Advice from the Trenches: Words Grads Should Live By

As serendipity would have it, Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research posted a very interesting blog today. It was about what criteria people look for when hiring/looking for social media services.

I posted a response to his post in hopes to get deeper insight into a more general question which was:

Jeremiah:

More of a question than a comment — your focus here is on those with experience to help an organization with their “social media” efforts. I’m wondering what type of skills you might expect from graduating college seniors when it comes to social media and marketing?

As a college prof who teaches Internet-based Marketing I’ve been working hard to ensure my students are grounded in Marketing best practices and that they are up to date on the latest tools (as much as a 15 week class can get them there).

So, if a college grad came to you fresh out of college with a marketing degree what would you want to see on their resume or LinkedIn account?

Leave it to the social media community to provide me with timely, relevant advice for my students and other grads interested in Communications, Marketing and PR. Here are some excerpts that were posted in the comment section as well as some advice that came to me via email. (To read the full discussion/comments go to the original post: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/04/08/social-media-services/)

1. jeremiah_owyang: A good question. When it comes to the freshly minted graduates, I personally would focus on: 1) Eagerness and willingness to learn, then followed by 2) related accomplishments in the field they are pursuing. Here’s where internships, school projects, and volunteer work come into play, giving graduates related experience as they enter the workforce. Specifically, if they were going to head into the social media field or marketing in general, they should be able to demonstrate their abilities around their own personal brand. What and how they use the tools, in addition to what they say will be telling.
   
2. Rick Murray : The first thing we look for at Edelman is raw intellect. We want people who can think; we can teach them PR. Second, is a real passion for learning; this is often articulated as a love of news, and/or an awareness of what’s new and emerging in society, politics, technology, etc. Third, is how well they communicate and present themselves.
   Fourth, is like-ability and perceived cultural fit. Increasingly however, the prelude to all of these is a quick scan of the search engines to see how findable they are, and to what extent are they using social media / networking to express themselves. It’s not that we don’t hire people who aren’t knowledgable about and avid users of social media; we most certainly do. That said, a candidate’s value to us — especially those at entry level — is dramatically enhanced if they are.
   
3. melissa cheater ...when in the process of hiring an entry level social media position - we definitely went the way of recent grads from two great local programs - and got nothing in the way of hands on experience. We ended up hiring a media masters student but I think the criteria above from Rick would have found us someone who could hit the ground running .. It’s true that you can teach pr and marketing, so it is important to focus on initiative, innovation, passion and problem solving/ability to survive...
   
4. Joseph Kingsbury I’d also echo Rick Murray’s point about raw intellect. To use a clumsy sports analogy, look for people that can run fast, hit hard and who have non-stop motors; you can teach them the playbook.
   
5. Elyse Tager We are a media strategy, planning and buying agency and have hired several newly minted grads in the past - some successful, some not so. Social media knowledge has given these people a whole new skill set to leverage in the job search. However, I would (and will in future hires) look first for all those traits that Rick Murray mentions above. I would also add that the importance of good communication skills and a strong sense of professionalism is even more important in the social media realm, since all communications are “out there”. One last thought - Hiring is an unnatural act at best and intuition plays a key part.
   
6. Scott Hammond (via email): We look for two things above all others: social media aptitude and communication skills. By social media aptitude I mean user aptitude of traditional social media channels in the Myspace/Facebook/Twitter-verse. We don't really care if someone can quote HTML code from memory, or if they have designed multiple sites, because the tech skills we use are simple and easily taught. We do care that someone is an active participant in social media, plugged in to multiple channels, and a positive contributor in those spaces. One of our interview "trip questions" is asking someone what their internet usage habits are. The correct answer should go something like, "I wake up, check e-mails and messages on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, brush my teeth and shower.....I put on my pj's and check messages on Myspace Facebook and Twitter one last time before going to sleep." By communications skills I mean reading comprehension and composition specifically. We like people who have read and written A LOT in the past, and English and History majors always get a careful look. This is key because reading messages and responding intelligently to them is either the job itself, or the skill set required to execute new plans.

So there you have it. Advice from the trenches. Many thanks to @jowyang, @rickmurray, @mmbc, @jkingsbury, @ElyseTager and @scotty_nola for their advice.

