CNW Group and Society for New Communications Research support Third Tuesday social media meetups

September 24, 2007 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Social software, social media and social networks have given us the ability to seek out like-minded people and form online communities of interest. And we are doing this in ever increasing numbers.

But as good as online communities are, they have not dampened our desire for face to face meetings. In fact, online communities frequently whet the appetite for more face to face meetings. The evidence of this is everywhere. It’s in the turnout to spontaneously organized geek dinners, social media breakfasts and all types of other gatherings. It’s in the success of sites like meetup.com and upcoming.org that help people to organize face to face meetings. And for me, it’s in the success of the Third Tuesday social media meetups.

Since a group of bloggers and podcasters started the Third Tuesday meetups last year, the events have grown and grown. Today, Third Tuesday Ottawa has over 200 members and Third Tuesday Toronto has over 500 members. The Third Tuesday Facebook group we started in August has already attracted over 200 members. And this year, the Third Tuesday concept has been launched in Vancouver.

Of course, there are unavoidable costs – even for a free community event. We don’t pay our speakers. They all donate their time and expertise for the common good. However, there are still costs for sound systems and meeting space. And anyone who has organized something like this knows that the organizers can be left holding a big bill at the end of the event.

So, we’re just delighted that CNW Group will provide us with financial sponsorship. This is very important. We make every effort to keep our events simple. CNW sponsored our special pre-Mesh Third Tuesday last spring. And now they’ve indicated that they will help us with additional events this season. That’s a real weight off the organizers and makes it possible for us to concentrate on attracting top speakers.

And that’s where our second sponsor comes in. The Third Tuesday organizers have tapped their networks to attract a great roster of speakers, including Stephen Taylor, Michael Geist, Jon Husband, Paul Wells, Anthony Williams, and the Mesh conference organizers, Mathew Ingram, Mark Evans, Rob Hyndman, Stuart MacDonald and Michael McDerment. We’re starting off the season with three great speakers.

But it’s still a challenge to get top speakers from outside Canada. And that’s important to ensure that our horizons and perspective continues to broaden. This season, we’ll be helped in this by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). SNCR draws on the talents and expertise of it’s fellows to commission original research and articles regarding best practices, current developments and the evolution of social software and social media. SNCR has offered to help us gain access to leading speakers as they make their way through Canada.

These sponsorships will provide a solid foundation to enable us to continue to stage great Third Tuesday events. I want to recognize and thank both CNW Group and SNCR for their support. They will really help us to keep Canada’s social media meetup going.

More men should attend Toronto Girl Geek Dinners

September 19, 2007 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Last June, I attended the first Toronto Girl Geek Dinner organized by Maggie Fox. I was the only man there. And that was a pity.

The goal of the Girl Geek Dinners is “to make technology accessible and interesting to all age groups and all people, particularly women.”

During the course of the evening, I heard lots of interesting points made by smart people who were both knowledgeable and keen about technology and its application to real world problems.

But I also heard lots of questions and discussion about how to break through the male-dominated tech culture. It was clear from the conversation that the glass ceiling persists in many tech organizations. And many of those organizations are run by … men!

Now, I’m old enough to have entered the work force when the workplace culture really did resemble that portrayed on Mad Men. But the world has moved on.

Every male executive I know today wants to build an organization that will attract and retain the best women. We’d be stupid to do anything else.

But that doesn’t mean that we’re always successful. And we can only benefit from being part of the conversations with women as they relate their real world experiences. We can learn both about the mistakes we are making and, if we’re smart, we can learn how to eliminate those mistakes.

I plan to attend future Girl Geek Dinners. And I’d encourage other male executives to do so as well. Not only will we learn a lot about the experience of women in business and technology, but we’ll also get to hear some top notch speakers.

Tonight’s speaker is Leila Boujnane, the CEO of Idée. I met her at the June dinner and recorded a brief clip with her. Have a listen.

Leila Boujnane, CEO of iDée talks to Joseph Thornley [ 1:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

UPDATE: I came down with the cold to end all colds and decided not to spread it around at the dinner. So I had to miss the event. However, Kyra from PR Girlz was there and posted her impressions of the event.

Third Tuesday Vancouver launches with Tod Maffin

September 10, 2007 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Tod Maffin will be the kick off the Third Tuesday Vancouver speakers series with a talk titled “Swarm Communications: When Good Buzz Goes Bad.”

If the Internet is like a swarm, then sometimes good buzz can quickly turn into bad buzz and you can get stung. Tod will introduce your delegates to both the swarm culture and both the danger and opportunities in blogs and podcasts. Features everything you need to master Tod’s S-W-A-R-M system to respond to negative buzz online.

