Putting Burlington (BTV) on the (Social Media) Map

This morning I attended the second Burlington Vermont Social Media Breakfast (twitter hashtag #btvsmb) at the Sheraton Hotel. For info on the background of this event and a quick overview, read Rich Nadworny's account at his blog. The speakers for this one where Sarah Evans known as @prsarahevans on Twitter and Jason Kintzler of PitchEngine who is known as @pitchengine on Twitter.

I enjoyed both of their presentations -- Sarah's on general PR and social media, and Jason's on Pitch Engine and the evolution of the Press Release -- because they provided a strong case for why the social media space continues to grow and evolve and why it is NOT a fad.

My main take-aways from today's presentations and breakfast have a little to do with what the presenter's actually presented, but more to do with my impressions of our BTV community when it comes to this thing called Social Media.

> PR and Marketing and Advertising have to work together now in ways they never have before. Ok, so this didn't really come from the audience -- but is a key take away. No longer can it be advertising in one corner, PR in another and Marketing somewhere else. They must work together to craft an integrated communication strategy. Things are moving too fast and your brand is too important to segment these skill sets any longer. @pitchengine talked a bit about Advertising vs. PR as did @prsarahevans and it is clear that PR pros have to consider Adwords and SEO in their pitching strategy and Marketing/Advertising must consider not just the outgoing messages but the incoming messages as well.

> It's NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS! I believe both @prsarahevans and @pitchengine highlighted this fact and I couldn't agree more. The tools keep changing and evolving. It's how the PR pro uses the available tools to leverage their message and connect with their brand influencers that is key. That's the strategy. And each tool should be used differently.

> Burlington, VT is Rock'n the Social Media. Well...kind of.... What I saw today was a group of individuals in the room who are all over the map when it comes to social media -- some are swimming in the deep end and others are standing on the side wondering if they even want to dip a toe in the water. But, what the #btvsmb has done is provided an affordable way for all of these individuals to come together to meet and hear from thought-leaders in the field about how social media is evoloving and how a brand/business can benefit from the use of social media. Did this morning move anyone closer to getting their toes wet? I think it did. The ongoing conversation including the Wednesday evening #iBTV Twitter chat might help too. (Thanks @joemescher for jumping on that!)

> There's a vacuum at the top. So here we are in this room with these two innovators in the social media space and questions focused on moving people in the organization (in other words, the boss/ceo) to be willing to give social media a try. And this, my friends is the challenge. While there were a mix of individuals in the room, many got the fact that they had to at least know what is happening in the space. BUT when they go back to their 9to5 will the boss LISTEN to them? I get this question when I do presentations too -- how do you get the administration to LISTEN and allow you to try the social media, and I certainly experience it in my roll as a prof at Champlain -- and my answer is simple. Keep at it. Be patient. Provide information. But, CEO's if you value your brand and your company perhaps instead of sending your staff to these events you should come too.

Next week EpikOne is hosting another Seminar for Success that will include speakers from Google, Gannett Digital and Core Industries. Part of the event will be at Champlain College and the last day in downtown Burlington. It's another opportunity for our local businesses to learn about strategies and tactics -- and if I know the Epik crew it will be well worth it.

So in two weeks time we have @prsarahevans, @pitchengine, @avinashkaushik, @schutzsmith and Matt Jones all here in Burlington, VT.

How cool is that?

Social Media Breakfast: Small Town, Pot-Lucks, Beer and Giving Back

Yesterday I was lucky to be part of the first Social Media Breakfast held here in Burlington, VT. In my humble opinion I would say we hit it out of the park. The brainchild of Digalicious founder, Rich Nadworny, our Burlington event was based on the Social Media Breakfast concept that has hit major cities around the country. Not to be out done, we had to have one here, with a double twist of local connection and giving back to the community.

Rich brought in CC Chapman and Todd Defren, two Boston Marketing and PR businessmen who specialize in helping businesses integrate social media into their communication strategies. He also was able to bring in Mike Hayes with Magic Hat Brewery. Great presentations by all the speakers....presentations which were live blogged right here by a great marketing student, Amanda Jones. The posts about the presentations from CC Chapman, Todd Defren and Mike Hayes are below this post, or you can click on their names here to get to each separately.

What really made the event special was that Rich brought in a local non-profit that is having an amazing impact on the lives of women in developing countries and had the crowd of over 100 people brainstorm ways in which Grounds for Health could leverage social media tools to further their cause. This giving back segment gave the attendees a way to practice what they had just taken in during the earlier session and provided an amazing non-profit with great ideas. Marketing student Nichole Magoon captured some of the ideas via her live tweets:

Table 7--game with backing/$$ edge, green patch model, FB fan page, video blog, celebrities, training program #btvsmb

Table 8 witter #tag, coffee drinkers, companies donating money each time #tag used, landing page w/content, highlight co-op ea. mo. #btvsmb Table 8 (con't) donate and get S.M. badge, bracelet with Twitter name, email list #btvsmb

Table 10--blogs; coffee socials @churches--donations, and social media, volunteers; women bloggers + health, WebMD (&the like) #btvsmb

Table 4(?)-- cup campaigns, coffee companies aligning with cervical cancer groups, Twitter, videos, month dedicated to cause #btvsmb

Table 11--videos, targeted ads in FB, women + coffee lovers (go where the fish are!) #btvsmb

Table 12 --contacting hospitals to only use G4H coffee, offering med. profs. lessons in Spanish #btvsmbTable 12 (con't)--video journals (follow doctors through experience), FB Spanish medical comm. #btvsmb

Champlain Students--program "building from the Grounds up", gather content and use social media to connect, going green movement #btvsmb Champlain students--connecting with colleges and passionate students, coffee talks, street teams, etc... #btvsmb #campchamp

Great local coverage and a lot of twitter-chat made the event dynamic, fun and highlighted some of the amazing, innovative work that is being done right here in Burlington, VT.

I was glad that Rich invited me to be part of the planning for this event and that our Division of Communication and Creative Media, under the leadership of Dean Jeff Rutenbeck gets the importance of bringing the local community together around social media and communication technologies. Also great to have the Burlington Free Press as a sponsor, and to see so many from the BFP in the audience. We are very lucky here to have progressive, forward thinking print publications who are examining ways in which to utilize social media and online tools to keep all of us informed.

I have to say that students Amanda Jones (guest blogger), Nichole Magoon (live-tweeter), Kelly Diamond (live-tweeter), Melissa Tuburzio (support and live-tweeter) and Riva Dumont (support) were AWESOME. Not only did they help keep things running smoothly, they really captured the high points of the event through Twitter. You should follow them. They are going to do GREAT things...maybe even for YOUR business. (Yes, shameless plug for my students...sue me!)

Here's some of the media coverage that came from the event:

• Burlington Free Press (pre-event)
• Burlington Free Press (post-event)
• WCAX
• Cynthea's Spa Blog Post at the BFP site (post-event)
• Vlog from Joe Mescher

The hashtag for the event was #btvsmb. Check out the stream before it flows away!

Looking forward to the next one in the fall.