Analytics Is King

As some of you may know, Arik Hanson and I have been responsible for the Social Media Business Summit Track at BlogWorld Expo for the last two years. Trust me when I tell you that it is an interesting experience. From combing through speaker proposals, to developing buckets of content we think people are interested in, to tracking down people willing to speak on those topics it is definitely an eye-opening experience. In the end, however, it is a blast watching all of the sessions come together. I know Arik shares my gratitutde to Rick Calvert for allowing us so much freedom in developing the track. Not to mention just asking us to be a part of such a great conference. Anyway, enough with the love festival.

Because the conference starts in exactly two weeks (GASP!), I wanted to take a second and highlight three sessions that might be flying underneath your radar. This, for the record, is no indictment of the speakers in these sessions. All of them are top-notch professionals with a valuable opinion worth sharing with the broader community. What I mean by under the radar is that they are people you may not have heard of before, but are doing some very interesting work.

So without any further delay, here are three sessions that are under the radar but deserve your consideration to sit through when we kick things off in a couple of weeks:

1. Why Facebook News Feed Optimization (NFO) Matters to Marketers - This session is scheduled for 3:45 EST on Wednesday, May 25th. When Bryan Person (who I'm assuming many of you know from Social Media Breakfast fame) came to us with this topic idea we were pumped. With the volume of posts that we all see in our news feed on a daily basis, making sure our brands' posts stick out in a crowd is critical.
2. Making Sense of Social Business - This session is scheduled for 3:45 EST on Thursday, May 26th. Now, before you come after me and say there is nothing under the radar about Peter Kim, Virginia Miracle, Chris Heuer and Ben Edwards you should realize the sheer volume of misconception about the topic of social business. We're talking about concepts WAY above and beyond managing a channel presence for a brand, though that's certainly one component. This session may be under your radar because you're skeptical of the term, "social business," but that would be selling short the work that these panelists have done. Trust me, you will walk out of this session actually knowing what social business really is about.  
3. So You Want to Hire a Community Manager - This session is scheduled for 11:30 AM on Tuesday, May 24th. Again, community management is a popular topic, but, like social business, is littered with misconceptions about what it actually entails. Jim Storer from the Community Roundtable, Lauren Vargas from Radian6 and Dan Brostek from Aetna are going to help you not only define it, but help you find someone that can fill this role within your organization.

Tomorrow, I'll give you three more posts that if I would consider to be must-dos if I were putting together a schedule for myself. In the meantime, the full schedule for BlogWorld NYC is currently available. Make sure you check out the interactive functionality. It'll help you with planning.

In my post recapping SXSWi, it should've been clear that the biggest value driver of the conference for me is networking. I love getting a chance to talk with people I don't see that often who are working hard in this business. The content isn't terrible, it just isn't for me. If I'm trying to learn something I'll go to a smaller event, like Blogworld Expo (shameless plug - Arik Hanson and I co-organize the social business track), where I know the content is more focused and practical. That being said, one of the lasting impressions of the event has to be Gary Vaynerchuck's talk. Gary's premise, based on his new book The Thank You Economy, is that brands need to become more "human." The book goes into great detail about how companies can scale that humanization. This isn't a book review (disclaimer: I've not read it, but am planning on it), rather it is me agreeing with Gary's idea that brands need to become more human. After his talk ended I thought about how my clients could achieve this vision, but also how some people in the social media world should start heeding his call. One of the things that drives me nuts are blog posts or tweets proclaiming the death of a particular platform. A common refrain is, "blogging is dead because of Twitter," or "Quora is a Twitter killer." How on earth would anybody know that? Do you have a crystal ball that the rest of us can't see? Those kinds of posts make for excellent linkbait, but the truth is that none of us really know for sure what's coming down the line. This space is expanding so quickly it's hard to know what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone a year from now. Similarly, there are those who are hyper-critical of what social media has become. Let me be clear for a second...constructive criticism about the value of these tools is certainly warranted. Certain technologies are not for every brand, and there are definitely some snake oil salesmen out there who convince companies that they should establish a presence on every network under the sun. However, slamming a social network because it is no longer you and your four buddies is not only dumb, but incredibly shortsighted in my view. Guess what? You owe part of your career to that explosion. And please, spare us the bullshit of "you've worked harder than everybody else." Most of the people in this space who are recognized for thought leadership are working hard. No, the move of social networks toward more mainstream adoption means you have more career options, most likely a cooler job than you had a few years ago and ultimately more money. Its opened doors you never thought could be opened. Hell, this space has created a book opportunity for me that I NEVER thought would've been possible before getting involved in this space. I think it is time for us all to take a moment to be grateful for those who have:

