By the time I was driving, the first “self-serve” gas station came to town. One-by-one the “filling stations” disappeared and were replaced by the modern day convenience store. This approach greatly increased the transactions-per-customer and gas station owners got richer if they adjusted with the times. No one asked any of us if that was OK, it just changed. I think things are changing again.

We Learned As We Went Along the Way

I have been doing a lot of research lately on Google + for our small business, which led me to draft this post. I am worried that the landscape of search will vastly change in the ensuing months. It occurred to me how much things have changed in just the last few of years. When we first started a local neighborhood blog with inbound links back to our apartment web site, we had no idea what that did. We stumbled upon the concept of inbound marketing by sheer chance.  The issue then was that there really wasn’t an efficient way to share or validate your ideas. There were some blogs then, but nothing like today, and many bloggers had yet to establish their turf.

We experimented with this newfound phenomena by writing more articles when we needed more leasing leads and sure enough, the more content we produced, the more web traffic we got and the more prospects walked in the door. It was magic! Today we no longer need to wonder about our assumptions, there is lightening-fast data within a few keystrokes and people are sharing things they are learning at every turn.

The Floor is Moving Again

“Times they are a changing,” is a somewhat worn out phrase, but they are. Jon Mitchell penned a disturbing article titled Google + Is Going to Mess Up the Internet, over at ReadWriteWeb.  The premise of the article is that “shared” content may wind up ranking higher than original content. While that isn’t completely confirmed, the pundits-at-large and in-the-know seem to agree that Google + will have a huge impact on search.

Rohn Jay Miller from Social Media Today sums things up in an article titled Welcome to Web 3.0; The Contextual Web:

The lesson we each wished we knew back in 2002 was “it’s all about the eyeballs.” Engage the eyeballs or direct them to where they should be engaged do it on a massive scale, and the rewards are billions and billions of dollars.  If I’d only known I wouldn’t have sold the Apple stock and I wouldn’t have scoffed at GOOG at $500 a share.

Now in 2012 it feels like we’re on the middle of a massive transition on the Internet.  We see the order of power changing, but it’s not quite clear why.  Things are happening—smartphones, apps, the Internet of Things, and of course social networks.

Does That Mean the Biggest Sharer Wins?

Unlike producing more content to create a greater search result to sell more stuff, sharing and getting someone else to share your stuff is much more challenging. It is more real. You have to be real. We have hardly convinced our clients that producing quality content is the answer and now they have to share too and be real?

It is a basket-load of work to get your employees to share and to interact on line, yet that may be the only real answer to this coming change. We all know that the few automated tools we have used to skip a step, such as posting to multiple platforms at the same time with the same message only retard the outcome. People aren’t tricked, they know, and click through rates subside with automation.

What are you doing to get in front of the sharing curve?

Have You Registered For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth?

Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! The first 100 to do so get an incredible discount! Reserve your seat today!

The post Sharing Is More Real appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Social technologies and Web 2.0 applications change us more than we realize. Internet access, connectivity, and social media have changed the landscape of  nearly everything we do.  In the blink of an eye, connections are formed, possibilities become realities, and new relationships are formed.

It’s become almost common that something created  or discovered at breakfast over a scan of a tweetstream can become a “can’t live without” tool by dinnertime.

It is important that in the midst of our daily digital lives, we take some time to realize how lucky we are. I look at my life in the last 24 hours, and none of it would have been possible even a decade ago.

Here’s what is astonishing to me:

I am actually creating this blog post while sitting in the back corner of  La Guardia International Airport.  It’s 8pm.  I love New York, but I am not supposed to be here right now. I am supposed to be home in Iowa where I am scheduled to give a virtual presentation to clients on the the East Coast.  (At least, that was the plan.)

Because of social media and a few strategic MacGyver moves , I found a quiet, “temporary office” right here on the backside of the terminal. (As long as I move  every 30 minutes or so when the elevator opens up with a new crew of passengers, it has served me.)

I am not going to miss work or this weeks deadlines because I am plugged in, hooked up, connected, and ready to stay productive.

Using my iPhone, iPad , and my MacBookPro, I am getting more work done here, than I would just about anywhere else in my house.  I have cleared through a pile of email, caught up on two days of reading, finished three  ebooks, and as luck would have it, I just got a text from my virtual travel app; Trip Advisor alerting me that “I GET TO” keep writing this blog post to you because I’m going to be here another two hours!

I’m accessing the Internet through through my USB card, so I can tweet, FB, and message my friends and family without worry of costs incurred. And, with a few clicks of a button this crazy story will go out to thousands of people who will be reading it from who knows where on who knows what.

