Ladies and Gentlemen, The Conversation Has Left The Building

Earlier this year, I wrote “The Value of Online Conversations,” to share and talk through my thoughts related to improving the quality of online discussions in the face of potential degradation and decentralization of important online discussions.

We live in the era of Social Media, which represents the socialization of content and conversations as well as the creation of communities around thoughts and ideas. People are the hubs of information and we’re witnessing the creation of mini-societies that expand, contract, and connect online and offline. This new paradigm for discovering, distributing and forging relationships based on thought leadership is inspiring and defining significant social and technological progression as well as conversational frameworks.

As Social Media evolves, the value of online conversations is becoming distributed and decentralized. As the host of any given conversation, it is almost impossible to expect your community to discover or congregate around your content in any one given place, especially the point of origin. It’s both the challenge and the promise of micromedia and social networks. The comments section of your blog, for example may not truly represent the community response or reaction because it may thrive across other disparate networks and communities, whether you’re aware of it or not.

And concurrently, those conversations that matter to you, from both a learning and sharing perspective, span a vast array of networks where you’re already participating as well as the networks you may not know exist.

Conversations might have thrived in comments for several years, but those conversations are also augmenting and migrating through thriving micromedia and active social networks. However, it's important to note and also to remember, that conversations aren't necessarily limited to comments either. Blog posts that are inspired by thoughts shared in other posts also contribute to and extend conversations and they only increasing in volume and frequency - regardless of whether the platform is traditional (such as WordPress or Blogger) or published on the emerging category of microblogs and micro media (such as Twitter, Jaiku, Utterz, Seesmic, Pownce, etc.)



Dan Farber of CNET recently discussed the importance of the blogosphere and its ability to help conversations evolve. He observed, "Moving the conversation forward is what the blogosphere does best. It starts with an original thought or angle, a scoop of perception, and others add their own perspectives and discoveries to the data pool. You end up with a rich "web" of information and links about a particular item."

Sarah Perez recently tackled the subject on ReadWriteWeb, where she observed that conversations are only increasing in volume and frequency, “The truth of the matter is, like it or not, the conversations that once existed solely in the blogosphere have now moved on. People still comment, but in a lot of cases, those comments aren't on found on the blog itself. So the question is, has the conversation become diluted among all the different services and applications? Or is it just adding layers to the original topic?”

Sarah also spotlights tools and shares tips to stay connected to the conversations that matter to you.

Indeed, conversations are no longer relegated to blogs. Nor are they limited to any one community. Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, et al, are not only online neighborhoods (or trendy tools), but they are also forums where your contacts may choose to share their reaction and thoughts directly with you instead of immortalizing those thoughts in the comments section of your blog. Conversations are not only adding layers to the original topic, they’re also more visible and influential than ever before.

After publishing my last several posts, I’ve noticed that a majority of feedback poured in at Twitter and Facebook, which complemented the blog, but also distributed the conversation nonetheless.

Is this a bad thing?

No. It’s just a reminder, that whether you’re a content producer or reacting to the thoughts of someone else, that all feedback accumulates into a repository of collected thought leadership, or lack thereof.

Since the best conversationalists are also the best listeners, the evolution of participatory media requires you to focus your attention across multiple networks in order to invest in the conversations that have value to you.

The investment isn’t inexpensive either. It requires your expertise, time, and attention. All this at a time, when many are already suffering from Social Network Fatigue. By not participating, you’re intentionally withdrawing your brand (or your company’s) brand from the conversation and creating an opportunity for your competition to steal the attention. Your community of strategic contacts is reflective of what you put into it. Since it’s an investment, you earn the relationships and the value that you deserve.

This requires focus and value-add. It requires participation. It doesn’t promote or encourage the practice of lobbing ideas over network walls with the hopes people will find it, discuss it, and promote it. Although the “online you” is distributed, it should also be concerted. The investment in value-added, distributed participation elevates your expertise, grows your online brand and contributes to your overall social capital, but it’s not easy.

Loic Le Meur, founder of video conversational community Seesmic, sparked a “distributed” series of online conversations. He charted his social map and made a noteworthy case to re-centralize content and conversations, in his case, back to his blog.



We used to have our social online presence very centralized, for me it was my blog. The current trend is very interesting, everything is decentralized and we only use the best services by type of media (text, photos, video, music, events etc). Everything we post is totally decentralized this is why tools like Mybloglog, Friendfeed and Socialthing start to gather all of these for us and it is a great idea.

The challenge for Friendfeed and the like is that while I really like all my services gathered in one place, I would rather that these would be centralized on my blog instead of a third party service.

It’s not an unreasonable request, and would in fact, inject a level of sanity, control, and management back into the equation of creating socialized content, but as Stowe Boyd puts it, “I think that day is done.”

Stowe continues:

Basically, conversation is moving from a very static and slow form of conversation — the comments thread on blog posts — to a more dynamic and fast form of conversation: into the flow in Twitter, Friendfeed, and others. I think this directionality may be like a law of the universe: conversation moves to where is is most social. Personally, I don’t think the genie can be put back in the bottle.

The truth is that we are embracing new tools because they’re are either intriguing and fascinating to us and/or because those within our social graph are also adopting them to stay connected and participate in distributed online conversations.

We are responsible for the decentralization of our content and our attention. We need to embrace it focus.

I created a Social Map that outlines where I create, discover, collaborate, and socialize and it serves as a stark reminder that I am distributed and there’s no turning back - at least not yet.



I participate in the communities where I find value and where I can in turn contribute to the value. It is distributed. It is decentralized. However, it is this way because each community sustains its own unique culture, a culture that is only partially represented through the latest crop of aggregators and activity hubs such as FriendFeed, SocialThing, and Ping.fm.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch also introduced the notion of Data Portability into the mix and it does open up some interesting possibilities for helpful solutions.

Data Portability may turn out to be the answer that people are looking for. And it may turn out to be a sort of anti-FeedFriend. The whole point of Data Portability is to get social networks talking to each other and exchanging user data, with their explicit permission. Want to add your flickr photos, twitter messages and YouTube Videos to your blog? Data Portability is working to help make that happen through consensus driven policies and procedures. In essence, data portability embraces the Decentralized Me, but lets users re-centralize it wherever they please.

