Breakfast and social media

June 24, 2008



Today I’m at a social media breakfast in Cambridge. I’m not blogging from the event because I figured that carrying the laptop on the scooter is still a problem to be solved. But I have scheduled this post to go out around the time I’m in the sessions learning from other new media mavens.

The breakfast today is focused on…

Speaking program: making the business case for video

SMB8 will feature four 5-minute presentations on the use of video in social media campaigns and in ongoing community building. The presenters:

* Larry Lawfer, YourStorys founder and president
* Jeff Glasson , director of social media & technology at PerkettPR
* Rob Lane, CEO/co-founder of Overlay.TV
* Emily Belyea and Ben Grossman, principal at The Plenary Group

To find out more, go here.

***UPDATE*** I might not be at this event after all. It seems that it’s sold out and I may have made a misstep by only RSVPing on Upcoming.com and not also on Eventbrite.com.

It’s a bit confusing when events are posted in multiple locations, but that’s the joy of working with new media. The conventions (not physical conventions or meetings, but the manner of doing things) are always changing.

If I do attend, I’ll give a recap here later. If not, I might just regale you with thoughts on riding my scooter around the city looking for some other breakfast seminar.

More to come…

OK – RECAP ON THE EVENT….

I did make it into the city. Rode my scooter to the breakfast and locked it on the sidewalk – no quarters needed (but this issue will be discussed in another post soon as will my new legislation to get drivers licensed in tiers of ability and vehicle class).

The meeting itself was good. I’m supposed to tag this SMB8 so people can find it, so I have.

Topic was the new ways in which video is being used to converse with a variety of audiences. Regardless of age, video seems to be attracting eyeballs, but it’s still only one cog in the entire marketing machine of a company. Some people rush to the newest tools without thinking things through and then toss these new tools away when their results aren’t exemplary.

One thing I will gripe about at SMB8 was the length of the speakers and the droning on of very specific questions in the Q&A session. I think that people should be intelligent enough to not waste the whole audience’s time if they have a question that is company and situation specific.

Three questions were asked that fell right into this mold and it was only the creativity of the speakers that kept the audience involved by twisting the answers so that they gave a better and broader message on using video to your benefit.

Overall, good show, good networking and good breakfast. Thanks to the whole team and especially Bryan Person at Monster.com, the regular organizer of the Social Media Breakfast series.

More to come…