Yesterday at Internet Summit (follow the conversation on Twitter at #isum10), I had the opportunity to co-present with Myles Kleeger of Buddy Media about using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for business. I tackled Twitter and LinkedIn and Myles focused on Facebook.
We had a short amount of time, but I opted to offer five things to do (I like easy takeaways from presentations) and one thing not to do for each network. My presentation can be found below.
Social Fresh Charlotte was the third @SoFresh branded event that I’ve had the honor of attending. The third time was the second as a speaker and the first as an exhibitor (stay with me), and gave me a new perspective of the event.
We had two goals going into Social Fresh as an exhibitor / sponsor – 1. build awareness – 2. help people. It is nice when you can use your product in a manner that isn’t directly trying to drive leads (although we all know that increasing sales is what keeps us all employed). Our idea was to pull together an incredible group of experts and allow anyone at the conference to step into the Phonebooth and ask anything they want. This was definitely a proof of concept and something that we can improve as we continue to build on the idea.
There were some really great questions asked and some even better answers given. We didn’t pay for this. We didn’t force this. We were just the means to facilitate the talking. Social media is cool like that because it allowed us to reach out to some amazing people and they were able to showcase how awesome and helpful they are.
It is a little more difficult to network while exhibiting, but there were definitely other times for me to do that and I still met some really great folks. My time was cut a little short on Monday night due to some of the packing and prepping we had to do, but again… it was worth it. We only had a few hiccups in our execution and know of ways to make it better for experts and attendees and will work on that too. 🙂
Please help me in thanking the following people for their help (follow these people with this convenient list):
Brad McCormick [@darbtx], Chris Barger [@cbarger], Chris Treadaway [@ctreada], David Neff [@daveiam], DJ Waldow [@djwaldow], Jason Falls [@jasonfalls], Jennifer Beese [@freeandflawed], Mark Hopkins [@rizzn], Marshall Kirkpatrick [@marshallk], Michelle Greer [@michellegreer], Paul May [@paulmay], Richard White [@rrwhite], Robert Scoble [@scobleizer], Scott Stratten [@unmarketing], Thom Singer [@thomsinger], Tim Hayden [@thetimhayden], Todd Defren [@tdefren].
For those of you who didn’t know, now you see why David B. Thomas [@davidbthomas], Lisa Hoffmann [@lisahoffmann], Brian Dresher [@bdresher] and Jen Ecclestone [@jeneccleston] are successful in what they do. It was an extremely fun panel to be a part of and I think that it offered some nice insight as to how each of us are handling dealing with limited resources and ways to overcome that.
Every panel that I’ve been on has taught me something new. It’s great having a moderator that is organized, prepared and able to think quickly on his/her feet (with humor). It was a great time and allowed us all to have several discussions about what is working, what isn’t and ultimately, it helps me to learn more about what I can be doing.
Managing Social Media with Limited Resources is a great topic and props to Jason Keath [@jakrose] for adding the panel to an awesome lineup of speakers.
Attending my third Social Fresh
Charlotte isn’t quite my back yard, but it is at least my home turf. I saw plenty of friendly NC faces and tons of folks I’ve met on the road (many were the great speakers that we all listened to). This was the first time attending SoFresh where I missed one or more sessions of content… and honestly, I was a little bummed. We had things to do at the booth and I was able to talk to other exhibitors, but I always learn something new in each session… so I missed that.
Some takeaways:
Amber Naslund [@ambercadabra] delivered another killer keynote and Jay Baer (@jaybaer) put family first, which makes me like him even more.
Justin Kistner [@justinkistner] is really funny, smart and blogs about beer – which means I now have two uber-successful beer blogger friends (see @schneidermike and @belchingmonkey as well).
All of the Blue Sky Factory [@blueskyfactory] folks are super smart.
Argyle Social [@argylesocial] will be successful despite me not logging in as frequently as I should.
Many of the attendees are every bit as smart as the speakers and have great stories and case studies to share… talk to them!
Wayne Sutton [@waynesutton] has a really good memory (thanks for the limited edition @SoFresh stress ball buddy).
Wei Yang [@wei_yang] has my favorite Twitter list – “Not an alien” – People I have met in real life and verified are not aliens.
North Carolina (not just Raleigh-Durham) has an incredible social media scene.
These are just a few of the key takeaways for me, from multiple perspectives. As you’ll see, they aren’t all content focused because honestly… for me… the best part of the event is always connecting with the people. Yes, there is great content, but meet cool folks too.
Now I just have to see if I can make it to SoFresh Atlanta… about that…
A couple of weeks ago, I had a domain that was set to auto-renew. Due to a bank issue, a lack of process understanding on my end, and a bit of confusion on the @GoDaddy interface (which I do think needs a little improvement)… my domain expired.
I logged in a few times to make sure the domain would renew and noticed that I had it set to auto-renew and had updated payment information tied to my account. I did not, however, tie my payment information with that specific domain. That was on me and was the lack of process understanding I mentioned.
I called @GoDaddy support and after 10 minutes or so had a good discussion with a helpful support rep. I was satisfied with his service, but a bit displeased with the end result. The approximately $11 domain name that I wanted to renew ended up costing me $90 with a redemption fee. I knew it was my fault and admitted as much, but still felt a little wronged.