Social media gives us the power to do magic things; things that could not have been done even five years ago. We are privileged beings. We have access to this amazing space, we can glean insight from the world’s greatest minds, and we can have life changing relationships with individuals who we may never have a chance to meet or work with face to face. If that is not worth a thank you every once in a while; I am not sure what is.

So, say WOW with me today! Let’s not let one another lose sight of the fact that we literally have the world at our fingertips. Give thanks to what we are capable of doing because of this thing we call Social Media.

Take just five minutes today and take stock of what social media has afforded you.

What are you most thankful for?

Do tell!

Related articles

• MORF Is a Crowdsourced Database of MacGyver Tips on Your Phone [App Of The Day] (lifehacker.com)
• Using Social Media the Right Way (bigthink.com)
• Vonage Co-Founder on the Social Revolution (webpronews.com)
• The Ultimate MacGyver Recipe Book Rounds Up All of Mac’s Clever Hacks [MacGyver] (lifehacker.com)

The post Thank You, Social Media! appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Attending those great events over the last week inspired me to share few ways to use social media to spice up your own events. Read on for the goods.

Spread the Word

All three of the events used the web and social media as the cornerstone to their marketing efforts. All relied heavily upon Twitter as a communications channel. Each also used a core website with event details, links to external social channels, and a blog.

The blogs were primarily used to communicate up-to-date event details and important additions to the sponsors or speakers list. The BizTechDay team used video content from their previous events as a way to grab the attention of potential attendees. They featured it on their blog and linked to it in their email newsletters and Twitter feed leading up to the event.

How to Spread the Word:

1. Choose a Twitter hashtag to associate with your event & create Twitter ammo for your team.
As soon as you have a name for your event and details posted online you should create a Twitter hashtag. Examples of hashtags used at the events I recently attended were #sbworld (SocialBizWorld), #xinnovate (PayPal X), and #biztech (BizTechDay). Each was used leading up to and during the event. Go here to learn more about Twitter hashtags. Each week as the event draws closer, write a list of 3-5 pre-written tweets (Twitter posts) to provide your marketing team, sponsors, & speakers. This will make it super simple for them to help you spread the word to their own Twitter followers and gives you the opportunity to somewhat shape the messaging around your event. You would be amazed how more tweets people will share when given a list to start with. All tweets should include your event hashtag and a link to information about the event.

2. Use content from your previous events to drive visitors to your event website or blog.
Providing video of a great keynote, embedding a slide deck (via slideshare) from a previous presenter, or posting recorded audio of a panel gives you high value fodder. Link to it on Twitter, Facebook, and other marketing channels like your email newsletter to drive traffic to your event site.

3. Know your audience and consider traditional marketing channels to get butts in seats.
If your target audience is new to social media then using Twitter, Facebook, and other networks to get the word out may be much less effective. Consider marketing your event via local business organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce or marketing associations. They often have email and print newsletters as well as event calendars. Also don’t discount traditional marketing like newspapers and radio.

Use the Social Back-Channel

The team at the PayPal X conference really did what they could encourage their attendees to participate in the social back-channel throughout the event. They went as far as to commission a developer to create a branded mobile app to be used during the event. In addition to the general conference information such as the speakers and overall agenda, the app allowed you to checkin (ala Foursquare) at different places around the event. Whenever I dipped into one of the many sessions I would open up the app and checkin to get credit for attending. By the end of the day I could view my standings on the app’s leader board and compare it to my friends who also attended. A bit geeky, but some added fun nonetheless.

Twitter has become the default companion medium at conferences. All of the conferences I attended utilized Twitter hashtags as a way for attendees to discuss and share tidbits about the speakers, sessions, and announcements.

While participating on the SocialBizWorld panel I recall a question from the audience about hashtags (mentioned previously in this post). The panelists spent the better part of a few minutes explaining the concept to the audience that compromised of mostly folks who were new to social media.

On the other hand, the PayPal crew dedicated a couple minutes during their initial keynote letting the everyone know what hashtag to use during the event and encouraging them to tweet. They also displayed the live Twitter stream on a half dozen or so flat screen monitors posted around the event floor. Adding to the discussions generated by the attendees were all of the folks from around the world that watched the keynotes and panels on live via a streaming video feed. The social back-channel provided some of the best commentary on everything happening at the event, but never interrupted what was happening on center stage.

