The Boston Social Media Club had a great event on Thursday on the importance of measurement for both small and large companies. I encourage you to have a look and listen.
Had the pleasure of seeing Scott Monty in action again today, just before my panel with Andrew Sinkov of Evernote and Manish Mehta of Dell. One of the many good points he made during his NewComm Forum keynote is that, ultimately, "social media is not about the tools, technology and whiz-bang things. It’s about culture and culture change.”
That is the point of my panel discussion. I'll try to share video, but in the meantime, here is my slide deck:
Speaking of events, I'll be heading out to the San Francisco area in a few weeks to speak at the NewComm Forum, which takes place in San Mateo, CA from April 20-23. I want to take a quick opportunity to invite you to join me there! So please join me at the premier conference for unlocking the power of social media for business.
Take advantage of some special discounts!
Come for the entire conference or just for a day for as little as $395!
NewComm Forum will feature a who’s who of social media experts and practitioners from leading companies presenting 40 sessions in five comprehensive tracks including:
Online Communications & Communities
Social CRM
Markets are Conversations: From Theory to Practice
Understanding the New Media Landscape
NewComm Essentials
Keynoters include:
Jackie Huba, online marketing expert and author
Dave Carroll, singer/songwriter, "United Breaks Guitars"
Scott Monty, Ford
Jack Holt, US Dept. of Defense
Tim Westergren, Pandora
Neville Hobson, WeissComm
Choose from a variety of intensive ½-day and full-day workshops on Tuesday, April 20th. See details at: http://www.newcommforum.com/Social-Media-Workshops. Use discount code NCFW100 to save $100 on a pre-conference workshop. Get a 1/2-day of education for just $195!
And, wrap up your Forum experience on Friday, April 23rd in our special one-on-one workshop with conference faculty and SNCR Fellows - included in your conference fee. It's like getting a half-day of expert consulting FREE! See more details at: http://www.newcommforum.com/Social-Media-Strategy
Or, just join us for one day on Wednesday, April 21st:
The NewComm Forum 2010 One-day Pass Includes:
Full Access Pass for Wednesday, April 21st
3 Keynote Sessions: Jackie Huba, online marketing expert and author; Dave Carroll, singer/songwriter, “United Breaks Guitars” and Tim Westergren, founder, chief strategist, Pandora
Access to all conference sessions – choose from 16 breakout sessions in five tracks. Featured presenters include: Shel Holtz, Jen McClure, Paul Chaney, Eric Schwartzman, Francois Gossieaux, Brian Solis, Katie Paine, Dharmesh Shah, Beth Kanter, Kami Huyse and more!
Networking Activities and Food & Beverage Events: Breakfast, Luncheon featuring Dave Carroll of “United Breaks Guitars” & Cocktail Reception
Register now and use code NCF1D to attend for one day for just $395.
Register for the full conference with discount code NCF300 and save $300 off your registration fee.
I hope you’ll join me for NewComm Forum, the premier conference for unlocking the power of social media!
Finally, I have a few special Speaker Discount Codes left that I can offer that will get you $500 off your registration fee! just DM or @ me at @vanhoosear or email me at
Last week I was invited back to a panel at the ninth "Marketing to the High-End Bride" event, held at the newly-opened W Hotel in Boston -- you can hear the audio and see some photos on the WeddingProf site. At the event, I finally got to meet Scott Smigler of Exclusive Concepts. I really enjoyed our conversation -- both on the stage (where we disagreed about ghost writing but agreed on most everything else) and after the event. Scott's organizing an upcoming event for SEMPO Boston, and asked what I thought about the intersection between search and social these days. Here's my response -- I hope to be able to share my perspective at the event -- I'll let you know as soon as it's organized.
In Fresh Ground's opinion, there are two approaches to social media: proactive and reactive. Proactive social media is content-driven, reactive social media is conversation-driven.
