Social Media – Page 3

September 29, 2008 kenekaplan Events, Intel Insider, Social Media, Web 2.0

Here at InterAct 2008 with My DC Social Media Posse

Here is some great news I got recently from InterAct 2008 — dubbed “interactive media event of the year, merging creativity with technology”:

“You are currently confirmed to speak on the “Grow Your Business Through Social Media” panel, scheduled for Tuesday, September 3o…in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center Atrium Ballroom at 1300 Pennsylvania Aven NW, Washington DC.”

I get to join an awesome cast of mostly east coast masters of social media. In fact, there are two Intel Insiders: Brian Solis (my West Coast posse) and Somwhat Frank Gruber (East Coast boy at large).

Here’s a look at the panel:

Moderator, Jesse Thomas/Jesse3
Rohit Bhargava/Ogilvy PR
Somewhat Frank Gruber of AOL and an Intel Insider
Jim Long, NBC cameraman — a.k.a New Media Jim on Twitter
Nick O’Neill/Social Times
Brian Solis of PR 2.0 and an Intel Insider

Look for some lots of creative ideas mixed with grounded perspectives for how to help your company leap into this era of “opening up,” “connecting” and “growing together.”

Frankly, I’m fired up to be back in DC…although it’s the first time I’ve been here on a Sunday and downtown and the Mall is DEAD quiet, and so many stories are closed.

I dig the megalomania DC architecture, with one not-so tall, but grandiose building next to another trying to stand more more than its next door neighbor. The architecture is magnificent, with no building higher than the tip of the robust Capitol building. DC’s nowhere as awesome as Rome, but the knock off columned monuments and museums make Las Vegas look like a movieset.

I did get to spend time catching up over brunch with a great guy and mentor, Rohit, who’s another creative treasure of DC.

I’m looking forward to meeting Jesse and Jim. And spending the afternoon with Rohit, Brian and Frank, three guys who I don’t (I’m not the only one who doesnt’) get to see enough. A big thanks to Leslie Bradshaw for helping me get here.

Follow the InterAct2008 blog to get a flavor what what’s cookin’ in DC this week.

July 29, 2008July 30, 2008 kenekaplan Social Media

Generosity Triumphs Over Mean-Spirited

This is something I want to explore and build upon.
Today, RichardatDELL left a great comment on Todd Defren’s PR-Squared blog.

Lots of great shared insights there sprouting from a central theme of how to engage with the good and even bad comments made about you or your company.

We have a general rule at Intel — acknowledge the good, bad and not the ugly. The notion is that the ugly, defined more by the mean-spirited intent of a comment, is something we need to read but not feed. But this discussion on Todd’s blog even brings this rule of thumb into question. Social media really is about a cultural shift to being more open, sharing and engaging with thoughtful, timely and valuable information. This is something we’re all learning, individuals and companies alike.

So even acknoledging the ugly might be a way to build the big picture good karma. After all, we’re in this for the long haul so every engagement counts. But it’s not a karma sum game, it’s a new era of connecting, collecting, sharing, collaborating, learning, growing, making mistakes and correcting them quickly. These all sound like jargon, but at the core is positive energy. And the collective use of this is making the world better. It’s not eliminating bad, ugly or evil, it’s helping us understand it better, quicker so we can recoil and spring to the next enriching shared/sharing experience.

Back to the PR Squared post and my favorite comment by RichardatDELL. There was a link in the comment to a post called Three Dirty Little Blogging Secrets. It’s a great read. Richard strikes a cord that is at the core of what gave birth to social media and why more people are turning to it to open their minds, hearts and new relationships with destiny. Here are the three secrets, but read the whole post.

clipped from richardatdell.blogspot.com

1. The blogger is Not a “citizen journalist” nor does a bloggers’ “power” authority or importance arise from that premise

2. “Lose Control” ? How about Participate. These are different Issues and have different ramifications.

3. The “blogging” world is not “fair” (see 1); Its a wild Mob. Wrong, It’s a Generous World

June 6, 2008June 8, 2008 kenekaplan Collaboration, Communications, Social Media

Collaborating and Sharing Bring Real Value

Chris Heuer shared a link to a great post by Christian Kreutz, who hits on my favorite topic that I hope becomes more valuable the more we understand how it. It’s the underlining meaning for why we work together and share our collective experiences, discoveries…and I’d say even our emotions…with our teammates. Information is free most of the time, but we can bump up the value every time we touch it, favorite it, bookmark it, tag it, collect and sort it then share it. That helps us more quickly find the right people and right information we we want. That’s the power within an organization, not the classical hierarchical, political structure most people are dealing with today.