How to leverage the back-channel:

4. Use a LBS (location based service) like Foursquare to create a place for people to checkin at your event.
Rather than allow attendees to checkin at the hotel or convention center where you are hosting your event, create a location named specifically after your event at that location for attendees who want to checkin. For example, here is the PayPal X conference location. To add your own venue on Foursquare you need to visit http://foursquare.com/add_venue.  Beyond branding your event a little bit for the LBS savvy folks (over 3 million users on Foursquare alone) it will also help them discover friends who are also attending. Don’t forget that checkins on most services are also commonly cross posted on Facebook and Twitter as well.

5. To drive the back-channel conversation during your event then use a service like Socialping.com to track and display all tweets with your event hashtag.
Hook up a dedicated laptop to a projector to display the conversation to attendees. Social ping also lets you add a leader board to their “Tweet Wall” which shows who has been tweeting the most at your event at any given moment. People love to see their own tweets scroll by on the screen. Depending on your event you may see only a trickle of comments in the back-channel or a raging flood. In either case, be aware that it may contain some of the richest discussions and feedback at your event. You might also check out quick and dirty options for displaying your Twitter feed like VisibleTweets.com.

6. To expand your audience use a video streaming service like Ustream.tv to share all or selective portions of your event live with folks who could not attend in person.
All you need to get started is a compatible video camera to tether to your laptop (find a list of recommended cameras here) and a relatively reliable internet connection. Many of the larger conferences invest quite a bit into live streaming their events, using multiple high end cameras, video switchers and a dedicated internet connection to make it almost like a live television broadcast. By planning ahead you can increase the exposure of your sponsors, speakers and event organizers without breaking any fire codes. Broadcast only selective parts of your event if you feel your giving away too much to folks who did not pay to attend. It is not uncommon to see many of the large event organizers live stream all of their major sessions as they happen. They understand that attendees miss out on networking opportunities and other things that happen between the presenters.

Generate & Repurpose Content

Conferences like these almost always produce a ton of user-generated content. You could rely only on your attendees to capture and share bits at your event, but I recommend having a plan of your own. The previously mentioned Ustream.tv has a nifty feature that captures the video while you live stream it so people can watch it on demand later. It also lets you upload your pre-recorded video to YouTube.

There were at least eight different concurrent sessions at the PayPal X conference — far more than I could ever attend during the tw0-day event. Luckily they are posting all the sessions in their entirety on their developer website here (login with your PayPal account to view). At SocialBizWorld they did not live stream the event, but they did have roving videographers traveling throughout the workshop sessions capturing videos and photos as they happened. I would imagine they will find a use for that content to market next year’s event.

How to repurpose great content:

7. Whether it is streamed live or recorded for later, capture as much video of your event as possible.
Raw video can be edited and used in numerous ways to help extend the life of your event even after the attendees go home. You can create a short video clip highlighting the best parts of the event or do like the BizTechDay team did with this Seth Godin video and drive traffic back to your site to view videos sessions past. Consider creating a few 1 minute highlight reels targeting not only potential attendees, but also sponsors. I suggest branding the video with your logo in the corner of the video and maybe even a URL at the end to direct viewers to the source of the content, you!

8. Hire a photographer (or a few if your event is large) and have them roam the event capturing moments.
High profile keynote speakers and attendees enjoying themselves are great visuals to immortalize in photos. Among the many ways you can repurpose those images you can post them on your organization’s Flickr account. This helps make the photos easily available to news media and bloggers covering your event. Here is an example of a collection of photos snapped at the TEDSoMa event by my friend Michael O’Donnel from ZatPhoto. A great set pf event photos like this would be even better if each photo included the name of the speaker, event name and link back to the event site in the photo description. Although I have not tested it, I have been told in the past that Flickr tags and descriptions are search engine sensitive.

9. Bring the viewers to your site to get the good stuff.
Both Ustream and Youtube provide embed codes that you can copy and paste into any webpage. Instead of linking to the site where you uploaded the video why not use those codes to embed video from your event into your blog or website to drive inbound traffic? There is an increased chance that viewers will check out other content on your site and possibly sign up to be notified about your next event (that is, if you have a way for them to give you their email address). With a couple clicks your visitors can also share the video with others in their social networks. Embedding a variety of great content into your site is a good way to attract visitors. Slideshare, Youtube, Flickr and many other sites provide embed codes for content that you might host there. Use them to your advantage!

10 For an added bonus, use a tool like Storify.com to piece together social media content from around the web to tell the story about your event.
Storify is a great tool for gathering tweets, photos, videos, and more into a narrative which can be embedded into your website and shared via your social networks. See how I used Storify on a previous blog post here.

