So...What's Next?!?

Technology can hurt people

It seems so harmless. A keyboard, and monitor and an Internet connection. But we all know that those three things can damage a person's reputation quickly and easily.

First is the ease of emails. Buy a list, or steal a list, or scrape the Internet to create a list, get a cheap email service and spam away!

For a sales person or small business, email seems like such a convenient tool to get in front of people. People do not answer their phones anymore, and when they do they are often just as or possibly more frustrated with a cold call that interrupted them than they would be with that cold email that made their blackberry vibrate and rattle across the table.

Direct mail gets tossed out before it even gets looked at.

Person to person networking at events is time consuming and can get expensive.

So how can a sales person/small business person ever get any business?

The realities are that we have to pick up the phone, send the cold email, and get to the networking events. We have to reach out to many people over and over again. I'm sorry - but even with all the hoopla of social media, sales is still sales.

But there is one aspect of sales I have always believed should be honored above anything else and that is honesty.

When I was a recruiter we were taught how to lie our way to the decision maker or the potential candidate. I refused to follow those techniques and later took it upon myself to re-train new hires of how to get the job done honestly (yeah I caused some tension in the office - surprised?)

It seems that after SoCon08 a small business person used email to reach out to the people who attended. I personally have no problem with that - I know we need to do what we need to do to find sales. However, unfortunately his wording in the email suggested that he met every person at the conference, which would be 250+

This became a bit of a buzz amongst the bloggers - the idea that they had been spammed. It is unfortunate. The person's name was used in one of the blogs, which I find even more unfortunate.

I tried to avoid being a part of the situation, but since all of this occurred I have found myself involved in a few offline conversations and was just included, as were many others, in an email about the situation.

So here is my opinion.

We have tools that make us seem very powerful. But when we use them as a means to hurt someone, even when it is true that the person did do something wrong, I think we have crossed the line toward abuse of our technological powers.

I have been beyond furious at others throughout my years of blogging. I have felt so much venom boiling inside of me that I wanted to cause irreparable damage. I even blogged about it - subtly. But I never actually used names or caused real harm, because when it came right down to it, I know I am not perfect and I would not want someone to hurt me for my many mistakes.

Technology is powerful - please use caution.

Getting Social

Today was an interesting day. I started the morning out at Starbucks with Fritz. Around lunchtime we went over to Tony's American Grill for a Jelly co-working session.

There were about 6 guys there working - one person knew me from SoCon08. We all hit it off immediately and spent a good amount of time socializing.

CNN apparently heard about these co-working sessions and had scheduled time to come to this one to take a few pictures and interview the participants. That was kinda cool! I hope I can catch it when it gets broadcasted.

The other cool thing that happened was that I was contacted my an old co-worker from 8 years ago (Hi Sean!) who recently signed up to LinkedIN and started discovering all kinds of long lost contacts including me. It was interesting that we were catching up with each other simply by reading what we each had posted online.

Social media Rocks!

Momentum

Offline activities translates to online conversations.

So as I mentioned in the post yesterday, there was some twittering going on at the summit.

At SoCon07, Podcamp, Barcamp, SoCon08 and all the other such conferences there is blogging, podcasting, picture taking, videoing, twittering and more happening.

I was having a conversation with a friend today and I mentioned how SoCon08 was promoted completely through the organizers' online network and the extended network. He has recently been to another large conference that was also completely promoted through online networks.

What is interesting with promoting offline events through your online network is the kind of buzz that gets created before, during, and after the event. That kind of publicity could not be bought - and if it was it would be quite expensive.

But what makes that kind of publicity different from the kind that can be bought is that it is authentic and transparent. If an event has some glitches, everyone will know about it.

So far it has only been a brave few who have been willing to put their abilities to pull off a large task, whether it is an event or a collaborative project, out in the open, naked, for all the world to see and judge.

That does seem like a scary thought... but the ongoing rewards can be absolutely amazing.

“Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.”

Pete Rose

The Possibilities of Mass Collaboration

I attended the Georgia Technology Summit today. So far I found a few blogs, some tweets, and Amani Channels video from the session. I am sure there are more to come. I will be saving the reactions here.

The keynote Speaker was Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics - the 2007 management book of the year.

I was very excited that this group would be introduced to his message, but I am a little concerned that it did not resonate with many.

Just follow some of the tweets;

StephenFleming:                

#gts2008 Seeing a lot of eyes glazed over here. I hope it's soaking in to some people.                  

jhaynie:                

#gts2008 -  *more people need* to read wikinomics in this room                

I actually saw someone dozing off!

Tapscott started with the 2007 Time Magazine person of the year as being “You.”

He discussed the growth of Facebook and MySpace that is happening all over the world and that there is a new blog created every second of everyday…

And then he dropped the "All this news is so 2006."

