Analytics Is King

That is easier said than done.

Some of the easiest things to say are often the hardest things to do.

You've probably heard one of those sayings in some form or fashion, right? We should be distrusting of the overly simplistic, but in this case I think there is a lot of merit to both of those phrases. It truly is much easier to say something than to do something. I'm sure you know the famous saying, "put your money where your mouth is," right? Again, overly simplistic but there's also some merit to it.

There is no word more simple in the English language than, "no." Well maybe the word, "yes," but that's the subject for a different post. Even though it is simple, no is easily one of the toughest words for professionals to say. And, being in the communications business, the natural inclination is for us to say that it is an affliction that only impacts younger professionals. Talk about a load of BS. Nothing could be further from the truth. Experienced, new, young and old it almost doesn't matter. It's a word that everybody struggles with.

Think about it... When was the last time you said no to something out of necessity? Go ahead... I'll give you a minute... Cue Jeopardy theme music... It'll take you a while. I know it took me some time. Whether they be in work activities or extra curricular things you might be doing on the side, chances are good you've not said the word no in awhile. Why do we have such a problem saying no to people? The easy answer is that we don't want to disappoint someone. There's a lot of truth to that, but if you don't know the person how can you really disappoint them? If you were asked to speak by someone you didn't know well and had to decline would you really feel like you disappointed the person? I'm sure a small part of you would, but what's the real reason?

Saying no, at least in my view, has more to do with personal achievement than disappointing someone you may or may not know well. We want to be the best, right? If you are going to come here and tell me no I'm going to call you a liar. It's just simply not true. We're all driven. We all want to be on the top of our game. To be at the top of our game, we think we need to take on all comers. You know that extra project you have absolutely no time for? No problem! You'll stay up until 3:00am to finish it. You know that speaking gig you were offered in a cool city that would mean you'd be on the road for five consecutive weeks? Absolutely! Why not... I don't need to be home to see my friends. Or what about that extra side project that brings you more stress than your real job. Whatever! That's a breeze. I can handle it.

If it sounds like I'm advocating a slacker lifestyle, you're clearly missing the point of the post. There's a big difference between working smarter and working harder. If you are going to be working harder, you need to know what you are working toward. You need to know all of the potential pitfalls and benefits to taking on that additional assignment. Hence, working smarter. Knowing all of the facts before making a decision is important in all walks of life. If someone says they cannot wait for your decision then politely tell them no. First of all, they are terrible shortsighted and would probably be pissed off if someone tried to pull that on them. Secondly, nobody needs an answer instantaneously (in most cases - whether to go through with emergency heart surgery probably would require an instantaneous decision). And, for the record, I'm just as guilty as anyone else. I can never say no to things. Again, I think if I were honest with myself it would have more to do with achievement than disappointment, but... there it is.

So, what can you do instead of saying no, especially if no genuinely isn't in the cards for you? A couple of things...

1. Rephrasing the request - This is probably the easiest thing to do that almost nobody ever does well. An example... If someone asks you to help complete a multi-stage project, rephrase the original request and ask if it is possible for you to help complete one of the stages. I can guarantee that the person making the ask will be accepting of any help he/she would get.
2. Suggest another team member - Now, don't go throwing a team member under the bus, but check with someone else in your group on whether they have time to assist. Then, go back to the person making the request and suggest the alternative. Again, chances are good that he/she would be willing to take that help.

If you have had success uttering the word no, please come tell us about it....

