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LEARNING ON THE FLY AT TWTRCON 09
2 Jun2009
I attended a conference on Twitter this past weekend. Met some interesting people including Seth Greenberg of Intuit, Stephanie Nelson of Dell, Laura Fitton (The Twitter guru), Guy Kawasaki (Evangelism Expert), Bob Pearson of The Blog Council among others. Pics of the presenters and moderators are just below.
The conference was well organized and well hosted. Gina Smith stood out and really kept the ball rolling. The exchanges were dynamic and honest and the event was SRO, so bravo guys.
One of the presenters (No names) described it as a Star Trek Convention, and that said, I learned a few things and asked some questions of the “experts”.
To the final (and most interesting) panel titled:
Let’s Cut to the Chase. Getting beyond the hype: what will be the long term value of the Twitter platform to your business?
- Dave McClure, Startup Advisor, Angel Investor, Founders Fund
- Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst, Forrester
- Paul Saffo, Futurist and Visiting Scholar, Stanford Media X
Moderator: Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, D:All Things Digital
I asked this question:
There are about 30 million Twitter users now. I’ve been hearing all day that business has not yet figured Twitter out. So does anyone on the panel think that business will NOT FIGURE OUT TWITTER? The response was interesting and unanimous: Business will figure it out, and very very soon! NOTE TO BUSINESS: If you want to be the dominant user of this growing social medium GET YOUR ACT IN GEAR because your competition is gearing up fast.
Conference Keynote: Laura Fitton, Founder, Pistachio Consulting and Co-Author,Twitter for Dummies
Twitter for Business 101
This entry-level session will answer the questions you have about starting to use Twitter for your business. Whether you’re new to Twitter or simply looking to sharpen your skills, this pre-conference is designed to establish a common level of understanding of the basics: What does Twitter do? How is micro-sharing different from blogging or social networks? What can we use Twitter for? How do we use Twitter to reach our audience? How do we govern Twitter use by employees? How can we measure success?
MY QUESTION FOR LAURA FITTON:
I asked the first presenter Laura Fitton for a simple, succinct explanation of what makes Twitter unique. What feature made 30 million people suddenly start using Twitter? I think I surprised her because I did not get a simple, succinct answer. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a very, very, smart lady and I strongly recommend businesses use her as a Twitter consultant as part of a social media strategy (outside healthcare, because I want to be your go-to guy in healthcare), but sometimes smart people get “stuck” and she had been going strong for an hour at the point, which was 8am pacific time. My simple explanation is this: Twitter brings birds of a feather together, whether near or far, and creates a means for instant, interesting information exchange, via 140-character headlines and url links.
Tweeting for Dollars
How companies large and small are using Twitter to win customers and drive revenue.
- Mike Prasad, Brand/New Media Director, Kogi BBQ
- Beth Mansfield, Public Relations Manager, Carl’s Jr.
- Stefanie Nelson, Marketing, Dell Outlet
Moderator: Bob Pearson, President, The Blog Council
I posted this question via Twitter: Can any of you track a sales increase directly to a Twitter campaign? The fellow from Kogi answered with an emphatic yes. The others were silent..perhaps to keep the competition guessing?
SOME OBSERVATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Dell outlet (Stephanie Nelson – Great Job!) is a place to check out to see how a consumer goods company uses twitter intelligently.
Seth Greenberg (Intuit) Quietly said one of the smartest things I heard at the conference. Don’t lose sight of what you are already successfully doing to drive your business. Implication:Incorporate Twitter and learn on the fly.
MC Hammer is eloquent and very connected.
Gail Porter of Virgin America Airlines “gets it” and must be fun to work with.
Guy Kawasaki admitted to spamming on Twitter, but offered a perfectly acceptable explanation. One of his twitter uses is purely as a business tool. he needs as many “followers” as he can get to accomplish his business objective, so his strategy to get followers is to post a lot of interesting and widely varied information links. You can follow him “or not”. Perfectly acceptable to me.
Guy also invited me to play hockey with him and his hockey friends next time I am in the Bay Area. All I have to do is bring my blades. Hmmmmm sounds like a set-up to me. His “friends” probably all play for The San Jose sharks.
Steve Rubel of Edelmen Digital tried to turn his talk into a brainstorming about what the future of Twitter is. He used a software tool called MindNode. It didn’t really work so well and his talk meandered…leaving us all to conclude that he was using us to help him figure out where the whole twitter thing is going. Maybe purposely maybe not. Those who were there can judge for themselves.
Shel Israel; A nice man who introduced his wife and mother-in-law to the audience. he demonstrated the Power of Twitter bys sharing one story about how a one-word Twitter message freed a man jailed in the middle east and another about the Twitter posts that became the news during the recent “airplane in the Hudson accident”. Interesting point, Twitter can be an amazingly fast news outlet. A kindly meant comment: Shel may want to take a lesson or two on makng punchier presentations, but then, maybe he lose his “genuineness”.
Twitter to the Rescue!
How to solve problems and deliver great customer service in 140 characters or less.
- Jeremy Pepper, PR Manager, Boingo Wireless
- Ed Terpening, VP, Social Media Marketing, Wells Fargo
- Frank Eliason, Director Digital Care, Comcast
Moderator: Rafe Needleman, Editor, WebWare, CNet
Man this panel had a tough time. They were telling stories about how Twitter helps with customer service. The Angel Investor guy, Dave McClure of Founders Fund just lit right in telling them clear and loudly, using some pretty basic language (the guy swears a lot) that their ideas were not scaleable. One or two twitter success stories cannot be scaled to thousands of customer service problems. It was probably the most contentious exchange of the day. THANK YOU DAVE FOR WAKING EVERYONE UP AND SAVING THAT PANEL.
The technology display area was, to put it bluntly, woeful, as were the “pitches”. companies got 140 seconds to wow the crowd about their new Twitter inventions. I thought PeopleBrwsr was good. But otherwise I was a bit underwhelmed.
A FINAL OBSERVATION: NOT ONE HEALTHCARE MARKETING PERSON WAS IN ATTENDANCE, OTHER THAN ME. HOW CAN WE LEARN TO INTELLIGENTLY LEVERAGE SOMETHING WE DON’T MAKE THE TIME OR EFFORT TO FIGURE OUT. AND HOW DANGEROUS IS IT TO NOT BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION OUR CUSTOMERS ARE HAVING? On the other hand, if anyone in pharma of medical devices needs help understanding and leveraging social media in our complex little world, feel free to contact me.
I know this Blog meandered a bit…but I am tired and hungry. I may edit later.
Lawrence Binding
red conference speakers include:
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