Today it is about a new way of productions. How we create goods and services and how companies communicate all over the world.

What was so timely about this message was the post on BusinessWeek

Social Media Will Change Your Business
Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later

I would like to repeat...I saw people falling asleep this morning!!!

Tapscott also discussed how the new web is accessed throughout various “things” from chips in the door key for his hotel to smart houses.

He talked about how the physical world is becoming smart and interconnected bringing up;

Broadband Mobility

Geo-Spatiality (GPS Tour Guide)  and IntelliOne

He also discussed the idea of True Multimedia – You get to have a movie and be in the movie as well. Think of the next generation of game play with cinema.

I would say it is practically here with machinima.

Tapscott discussed the rise of web services and how the new web is based on XML – computation…..where every time you interact with the computer you are programming the global platform and the need to integrate internal systems to the global platform (AJAX)

He announced that people who keep thinking about the Internet as it used to be are making a big mistake.

Our kids, the ones coming into the workforce, known as the net generation, have no “fear” of technology because it is like air to them.

I hated computers in the 10th grade. Todays 10th graders do not know a world without computers.

How much of an accelerated change is this?...Tapscott showed the growth trend of this generation in regards to the population growth

Generations – Boom, Bust (Gen X) and then the  Echo (net gen) which is louder than the original boom.

For this generation time online is taking away from television. These kids watch less TV and they are multi-taking while interacting with all their digital devices.

62% of the time heavy Internet users bleep out TV ads. That means when they are watching television, they are watching it on their own terms.

Tapscott noted that this is the first time in history when children are the authority on something really important.

Tapscott highlighted the attitudes of the net gen based on  a panel with some kids awhile back.

"Why would I read a newspaper no links and only comes out once a day…"

"News is called an RSS feed and I can start my own newspaper."

"The Daily Show is not funny unless you know the news."

Kids expect to be engaged. As Tapscott pointed out;

Self organization has been around for the ages. Language is a function of self organization. But what used to take place over a millennia or centuries now can happen in a week or even a single day.

Tapscott noted that the average age of people who watch the nightly news is 62!

He also made a good case that the Internet is a platform for collaborations and that companies should not have websites anymore, they should be building communities.

Best question of the day...If you have employees wasting time on social networks…..is that a technology problem?

Sharing is Capitalism at it’s best because it is collaboration for innovation.

My Question – First I noted that there is a generation gap - from my spot in the room I thought I was the only one with a laptop trying to live blog (the wireless was not accessible) as opposed to all the bloggers we have at the SoCon events. But as you see a few others blogged the event -some of the "usual suspects" :)

Then I asked how the participants  of today's summit can find the balance of responding and managing these shifts as well as strategies to embrace and take advantage of these trends. Tapscott nailed the answer - just start contributing.

Overall it was a great event and I got to see a lot of people I know and meet a few new people.

Tonights closing quote;

We could go over the cliff. You would hope not. You would hope that people see what needs to be done. It's not rocket science. It's not difficult. It's not even all that costly. It's actually about the way you think about the world.

Tim Flannery

We should be the cool kids!

Is your city social media friendly? Do businesses in your area have a reputation for embracing blogs, podcasts, and social networks?

This is the question that Dan Greenfield asked of several participants of SoCon08.

The overall answer (re: Atlanta)  was no - not really.

The question I had to ask myself today was;  Is that hurting me more than helping me as a social media consultant?

I have not traveled to the west coast...this past weekend I brought the west coast to Atlanta - that should count for something. But this weekend Chris Heuer and Josh Hallett and Dave Coustan pointed out that I need to get out to more conferences...something Timothy Moenk has been telling me for two years.

But today was the clincher. I was presenting to a new company here in Atlanta, my adopted hometown, where I have been evangelizing social media relentlessly for 2 + years - and the person I was presenting to said she had never heard of me. OK - that just sounds egotistical - but stay with me.

This person was also a social media enthusiast. However she had been going to conferences in NY and in CA and not even looking for good opportunities in Atlanta, because, she said, Atlanta had no market.

Because I have stayed in this city, it was almost as though my credibility was in question. Overall we worked it out and had a great meeting - but Atlanta... I am embarrassed!

I am not technical - so I can not go into details of all the activities that Jeff Haynie and Mike Schinkel and many others have been putting together such as start-up weekend or barcamp, but I do know that we have tried a variety of end user social media efforts that I have been involved with such as Atlanta Media Bloggers Group, Social Media Club, Social Media for PR Professionals, CRMA Summit, SoCon07, SoCon08, the new Enterprise 2.0 Society of TAG - plus PRSA events and there have been many other events.

So what is the disconnect?

Well - today I was sent another idea to start another group.