These are a few of my tips for hosting a more successful and engaging event. Did you attend a conference lately and see anything interesting that made it more engaging? Share your experience and your own tips in the comments.

Related articles

• The Rise of #Hashtags (nten.org)
• 5 Ways to Use Twitter to Be a Better Panel Moderator (socialmediab2b.com)
• Event Marketing With Social Media | Social Media Examiner (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• The Future of Event Planning and Social Media (mashable.com)

The post 10 Tips To Hosting Better Events with Social Media appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Marketing and advertising budget dollars are continuing to move from print and other traditional media to online. And the social web is becoming the mainstream web. If you’re a traditional agency creative, it may be a brave new world, but it’s also an increasingly scary one, as large agencies are already downsizing.

A lot of smart traditionally-trained copywriters, art directors and designers have already become conversant in the terminology and culture of social media. If you haven’t, the best way to get started is to start listening to the voices of the innovators who are driving your creative discipline on the social web.

Hie thyself unto the mystical land of Feedly, create an account, and start plugging your head into the following blogs:

For Copywriters:

• Copyblogger
• The Social Path
• American Copywriter
• People Like to Share
• Men with Pens
• The Copywriting Blog
• Remarkablogger
• Ask a Copywriter

The post A Social Media Primer for Traditional Creatives appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

I commented on the article, but wanted to open the discussion here as well. Here’s what I had to say:

“Great article, Doug. The one thing that struck me during reading was that exclusive live rights cannot hold under the pressure of an audience of citizen journalists. The law is going to change because of microblogging and mobile technologies.

And it should. As the primary source for an individuals media shifts from mainstream to niche and from traditional to within one’s network, no longer can organizations, events or governing bodies expect to maintain a stranglehold on the rights to what they do.

If you weren’t in the crowd at the NCAA Baseball Regionals here in Louisville last spring and weren’t watching on TV, Brian Bennett was your source for information. This time, the NCAA won. Next time, someone (say Jason Falls) sitting in the crowd and not subject to press box rules, might be Twittering it. As long as people know where to go, the information will get out. And with 5,000 people sitting there, chances are, I won’t be the only one Twittering the event.

It will take a lawsuit and someone willing to fight for our right to be citizen journalists. But we’ll win. Mark my word.

Here’s what I think will evolve over the next 2-5 years as a result of the rise of citizen journalists and niche influencers equipped with texting, Twittering and mobile communications conduits:

1. Conferences, events, governing bodies and companies who are “it-getters” will be lauded by us as such and keep lines of communication (inbound, outbound and sideways) wide open.
2. Conference, events, governing bodies and companies who don’t will see sudden plummets in credibility and popularity unless they devise alternative communications methods which engage the users rather than alienate them. (Keep Twitterers occupied during conferences by ensuring your content is engaging.)
3. Someone, somewhere will be fined, thrown out or otherwise penalized for using his or her cell phone at a baseball game, a convention or a public gathering for a corporation and sue the bejeezus out of the sponsoring agency. With the right attorney, exclusivity will be a thing of the past. He who Tweets fastest will win.

I won’t offer any specific predictions, but my friends will tell you who the plaintiff in No. 3 is most likely to be. I’m just too much of a smartass to stop reporting because some conference official or security guard tells me to. I’ll Twitter until they arrest me, then Twitter that, just to prove a point.

What are your predictions for Web 2.0’s effect on exclusivity and the law. And do you know any good lawyers?

IMAGE: Me Twittering the Baja. Will I be allowed to in the future? (Well, yes. It’s in Mexico. They have no laws there, but that’s not the point.)

[tags]exclusive rights, exclusivity, media ethics, media law, microblogging, citizen journalism, citizen journalists, Web 2.0, software, revolution[/tags]

The post How Web 2.0 Will Change The Law appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

His catchy headline says social media will be overcome because of sex. The explanation details the meaning — that advertising understands how to make the mundane exciting. Pepper then outlines a plan to save PR, though I think he means to save social media. His first point is education.

I agree with Jeremy that it is our job, as PR professionals, social media specialists or whatever it is we call ourselves, to educate our industry (the marketing one as a whole, not just PR) of the delicate balance that is the social media environment. However, I don’t think this comes down to a battle of advertising and PR.

Being a PR professional, Jeremy alludes to his industry as the oft-ignored and mostly afterthought sect. My tendency is to agree with his assessment. His positioning of PR as a combatant in the war for control of the social media territory is understandable.

