Social Media Jungle Boston
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Social Media Jungle hosted by Jeff Pulver here in Boston (well, Waltham actually, but close enough). It was a great day with a lot of amazing speakers. The format was casual, which I’ve come to expect at social media conferences and events. Each presenter had 20 minutes to present their thoughts/ideas with no PowerPoint slides. Jeff encouraged all the speakers (and the audience) to think of each session like a blog post–floating ideas out there for people to interact with and comment on. Some sessions were more interactive than others, Laura @Pistachio Fitton had us raising our hands for polling purposes, Steve Garfield had us uploading pictures to the web real-time and Christopher Penn has us shouting out what numbers matter to us like a game show. Lots of other amazing people presented that day and I highly suggest checking out the assembly of blog posts that came out of the day. And don’t forget to check out the Twitter stream from the day too.
A few of my take-aways from the day:
- Be human, be real, be vulnerable — we are people talking to people. Not brands talking to brands or companies talking to companies.
- One email can make all the difference (of course this is one of my take-aways, it was mine and Alexa’s session ;-)
- We need to stop talking about social media in social media. Time to spread the gospel. Or time to just use the tools without always talking about the tools.
- Be HELPful - Hustle, Engage, Listen, be Passionate
- Engage each generation, utilize each one of the generations’ specific talents. No one is irrelevant, no one is too inexperienced. Each generation brings a unique perspective to the table. Be cognizant of that and use it to your advantage.
- Numbers matter. But don’t let them matter too much. (CC Chapman first spoke about how the numbers don’t matter, then later in the day CS Penn rebutted with how certain numbers do matter, and matter a lot. The balance of the two points of view was perfection.)
- The influencer doesn’t matter. The message matters. If you say something good, and say it for long enough, people will hear. You don’t necessarily need a loud speaker. And having one doesn’t necessarily mean that people are going to pay attention.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to passion. BE PASSIONATE about what you do. Excitement can be found in the most mundane of details and tasks if you look hard enough. And in this crazy world we live in, with the economy spiraling out of control, my one little piece of advice–keep breathing.
SocComm Wrap Up
You never know what you’re going to get at a social media conference. Sometimes you get fired up, excited, empowered. Other times, you end up feeling like you’re trapped in the echo chamber, hearing the same stuff, with itsy bitsy differences.
SocComm had a pleasant mix of the 101 sort of speakers and higher level, philosophical content. There were speakers that got us riled up (a la @garyvee), and there were speakers or panels that rehashed the usual topics on privacy, work/life separation, and the history of the ‘Net. Also, there were speakers looking at social media usage in sectors I hadn’t heard discussed before–social media for actors, legislation that may effect the industry (i.e. privacy law), and mobile social (a topic that people love to talk about but not usually in too much detail).
The best part of the conference, per usual at these types of events, was in the hallway. Aside from the bathroom signs, which were entertaining, the conversations where fantastic.
In the hallway, nursing a cup of joe, I met Jordan Epstein, founder of VolunteerBIG.com. An awesome idea, though not up and running yet, VolunteerBIG is (or will be) a collaboration network complete with tools to help organizations do more for the community.
Also, I ran into a man I knew from a past life, Larry Weinberg from Israel21C. When I was in college, I was heavily involved in the cause of the Israelis–still feel strongly about the issue, but I would say I’m less of an activist now (out of necessity). That said, I met Larry at a summit his organization put together to teach us college activists about positive discourse. “A Focus Beyond the Conflict” is their tagline and scope of work–there’s so much more to the entire area than war, violence and terror, and Israel21C really emphasizes bringing the positives to light. Great, powerful work.
Back in the theatre, @GaryVee energized the crowd. “If you’re not doing what you’re passionate about you’re an idiot,” he said, then dropped a few f-bombs for emphasis. Brilliant, hilarious and incite-ful. @GaryVee was certainly a highlight.
Can We Make it Better?
All in all it was a great event, but a few of us have some thoughts for next time:
- Move the basics to the front: establish a baseline for those who are newer and allow those who know what’s up to catch a few more Z’s.