Anyone else have advice for graduating students?

Lessons from the Classroom: Facebook Business Pages, Blogging and Twitter

It began simply enough. The goal was to be able to show my Internet-based Marketing students how the new FB Business Profile Pages, Blogging and Twitter all serve different purposes to further the brand. Oh, and while doing that work in how to develop the content for each in order to achieve that mission. And...um...how to know when to use which and when not to...and do it in less than an hour.

So, here it is:

• Facebook Business Profile = Engagement
• Blogging = Expertise
• Twitter = Value

I know. That's not quite enough info is it?

Facebook Business Profile
The facebook redesign which seemed to be the bane of my students' existence has become a golden opportunity for businesses. In today's social media landscape, a brand that wants to fully engage with their customers now has a way in which to do that -- through Facebook. How? By doing the same things I can do as a person -- connect with my friends, comment on their walls, send messages, posting photos, joining groups...and my friends can comment on my posts and engage in discussions. Many others can see and take part in these discussions hence my emphasis on engagement.

Take a look at how Magic Hat is ENGAGING with their customers on their Facebook Profile Page



When you first go to the Magic Hat FB page, you come to this tab (Did I mention above that businesses can control the "landing page"?) Lot's of great pics and videos that show an exciting and interesting brand (which is what Magic Hat is all about).





So they caught my attention above. And now on the Wall I, as a consumer can comment on their status posts along with other fans and Magic Hat can respond to me directly. (Which they've done)





Is Magic Hat fully there yet? No. But as a local Vermont-based Company they are really taking advantage of a great opportunity to provide a space where they can engage with their customers and their customers can engage with the brand.

Should Magic Hat have a FB page at all? YES. Their target market is there. Their brand image fits with the FB landscape.

How should they measure their ROI? Number of fans is one simple way, but the true test is engagement. How many people are engaging on the page? How many in discussions? On events? Just like ANY site, Magic Hat should set clear objectives that are measurable so they can determine the ROI for their use of FB.

Blogging to build Expertise

My point of view on blogging is that it is not about selling. A blog is about showing your customers and potential customers who you are and what you are about. It boils down to creating a sense of expertise. Why would I, as a customer, trust YOU? Some great examples (also from Vermont, of course) include Seventh Generation's Blog: The Inspired Protagonist. I LOVE this blog. It really highlights why I have built a trust for Seventh Generation.

Here's another by local Web Development and Marketing Firm Union Street Media. If you don't have them bookmarked and aren't grabbing this firms FREE expertise (in the form of a well written, team blog with timely, important information) you are missing a great opportunity. So, why would they give this information away for FREE? Simple. Their blog shows their expertise. As a reader you learn to trust them and when it comes time to do something with your website, or enhance your Internet marketing strategy or focus in on blogging, who are you going to remember? Yep. They got you because they have shown, more than titles and puffy language, that they know their stuff.

Building Value with Twitter
Perhaps the biggest challenge right now is to address how something like Twitter can help in a brands marketing strategy. There are many words of advice out there so I'll add to the chaos (grin) with my thoughts.


There is NO VALUE in engaging in what I call "Follow Fever". You know what that is. It's a sickness that has struck many a Tweeter -- how many people can I get to follow me and how fast can I do it? Like a race. Mass follow tools are sprouting up like so many weeds. At the end of the day if 5,000 people are following you and you mass follow them back, how has that helped to increase your brand image? How does that help you reach your target market? At the end of the day you have a bunch of useless Twits (yeah, not a typo) following you for no good reason other than they might have follow fever too.


So, STOP with the follow fever. Start by assessing your brand image and how you will use Twitter to ADD VALUE for your customers, because at the end of the day, that is what it is all about.

Why would I follow anyone? I follow the people I do for specific reasons:

1. They provide valuable information for the work I do. People including (but not limited to) @rohitbhargava, @prsarahevans, @bethharte and @dannybrown and locals @gahlord, @cresmer and @rnadworny all help me do the work I do every day.
2. They expand my business and local network. Do they share my professional interests? are they in my local geographic region?
3. Are they my students or students at Champlain College?

Who don't I follow?

