She enjoys passionate love affairs with far-away lands and intelligent men. Get down with the funky brown.™