This is one of those posts that doesn't fit neatly into the series on social media analytics, so if you're coming here today for that content then I'm very sorry to disappoint you... I've been thinking a lot about human behavior, particularly my own, lately. During my panel on influence at the Radian6 User Conference, I commented that we all need to be interested in studying and understanding human behavior. My friend Bill Johnston re-purposed that comment into, "we should all be anthropologists." He's 100% right, and I'm jealous I didn't think of it myself. Monitoring the behaviors of others, as well as analyzing your own behavior is very important. Introspection is one of my greatest strengths (I think), and probably one of my greatest weaknesses. I think (probably too much) about every action I've taken. Was it the right decision? What could I have done better? Was there something else I could've offered the person who was asking something of me? Maybe this is the Capricorn in me (even though I don't believe in the whole horoscope thing that much)? Whatever the reason... I think this is what's causing me to go bald earlier than I should be. :) I ran across this amazing article yesterday that outlines manifestos from Seth Godin, Steve Jobs, Leo Tolstoy, Frank Lloyd Wright and John Maeda and it really got me thinking about where I want to take my own life. And no, before you start making assumptions, I love my current employer and colleagues. They are all VERY talented people. This introspective side has everything to do with my personal life. In this dog eat dog world where we're constantly checking our phones for new Facebook updates, tweets and e-mails, I don't think we spend enough time contemplating what we want out of ourselves and each other. Even though I'm as guilty as anyone about looking at my phone, I've began to realize that it is DEFINITELY not what what I want to be doing 24/7. Those of us that are single spend a lot of time thinking about why we're single. Probably too much. No, strike that. Way more than we should. Thankfully, I don't have an over-bearing family that's looking for me to get hitched up and have a bunch of children tomorrow. But, I'd be lying if I said that wasn't in my life goals (maybe not the bunch of children part), especially watching my nephew roaming this earth without a care in the world. He's the best and I'd do anything for him. Is that all I want in addition to my career? Of course not. But, again, when was the last time I sat down to figure that out? Its been forever, and I'd venture a guess that it has been forever for you as well, right? I'm going to spend more time thinking about this over the coming days, but in the meantime I thought it might get me thinking in the right direction if I took what these great minds have done and tried to form it into my own "manifesto." Sure, this is the ideal, but it's meant to get the ball rolling...

1. An honest ego in a healthy body.
2. A heart to feel nature.
3. Courage to follow nature.
4. The sense of proportion (humor).
5. There really isn’t much a of ‘short run’. It quickly becomes yesterday. The long run, on the other hand, sticks around for quite a while.
6. Emotion: More emotions are better than less.
7. The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.
8. Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for one section of your life, a goal for a shorter period and a goal for the year; a goal for every month, a goal for every week, a goal for every day, a goal for every hour and for every minute, and sacrifice the lesser goal to the greater.
9. We have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change.

Take a read through the article and then try to come up with your list. I bet you'll find it challenging/eye opening. I know I did. In the meantime, I'm going to be thinking about my long-term goals. Perhaps this will calm the introspection demons inside my head. :) FYI - Thanks to Olivia Mihalic for inspiring this by sharing the post originally on Twitter.

This week, I had the opportunity to take part in the first ever Radian6 User Conference. The conference brought together customers, industry practitioners and, of course, several members of the Radian6 team to participate in two days of new product announcements, sharing of best practices and general frivolity that comes from a social media conference. The conference ended on Friday and, truth be told, I suck for taking two days to get my recap onto paper (errrrrr blog post form). Honestly, it has taken me this long to really gather my thoughts on the event as a whole. So, let me try and provide a three-part recap in one blog post that doesn't take 4 hours to read. :) First, the product announcements:

• Radian6 Insights - The first major product announcement came on Thursday morning when Marcel Lebrun announced the new Radian6 Insights. I'd encourage you to check out this video outlining the product as it does a much better job than I could do. Here's what it means to us from my point-of-view... more sophisticated text analysis capability. That's the bottom line... Heavy users were beginning to move toward API access where they would take the raw data and plug it into a more sophisticated business intelligence tool. Will this stem that tide? Time will tell as the product gets rolled out more broadly. However, I think it's a step in the right direction.
• Engagement console - If you are more on the engagement side, you'll love the new features coming to the Radian6 Engagement Console in the coming weeks. The primary one is managed accounts. Think CoTweet meets the power of the Radian6 dashboard. The second is an extensions gallery. This is going to be a developers dream scenario. Not only will you be able to engage and analyze through the dashboard, but you'll be able to add extensions for twitpic, bit.ly, Klout (save your opinions on Klout for another post), etc..
• Klout integration - This is probably the most controversial thing announced during the week. As part of the new Radian6 Insights product, the user will be able to access Klout scores for folks talking about their brand. I've been a pretty vocal critic of Klout, but I do think this is a step in the right direction. If there's someone on the back end to scrub the scores, which there will be with integration into the R6 dashboard, the numbers become somewhat more believable.

