Tuesday, June 16

Live Blogging from the 140Conf Conference - Day 1

Day One: I am liveblogging a bunch of the events/speeches that are being presented at Jeff Pulver's #140conf. I will re-edit the content later tonight.

John Borthwick - betaworks
  • "now"ness - much is not pushing out real time data - Need to push out real-time data across the real-time access.
  • Streams - webpages are and were a convenient metaphor. Streams are a new representation of data
  • Does a stream really belong on a webpage
  • Appropriation is implicit in stream - recycling is implicit in a stream
  • Redundancy
  • Business clarity - vital to the business ecosystem - need to help make it make understand.
  • What is a user, marketer, amplification, and so on.
  • Context - vital part of the stream - extracting content - need metadata, structured data, lightweight stream and how do you add more content to the stream.
David from Israeli Consulate
  • Begins with a "Visit Israel" slideshow
  • Maxim magazine on the IDF then beach in Central Park for the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv Beach
  • claims twitter allows for a dialog of the conversation - for the Israeli govt is connecting
  • Expect the unexpected - David goes onto twitter for a press conference.
  • Building a platform for twt4peace - to promote environment, minority rights, and education
Panel - Patric Laforge (NYT), Etan Horowitz (Orlando), Peter from WSJ, Village Voice Media
Q: How do you have a two-way conversation? Are you using twitter?
VVM - the ivory tower is breaking down - pent-up desire. Too long of a blog-roll - confered with follower to get feedback
NYT - city room blog - comments are better handled in the blog comments. Presence on twitter is going to where the audience is
Q: any solid tips that have come from twitter?
OS - have feed leads - builds back the readership because the people become invested in you and the paper (brand)
VVM - Some people are using twitter to do reporting - short bursts - in the Bay Area. News gathering process is a compliment to the original effort.
NYT - twitter solves the following of hundreds of blogs - now using twitter to filter the feed/editorial
WSJ - 2K followers, 2/3rds followed back
Q: MSM was failing because they were not covering it fast enough. Is twitter an early warning system?
VVM - there was a lot of #cnnfail discussion on twitter -
OS - set up a hashtag for the iPhone launch - all of the people that were doing real-time reporting on the guys blog. Leveraging citizen journalism
NYT - twitter is providing tracking and performance of competitors
WSJ - traditional news org - very deep belief of "going there". Journalists going to the location of news is important of seeing both sides.
Q: notion is better to be right than to be first might backfire - people want to know right now.
Q: twitter is second source of traffic for TC (due to suggested user and so on). How do you see twitter as distribution?
VVM - yes, traffic showing up
OS - David Pogue has a bigger circ than OS and his post drove traffic and the RT continued a lot

BREAK

Shelly Palmer - LNJF, SCIFI, VH1
Q: Customers would have asked for a "faster horse" - discuss
SCIFI: people do not really know what they want. If we had listen to the fans at the beginning when BSG was in development, we would not have launched. Now, people realize it was great. Sometimes, people do not know what they want. Important to hear people's feedback - but do not need to mindlessly follow.
LNJF: have to take advantage of the tools, but it is not a democracy. twitter is helping get interesting content on TV. As a creator, need ot make the decisions on what to bring to TV or not.
VH1: great for finding out what is happening "out there", what is funny and surprising. Excellent on getting feedback
Q: remember txtmobbing? You could create txtmobs - electronic mob mentality - o you see this happening now? Do you respond to this? What is the backlash?
LNJF: depends on what you put out there. If you are open and put it out there - and if people know that you are out there - it is a good thing.
Q: do people "get" twitter? What does it mean to "get" twitter?
VH1: Fred told me to get onto twitter - and it was difficult to explain. First blush, did not make sense. Then, when using it, it became very addictive.
SCIFI: three times signed up - did not really get into it in the beginning. Checked twitter out at the end of BSG - and then began to join the discussion. Peak behind the scenes of the network (twitter feed). Tells story of when Dom Delouise dies and people sent tweets to the SciFi feed - and
Q: It's a conversation - any negativity?
VH1: twitter is the anti-blog - people are joining a conversation feed - blogs are like "graffiti" because people have to step through.
LNJF: Jimmy is communicating with people - people do not go negative if they might get responsive.
SCIFI: Change from SciFi to SyFy - one woman was unhappy, tweeted, and then the SciFi guy responded which turned the customer around.
Q: economics of TV and economics of twitter - how do we account for the economics of having a "twitter team"?
LNJF: not cost-prohibitive. Trending topic from Zack Morris to Jimmy Fallon on twitter which gave a boost to one of the shows.
VH1: work on the creative side - identity is closely aligned with the show on twitter.
Q: TV execs have a twitter account - no corporate restrictions - why?
SCIFI: twitter has microblogging - not really giving too much hassle.