I’ve seen Tod speak several times. Each time, he’s been funny, engaging and informative. Tod is also one of the moving forces behind Third Tuesday Vancouver. And his appearance is sure to signal that the Third Tuesday Vancouver series is sure to be worthwhile.

So, if you’ll be in Vancouver on September 25, click over to the Third Tuesday Vancouver site and register to attend this session. Not only is it free, but you’re guaranteed to meet lots of people who share an interest in the potential of social media for communications, marketing and society.

Disclosure: Tod’s production company, Foursevens, is an Associate of 76design. But don`t let that stop you from coming out to see him at Third Tuesday Vancouver!

UPDATE: We have a Third Tuesday group on Facebook. If you’re on Facebook, join the Third Tuesday group to hear about speakers and participate in discussions before and after the events.

Posts about previous Third Tuesday speakers:

Why I'm posting less frequently

August 29, 2007 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Writing Block When I first started blogging, I listened to advice that told me I should post at least daily and ideally more than once per day. As well, I was told that short posts are much better than long posts.

In the past half year, I’ve started to stray from this course. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I may fail to post on some days or even several days. And without doubt, most of my posts, are creeping up in length.

Why am I changing my ways?

Well, the first reason is based in how I select the blogs and posts that I make time to read. There is simply too much information out there that I would like to read and not enough time to read it all. So, I have to practise a form of triage on my subscriptions. I’ve realized that the blogs that I am most likely to unsubscribe from are those that have too many “me too” or trite posts.

There is a place for the quick one liner and simple observations: Twitter. I look there for quick pointers to interesting things. But I expect the blogs I read to provide something more profound.

This leads me to the second and more important reason I now post less frequently.
It’s become clear that the quality of my postings, not their frequency, drives both subscriptions and links to my blog. (How’s that for burying the lead?) I’ve realized that people are not reading me for the latest news. I believe they’re reading me in the hope that I will offer a distinct and thoughtful perspective on a topic they care about.

I can be offline for several days and return with a thoughtful original post – and what happens? The visits to my site will immediately jump back to the level they were at before I took my break. Of course, if I return with a “me-too” post, something which merely parrots things I’ve hear in the echo chamber, the audience will not engage.

So, seeing this, I’ve decided to post less often, to write only when I have something original to say. It may not be profound. But if it reflects my perspective in an honest and clear way, I know that the people who read my blog will return and continue the conversation with me.

UPDATE: Chris Moore skewers me for posting about not writing trivial posts. A good reminder that what’s important to one person carries little weight with another. 🙂

"White hat" social marketing

August 27, 2007 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

I believe that the greatest potential for social media lies in our ability to use it to find others who share our interests and form communities with them. And I think the public relations and marketing community should be helping clients to understand how to enter into mutually beneficial long term relationships with online communities.This focus on long term community building which offers real benefits to all participants is what I call “white hat” social marketing.

Unfortunately, some marketers seem intent on using the new medium for old tricks. I am distressed at how often I hear conference presentations or read blog posts where it seems the primary intent is to use social media to achieve a short-term increase in conversions for online commerce.

Even worse are those who coach others to mine the information we enter in social networks to generate marketing databases (“cause they know that the information will be used when they volunteer to enter it”) or post corporate marketing videos under the guise of consumer generated media (“they’ll find out eventually.”)

Such practices put at risk the trust and transparency that are essential to social media. They also fly in the face of the culture of generosity that drives the vast majority of citizen content creators.

For me, this is “black hat” social marketing.

I believe that the new norms of social media are being defined by this tension between the value set that is based on generosity, transparency, authenticity and community vs. those that are defined by the desire to generate short-term advantage and a marketing mindset that relates to the citizens as an audience to be acted upon and manipulated.

So, it was a real pleasure for me to read Michael Seaton‘s post on The Symbiotic Nature of the Social Web. Michael is the Director, Digital Marketing at Scotia Bank and the creator and host of The Money Clip podcast.
Reflecting on recent social web initiatives by Canada’s banks, Michael says:

…the benchmark for social web success is (in my mind at least) the sustainability of communities and the level of interaction and involvement they build. Or, said another way, it is the degree to which they are engineered to foster a symbiotic relationship with their audience on behalf of the brand.

When designed to be mutually beneficial and transparent, corporate social web initiatives have a chance to exercise full potential for both brands and consumers that participate within them. That is the sweet spot.

…the starting point has to take into consideration ways to enable individuals to do something outside the typical interactions between citizen & brand. This means going beyond the everyday experience, being unique and compelling while also providing utility. Viewing the social web as an opportunity to simply broadcast a message will not likely produce anything worthwhile.

This is a refreshingly progressive point of view from one of Canada’s leading marketers. I hope that others will pay attention.

UPDATE: Chris Moore has added his perspective on this issue.