Either way, search is often a second thought -- most practitioners take a "if you build it they will find it" attitude when it comes to social media and search. They figure that either way -- by virtue of good content, frequent updates and a large community -- search will just happen. This is partly true, but there's still a disconnect between these two fields that can only be bridged through analytics and metrics: understanding the direct relationship between social, search and web traffic.
I think most social media people don't think about the other way around -- that search can drive social. This negative bias was reinforced recently when Facebook overtook Google in terms of site traffic sources. We perhaps need to be reminded that it's still a two-way street, and that a stronger emphasis on search can still be very rewarding.
LaunchCamp divided pretty easily into two camps, companies and executives who:
Understand social networking technologies inherently; and
Know they need to do something, but are not sure what.
This divide isn’t new and frankly, it’s not going to end any time soon. In the past I’ve been asked to design training programs only to find that some people within an organization understand social technologies and concepts very well and wanted to move on beyond the basics. Then there are those who are still figuring out how to sign up for a Twitter account or maybe have just dipped their toe into Facebook.
With this type of audience one size never fits all.
During the startup panel it became apparent that most tech-based companies being founded today are steeped in social networking tools. Not just because the founders are young, in fact their ages run the spectrum, but because the genesis for their ideas come from first understanding social networking. In other words: the aspect of marketing that takes conversation into account is built in. It’s part of their DNA.
Jules Pieri, CEO of the Daily Grommet
Take the example of the Daily Grommet. When moderator David Beisel asked about how much each company spent on launch marketing, the answer came back as nothing. Though, as Jules will tell you, it was nothing EXTRA. Frankly, marketing is baked into the idea of “Citizen Commerce,” which is the idea that the customers drive the direction of the products featured each day. This isn’t a one-way system of “we produce, you buy” but community conversation of “we find what you want.”
Since the community members are, by nature, excited by the products they’re more likely to take action and talk about them.
The same goes for Runkeeper, which factored sharing right into the product. From the start the idea wasn’t only to use a mobile device to track your routes and save information about you, but to share that information with your friends. By doing that you are, in fact, sharing the product you’re using. If friends want to share back they need to get that product too. The viral nature is built in, not tacked on later.
By contrast I hear from companies that have traditional business models and are looking for a way to build social networking into their marketing programs. This isn’t a bad thing (in fact, it’s great) but it’s also just the start.
To truly engage in this world each company must look beyond their marketing departments and find their communities, then use the tools to engage them. After all, that’s how new companies are finding their way.
Cindy Meltzer is the Community Manager at Isis Maternity, where she helped the company dive into social media. Chuck and Cindy met up a few days after LaunchCamp Boston 2010, and right after she changed her title, to chat about her new role and the company’s move into social media. Cindy essentially credits Mike Troiano, one of the keynoters at LaunchCamp, for creating her new job.
Some of the more interesting excerpts:
“[Social media] was … one of [the] hats I was wearing starting about a year ago when I got involved with our Facebook page and created a … Twitter handle for us…”
“[Mike Troiano] gave a description [of the] role of the community manager…. I thought that was really interesting because … well, that’s what I’m doing…. I came back excitedly saying ‘I have a title’…. A light bulb came on, and I [officially] became [a community manager] three days after LaunchCamp.”
“We’re unique because our community exists in real life…. [Our moms are] already online, so we’re just showing them that we’re there too.”
“As soon as I engaged on Facebook, things exploded….”
“I try and keep them talking…. We have a question of the day…. I’ve been experimenting around with what types of questions get the most response, and I’m finding that moms really like to give advice to one another and recommend things to one another…. And I hooked our blog up to Facebook,… so now we get the Facebook traffic over to our blog, which is nice. [Just] doing those two things exploded our number of fans … without much effort.”
“We’re starting really small [with video]. We have a flip video camera and me and my husband filming me in my bathroom, which was the first video blog entry about potty products…. I said ‘hey, let’s bring people into my bathroom,’ so we did.”