Liz Strauss
  • Last conference - 90% of the conference was not on twitter - so now had to handle the people actually watching her.
  • twitter is like a three wall set - people are aware there is an audience. Sometimes we are talking for the audience/easedroppers.
  • 20K people who are eavesdropping - when I post a link, a bunch of people might follow.
  • If you want to talk about your product, talk to someone. Last panel - was there ever a conference like this about the telephone. the pencil, are we getting a little precious about our tools? [I would say - communications and travel is more democratic - think of the private salons]
  • Girls Night Out is a continuous conversation - 140 characters is a way to get a brief message out there - but whole conversations are important too. twitter is the largest networking room - bring a friend who can help grease the skids
  • Listen so you can challenge the assumptions.
  • Blog goes deep - twitter goes wide. You need to confirm what you hear is what people are saying?
  • Never say Thanks - thanks sounds flippant, thank you is more appropriate.
  • Leverage the conversation - marketing to the eavesdroppers - throw out one question (not a whole list of them) and let it go wide.
  • Social media is a wonderful change agent because you can not control the conversation.
  • Make it fun, short enough. Feel proud to pass the tweet on. And be sure to be interesting - do not just keep retweeting the thanks message.
Stowe Boyd - microsyntax
  • Shows the "Tower of Babel" - Nimrod - G-d confused the languages
  • We are i na time of great changes - many streaming/flow apps. Because of some of the interesting constraints - we have a real opportunity to confuse ourselves.
  • Microsyntax - do everything we can to make sense of information patterns - various ways to embed structured information right into the text of Twitter messages like RT, @, $, # and others.
  • [Is this not the issue of having too few characters? Sounds like the limitations of RAM in the 80s.]
  • Discusses a hashtag meltdown at this year's SXSW
  • Launched microsyntax.org as a non-profit focused on identifying, researching and finding consensus on info syntax within twitter messages.
  • Offering all to join to #MicrosyntaxCamp
Effects on twitter on business (ZAPPOS, RADIANT6, SOMEECARDS)
Q: what was the aha moment on twitter?
ZAPPOS: discovered in SXSW 2007 - knowing what parties to go to. Used it for about a year - introduced it to Zappos employees - focus on culture - long term brand. Replicate the SXSW getting together to connect, family. Someone tweets "I need a cheeze burger"
RADIANT6: 2007 - on twitter - did not quite get the value. At a tradeshow - first man to tweet our brand. Someone from Edelman tweets - people come - then someone sends a tweet,
SOME: aha moments - one of the first was when a lot of people were willing to listen to what we had to say several times a day. SomeeCards is short-form comedy. Direct correlation - launch something and then tweet is soon afterwards. A great way to look at trending topics - audience is tell you what to make fun of. Tweet about actual news, tweet about it and then redirect to a relevant eCard.
Q: why is twitter so relevant to business and not other social networks?
SOME: twitter is like the quarterback - guide our brand through twitter. If we want people to look at a new card, if we want feedback on the new site/new navigation - it is the best thing for use to have a conversation with 680K people. Way to get that immediate response - just like having audience reaction at a stand up performance.
RADIANT6: Conversation of brand online - diversity of conversations on twitter about brand - people more likely to ask question and comments on twitter. Customer response. Unique characteristic: listening for the point of need. Listen for a problem - and connect to the need. Rich environment to help with the customer need/customer conversation.
ZAPPOS: twitter.zappos.com - default page for listening to when someone discusses zappos on twitter. Another link goes to the list of twitter accounts. Can get a good feel of the company culture - brand may lag the culture, but twitter can show it and brand will reflect the culture.
Q: are the people themselves or are they Zappos?
ZPPOS: they are themselves - be authentic and use common sense
SOME: bets if people are NOT themselves (laughter) - I am the ambassador of the brand - right now, like having one focal point of the brand.
Q: conversations and listening - is there really a conversation? Do you recommend companies actively participating
RAD: conversational listening - are you gathering info for a relationship or - start with passive listening to understand the conversation. Participating int he conversation changes the connection.
ZAP: stories of the @replies - almost never send an @reply - usually sends a DM. @zappos_service handles the @reply to the customer request.
Q: companies doing too much talking and not enough listening?
Q: what are companies doing wrong on twitter?
RAD: 1) yellow brick road - how to start. Take tradidional marketing (one-way thinking) and think that is the way to do it. Start to push brand messages - start with listening, then listening and responding, then listen more broadly and begin to discuss the community at large. Biggest mistake - jumping into the PR way
Q: how do you choose which to reply?
ZAP: I choose the ones that only I can answer?
Q: is there a twitter CRM how you manage the status of twitter conversations? ZAP: not yet - we have a portal but will more than likely happen.
Q: #1 thing desired - what is the ROI? Creative is all about changing I to involvement. How do you measure ROI
ZAP: twitter not a marketing tool - we do not look at the ROI - initially, phones are not now looked at as ROI.
RAD: calls social media as the "social phone" - they are asking how do i measure the advertising metric on social media? ROI is difficult - how do you measure relative to other business metrics. No one magic social media ROI.
SOM: hesitant to call twitter a marketing tool, but it is. Use bit.ly to show branded cards to show performance of cards. Balancing at is to not make it feel like advertising.
ZAP: never thought "What is the ROI of this hug?" Better to be thinking about - how can I help? What can I do help? Do not ask for more.
Q: Though participation and engagement - we can be doing more of an "unmarketing" making marketing more scalable and leveraging more of a word-of-mouth. [NOTE - what will be the bandwidth and speed of conversation]

