Friday September 25, 2009 will mark an inflection point for social media events in Atlanta.  The question is, in what direction are we trending.  Atlanta has several Social Media events already.  They range from small meetups to multi-day unconferences such as SoCon.  New Media Atlanta is the new kid on the block and brings with it lofty aspirations and polished marketing.

First, lets look at how the event was marketed.  This is important because there were a lot of people in attendance.  Many of them paid what they considered to be a reasonable sum of money to attend.

The New Media Atlanta conference is a high level, business dialog about how social media is changing marketing and messaging – and in fact, changing the nature of all communications.   We’ll talk about strategies to leverage its power to build your company, product, brand, service, etc.

Have you been curious about what social media can mean for your own business?

Are you interested in learning from a group of experts who have the experience to guide you along the way long-term?

Does a chance to meet some real-world social media leaders, authors and speakers appeal to you?

This conference is meant for you and other business owners who are engaging in social media but haven’t quite made the leap to exponential success.

Maybe those people (myself included) should have honed in on the words "high level" because this is what the morning was... High Level.  Unfortunately, the event hosts exacerbated the problem by starting late and kicking the event off with a good hour of "thank-our sponsors."  Even though, the marketing was beautiful, the event well coordinated, and the facilities fabulous - serious credibility had been lost before the kickoff keynote speaker took the stage.  And it had already seeped into the conference backchannel conversations (on twitter and backnoise).

To make things worse, the opening keynote tried to adapt his presentation because of the sentiment trending in the backchannel.  He stated "the conference sucked so far."  This was followed by two more presentations that were either retread presentations from another event or a glorified "look at me" show.   The backchannel toxicity escalates further.  Thank goodness it's lunch time.

Lunch provided a welcome respite, needed food and drink (since both were banned from the auditorium), and the chance to speak with the closing keynote speaker - Chris Brogan.  Chris was kind enough to chat with everyone and sign copies of his book "Trust Agents."  Unfortunately, it was not good enough to keep me at the conference - especially since it was being live streamed.  So I, and a whole bunch of other people, left the conference.

I'm not sorry.  I got to avoid the Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic.  I still got to watch the conference, although I was not there in person.  And I was still able to follow the backchannel - which was still toxic.   Content wise, the afternoon picked up.  The panel was good, and Chris Brogan did not disappoint.  Here's why - he addressed the backchannel.  He made it part of his presentation, or a better term would be a conversation.   I am sorry that I did not go to the after party.  and skipping the Atlanta traffic was worth it.

I know many people were disappointed with the conference.  It's a real shame because if the content issues are addressed, this could be a great event - especially since the people organizing it know how to market it and make it look good.  I don't want to say the "Lipstick on a pig" line, but I do live in the South.  Do I feel like I got my money's worth?  The answer would be "no."  Admittedly, I left early.  However I blocked a day off from clients and I paid for the event - so there were some significant investments made.  Leaving allowed me to recoup about 40% of that.  Would I go again next year?  The answer is maybe.  It is contingent upon the content.  I will also be asking a lot more questions about the content before agreeing to go.

So in a nutshell, here are the salient points about the conference:

1. Don't start late with a bunch of advertising
2. consider putting your keynote speaker first - especially if you have a high powered panel later.
3. If it is going to be "high level" content, don't bill it as a business solution solver.
4. If you are going to bill it as business oriented, have more business representation present (from multiple industries)
5. Encourage your presenters to bring "fresh material", I don't want to see last years presentation - again.
6. Pay attention to the backchannel and adjust as needed
7. Kudos for putting the event together and executing on it.  Event planning and execution is hard work.
8. Bowling shirts are COOL.

Over the next few days, I'll be post ing a few more blog posts related to the backchannel conversations.  This topic has many facets for exploration, and the one I want to discuss is its role in learning and development.

Were you at New Media Atlanta?  What were your thoughts? What's your feedback?  What were your snarky backchannel comments?

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My friend, Steve Gasser, has developed a great little 20 - 30 minute game/activity for Social Media presentations/workshops.  While his is targeted at the non-profit sector, the materials can easily be adapted to almost any other industry.

Games are a great way to introduce and reinforce learning because they help drive home application of the topic.  Steve's game is quick and simple.  I'd have to say it is one of the best exercises that I have seen in a long time.  I am jealous that I didn't think of it first.  Steve is openly giving it to the community, for which I admire him even more.  I plan to use it and adapt it.  I hope you will too.  Thanks Steve!

Steve's blog post and materials may be found here:

http://www.stevegasser.com/social-media-for-non-profits-the-game/

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Ok, I'll admit it...  I'm a closet KISS fan.  Yes, the rock band KISS.   Being a closet KISS fan, I hadn't looked for them online outside TicketMaster searches. I also have to admit that I was curious a few months ago when I received an e-mail from Eventful.com about a "fan routed" KISS tour.  Being a social media advocate/aficionado I had to see what this was all about.

To be fair, let me explain my expectations.  I consider Gene Simmons to be an insightful marketing minds.  I mean love him or hate him, this guy has been selling himself and KISS for decades.  Even if you don't like his stuff, you can observe that he gets it done.  So my expectations were pretty high.  I expected that a social media campaign such as a fan routed tour would have a very strong online presence.  I expected that Gene Simmons would have his folks working with the cutting edge technology that is pervasive in social media today.

