Register Now for Social Media Marketing World







Join me and 2000 of your industry peers in San Diego on Wednesday, March 28 through Friday, March 30 for Social Media Marketing World (SMMW). 

Why go?

I'm going because several of my industry friends went to SMMW last year and they told me this is THE must-attend social media marketing conference. They shared that the networking and the content are unrivaled. I can not wait!




With over 80 sessions, there's so many great topics to choose from with a host of diverse speakers, and one of my favorites - Customer Advocacy through Customer Service and Social Media Marketing - is what my panel is covering on Thursday at 10:30a. Here's the details:

Social Care: How Social Media Marketing and Customer Service Form a Winning Team By Zena Weist with Dan Gingiss (Discover), Michelle Lapierre (Marriott) and Becky Carroll (PriceWaterhouseCooper)
Topic: Social Care
Track: Social Strategy
Room: Gaslamp

Please comment below or tweet me with any questions you'd like me to ask Dan, Michelle and Becky. 

Hope to see you in sunny San Diego in a few weeks!

Be Social - What's Your Sawubona Moment?

Last month, Ben Smith (@benasmith) and Whitney Mathews (@whitneymathews from The World Company, successfully hosted the first Free State Social Conference with a bevy of amazing speakers; a local discussion panel (that I was lucky to be a part of); great old school, in real life conversations; and, an interesting mix of local/regional/national attendees made up of online newbies, powerhouse techheads, marketing/PR SMEs, and publishing whizkids.

My next few posts will not be recaps or reviews of the conference. Lots of local bloggers have provided excellent Free State recaps and review posts, Whitney captured most of them here. Remember the "here" link, we'll come back to it in my next post...promise.

Missed the conference? You can take it in via video archive. So no recap for me, I'm going to tap into a vein of thinking that lots of us have discussed before. It was the underlying theme of the conference. It's something that started with Chris Brogan's opening remarks and continued through out the day...to GET social media you need to DO social media, in order to REALLY do social media, you need to BE social.


I See You and I Am One of You

Since I'm talking about what getting, doing and being social mean to me - and I'm chatty - it's going to take a series of posts. I can't wait for you to share what it means to you. With all of us contributing, this series could go on a while. Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) kicked off the Free State Social Conference keynote using his iPad. No talking just words on the screen. The first screen said "I See You" and the second is pictured with Chris above, "I'm One of You." Thanks to Simon Kuo (@simonkuo) of The Westside Studio for the use of the photo.




You Matter To Me, You Are Worth My Time
The first time I met Chris in person was in early 2008, we were both at the SNCR NewComm conference looking (via Twitter) for a late lunch buddy. I had been reading Chris' blog since early 2007, we conversed via email and Facebook. He had helped me develop Embarq's social media road map, got me going on my blog, we talked kid stuff and shared telcom shop talk so when we met in person, we had history. But knowing Chris, he would have had lunch with me whether he knew me online or not. That's just his M.O. He breathes the essence of what makes social media um...well, what makes social media social.

Though Chris shares content freely (some 2500 words of advice a day) via his blog, see Chris really excels as an in-the-moment, get out from behind the (insert whatever face-to-face barrier you use here) ie keyboard, screen, etc. sharer. He knows the secret sauce is in the big share and he knows sharing it will not only help others, but will ultimately propel Chris.

Back to our first in-person meet up, Chris and I sit down for lunch. I take my phone out of my purse-mom-bag-laptop tote and put it on the table in front of me. It's my barrier, well actually for me, it was my crutch. I'm thinking of it as my "cool kid" badge because I'm all smart phone hip, right? Yeah, well no.

Leave it to Chris to school me within 15 seconds of sitting down. At the same time, Chris takes his phone from his trouser pocket, hits a button (I'm thinking mute) and sits it on the table. But no...He says, "This is a distraction, so I'm turning it off."

The dude was not pulling a "this is what I need to do" lame "look at me, I have big ears" pulpit play. No posturing going here. This was early 2008, this is just part of Chris' DNA and it's something we all need reminded of:

Let the person (yep, the one right in front of you) know I see you and you matter to me.

Chris uses the Zulu term Sawubona to describe this common courtesy which is rare in practice and he has written many a post on it. The first post I remember is The Community Ecosystem.