I embrace and invest my attention in those communities that offer a return. It isn’t much more scalable as it is and I may adopt new tools to help me participate through an aggregated fashion if I can do so without losing the context of the conversation stream and the overall culture.
I am but one person. Businesses, on the other hand, have an opportunity to scale with the conversations that represent the ability to deliver value to each respective community as well as its bottom line.

The reward for participating and adding value to these conversations is Social Capital. The penalty for self-promotion, one-sided conversations, or lack of genuine participation is evident in the lack of apparent ROI as well as the lack of respect you’re granted.

The centralization of the decentralized me starts with identifying the communities of value instead of merely trend surfing. Cultivate relationships where those relationships benefit from your participation, which in turn, ultimately help you. Creating a complex social map isn’t the end-game. Creating a social map that outlines the distributed conversations that impact you or your brand is the goal. Identifying these opportunities and observing the cultures of each community will help you determine the resources and time investment required.

The best conversationalists are also the best listeners. Conversations are distributed and the tools for finding them are available and increase in functionality every week. It requires a proactive approach to find them, for they may not necessarily find you.

Recommended Reading:

Gary Vaynerchuk Puts the Social in Social Media

The Art of Listening and Engagement

The Social Media Manifesto

Conversational Marketing

Facebook is the Hub for Your Personal Brand

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

twitter micriomedia conversation brand blogosphere comments community socialmedia social media 2.0 media2.0 media+2.0 social+media conversational marketing brian+solis branding communications customer+service listening seesmic techcrunch stowe+boyd social+network facebook friendfeed blog blogger microblog blogging

PR 2.0 = The Evolution of PR, Nothing Less, Nothing More

Source

There are many of us running back and forth from the edge to the center who would love to drop "2.0" from new evolution of PR. Hey, it's even the name of this blog, and has been for years, but there’s a reason I haven’t changed the name yet.

The subject itself is a catalyst for healthy, informative, and motivating conversations.

I was reminded of this as good friend Kami Huyse shouted on Twitter recently, "I hate PR 2.0 I HATE PR 2.0. I can't say it any louder, you get my drift. Come on folks, we aren't software developers here."

The irony is that when I first started using the term in the mid-to-late 90s during the Web 1.0 era, it was indeed inspired by software development. To reach a state of “2.0” after releasing the first iteration of software is a momentous step – a proof point that we’re on the right track, but that by listening to customers and also innovating, you could constantly release a better product.

And she’s not the only one talking about the so-called PR 2.0 contingent.

Noted PR fortuneteller, Amanda Chapel, captured it so eloquently, “History won't be kind to PR 2.0, i.e. a moment in time when infatuation with tools replaced understanding of communications.”

It’s clear that there are those who want to help and those who want to cash in. I’m in the help category; so let’s do something about it.

Regardless of terminology let’s just say that there are those who believe…

PR 2.0 = Good Public Relations, i.e. effective communications.*

Yep, that’s a footnote.

*In a perfect world, it is what PR should be and should’ve been all along, but it isn’t.

Somewhere along the way, PR lost it’s way and created a new “sub” standard for what should have been one of the most respected positions within business marketing. Words such as shill, spin, sales, BS, bluff, exaggeration, arrogant, sensationalist, and oblivious, have become synonymous with this once golden profession. While the majority of the PR industry truly believed they were doing the right thing, the truth is that it took the Internet to expose our weaknesses and most importantly, it provided the infrastructure for us to learn from our mistakes publicly.

The reinvention of public relations was sparked ten years ago and its just now gaining momentum.

1) PR as an industry is in dire need of evolution in order to not only stay relevant, but also prove that in the social economy, it can be one of the most effective forms of marketing that cultivates customers, ambassadors, and enthusiasts.

2) Social Media is not New PR. It is a classification of “socialized” media and it is inspiring new PR, but they are not one in the same.

3) Darwinism will weed out those who don’t get it as well as those who pretend to get it (even if they don’t realize they don’t get it).



There’s a tremendous amount of confusion within the globally distributed halls of PR, and instead of debating and focusing our energies on 1.0 vs. 2.0, we should be working together to help people make the migration to new methodologies, strategies, and showcase the tools to participate.

The divide between those who do get it and the people that don’t is oceanic. Equally, there are veterans and opportunistic marketers who “believe” they get it, but actually don’t and are actively pushing this substandard, naïve, or manipulative form of person-to-person marketing…and they too must also learn.

Narrowing that chasm is a personal objective for me.

Here’s how I defined it years ago:

PR 2.0 was born through the analysis of how the Web and multimedia were redefining PR and marketing communications, while also creating a new toolkit to reinvent how companies communicate with influencers and directly with people.

It is a chance to not only work with traditional journalists and analysts, but also reach out to a new set of influencers, customers and peers.

No BS, no hype, just an understanding of markets, the needs of people, and how to reach them at the street level – without insulting everyone along the way. PR is evolving into a hybrid of communications, evangelism, and web marketing strung together by the teachings and benefits of sociology and psychology.

Obviously, the Web matured over the years. You could have simply subbed “multimedia” with “new media” several years ago and most recently, “Social Media.” Yet they’re all still relevant.

The classification was simply a reference for reflection, inspiration, and education.

Let me be clearer.

PR 2.0 is the understanding and practice that communications is a two-way process and incorporates the tools, principles, strategies, and philosophies for reaching, engaging, guiding, influencing, and helping people directly in addition to the traditional cycle of PR influence.



Social Media, the interactivity of the Web, and the rise of democratized content indeed represents a much-needed reinvigoration for a tired and complacent industry.

The only reason I run spend my free time writing about this is to spotlight the ongoing evolution of marketing to bring things from the edge to the center so we can all learn and grow together. It’s also one of the reasons I joined Chris Heuer and a group of other pioneers to co-found The Social Media Club. If you get it, share it.

In this regard, the principles and philosophies of PR 2.0 (originally) are truly different and noteworthy when compared to what we practice in traditional Public Relations and what we’re taught in school – although there are some fantastic people out there working to change this, Jay Rosen, Dr. Kaye Sweetser, and Robert French, just to name a few. There's a balance between old, proven, and what's new that we must equally embrace in order to be successful and effective.