“Measurement is becoming more and more of a priority, and [we’re] trying to get a little bit more sophisticated about what we’re doing, rather than having it be shots in the dark.”
About the Fresh Ground Podcast: Each week, we feature 10 minutes of insights from people driving change in today’s competitive business and media landscape. We talk about the evolving worlds of media, public relations, marketing and business, with a special focus on creating more social organizations.
Please find below the video from last Thursday's LaunchCamp Boston 2010. We'll collect all the slides from speakers and post them shortly.
After some introductory remarks, John Wall of Marketing Over Coffee fame kicked things off by sharing his insight on the Three Factors of Startup Success:
After John's presentation, we shared some popular YouTube videos with the audience that helped folks understand the history and state of social media. First up was a history lesson by Brett Borders:
Next we watched the Social Media Revolution video from Socialnomics:
Finally, to help folks understand that companies both large and small can become social, we watched an interview of Scott Monty by David Meerman Scott:
Next up among our presenters was Jeff Cutler on the first of the Three Cs of Social (Content):
Following Jeff were Jim Storer and Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable on the second of the three Cs of social: Community (naturally):
Last up for the morning Social Media Breakfast Briefing was Doug Haslam, who spoke on the last of the Three Cs of social: Conversation:
After a break for lunch and networking, Mike Troiano kicked off the afternoon LaunchCamp sessions with an excellent session on scalable intimacy:
Unfortunately, we didn't have the disk space or battery power to capture the afternoon breakout sessions on video -- you just had to be there, or watching the livestream. As mentioned, we'll be sharing the slides with folks separately.
LaunchCamp Boston 2010, the first in a series of events focused on connecting entrepreneurs and "intrapreneurs" with the folks who can help them launch their new brand or service, is over, and Chuck and I are exhausted but very pleased with the results.
180 entrepreneurs, marketers, speakers and volunteers convened at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge -- joined by almost 100 people in the livestream room and even more on Twitter -- to share and learn together.
We then learned about the 3 Cs of social: Jeff Cutler shared his secrets on Content, Rachel Happe and Jim Storer gave their insights on Community from the perspective of The Community Roundtable, and Doug Haslam showed us how to engage in Conversation.
Our speakers did a bangup job, as is evidenced by the Twitterfeed. The feedback we collected from the morning event was resoundingly positive, but some folks commented that the material was a little too basic for their tastes. This is why we gave folks the option of opting out of the morning sessions, but perhaps we could have reinforced our warning that the morning goal was level setting, not breaking new ground.
I've gotten feedback from many folks about social media events in Boston saying that most of them proceeded from an assumption that everyone out there gets it, and that simply isn't true, even now. We tried to help those folks, at the risk of boring those of us in the know. It was a calculated risk, and I think it paid off. Nevertheless, it's a lesson learned: future LaunchCamps will still probably work very closely with the Social Media Breakfast folks in various cities, but we'll allow the presenters to cover more than just the fundamentals -- we weren't even taxing the brains of our great morning speakers, and we should have.
After a great lunch catered by Baker's Best, LaunchCamp proper kicked off. We heard spectacular keynotes from Mike Troiano and Dharmesh Shah, entrepreneur and PR panels led by David Beisel and Paul Gillin, and breakout sessions on topics that included exit strategies, branding, product development, search, agile methodologies and a PR improv session featuring guest journalists Wade Roush and Scott Kirsner.
Feedback from the afternoon sessions was overwhelmingly positive, especially around our two keynote speakers. In the future, we'll adjust the mix of vendors and entrepreneurs more to keep things lively. For instance, instead of an all-vendor PR panel like the engaging one we saw yesterday, we'll throw in some entrepreneurs and take a more case study-focused approach.
We were also asked to set aside more time for networking, and we'll do that as well. I'll talk a little more about the future in a second, but please feel free to share any of your thoughts and comments on Twitter using the #LaunchCamp hashtag -- we read everything, good and bad (and reply to both).