That one gesture of shutting his phone off with the four words after "This is a distraction" is my best Sawubona moment to date. Can't wait to hear your Sawubona moment.

Next post will continue with me getting a lesson on "I am one of you" over salads. Yep, about five minutes into lunch.

Chris Brogan - Going from Gee Whiz to Oh Crap!

Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) aka "No I Don't Sleep" Brogan spoke at the recent Kansas City IABC's Business Communicator's Summit. Here's two minutes worthy of a listen. Chris talks about moving from toe in the water trying social media out initiatives to the need for a more holistic company wide social media roadmap.

why blog? and twitter pack = community sourcing

Why blog?

For me, it was simple. If I was going to really submerge myself in social media tools then I felt like I needed to start writing about my social media experiences. There's a lot going on and it's overwhelming!

I figured if I started a blog, I could look back at where I began with social media. I could see the steps I was making. Progress would be charted in my words. Maybe I would find my blogging voice along the way (still searching for that:)

And so here it is - Nothin' but socNET. I'm 6 months into authoring my own blog. It's really a journal for me, to keep tabs on what's going on in this crazy, ever-changing environment.

And I'm asking my first question to anyone and everyone that comes across this post.

I need your help with a definition.

Today, I came across Chris Brogan's latest endeavor via his tweet:

The Twitter Pack Project.



and I'm watching the pulse build on this project. It's interesting to see the wiki take shape, the community molding it, the passion unfolding, the voices of many providing their input, the discussions on twitter and Brogan's blog.

Brogan's Twitter Pack Project is a fantastic example of - not crowd sourcing - no, this is well beyond, crowd sourcing - this is community sourcing at its finest.

Define community sourcing with me...help me expand on this post and live the definition along the way. Once we have a definition that we are comfortable with as a good enough starter, we'll post community sourcing on wikipedia.

UPDATE - 1/30
Adding Warren's suggestion from his comments below:
Wikipedia defines crowd sourcing as:
Outsourcing a task to an undefined, generally large group of people.

Community sourcing is taking crowd sourcing to the next level:
Outsourcing a task to a connected group/community for the benefit of that community.

Warren has captured the social networking connection element in his definition that is lacking in crowd sourcing. I picture a cattle call when I think of crowd sourcing. I picture a table of friends discussing a topic of interest when I think of community sourcing.

Thoughts?

Social networking for social good

I admit it. I'm a feel good person. I truly believe that when I'm doing good for others, it comes back 100 fold to me. Maybe that's why I'm so enamored with social networking and all the helping voices, hands and hearts I've come across.

I feel extremely lucky to have come into contact with social media mavens that are rocking the social networking scene for social good. There's Beth Dunn, @santaclaus - aka the Provident Partner Elves, Michael Ben-Nes, Chris Brogan, Nate Ritter, Beth Kanter, and Michele Martin - just to name a powerful few.

Chris Brogan is providing 100 useful blog tips - 1 topic a day. There's actually several pointers with each post.

Beth Kanter's blog provides tips for non-profit neophytes to experts on using social media.

Today, I added the Sharing Foundation widget to my blog's sidebar. Beth Kanter and Michele Martin have teamed up to raise funds for the Sharing Foundation in the America's Giving Challenge.

As Michele explains, "The top 8 individuals with the most unique donors for their cause will win $50,000 EACH, while 100 charities will be awarded $1,000 based on the number of donations they receive through the Challenge. The minimum donation of $10 can buy a young Cambodian student a school uniform (so he/she can go to school) and a month's worth of English lessons in the Sharing Foundation's ESL program."

Consider donating $10 to the Sharing Foundation, if you can't donate - please consider passing this message on to others.

Jeremiah's post: Defining Online Community

As I have become more entrenched in social media over the last few months, I have experienced some fairly impressive social networking moments. Most of events have been wide-sweeping with major buzz to boot, others have been...I guess what you would call little online whispers - very little conversations but the content is extremely important to me.

