Still Drinking the Kool-Aid – thoughts on BlogWorld09

Still Drinking the Kool-Aid

Last week I attended my first blogging conference. Got a few weird looks and strange glances when I mentioned why I would not be at a particular office meeting, but hey, I do this to learn, meet, mingle, and find new and better ways to contact, communicate, and collaborate. (I like that ring).  I firmly believe the way we communicate is changing with the tools that Web 2.0/3.0 brings. In some cases, institutions are eliminating email! (Boston College October 2008). As Chris Brogan wrote in my copy of Trust Agents. “…these are the new tools but the old ways”. So I went, and listened, and met folks, talked in hallways and over coffee, and even danced a bit. And above all, I received value and hope some was returned.

Key thoughts and comments from Real Estate BlogWorld 09 and BlogWorld New Media Conference 09: In no particular order.

1. Branding – we used to be broadcasters of our Brand. Now our Brand is defined by who we are, and how we act. You will be found via blog, review site, interactions. How are you representing yourself?
2. From Chris Brogan Keynote: Branding is managing the end to end experience. Be 360 Who you are. Love in business means really respecting your customer – stop bombing them.
3. Interact vs meeting someone (Chris Brogan) Make it about them, can you connect them with someone else? Turn them into a community? When you get a voice can you use it to shine the spotlight on them? (See blog post by P Morgan Brown of Turn Here for a great description of this in action)
4. 4C’s of Community (David Armano) Content, Context, Connectivity, Continuity – keep it simple and make it stick. David Armano Presentation/
5. Users define the engagement – while this point was made during a session on how large corporations (Dell, HP made up the panel) it really is applicable to all client interactions. It even defined some of the sessions!
6. A panel of 4-5 high quality thought leaders is often not the best use of their talents and abilities. Each presenting in a short format does not lend itself to sharing their depth of knowledge in session and leaves the audience with mixed thinking.
7. There are “Social Media Experts/Guru’s/out there that think these tools can be used to structure an ad campaign or sell a given product. One person I met was looking for consulting help for a client who wanted to use Facebook, Twitter, et al to market a vacant commercial property. My view remains that it is more about relationships and trust.
8. One interesting conversations occurred at around 1:30 am in a snack bar at the Hilton between myself, two principals from a leader in social media marketing, and a business owner who uses Twitter and his 89,000 user base to move products – consumables. It was a fascinating discussion but we never did come up with a way to sell a $300,000 condo in Naperville via Twitter and user contests……
9. I have been in sales and marketing for over 35 years. Good client relationships are just that – relationships, not just transactions. They are built on listening and trust. It worked then and continues to work today. I think that is the old ways that Chris Brogan talks about.
10. Hashtags (#) can be used to set a Guiness World record. Over the course of a 24 hour period use of the hashtag “#beatcancer” by conference attendees and their networks, caused it to become the top trending topic on Twitter. As a result, something like $70,000 was raised from several corporate sponsors and a new World’s Record was set. http://wthashtag.com/Beatcancer. Folks in this space are like that. It is becoming more common that there is a cause associated with these conferences. Nice.
11. Some re.net people dance….a lot. (others may choose to substitute different words in lieu of “dance”)
12. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate (Sherry Chris, thank you) throws one heck of a kick off party.
13. Jason Berman puts together a very good RE.BlogWorld. I will be back next year.

So, I started this dive into Social Media and Networks last December: I’m sticking around because this kool-aid really tastes good. Peace.