Before I talk about the future, I want to thank a few folks.
Thank Yous
First, thank you to my business partner Chuck Tanowitz, who was the glue and the steady hand throughout the planning and execution of LaunchCamp.
Next, thank you to the volunteers who offered to help out throughout the day, including Tracy Lee Carrol (who found her camera), Lisa Mokaba (who checked you in) and Stephen Sherlock (who, with his signature tricorne hat, applied his PodCamp volunteer experience to this smaller, more intimate group).
Thank you to Bob Collins and everyone else who helped us get the word out before, during and after the event. Thank you to Joselin Mane who provided the example of event management and marketing that we strove for (and -- because we followed his leadership -- whose help in promoting the event in the last few weeks we had to politely decline because of the sellout crowd). And thank you to Ja-Nae Duane, who teamed up with us and will share some of the proceeds from her book signing to offer three $100 LaunchCamp scholarships -- we'll share details on that next week.
Thank you to all our keynote speakers, session leaders, moderators and panelists: without you there would be only me up there playing videos!
There are so many other people to thank -- if I've missed you, I'm sure I'll get around to thanking you in person or on Twitter.
What's Next
As we mentioned at the event, we'll be restructuring how attendees can participate in future LaunchCamps to make sure that we get the right mix of entrepreneurs and vendors. We think this will better serve the needs of the entrepreneurs out there. We'll also be rolling out to new cities over the upcoming months -- stay tuned for more news.
But before that happens, we'll be sharing the video and slides from the event next week, as well as information on the scholarships I mentioned earlier.
One final reminder: you can automatically follow all the attendees using TweepML or the Twitter List.
LaunchCamp 2010 Boston is happening now. If you're reading this, you're probably not there (unless you're a tech-savvy well-connected mobile-Maistro stalker). Well, this is the next best thing: We're going to be livestreaming the event as much as possible. You can see live video, chat and Twitter feeds at http://itsfreshground.com/launchcamp/livestream/. Things kick off at 8am ET.
Better quality recorded video will be available at a later time from that same page. Join the conversation on that page, or by tweeting with the #LaunchCamp hashtag. Fresh Ground is not responsible for the comments that appear on our site -- please chat and tweet responsibly, folks!
We're now just hours from the start of LaunchCamp Boston, an event designed to help entrepreneurs better understand how to navigate the marketing world to get from idea to launch.
The genesis of LaunchCamp came in October 2009, shortly after WebInno 23. At that event a number of journalists sat on a panel discussing how entrepreneurs didn't need PR folks as the eager CEOs could just give them a call and tell their story.
The PR folks in the audience knew this wasn't true. First, PR is much more than media relations. But even just in the media relations context we knew that if every company in Boston took that advice the reporters would be bombarded with even more stuff than they are now. Plus, the CEOs would get frustrated because their calls wouldn't result in stories (or not answered).
The reason is pretty simple: what's important to a CEO of a small company isn't what's important to a reporter. Each has their own idea of "interesting news" and often they don't line up. In this context, a good media relations person can help both sides.
During a solo PR coffee shortly thereafter we discussed having an event that would help bridge the gap a bit. That is, help entrepreneurs better understand the PR and marketing process while PR folks can listen and better understand what it is that entrepreneurs really need.
Things morphed and changed over the next few months and we're thankful that a number of great people have stepped up to take leadership and teaching roles, not only as speakers but also as leaders in breakout sessions and panelists.
Judging by the demand I can assure you that while this may be the first LaunchCamp, it won't be the last.
Cindy Meltzer is the Community Manager at 
LaunchCamp 2010 Boston is happening now. If you're reading this, you're probably not there (unless you're a tech-savvy well-connected mobile-Maistro stalker). Well, this is the next best thing: We're going to be livestreaming the event as much as possible. You can see live video, chat and Twitter feeds at 
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