Second, the content...

• Panel on influence - My participation in the event was a panel on influence in social media on Friday afternoon. The good news was it was a packed house in the conference room. I think this is a very important topic for people to understand, and clearly the conference goers agreed. Lots of positive tweets following the event, but I think we're a long way from understanding the topic. I'd encourage you to read more from Philip Sheldrake on this topic (including his upcoming book) if you want to understand influence even more. Bottom line, and I think this came through in our session, is that influence and reach are not the same thing. You should be pushing your brand to consider relevancy metrics just as much as reach metrics.
• Overall content - I don't know if this is a function of having low expectations for content at conferences or the tremendous thought given to the panels by the folks putting together the conference (combo of both, probably), but the content at the User Conference was very, very good. It was a mixture of content for the analyst and for the engagement professional (this line is continuing to blur, for the better). I hope they put on a second user conference because of the good experiences I had with the content.

Finally, overall perceptions of the conference/people behind it...

• Smaller is better with social media conferences - I don't remember the exact number (I think it was about 500) of people who attended this conference, but whatever the number was it was the right number. It was the perfect size to be able to network with people, and still learn a lot without being overwhelmed. I know this is a fine line to walk because conferences want to make money, but capping the list of attendees at a smaller, manageable number would be a move in the right direction.
• Lauren Vargas - She deserves her own shout out... She was one of the primary drivers of the conference and did a phenomenal job. Being a part of BlogWorld the last two years, I have a sense for the work behind something like this event. Not only was she managing the conversation flow around an acquisition and new product announcements, but she was responsible for handling a lot of the logistical elements behind the conference. Mad props to you, Lauren. You kicked ass.

At the end of day 1, the #social2011 hashtag generated more than 10,000 tweets. That's incredible. A testament to the organizers and the content. Here's hoping we have a second user conference next year.

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.

You'll likely read posts ad nauseam from people who were here and had a chance to experience the event. From the parties to the content to the bouncers who wouldn't let some famous blogger into an event, there's a good chance you'll hear it all. Trust me, I know full well that writing this post will help feed the post-SXSWi echo chamber beast. However, SXSWi receives a fair bit of criticism (use of "fair bit" is a byproduct of several days around Dave Fleet - sorry) and I'm feeling the need to defend it. Not that it needs defending, mind you, because this year continued its recent growth pattern. There's a reason for that -- it tends to be a productive use of people's time. What do you hear all of the time about SXSWi? "It's party central," some people say. "The content sucks," still others remark. Guess what? Some of that is true. There are a lot of parties, and there is entirely TOO MUCH content. The event would do well to scale back some of the proposals it accepts and instead focus on what's practical and applicable for as many people in the audience as it can muster. It won't be able to reach everybody, frankly no conference can. I say all of this admitting that I didn't buy a badge this year. That being said, I did have a chance to see Gary Vaynerchuk's talk on Monday and it was fantastic. We need more of that straight talk express in this business. We'd all be better off sometimes. No, I didn't buy a badge because that's not what the event is about for me. Trust me, it isn't because I think I know everything. I'm somewhere between a dumb ass and just plain dumb. There's PLENTY I can learn from other people. Ahhhhhhhhhh, the people! SXSWi the last two years has been about the networking for me. This is going to sound like a crazy statement coming from the analytics guy (most of us are serious dorks, as you know), but I LOVE people. I cannot get enough of talking to people about what they are doing, what challenges they are facing, how they've overcome those challenges (or not), where they want to go professionally and ultimately how I can help them achieve whatever they want to achieve. Getting to know, and then talking through things with people is what I absolutely love. The bottom line of it is that SXSWi allows me to do those things better than any other conference in this space. Sure some of them are smaller and more intimate, which does allow for more networking time. However, there simply is no other event where almost everyone is in attendance and available to talk with. Now, I know full well what some of you are thinking - "Yeah, Chuck, but what's the return on that 'people time?' How am I going to get my boss to pay for it? They won't approve it if the content isn't great, or if we don't get business out of the event." First of all, I'd argue you have a very short sighted boss. Secondly, here are some things you can use to counter those sorts of questions:

