Upcoming Social Media events

We have a fresh round of SMC events coming up over the next month and hope you can join one of us at one of them:

• London: February 15, 2007
• New York: February 20, 2007
• San Francisco: February 20, 2007
• Portland: February 22, 2007
• Washington, DC: February 22, 2007
• Austin (Launch): February 27, 2007
• Dallas: February 27, 2007 (pending)
• Atlanta: March 6, 2007
• Boston: March 8 2007
• Phoenix: March 8, 2007
• South Florida: March 14, 2007
• San Francisco: March 20, 2007
• Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver gatherings are in the works.

I am excited to announce the following several cities launching will be launching soon:

• Chicago, IL
• Denver, CO
• Liverpool / Manchester, United Kingdom
• Munich, Germany
• New Orleans, LA
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Toronto, Ontario

What? Don’t see your city listed yet? Make sure you add it to the wiki (anyone can edit or add a page) with your contact information so we can work towards a launch near you. Note: the password for editing the wiki is on the top of every page.
There are also several conferences going on around the world that some of you just might find of interest:

So stay tuned, more announcements coming soon!

UPDATED 2/14/07: Portland has been announced!

Sphere: Related Content

The World is Grey and Mushy - Part 1 of a gazillion

I was chatting with Brian Solis just now about his post called, Are You Talking to Me? Taking the BS out of Business Blogging, when I noticed Strumpette’s comment bagging on conversational marketing and some of the broader Cluetrain principles.  Its a funny thing that everyone is always trying to be absolute and literal instead of allowing for smart people like Brian and others like Dave Weinberger who understand both the ideal and practical implications of “markets as conversations”.  Regardless of your perspective, I hope that more people do understand that all of these emerging practices, however you want to classify them (conversational, social, participatory etc…), are based on COMMUNICATIONS, one way, multiway and bi-directional.  To that extent, there are times you want to talk to people and times you want to listen.

The thing is, Strumpette gets caught up in the social and conversational side, or rather the word ‘conversational’,  neglecting that all media is a form of communications, and could be easily described as conversational in most of its forms, eventhough the purpose is occasionally out of self interest than group interest.  The media created between a performer and their audience, between a blogger and the people who are interested in what they have to say and even David Letterman is largely conversational.

Is conversational marketing or business blogging always good? - of course not, but it often is, and could be better if we work together to explore how and understand why.

Much of the same criticism leveled at Social Media champions like Brian is very similar to that slung at brand marketing before it became widely understood and refined.  Same for banner advertising.  Same for ecommerce.  More case studies with ROI will appear in time.  Indeed it already has helped many, they just have not shared their stories yet with many trying to maintain a competitive advantage.

No the world is not always flat, nor is transparency always ok, nor is a consensus driven model always best - we need to use the right thinking in each unique situation.  The world is grey and mushy, not black and white.  However, when a stragegy is more often broadly appropriate for organizations than less, why not talk about a practice area affirmatively and discover the edges of what works and what doesn’t and where it can go.  As I was reminded recently, ‘don’t make yourself the Chief Electricity Officer‘.

When a company has established its trustworthiness in the market, when it is focused on creating value over greedily chumming up sales, when it listens as much as it talks, good things generally do happen - the organization is, in a sense, in harmony with the market it serves.  If the organization is having conversations with customers, potential customers, former customers and influential people in their market segment, and the right people are leading the organization’s team, conversation can be the difference between delivering an ok experience and one that becomes a Lovemark - which would you rather have?

Sphere: Related Content

Social Media Club Phoenix

Last night’s meeting of Social Media Club Phoenix veered off into a very interesting direction. During the introductions around the room, one of the attendees said that he wondered if social media were actually dehumanizing, filtering communication and removing it from the realm of face-to-face. The facilitator allowed the discussion to come back to that question, even though the “agenda” was about the various tools of social media.

There were some very vociferous opinions about the dehumanizing qualities of, say, online gaming or social networks, as opposed to the humanizing qualities of blogs, shared content, and shared information. No conclusion could be drawn, obviously, but the question attracted quite a bit of discussion. Squidoo came up in the discussion as a collaborative, unifying force, as did Youtube.

I gave my usual example of sharing the information about my hip replacement in a blog and another attendee asked how people on the Internet were to judge which information was credible on a site or social network consisting of, for example, people trying to get off anti-depressants.

