Lessons Learned from SxSWi: Day Three

Day three started very very down...but then totally recovered and sailed through the roof. Why? I made the mistake of starting my day with a higher ed session. I figured that since I am in higher ed, a session about open source tools would be ... well ... useful.

WRONG.

Lesson Learned: DO NOT attend higher education panels at SxSWi. Period. I can get this kind of debate of Faculty vs. Administration and free learning vs. business practices in higher ed any day of the week at my college. Nothing new here.

However, thanks to AMAZING Tweets from @jeffjarvis and @carvin who actually got the point that this session went way too philosophical there is some great perspective on the hashtag: edupunk. Worth a read for sure.

So I went from that to a session on "spec work" for agencies and well...when two panelists who are competitors (threadless.com vs. crowdspring) spend the time arguing with one another I see no value. Seems like it was an important topic for the agency community but it was handled badly. Very badly. Frankly folks, if I wanted that kind of smack down I'd watch WWE.

From there the day got way way way better.

1. I got to use my POKEN. http://www.doyoupoken.com/. So very cool. I have the VooDoo. I connected with @renate who is the Global Branding Manger for Poken and @skydiver of HARO fame. Way cool. On a quest for the next few days to find others.
   
   
2. I got my learning on. Went to a session with the Society of Digital Agencies (SODA) where I gained some insight from professionals about the market: 1) business is up 2) students need to show they know the trends if they hope to have a chance of getting a job, 3) there is a glut of talent in the marketplace (makes #2 even more important) and 4) the same challenges I faced when I was at Bluehouse Group over ten years ago are still being faced by these agencies especially when it comes to pricing of services and contracts with clients.
   
   
3. Successfully stalked and spoke with (at length) Personality Not Included author Rohit Bhargava. Great convo about his book, my students reaction to it and education. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow and will get my book signed (grin). Best part was our discussion about the divisions that are so obvious here at SxSWi between interactive, traditional, PR, Advertising and Marketing -- it's all marketing folks so why so tense?
   
   
4. I got my learning on Part II. Went to a session entitled "Is the PR Agency Dead?" with Brian Solis (brilliant just brilliant!) who writes the PR2.0 blog and has written several great books, Karly Hand, Erin Portman of Erin Portman PR and Peter Shankman creator of HARO (aka @skydiver on Twitter). What are the key lessons from this crew? 1) the news release as we have known it is dead. PR professionals have to know how to leverage their content into social media releases with strong keyword density so it can get indexed by Google as well as utilize the right channels to reach the journalists. This means blogs, podcasting, Twitter, FB, email, phone, wherever your journalists are. 2) if you can't write, then you are in the wrong business. Period. There isn't anything magical to writing a news release. You must tell your story in an authentic way that is clear and to the point with no hyperbole. 3) Listen, listen, listen and monitor EVERYTHING. There is no excuse, given the tools that are available for not knowing what people are "saying" about your brand. From Blog alerts via Google, to Twitter Search you need to know what is going on AND you must respond...quickly. 4) Listening is not enough. You must respond and take action when necessary. You must understand how you can leverage the tools available to connect with your media channels in the most effective way. If people are talking negatively about your brand, you must respond. Listening without Action is almost as bad as not listening at all.

And there you have it. Day three concluded. Whew.