1. "We're always looking for the best and brightest talent, right?" A hidden (though becoming less so) benefit of SXSWi is recruiting. Most of the thought leaders in this industry are around, and open to talking to people about what they do for a living. Trust me, you never know where that conversation might go. I've seen it plenty of times first-hand end up in someone joining a new company.
2. Improving exposure for your company - Leaving out the whole personal brand discussion for a minute, you coming to SXSWi increases your firm or company's visibility. It just does. The only way it doesn't is if you go to the panels and then hide in your hotel room the entire weekend. I think we'd argue that's not only boring as hell, but an incredibly unproductive use of your time and company's resources. If you work for a well-established brand/agency, there's still plenty of opportunity to increase exposure. It's amazing how many times I've heard - "Really? I didn't know you guys did that! Interesting!"
3. It's all about the connections - I've always considered this a dramatic oversimplification of the networking idea, but in this business it is most certainly true. If you're interested in speaking, getting new business, increasing exposure, heck doing most anything in this world you need to make connections. My really good friend (I think that's safe to say) Lisa Grimm tweeted the other night in response to a question about the value of SXSWi - "Connection trumps content." That's not saying the content sucks, it just goes to show you how important the connections really are.
4. People work with who they like - This certainly isn't a new idea, but it definitely applies to SXSWi. Quite a bit of new business is garnered because folks have an opportunity to have face-to-face time with people they've only known online. If there's a spark there, it tends to turn into a business transaction. If you aren't present, you have no shot at creating that spark. None. At the end of the day this is a business where most of the "inhabitants" can be found online, and most of the business is transacted in person. This, my friends, is ultimately what your boss is hoping for and if you've done 1-3 in this list chances are good #4 will happen as well.

I'm going to cut it there because I think you get the point already. SXSWi is a great event. I love the opportunity to talk with people more extensively than what is possible online...or even via telephone. So, here are some people that helped make my SXSWi experience fantastic - Dave Fleet, Lisa Grimm, Justin Goldsborough, Shawn Morton, Jim Storer, Jaime Punishill, Bill Johnston, Adam Brown, Richard Binhammer, Sydney Owen, Lauren Vargas, Kellye Crane, Kyle Flaherty, Aaron Strout, Bryan Person, David Alston, Craig Comeau, Geoff Livingston, Tim Hayden, Rich Mcinnis, Matt Ridings, Chris Baccus, Alex Tan, Stephanie Wonderlin, Sam Ogborn, Jon Gray, Melanie Strout, Liz Phillips, Kaitlyn Frysztak, Matt Dickman, Jason Falls, Amber Naslund, Lee Odden, Geoff Knox, Rick Liebling, Virginia Miracle, Ian Sohn, Gemma Craven, Kevin Silverman, Robyn Cobb, Kelly Feller, Jill McFarland, Colby Gergen, Sara Davidson (sans the glasses), Brad Mays, Amber Porter Cox, Len Kendall, Tyson Goodridge , Mike Schneider, Deb Ng, Michael Brito, Rick Calvert, Jay Baer, Ryan Stephens, David Spinks and literally soooo many more. Hopefully you will forgive me for not linking to all of those folks. I'd be here all night, and I need to be up early in the morning :) Anyway, if you don't know some of those people fire up "The Google" and check them out. All are all-stars and all work for pretty damn cool companies.