I think the reason so many issues of credibility, rather than technology, came up is that our participants are about half social media experts and half people there to learn. While that strikes me as an ideal situation, it’s very difficult to facilitate so that everyone comes out with some value! Those of us who are engaged in producing and using social media every day often forget how the world at large feels about us

Sphere: Related Content

Boston gets the video bug

Last night’s Boston Social Media Club event focused on the huge upswing in video in the social media space. Rich Wadsworth of LP&P kicked things off with some great statistics on video usage, and introduced the event’s three presenters.

Steve Garfield talked the group through how to make a videocast–it’s really easy to do! Larry Lawfer of YourStorys reminded us that just because it’s easy to do doesn’t mean we should do it. And Jason Alcorn of Mindshare gave some great insight into how video is being used to capture attention around important issues and causes of the day.

The turnout was great, and our hosts at Lois Paul & Partners were very gracious in opening up their beautiful offices to everyone. We have some video and audio captured, which we’ll be putting up over the next few days–be sure to check back regularly!

Next month’s event promises to be even more interesting, as the group tackles the sticky and difficult subjects of terrorism, cartoons, social media and the generation gap…

Sphere: Related Content

Hello, Atlanta

Hey folks in Atlanta. It was good meeting many of you last week at the Social Media Club meeting.
If someone missed the meeting, I heard there will be great things going on at SoCon07 today and tomorrow.
I wish the SoCon Folks good luck on the event.

I’ll be posting the audio from the Atlanta SMC event shortly.

powered by performancing firefox

Sphere: Related Content

They Get It #3 - Fred Siebert

Howard Greenstein interviews Fred Siebert of Frederator Studios and Next New Networks. Fred was one of the original creative forces behind the changing of TV in the ’80s with MTV and Nickelodeon. In this interview he discusses how the lessons learned when he and his crowd were changing the face of television can be applied to the changing face of the Web with Social Media.

If you’d like to subscribe to “They Get It” and get our weekly episodes on your computer or MP3 player, this is the URL to put into Itunes or your podcast catcher:

http://brainjams.hipcast.com/rss/theygetit.xml

Or, you can just play the file in this page by clicking the >Play icon below.

Sphere: Related Content

I could really use your help… (Social Tagging Project #1)

As some of you know, I have been working on Social Media Club, and before that BrainJams, since October 2005. Until recently, it was all pretty much funded from my consulting work and on credit cards. Now we have the framework for a sustainable business and are busy trying to write the plan while organizing events and helping people connect with the experts and expertise they need to succeed with Social Media.

It is a very exciting time as things are starting to take off globally, and we are just about to break through the first floor of real world social entrepreneurship. Perhaps most importantly in this regards, Howard Greenstein has joined to serve as Executive Director/CEO leaving the security of his position at NYU to put it all on the line with our grassroots startup. His prior experience in building community groups such as NYNMA and WWWAC.org is invaluable, and his insightful counsel is exactly what I really need to help balance my passionate views on practical idealism.

So now we are at a point where we need to get a few part time people working on some projects along with some more volunteers - and hopefully a college intern or two. While I have been here before with other startups, I could really use your advice in this regards. In thinking about this the other day, it occurred to me that everyone who is getting busy right now probably could use help with this as well.

What I would like to propose is a topic for what could be our first ever “Social Tagging Project” - hiring for startups.

There are some key questions I am trying to answer right now, and we are fortunate enough to know some very bright people like yourself, who may have been down this road recently and could perhaps share what you learned. The knowledge we need is out there, it’s just not very easy to see or find in a short amount of time.

1. What are the best sites to use to find the right people for a startup with a limited budget and a need to not invest much time with people who are not really the right fit? (last time I put a job ad on Craigslist for an Exec Asst, I had to go through 200 resumes - I don’t have that time right now) (tag - hiring:findtalent)
2. How can we go about setting up Social Media Club to hire and provide the right sort of opportunities for a college level intern? What are the best things interns can get out of a work experience, so we are sure we’re providing value to this person in exchange for their work? (tag - hiring:interns)
3. What are the most powerful questions you have asked or been asked in an interview? (tag – hiring:interview)

The way that I envisioned the Social Tagging Project working is that everyone who was interested could share a common set of tags, focused around specific questions (like the one’s above) related to one slightly broader topic. Additional tags could be suggested and shared via the comments section of the post that starts the project. Participants would invest about 30 mins to an hour on the following sorts of tasks.