What’s undeniable is that the Web has created and forced new channels for the distribution of information “at,” “to” and “between” people. It changed everything. It’s forcing traditional media to evolve. It’s creating an entirely new set of influencers with a completely different mechanism for collecting and sharing information, and is also reforming the daily routines of how people discover and contribute content.

The debate surrounding the “name” for this renaissance is insignificant and is a distraction from the more important parade of new and renewed ideas, strategies, and practices that help companies tell their story more effectively, genuinely, and convincingly. People will align with the moniker they believe in as long as it all nets to the same thing at the end of the day.

This isn’t about the critics or those who believe they’re above the rest of us, or even the enthusiasts who are overly passionate about the tools they use for sharing content in Social Media Marketing, this is about those who are learning, and more importantly, who want to learn about how PR can change for the better.

It’s not the tools. It’s the communicator.

It’s not the story; it’s the personalization and the targeted benefits and value proposition that compel someone to not only listen, but respond.

Let’s help those millions of Public Relations professionals and students who are just now, or soon will be, introduced to the new world of communications many of us have already been navigating for years.

They’re embracing the new school of PR as a personal responsibility and commitment to make things better.


Credit: Hugh MacLeod

New PR is only new until it’s not, and quite honestly, everything simply folds back into Public Relations.

Until we can get the rest of the world on the same page however, New PR deserves its own attention in order to help those looking to learn and understand where they need to be.

PR 2.0, New PR, Online PR, Social Media Marketing, Conversational Marketing, Influencer Relations, Relationship Marketing, Community Marketing, whatever we call it, there’s no denying it is representative of a shift in communications. It’s migrating from a broadcast mechanism to a hybrid assembly of traditional PR combined with web-savvy, social-awareness, intelligence, and a real understanding of markets.

These more enlightened communicators get it and can effectively ignite relationships with people directly (conversations) and through peer-to-peer influence. One-to-many PR does not dissipate either; it becomes more targeted and informative.

For over ten years, we have had the ability and the privilege to virtually communicate directly with people, complementing our traditional channels of influencer relations.

The difference though, is that we’re required to participate in a more informed and intelligent way. It’s quite simply the minimum ante to jump in. Unfortunately, however, many communications professionals are merely using the same old tools and strategies to reach a very sophisticated group of consumers.



It’s not just about “finally” getting on Twitter, blogging, podcasting, creating profiles on social networks, putting videos on YouTube or uploading artwork on Flickr. These tools will come and go. It’s about what you do with them to create mutually benefitial relationships within each online community.

Be the person you want to inspire.

It all comes down to social sciences and the understanding, that New PR and Social Media Marketing is guided by sociology. The study and observation of online cultures, their interactivity, and the humanization of what it is we’re hoping to carry into these important communities will by default, improve the foundation for forging successful and mutually beneficial relationships. That’s where it all starts. Spin, hyperbole, messages, pitches, blasts, and voicemails have no place in the new world of communications.

Think intelligently.

Whether we’re talking about traditional PR or new PR, it was and is still rooted in relationships.

Online and offline PR require strategies that were supposed to be part of PR all along (know what you’re talking about and to whom your talking, who/what you represent and why it matters to the people you’re trying to reach).

In my opinion, there is no such thing as PR 2.0 as a practice. It is simply a game-changing mantra. But, if 2.0 is a mantra for evolution and change, then yes, it implies that there was, and still is, a traditional way of looking at things.

Whether you subscribe to the label is moot. If you believe in the reinvention of a more socially conscious, informed, and relationship-driven form of public relations, then that’s all that matters. Call it whatever you want, just as long as you contribute value to the evolution instead of stealing from it.

So, what are we going to do about it?

Update:

Dennis Howlett, a respected enterprise and IT related finance thought leader and author, responded on Twitter, "@briansolis: if it's evolving then why does it continue to fail? "
(see what you're up against?)

My response, "@dahowlett it fails because people feel that there's nothing to learn. Good news, there's an undercurrent and I'm trying to expose it."

Howlett, "@briansolis No point in exposing it if the practitioners don't get off their backsides and do something about it. I hope you're successful. "

Recommended Reading:

Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media

The Social Media Manifesto

The Art of Listening and Engagement

Dear Chris Anderson, An Open Letter to Make Things Right

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

social media social+media culture sociology anthropology science social+science socialmedia media2.0 media+2.0 brian+solis pr+2.0 pr listening listen art marketing communications public+relations customer+service publicity community conversational conversation people social+network public relations relationship youtube twitter tools darwinism darwin online web2.0 web +2.0

Perception is Everything

It's not just about what you want me to think, it's about what I hear and in turn, share with others.

You can help shape my perception and perhaps, even influence it, but my perception is defined by my experiences, thoughts, beliefs, predispositions, and personal agenda.

Tell me again why I should listen to you?

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

Discovering and Listening to Conversations in Twitter

We all know Twitter is an essential example of the conversations that help define Social Media. What if we could find the conversations that were important to us, even if we don't follow the people engaged in those conversations? I think it would transform one of the hottest conversation-based communities on the Web into a goldmine of information and and catalyst for forging new relationships.

In August 2007, I wrote about a public discussion including Chris Messina, Stowe Boyd, and myself on the value of creating channels within Twitter. Its an important discussion because Twitter was and still is representative of a powerful form of emerging media - but it's missing something.

Twitter leads the way for other forms of MicroMedia and represents a white hot medium for connecting people in a way that no one would ever believe possible.

Along with its growth and continued rise in global popularity, the noise level in Twitter is also deafening.

But up until recently, the conversations taking place on Twitter was progressive yet finite. While some discussions thread into brilliant movements, most vanish into the history books...except in this case, there aren't any history books per se.

In the world of Social Media, listening to online conversations is the keystone to genuine participation. What if you could find the discussions that were important to you?

There are now several ways to find relevant topics and join productive conversations on Twitter. This is especially important, if you are a representative for a company and/or brand seeking solutions for effectively listening to the community in order to help them answer questions or provide them with useful information.

Enter Hashtags.org.

Suddenly the most powerful form of MicroMedia is now taggable and searchable and allows Twitter users to create channels or topic streams similar to the functionality that has existed in Jaiku for over a year - although at the moment, Jaiku's channel product is much more elegant and friendly.