Before you start rolling your eyes at the title of this post, please note that this isn't going to be one of the 400 million posts you've seen advocating that you "think before you post." Granted, that's an important lesson to be learned from social media, but one I'd hope you would have picked up already (please, tell me you have?). Rather than drone on about how you should setup Facebook privacy settings, think before you tweet something or create a Facebook profile photo that doesn't put you in a comprimising position, I'd rather take a second to talk about a different side of personality responsibility -- reliability and the mentor/mentee relationship. One of the inevitable byproducts of the social media growth we are seeing is that there are a lot of new people entering the space every day. Please, for the sake of my sanity, spare us the soliloquy on whether people are qualified to do the job they are currently in. There are a lot of people who aren't, but there are plenty who are. The people who aren't will eventually be shaken out of the tree. Anyway, with the growing number of people coming into the space comes the creation of more mentor-mentee relationships. Those relationships are definitely a good thing. I know I still look for advice from folks I used to work with at Dix & Eaton. An independent perspective can always be helpful for us as we grow in our careers. Over the last several weeks I've noticed just how much social media has changed the mentor-mentee relationship. Think about it for a minute... I ask you to be my mentor. I follow you on Twitter. I then "friend" you on Facebook. We're connected in multiple places, right? We have an opportunity to chat in more ways than any other mentor-mentee has ever done in the past. We're "friends!" Is that a good thing? Ah, so here is where we get to the crux of this post. Any professional relationship has a line. Where? I don't know, truthfully. It probably depends on the relationship in question. However, if we examine the pure mentor-mentee relationship I'd say it's a pretty solid line between personal and professional. Yes, we care about what's happening in your personal life. It makes it easier to counsel you on professional matters. However, if we're offering up our personal time to counsel you on professional matters you better make the most of it. Don't reschedule multiple times. Don't completely blow it off and then send a note a day or more later with an excuse. Don't get me wrong, I know things come up. However, when these things happen multiple times you make it incredibly hard for anyone to want to help in any way. Harsh? Maybe. But that's the real world. I can only postulate (nice SAT word for a Monday) that the amount of social touchpoints we have is creating this false sense of "friendship." Ok, false may have been overly harsh. We want to be your friend, but that friendship does have limits. If you're seeking counsel on professional items, the relationship needs to stay professional. If you want advice on personal matters, then sure, it will turn into more of a friendship. The line is certainly more gray than I am portraying here, but I think you get the point... Clearly delineate the line before you get started in any kind of mentor/mentee relationship. For the record, if it feels like I'm taking a shot at the younger generation it certainly isn't intentional. There are plenty of people much older who violate this all of the time. So here are just a few pieces of advice if you're seeking professional guidance from someone:

1. Respect their time - If you want to meet with them, make sure it completely works for your schedule. Yes, things do come up but do try to minimze scheduling changes as much as possible.
2. Ask thoughtful questions - Chances are good that the person you are seeking advice from is very busy. A certain amount of small talk is certainly warranted, however do come prepared with what you want to talk about. Don't leave it up to the other person to do all of the talking.
3. Don't "shop" the advice - By shop I mean if someone has given you a piece of advice don't go blabbing it around to any of your other mentors. You should feel free to say something like, "the other advice I've received suggests." Avoid things like, "Chuck told me that." Makes it uncomfortable for everyone.
4. Think how you're interacting on Facebook and Twitter - This should be pretty self-explanatory (I hope), but know the personal and professional line and do not cross it.

Anyway, if you know me you'll know that I love helping people. If you ask for my advice, I'll make sure that it is the best advice I can possibly offer. It may sound overly cliche, but I actually do care for people. The other people who serve as mentors to young professionals care about people also. Whatever you do, don't abuse that!