• Adding a comment to the post/project page to indicate your interest and participation, perhaps link to your social bookmark account or a specific blog post that answers the questions
• Reviewing current bookmarks you have already saved to see if any answer the questions being considered, then adding the appropriate tag
• Researching these topics on your favorite search engine, or by going through other people’s bookmarks and identifying relevant content - then tagging these as appropriate
• Creating original content that answers the question or questions and adding the appropriate tags

The bottom line is, we can do more together then alone. As we discovered with BrainJams, a little bit of structure and intention can make a huge difference in manifesting outcomes that can benefit everyone. This is my first, ‘informal’ attempt at getting this idea off the ground, and it feels like the right sort of topic for it. What I would hope we see out of this is a set of resources that can benefit everyone, and really help with what we need to do right now - find some great potential employees without having to invest a lot of cash and a lot of time. Ultimately, we will be launching a site at www.socialtaggingproject.org to facilitate the connections and supporting the discovery of information across systems.

Of course, if you know someone who wants to work in digital media production, event management, informal learning and/or just wants to get involved with Social Media, please do send them my way. We’re open to candidates in New York and San Francisco, as well as folks with specific skills that can work virtually, but only if you really think it might be a great fit as we are not formally hiring for any positions just yet…

So what do you think? Got a few minutes to look around and tag some stuff to help everyone? Or am I completely off my rocker thinking something like this could work?

Sphere: Related Content

SMC T-Shirt Contest(s): Win a Shirt, a Little Fame and Our Undying Love!

I have tried to come up with something witty and pleasurable to the eyes on my own, but I seem to be missing that artistic gene required to produce a good looking product (thanks mom), so we would like to ask the SMC community to stir the creative being dwelling within and help us design the Member* and Cofounder T-shirts (offer a design for one or both – whatever floats your boat).

We are looking for funky and fresh designs, something people would be proud to put on their chest, as our hope is the SMC tee is the one people go to wear over all others sitting in their closet (so we are a little selfish, do you blame us?). A good example of a cool T-shirt design is the one Greg Narain designed for the Web 2point2 unconference. It not only played into the messaging perfectly, it was a great conversation starter and something most folks could relate too. Thanks again Greg - that was really kick ass.

And it probably goes without saying that your completed design should have something to do with ‘Social Media’ (open for interpretation) and/or slogan “If you get it, share it”.

All entries will be posted to the SMC site and will be voted on by your peers. And if yours is/are the winning design(s), you will get a free T-shirt with your design on it, a Professional SMC Membership ($100 value), a $100 Amazon gift certificate (per winning design), link love galore, and full bragging rights. Not a bad deal I think.

And every contest has a few ‘guidelines’, here are ours:

• You can enter as many designs as you like.
• T-shirt designs may be used on any style of T-shirt including short sleeve T-shirts, long-sleeve T-shirts, girly T-shirts, etc. though keep in mind the main shirts coming in the Member* kits will be short sleeve versions (other styles will be available for sale in the SMC Store which will be coming shortly and all proceeds going towards expanding SMC around the world). Feel the pressure yet? There is so much good that you can do here!
• As for colors, we were originally leaning towards one black tee and one kelly green tee, but we are open to anything. So actually, ignore what I just said as I don’t want anything to stifle the designer in you.
• Designs may include front, back and sleeve elements. Just please keep the design off the seams.
• Use a maximum of four (4) colors for your design - no gradients or transparent layers please.
• Feel free to use the SMC logo, existing SMC slogans or your own words/graphics to complete your design. All we ask is that you stay away from using third-party logos, trademarks or copyright material.
• We also cannot accept designs with profanity. Sorry. I know this will disappoint some of you.
• Save the design as an .eps file and then send to socialmediaclub [at] gmail [dot] com by March 11th for your chance at some free cloth. Please note by entering your design, you give SMC ownership of your design and rights to print it on a T-shirt.

So crack open Photoshop, let the creative juices flow and show us what you’ve got!

* These shirts will be given to all Professional level and above Members and will be available for sale in the SMC Store (coming soon).

UPDATED:  We have extended the contest out until March 11th.  So get those designs in!

Sphere: Related Content

Vote for Best Use of Social Media In Super Bowl 2007

Great first half, boring second half, but fun time over at Brian Solis’ tonight for the game. The ads were ok, nothing really outstanding, though there were a few gems that got everyone laughing (and a few people cried for the robot who lost his job - or was that a shebot?). Regardless, we are here to determine who had the best use of Social Media in their Super Bowl Advertising. Some tech companies did not throw down the big bucks, but did put up ads on YouTube that were less than funny or entertaining - good thing they did not blow that $2.6MM

I will collect votes through WED morning, Feb 7 @ 9am PST, so cast your vote right now…

[poll=2]

Sphere: Related Content

Best Use of Social Media in the Super Bowl Award - 2007

While it may be a long name for an award, this intersection of advertising and Social Media is short on competitors for top honors. As the premiere venue for traditional advertising, it should seem obvious that Super Bowl ads are ripe with opportunities for leveraging Social Media. In that Super Bowl advertising usually includes the best and brightest creative talents and the biggest budgets, I was hoping to see more of a brilliant flash of innovative Social Media strategy. Unfortunately, it seems that the level of risk and potential for backlash from a mishandled effort on the world’s stage was just too much for these advertisers to bear. With $2.6 Million on the line for 30 seconds of airtime, it is somewhat understandable, but it is also a real shame when I think about how much great Social Media could have been produced with all that money!

