This week I was in Houston as many of you know who follow me on Twitter know. I was taking part in the 2009 Marketing in The Oilfield Conference. My panel was Leverging Social Media. It was a great event and I had a really nice time. As I networked and meet interesting people, I started to notice something about the folks there. There were lots of comments like:

-I’m here to learn about Social Media

-I really don’t understand this stuff, but I am here to learn

-We are here to get more clients

-I am here to learn about brand management.

-We came to learn more about Twitter

Okay, you get the idea lots of different reasons for coming to this event. So I thought it would be interesting to ask you why your wanting to learn about Social Media. What is it you want to get out of it? Is it for your company? Your personal brand? Is there a message you want to get out? Why are you spending time learning about it?

Leave your thoughts, comments, insight in the comments please… lets have a discussion

Posted under Blog, Speaking Engagements

So the following comments are my own personal thoughts regarding the 140 The Twitter Conference. They are impartial   and not biased. You may think they could be biased due to the following things, which I will share in list form, as people like lists:

-I was on the “Best Practices: How to be a Twitter God(dess) panel with Tara Hunt and Ijustine.

-LSF Interactive was a Media Sponsor

-There was a press release

-There was a fancy bio about me.

-I well…use Twitter a little..just a little really!

-I got to stand on stage! Here is what it looked like from my point of view:

Okay, so disclaimer is out of the way, now back to the review of the conference.

So instead of me typing up a review about what happened who did what, etc, etc. I thought I would try something different. Ill let the links do the talking…

-Live blogging from #140tc Alex Payne (head of Twitter’s API team)

-The Twitterverse, a map of Twitter tools

-Live blog of the @anamitra keynote at #140tc

-Tara Hunts ” 40 Reasons Why Twitter Rawks”

-Heck here are some more presentation slides

-What I learned at the 140 Twitter Conference

-Pictures..we have pictures

-Mercury News Article

-140tc Search Results

So there you go, seems to have been a pretty cool event. Fingers crossed it happens again next year

If you have any links that I missed, which no doubt I did. Please share them!

P.S. Not sure who to give photo credit to at top. Let me know if it is your photo!

Read More…

Posted under Blog, Social Media, Speaking Engagements

Yep..its another one.  Hey, it has been about a month since the last one. Just so much to share and too little time to do it.  So you get it all in one nice post! So here is information  and self promotion with links to things I want to share,people to thank  or think you may find of interest. If your not interested, that’s okay, you can always look for my spelling errors and give me a hard time.. I make a lot.

Scared yet?

So away we go…

- Starting  today I am “test driving” the 2009 Ford Flex. I get to use the car until next week. Let it be known, I am so not a car guy. I know nothing about them. What I am is a gadget guy. The built in media center brings me to tears, its amazing. Get this, its all voice activated.  Ill need to take some pics of that and post. Here is a short video and a pic:

-On April 23rd I organized the Peninsula Twitter and Facebook Meetup.  It went really well. There were roughly 115 people who came throughout the night! Here is some video. I will be putting together some sort of event page shortly for future meetups.

-The Community 2.0 Conference is May 11-13, 2009 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Myself,  Connie Bensen and Kellie Parker will be leading an all day workshop called “Getting Started with Community” on May 11.

-The 140 Twitter Conference will take place on May 26th and 27th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, they are bringing together the top gurus in the Twitosphere to discuss all things Twitter, from understanding the business value of Twitter to exploring the what makes a great Twitter app. As LSF Interactive is a media sponsor of this event, where I work, I have a discount code to share.

Discount Code of in140tc for 140 Twitter Conference 2009

- Do not forget that ever week you can listen to the Social Media Club Editorial Board come up with a question of the week for everyone to comment on.

Yes, Im part of the board. (Come on its shameless plugs right?)

-Because this if for a Thesis for Roskilde University and he asked really nice,  I thought I would pass this on. Aleksander Sonder of Copenhagen, Denmark is doing a quick survey regarding the Corporate Use Of Twitter. The data is updated and open to everyone here.

-A big thank you to Techcrunch for putting on  a Star Trek Screening tonight here in Redwood City. They are giving up to 4 tickets per person for $2.00 each with popcorn and a drink! Oh you also get bragging rights to have seen the movie early! So myself and my sons will be there when the doors open!

