nextMEDIA 2009

Despite a snowy start (in June!) to this year’s nextMEDIA 2009 event, the underdressed delegates – from L.A. to Brazil – were still able to enjoy the beautiful locale.

Discussion over the weekend covered the social web from several angles – monetization models, culture and demographics, and search metrics to name a few. Monitors with Tweetdeck rolled along tracking the hashtag #nextMEDIA throughout the venue, keeping conference-goers up to date on the most recent chatter in and around the event. Discussions regularly fell to differentiating between the hype of social media and its more productive uses. Read more

Guy Kawasaki interview Part 3

 

Here’s the final instalment in Walter Schwabe’s interview with Guy Kawasaki.

guy-kawasaki-interview-pt-3

Click on the MP3 above to hear the third part of Walter’s interview of Guy Kawasaki.

Who do you think is probably one of the sharpest minds in the social web environment today?

“Probably Chris Brogan is one of them. The usual cast of characters like Dave Weiner, [Robert] Scoble, Mike Arrington, those people.”

Scoble has a large audience going back to when he was at Microsoft, so is it really that Scoble’s got that sharp of a mind or is it just that he’s got an audience?

“The two are not separable. I don’t think stupid people have large audiences, although you can’t make that case about some TV shows.”

“You’ll find that smart people have large audiences and large audiences find smart people.”

Walter: “He’s leveraging a multitude of technologies simultaneously to get content out the door, video being a large portion of what he does. We all know that. There’s sometimes a tendency for example to get into just reporter mode, if you will, and just kind of report on stuff that’s happening, as opposed to free thinking and leading the way on an innovation basis.”

Do you think he’s really being innovative in the stuff he’s doing?

“I think so. He’s definitely at the leading edge of social media stuff.”

What do you think of FriendFeed?

“We have Frienderati.alltop for the 50 or 100 most interesting people on FriendFeed. I am almost solely on Twitter. I have a FriendFeed account that all it does is aggregate my Tweets. I never go to FriendFeed in the sense that you mean. I never use FriendFeed. I’m just there. I grabbed my name on purpose in advance.”

“I hate to admit this, and it may be dangerous to admit this, but I primarily use these things for real business use of making Alltop better. Whereas I’m not trying to keep in touch with my friends. I’m not trying to get friends. I’m not trying to meet people and date people and all that other crap. It is a very very strict use for me.”

“I use Twitter, and therefore the FriendFeed aggregation of my Tweets, as a weapon for Alltop. Now to be an effective weapon I cannot simply promote Alltop because then it would just be seen as the Alltop channel, how interesting would that be?”

“So I have to put in a lot of things that are interesting in my Twitter feed about stuff that has nothing to do with Alltop: interesting sites that I’ve found, interesting tools that I’ve found, interesting pictures that I’ve seen, etc.”

“So there’s a lot of human nature stuff in my feed but all of this is because I use Twitter as a weapon, and that is probably not a popular thing to say. It’s probably even a dangerous thing to admit but that’s the truth. I am an anti-social social media person.”

Walter: “You’ve stayed exactly on that type of course. I see one of two types of Tweets from you, generally. One, it’s about something new that happened on Alltop or two, it’s some sort of unusual tidbit of information like someone saw Jesus in a piece of toast yesterday. I would have to give you the award for the most unusual bits of information on Twitter; the most unreal stuff.”

Guy: “That is completely on purpose, I hope you understand that some of that is automated. I take the stuff from Truemors and stick it into my feed using Twitterfeed. So that is on purpose but then I also… I spend a few, I don’t know about hours, but I spend a significant time every day looking for interesting websites and interesting things that I can Tweet about so that people want to follow me. It’s very very conscious. It’s not accidental. I do this so I can make Twitter a useful weapon for me.”

Walter: “One of the things that I’ve been doing, just as my own internal case study is I’ve been measuring my own results in a sense. So what I will do is, for example, I might be slightly negative with certain things about certain people or something, whether I get a response or what kind of response I get back. Then I might be overly happy and positive, so really kind of just simple things like that.”