As everyone is accustomed to doing, I tweeted my experience. Granted, I couldn’t describe the whole situation in 140 characters AND I am used to fielding positive and negative feedback from social media at work, but I was still a bit surprised by the response.
Several minutes later I had a voicemail from The Office of the President at GoDaddy. Not a tweet, not a DM, not an email, but a phone call. I was immediately happy.
Yes I am a dork with that. Todd Barr (@tbarr) and I love reaching out via the phone to respond to Twitter complaints or questions we receive at @Bandwidth… and it has a personal touch that is frequently lost.
I had a great conversation with Brian at GoDaddy. I asked him some questions about how they reach out and deal with social media and his department isn’t responsible for the social media interaction… it was escalated to them. I love that. We do that and in my opinion… it matters to customers.
Brian explained in great detail (although not boring and overly extensive), what happened and that they would like to refund me $40.
I was happy. I messed up, and admitted it. @GoDaddy went above and beyond just to show that they were listening. To me, that is what it is all about.
Honestly, it was the best $50 I’ve spent on web hosting and I even bought two additional domains at @GoDaddy last night after the call.
The panel consists of Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib) of Network Solutions (@netsolcares), Pete Scott (@PRscott) of IZEA (@izea), Jeremy Hilton (@jeremyhilton) of Mindcomet (@mindcomet), John Bernier (@bernierjohn) of Best Buy (@twelpforce) and Chris Moody (@cnmoody) of Bandwidth.com (@bandwidth).
A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to connect with Steve Johnson (@sjohnson717) at a Pragmatic Marketing training and we chatted about the need for a guide to Twitter for product managers. There had been an introductory article, but they needed some examples.
I was happy to oblige and ended up being published in the Pragmatic Marketing newsletter.
I didn’t even post it on my blog for some reason. My bad there. 🙂
Earlier this year, Nicole Reineke introduced Twitter to many product managers with Using Twitter for Product Management. The topic was well received and had a few comments about applying Twitter to markets that aren’t the most tech savvy. As a product manager in a niche that isn’t often talked about, I felt it would be useful to walk through some of my experiences using Twitter in a niche where customers aren’t seeking out industry experts.
“Education is a lifelong experience. Experience is a lifelong education. Education plus experience equals expertise.” -M. Bugeja
Through a little sweat equity, the lineup for MBA 590-005 Social Media & Management boasts an impressive list of social media practitioners and experts. In my time at NC State, the classes that tapped into industry leaders always taught me the most. In that line of thinking, we’ve searched for some of the top local experts and even a few remote presentations to help lend their experiences to the class.
It is going to be a very exciting semester! Please share and repost this entry to keep building awareness for the class. Thanks to NC State and Claudia Kimbrough for an up-to-date, practical course on social media. The class begins tomorrow!
Currently, the list of speakers includes:
Wayne Sutton, Our HashTag, @waynesutton
Andy Beal, Trackur and Marketing Pilgrim, @andybeal
Joseph Jaffe, crayon, @jaffejuice
Polly Pearson, EMC, @pollypearson
Sheila Beal, GoVisitHawaii.com, @govisithawaii
Katie Morse, Ripple6, @misskatiemo
Brent Ward, RTI
Jeffrey Cohen, Digital Papercuts, @dgtlpapercuts
Camden Watts, Honey Scroll, @cammicam
Brian McDonald, Zencos, @bmcd67
Andy Beal, Trackur and Marketing Pilgrim, @andybeal
Joseph Jaffe, crayon, @jaffejuice
Polly Pearson, EMC, @pollypearson
Sheila Beal, GoVisitHawaii.com, @govisithawaii
Katie Morse, Ripple6, @misskatiemo
Brent Ward, RTI
Jeffrey Cohen, Digital Papercuts, @dgtlpapercuts
Camden Watts, Honey Scroll, @cammicam
Brian McDonald, Zencos, @bmcd67
Chris Moody (myself), Marketing + Branding + Design, @cnmoody
Thomas Crampton at Social Media Today conducted a very interesting study with the following deduction:
I think it is a very interesting concept that I tend to agree with. I follow mostly subject matter experts (SMEs) on Twitter with several of my “real life friends” (for lack of a better word) and mostly friends on Facebook. I don’t focus at all on thought leadership or building expertise on Facebook either which further supports this conclusion.
It is definitely worth reading!
Note: The study’s conclusions are from video links which isn’t entirely representative, but I do agree with the findings.
They say social media is dying. They say social media has too much publicity. They say nobody really knows what social media is. Is that what you say?
The Situation
If you haven’t heard, NC State has added a social media course to its MBA Curriculum. For those in the Raleigh area and the many @triangletweetup folks, this is great news! MBA 590 Social Networks and Web 2.0 Media in Marketing will serve as a trendsetting course exploring all things social media, virtual world, and Web 2.0.