What I don’t think Jeremy may recognize through his piece is that the future of marketing communications as a whole is changing. Social media is a direct result of the masses flocking to the Internet to control their media environment. This is a nice way of saying folks are online because they hate advertising. As Rob Key’s philosophy indicates, the norms of this new found community will dictate whether or not advertisers will be welcome there.

Those who assimilate into the community and interact with it meaningfully will gain credibility and, thus, influence. (Todd Defren’s words, not mine.) If advertisers try to talk to the community and not with it, they will be asked to leave.

We as marketers are Jane Goodall and the communities online are the chimpanzees. (A metaphor, not a shot at the community intellect.) Trumpeting our arrival with the flash, pizazz and, yes, sex of advertising will only result in Greybeard moving the community elsewhere. Or worse, whipping our ass.

Jeremy asserts, correctly, that education is the key to this. We as social media explorers must educate the world of marketing of the appropriate rules of engagement here. Our educating must be inclusive of the bombasters on the ad side. Failure to do so won’t result in the demise of social media, only a tightening of security.

The bouncer is going to get bigger and badder.

Of course, those preaching the gospel on social media engagement, like Jeremy, are going to continue to hold lofty positions in the marketing community. The it-getters will be heard. If we educate appropriately, the hearing will be done on the front end. If we don’t, or if advertising goes running in to crash the party too quickly, we’ll be heard on the flip side.

And we’ll be picking Greybeard’s foot out of their behinds.

For our part, Doe Anderson has already had a primer on social media. Our internal education program will grow to include specific breakdowns on social networking, social news sites, social bookmarking, blogging and more. We will explore not only what each of these are, but how we as marketers can appropriately approach each one on behalf of our clients. We have extended the learning opportunity to our clients as well and are already booked for one such presentation.

The biggest takeaway I present in these offerings is that we, as marketers, now face the challenge of A) Marketing to people who do not want to be marketed to, B) Talk with the community and not to them and C) Win invitation into conversations rather than injecting ourselves there.

The first rule of communications is to know your audience. This is why I believe Jeremy’s doomsday assertion that advertising will one day overrun social media is jumping the gun. Because smart advertisers will know in order to reach this community, they must throw away all they know and start again.

Related Posts You’ll Find Interesting

1. Monetizing Social Networks
2. The Difference Between Marketing, PR, Advertising and Personal Branding
3. Does Marketing Make You Mental
4. Social Media Marketing: The New SEO
5. 8 Principles of Karmic Communication

IMAGE: By wordman1 on Flickr.

[tags]advertising, marketing, PR, public relations, social media, community, community standards, Web 2.0[/tags]

The post Why Advertising Will Not Win The Battle Of Social Media appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE[/youtube]

[tags]web 2.0, how-to, video[/tags]

The post What Does Web 2.0 Mean? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Human nature can be volatile, inconsistent and even frustrating to predict. Just ask anyone in the marketing or advertising business about it and theyâ€ll roll their eyes. All the statistics in the world couldnâ€t have predicted people would flee the real world for their laptops and IM each other from across the Starbucks. Perhaps the only thing you can predict about human nature is that it will be volatile, inconsistent and frustrating.

When I see marketers blog about what truly engages and reaches people in a social media setting, the bottom line is normally a human connection. One person reaching out to another with like mind or common interest and sharing information: thatâ€s networking. Not social networking, not online community networking, not Myspacey, Facebooky, Twittery non-celebrity fan club-ism, but real human interaction.

Thatâ€s why Web 3.0 (or some increment with an unnecessary decimal point and geek zero added – Does Bill Gates get residuals for the use of “point-oh”?) looks mighty glum to me.

I see the downside of the bell curve where people turn away from their LCD display and say, “I havenâ€t had a meal with another human being in six months.” Theyâ€ll call their worried mothers, knock on the neighborâ€s door to see if they need anything from the corner store and carry on a 20 minute conversation with the check-out clerk.

Weâ€re human beings, not machines. We need other human beings to prove this.

So it is my contention that the next big thing will be the site, company or brand that figures out how to take the online community offline and inject human interaction into the experience. No amount of Second Life enthusiasm, no degree of Facebook addiction and no delineation of Twitter feeds can make a person feel real.

For the record, I hope I can be the one to figure it out first. I donâ€t realistically think Iâ€m quite that smart. But I sure am going to have fun trying.

What do you think Web 3.0 will look like? Do you think the pendulum of online networking fascination one day swing the other way?

PHOTO: “DSC_0393” from Jeff Pulver’s Flickr.

[tags]social media, social networking, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0, Web 5.0, networking, human nature, sociology, psychology, human behavior, future[/tags]

The post Could The Future Of Online Networking Be Offline? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.