    Social Networking Experience Council

Initially I explained that I just do not have the bandwidth to start another effort. However, then I started thinking more about it. How can I get others to start "experience councils" regarding their industry? Someone who really is in PR (which I am not) should have a Social Networking PR Council. Many Interactive Marketing Agencies are claiming to be involved in social media. They should get together and start trading notes, because the one thing I have noticed is they are all over the place when it comes to how to create a social media site and what being a "consultant" means. We need more round tables and discussions.

But as much as I have tried to get those together, they do not happen in the business communities here like they should. The way they do things on "the West Coast." Everyone who claims to be an expert here seems to  treat social media as their secret sauce. It seems it is only a secret to people in Atlanta. Everyone else knows the doors are "open."

Come on Atlanta peeps - let's stand up and shine and not remain the outcast, introverted, stuff shirt city in the connected world. Let's start being one of the cool kids again!

Every generation needs a new revolution.

- Thomas Jefferson

What a Day!

Last night I could not sleep. I had good reason to be tired for SoCon07 - the anxiety and preparation and such, but this year I had no anxiety and did not have to worry about the preparation. So why did I not sleep...because of "happy thoughts!"

The dinner was amazing. Chris Heuer joined my table which focused on Social Media and PR. To my right was Marlon Manuel who I met almost a year ago on a PRSA panel, Mike Neumeier was there as well as a few others that I got to meet for the first time.

The food was great, the conversations stimulating and many of the people that were there are dear friends that helped me launch into this world but that I have not seen in several months. It felt like a reunion dinner for me. What was also great is many of my new friends were there immersing themselves in all the creative idealism that I have been expressing for so long.

I left the dinner very energized.

When I got home I started thinking about all the things going well in my life right now. As cheesy as it sounds, I was literally awake for hours simply feeling blessed. There is a huge difference in where I am today and where I was a year ago for SoCon07.

(photo by Josh Hallett)

That was the theme of one of our opening discussions. We each first said how our life changed since SoCon07 and then asked the audience.

I had not prepared anything in advance, but the word that came to mind was momentum. The momentum that came from the relationships I have built that were enriched because of the ability to follow each other's ideas online. In this picture by extraface Leonard was reinforcing what I had just said while I got a flash back to the old Atlanta Media Bloggers days.

What was so incredibly touching about the day is hearing so many people credit SoCon07 for launching their dreams. I mean a lot of people made a lot of connections and got a lot of ideas last year and was able to stand up and say that event was why they are living their dream today - and that is the idealism that brought it all together.

Chris Heuer was everything I hoped for as a keynote speaker and his message was well received.

Overall it seemed to be a much more relaxed atmosphere this year. I ran two breakout sessions. The first one Social Media for B2B I felt went too many directions. I had a road map of where I wanted to take it, but threw it out half way through the session, which is when the session got better. The social media etiquette session was a blast!

Tomorrow I am going to scan the Flickr photos and blog posts to write a more comprehensive recap on the corporate site, but tonight I leave you with a quote that captures the essence of the most important lessons I have learned these past 2 years from all the people who have inspired me:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

- Steve Jobs

Who started this thing anyway...

I just returned from the kick off of SoCon08. I got to see Grayson Daughters there briefly and she pointed out how far we've come. I met Grayson through the Atlanta Media Blogger's Group - a small monthly meetup from about two years ago. We were lucky if 10 people showed up - but they were usually the 10 brightest people I had ever met.

That got me thinking about the first Atlanta Media Bloggers Group - which was started by Kevin Howarth - eventually I kept it going, but that was only because I was inspired by the person who spoke at the first one, which was Josh Hallett.

From there it was Kevin (again) who convinced me and drove with me to ConvergeSouth and then it was James Harris who encouraged me to set a date for this - idea and yet to be named unconference. It was the core Atlanta Media Bloggers Group that rallied the troops which eventually brought Leonard Witt, Jeff Haynie and me together.

I remember walking into SoCon07 and saying to myself..."who did  this?"  - because it ended up being much more than I would ever dare to imagine thanks to Leonard's passion and Jeff's organizational skills.

This year we had 160 people at the dinner - about 70 more people than last year  and we have 300 people registered for tomorrow's event. Wow!

'So tonight I leave you with this quote...

“Influence may be the highest level of human skills”
-Unknown

Sleep, Politics, and a Long Awaited Dinner

That title pretty much describes my day. I slept a lot today - and I feel better now. I should be back to normal by tomorrow night for the kick off of SoCon08. Most of the family is better now. My oldest son, who did not get the flu - just a bad cough - still has the cough...perhaps a 24 hour bug was not so bad. My youngest was full of energy today - I slept.

I did check emails periodically throughout the day and at one point was informed of a bill that is causing some concern.

