Moving Walkway

Last Thursday I went to the Social Media Club’s DC meeting held at Olgivy PR’s offices. I took some random notes, and here they are with some extra comments sprinkled in.

Attendees - I break these into three categories. First there were people associated with PR, and most seemed to be in a “new media” or otherwise “innovative” part of their organization. Second was “participants,” where I put bloggers and other people that “get it” because the “do it.” Third is the random mix, which is where I’d throw myself.

• What is Social Media? - I don’t actually remember the conclusion, but it was in line with my thinking.
• A brief discussion on “Social Media” vs “Social Networking”
• Blogging Policies - discussion around companies that are totally anti-blogging (people that don’t get it).
  • Belief that Google and Microsoft don’t have specific blogging policies, but trust their employees and say that the existing employee agreements cover their actions.
  • People noted how many Microsoft bloggers there were and how few Google bloggers. Some people pointed out that there are Google bloggers (like David and Justin).
  • Where I work today, BEA Systems, the blogging policy is pretty simple. It basically says “we trust you, don’t do something stupid like reveal confidential information, and the existing employee policies apply.” They said this while saying, “Hey go out and blog and help us engage with customers and the larger community.”
• Echo Chamber - there was some discussion of things getting caught in the echo chamber and if the whole social media has applicability to a large enough crowd. I put this in the “is it just for a niche crowd, or is my (grand)mom doing it?” class. I’m a firm believer that while everyone isn’t involved yet, we’ll get there. The whole world isn’t going to use a small start-up service, but the concepts and activities that happen in the good start-ups will spread to the world… through acquisition by the big guys, or by the big guy copying it. “Big guys” could be Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft or the NYT, USA Today, CNN, AARP, etc. The one comment I’m still thinking about is the association of “echo chamber” to “circle jerk.” One is clearly a more negative view, so I’ll stick with the chamber
• Relationship Maintenance - some people see the value of Facebook and MySpace as a way to keep a relationship there. This is fairly easy and often passive. The downside is that when you hear about a major life event through someone’s MySpace page, do you feel less connected to them?
• Social Bookmarking - First, everyone should have the little buttons for all of these, because it is the way to easily get yourself into the flow and costs nothing. Some alternatives to del.icio.us included ma.gnolia and blinklist. I’m happy with del.icio.us.
• Indiscretion in public
  • A good bit on people putting and doing things that they might regret now, or later. The examples were often related to activity in college (bar crawls, parties, etc). The regret part was often related to getting a job.
  • Employers that are at all clued in will immediately google for an applicant and see if they have a MySpace page. There was a little debate as to whether you should look down on someone who has pictures, video, or other things that they may not want their mother to see (or at least she wouldn’t be proud of). Sometimes this material (or should I call it media) isn’t put up by the person, they just got snagged by a friend or someone else who posted it.
  • The best quote in this area was “Is it death of privacy, or return of judgement?”
• I need to check out “Hot Soup” and Conversate.
• Ben’s Chili is a historic icon. Just because you read positive reviews of an icon, doesn’t mean the food is good. But you can appreciate is all the same if you understand the heritage.
• Future meetings will be the last Thursday of the month. If we make it to Thanksgiving, it will be a good problem to have.

[tags]smcdc, social+media, blogging, policy, judgement[/tags]