Christian offers these “bottom-up approaches”:

Start a collaborative tagging experiment over del.icio.us with colleagues to see how easy the sharing of valuable information can be, or open up a room on friendfeed to discuss right away resources.
Use external tools for your team to make project management easier. One example could be a blog for your project’s history, milestones and other management tasks.
Connect with colleagues through existing social networks such as Xing, Linkedin or Facebook and use it for exchange.
Extend informal activities on the web and make other colleagues be aware of it: bulletin board, liftsharing etc.

Separately, but complimentary….Chris offers an example of how FriendFeed can replace email as a collaboration tool.

As Joitske commented on my first blog post, you can address a specific problem and use social media for an open transparent discussion.

April 27, 2008 kenekaplan Events, Marketing, Social Media

Got Your Name Google Alert On?

Getting a Google Alert monitoring your name is essential. Made sense when I heard Intel blog pioneer Josh Bancroft mention it over a year ago. And it proved exceptionally useful and quick this week at the New Comm Forum 2008.

Rohit was hosting a panel on new communications strategies called “The Future of Marketing & Advertising” featuring:

Neil Chase from Federated Media – publishers and networks
David Takheim from Six Apart – platforms and publishing toolsKen Kaplan — me — offering stories from inside Intel

In keeping with the fast and real-time world we’re living in, Rohit encouraged the panalists to keep it raw and share their own insights. On the morning of the event, he sent out this blog post listing questions that could help shape the discussion. About one hour later, Neil and David arrived inside the room ready to go. One of the first things both guys said was: “Thanks for the questions, I just got them in Google Alerts.”

For me, this was the first time I saw Google Alerts work so well, in a timely manner. I’ve used Twitter for quick hook ups before, but this showed the power of blogs, search engines and being tapped into what’s important to “you.”

The panel was well attended with a fully engaged audience asking great, real-work world questions by the likes of Tim Marklein of Weber Shandwick PR and Jennifer McClure, maven of the Society for New Communications Research and the wonderful host of NewComm Forum event. Here’s what Rohit had to say after the panel:

I really enjoyed hearing from Neil and David what’s working and how much hard work is going into to relationship building, making connections and helping more people learn how to use new tools. At Intel, we’re trying a lot of new things thanks for my pal David Veneski teaming up with Federated Media. And Six Apart seems like a part of the Intel family, and continues to try new things, building new services into blogging platforms.

The event pulled together some great people, including Tom Foremski, Shel Israel, Joseph Jaffe , Katie Paine , John Cass (I had the pleasure of meeting — see earlier post), Shel Holtz , Todd Defren , Brian Solis, Geoff Livingston and Giovanni Rodriguez.

The New Comm Forum is an event brimming with good arguments and storytelling that help communication pros see where they are, how they got there and how to move ahead…with a little help from our friends.

April 27, 2008April 27, 2008 kenekaplan Social Media, Photos, Books, Web 2.0, Events

Authors-Action Heroes at Web 2.0 Expo, SF08

Authors & Action Heroes at Web 2.0 Expo, SF08, originally uploaded by KenEKaplan.

There were many highlights from the Web 2.0 Expo:

Meeting Chris Brogan and the Radian6 crew
Experiencing the creative vibe inside Blogtropol.us social media room
Seeing how Twitter intrigue continues to drive new reasons/ways for live microblogging
Learning about SEO and trends for application developers — I see these trends are not locked into developers but also apply to communications pros. This is something I hope to explore in a near future post, building on notes I took from the two sessions I attended on Day One.
Seeing for the first time IBM‘s great slogan “Talking identifies limits. Doing transcends boundaries.”
Seeing the Schwaggin’ Wagon posse in action — they drummed up lots of media buzz with by doing something many have talked about, but never did: take the exaggerated efforts of an event like Web 2.0 Expo and share the spoils with those who are more in need. This I’ll explore more in an upcoming blog post where I can share the photo I took.

The best part was getting to hang out with people like Rohit Bhargava and Tim Ferriss. Sure they’re authors (Rohit’s new book “Personality Not Included” and Tim’s 52 week NY Time top seller “Four Hour Work Week“), sure they’re idea guys…but they’re livin’ life and sharing ideas and best known methods with those who care and want to learn.

Web 2.0 Expo is not just about social media and the technologies behind it…it’s about the people and how they’re using the technologies to lead they way. And they way things are going, human behavior and personality is changing for the better as we share more, try more, do more of the things we’re passionate about.