If you're attending the event, I'd like to meet you and say hello. Here's where and how you can connect with me -- and my LiveWorld colleagues -- over the next two days. At LiveWorld booth 1429 on the Expo Floor
Our LiveWorld team (see all of our smiling faces below) will in the booth from 11:00am-6:00pm on Wednesday and 10:00am-5:00pm on Thursday.
My scheduled shifts are 4:00-6:00pm on Wednesday and 1:00-3:00pm on Thursday.
At the Web2Open sessions Web2Open is an unconference built into the larger Web 2.0 event. Several sessions have been pre-scheduled, while others, in true unconference style, will be created on the fly! I may try my hand at presenting, too.
On Twitter Follow me from my @BryanPerson account and our company Tweets over at @LiveWorld.
In the hallways Aren't the best conference conversations the ones that happen in the hallways? I think so. If you see me walking by, grab me and we'll talk.
Does social media marketing matter? As good fortune has it, Peter will be leading a discussion on social media marketing -- namely: does it actually work? -- next Tuesday at a Social Media Breakfast event in Austin that I've organized. Watch this space later next week for a report from Peter's talk.
Forum One Networks' Bill Johnston and Media Bistro's Laurel Touby enjoy a glass of wine at the conclusion of the 2008 Online Community Summit.
You're going to see plenty of content from me this week recapping the 2008 Online Community Summit that I attended last Thursday and Friday in Sonoma, California. OCS is an invitation-only event where online community practitioners and vendors come together to share their challenges, best practices, and knowledge of industry trends.
To start off: the headlines. Here are the OCS discussions that resonated most with me:
Defining 'community' is still a challenge I've blogged in the past about the amorphous definition of community, and the issue was raised again and again at OCS. Part of the problem, of course, is that the term "community" itself has become a buzzword, leading vendors and clients alike to misuse and abuse it. But secondly, the range of online communities is just so vast and the corresponding forms that they take are so different (three examples: The WELL, the Cisco Developer Community, and Autodesk's 3D Animation user community), a single definition really becomes difficult to nail down.
Community hosts must give back In her "Proven strategies for community growth and success" session, Laurel Touby from Media Bistro urged community owners to "give things away" and "do favors" for their members, including organizing face-to-face gatherings. After all, just how vibrant can an online community be when the hosts never acknowledge, thank, and reward members for their participation?
Make 'em laugh Sony Online Entertainment's Alan Crosby emphasized the need for companies to put real human beings -- and not corporate drones -- behind their community efforts. And if the employees' style is to be funny and entertaining with the members, even better!
Finding meaning in the numbers There was plenty of talk about the importance of a "community health index," and in making sense of all the data that can be captured from users and their behaviors. Read the post that Mzinga's Aaron Strout published during a Joe Cothrel-led session on "community metrics," and also check out my forthcomingaudio interview with Autodesk's Kathy O'Sullivan, who has come up with a measurement index of her own.
Mobile's hot If you're a community practitioner and you're not thinking about mobile applications, you should be. By year's end, according to Loopt's Evan Tana, the number of mobile subscribers will have increased by some one 1 billion (3 billion > 4 billion). Evan even referred to the mobile phone as the most "social, personal, and intelligent device we'll ever own." A bit of hyperbole, perhaps, but is there really any doubting the explosive potential of mobile handsets as powerful devices for community building?
Podcasts on deck Up next: four podcasts that I produced from the Online Community Summit. I will publish them all in subsequent posts this week. Here are the links each of the podcasts:
This is the first in a series of four conversations that I recorded at the 2008 Online Community Summit, held in Sonoma, California on October 9-10, 2008.
Chrystie Hill is the director of community services for WebJunction.org, a professional-development and social-networking community for library staff. She also blogs at Libraries Build Communities.
In our conversation, Chrystie discusses the need for fiscal responsibility from her community, her interest in metrics, and why library professionals are far more technically savvy than I give them credit for.
Running time: 3:37. Click below to stream our conversation.
This is the second in a series of four conversations that I recorded at the 2008 Online Community Summit, held in Sonoma, California on October 9-10, 2008.
Kathy O'Sullivan is the product manager of online community for the education team at Autodesk. Our conversation focuses on the "Engagement Index" that Kathy has developed for her community in 2008.
Here are the member actions and metrics that Kathy tracks as part of the Engagement Index:
Actions visible to members: * Downloads of Autodesk software * Learning to use software * Sharing their designs and work with other community members * Updating their profile * Creating a portfolio * Inviting friends to join the community
Other metrics: * How long they've been a member * Recency of visits to the community * Frequency of visits * Number of clicks * Contributions -- forum posts, inviting friends, sharing designs, comments, and tagging
Running time: 7:25. Click below to stream our conversation.
