Alexandra Samuel, Ph.D.
Digital explorer and keynote speaker
Alexandra Samuel, Ph.D.
Digital explorer and keynote speaker
Alex gets audiences excited about what they can do online.
With her quick humor, conversational style and contagious enthusiasm for the digital world, Alex finds the joy in topics like the sharing economy, data-driven storytelling and the blind spots in social media analytics. Her talks enliven corporate gatherings and light up Twitter at conferences like SXSW. From inspirational keynotes to participatory workshops, Alex offers insight and practical guidance that help people work and live more effectively in digital world.
Find Alex in…
Find Alex in…
The backchannel
@awsamuel is being awesome at #webfuelledbiz. #charismaticspeaker
— Finesight (@FinesightLtd) January 18, 2012
I cannot even begin to share how smart and awesome @awsamuel is as a #14LCS keynote. Thank you @ntenorg
— Debra Askanase (@askdebra) September 4, 2014
@awsamuel Incredible research findings, presentation and discussion! Looking forward to following along with your developments! #mesh12
— Sara Mercier (@MercierSara) May 23, 2012
We love this @awsamuel TED talk. What’s wrong with the phrase, ‘In Real Life’: http://t.co/SjQ1yISz
— Alexis C. Madrigal (@alexismadrigal) January 9, 2012
@awsamuel powerful and thoughtful presentation #vcsummit
— Mario Balladares (@MarioBalladares) October 3, 2013
@awsamuel Thanks for speaking at #MRUshift today; you were my fave speaker by far! Really appreciated your practical/business perspective.
— Stephanie Warthe (@StephanieWarthe) May 11, 2012
The @awsamuel keynote had such an impact at #etug – people keep referring back to her key points and stories.
— Sylvia Currie (@Currie) June 8, 2012
@awsamuel Great presentation on leveraging social media in 15 minutes/day.
I look forward to using @buffer & @feedly Thank you for sharing!
— Taylor Beggs (@taylor_beggs) September 19, 2013
Great talk by @awsamuel at #nv11 and AWESOME red cowboy boots!
— Quentin Beck (@beingq) May 14, 2011
Thanks @awsamuel…awesome presentation. Learned lots, even as a frequent #socialmedia user. #ucitzy
— Shelley McNellis (@shelleymcnellis) May 9, 2012
Taking up most of my feed right now: talk about @awsamuel‘s presentation at #mesh12 #trending
— Lindsey McInerney (@themcinerney) May 23, 2012
Selected speeches
What Big Data Can’t Tell You
Drawing on her work at research tech leader Vision Critical, Alex shows how the combination of social media and survey data challenges the conventional wisdom on what social media analytics can tell you—and offer a new framework for thinking about what questions big data can and can’t answer.
Telling Stories with Data
Whether you’re dealing with big data or smaller, more manageable “little data”, you need to be able to not only understand and learn from it, but tell effective stories with it. Alex maps out the steps to developing an effective data strategy, from the data you need to gather to the opportunities to turn it into compelling content that builds your audience and tells your story.
Sharing is the New Buying: Profiting from the Collaborative Economy
As sharing startups like Airbnb, Etsy and Kickstarter crowd into the space of the collaborative economy, big brands are sensing big opportunities, too. In this talk, Alex draws on a pioneering report based on data from more than 90,000 people in three countries, showing who is sharing and why—and what you can do to join in this disruption of traditional business models and revenue streams.
From Social to Sale: How Social Media Drives Purchasing
In this data-driven talk, Alex shares a ground-breaking study—the world’s largest to date—that shows how social media users go from pinning, Facebook, or tweeting to online or in-store buying. As featured in the Harvard Business Review, this research shows you how these insights can drive your own social media strategies and increase the ROI on your marketing efforts.
Selected appearances
The Internet: What To Pack, TEDxSFU
5 Tips for Stranded Evangelists, Educational Technology Users Group
Meet your Invisible Audience, Canadian Public Relations Society National Conference
Finding your Way in Social Media, International Women in Media Speaker Series
Social Media in 3 Hours a Week, North American Wholesale Lumber Association
10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life, TEDxVictoria
Getting Closer to the Collaborative Economy Customer, Collaborative Economy Conference
IRL: In Real Life, Social Media Shift 2
How Social Media Drives Consumer Decisions, LeadingRE Conference
Coping with Social Media, Northern Voice
About Alex
Alexandra is the author of Work Smarter with Social Media, a series of practical books from Harvard Business Review Press that offer guidance on how to make effective use of social tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Evernote. Formerly the director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University, Alex also co-founded Social Signal, one of the world’s first social media agencies. A regular blogger for the Harvard Business Review, she has also been a regular contributor to publications like the Wall Street Journal, TheAtlantic.com and Oprah.com.
An articulate voice on new social technologies, Alex has an infectious passion for the Net’s potential as a tool for community-building and civic participation. She has mapped the effect of technology for both the non-profit sector (through her work on projects like NetSquared) as well as with governments (as Research Director for Digital 4Sight’s Governance in the Digital Economy, where, along with Don Tapscott, she researched the future of democracy). She also works with a long list of corporations, giving talks, running workshops, and talking to them—on whatever level they are comfortable with—about how they can best use social technology tools for their specific business.
Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University, where her dissertation examined hacktivism as a window on digital participation. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, she now lives in Vancouver.