Tag: Twitter

Back home from SXSW: some reflections

During the last World Cup commentators often referred to the “samba wave” or “samba style” of the Brazil team…. the idea being they were carried along by an undulating wave that propelled them forward and confused their opponents. I never did understand this as it related to soccer, but it’s a perfect metaphor for SXSW Interactive. Here are a few thoughts in closing.

The attendees:

  • Unlike the typical tech or marketing conference, everybody is here because they want to be here. This makes them more engaged and passionate.
  • Everybody I met is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. It’s like graduating as high school valedictorian (not that I was) and going to a college where everybody is a valedictorian.
  • As a corollary, everybody is curious and wants to talk to you because they assume you’re as smart as they are. If you’re not, you get the benefit of the doubt. That’s a good thing.

The conference:

  • There’s no way to predict whether a session will be good or not or even whether it will be about the topic in the program. So sit on the end of the row and don’t be shy about getting up and leaving if it doesn’t work out.
  • Best events for me were the brilliant “Did Aristotle Twitter?” rhetoric panel with U Texas profs, the two food panels for personal interest, and most anything on Twitter including of course the now infamous #tweethall which wasn’t an event at all.
  • Core conversations are painful. You will be stuffed into a room like sardines and sit on the floor. Go to these only if you have a passionate interest in the subject discussed.
  • PowerPoints are over. With a couple of exceptions even the most visually brilliant presenters had basically no ppts at all, just a few text slides they barely referred to.

The venue:

  • The Austin Convention Center was designed by a lunatic, in a U-shaped configuration with the tips of the U 100 yards from each other as the crow flies but a 15 minute walk on the ground. And the SXSW management,with gentle humor, tended to put interactive events at the very outside with the film events in between.
  • When you go to the parties, pay attention to the music. You are likely to hear something seriously good. This is Austin, after all.

I hope to be back next year.

Social media marketing best practices

At the SXSW Web Awards on March 15, the Adobe presenter gave a shout out to “all the social media gurus in the audience” and a titter ran through the crowd. The reason it’s funny is that, certain people’s business cards notwithstanding, this whole business is simply too new for anybody to be an expert. Everybody is figuring it out as they go.

Here are a couple of examples of companies that are figuring it out. They’ll do as best practices until something better comes along, and they’re also good illustrations of why companies are so fascinated by the potential of social media.

  1. Everybody in the US knows about the Oscar Mayer WienerMobile: a funky vehicle shaped like a hot dog that tours America and shows up in the oddest places. In years past, someone who saw the WienerMobile might have told a few friends about it. Now, they’re likely to Twitter to a much larger audience… and Oscar Mayer’s PR folks are regularly searching the subject #wienermobile so they can respond to these posters, thank them for their interest and offer a coupon or just a continuing relationship through mutual following. (This illustration was presented by their PR consultant in one of the SXSW Core Conversations. Didn’t catch his name.)

  2. Steve Barnes writes Table Hopping, a lively restaurant blog on the Albany Times Union website. When he reported that Red Lobster was going to offer flame broiled fish, skeptical readers commented that installing a flame broiler is very expensive and they were probably going to just sear it with a poker. But then the Red Lobster president himself found the thread and commented that indeed they were going to install flame broilers with a plausible explanation.

Not only did this defuse the negativity in the comment thread, but it got a new post from Steve Barnes himself: “Check out comment No. 18 on the post below about Red Lobster. It’s from the company’s president — yep, the top guy of a 680-location chain — and it’s not a canned reply but one that addresses specific comments made by Table Hopping readers.”

That’s good PR you can’t buy, but you have to work for it. And what is happening here is that Red Lobster is monitoring comments throughout the social media space using a tool like radian6 or boorah, both previously mentioned on Otisregrets, to keep track of comments so they can be responded to.

Twitter for marketers at SXSW

I was looking forward to the session called “Twitter for Marketers: Is It Still Social Media?” but so were lots of other folks, and when we arrived at the stroke of 5:00 pm the doors were closed. So about 50 of us migrated down the hall to the Panel Green Room area where we conducted our own  discussion that gave most of us exactly the shared perspective we were craving.

This discussion continues at #tweethall (do a search for that subject on Twitter) plus you can find a fabulous post at La Luna Blanca which documents the event in detail including a number of best practices. Thank you @lunablanca !

One question that did not quite get answered in the tweethall was how do you manage Twitter in a large organization where individuals are encouraged to tweet but you also have a corporate voice you want to maintain. Those who commented, including some folks from very  big companies, said essentially that they do it ad hoc. You keep track of who is talking about your company with a #yourcompany hashtag (a subject search with your company’s name substituted for yourcompany) and try to coordinate efforts without stifling enthusiasm.

The session prior to this one, though, had an answer that made sense, maybe because it came from journalists who are used to communicating with their public. Presenters were @robquig and @dan360man from @statesman and @coloneltribune. For an example with lots of best practices, check out @statesman or @broylesa … the general blogging guy and the food writer respectively … and then click the links to both of their websites.

These bloggers know what their audience wants to hear about: insider tips on what’s going on around Austin plus late breaking relevant news as well as, since they are inside SXSW, their immediate take on the day’s events. None of this “wish I got more sleep last night” personal bloviation. Then, when you click through to the web pages, you’ll find an aggregate of other tweeters at the same organization with links to their own handles or blogs.

I think this model should make good sense for companies too. Anyone is encouraged to tweet, but they always include a link back to a corporate page that organizes the tweeters. Make sense?