So, what did I find?  I was surprised.  Keep in mind, I only did a bird's eye assessment - nothing more than 45 minutes total.  In this assessment, I look at the major social media and bookmarking sites.  This is not enough evidence to build a plan around, but it is enough to give you a sense of the social media presence of an entity. Here are my findings:

Websites: I was dismayed to find that KISS.com is not owned by KISS.  They needed to go with KISSonline.com.  Given the productions that KISS usually generates and the financial capital they hold - I would have expected a more polished website.  Same with GeneSimmons.com.  The visual feel is very similar and echos the presence on Facebook and MySpace.  Consistency s good,  I just expected more.

LinkedIn: I was not surprised here.  I did not find evidence of any band members - even using their real names.  This doesn't mean they aren't there - it just means I did not find any I could certifiably state were legitimate.  I did find several impostors.  I also found one LinkedIn group which uses the band logo.  I am surprised here at least from the standpoint of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.  Being the business mogul he is, I expected to find Gene with a presence on LinkedIn.   I was hoping that Paul Stanley was promoting himself as an artist here as well.   I guess when you're famous you don't need a LinkedIn profile, but I disagree with that notion.

Facebook: There is a legitimate KISS fan page on Facebook with over 100,00 fans.  Figuring 2 million Facebook users, that's 5% of the population.  There are some other fan pages, but they are either tribute bands or user generated fan pages.  The presence here is very similar to the KISS website.  So kudos for consistency.  There are even Facebook applications dedicated to KISS.  So on initial appearance (remember bird's eye view), we have a uniform brand so far.   Gene Simmons also has his own Facebook page set up, so we are starting to see him carry his personal brand over to the online world.  Way to go Gene!

MySpace: As expected, there is a MySpace page for KISS.  I would have been shocked if there wasn't.  When I think music and social media, I think of MySpace first as a place a band would be.

Twitter: Initially I was expecting a ton of impostors on Twitter.  The #Kiss hashtag is active with activity and shows related tweets.  I was able to find 5 accounts on Twitter which appear to be legitimate KISS representation, Gene Simmons was one.  Gene does not tweet very often and has only been on since March 2009.  Definitely a presence, but it could be tightened up a bit.  I also see how Twitter could become an integral part of the KISS machine - read on after the assessment notes.

YouTube: I was not surprised here.  There is a large KISS presence on YouTube - mostly fan generated though.  Who cares, its a large number of videos blaring KISS music.  This would be a great place to connect with the audience.  Heck, consider doing something official on Pandora as well.

Groups on Google and Yahoo: There are a large number of groups on Yahoo and Google talking about KISS - the band.   This is good because this is where the fan base is hanging out.   Knowing where your customers/clients/fans hang out is important - it lets you craft and target your message.  Mr. Simmons excels at that.

Delicious / Digg: As expected, there weren't many (in comparison to everything else) bookmarks on Delicious or Digg related to KISS.   There were about 300 total between the two sites (yes there will be some overlap).  For a band, I'm not sure how important this area is to build a presence on.

SlideShare: I was just curious and went here to see.  There were 3 presentations involving KISS.  I expected none or for them to be related to Gene Simmons only.

So in a nutshell, I feel that Gene Simmons has a more cohesive social media presence than his band.  I also feel that there are some things that could be done to tighten up the messaging and branding on both fronts.  There is absolutely a role that social media could play in elevating the KISS brand and like many corporations - they are struggling with it a bit.  The good things are that the presence is strong where expected - those places just need to be connected together with a strategic purpose.  I see evidence that Gene is doing that for his personal brand.   There are plenty of places to engage the community as well.  This is where I would focus the Eventful Tour Demand.  As for the other places such as LinkedIn?  They may not matter nor may Gene care - I think a presence there would reinforce him as a maven of marketing and detract from the impostors.

That said, I still love the idea of using social media to have fans vote on what cities and in what order KISS will play it's North American tour.  That's an awesome idea and one that should be capitalized on.  And here's the final idea for using Twitter.  Listen carefully Gene...  Set it up so that your set list on the tour is fan generated by Twitter.  My vote will be for "God of Thunder".

For those wanting to do their own Bird's Eye assessments, here's the table I use to capture the data in.  Again it's simple and shouldn't take a lot of time.  Add columns to do a comparison between entities.  Again, this exercise is not enough to build a plan or strategy around.  The purpose of this exercise is to determine online presence from a social media perspective;  show were potential conversations regarding your brand, product, or service occur; and at a high level capture the sentiment of the conversations that are occurring.

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It seems that the social media world has been on fire lately.  To many it seems like overnight.  It really hasn't been overnight, it's been creeping into the mainstream and now is poised to reach (if it hasn't already) mass adoption.  After today (May 18, 2009) the social media world will move exponentially faster and connect to more than it ever has before.  Today Facebook will support OpenID, and that is a great move forward.  See Facebook's announcement.

So what is OpenID?

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.  You get to choose the OpenID Provider that you trust.  At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to.  For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while increasing site visitor registration conversion rates. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.

Why does the Facebook announcement matter?

Facebook will become the biggest example of a social network that allows users to log-in with OpenID credentials granted to them by other providers.  New Facebook users will now be able to create accounts using their Gmail credentials and existing users will be able to associate and thus log in with Gmail or any other OpenID account that supports "automatic login."

OK, But what is next?

Contact lists are the second simplest benefit of this kind of data portability, but it won't stop there.  In the learning and development world, it opens up the ability to share knowledge across networks, contact lists, etc.   I personally believe that OpenID will truly open up knowledge sharing by leveraging the larger social networks such as Facebook.  Sure, you can exchange data with APIs, etc, but with OpenID, you have a common platform for authentication.  I await when LinkedIn decides to go with Open ID.

If you are curious, I use an openID from Janrain.com.  I'm sure I will revisit this topic in the future.  For now, what are your thoughts?

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