The whole idea here is that you can tag your tweets in a way that they're discoverable by those who seek similar content. Remember though, you have only 140 characters to make an impact.

Hashtags require you to include "#" in front of any keyword that you wish to index. For example, if I'm writing about #hashtags in Twitter, I would simply type: "Writing about #hashtags for #bub.blicio.us and#pr2.0."

In order to have your hashtags indexed, you have to add the hashtags bot, @hashtags, to their twitter account.

Tags need to be one word for now. So for example, instead of tagging #brian+solis or #brian_solis, it's simply #briansolis. To search it for relevant tags, bookmark http://www.hashtags.org/tag/. Continuing the example, to search briansolis, the URL would look like this, http://hashtags.org/tag/briansolis/ and the result:

Twemes, at the moment, is a friendlier solution for searching tags.

You can also search by the most popular tags, recently added, or monitor the river of every tag.

However, the community is split on whether or not #hashtags will take off and enjoy mass adoption. Many enthusiasts have expressed distaste to its aesthetic pollution to the Twitter stream, instead of seeing the contribution to the legacy of topics, channels, and keywords. At the very least, those you use hashtags should be strategic and thoughtful in what they choose to tag.

Chris Messina dives deeper into Hashtags here.

Twitter is also searchable outside of the world of #hashtags, which also substantially increases the value of content contained in the Twittersphere as it brings past tweets back to life.

Enter Tweet Scan, a basic search tool that operates similar to how you would naturally search in Yahoo or Google.

For example, if you're searching for tweets related to Perez Hilton, simply type "perez hilton" into the search window and peruse through the tweets as you would via traditional search results. In this case, we see that Perez has some breaking news on Britney Spears via WeSmirch.com (an aggregated channel for entertainment and celebrity gossip and news produced by TechMeme's Gabe Rivera.)



Twitter is now an even more powerful and important tool in the realm of Social Media in order to participate and listen to the online conversations that are important to you.

New services such as hashtags, Twemes and Tweet Scan empower us to shift from the typical broadcast mentality and limited group discussions to a rich conversational stream.

More about online conversations at ZDNet.

More tools for listening can be found at ReadWriteWeb.

Jeff Nolan on Twitter Analytics.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

twitter twemes hashtags #hashtags tag tagging tweetscan tweet+scan brian+solis briansolis communication social+media socialmedia social media media2.0 media+2.0 conversations conversational marketing listening listen community

Brandweek: Brian Solis on Facebook Becoming a Hub for Personal Brands

Brandweek has run my latest post discussing the role of social networks in framing and portraying your online persona.

Excerpt:

Social networks are becoming the very mechanisms for connecting with people, ideas, brands, news and information. But thinking of social networks as a personal playground will only come back to haunt you and any company you work with in the future.

Facebook is the most legitimate and productive social network for business professionals on the Web today. This isn't a slight against LinkedIn, a service I also use to manage relationships with other business contacts. They can both co-exist seamlessly.

This is about leveraging the so-called "social graph" and "social media" to more effectively cultivate online relationships and at the same time, leverage the network to increase visibility for your expertise, reputation and activity. As a marketer, your collective "brand" can extend to also impact and bolster the brands you may represent.

More here.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

brandweek facebook socialgraph social+graph social+network briansolis brian+solis social+media brand online persona

The Wall Street Journal Recommends Now is Gone

Co-Author, and very good friend, Geoff Livingston, emailed with great news. Now is Gone is listed in The Wall Street Journal as a resource for businesses looking to understand and embrace Social Media as an extension to their corporate marketing initiatives. Congratulations Geoff...I think we're truly contributing something very useful to the community.

At the very least, and ideally, it's all we hoped for...to be regarded by those we want to help as a resource for them. Thank you to Scott Monty for helping with the story.

Other resources listed:

- MarketingProfs Daily Fix

- Web Strategy by Jeremiah

- What’s Next Blog by B.L. Ochman

- PR Squared’s Jedi Training for PR 2.0 Tactics

- For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report

- "The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media" by Paul Gillin

- "The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly" by David Meerman Scott

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Axiom Awards:

We also officially announced today that Now is Gone won a prestigious Silver Medal in the Axiom Awards.

"I'm thrilled that "Now Is Gone" is part of the stellar group of award winners and I feel very humbled that the book is doing so well and garnering such great attention," said author Geoff Livingston. "We're helping companies understand what social media can and cannot do as well as how to tap into the potential social media presents in marketing outreach initiatives."

My quote, other than simply, "Thank you."

"Working together to document the opportunities and effective strategies for adding social Media into traditional marketing initiatives gave us a unique perspective into corporate culture that most people miss. The key is bridging existing philosophies, the stuff that works, with the value of new media and how and why they work together."

The full list of winners can be found here.

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Spotlighting the Now is Gone Blog

Ike Pigott, blogger at Occam's RazR, offered an insightful and important reminder for anyone looking to find advice on how to participate in the world of Social Media.

Do a Google search for “Social Media” today and you get 66,200,000 hits.

“Social Media Marketing” nets you 24,000,000

“Social Media Expert” gets you even more: 86,600,000.

That should tell you something.

If you’re reading this, and looking at what social media can do for your outreach or your business, then you need to be careful. Ask some tough questions. Ask for case studies. Ask for evidence. Ask for proof of experience. Because there are a lot of people talking about getting results in social media, and the ones who show up the highest in the Google searches might just be better at marketing themselves than they are any clients.

For more on this subject, please read "Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media."

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If this book sounds helpful to you, it's available now on Amazon.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

nowisgone now+is+gone social+media social media socialmedia pr2.0 geoff+livingston brian+solis media2.0 media+2.0 2.0 pr marketing corp comm communications

Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media

Sociology - The study of human social behavior, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.

About a year ago, I wrote an article entitled “Social Media is About Sociology and not Technology.” The recognition of people versus the tools is now more critical than ever. Although, it still isn’t necessarily embodied in many of the words and work shared by fellow Social Media Marketers.

Less talk, more learning and action are required.

There’s no shortage of people who understand and present existing and emerging Social Tools for us to use as a mechanism for “engaging” in “conversations.”

Participation after all, is marketing right?