This is the third in a series of four conversations that I recorded at the 2008 Online Community Summit, held in Sonoma, California on October 9-10, 2008.
Ron Casalotti is the director of user participation at BusinessWeek and helped launch the company's new Business Exchange community in September 2008.
In our conversation, Ron talks about the folksonomy behind Business Exchange, as well as the commitment from BusinessWeek's writers and editors to contribute to the community as well.
This is the last in a series of four conversations that I recorded at the 2008 Online Community Summit, held in Sonoma, California on October 9-10, 2008.
Christine Perey is a market-research and business-development consultant for technology providers. She is based in Switzerland.
In our conversation, Christine talks about the history and future of mobile communities, a topic she also presented on during the final session of OCS.
On Wednesday, October 15, more than 12,000 bloggers and podcasters around the globe united against poverty.
They did it by taking part in the second annual Blog Action Day, a nonprofit event that helps to raise awareness around a complex global issue.
Here in Austin, where some 200,000 residents are considered poor, several bloggers focused on the plight of the city's homeless. Mike Chapman (at right in photo above), principal of Every Dot Connects and a founder of the local Social Media Club chapter, was among a group of four who took to the streets for a 24-hour Retreat Immersion.
I caught up with Mike yesterday afternoon to ask him about his efforts on Blog Action Day. As Mike rightfully points out, the homeless are very much a community, too.
Click below to stream our conversation. Running time: 6:18.
Listen to all eight of our conversations (it will take you about 70 minutes), and you'll have a good sense of the range of issues that community professionals are thinking about and working through every day.
I'm sitting in on a session called "How great content keeps customers at the table" at the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer in Scottsdale, Arizona. The discussion is centered on the value of content as marketing.
Moderator Rohit Bhargava just asked the three panelists this question: "What makes great content?" Here are their answers: Esmee Williams, VP of brand marketing, AllRecipes.com: 1) "Helps further someone’s passion" 2) Is easy to find and consume Mildred Center, director of corporate marketing, web services, Sony Electronics: 1) "Personally beneficial to the consumer" 2) For Sony's Backstage 101 learning community, the content must be content agnostic. This helps build customer loyalty.
Becky Carroll, director of social media, Brickfish 1) Content not about the company; it’s about the customer. 2) Meets the needs of the customer where they are online
Carley Roney is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Knot, a popular wedding-planning website. She will be part of a panel discussion at the 2008 Marketing & Online Communities Conference called "Integrating Customer Communities into the Marketing Mix." (Peter Friedman, LiveWorld's CEO, will serve as moderator for the session).
Show notes
* Carley explains why The Knot is careful about the kind of advertising it accepts. * Carley discusses the danger of marketers talking to community members in language that is too specific. * Carley outlines why word of mouth is essential to The Knot's success. * Carley notes how The Knot's community members are growing up together.
The 2008 Marketing & Online Communities Conference is an invitation-based event. It will be held at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York City on November 5, 2008. For more information, visit http://moc08.eventbrite.com
The 2008 Marketing & Online Communities Conference is an invitation-based event. It will be held at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York City on November 5, 2008. For more information, visit http://moc08.eventbrite.com
This is the first in a series of interviews recorded at the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer (MPDM), held in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 22-23, 2008.
David Alston, VP of marketing at Radian6, is a guy who spends his days immersed in the social media community. From jumping into Twitter conversations and speaking at Social Media Breakfasts, David has his finger on the pulse of what the influencers are saying and doing. (He's a heck of a photographer -- and a decent singer, too.)
In the video conversation that follows, David and I talk about his insights on social media marketing.
* David says Twitter is a good barometer of how invested a marketer is in social media. * David talks about the "transformation" of marketing toward social media. * David explains the importance of "reactionary marketing." * David discusses the value of content marketing.
This is the first in a series of interviews recorded at the 2008 Marketing & Online Communities Conferences, hosted by Forum One Communications at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York City on Wednesday, November 5, 2008.
Steve Broback is president and founder of the Parnassus Group. In this video interview, Steve talks about the Brand Monitoring in a Web 2.0 World breakout session that he led at the 2008 Marketing & Online Communities Conference.
Show notes
* Steve says there's "no magic bullet" to brand monitoring.
* Steve talks about the value whitelists.
* Bryan asks Steve whether brand montoring should be outsourced or done internally.
* Steve promotes his favorite free tools for RSS and brand monitoring.
* Steve offers his top takeaway from the conference.
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