The Kicker
I’ve worked with Claudia Kimbrough for years in various Marketing courses at NC State and am fortunate enough to be a Visiting Lecturer for this course. Having dipped my toes in social media, I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything. There are tons of subject matter experts, and even a large number within driving distance to the NCSU campuses. This leads me to my main point.
The Call to Action
With most of us having full-time jobs, massive amounts of responsibility, and priorities involving multiple departments in our organizations, social media has become a great personal branding outlet. You can show your expertise, offer insight, connect to others, and build your network. This is where we need your help.
Social media by nature is a living, breathing creature that is constantly evolving. We want to keep this course fresh, up to date, and balanced. This post is going to serve as a stake in the ground. I’m appealing to you, the social media practitioners to propose what you feel should be included in this course. It could be a number of things:
A core concept
A fundamental tool or product
An up and coming strategy
A social media network
Things to avoid doing or practicing
Tips for successful implementation
You are all smart people. Please help us continue to add value to this course by suggesting what you would like to see included. We may even call on some of you to join us in class for a session and impart your knowledge!
Trust is also important. I can assure you that anything you suggest will be credited to you. Whether it is in a course slideshow, or teaching a concept, we will make it a point to stress who suggested that “module” and help to increase your personal brand.
The fact that the course itself can be a social media outlet by having interactive content and suggestions is exciting. I hope that some of you find this as appealing as I do. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Please help and post your feedback or suggestions below.
On April 30, 2009 I attended my first Tweetup, #TriangleTweetup 2.0 to be exact. I met some great people and had a good discussion with @raleighgrande @thorstenkessler and @WayneSutton as the Tweetup came to a close about Raleigh companies using social media and how that isn’t getting the pub it deserves, and also about the next Tweetup. I had a great time and the good folks behind the scene (and in front) at Triangle Tweetup have some great resources to make the first jump a bit easier. It was a very successful and productive event and being that Raleigh is becoming a hotbed for social media, below are 3 humble suggestions to make the next event even more productive. Note: I consider myself a “rubber meets the road” kind of person and will gladly volunteer to help in any way possible if needed.
1. Create a more open discussion forum
First off, @bronto is an incredible office with incredible people (thanks @covati for the great, informative tour). If you’re searching for a job, start checking their hirings because I know of several folks that would give an arm to work there. The only downside about the setup @bronto was that due to the excellent turnout, not everyone could sit in on the sessions. I carpooled with @raleighgrande @thorstenkessler who was a panelist and is doing some awesome things in the Raleigh area. At the same time, we talked about some of the struggles that come with social media: getting buy-in and support from executive management, building community support, raising awareness, collecting focus, finding the best way to discuss the ROI of social media, etc. The awesome thing about a Tweetup is the massive amount of knowledge in one place. As great as the event was, I feel that if it was in a venue that could seat everyone to create more of a panel discussion it could be even more productive and helpful.
e.g. Imagine 250 Twitter users in a theater @dpac (thanks @boraz) having an open discussion, asking for help, offering help, etc.
2. Brainstorm and Collaborate
Piggybacking on what I said previously, there are a lot of smart people at a Tweetup! I think it would be really cool to have a bit of time to just throw out ideas (similar to the pitches that existed at TT2.0) and even try to find the missing piece to your puzzle. There may be some sweet app that needs a better dev guy and there may be a dev guy looking for a sweet app to work on, bingo. Everyone was extremely approachable and laid back and I think having a Think Tank session could be an awesome thing.
3. Find Ways to Continue Putting Raleigh on the Map
A quick glance at Twitter Grader for the Raleigh area yields some powerful results: @pinkelephantpun, @waynesutton, @andybeal, @lruettimann, @dgtlpapercuts, @kbodnar32, @ginnyskal, @danlondon, @jtobin, @hayespotter, and @cammicam are just a few. NC State even has a graduate level course on social media, MBA 590 Social Media and Management (disclaimer: I am a visiting lecturer for this class for Claudia Kimbrough) and I would love to try to get even more folks involved in that class. There are endless companies using social media in the Triangle as well, from @Bronto, SAS (@davidbthomas), and IBM (@theRab), to slightly smaller scale efforts like @RaleighGrande, @Zencos, @SunTechMed.
Clearly, the Triangle is in safe hands when it comes to social media with the folks behind @TriangleTweetup and everyone who attended, and it is pretty cool to live in an area that I consider “ahead of the curve.” I hope that #TriangleTweetups continue and that they can keep growing and expanding into symposium type knowledge sharing events. Thanks to everyone for their hard work to make things like this happen, all the panelists, and @josh_hofer for the sweet photobooth! If you haven’t been to a Tweetup, make the plunge soon (and @covati, keep pushing forward with Pici.me…I think it can be awesome for Tweetups and other events). 🙂
Competition is fierce in the phone world these days. The validity of Sprint’s 4G network has been hotly debated, but this commercial is a pretty solid stake in the ground to get things started. As social media makes an even larger stamp on all industries, Sprint is very smart to embrace the challenges it brings and throws out some incredible statistics at the same time. 10/10 for this commercial. GG Sprint.
Several minutes later I had a voicemail from The Office of the President at GoDaddy. Not a tweet, not a DM, not an email, but a phone call. I was immediately happy.