Let’s change that.

Informed, mutually beneficial, and genuine participation inspires relationship marketing.

However, many purported Social Media experts are merely engaging in cultural voyeurism at best. They look from afar and roam the perimeters of online societies without ever becoming a true member of any society. This means, they don’t truly understand what, where, or why they’re “participating,” only jumping in because they have something to say and have access to the tools that will carry it into play. This is unfortunately a representation of the greater landscape of Social Media Marketing and it’s time to take a step back and study the sociology of Social Media in order to keep communities intact and unaffected by outsiders.

The future of communications requires the consideration of sociological principles when integrating Social Media into the marketing chemistry. This is one of the most important points where we simply need to stop and think about things. As in all of marketing, the most effective campaigns start with listening, reading, watching, and observing. In the world of Social Media, this is not an option. It’s dependent on Sociology and the study of people and cultures online before we even think about engaging them in conversations.

Again, Social Media is about sociology and not technology. This is about people and the cultures that shape respective online communities.

Is Social Media, we’re reminded that “listening” is the key to engagement. In Sociology, this is referred to as observation. By observing, either directly or virtually, we become Social Scientists in order to feedback intelligence and insight into the marketing loop.

Two basic types of observations exist:

1) Unobtrusive. The observer is detached and does not take an active part in the situation.

- Observer as participant. Observer admits their role and just observes the situation, behavior and interactions.

- Complete observer. Observer hides their true identity.

2) Participant. The observer joins a group and studies as an inside member.

- Complete. The observer hides their identity. There are a number of problems with this type of observation: ethical, is it morally right to use such methods? By joining the group the observer may alter its behavior and culture; and going native and adopting the norms and values of the group.

- Participant as observer. Here the observer does not hide their identity and is truthful about their goals and objectives.

Most Social Media Marketing initiatives I have observed (whether I was asked to assess a company’s program specifically or simply watched a very public campaign as a student), have not observed much more than the “latest and greatest” tools that can get them in front of bubbling and active social networks and communities.

This is the equivalent of setting up camp next to a village because you have the tools to do so and expecting the village to integrate you into their society.

It just doesn’t work that way.



Sociology provides us with an understanding of how social forces shape individual attitudes and behavior. Sociologists study society and social action by examining the groups and social institutions people form. In Social Media, these communities take the form of social networks and the communal groups within them. People form associations, friendships, and allegiances around content, objects, products, services, and ideas. How they communicate is simply subject to the tools and networks that people adopt based on the influence of their social graph – and the culture within.

Sociologists also study the social interactions of people and groups, trace the origin and growth of social processes, and analyze the influence of group activities on individual members and vice versa.

The basic goal of sociological research is to understand the social world in its many forms. Social Media, and marketing in general, could only benefit from intelligence. And at the very least, it removes the risk of “marketing at” people and instead naturally shapes a more honest, intelligent, and informative approach.



Quantitative and qualitative methods represent two main types of sociological research. Quantitative methods, such as social statistics or network analysis, investigate the structure of a social process or describe patterns in social relationships. Qualitative methods, including focused interviews, group discussions and ethnographic methods, reveal social processes.

Social Media is much more than user-generated content. It’s driven by people in the communities where they communicate and congregate. They create, share, and discover new content without our help right now. They’re creating online cultures across online networks and using the Social Tools that we learn about each and every day to stay connected. And the societies that host and facilitate these conversations cultivate a tight, unswerving and mostly unforgiving community and culture. As Shel Israel describes it, people are populating Global Neighborhoods.

Technology is just that, technology. The tools will change. The networks will evolve. Mediums for distributing content will grow. The tools will change, but in most cases, people don't.

It starts with intent and the realization that the communities you wish to reach are not “audiences.”

You simply can not get answers or run a meaningful Social Media program through cultural voyeurism.

Social Media Marketing requires observation, which will dictate your engagement strategies. It starts with combination of using Social and Traditional tools to discover, listen, learn, and engage directly with customers to help, not market, but indeed help them make decisions and also do things that they couldn’t, or didn’t know how to do, before. And, most importantly, the lessons learned in the field should in turn be fed into the marketing department to create and run more intelligent, experienced, and real world initiatives across all forms of marketing, PR, sales, and advertising.

Read, “Transforming Customers into Evangelists: The Art of Listening and Engagement," to learn more about how to listen and observe.

Today Social Media Marketers state that conversations are markets and markets are conversations. This is the foundation for conversational marketing.

But what does that really mean?

Instead, let’s look at it this way.

Conversations are feeding communities and communities are markets for relationships. Relationships are the new currency in Social Media, and as we all know, relationships need cultivation and value from both sides in order to grow into something of value.

In this world, engagement is a privilege. Trust and loyalty are the rewards.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

social media social+media culture sociology anthropology science social+science socialmedia media2.0 media+2.0 brian+solis pr+2.0 pr listening listen art marketing communications public+relations customer+service publicity community conversational conversation people social+network

How Should I Read This? Is This the Future of Social Media Marketing?

Dear Brain solis, (Yes, notice the typo. I'm a smart guy, but I haven't flirted with changing my name yet.)

XXXX provides holistic and synergistic blend of traditional online marketing and emerging social media based buzz marketing (wait, is that one sentence? And, is this a new category, Emerging Social Media Based Buzz Marketing?!), to help its clients derive maximum value from their marketing dollars.

For example, our understanding of the key words for any client will be useful not only in SEO and SEM but also in Social Media based marketing campaigns, as we can weave in same key words for better impact and enhanced SEO ranking.

Similarly XXXX’s Buzz Tracker, can dig (surprised it wasn't "DIGG") into various online conversations and provide a clear understanding of the available opportunities, any warning signs, key influencers and how the target audience perceives a client. The insights thus derived can help us design more effective buzz generation campaigns, resulting in enhanced brand image and revenue (where or where do I sign up!?).

Hence XXXX is not only a one-stop-shop for all your online marketing needs, but it also offers you unmatched ROI.

Let me know if this interests you. (Um, synergistic'ly, along with my Social Media Buzzin Holistic partners in crime, I don't think so. K Thx. Bai.)

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

10 Steps to Building a Better Blogger-Relations Program

Special thanks to Ann Handley at MarketingProfs for running my latest post on Blogger Relations, "10 Steps to Building a Better Blogger-Relations Program."