-As always I update my Twitter Feed with articles/info I think worth passing on and my other random posts if you just cant get enough of me.

Okay, hope I did not miss anything…. Live Long and Prosper! (yes I am a geek.)

Posted under Blog, Off Subject, Peninsula Twitter and Facebook Meet-Up, Shameless Plugs, Social Media, Speaking Engagements, Your Week In Review

The quilt..it weighs heavy on my shoulders.  I did not put up a blog post last week. I suck. I know. So maybe I am the only one who cares. Most people probably could care less about what I blog about. So, to that one person who cares…fine…..to my Mom.. I’m sorry.

So, on that high note, this is not going to be much of a post, but a bunch of links and information about things that are going on or up and coming. I thought it would be a good idea to share several things with you. Yes, some of it is me doing shameless plugs. I am, sorry in advance. I will share this information with you in list form, as people like lists:

-This Friday, April 17th I will be speaking at the Bay Area New Media Summit at Bently Reserve. I will be on the panel “How to Socialize Your Video”.

-On April 23rd there is a “Peninsula Twitter & Facebook Meet-Up” at the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park, California. This is my first time organizing such an event, so I hope don’t mess it up. Please pass this information on, all our welcome to attened this 7:00 pm event.

-The Project 100 is a project I was flattered to be part of. It is  100 Marketers who are allowed 400 words each to write a collaborative book on “Project 100: Marketing in the Social Media Era“. All profits go to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure. You can get a preview of the book here.

-The Community 2.0 Conference is May 11-13, 2009 ath the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Myself,  Connie Bensen and Kellie Parker will be leading an all day workshop called “Getting Started with Community” on May 11.

-I was very humbled to be excepted as on of the first members of the Social Media Club Editorial Board. Each week the board is given a question to examine, dissect and respond to. This weekly event is all recorded on a podcast and lead by Chris Heuer.  Learn more about the Social Media Club Question of The Week and the podcast/blog here.

Alright, that is all for now. I will get a “real” post up here shortly.

Thanks!

Posted under Blog, New Media, Peninsula Twitter and Facebook Meet-Up, Shameless Plugs, Speaking Engagements

5 Weeks down for 2009 and 47 weeks to go! Amazing! Its been a busy week in social media. Let me share with you some of the items I find interesting or worth passing on!

- #3 I wore braces

#4  I don’t like mayo

#5… you get the idea, I’m referring to the 25 Random Things Chain letter that is just rocking Facebook right now.  How big is it? Huge! Get this… per Facebook they state that:

• The number of total Facebook Notes created per day has increased over 100% in the last week
• The number of people tagged in Facebook Notes per day has increased 5x in the last week

Crazy! Now not everyone is a fan, check out this great article by Claire Suddath called 25 Things I didn’t Want to Know About You

Since I am sharing about Facebook, which is still getting hotter here are a few other articles worth checking out, if only for grins:

Wife Learns of Divorce via Facebook Status Update

Facebook Turned 5 years Old

-Fears of impostors increase on Facebook

Social Media is only getting bigger! More and more companies are getting on board and using it have an online presence to interact with clients, build their brand and well increase sales. In short, everyone is doing it. Do not believe me? Just take a list of the Top 100 Social Brands of 2008. Oh and the top 10 are:

1. iPhone

2. CNN

3. Apple

4. Disney

5. Xbox

6. Starbucks

7. Ipod

8. MTV

9. Sony

10. Dell

Did your company make the list? No worries as  Mitch Joel points out, Social Media Is Just Getting Started!

Keep in mind that 93% of social media users do expect  that companies should be using social media! Take a look at this study from Sept 2008 by Cone

-Virtual Worlds, something close to my heart and it seems Disney as well. Disney will be investing more money into them and believes they are close to being profitable.

Okay, couple random things  I just wanted to share.

First, check out this video from 1981. It is a segment done by San Francisco station KRON about newspapers going on the web. It is worth the 2:17 to watch it. As they mention the crazy cost , how its experiment, and it takes over 2 hours to get the whole newspaper.

On February 25, 2009 at 8:30 am I will be speaking at the Emerging Media Morning forum in Palo Alto, CA. So if you are bored come on by and say HI!

Posted under Blog, Social Media, Speaking Engagements