1. Anyone who is a "self-proclaimed" expert/wizard/maven/guru...etc.
2. Anyone who doesn't tell me who they are.

For a business, the value of Twitter is that you can reach out to customers who are passionate (either really really happy...or really really unhappy) in a way that brings value to the relationship. ComcastCares is a great example. Customer Service via Twitter. Provides VALUE for the customer. JetBlue is another example that provides the customer service access via Twitter. Locally we have some great examples of value creation through our Print News Media from Seven Days and the Burlington Free Press who are both utilizing Twitter in interesting ways. This was clearly evident today in Vermont during the veto override of the same sex marriage bill. Historic day in VT and Twitter is how I followed the process thanks to @shaytotten.

Another great local example of a company that is adding customer value through Twitter? Magic Hat! Their recent "Twitter Taste Live" event where they had several of their brewers available along with a Beer critic Tweeting Live responses to customers questions as they all sampled beers from the Spring Fever Pack. Um WOW! Great way to provide extra special value. Not only do I get my beer, but I get to Tweet about it with other people and learn great information.

How do you measure the ROI on something like that? How many people participated? Was there a spike in sales prior to the event? How many people blogged about it? What kind of "buzz" (yeah, I had too) did it create?

So there you have it. Why I think FB is for customer engagement, Blogging is for building expertise and Twitter is for creating customer value.

One final point that I made to my students was that if your brand is using any combination of these then they should all be linked to each other.

Champlain For Reel: Crowdsourcing at Champlain College

What do you get when you ask Champlain College students to tell the world what makes us special?

You get Champlain For Reel of course.

It's our own little bit of neighborhood crowdsourcing from students in a wide variety of majors telling you what they have gotten out of their experience here. Now, while I'm not in any of them (sigh), I can attest to the fact that they are all pretty representative of our campus and student body as a whole.

To see them all go to http://www.youtube.com/user/champlainforreel

Here's a few that I think do a great job of telling the "reel" story about Champlain. And by the way, a lot of what they capture is WHY I WORK here in the first place (grin).

One Thing



Champlain College: What it is...



Get Lifted



Camp Champ



A Daily Motion



Don't you wish you went here?

Final SxSWi Post: Major Lessons Learned

It's been a week since I returned from SxSWi and while I did my Lessons Learned from each day posts I just felt the need to do one more final posting.

Honestly this will help me with a few presentations I'll be giving so it's more for me than for anyone else.

I've boiled it all down to 5 C's:

1. Crowdsourcing: Great conversation about that one from the session on Digital Tsunami: Breaking News at Breakneck Speeds. How do you crowdsource for a crisis? How do you crowdsource for marketing? Amazing examples from NPR. Including Ushahidi which highlights just what this kind of technology can really do. Wow. The Power.
2. Convergence: As Charlene Li said, "Social networks will be like Air". Different tools abound and the focus seems to be more and more to bring them together in a mashup of communication technologies. Facebook Connect...on steroids.
3. Consumer Power: The tools will allow the consumer to exercise more and more power and internet culture will become even more ubiquitous. If you aren't listening as a Marketing or PR professional it will be a big Fail Whale.
4. Communication: The theories of communication (listening being a big part of that) are even more vital in our ever more connected world. Which tools to use when? How to accommodate new tools and old tools and make them all work for your target market? The amount of communication power Marketing and PR professionals have now is amazing -- and we haven't even begun to leverage it. Imagine what is coming our way in just a few years? Then of course there's the power of visual communication as well.
5. Content: Even more now the understanding of how to post content that is engaging, that reaches your market and connects with them is going to be the hallmark of excellent PR and Marketing.

In no particular order here are my best picks from the conference (a little re-hash from my lessons learned posts from last week)

1. Charlene Li's presentation on the future of social networks. Here's the podcast. Listen to it. Highlights were really about how we are going to move from management separate social networks to a point were our focus will be on IDENTITIES and those identities will be connected to different social networks.


2. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos: So not so much about social media and technology (although Zappos is an online company) but more about customer service. The podcast is here, but the graphic information representation is here. Spend some time checking it out -- it tells the whole presentation visually (note to graphic design majors -- here's the business you should be in!)