- Get an egg-timer: the real challenge at an event like this is getting people to stop talking when their alloted time is up. An egg-timer says stop like no real person can. It’s simple and there’s no one to get mad at when the egg-timer says to stop talking.
- Make the cheerleaders the end caps: GaryVee and Chris Brogan got us pumped up and energized, but before there was time to digest there was already another presentation getting started. Put the heavy hitters before breaks and they’ll be the topic of conversation through lunch, coffee, snacks, etc.
With that said, I’m already looking forward to the next one! See you soon at the next #SocComm.
The B2B Case Study That Made My Day
While doing some research into B2B case studies and social media, Sandy came across this blog post and passed it along to me. As I read the post, I was thinking, “this is cool.” And then I got to the comments. And that is when I began thinking, “this is awesome!”
The blog post, written by Beth Harte, is called: Lured in by Social Media: An Unofficial B2B Case Study. In this post, she chronicles her journey of a company (whose name is revealed at the end of the post) first coming up on her radar, her use of social media tools to find out more about it, and her interaction with the company–culminating in her hiring them. Then, at the end of the post, she wrote a challenge:
And finally, because I really want to see if they are on their social media game and if they are listening, here’s the company name Hubspot. I’ll know for sure if they leave a comment.
From what I can tell from the date/time stamps, within a few hours (HOURS!) someone from the company had responded. They had been listening! Not only did one person respond, but FOUR people did including one of the founders and the VP of Marketing. They knew that Beth had been doing her due diligence. They knew she was asking questions, poking around. And they DIDN’T interrupt her! They waited til she was ready, and then they were there, present and responsive.
In the comments, one of the founders of Hubspot, Dharmesh Shah, addressed their actions and said
The idea behind social media for business is to build a relationship over time with people that might benefit from your products and services.
Building A Relationship
As a social media junky and consultant, I know that social media is about relationships. I know that it isn’t a get in and get out type deal. But it’s amazing how many people don’t get it… They want to know how a Facebook page is going to get them a sales lead - tomorrow.
So, while Beth’s experience may not be revolutionary, and the idea of building relationships is not new (at least to me), I was thrilled to read this post and know that some companies out there are getting it. Thank you Beth for sharing this with us, and thank you Hubspot for doing what you do.
Social Media Resolutions for Business
A while back I was tagged in a social media new years resolutions meme, and I’ve been mulling it over for quite some time now. Since joining Media Awaken, I’ve had an even greater opportunity to think about what businesses should and shouldn’t do in social media. It’s about time I share my thoughts, so here are a belated list of new years social media resolutions for your business.
The List
Take this list of new media pledges to heart and you’ll find yourself harnessing the power of the community in a positive way. In the new year, my business:
- will not put the shiny, new tool before the overarching strategy;
- will go out and engage with our customers and audiences on the platforms and media where they are;
- will put our social media strategy on a diet–if called for–and limit my company to what we can realistically do well, with the understanding that we’re no good to anyone if we’re spread too thin;
- will take our “engagement” to the streets, interacting with consumers, reporters and others in both new and traditional ways;
- will get out of the echo chamber of our industry and comfort zone to find people who can benefit from our services, even if that requires a little education on our part;
- will be honest about our failings and successes as a company and seek out ways to improve;
- will work to be consistent in our communication, both in message and frequency. It’s tough, we struggle with it too, but we gotta try!
Questions? Disagreements? Please share!
Sandy Kalik Joins Media Awaken!
I am ever so pleased to announce that Sandy Kalik (@skalik on Twitter) had joined the Media Awaken team! She is going to be my right-hand gal in saving the world and will officially take the roll of General Manager. You can find her mini-bio here.
I love her energy and vision. We’ve come up with some big plans for Media Awaken that I cannot wait to set into motion! And I hope that her love of yoga (she is going to be a certified instructor soon) will rub off on me and we will soon be strategizing while in warrior pose or upside down something-or-other (I hear blood rushing to your head is good for the thought process?!).
I’m super excited Sandy and I will be working together. What a wonderful way to begin a new year!
(side note: WP is being lame and won’t let me upload a pic. But i promise, once that is figured out I will put up a pic of us!)