Maegan Carberry
Capacity of bipartisanship or post-p[artisanship in the political community.
MSM missed the Obama candidacy - need to pay attention to the grassroots? Was hope lost or was the seed is planted?
1) social contract has changed
2) twitter is the natural extension of myBO - and #mycnt is the natural connection for Repugs
3) did we build the foundation of a multiparty platform for the future.

Social Contract has changed - when Claire McCaskell tweets to her constituents, good for local, state and national
Bowling Alone - civic orgs were dead. We needed channels for communicating.
As an individual, you can quantify your sphere of influence.
Whole legion of part time activists versus a bunch of

Is twitter a direct extension of myBO?
60% of her followers are conservatives - these are people who have children and are real people. Every time we push in directions - have engagement.

Why do we need political parties? We needed a way to have people to push ideas - collect money and drive ideas forward. myBO gave both functions. Created a sense of momentum that did not apply to parties. Can be for issues - and not be for parties.
Can be around an issue and hashtag.

Are we regurgitating the 1960s or a new stet of ideas/ideals. All tweeters are thought-leaders. More important is the exchange of ideas. How are you contributing to the collective intelligence? Coming to twitter is a great engagement.

Jeff speaks: the largest gap between generations is the Millennials and all others. Playing field where revolutions will be heard. Would the Wall come down faster in 1989 if twitter had been there?

Robert Scoble with Ann Curry (@AnnCurry), Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn), Ryan Osborn (@todayshow)
When Robert grew up, major three networks - no major access to content.
Today - Ev Williams and the disruptive network twitter.
Tells a story of the earthquake that happened in China where he saw three tweets that gave him info way prior to the news groups/channels. Second story of the plane in the Hudson. This Saturday, the story of the protests in Iran - could not see Q to it full HD TV.

Q to @ricksanchezcnn: what happened on Sat? And does CNN regain the brand of being the premier news network
@ricksanchezcnn: anything can make news - defends what happened. There was a West Coast effect versus an East Coast effect.
Q to all: news judgement of all groups - what happened? 100M dying in Bombay not as important as 10 people in your local school. Is the news judgement of the MSM changing due to the world's interconnectiveness?
@ricksanchezcnn: blows it out in CNN
@anncurry: reason why they did an hour on Iran sunday before the election - recognize that "you" need to know. Whatever came to Iran was going to affect us. What you are really asking "Is the MSM covering the world enough" and the answer is no. Journalism is a battle - the world is changing. Keep fighting the battle to make international more prevalent. The interconnected nature of the world is changing things. People in Iran are reading the NYTimes - which is feeding the desire. Incredible how there was a similar movement for change in Iran (just like the Obama generation) - people want to change their destiny.
The Iranian people feel that they are being poorly represented in the world - and they are sensitive to it because they see how they are being depicted in the MSM and blogs. Now, MSM needs to show the story - not how American's see the story - rather than the "truth" of the story.
We demand this "Wherever you are - you shoot that story like it is your mother, your brother, and so on - tell that in that way" - it is the way to becoming fully global.
Q: isn't the news changing because we get direct contact to the people there?
@todayshow: yes, but how do you get the credibility evaluated?
@ricksanchezcnn: social media has driven the story that there is something "hinkey" in the Iran election, but the MSM can not find any smoking gun.
FoxNews: seeing a real tipping point - what we call MSM and what we call "new media" - lag time and fact checking - how do we understand the standards? What is the MSM job? Is it context? I do not believe anyone has an answer.
@anncurry: it is important to make sure things are true. Sometimes, stories that are important for people to hear are not getting reported. There is a lot of nuance in the 140 characters - have to guard against misinterpretation ALL the time. Understand with empathy - your reader/viewer that is going to reach them with good information without misleading them. One bad word can mislead people and they have to be careful. There are problems getting through the "news judgment" issues.
Aud: We have to be sensitive about this. What about the difference between twitter, faxes, emails and such that?
@ricksanchezcnn: Social Media is not to be used as a gag. Need to embrace more than that. Companies who do not apply managers to social media will fail in the future.
@anncurry: have a problem - people do not pay attention to the "truth" - Americans are not watching the world. What is up with that?

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