3. Emerging Trends of Mobile Technology: Big learning here was the focus on "Augmented Reality". These folks talked about some very cool things including Topps Baseball Cards


4. Is the PR Agency Dead?: Great session and very relevant. What I wrote from my day three recap still stands:

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.

That's it for SxSW. I promise.

Ada Lovelace Day and our AMAZING Female Technology Professors

I volunteered to be part of the Ada Lovelace Day where bloggers all over the world are writing about women in technology.

For my post I thought I would highlight some of the women faculty at Champlain College who are teaching amazing things.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Amanda Crispel Fox: Program Director for Game Art and Animation and Game Design
2. Suzanne Glover: Graphic Design and Digital Media
3. Karen Klove: Digital Filmmaking
4. Toni-Lee Sangastiano: Graphic Design and Digital Media
5. Susyn Dees: Program Director for Radiography
6. Sarah Pettitt: Web Management and Design
7. Julie Rancont: Computer Information Technology
8. Shubashree Thekahally: Software Engineering
9. Kathy Whiting: Radiography
10. Cynthia Brandenberg: CORE
11. Suzanne Newberry: Math and Science

Each of these women is an expert in her field and utilizes technology tools in the practice of their work in different ways. Courses range from the highly technical such as Introduction to Computer Theory (Rancont), Game Technology I (Rancont), Conceptual Game Design (Fox), Intro to Web Design (Glover), Server-side Scripting (Pettitt) and Usability and Design (Pettitt) and Software Engineering Courses (Thekahally) to the blend of art and technology in courses such as Introduction to Digital Film making (Klove), Form and Color (Sangastiano), Introduction to Typography (Sangastiano), Digital Publication (Glover), and User Interface Design (Glover) to the health technology driven radiography classes taught by both Dees and Whiting to the integrated learning of our CORE courses where Brandenberg teaches Scientific Revolution and our Math and Science managed and taught by Suzanne Newberry.

What an amazing array of talent we are lucky to have on our campus.

So, in celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, I celebrate my female colleagues who work with technology in many different ways and who are educating a new generation of women and men.

Ladies, take a bow!

Lessons Learned from SxSWi: Day 5

My last day at SxSWi was pretty intense. Not only did I have to check out of my hotel and get to the airport, I had sessions to attend as well!

I kicked the day off with a session entitled, "The State of the Internet Memescape: 2008-10" with Tim Hwang (@timhwang) of ROFLCon. Anyone who puts LOLCATS in their presentation is a BIG WINNER for me. And since this was about internet culture there were many LOLCATS, Hamsters and even Stuff White People Like. One he didn't talk about would be one that I'm seeing more and more (thanks to my students): FML. What was great about this session were the little nuggets of interesting things he addressed:

1. This is a good time for internet culture. Why? When people are out of work they spend more time online. He showed several charts. One was the dow average and how it tanked in October. The other was traffic to different sites since October. As the dow went down, visits to the sites went up. Not proof of anything...but certainly something to think about.
2. The future for internet culture is huge. We have sites such as LOLCats and SWPL that have moved from online to offline (through books) and have spawned other things (such as the LOLCats Bible Project.)
3. The Internet Meme is about CONTENT, CODE and PHYSICAL -- we need things that people create, we need code that allows it to be created and we need ways in which to see the content. As more people get access, and code becomes less important (thx widgets!) and more and more have mobile and computer access the meme's will grow.

Next I went to Digital Tsunami: Breaking News and Breakneck Speeds with

• Peter Imbres - Hill and Knowlton (@peeta)
• Andy Carvin - NPR (@acarvin)
• Alex de Carvalho - StartPR (@alexdc)
• Christopher Barger - GM (@cbarger)

Have you ever seen a panel discussion where the people are brilliant and the content is mind blowing BUT....the energy is really really really low? Well, this was one of those times. The panelists were very mellow and quiet (all dressed in black, by the way). While the presenters themselves gave off an aura of "meh", their content was first rate. They started with the USAir Hudson plane crash and did a breakdown/timeline. Upshot? With social media like Twitter and Twitpic joined with mobile phones (like the iPhone) you have citizen journalists Everywhere. The news media falls behind as do the PR organizations because the citizens move so quick and spread the word very fast. The challenge for the media: FACT CHECKING. It's very easy to pass the wrong information on, but breaking news will require flexibility on the part of the news media as well as on the consumers of the information. The challenge for PR: Who is your spokesperson? You can't let someone who is formerly affiliated with your organization become the "defacto" spokesperson online just because they have a history. How will you focus the communication at breakneck speed?