Some of my non-work related social networking highlights include: receiving an endearing "pay it forward" compliment on facebook; being part of Beth Kanter's amazing efforts with the help of Chris Brogan to raise enough money ($10/contributor) within 24 hours to send a Cambodian woman, Leng Sopharath, to college; helping the fight against breast cancer through Frozen Pea Fridays: experiencing bumrushing the charts for Joseph Jaffe's Join The Conversation; having my nieces and nephew choose to friend me on MySpace and Facebook, being interviewed by Kim Dushinski for her soon-to-be released mobile marketing book; and, yet another moment today with Jeremiah.

This morning Jeremiah set out to define "online community" through a posting on his Web Strategy blog, followed up with twitter dialogue and blog conversation. He is asking the community to hone in on its self-defined term until the definiton "online community" melds into that which it is...real-time.

Community sourcing at its finest.

I'm looking forward to this community-made and endorsed "online community" definition to be posted on wikipedia.

Twitter spreads the word on Frozen Pea Fridays

Thank you Chris Brogan!

You introduced me to Connie Reece through a post, saying she's a person to follow on twitter. Through Reece and you, I met Susan Reynolds. And now I follow her day-to-day battle with breast cancer through twitter and her Boobs On Ice.

And frozen PEAs have a whole new meaning for me.

The Frozen PEA Fund site has a wonderful video from Connie explaining why the fund was set up.

More details on getting involved:
See the frozen PEA pool on flickr

Connie's post on The Social Media Consortium's every dot connects blog.

A twitter feed to follow PEAple

And of course, Brogan's post on Susan, finding a cure, and the power of social networking in helping people. 2 PEAS in a pod + 2 tweets equals much more than 4.

PEAS on Earth, social media friends!

Twitter - get it across in 140 characters or less

You ask a question on Twitter and you get a plethora of answers.

They are quick snippets refined to the gist of the point.

For instance, check out Chris Brogan's tweet from earlier this morning:



And look at the creative, across-the-board responses he got.

And critics say there's no conversation with Twitter. It's extremely interactive. Jump into the twitterati. Start by following me at zenaweist.

Socnet @ It's Finest - Twitter, Blogs & Facebook help send Cambodian Girl to College

Beth Kanter's personal non-profit fundraising campaign, for me, is one of those wonderful socnet phenomenons that I feel honored to be a part of. Using twitter, blogs and facebook, Beth raised most of the campaign's funding in 2 hours.

I found out about Beth's efforts through Chris Brogan. He sent the following tweet:


I clicked the tiny URL and immediately wanted to help out. The price was right - ten bucks - that's lunch out or a trip to Starbuck's. I could manage that especially for a great cause!

And 57 other socnet souls thought the same thing. Below is the list of the people, who through socnet actions, chipped in to help out Leng this semester. Kudos, everyone!

And it's not to late to get your "feel good" on...
Your $10 Can Send Champhearom to College & A Big Thank You to the Other Contributors!



Thank You to These Great People Who Have Already Contributed to Beth's Campaign:

Shirley Williams
Michael David Pick
Preetam Rai
Wiebke Herding
Peter Cranstone
Polly Thompson
Nicholas Booth
Fernanda Ibarra
Britt Bravo
Kelley-sue LeBlanc
Laura Whitehead
Allyson Lazar
CindyAE
Andrew Carothers
John Powers
Neesha Rahim
Anal Bhattacharya
Steve Bridger
Lloyd Davis
Donna Callejon
Chris Brogan
Anonymous
Joyce Bettencourt
Erin Vest
Philip C Campbell
Jane E Quigley
Steve Spalding
Amanda Mooney
Ann Miller
Donna Papacosta
Christopher Lester
Zena Weist
Connie Reece
Mary Reagan
michael dunn
Anne Boccio
S Michelle Wolverton
Israel Rosencrantz
Clint Smith
Stephen Keaveny
Scott Schablow
Justin Kownacki
Neha Yellurkar
Amie Gillingham
David Beaudouin
Edwin S Coyle III
Liz Perry
Haystack in A Needle
Ian Wilker

Twitter Utility - yes, there is real value in this app

If you don't have any idea what Twitter is all about, Wikipedia's definition and this quick Twitter 101 video from Nick Danforth should get you up-to-speed.

Ok, I have to admit the first time I checked Twitter out I couldn't make heads or tails of it. What was all the buzz about? It looked random and a little self absorbing. Really, who cares what I'm doing in 140 characters or less????