My grandmother always used to tell me that as we age time seems to go by more quickly. Of course, I was in my mid-20's and thought she was off her rocker. By the way, I'd never tell her that to her face. I'd always agree with whatever she said. She may have only come in at 5'1" (on a really good day) and 100 pounds, but she could've kicked my ass five ways to Sunday. Anyway, it turns out that once again grandma is right... Time does fly as you age... I woke up this morning and realized that I have been in Austin for exactly one year. Crazy, right? Hard to believe that a year ago yesterday I started the 21 hour trek down from Cleveland with just my clothes, some electronics, a few books and only a few pieces of furniture stuffed in the back of my car. Not only was I starting a brand new job with WCG, but I was basically beginning a brand new life in a city where I knew MAYBE 10 people. Whenever I'm speaking to a group of students or young professionals I always encourage them to look for the most challenging job even if it means moving away from their friends and family. After a year of being here, I can now truly appreciate how terrifying those words most seem to those kids...and that's realizing I have more experience than most of them. YIKES! After you get over that initial period of feeling totally alone and terrified you begin to truly appreciate why you've made the move you've made. Suffice it to say that it didn't happen in the first week, first month or even the first six months. As is the case with everything in life this kind of move is a process. Over the holiday break I had an opportunity to go home (to Cleveland) and enjoy time with the family. I absolutely love spending time with them. However, at some point during the trip I realized that Cleveland was no longer home. It is my hometown, sure, but it isn't the place that I identify as home anymore. I don't know what caused it to click in my head, but now everytime I leave town for work or pleasure I miss being in Austin. Before you make any jokes about the weather (though it is amazing - 75 and sunny today) this has a lot more to do with the people and the area than that. Instead of going on and on with introspection, I figured it might be more interesting to talk about what I know now that I didn't know before moving here... First...about the area....

1. The marketing talent in Austin is incredible. I'll admit that when I first typed that line I said "social media." However, I knew how my friend Kyle Flaherty would react to that so I changed it to marketing. I'll save whether social belongs in marketing or another communications discipline for another post. Before I made the jump to Austin I had heard rumblings about how great the marketing/technology scenes were here, but that was mostly through the grapevine. After being here for a year I can now attest that it is 100% true. In addition to having a large corporate presence from heavyweights like Google, Whole Foods, Facebook, Dell and AMD, Austin is also home to some seriously talented professionals. We're talking about people like Aaron Strout, Kyle Flaherty, Tim Walker, Bryan Person, Tim Hayden, Richard Binhammer, Andy Sernovitz, Peter Kim, Virginia Miracle, Lionel Menchaca, Susan Beebe, Bob Pearson, Greg Matthews, Colin Foster, Aaron Brazell, Spike Jones, Stephanie Wonderlin, Brendan Lewis, Sydney Owen (even though she's now leaving us) etc... etc... etc... How's that for a who's who? I'll go to war with that crew any day of the week.
2. The people are nicer than you think. Before making the move I had visited Austin a few times and knew how nice the people were down here. What I didn't fully appreciate was just HOW nice these people are. Trust me...when you are moving to a new city the last thing you need to be surrounded by are people who are cranky with life. There might be people here like that, but I've not met them yet.
3. The BBQ really IS that good. I think this statement kind of speaks for itself so I'll just move on...
4. SXSWi is a better event than people give it credit for. I wasn't sure what to expect of SXSW now that I was living here. I'll say that it is definitely unfairly trashed as an event. Is the quality of the panels as high as it could be? No. Are there good speakers? ABSOLUTELY. Is it the definitive networking event of the year? 100% no doubt. Are there plenty of brands here to network with during the event if you're an agency? 100% no doubt, and if you believe otherwise you're a flat out idiot.
5. Traffic sucks - Again, if you live here or have visited here you know the traffic is horrific. It's almost ridiculous seeing as how this city isn't that big. Anyway, that's one downside to an otherwise glorious place.
6. The weather. It's supposed to be 75 and sunny for a week. In February. I can leave it at that I think.