1. Taught us something new about this space - Guarantee there is someone out there who teaches you something on the regular. Have you thanked them for that recently? I know I haven't. With that in mind, I'd like to take a second to thank Tom Webster. Incredibly smart guy, with an eye for numbers that this space really needs. Read him if you don't already.
2. Gave us our start in this business - Chances are good there's someone out there who told you about these platforms. Or, better yet, helped you gain your first real exposure to others working in the space. For me, that guy was Jason Falls. I pitched him a blog topic in 2009 about social media listening and he published it. I don't thank him enough for that opportunity...So, Thanks, Jason. I appreciate it.
3. Challenged us to continue pushing the space forward - There's someone out there who is pushing you to do better. It could be your boss. It could be a friend. Whoever it is, acknowledge them for what they are doing. For me, that guy was Keith Mabee, now Vice Chairman at Dix & Eaton. I owe him so much for his advice that I could never repay him. Thanks, Keith.
4. Encouraged us to be better human beings - At the end of the day, we can always be better human beings. Have we taken the time to help someone less fortunate than us? Bringing it back to this context, have we thanked someone for going out of there way to provide us with a piece of information we were looking for? I know I need to do this more....You?

So, the next time you are planning to trash social media as "not as cool as it used to be," or proclaim the death of blogging (or insert social network here), take a second to realize that the media you are about to trash has a lot to do with where you are in your career. Resist the temptation to be ungrateful or, in more crass terms, an asshole. The traffic to your site isn't worth it. Thanks, Gary, for helping me refocus on what matters.

What is the best part of social media/marketing/public relations conferences? If you asked 10 people in the "biz" that question you'd probably hear seven or eight times out of ten that it's about meeting the people. I can't disagree with that feeling. Every conference/event I've been to over the last few years has had the same feeling. It's great to catch up with and meet new people. The content? Well, in the words of my old co-worker Alex Kidd... "meh." The 2010 version of BlogWorld & New Media Expo? Great content, with a much greater brand presence. Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't disclose my connection to the BlogWorld event. This year, Arik Hanson and I are the co-track leaders for the Social Media Business Summit. It's been a blast setting up the conference schedule with Arik. My impression coming into the process that it was going to be somewhere between threading a needle blindfolded and herding cats into a concentric circle. My experience has been quite the opposite. Everyone, including Rick Calvert and Deb Ng, have been fantastic to work with. One of the goals that Arik and I had when we started the planning process for SMBS was that we wanted to make sure that brands, and people who don't often get to speak on "the circuit" were well represented. After reviewing the schedule, I think we've been pretty successful in that endeavor. Some of the folks you'll be hearing from include:

• Aaron Strout/Wayne Sutton/Jeff Holden (Whrrl) - These guys do get to speak a lot, but their topic at BlogWorld is something that's on everyone's minds -- location-based services or geolocation. Personally, given the number of tools available, and the available data as a result (this is an analytics blog after all), I'm excited to hear what these guys have to say.
• Chris Smith (Bank of America), Greg Matthews (WCG), Dana Lewis (Swedish) - Again, because my work is so heavily rooted in pharmaceuticals/regulated industries, I'll be curious to hear the perspectives lent by someone in financial services, insurance (Greg was formerly the VP of Innovation at Humana) and a health system.
• Social media at the enterprise level - We have a bunch of great speakers here including Shawn Morton from Nationwide Insurance, Len Devana from EMC and moderator Michael Brito of Edelman Digital. This panel will also have reps from Adobe and RIM. Should be a great discussion.
• Community management panel - This is becoming a pretty common topic, but the folks we have on this panel definitely bring a fresh perspective. Bill Johnston, global community manager at Dell, Lauren Vargas, community manager at Radian6 and Suzanne Marlatt, community manager at Edelman Digital. This panel is being moderated by Bryan Person from LiveWorld. Should be a great mixture of vendor, and brand community management from this panel.

Obviously, there are a bunch of great panels on this track. I'd encourage you to check out everyone of them when you're in Las Vegas next month. If we've never met and you're going to be there, please stop by and say hello. It is, after all, about meeting people! :-) Oh, and before I leave you... here's a place for you to create your schedule. Enjoy! http://2010.blogworldexpo.com/attendee/show-information.aspx