What was originally supposed to be an except from my free ebook, "The Art and Science of Blogger Relations," I wound up writing something altogether new, based on the same principles that are prevalent throughout the book.

You'll need a premium account to read it. If you don't already have one, you can sign up for a free, two-day pass.

Here's the intro:

To genuinely approach blogger relations, or media relations for that matter, we must first deconstruct the process of the media ecosystem and reprogram ourselves to tap into the basic building blocks of what makes good content and sparks conversations, which in turn helps define why people should make the effort to talk with us.

Like the press release, the PR industry has been stuck in a rut for so long that the industry is content with the existing manufacturing line of building news, writing reports, schmoozing, and simply broadcasting messages to anyone with an inbox.

The main difference between bloggers and journalists is the medium they use to reach people. It all comes down to people. No messages. No pitching. Just respect and an understanding of what you represent and why it matters to bloggers and ultimately their readers.

Your campaign should never be limited to either blogs or the press, nor should it simply focus on the Top 100 list at Techmeme, Technorati, or any other service. You need to be where your customers are discovering, sharing, and talking.

The best communications strategies will encompass not only authorities in new and traditional media but also those voices in the "Magic Middle" of the attention curve, because they help carry information and discussions among your customers directly, in a true peer-to-peer approach. The Magic Middle is defined as the bloggers who have from 20-1,000 other people linking to them. It is this group that enables PR people to reach The Long Tail, and its effects on the bottom line are measurable.

Customers and people are influenced, inspired, and driven by unique channels and communities. Figuring out whom we want to reach, why they matter to us, and why we matter to them, is the ante for getting into this game. Then, to learn about how and why to reach them, we reverse-engineer the process of where they go for their information and which discussions they participate in. And, while there may be several horizontal mediums that overlap, the vertical avenues are usually distinct and dedicated.

There's much to learn about each of the conversations, the information, and the communities you wish to jump into. You'll find that more often than not you'll change your story based on the insight garnered from simply observing. It's the difference between speaking in messages and speaking with relevance and, most importantly, honesty.

It forces PR to think like a customer instead of competitor.

I'd love to simply say that blogger relations is about common sense, but we all know how uncommon common sense really is.

First and foremost, blogger relations is about respect. And, it all starts with understanding what you stand for. Seriously, how many PR people actually take the time to really "get" what it is they represent and why it matters to the rest of us?

Here's a test. Quickly, the timer's running:

Tell me in one sentence why I should write about you and why my readers will care.

Go ahead, I'm listening.

It's amazing at how many "PR Pros" can't pass this test. Trust me. I am pitched every day, and it blows me away at how few people take the time to read what I write and match their products/services to the most important part of my blog—the reader.

It all starts with listening and reading.

The next step is to really think about why you should reach out.

What is it about what you represent that will compel someone to share it with their community?

Remember, to maintain credibility, along with the trust of the community, bloggers have a responsibility to readers. In today's social economy, they must actively compete for attention, so you can bet that any good blogger is going to be selective.

So, with that, let's lay the foundation that will help you and your company engage with bloggers more effectively, and, genuinely. (Bloggers, there are things that you can do to help as well!)

1. Defining Blogger Relations

Blogger relations is about people, many of whom might be customers and peers. Do not underestimate that fact.

2. The Art of Relationships

• Be knowledgeable, transparent, honest, and trustworthy. Add value—or don't bother.
• You don't have the "right" to pitch bloggers, so really think about it before you approach any blogger.
• Conversation seems to be the "it" word, but it all comes down to respect, articulation, and relevance. Personality helps.
• No one likes to sold "to" or marketed "at"; each person needs to hear things differently, so think about that.
• There is no market for messages.
• You are empowered and expected, as a PR person, to know what you're talking about, the service's or product's benefits and why it matters to the markets you're trying to reach. Become an expert.
• Less is more. This isn't about numbers, this is about doing PR in the Long Tail so that you can develop more meaningful relationships that have a more significant impact on the brand, business, and customers service (the perennial Quality vs. Quantity question).
• Stop thinking about PR in terms of pitches and audience. The pitch is dead. The audience is dead.
• It's all about trust and respect.
• Determine the blogger's preferred method of contact; it might not be email, but rather various social tools.

Note to Bloggers: Please help PR help you. Create a page or update your "about" section with tips and recommendations for developing relationships with PR people.

3. Promote and Reach Bloggers Through Social Media

• Submit their posts/articles to social networks and news aggregators such as digg and reddit.
• Link to them.
• Comment before reaching out with meaningful content—participation is marketing.
• Leverage personal networks.

4. Use Social Tools

• There are alternative contact channels to email and forms (no spam or invasive tactics allowed).
• Use social networks such as Facebook, Yahoo Mash, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse.
• Use micromedia such as Twitter, jaiku, Tumblr, Utterz, Pownce.

5. Be Creative

• The traditional press release has no business in blogger relations. You're going to have to put things together as building blocks in order to help someone tell a story.
• Video. Create short video demos, intros, events, greetings, or skits that are specific to markets you're trying to reach.
• Podcasts. Invite bloggers to co-host a podcast or to be a guest on something like BlogTalkradio. Or create pre-recorded interviews or discussions that matter to bloggers. Think about creating custom content for different people. One shoe doesn't fit all, just like one message or one tool doesn't matter to everyone.
• Social bookmarks. Bookmark content that matters to bloggers through services such as StumbleUpon, ma.gnolia, and delicious. Also, create purpose-built pages dedicated to providing unbiased market background and perspective to help bloggers gain expertise and context through one link.
• Tagging. Tag items within social networks for specific people.

6. Find the People Who Can Help You

• Google Alerts allow you to be notified if anyone is talking about your company, competition, you, or other important topics.
• Blogpulse reveals blogs and bloggers that have strong authority around relevant memes.
• Technorati allows you to discover blogs that cover certain key words.

7. The Art of Listening

• Read the blog.
• Explore the blogroll.
• Use an RSS aggregator or feed reader to simplify the process of reading the important blogs and their coverage.
• Read the comments (and participate). Sometimes the greatest insight is unveiled outside of the post.

