The Social Media Way Of Life

Last Night, I attended what I hope will be the first of many Social Media Club – DC meetings held at the National Press Club.

The topic was on social search and there were a lot of really interesting points that were made. I’ve forgotten the majority, but some that have stuck with me include:

• Is there any value in organizing and archiving old social networking actions?
• Are mobile communities the next step in this media revolution?
• What are the ways social networking sites are trying to create revenue?
• Why isn’t Google more involved in this social media space?

There were a few things that distinguished this club meeting from others:

First, cell phones and laptops were everywhere with people typing away. By cell phones I mean iPhones because you aren’t cool in the social media world if you don’t have one. (I own one so I’m allowed to mock.) BlackBerrys will do as well. The amazing thing was that no one was offended by the attention given to these electronic devices rather than the presenters. In fact, it was almost encouraged.

That’s because everyone who was typing away was most likely providing commentary on the live discussion by posting to their twitter accounts. It was almost like there were two interconnected conversations taking place concurrently but separately. The second, the one on twitter, was, of course, a result of the in-person discussion and the twitter comments were mentioned a few times in the live discussion, but again, for the most part, they were taking place independently and simultaneously.

Also, people were referring to others not by there real names but by their twitter pseudonyms which sounds really awkward but wasn’t. If you think about it, attendees probably interact with each other primarily online and are used to identifying each other by their twitter user names.

Lastly, everyone was so social it was almost overpowering. This, of course, makes perfect sense. The whole basis of social media is the connections you make with others. Those who are best at making those connections can take full advantage of this new phenomenon and are most likely to be its biggest proponents.

If you were at the SMC-DC meeting last night, were my impressions correct? Are there other nuances I missed?

If you have no idea what any of this means, what clubs are you a part of that have their own special traditions? Does what I’ve described sound completely crazy?

Twitter Tip

Yes, we all know that twitter is used as a mini-blogging platform through which you can see what friends, colleagues, peers, strangers, etc. are doing right now.

But, like with many things, it’s even more interesting to take a step back and be able to see the whole picture… By examining the collective, trends quickly become apparent. And search.twitter.com allows you to do just that.

Simply go to the site (search.twitter.com), type in a search term, and you’ll see recent tweets from twitter users that contain the term. In addition to simply browsing through the results, you can also create an RSS feed and/or a twitter post for the results.

For the past couple days, I’ve been searching for “red sox” and it’s been really interesting to eavesdrop on this aggregated conversation. For example, the number of posts that cheer on the Red Sox far outnumber those that mention them unfavorably. What does this mean? That Red Sox fans are more likely to use Twitter than other MLB fans? Or, more likely, simply that Red Sox fans are more passionate about their team winning than non-Red Sox fans are about the Red Sox losing.

Another thing that I really like about the site is that it displays the most frequently twittered terms. This is great for bringing attention to a topic I may have overlooked. Right now, the results are Halloween, Plumber, SNL, Michigan, Liberty Mermorial. The first four make sense to me: Halloween is coming up soon, Plumber is obviously a reference to the presendential debates, SNL is on people’s minds because Sarah Palin will be appearing, and Michigan football is winning a game they were expected to lose. I clicked on “Liberty Memorial” and it turns out that Obama is speaking tonight in Kansas City, Mo, tonight and people are pretty excited. That’s something I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

Twitter search really is a great way to quickly see what has people talking, and how those people feel about the topic.

Day 7: Politics and the Internet

It seems silly that I’m writing about Chipotle when there are, without question, more interesting things going on around me.

I attended a blog launch at the National Press Club yesterday (cool enough on its own!) and while the rest of the country is talking about Paulson’s proposed bailout plan (is there ANYONE out there that supports it?), I’m living it. The plan is, of course, subject of much discussion in the area and getting to the NPC yesterday was nightmarish due to the heightened security in the area. Annoying for the drivers, fantastically fascinating for me! It’s all being decided RIGHT HERE!

Speaking of politics and the internet: Twitter has created a feed for people to post their election feedback.

“We’re filtering hundreds of Twitter updates per minute to create a new source for gathering public opinion about the presidential election and a new way for you to share your thoughts.”

So many people are posting that it’s just a continuous scrolling page. It’s pretty cool to see everyone’s opinions. I don’t know how skewed it is based on the participants (Are people who are into Twitter more likely to vote for one candidate over the other?) , but I do see a consensus of opinions. Check it out here: http://election.twitter.com/.

Speaking of politics on the internet: Yesterday’s facebook blog post described the company’s new initiative to help register young voters. Those who are eligible to vote can now register to vote at facebook.com/Vote08. Using facebook for good ROCKS!