What does your email response time say about you? And how can Twitter’s new features transform your company’s online presence? Two of Lavin’s top internet speakers explain.

Amber MacArthur

When Twitter announced the ability to upload a new Facebook-esque header image, among other tweaks, MacArthur was one of the first early adopters to make use of the new features. “What this new [Twitter] design does well,” she writes in a recent Fast Company article, “is to give brands a better opportunity to market their products and services.” In the article, she gives three suggestions for using Twitter to your brand’s fullest potential which include: updating your profile picture, creating a new header image, and making an effort to upload more photos and videos that correspond with your tweets. “Your profile page is your bona fide business card in the social media world,” she adds, noting that “sprucing up your page” can do wonders for your brand. In her keynotes, she keeps companies ahead of the curve; helping audiences cut through the media clutter and dig up the best tactics to enhance their online strategy.

Alexandra Samuel

In a recent blog post, Samuel confesses that she “[uses] email response time as an indicator of someone’s intrinsic worthiness as a human being.” The unfortunate truth is that you don’t want to be too fast, or too slow. “Non-responders are rude and unreliable,” says Samuel, whereas “instant responders are clearly people with too much time on their hands.” While it may not seem like it, your online activity is inextricably linked to your offline life. Samuel’s opinions on the delicate balance that exists between your online and offline life can be found in her blog posts for The Atlantic, The Harvard Business Review and Oprah.com. She helps companies in all industries learn how to manage their online presence in her keynotes and in her popular TEDx Talks.

In the wake of the Facebook privacy leaks, it’s important to think not just about corporate responsibility—but personal responsibility. In this video, social media speaker Rahaf Harfoush discusses the delicate balancing act of participation vs. discretion in social media.

Tim Sanders, author of Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends, from his latest speech topic ‘The Social Pages: How To Win Business’.

Here’s our new exclusive speaker, Arthur Fleischmann, at Lavin’s Toronto offices to discuss his national bestseller, Carly’s Voice—a memoir co-written with his daughter Carly which chronicles her exceptional experiences in living with severe non-verbal autism. The “voice” in the title refers to Carly’s ability to communicate through typing and on social media, where she has thousands of followers and friends.

Virginia Heffernan, on the hazards of banning so-called ‘thinspiration’ photos.

Here’s a preview of Reza Aslan (founder of Aslan Media) and Jessica Jackley’s (co-founder of KIVA) new talk, The Promise and Perils of Social Media:

Reza Aslan and Jessica Jackley know all about the social web’s remarkable ability to build communities and incite social change. As the founder of Aslan Media, which is altering perceptions of the Arab world through traditional and online entertainment, Aslan has traced the impact of social media in the Middle East. As the co-founder of KIVA, the world’s largest microlending website, Jackley has harnessed the power of one-to-one relationships to triumph over bureaucratic lending models. Together, this husband and wife team explains how social media has irrevocably changed the world, and explores the future of online collaboration. How has social media gone from simple news gathering to revolutionizing the concept of community? What changes must our institutions make—from government to business to education—in order to catch up to our new web-based society? And what can an individual do to ensure that social media reaches its full potential as a force for global change?

From The Atlantic article “What’s Wrong With the Phrase ‘In Real Life’”:

“In the video below, Canadian social-media theorist Alexandra Samuel calls on us to give up this idea that what happens online is not “real.” Rather, she says, “When you’re online, you’re often more real, more authentic, than you would be offline.” If we take our online lives more seriously, and recognize that other people online are real too, we can build a more empathetic, thoughtful, and interesting Internet, she says.”

Channeling her inner McLuhan, Virginia Heffernan tells us that, for companies, user-generated content is hard work—you have to “scaffold the experience for the user so intensely.”

Consultant, TV host, author, and journalist Amber MacArthur stopped by Lavin’s Toronto office to say ‘Hello’ just before the start of the long weekend. Amber has a new talk on mobile engagement which you can read about here.

In this short clip, bestselling author and social media speaker Amber Mac shares three rules for building a robust online strategy: authenticity, bravery and consistency. The genius of Amber Mac—who knows basically everything about social media, has been with it since the start, and continues to chronicle its growth into every corner of our waking lives at work and at home—is that she can talk, clearly and engagingly, to any audience at any level of social media engagement. From novices to intermediates to CIOs: Amber has something relevant to say to them all.