8. The Cs of Blogger Relations

• Concept: What's the compelling plan.
• Context: Why is it relevant to them.
• Consumption: Create a package that makes it easy for bloggers to write their story.
• Credibility: What makes you credible? Become the expert.
• Community: Join it, participate without expectations.
• Conversation: You are not invited to the conversation as a marketer. This is about people, so be articulate, responsive, honest, smart, and resourceful.

9. Expand the Scope

• Don't get caught up in the A-list.
• Blogger relations can be based on news and also stories.
• Focus on the Magic Middle, bloggers with 20-1,000 blogs that link back to them.

10. Read the Social Media Manifesto

You can also download the ebook here.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

blog blogger relations media press pr public+relations marketingprofs relationships conversations pitching pitch

Keep on Rocking in the Free World - Why I Blog

For the past year 18 months, I've been part of the Social Media Collective, a group of forward-thinkers sharing their thoughts, ideas, vision and observations on the rapidly evolving New Media and Social Media landscapes. The community is simply called, SocialMediaToday and it's a tremendous resource for veterans and emerging professionals alike.

Co-Founders Jerry Bowles of Enterprise Web 2.0 and Robin Fray Carey of Carey Publishing Group have done a wonderful job of aggregating great voices into one action-packed place for everyone to share and learn together.

I'd like to personally thank them for selecting me as their "Blogger of the Week."

Bowles and Carey have also created an online channel of influential voices who focus on business owners and Managers, MyVenturePad.

I was asked to share my thoughts on why I blog...

Blogging for me is a labor of love. I’ve never really had the knack for writing shorter posts. Most of my articles evolve into essays and usually consume a significant amount of time, passion, and research, in order to capture a topic that appeals to readers of different levels.

Whether we realize it or not, every post becomes a permanent record in the library of content, aka the WWW, people visit and refer to every second of the day. I’ve been writing about how the Web would force marketing to evolve, adding new layers of influencers and also tools, philosophies, strategies, and sociologies in order to reach them since the mid 90s. I’ve lived high tech PR even longer. Blogging for me, was simply an extension of this work, but I still contribute traditional print articles to this day.

Professionally, I’ve always had people in my life who inspired and motivated me. Most of the time however, I was on my own to learn and explore the new marketing landscape. Since then, I’ve committed myself to helping people who need resources using the channels that reach them, blogs, ebooks, essays, and educational books. And, I’m just one of the many voices out there.

With every day that passes, more people turn to blogs and the web for information. Expect to see even more from me over time.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

Sarah Lacy on Sarah Lacy and the SXSW Mark Zuckerberg Keynote

I spent time with Sarah Lacy and we talked about…

I’m sure you heard about the infamous Mark Zuckerberg SXSW keynote hosted by well known author, Business Week columnist and Yahoo TechTicker host Sarah Lacy. Just in case you haven’t, let’s just say that some of the audience wasn’t supportive of the casual, conversational format or her style of engaging Zuckerberg in public.



From the get go, many believe that this interview was destined to fail. The angst and rebellion percolated to a boiling point and halfway through keynote, the mob revolted. Several attendees were more vocal than others, heckling her by shouting disruptively, “ask something interesting” and “let us ask the questions.”

She was suddenly hurt and upset, finding herself alone on stage in front of hundreds of Facebook enthusiasts and zealots. They thought that they were defending him and did so by viciously tearing down his host.



Lacy was now the story and Twitter lit up like a million dollar slot machine paying out its winnings in quarters.

The crowd was not sympathetic or apologetic in its fight to take over the conversation.
Lacy succumbed and responded to the public cries, "OK. Let's go with the Digg model and let them have mob rule."

That was the tipping point, as represented by one attendee who asked, "Other than rough interviews, what are some of the biggest challenges Facebook faces?"

"Has this been a rough interview?" Lacy asked Zuckerberg.

"I wasn't asking you, I was asking Mark," the attendee sniped.

The hostility transferred from the ballroom to the blogosphere and continues as I type. Unknowingly to everyone in the room, this would become a landmark moment on many fronts from keynotes to interviewing techniques to content. Suddenly everyone was an expert.

I should note, that there were several sides of this story. Many appreciated Sarah’s candor and Mark’s responses. Others offered constructive criticism. Marshall Kirkpatrick, Michael Arrington, and many others immediately jumped to her defense.



This is where I change my direction and focus on Sarah Lacy, the person behind the journalist, so that we can have a genuine, honest, and sincere look at her world, both coming into this and leaving with her head up, spirits bruised, but diligence and perseverance stronger than ever.

I spent the rest of the day with Sarah Lacy and let her open up “on the record” for this authorized, unfiltered discussion.

Just so we’re clear, this isn’t a puff piece. She doesn’t need it, nor would she appreciate it. Her work stands for itself.

It’s easy to spotlight her mistakes and not recognize her accomplishments during the keynote. Jeff Jarvis believes her biggest faux pas was not knowing her audience. He recommended that she engage them in advance of the conference to get an idea of what they wanted. To be honest, it’s not unreasonable advice.

I offered my own advice to her when we sat together as well, and, she listened. It’s important to note that because it’s easy for anyone to react defensively. Instead, she simply listened and processed everything.

Did she make mistakes?

Sure. She’s the first to tell you that.

Could she have responded differently?

Sure.

If you think she owes you an apology or needs to fall on the sword for her Q&A with Zuckerberg, don’t hold your breath. Sarah Lacy doesn’t need to apologize to anyone other than Mark. But guess what? Even Zuckerberg supported the interview, so an apology is that last thing he wants. In fact, he empathizes with her.

I asked Sarah if anyone thought to get Mark’s take on this.

She agreed that it’s the story that isn’t getting told.

I saw Mark last night and I can tell you he’s not happy about the sweeping negativity against Sarah either.

So here’s the real story.

This keynote was designed in collaboration with SXSW. They wanted a conversational fireside chat that was representative of their friendship. Together, they decided that they would forgo Q&A in advance. Facebook requested Lacy because she’s a “business” reporter, not a developer or a geek capable of asking technical questions. They wanted a business discussion. But, since its SXSW and not the Web 2.0 Summit, they wanted it to be fun, lively, and engaging.

If anyone underestimated the audience, it was the conference organizers. That’s my opinion not hers.



