Today’s Arizona Republic had a wonderful story about the “Revolution in Marketing” mini-conference that Scoble and Chris are speaking at on March 1 in Phoenix, but didn’t have a link to the web site. To register for the conference, click here.
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Social media was made for me. Tonight I went to my FastTrac program bearing new business cards from
Flickr and
Moo. I chose ten of my favorite photoss from my trips, dogs, and family and had them printed into minicards with my business information on the back. They were very well received. I can see that they make a great marketing tool.
Wait until everyone sees my Hugh McLeod cards, however, with the cartoons on the back. They will be equally cool, in a different way.
I found both of these marketing advances through reading blog feeds on Google Reader. Because it is all immediate, I can order whatever strikes my fancy or try out a new web service. I sign up for everything I think I can use, and then I sort it out after a trial.
This used to be an arduous process that involved folding down magazine pages with interesting new stuff on them and coming back to them later (later never comes). Now I indulge all my whims and impulses immediately.
True, the tech bloggers are often writing just for each other, but every once in a while an outsider sneaks in and, willing to spend a few minutes with Google Reader, finds herself awash in great new information she can use.
But if this information is only about technology and business, isn’t it too self-referential? Yep. That’s why I am encouraging my yoga teacher to have a blog. I don’t only need information about technology toys, I need it about yoga, about all my illnesses (physician blogs are quite a aways down the pike) and conditions, about real estate — issues of every day life.
That’s why food blogs, like Daily Eats and political blogs, like the Huffington Post are great. Or travel blogs. These are the blogs for the rest of us, the silent majority who wouldn’t know Python from Ajax, mashups from memes.
But we know what we want, don’t we? We want expertise, convenience, and innovation.
I am happy to be able to see Barack Obama announce on his website, rather than at a press conference. The media always hate press conferences anyway
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Damn, we did it again! Although about five people who had signed up called in sick, about fifty people who hadn’t registered in advance showed up, and we blew the doors off the room for the third month in a row. When I asked people to raise their hands and tell me if they were producers or consumers of social media (by which I meant “do you already participate, or are you hear to learn?”), the room was divided almost equally in half.
Because of the enormous amount of interest in social media, we are holding a mini-conference the morning of March 1 at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Chris Heuer will come down to give us some good definitions of social media, followed by three case studies of Arizona organizations who are heavily involved, and keynoted by the grand old man of the space, Robert Scoble and his better half. You will be able to sign up next week, but in the mean time you can save a spot by emailing me at francine@stealthmode.com.
Because we were talking about the Social Media Press release tonight, we had many PR people in the room, and one former BusinessWire employee who defended the traditional wire service method of distribution. We also had a radio talk show host who said she had never received anything but the traditional press release, and she reminded us that the revolution may not have really begun. I think some of us needed to hear that. We live in our own little word of podcasts and BlogHauses.
We talked a bit about the elements of the press release–which of them were new and which were just additive to traditional releases. It then became clear that while most PR practitioners now felt comfortable with links in a press release, most still weren’t familiar with services like Digg, Technorati, or Deli.cio.us (sic), nor would it occur to them to, say, embed a video in a press release. Moreover, many people felt uncomfortable with giving the media “too much” information, which could mean losing control of the corporate messages.
Unfortunately, I’m a horrible moderator because I like to hear myself talk and I lectured on far too long about why everyone needed to know about what’s “out there” in the social media space and how it could be used to communicate with more than just media — with customers, constituents, shareholders, etc. But finally I shut up and let everyone network, and when I left, the room was still full.
We are begging everyone from Phoenix to sign up in advance for Feb. 8. We may have to cut off reservations.
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Tonight was the second meeting of the Social Media Club Phoenix. I gotta say, it has generated a lot of buzz here in Arizona. First of all, bloggers are coming out of the woodwork; I didn’t know there were so many “professional” bloggers in town, and so many people creating tools for sharing content. Once again, I have found out that Phoenix
is underrated for the amount of tech activity and energy here.
And there seem to be so many people who need to connect with others who are already active in this space. They were calling me all afternoon for the details on the meeting. Quite a difference from other meetings I’ve tried to convene, where we have had difficulty
getting those butts in seats.
What was really crazy was that people came into the room who had read each others’ work or used each other’s tools but had never met in person. It made me realize that we connect with so many more people over the Internet than we could ever meet face to face.
Tonight’s meeting was an attempt at a definition of Social Media. Next month, the group will have a discussion of the “Social Media Press Release,” a concept that is going to change marketing significantly. For a long time, people in public relations have realized that the old style press release no longer generates significant interest, and the press conference is even worse. These are terribly outdated and inconvenient tools for both the client and
the journalist. And now, because of the collaborative nature of social media, we are finally developing new marketing tools. Not that there is really anything new under the sun; Steve Epstein brought up the point that the Mike Roykos and the Jimmy Breslins of the past, columnists who wrote about whatever was happening in their worlds from
a unique perspective, were the equivalent of today’s bloggers.
After January, I have received a request for a meeting on all the little tools we social media nuts use: Technorati, tags, RSS, feed readers, etc. So I guess that brings us up to February. We will continue to meet on the 2nd Thursday of every month.
I am so hot on the potential impact of this whole social media thing that I want to make the next entrepreneurial mini-conference, which we will have on March 1 at Grand Canyon University , about “The Revolution in Marketing.” Save the date. Also save November 8 for the Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. Some big surprises coming there, too, but no firm plans yet so no revelations.
Man, we are a far cry from the 90’s, when people were afraid that Internet addiction was a lonely, solitary pursuit. I can remember when people spoke to me very seriously about the amount of time I spent online Now, everything on the Internet is interactive, and we can
share every moment of our lives if we want to. I, for instance, brought my Blackberry to the hospital and started blogging about my hip replacement as soon as I came out of the anaesthetic.
Tonight, the group decided that the mantra of social media is “it’s the people, stupid.” Social media is a way to collaborate and share information, to empower individuals, to create untold numbers of writers, publishers, communicators, and videographers, to find
friends, compatriots, and customers. From an individual perspective, it grants power to the consumer, who now controls the brand (as I did, when Scottsdale Healthcare North found out I was a blogger and began to treat me like a VIP). From a corporate perspective, it creates new channels to communicate with customers.
However, what really struck me tonight is how powerful social media can be for non-profits. We had some representatives in attendance from the Foundation for Blind Children, and I could see immediately how parents of blind children would make use of blogs and wikis to
strengthen their ability to cope with difficult situations, in much the same way that breast cancer survivors have banded together to spur on the research and treatment options. And I could also see how the charity itself could communicate with its donors about the mission and the programs.
Through social media, every non-profit can develop a mission-driven community, harnessing the power of many and ending the isolation that comes with affliction. That, in itself, is enough of a reason to foster the development of these tools.
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