Have you found there’s a type or bit of information or Tweet that gets you more response or more follows than others?

“I’m not that scientific. I don’t have the time to be that scientific. So basically if I find an interesting story about, like last night I found a very interesting website where it’s a web page and it tells you what time it is where you are, based on your computer and location. Then you can set an alarm and at 6 a.m. this alarm went off in my house telling me that it’s 6 a.m.”

Guy said he’s had problems at hotels where he hasn’t received wake-up calls or there have been issues with the clock radio and every one is different. Those are problems you don’t need at midnight.

“This is a web page that just sets the time and your computer starts chiming at that hour. This ain’t exactly… paradigm shifting, Nobel Prize winning technology, but it’s very useful for a traveller. So I Tweet that.”

“Now 17,000 people could have read that and a handful said this is really cool and useful. So now I just want to keep building credibility that when you read my Tweet or when you follow me, it’s not just Alltop. It’s also interesting stuff like this online alarm clock that is really useful when you travel.”

“Every day somebody sends a message to me that ‘I am no longer following you because you promote Alltop too much in your Tweets.’”

Walter: “I was one of those guys at one point, Guy. I was one of those guys at one point

Walter said he was one of those people and got frustrated with Guy’s Tweets and stopped following him. He blogged about it and Guy responded. Walter and Guy began to have a conversation.

Walter: “I started to recognize ‘okay, there must something else on the go here.’ And so you very quickly restored a positive feeling with respect to what you were doing. I was literally one of those guys at one point.”

Guy: “I think my model is sort of like NPR [National Public Radio] or public television. You know that the content is really good at NPR and public television, but every once in a while they have these donate-a-thons.”

Guy: “I want to have good enough content, interesting websites, interesting pictures, interesting things, whatever, so that you tolerate the advertising for Alltop. That’s the model, and if you can’t stand the advertising and if you can’t stand the fundraising at the public television station, you don’t watch it.”

Guy: “Life goes on. On the other hand, if you do value or humor or entertainment out of my other Tweets, then you tolerate my Alltop Tweets. If one person dropped me a day in 17,000 days I would have no followers.”

In light of baby boomers exiting the workforce in the next several years, how do you thing those organizations that resist change are going to fare versus those that really embrace change and are jumping into social media with both feet?

“This is a question that gets asked every 10 years for the last 200 years. Right? So, the people who don’t embrace change die. That’s why when’s the last time you used an NCR cash register or the last time you used a Data General computer? That’s the way it is.”

“This is not to say everybody has to embrace every thing but certainly if you embrace nothing you will die. …Even the most recalcitrant person who doesn’t want to adopt social media has to realize that to adopt nothing… maybe those people are still on rotary dial phone. Maybe they’re still on telegraph. That’s just the way it is.”

Do you think social media could be an effective HR tool to reduce attrition?

“I guess, conceptually, yes, but compared to what? Having clear goals set with clear functions and clear reporting and well managed? I would say if you do those things you don’t need Twitter and if you don’t have those things, even with Twitter, you’re going to have turnover. So social media is not going to fix everything.”

With the younger segments of the workforce, already labeled as transient, do you think social media can help them stay engaged?

“I think it’d play a role, however, it’s a small role. You’d do much better if you had clearly defined jobs with good supervision, interesting challenges and fair compensation. If you do that, you don’t need social media.”

“If you don’t do that, social media isn’t going to keep someone who doesn’t have a good boss, isn’t well compensated and has a crappy job.”

What about communication, in general, in an organization?

“That’s like saying 20 years ago, if you said do you think organizations with internal email systems will be able to retain people better? Well, yeah, I guess internal email and messaging will help, but the fact is, if you’re an organization that doesn’t communicate, slapping email isn’t going to fix the problem.”

What’s your personal mantra?

“Empower people.”

If you had to explain social media to an un-savvy audience, how would explain social media to them?

“It enables you to have conversations with anybody, anywhere, anytime.”