Instead, Sarah is thankful for the opportunity, appreciative of her friendship with Mark, and isn’t pointing the finger at anyone.

Zuckerberg is an easy target and often is. His personality and his style isn’t necessarily the easiest to navigate. Yet, Sarah was able to get him to open up, laugh, share things he’s never publicly addressed before and most importantly, also show you that he’s a passionate human being. Not even 60 minutes could do this…



At the end of the discussion, the general perception is that Zuckerberg shined. Sarah believes that if she took the bullet and the negative spotlight away from Mark, then so be it. She’ll do it again. And, regardless of what you think about her career direction after this, I guarantee you that she’ll have the opportunity to interview Mark many more times along with the industry’s biggest names.

Their goal, yes, I said “their” goal, for going into this was to simply show you another side of Mark and also reveal answers to the questions that most people only speculated to be fact, but never before officially confirmed.

They wanted to focus on Facebook, both the company and the product, to explore why the site is breaking new ground and growing exponentially along the way. It was to be macro enough for a CEO, but interesting enough to resonate with developers. The discussion would also provide mainstream press with a peek into the hallways and conference rooms at Facebook HQ.

Any journalist who’s ever interviewed Zuckerberg will tell you that it’s almost impossible to get news and details out of him.

Even though they’re friends, Sarah still had a sizeable amount of pressure to share new things with the audience.

Like it or not, her style delivered just that.



During my discussion with Sarah, we agreed that there was real news value and information shared, which not only confirm rumors and assumptions, but also provided a looking glass into the business mind and vision of Mr. Mark Zuckerberg and the future of Facebook.

Zuckerberg went on the record confirming that Yahoo had made a $1 billion offer. And, he also gave us insight into the discussions as to why they didn’t accept it. There were many people that felt $1 billion was a generous offer. Surely, everyone would have become rich. However, he’s building a platform for the future of how people are going to communicate. $1 billion would simply have been a distraction. He also eluded that there were "management changes" following that offer. Mark has bigger plans for the company and was more than open to share these back channel stories with Sarah.

During the discussion, Sarah also encouraged Mark to share his thoughts on the $15 billion valuation. Mark graciously abided and reinforced his vision for the company. At $1 billion, his plans would have been greatly hampered in order to scale globally. Think about it, he’s building something here, and that’s his focus. He said that they’re not looking at an IPO, although it’s easy to do, but instead, he’s surrounding himself with people who are share in his aspirations and the great goal of connecting people more effectively.

Zuckerberg freely shared his views on hiring Sheryl Sandberg from Google and the company’s new COO. Even though she’s considered the “token grownup,” Mark is incredibly optimistic in her ability to help the company scale.

Mark’s vision for the ad strategy was also important. He observed that his positioning as the biggest thing to happen to media in 100 years needed further clarification. He noted that it is simply contributing to its evolution and at the same time, breaking new ground.

On Beacon, Mark admitted that his biggest mistake was not communicating it more effectively and ensuring that people had absolute control to “opt in.” But at the same time, Mark revealed that his goal and focus is to empower users and the ad network is only going rapidly evolve into something we can benefit from. They learned. He talked about what went wrong and what they need to do to make things right.

On the applications front, they’re recalibrating the platform so that apps, and developers, can get wider distribution, which for a conference of developers should have been pretty staggering news.

Oh, did you hear that Facebook launched in France yesterday and that they’re boosting their international efforts?

Have you seen the Leslie Stahl, 60 minutes interview? Have you had an opportunity to watch Mark speak at a conference?

If so, you can attest to the general sentiment and fact, that there’s always going to be a pleasant quirkiness to Mark and the answers he chooses to share or not to share and when, if at all, he should elaborate. He’s an elusive target at best.



At the end of the day, if you stop and reflect on Mark’s animation during the keynote, I think this was the most lively anyone has seen him in public to date. It’s the most comfortable we’ve ever seen him and Sarah is largely responsible for that. She actually humanized Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. She did that by being human as well, a trait that many reporters lose as they polish their chops over the years.

Is it wrong?

No, it’s just different. The one thing Sarah helped me understand is that is exactly why she was there.

Ask Sarah why you think that he shared all of this information for the first time and she’ll tell you that she’s lucky enough to have Mark as a friend and that he trusts him with his words and his personality.



Did you know that she first started getting to know Mark when he was only 19? She’s one of the few who have access to Mark. She shared that with everyone in Austin and for that, I for one am appreciative.

The truth is that Mark doesn’t know many people very well. SXSW selected Sarah because of the unique, and professional, friendship she has with Mark. She was able to not only ask the questions that every traditional reporter or moderator wishes they could ask, but she also got the answers. And, in that, they succeeded.

We were privy to meatier content and not the same old stuff we see from other reporters who try to tackle the Facebook story.

“Oh you’re just 23, what’s it like?”

“When are you going public?”

“How does it feel to be the next MySpace?”

What matters is this, Sarah was able to help Mark open up on stage and she would do it again.

“I feel for Mark because he sometimes people don’t understand his personality. I wanted to show a more human side of him and share with everyone the Mark I know. I asked the hardest questions that no one has succeeded in earning answers, and we all shared in his responses. I’m lucky and thankful of my friendship with Mark and the time I was able to spend with him at SXSW.”

As a conclusion, I thought I would share with you a great story that Sarah shared with me.

Before they went on stage, Mark told Sarah that she could ask him all of the tough questions she wanted, but that he had one request. As silly as this sounds, he wanted to wrap the keynote with a hug before they walked off stage. It was his way of saying that he also appreciates their friendship by showing it in front of everyone.

She was flustered. He was confused. They didn’t hug. Back stage, they were both speechless. They looked at each other and Mark asked for that hug.

“At the end of the day if Mark looked good then that’s all that matters to me,” - Sarah Lacy.

Pictures from the keynote are in my SXSW set on Flickr.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, Facebook selected Sarah Lacy, not SXSW.

UPDATE 2: Lacy discusses her observations on the technology behind the online conversations at BusinessWeek.

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sarah+lacy mark+zuckerberg facebook sxsw interactive sxswi sxsw08 keynote brian+solis jeff+jarvis michael+arrington marshall+kirkpatrick