While I still believe 2007 is the year that Social Media will cross the chasm into the mainstream, it is obviously not happening in February. The earliest of the adventurous travelers are perhaps just now preparing for their journey ahead. Oddly enough, we may not see the massive surge of insightful Social Media usage by large companies come until after the elections, in the time leading into the 2007 holidays. It is strange to think that marketers are going to be learning from politicians in this instance rather than the other way around, but it is a distinct possibility as they are some of the first organizations that are truly being forced to engage through Social Media - participatory democracy here we come…

I hope I am wrong, but my experience as Conference Chair for Content Week over the past few days demonstrates how difficult it will be for many corporate cultures to change from a risk adverse attitude to one that fully embraces authentic engagement built on a model of trust instead of fear. Indeed, the “Attack of the Bloggers” piece from Forbes had a chilling effect on decision makers across the Fortune 2000 and beyond. Thanks Steve.

Then again, this further supports the need for the sort of dialogue that we are hosting with Social Media Club. More specifically, this clearly points to the need for two of our primary missions, training the champions within these organizations and their communications agencies, and more broadly promoting a new level of media literacy across society. As early adopters though, I fear we may all still be focusing our energies on who has the loudest voice, rather than understanding that the ability to hear what people need and respond is more important [thanks to Ryan Troy for pointing this out at our Social Media Cafe]. In sales training they say that you should listen at least 2x as much as you speak. More interestingly, I believe that Superman’s real power came from his super ears - being able to identify people in trouble from far away and swoop in to save the day.

Until this point in time, most corporate Social Media efforts have emanated from digital communications and public relations departments. However, there is more to Social Media than is apparent from the most obvious aspects of user generated content and citizen journalism. While the communications industry is being massively disrupted as individuals wrestle away control of the messaging juggernaut, it is only natural for those entrenched in their gatekeeper roles to resist and defend the status quo. As the Borg says, resistance is futile. Perhaps more poignantly, as my manager Michele Bartram at the US Mint used to say, “the camel’s nose is already in the tent.”

The good news is that the stage for the revolution is clearly being set, and some big brands are getting ready to play. So today, while watching the Super Bowl ads, I ask you to think about the role that Social Media plays and more importantly, think about the role it could have played. As the brightest minds in Social Media, you can help shape the future of advertising and help to make it more than just user generated ad contests and companion blogs. We should all be innovating towards more of a holistic strategy, being made visible through advertising, rather than stopping with the ads and remixes that will be distributed online.

So on to the awards…

Unfortunately, some advertisers keep their ads a secret until they air, so I will be coming back here after the game to post a complete list and open the voting. So far this year, we found three contestants to consider who took the user generated advertising route.

Best Use of Social Media in the Super Bowl Award - 2007

The Entries Thu Far

• Doritos: ‘Crash the Super Bowl contest’ was opened to the public to submit ads with the best one featured on air and the five finalists awarded $10,000 and a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami. This is the closest to pure user generated content of the three pre-announced, with the web site for voting open to comments via JumpCut and promoted through Yahoo!.
• The NFL: They ran a “Pitch us your idea for the best Super Bowl Ad ever. Seriously” campaign, with the winner, advertising agency employee Gino Bona from Portsmouth, NH having his commercial shot by award winning director Joe Pytka. The commercial sounds like a good one, with just the right balance between humor and sentiment, but the approach was influenced by the desire to control the positioning via the production value. Then again, I would love the opportunity to work with Joe one day myself, so that is pretty cool.
• Chevy: They held a similar “pitch us” contest that was only open to college students. More importantly, they actually tracked the progress of the contest and engaged with people through their Chevy College Ad Blog in addition to a broadcast tie in with CBS’ Early Show leading up to the announcement of the winner.

Interesting Possibilities

• A man who goes by the alias JP has been seeking sponsorship of his marriage proposal to air during the big game. He originally sought out funding through the Web but in only raising $75,000 online, is turning to traditional big corporate sponsors for help. For some reason, I think this guy will get lucky in more than one way today…
• B