Feedback?

And that was it. It’s not often you get a chance to interview someone like Guy Kawasaki for such a long time. I’m sure I can speak for Walter in saying that we appreciate the time Guy spent talking to Walter. Long interviews aren’t always so interesting but I have to admit that after I listened to this one for the first time, it really didn’t feel like almost one hour.

Let us know what you thought of what Guy had to say and about how he uses Twitter.

Do you agree or disagree with what he has to say? Do you follow @guykawasaki?

Coming soon

We have an interview with Seth Godin that we’ll be putting up here soon. Keep checking back for that or sign up for our RSS feed.

And if you have any other questions or comments, you can always pass them along to me.

Alain Saffel alain@fusedlogic.com

Social Web Meetup at NAIT

Without a doubt, the turnout for last night’s Social Web Meetup was the best so far. I didn’t do the count but I think there were around 30 people in the room!

We were in NAIT’s new Nexen room that had two very large screens. They might give Imax a run for the money. SomethingTV was there chronicling the event and there were so many cameras there you’d think that it was a press conference.

Alberta government successfully implementing Web 2.0 & social media strategy

Our mystery guest was Troy Wason (@imparo on Twitter) and Troy gave us a great presentation about mypcmla.ca. Troy is the Senior Communications Officer – Social Media, for Government Caucus Communications.

That’s quite a mouthful, but boiling it down, Troy is helping the Alberta government with web 2.0. Yes, our government is successfully moving forward in engaging the public with modern new communications tools. That’s a good thing.

He said that there are some people who knock what he’s doing, but people would knock the party in power no matter what they did anyway. Regardless of your party affiliation, don’t you think that having your government open up a two-way dialogue online is a good thing? How can it be bad? As long as it’s a two-way dialogue, that’s a good start.

The site has only recently been rolled out and you should be seeing it change in the future. It’s worth checking out. If there’s something you’d like to see on the site, let them know.

Social media conversation at Brewster’s pub

We reserved a couple of large tables at Brewster’s pub in Oliver Square for a little socializing afterwards. At least half the people showed up there and we had a good time. Keeping on the theme of social media we had a good time talking about social media. I think it ended up being a popular choice, partly due to the 32 oz Schooner beers being on special.

Cameras were another popular topic, particularly Bruce Clarke’s new Canon 5D Mk II. I’m partial to Canon as well, having a Canon 30D on hand for the evening.

All in all it everyone seemed to have a really good time and it was nice to put faces to some of the names of people we might already be following on social media such as Twitter.

Next Social Web Meetup

Local realtor Jerry Aulenbach (@zoomjer on Twitter) sponsored the evening with refreshments. Thanks Jerry!

Our next Social Web Meetup is March 2 and will again be held at NAIT. Make sure you sign up on the site and RSVP whether or not you’ll be attending. Hope to see you there!

Alain Saffel

CPRS Edmonton gives back…

…”Oh the weather outside is frightful….”  However, what’s going to be delightful is the fact that at a presentation to a group of public relations professionals today we’ll get to raise more food bank donations.

I want to thank the folks from CPRS Edmonton from the bottom of my heart for not only inviting me to speak with them today but more importantly for supporting Edmonton’s Food Bank and the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge in particular.

As many of you can tell from our blog and (even a bit of press, yeah baby!) or the section entitled “Food Bank” we’ve got something going on with Edmonton’s Food Bank.  As mentioned above it’s the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge.

This really is exciting because outside of our daily client work we can focus on having some fun with our social pals, friends and acquaintances and explore our collective desire to give back.  Contrary to what others may think, I think it’s in our human nature to want to give.  This exercise will help prove my hypothesis.  1 million pictures of 1 million donations in 1 year.  WOW, talk about being able to measure results.  Regardless of where we end up (past our goal…) this will be a great learning experience for all concerned.  Human nature, social conversation and even the advantages and disadvantages of some of the technology…lot’s to observe and learn from.