What I can tell you for sure is that NPR is doing it right. They have a social media strategist (@acarvin) who is pushing the envelope through online community creation. Examples include Votereport during the election, creating a Ning site during the Galveston hurricane crisis last year. Another interesting site they mentioned was Ushahidi which is a crowd sourcing program to help with crisis management.

Finally, I didn't make it to much of the Chris Anderson talk due to my flight schedule but what I can tell you is that he was focusing on his new book "Free". The parts I saw were interesting for sure.

Tomorrow I'll post my overall take-aways from my first SxSWi in order to contribute to the plethora of posts that are all doing the same...and I'll include some links to those posts as well.

Lessons Learned from SxSWi: Day Four

It's day four and I am like a marshmallow that has been in the fire too long -- brown and smokey on the outside and a mushy puddle of goo on the inside.

I realized that I missed a session I went to yesterday. Whoopsie! So I'll start with that. I think it was because I was so frustrated by the two earlier sessions that I forgot this one. It was Design for the Wisdom of Crowds by Derek Powazek (aka @fraying on Twitter) and it was very very very good. Yep. Very.

Lesson Learned? Design is important. Not just any design but considering the interface and language design is wicked important when it comes to harnessing the crowd. Make it easy for them to rate and rank and give them simple tasks that can be completed quickly is the big message here. So now marketers need to be good at providing clear and simple direction AND work closely with interface designers to make sure it comes together visually. Here's the slideshare from that presentation: http://powazek.com/posts/1872

Now, on to today.

I went to several GREAT presentations and spent the rest of the time "stalking" people. I feel a little weird actually, but I had pretty good success meeting with some great people today, it's just they way I did it that is a bit, well, unlike me I guess. Perhaps all the social media buzz has finally gotten to me... I'll start with the sessions I went to.

1. Shift Happens: Moving from words to pictures with some amazingly talented artists and visual information designers. Wow! To get the full sense check out the twitter stream during the session. Highlights for me? In order to communicate complex information we need VISUALS. You do not need to be an artist to create the visuals. You need the essential tools: Paper and an implement to write with. The goal is to be able to breakdown a process into a visual representation. Ha! Told you students in my Marketing Management class! Visual representation of your information MUST be something you can do. Resources can be found through the panelist websites:
   
   Sunni Brown - BrightSpot Info Design (be sure to click on the Zappos drawing -- I watched her do this live during the presentation -- it was mindblowing!)
   Tom Crawford - VizThink
   Dave Gray - XPLANE
   Lee LeFever - Common Craft
   Dan Roam - Digital Roam Inc (be sure to check out Dan's definition of Visual Thinking)
   
2. Curiosity Marketing: Using Secrets to Create Engagement with Rohit Bhargava. Great session. Very engaged with the audience bringing in examples of great ways in which to spark curiosity through "secrets" so you can hook your customers. Lot's of great examples, all of which are a big secret so I can't tell you here. I will say that if you are ever broke in Vegas go to Mr. Lucky's and ask for the Gambler Special. What was great about this session was how Rohit got the group in the room to provide examples. It was the most interactive session I've been at -- tapping the wisdom of the crowd in the room to bring it all together. Nicely done for sure.
   
3. Bruce Sterling. Um. So I went because Bill Simmon told me to go. I sat right up front. It was a packed house and I soon learned why. I'm not a reader of Sterlings, but his delivery and focus on the issues he wanted to discuss (the death of authorship and journalists at the hands of a fickle social media twitteratzi with the attention span of a gnat) made me think...a lot. There are great things happening because of social media...but we are losing important connection of a different sort. You can follow Bruce on Twitter at @bruces and you can read more of his stuff here: http://blog.wired.com/sterling/. Check the twitter stream on this one for some great stuff and a live blog from Snarkmarket.