Finally...what have I learned about myself...

1. Comfortable tackling any challenge. No, that's not meant to be an arrogant assholic statement. I truly believe that after making this move, taking on a new job and then trying to write a book at the same time I can tackle just about anything. If I hadn't made the move would I know what I know about myself now? Probably not.
2. Still plenty of growing to do. There are things over the last year that I didn't handle as well as I could have, and I know it. There are people who are a million times smarter than I am in this area and in this field that I can learn PLENTY from. I'm looking at all of the people I listed above as a great starting point for that continued learning.
3. We're on the front lines of the social media revolution, but there's still a ways to go. You can't go anywhere in this city without overhearing someone talking about social networks. The enthusiasm is great. However, even though we're on the front lines in this city (I'd argue we're second behind Silicon Valley in this field) we still have a significant job ahead of us in terms of educating on how to use this stuff within large enterprise. It's nowhere NEAR deep enough.
4. I don't hate UT sports as much as I thought. Don't get me wrong I think Mack Brown is still terribly overrated. Rick Barnes likely falls into the same camp. However, the people here genuinely love their UT sports and that's something I can admire. Plus, they throw an AMAZING tailgate party. :)

There's probably more I could talk about but this post is ridiculously long as it is...Don't the "experts" say no more than 500 words? Well, that's shot to hell. Anyway, thank you Austin (and the people I've listed above and then some) for an amazing year. Here's hoping for plenty more where that came from!

[caption id="attachment_169" align="alignleft" width="98" caption="I took this photo while eating at Brenner's in Houston. Delicious"] [/caption] There isn't anything glamorous about doing a lot of traveling for work. It is airport to hotel to office to hotel and then back to airport. If you travel enough for work, even heading to the airport for a vacation is something you will likely dread (I know I do). Screaming babies, long lines, cranky security guards and often unhappy airline personnel make it pretty unbearable. Enough with that negativity.... One of the really great parts about doing a lot of traveling is getting an opportunity to eat at some of the country's greatest restaurants. If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook you will likely have seen me upload photos from a restaurant either in Austin, Texas (my hometown) or some other city in the country. I love food. I probably love food a little too much (at least I think so). Not only do I love a good meal, but I'm fascinated by how these meals are constructed. It's not a stretch to say I'm a foodie. I search out the best places to eat in a city and immediately go there to try the food. Next to my family and social media, food is a close #3 in my favorite things on this earth.  As I was out to eat this week (see, I wasn't joking) with a colleague I realized that fine dining (or just good food in general) has a lot in common with social media. No, really, it does. And when I say there is a connection between social media and food, I'm not talking about the abundance of food that tends to be consumed during the big social media conferences. Follow me here...

1. Replicate - The busiest restaurants literally see thousands of customers (and I could be dramatically underestimating that) every week. There is no way that fine dining establishments could create dishes that they would have a hard time recreating every night during service. It's a similar story in social media especially with the large enterprise. When the large enterprise is getting started in social it has to setup guidelines and processes that all of the different brands can follow. Create a process that a brand can't follow and you've likely killed the social media movement.
2. Precision - Jeremiah Owyang posted a presentation of his and in that presentation he said "fish where the fish are." It's a pretty simple concept in social media,  but you want to know precisely where your community may lie. In fine dining establishments, just the smallest mistake can cost the restaurant a positive review, positive word of mouth or at worst an existing customer. Everything from the service to the food has to be precise.
3. Measurement - This is pretty obvious, right? If you've done any cooking you know that following a recipe is absolutely critical (for the most part). You wouldn't want to include a cup of soy sauce when the recipe actually called for a 1/2 cup of soy sauce would you? Not only would the recipe likely be ruined, but you'd have achieved your weekly sodium intake in a week. It's a similar story in social media. If you aren't "cooking" with the right components of brand promotion, fostering conversation and sharing useful content for the community the final "dish" will be thrown off. Along the same lines, measuring your progress is critical in understanding how your campaign is performing.
4. Creativity - The best restaurants in the world find a way to take something familiar and turn it into something that's entirely brand new to its customers. Obviously, in a restaurant setting this creativity does have limits. You can't combine brussels sprouts with mayo and hope it tastes good. Again, it is the same thing with social media. The fancy creative campaigns are great, but creativity that's true to the original (or the brand in this case) is what we're searching for.
5. Eating with our eyes first - This is a pretty common phrase within the restaurant world. Presentation is key as we eat with our eyes first. It's the same thing with social media content. If you're putting out content that passes someone's initial "sniff" test then they are more likely to engage and do something with that content.