Plus, for the gadget freaks we get to play with our digital cameras too.  Speaking of which I’ll ensure we get lot’s of photos of the donations made by the Edmonton’s PR society today and post them on our Facebook group

Oh and by the way, look out Calgary, Edmonton’s gunning for ya…I know that my pals in Calgary who are reading this right now are shakin in their space boots (it’s in their nature).  You better go take some pictures of your donation drives before we here in Edmonton get too much of a jump on you…and Flames fans this goes double for you.  Oilers fans will never stand for it…

Welcome to the new Battle of Alberta!

Walter Schwabe

Talking Social Media with the Edmonton Mayfield Rotary Club

Walter is speaking about social media today the Edmonton Mayfield Rotary Club, and I’m (Mack) here to liveblog it! We’ve also got Krysta here recording some video that will be posted soon. Stay tuned to this post for updates!

What is social media? There’s a lot of buzz these days.

“This is not a fad, it’s quite serious.”

What’s the difference between today and a decade ago?

• Today we have a two-way broadcasting system, instead of a one-way.
• Individuals are just as powerful as organizations.

What are organizations doing today?

• They are stuck using old methodologies.
• Generally, they don’t work with the “creative class”, people who have been plugged for most of their lives.
• Most corporations want to control the message. It’s deep within their DNA.
• Companies need to learn to let go of some of that control. Not 100%, that would be reckless, but some change is required.
• Yes, once the company lets go of some control, some negativity will creep in. There’s fear. Companies are afraid they will put their brand at risk if they embrace social media – and that’s just not the case.

An example – Dell.

• Jeff Jarvis explained on his blog what a terrible customer experience he had with his Dell. He continued to blog about it over time, and called his situation “dell hell”.
• His message connected with others, who also blogged about it. Dell however, wasn’t listening.
• Eventually, Dell got the message and changed what they were doing.

Another example – Jeep treats social networking like another channel – example provided by Forrester Research.

• They woke up one morning and decided they had to be “cool”. So they started a Facebook group.
• The most popular Jeep group isn’t the official one, however, it’s a group created by a fan.
• Jeep missed an opportunity to built rapport with the existing community.

Where do you start with social media?

“Do you have the guts to encourage transparency within your organization? You need to be real, with customers and employees.”

Then you can get started.

1. Listen to the Internet, to find out what people are saying about your product or service. Don’t assume they aren’t talking about you.
2. Harness the collective intelligence of others out there on the web. Find out who the market leaders and influencers are.
3. Once identified, you can work with them on a word-of-mouth campaign.

Does this work? Just look at Barack Obama. By far the most successful campaign in the world.

What’s the trap?

• There’s a very low barrier to entry. A teenager in their basement has the same power to create something as good or better than you can!
• Don’t assume that large companies have the advantage!

Time for questions!

• Are non-profit organizations making use of social media? Absolutely. It’s becoming increasingly common, it can definitely work for them.
• Can social media be used for scams? Like anything else, there’s always the potential for negativity. Your guard always needs to be up, it’s not specific to social media.
• As a small business, it’s hard to find time to just be there listening. What can you do, can your firm help? Definitely, fusedlogic can help you, this is one of the main services offered. And it can be automated, so that you find out when someone mentions your product or service. The problem affects all sorts of organizations, not just small businesses.
• How do organizations decide which site to use? We have MySpace, Facebook, etc. Which should we use? The first question to answer is, what is your objective? For example, if you know which demographic to target, you can help decide which networks to focus on. And it’s important to know that there are networks out there for specific purposes, such as LinkedIn for business.
• Can you comment on Twitter and what we saw on TV with the presidential election? It’s a microblogging service. You get 140 characters to update. In the case of Obama, his campaign used Twitter to announce when they were at a rally or on the move. CNN used Twitter to highlight what people were talking about during the election. The news breaks on Twitter – a good example is the recent earthquake in Los Angeles. It’s a great tool to quickly ascertain the heart of the story.

And with that, we’re done. Great presentation Walter and lots of good questions from the audience.

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