In the middle of all of this I met face to face and had conversations with:

1. Micah (pronounced Me-Ha) Baldwin of Lijit (@micah) (Cause Grace Boyle told me I had too): Great connection which I think will lead to some interesting opportunities.
2. Erin Kotecki Vest (@queenofspain) who I Poken-stalked throughout the day. I was her first Poken.
3. Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) who gave me cool stuff AND signed my copy of his book. (Students, if you ask nice, I will let you touch it.)
4. Beth Harte (@bethharte) a rock'n cool professional who is also an adjunct teaching PR with a Social Media focus. Love her stuff.
5. Lauren Vargas (@vargasl) another rock'n cool professional who is adjunct teaching. We had LOT'S to talk about.
6. Lauren Cook (@laurencook) (Cause Gillian told me I had too -- Lauren is her cousin!)

I had brief run-ins with others as well. It's a bit of a blur.

So tomorrow is a busy day and I'm not sure between sessions and the flight home if I'll be able to post my day five experiences. Will try. Will not promise.

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.

Lessons Learned at SxSWi: Day 2

Before I get into what I learned, here is what I did today. After breakfast with my Aunt and Uncle I went to:

1. Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet with Jonathan Zittrain - Berkman Center for Internet and Society
2. Emerging Trends of Mobile Technology with Rob Gonda - Sapient, Juan-Carlos Morales - Sapient Interactive and Ryan Stewart - Adobe
3. Trade Show (W00T!)
4. Opening Remarks/Keynote with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com
5. The Future of Social Networks with Charlene Li of Altimeter Group
6. Suxorz '09: The Ten Worst Social Media Campaigns

Then dinner at Manuel's (Mole enchiladas and dinner with @jackiekazil and @jenleereeves), then over to the Mexican American Cultural Center for a crazy wild party of amazing bike insects, chinese dragons and lot's o' technology.

Whew.

So what have I learned today that I would like to pass on?

1. From @Zittrain: We have created an online culture of becoming dependent on sites where we post our personal data on systems that are controlled by a few (think FB and Apple) and while we think we have some control, we really don't (sites change their interfaces without asking our permission, gov't blocks access and sites use our data for many different things). So much is happening that we, as consumers, are unaware of, that we often can't even vote with our feet. It's only when someone tells us what is happening (for example, the FB terms of service challenge) that we can take some type of control. But at the moment if we want to use the services we have to give up control of our information. The solution? A site (in alpha) called http://www.herdict.org where you harness the power of civic decision-making where the community provides information about what sites are accessible to all, and what's being blocked.
   
   My commentary on this one was it was much more of a history lesson about technology/computers and the web with too little on the future (as the title implies). However the points about how little control we really have over the sites we are relying on for so much information sharing was very important. He provided an example of having a two slice toaster and one morning you come down and suddenly there's a third slot for toast with a note that says, we've made an upgrade. Then a few days later you come home and that third slot is gone with a note that said there was a problem with the third slice, sorry if you lost any toast. And then you come down the next morning and your toaster is now a juicer. That is what is happening to us every day on the sites we use -- like FB (where it is quite obvious), or any blogging software. Amazing what we will put up, eh?
   
   
2. Mobile Trends. I learned a GREAT DEAL in this one. WOW. Since I don't spend a lot of time in the mobile arena, except for some articles here and there, I was blown away. The concept of Augmented Reality was new for me. In essence you take your iPhone and take a picture of a product or building and suddenly you get data that tells you about that item, by pulling in info from the web. OR, you might get a 3d model that you can manipulate. OR, you might play a game of ping pong with your phone and a friend with a phone in the middle of the park with no actual table (very Wii-like). All on your phone. Embedded audio and QRCodes allow you to utlize information in a bar code or in a film that then transmits information to a phone that will display URLs or directions or...whatever. Yeah, I know, Japan has a lot of this already and many around the world are more aggressive in their use of mobile phone technologies. Regardless this was cool. Very cool. Yo marketers -- what will you do with this trend?
   
   
3. From @zappos I learned how important customer service is in Marketing. Ok. I knew that already (grin) but it was great to hear from Tony Hsieh just how important customer service is to the company culture of Zappos. As a matter of fact, it was down right refreshing to hear how important the company culture and core values are to the success of this company. Hmmm...I know a Biz school that should be paying attention to this one. Now, what school could that be?
   
