360DigitalInfluence

One of the best sessions at the #140 Conference yesterday was by David Carr @carr2n, a brilliant writer and blogger for The New York Times.  In 10 minutes he gave one of the funniest, most spot on presentations I’ve seen on “why Twitter will endure.”  I do it barely any justice…

• Momentum – Despite some slowing growth of the user base there are more than 50MM tweets posted per day.  Besides, the metrics aren’t the most important thing to focus on “look at MySpace.”
• Twitter is Joyful – Nothing gives the deep joy of Twitter, and the ability to see into the skulls of some of the best writers in the country.
• Utility – If forced to pick between listening on Twitter and broadcasting, he’d pick listening on Twitter every time.  Twitter is human enabled RSS – you can scoop in a cup and find out what’s happening right now.
• Simple/Easy UI – Simple is hard, and Twitter does it well.
• Starbucks – Twitter makes waiting in line at Starbucks tolerable, and calms you the baristas appear to be moving underwater.
• Hook Ups – We never give up hope that we’ll somehow meet and have serendipitous interaction with other humans, and  Twitter - or mindcasting - is one of the best indications of who you are.
• Pipes – Twitter is infrastructure.  continue reading
  

Snowmageddon.  Snowpocolypse. Kaiser Snowze.  The 2009/2010 winter season in DC has gone by a lot of names.  One of the most notable side stories in my (social media crazed) mind is the role that social media (or should I say snowcial media?) has played in everything from storm tracking, to commiserating, to clean up efforts.  Particularly noteworthy is the way “traditional” players got in on the action.

The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang

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From Rob BonDurant, VP of Marketing at Patagonia – from today’s WOMMA Summit.

Patagonia… continue reading

At Stream, I helped facilitate a great session with Jory Des Jardins (co-founder of BlogHer) and Christine Cea (Director of Brand PR, Unilever) entitled After the One Night Stand – How To Get Beyond Buzz and Create Sustained WOM Programs. Our session focused on this challenge from three perspectives: the agency, the client, and the partner.

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I was fortunate enough to spend the last few days at WPP’s annual Stream Conference - which brings together some of the brightest minds from around the network in an unconference format to discuss the what’s next in digital and technology communications.

Some of the best sessions I attended were the ones organized around lists - be it potential “truths” presented for discussion, or co-created outputs.  One such session was The Myth of the Viral presented by YouTube.

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Last night I returned from a whirlwind trip to Ogilvy in Mexico City, where I was lucky enough to conduct a day long training session for 15 of the office’s most social media savvy staff.  Having the opportunity to broaden my horizons beyond the US, and look at social through a more global lens was invaluable.  Below are FIVE key insights I picked up from my research, and great discussions I had with my Ogilvy team members and Jesus Hoyas (President of the Social Media Club – Mexico City):

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I’ve been on Facebook since 2003.  I’ve been blogging since 2006.   I got on Twitter in 2007.  Generally speaking, I didn’t believe there was room in my life (or my attention span) for another platform.   Enter Posterous.

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The CEO of Federated Media, Chas Edwards, presented a number of case studies from their network – and gave an overview of their thinking on social media measurement. continue reading

I’m at the Word of Mouth Marketing Associations WOMM-U event for the next day – and while there promises to be a wealth of content published here and through our team’s various twitter handles (@jbell99, @virginiamiracle, @iansohn, @tanyachadha) I’m going to focus my blog updates on measurement stories generated by the great brands in attendance.
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May 13/14 the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is holding its annual WOMM-U event in Miami, FL.  The agenda is jam packed with word of mouth practitioners from some top brands (Lenovo, Disney, PepsiCo, Wal-Mart), and digital shops (Federated Media, Facebook, Distributive Networks, Visible Technologies) who will be leading practical, interactive discussions for developing and implementing successful WOM programs in today’s economy.

Through our association with WOMMA, we’re excited to be able to offer 1 free pass to the conference to one of our readers ($1495 value) – but we’re not going to make it easy.
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