These are both subjects I am passionate about and as such could continue on forever... Do you think the analogy fits? What other things might you add to this list? I know there is an abundance of foodies out there! :)

Disclosure in social media is one of those topics that is very important to me. We owe it to the people we are connected with online to disclose when we have a material connection with a company or product. Not to do so damages not only your reputation, but also the space more broadly. Since this is such a large topic, Lisa Grimm and I decided to split up the discussion into disclosure from the brand perspective and agency perspective. Check them out when you have a second and let us know your feedback.

I have many loves. Politics, American and Russian (don't ask) history, social media, food, sports are all passions of mine. One of my favorite classes during my undergraduate program was political philosophy (see, I've always been a nerd). Every political philosophy class has the opportunity to enjoy (or hate as the case may be) Thomas Paine. So, as I was reflecting on the week that was one of his most famous quotes came to mind...

--"These are the times that try men's souls" - The Crisis

This week has been a whirwind of emotions, and one I think Paine would be proud of analyzing. Most of you know that I took a new job with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide as VP of Digital Strategy and Analytics. So, Sunday night I flew to Washington, D.C. to start my orientation. To say I was excited to start working with this guys would be the understatement of the century. From the first minute of day one, they did nothing to disappoint. I'm even more excited for week two than I was for week one. Lots of idle time in airports also afforded me an opportunity to meet David Almacy, who I've been corresponding with via Twitter for a little while. Another dude that didn't disappoint, despite working for the enemy. :) Seriously though, it's what I love about social networks. Those random opportunities to meet people in real life (that's IRL for you playing at home) is what makes social networking so much fun. You couple these two developments with the receipt and signature of the contract to start writing Social Media Metrics for Dummies I would've called this week to be epic. Man, if only the story ended there....

As I was flying to D.C. on Sunday night, I found out that my father passed away from pancreatic cancer prematurely. We just found out a little more than a month ago that he had the disease so his passing did come rather suddenly. I had prepared myself mentally for the moment so it didn't hit me like two tons of bricks...only one. I couldn't believe it. I've shared before that he and I recently rekindled our relationship after several years of never speaking. That fact alone made the news tough because we were never to connect in person before he passed. Either way, losing your father when he is only 56 (and you are only 31) is not something I'd wish on anyone. Cancer sucks. It's that simple.

Anyway, I think I'd chalk this week up as a winner even with the negative news to start. Oh, and two quick things:

1. The overshare police might come after me for this post and that's OK. The beauty of the social Web is that it is totally different strokes for different folks. I'm comfortable sharing the information I've shared above. If you aren't that's totally cool. Don't share. You won't hurt my feelings.
2. I understand that this is an analytics blog and this is far from an analytics post. Again, I'm more than OK with that. Those of you who have subscribed (thank you) and/or read through sharing on other social networks (thank you again) read this blog because of my perspective on that topic. I totally understand that, and respect it. However, I've consciously tried to share some things about me you may not know because I think we read blogs for the people as much as we read it for the content.

I hope your week's were just as fruitful and you learned lots. You're all the best... As you head into the weekend remember Thomas Paine and realize you'll likely benefit from any adversity you're facing right now.