4. From @charleneli I learned about the future of social networks. Great contrast to the @zittrain presentation. The future of social networks is that they will be like "air". In other words they will be all around us and we will be connected easily -- we will manage our identies and decide what information we will share with our "trusted" partners (in Charlene's case that's Google) and then there will be single sign on (similar to OpenID or Facebook Connect) which will allow personalized recommendations at shoppings sites that come from our own circle of friends. Her examples was that a person could go to amazon and buy a pare of NineWest shoes. That information would be ported to all of her friends (like the FB wall) so they would know what she bought...and then her friends would also begin to see NineWest ads that are served up to them because of their relationship with her. Much more tightly integrated. This would result in a "personal cpm". Essentially if I have high social capital and am seen as an influencer, then when advertisers serve up ads to me, they would pay more per click or impression because of my influence and my circle of friends. In order to leverage something like this, and organization cannot be "top down". It must be focused on the customer. She showed an org chart with the customer at the top and the CEO at the bottom -- now that's interesting.
   
   My general thoughts on this. Yep. This is where we are heading for sure. We aren't there yet, but it will come and I think within a few years I'll be teaching this stuff in my classroom the same way I'm teaching about best practices with Twitter and FB.
   
   
5. As to Suxorz. Suffice to say I learned about some very interesting FAILs. Some I don't agree with -- the panel thinks Skittles is a Fail because they didn't get anyone to really engage and they compromised their brand by pulling in the Twitter stream, and others I do agree with -- like Belkin Marketing person who went to Amazon Turk and published an offer to pay people for writing positive reviews and to dis any other reviews that were negative. That one won by the way. Amazing what can go wrong when you don't think things through!

A busy day here at SxSWi. My brain is mushy with the possibilities.

More tomorrow.

Lessons Learned at SxSWi: Day 1

I've just wrapped up my first day at SxSWi. I'm a first timer here and am quickly realizing some important things, which, of course, I will share.

1. Leverage the Line. I am quickly realizing that there are lots of lines here at SxSWi. So far I have stood for about an hour in a line to get my badge, then about 10 minutes to get my bag 'o shwag, and another 20 minutes hanging out waiting to be let in to "Six" for an after party (or perhaps it was a pre-party for the after parties...not sure). I've met a web developer father/son team, a social change game developer, a web developer from Zurich, an interactive marketing exec from Expedia.com, and several blogger/entrepreneurs. Standing in line focused in on the device will NOT help you make connections. So leverage that line and get acquainted.
2. First day sessions are ok, Conversations are better. The most fun I've had so far today has been at the Tech Blogger Lounge where I connected with several interesting people. It was too hot in there, and very overwhelming, but I'll be back there for sure. Frankly I went to one session on how to figure out SxSW, and found it useless. Got more out of this blog post from Rohit Bhagarva (who I am trying to meet in person while I'm here).
3. Pace yourself and do some recon: There is a lot of ground to cover. The convention center is HUGE (I'm thinking VT would fit in there easy) and there's tons of stuff going on all over. Once I got my badge and my bag o'goodies I got the lay of the land. Now I sort of know where things are, so when it kicks off tomorrow I'll be ready.
4. Set goals. I've set clear goals which are helping me stay focused. and have already achieved one of them: See and touch and play with a Microsoft Surface (it's so freaken cool I cannot even TELL you how cool it is...I will say...time to start thinking about no keyboards!)
5. Don't bring your laptop. Yep...I said it. There are stations all over that allow you to connect if you need to, and if you have a good mobile option (like a crackberry, for instance) you'll be able to follow things you need to know via Twitter. No need to kill your back and hunt down plugs (saw lots of those today -- individuals sitting on the floor clustering around electricity like it was crack or something).
6. Be flexible. I went to only one session and walked out when it became apparent it wasn't what I expected. It was funny, but not functional for my time, so I bailed. Found other things to do.

So no big insights so far, although I got a load of great info about how a site like Expedia deals with SEM -- but I'll save that for the classroom.

Follow my twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ejyoung67 if you want real time updates of my experiences or just check in here each evening as I'll do a "lessons learned" post once a day.