Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6, was probably the first person I heard use the “social media is a phone” analogy. In his case, he was talking about the need for companies to realize that some of their customers are “dialing the social phone,” and that they’d better have some “operators standing by.” (I swear, if I had extra time, I’d write an ebook out of my talks with Marcel.) He’s not wrong, and that’s why I tend to stretch the analogy even further when discussing social media tools to audiences.

Social Media Tools Aren’t The Revolution

A phone can be used to talk to Mom, talk to the grocery store, talk to customer service at your bank, and a phone can be used to give a teleseminar, to dial for dollars, to market a new product or service. This is the same with all these tools like blogging, podcasting, social networks and the like. The tools themselves are just different (better?) ways to communicate. They involve more nuance.

This Part is the Revolution

The revolution comes in how we use them. At once, these new tools allow us a one-to-many opportunity similar to what publishers and TV producers and other large scale media used to own. And at the same time, these tools have created allow us to be much more personable, more nuanced, more one-to-one in how we reach people who share the same interests as us (or our customers).

If You’re In Marketing / PR / Advertising

Getting on the new tools and blasting out the old methods will fail (is failing). This isn’t rocket science, but it is art, and it requires a different set of approaches. It’s as different as comparing the phone book to a personalized invitation. To many of you, you’re rolling your eyes and saying that I’m preaching to the choir, but if that’s so, then we’re not all singing loud enough, because there are still many people in need of better approaches, in need of teaching, and in need of concrete things to do next. If you’re on my side of the fence on this one, and if you’re out there sharing the good gospel of the new social phone, then stop saying “join the conversation.” That’s like saying, “Now dial the phone!”

Instead, share with people the creative ways to dial. Remember when call waiting came out? Remember when we first learned how to forward our phones? Share these things with people. Show them the tools, and further, show them applications for them.

In preparing for the upcoming New Marketing Summit in a few weeks in Boston, I’m most certainly going to bring this message out loud and clear. In several speeches between now and the end of the year, it’s my goal to show that it’s HOW we use the social phone that will change how business is done. It’s part of what Julien and I are doing with TRUST AGENTS.

Will you help people understand this, too? Will you share your new dialing methods? Will you teach them the difference between a teleseminar and a call to Mom? Most importantly, will you show them how to listen?

Ring ring.

This post brought to you by RingCentral: Get your own Toll Free or Local Number with voicemail for as low as $9.99 per month

Photo credit, jumpinjimmyjava

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Now, for the secret.

I just got a few limited 50% off coupons to share. I had them set aside, and then forgot to use them. So, if you want to come to a $795 conference for $395 (okay, so that’s a bit more than 50%, but I’m not good at math), drop me an email: cbrogan at crosstechmedia dot com.

There are just a few, and hey, this conference is in two weeks, so if you want to go, and you were on the fence because of price, definitely go. For a bit less (seeing as I forgot to use these).

You know I’m also bringing some PR and marketing college seniors for you to meet and potentially recruit too, right? Just cleared that up today. So not only can you learn from the best speakers, sample the latest technologies, you can also meet prospective new hires all at the same event.

Pretty decent secret, eh?

Drop me a line if you think you can attend on the 14th and 15th. I’d love to see you there.

http://www.gonewmarketing.com

I found some posts from myself and others that will help you prepare for conferences. But before I go into that, I wanted to share a little about how I came by some of this advice. Not only do I attend many conferences in a year, I’ve been working in the space for over 2 years already, myself.

My Background in Events

I’ve worked with some truly legendary conference people. Jeff Pulver knew the magic formula for a powerful community event that worked on several levels. I learned tons from him and Jason Chudnofsky while running the Video on the Net event.

I also work with Christopher S. Penn and the astounding Whitney Hoffman on the PodCamp events that we co-founded. We learn something new from every camp, even when we’re not organizing them. (By “we,” I mostly mean Chris and Whit.)

My current business partners, Stephen Saber, Nick Saber, and the rest of the folks at CrossTech Media have given me even more perspective, different models, and a whole new view on how things are evolving. Things like “big is out; small and meaningful is in.” We have an amazing show with David Meerman Scott, Paul Gillin and some incredible speakers and exhibitors at the New Marketing Summit this October, and I’m really proud of that event.

Observations About Attendees at Events

This year, at the amazing SNCR event in the Sonoma Valley, David Alston from Radian6 pointed something out. There were two conference experiences happening in the same room. Even though the event organizers made every effort to have attendees feel connected and included, half the room (maybe less) were active on Twitter, and having an entirely larger conversation, while the other half wasn’t even aware of all the activity.

It seems to me that most events now almost need to anticipate having a hash tag (something like #nms for New Marketing Summit), and an active Twitter back channel.

Another observation: the people who prepare to attend an event come away with a much different experience than those who just show up. This becomes very important, because it turns out that you, as a prospective attendee at an event, might find a completely different end result, with only a little bit of consideration and just a hair of pre-planning.

On the eve of going out to MANY events over the next 40 days or so, I wanted to compile some of the best advice I’ve received or written about with regards to how YOU can get more out of conferences.

Advice for People Attending Conferences

Things I do BEFORE a VON Conference – Jeff Pulver.

Getting More out of Your Speaking Opportunities – Jeff Pulver

Preparing for PodCamp DC with the Jeff Pulver Method – Christopher S. Penn

Be Sexier in Person – Me.

10 Ways to Make Your Next Conference Better – Me.

Using Social Media to Meet People – Me. ( Picture look familiar?)

What’s Your Advice?

What would you add to the list? How else can we prepare? What is your pre-event and post-event ritual?

Project Dogfood is the latest thing I’m working on at CrossTech Media. It’s a project where you’re invited to come talk about which social media elements a company should consider adopting. In this case, because the whole premise is to “eat our own dogfood,” we’re starting with a revamp of our own New Marketing Summit website for an event we’re running in October.

I’m working with David Meerman Scott and Paul Gillin on this project. David and Paul are co-chairs of the New Marketing Summit event, and after a conversation I had with Nick Saber (my president and colleague) snowballed into a much more animated conversation with David and Paul, we find ourselves at Project Dogfood.

You’re invited to create an account (the platform we’re using to talk about this all is Jive Software’s Clearspace platform), and jump into the discussions. Though we’re talking in this case about one of our own websites, I feel the conversations will be broader in nature, and will be of interest to web technologists, marketers, attendees of conferences in general, and social media evangelists. Think about it: we’re going to transform our sites based on recommendations and interactions with the community.

That will certainly give us opportunities to mess up in front of you, but hopefully that means the project will be a learning project.

When it’s all said and done, it’s something we’ll talk about at the New Marketing Summit this October 14th-15th at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. But further, the methodology we come up with from the process and through your participation will be something we can talk about and share with people looking to transform their own sites and online marketing efforts.

I’m excited about this because it’s a chance to do more than just blog about it. We’ll implement things, test them with you, and learn through conversations.

What do you think?

Stop by Project Dogfood and check us out.