Then an online savvy friend, Melinda, who is a usability guru told me her twitter hooked story - the twitter event that made Melinda a tweet lover.

She followed a close friend from the first pangs of labor through child birth. This friend was across the country, and Melinda received updates instantaneously on the labor and birth event. Melinda was overjoyed to virtually hold her friend's hand through labor. And her friend has the history of her labor, in her own words - one 140 character message at a time.

This hook made sense to me.

I could stay up-to-date with friends that I didn't keep in daily or weekly touch with by following them on twitter. So I thought I'd give it a shot.

I hit an immediate roadblock. None of my friends, even my online friends, n o n e of them were using twitter, except for Melinda, who is always 3 steps ahead of trend :). I felt bleeding edge and a little scared. It reminded me of when I bought Broadvision stock back in '95. What the hell was I doing?

So, as I had done with BVSN, I went looking for business friends. In this case instead of stock counsel, I was looking for business-related friends that might be twittering.

They were easy to find...my facebook counterparts and socnet savvy thought leaders were out there twittering away such as Seth Godin, Chris Broganand Jeremiah Owyang. These master bloggers whom I gleam extremely valuable cutting edge information from daily - were of course all twittering.

With twitter, I immediately started getting 140 character golden nuggets - cliff notes of their blogs or random bouts of knowledge. These business-related tweets made twitter an instant utility for me and a multi-checkpoint daily ritual.

Then came my twitter hook. My mom was diagnosed with brain cancer a couple of weeks ago. This wasn't too much of a shock as she had survived stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer 6 years ago. My siblings, father, mother and I were headed to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis to tackle this tumor (which ended up being a 3x4 mass) with the cancer team.

I knew once I got to Barnes, I wouldn't have time to check work, home email nor text all my extended family, friends, and co-workers regarding status. You would think we'd have plenty of time, but we had been through this before and the Barnes staff swarms. There is NO downtime and we knew that 24/7 resolution was what we were in for.

So I sent out a few mass emails (work, friends, fb friends) and notified people via a few blogs. I let everyone know to follow me on twitter/zenaweist or go to my fb profile to view my latest twitter update.

I was surprised at how many not online savvy folks just winged it, signing up to follow me without issue, and how a few online zealots didn't take me up on my twitter request.

Anyway, I started twittering Sunday night before we left for STL. I kept updating my tweets through the entire week of testing, testing, seeing 25 drs and residents in 48 hours, testing, surgery, ICU, recovery - YES,
R E C O V E R Y! WAHOO!

The tweets helped keep me calm through the whole, stressful ordeal. Having to post in 140 characters or less, it helped me to focus, not be hysterical. Just knowing 20 or so people were following me and my family, giving Mom their support - it was powerful. Knowing those 20 were updating countless other people, it took the update burden off my family.

People sent us words of encouragement through twittering back, calling, posting on my fb wall, and emails. This circle of followers kept my family positive. Being positive helped me, my family, and especially my mom.

And I'll continue with updates as "Miracle Mom" heads into radiation next week.

And news on the followers that signed up to get updates from me, they aren't just lurking. They are creating their own hooks as well. This is a fantastic app with utility. My hook is just 1 of 1000s that happen everyday.

Share your twitter hook with me, I'd love to read about it.

UPDATE: Here's Jeremiah Owyang's insightful Twitter post.

The power of a tinyURL

My all time favorite quote is: It's not the moments you live, it's the moments that take your breath away.

I just had one of those "take your breath away" moments that wakes you up and makes you re-energized.

I just received Chris Brogan's latest twit:
Curse that JnSwanson . His blog post made me cry: http://tinyurl.com/26hnjr. That's a first.

Chris is an amazing social media mastermind always willing to encourage us noobs along the way. I recommend his blog to anyone I can - ask all my co-workers and MySpace & fb friends.

I have to tell you though, Jon Swanson's post moved me, no it shook me to the core. It made me realize this - this whole socnet thing that I'm caught up in - isn't all about business, or Web 2.0, or learning how to squeeze more into the day, or getting in front of the latest socnet site, or finding tips on juggling the chaos of a working mom's life.

There are life lessons and treasured moments that your friends lead you to with a tinyURL and twitter that take your breath away.