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 9 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to forgery and fraudulent practices, so as to provide definitions; to provide that “it shall be illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking website to allow a minor using a protected computer to create or maintain a profile web page on a social networking website without the permission of the minor's parent or guardian and without providing such parent or guardian access to such profile web page; to provide for penalties; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.”

I was asked for my opinion and involvement. I have to think about this for a bit - though it seems time is of the essence, they are going to try to push the bill through tomorrow. One letter to the senator was shared with me which made the valid point that there are more sexual predators in our neighborhoods percentage wise than on MySpace and that our children are more at risk going to the mall than having a profile on MySpace. I completely agree with that. I have had this "debate" often regarding me just posting information about my children online and having their pictures on my Flickr account.

I personally grew up in a "rough" part of Miami - shopped at the Sears that Adam Walsh was abducted from, personally knew another kid who was abducted and had one personal scary incident myself. So I guess I should be the first paranoid mom in line. But - I teach my kids how to be safe and smart and I choose to live life without unnecessary fear.

So what do I think about this Bill?  I personally do not think I have a lot of "passion" around it because I guess I do not see the long term consequences yet of such a Bill, but I do think it is unnecessary. Parents, such as me, who monitor their children's Internet activities will do so with or without such a bill. Parents who don't, and have children who want to create a profile, will have children who do what we have all done as a child, and forge their parent's consent. So I am not seeing what this bill is solving. So I have to think about this more and would love to know the opinions of others.

Later tonight, I did feel decent enough to get out for dinner. A long awaited dinner with Josh Hallett in that twice I have canceled plans on him when he was up here, and we have crossed each other's paths so many times but never just sat down and got to know each other. He gave me a lot of insight on what he does and some great advice for my own small company.  The one bit of advice I have heard a lot is that I need to get out to more conferences around the country - I need to put that in this year's plan - I know.

Well back to sleep so that I can have a productive and fun filled weekend this week. But I leave you with a quote -

While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about. ~Angela Schwindt

Atlanta's Landscape is Changing

About a year and a half ago we started putting SoCon07 together and we were hoping we could get 100 people there. Although it was a free event, we knew that not many people were aware of the impact that social media was about to have on...everything.

We did A LOT of promoting; TechLINKS agreed to be our media sponsor, CRMA and Atlanta IT Association promoted it, we had lots of of blogger friends blog about it...but I feel the big win was when Time Magazine announced "You" as Time Magazine's Person of the year. Social Media was finally hitting the mainstream.

We had about 100 people at the dinner and about 250 people at the Saturday event.

This year we have not done nearly as much promotion. I have blogged about it and sent information out to my email list. I know Leonard and Jeff have blogged and others have blogged about it. But we have not pushed it nearly as hard as we did last year. Not only that we are charging this year - we have additional expenses that needed to be covered whereas last year we all handled as much as we could ourselves. Currently we have over 120 people signed up for the dinner and almost 200 signed up for the event. I will be sending another email out tomorrow to let everyone know this is the last week to sign up - we will shut registration down on Friday. On Tuesday we are going to have to raise the price of the Friday night dinner. So - if you have not registered yet - do not delay.

Today Leonard Witt, Barbara Vining, Timothy Moenk and I met to finalize some details such as break out sessions and the menu. We agreed on 11 breakout sessions based on what people requested on the registration form. Most people were still looking for a basic over view, or what I think they are saying is they do not know what they need to know but they need to know something. I am happy to announce we put a schedule together that will address the "newbies" as well as those looking to know "what's next."

The "what's next' session will be covered by Timothy Moenk and will touch upon his current interest which is DataPortability. I will be covering Social Media for B2B and Josh Hallett will cover "Everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask."'

Another meeting I had today covered our project scope with the Technology Association of GA. We have been consulting with Tino and his team for a few months and I am very excited with the roll-out plan that Tim has put together. It seems to be a win-win for everyone involved.

As we roll this out to one of the largest associations in GA I can only imagine the ripple affect as more and more organizations realize the potential that can be unleashed when the the tools, technologies and cultural shifts are embraced in favor of collaboration and communication.

Tomorrow's What a Concept! weekly post will be all about the upcoming summit - so I will not repeat that here other than to mention that the keynote is Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, a book I recommended to everyone last year. That should get more and more people thinking about collaboration.

Just the events in the first few months of this year has me looking forward to some of the changes that I have been advocating finally gaining momentum.

There is this rumor going around about a recession. I personally have chosen to ignore such rumors and to even ignore a recession, if one should occur. However if one should occur I suspect it will make more organizations want to cut back, be more efficient and effective and run a more lean and streamlined business. It might be a good time to learn more about this thing called social media that will allow such changes to be implemented.

So...today's quote of the day...

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.
-Henry Ford