Video is the Ultimate Social Object

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When I started blogging on ProPR in 2005, blogging was strictly a text only affair. My first post was a headline with text. That’s all that WordPress, my chosen publishing platform, could handle.

But things didn’t stand still. And there were a rapid series of improvements to blogging software that let me add pictures, audio and video to my blog. Today, I include pictures in every post on ProPR to provide quick cues about the subject matter of the post. Depending on the subject, I may include an audio clip. However, more and more of what I produce involves video.

Video is the ultimate social object. It is visceral and immersive. It conveys a sense of personality. I can hear my publishing experience extends beyond text-based posts to include audio and video.

My colleague, Mike Edgell, has answered the question of “Why video?” in a short video. I think it makes the point very effectively. Take a look at it. And if you find it helps you explain to people why video is becoming the ultimate social object, please feel free to share it. It’s on YouTube with a Creative Commons Share Alike Non-commercial license.

Wanted: One more social media measurement provider to put in the spotlight

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The Third Tuesday Measurement Matters #TTMM conference will put three social media monitoring and analysis providers on the spot and in the spotlight.

Each will be asked to tell us about a social media measurement challenge they set out to solve and how they did it. And then, we’ll ask them to look ahead and tell us what challenges they think must be overcome in the next year(s).

We have confirmed the first two monitoring and measurement providers who will be put in the spotlight: Radian6 and PostRank.

Radian6 was on the leading edge of developing an algorithm and index to measure influence. PostRank linked its fortune to the concept of engagement. Both have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to research and constant improvement of their monitoring and measurement suites. Clearly, they belong in the spotlight.

We have room in the spotlight for one more company. And I’d welcome your views about who it should be.

Which social media measurement platform do you think is on the leading edge of social media measurement? Which do you think have tackled a tough challenge and come up with an approach that is worth sharing?

Leave a comment on this post and help shape the agenda of Third Tuesday Measurement Matters #TTMM.

After all, if you want to understand the state of the art, why not ask those who are investing their money to explore it?

Registration is open for the Third Tuesday Measurement Matters conference

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Registration is open for the Third Tuesday Measurement Matters #TTMM conference, to be held in Toronto on September 28.

A stellar roster of speakers

Attendees at Third Tuesday Measurement Matters will meet, hear from and participate in discussions with social media measurement experts, including Katie Paine, Carol Leaman, Ilya Grigorik, Charles Funk, Marcel LeBrun and David Alston (tentative), Sheldon Levine, Josh Hallett, Claude Théoret, Pragya Dubey, Scott Lake, Leona Hobbs, Darren Barefoot, Rob Clark, Brian Cugelman, Christopher Berry,  and Patrick Gladney.

A stellar lineup of speakers. And there are more who we anticipate will confirm their attendance during the next week.

A word about cost

The registration fee will be $125 per person. That’s more than we charge for most Third Tuesday events. However, we have a full day’s rental on the hall, audio visual system, lights plus a lunch and two breaks to provide food and beverage.

Our aim is to break even on the cost of staging the actual conference. And we’ll do that with a combination of sponsorships and registrations.

We couldn’t do it without the support of our sponsors

I hope you agree that this is one heck of a lot of conference for a fee that is far lower than you are used to paying. That’s the value of being community-oriented – and of having sponsors. They cushion the risk of mounting an event like this.

And we couldn’t do it without our sponsors. For the past year, we’ve been lucky to have some outstanding sponsors who have helped us to make this happen: CNW Group, Rogers Communications, MolsonCoors Canada, Radian6 and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. You have stood by us. Your contributions make it possible for us to focus on organizing and programming without having to worry whether we’ll be on the hook for hard costs. Thank you. Third Tuesday wouldn’t happen without you.

Still to come: Free admission for a lucky group of students

Social media measurement should be an essential part of every communication, marketing and business curriculum. Students stand to benefit greatly by attending Third Tuesday Measurement Matters. But not all of them will be able to afford it.

So we’ll be announcing a special zero admission fee for a lucky group of students. We’re in the final stages of finalizing a sponsor for the “$0 student fee” and we’ll make a separate announcement as soon as the details are worked out.

If you care about social media measurement

… this will be the conference of the year. So, I do hope that you’ll consider attending.

Which do you consider to be the "Best of Breed" Social Media Measurement Tools?

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Help select the Third Tuesday Measurement Matters speakers

Today, I’m asking for your help in deciding which developers of social media measurement tools we should invite to speak at the Third Tuesday Measurement Matters conference.

If you could hear from the people behind the leading social media measurement tools talk about their approach to measurement, who would you most like to hear from?

Insight from the people who design measurement tools

We’ll provide an opportunity for the key architects of three of the leading social media measurement tools to speak at Third Tuesday Measurement Matters.

This won’t be a standard product sales pitch. Instead, we’ll ask the speakers to talk about the key social media measurement problems they set out to solve and the solution they’ve developed. We want to get insight into the leading edge of measurement. And we’ll also ask them to look ahead and give us some insight into the biggest social media measurement challenges they believe we must solve in the coming year.

Who would you like to hear from?

Which measurement providers do you consider to be the very best? What do they do especially well? What do you think we can learn from them?

Please give us your suggestions and opinions as a comment below.

Call for Speakers: Third Tuesday Measurement Matters conference

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We’re looking for suggestions for social media measurement experts to invite to speak at Third Tuesday Social Media Measurement Matters #TTMM conference.

Already, a number of speakers were suggested or volunteered in response to the initial announcement of the conference, including: Alan Chumley, Rob Clark, Jen Evans, Leona Hobbs, Jay Goldman, Brian Cugelman, Olivier Blanchard, Alex Brasil, Josh Hallett, Darren Barefoot, Claude Theoret, Paul Cowan, and Chris Berry.

It’s also been suggested that we invite someone from Gatorade. You’ll remember that they made quite a splash last month with their new social media mission control centre. I’m sure that they could offer insight and learnings from their experience with this.

The good people at Sysomos, MediaMiser and CNW Group/DNA13 also have offering to contribute their expertise.

Ideas that Break Through

We’ve all been to conferences where speakers’ presentations duplicate one another. Conferences where panelists presentations take up most of the time and leave little time for interaction and audience participation.

We want to avoid these problems by structuring the panels to maximize the time for questions and answers and interaction between panelists. After all, why bring together a group of the brightest people around if you don’t want them to interact with one another and the participants at the conference?

Each panelist will be asked to speak for ten minutes on a single issue or idea that he or she thinks is of paramount importance and will be asked to clearly state one big or actionable idea that we can all take away. Then, we’ll throw the discussion open to the floor, inviting your questions and comments. In this way, we hope to hear some great ideas and have plenty of time to discuss them and their implications.

Who would you like to hear from?

Our aim is to put together a conference that brings together the speakers that you want to hear from.

Who are the experts on social media measurement you follow? Who have you heard give a great presentation on measurement?

The doors are open wide to your suggestions and ideas. Please give us your suggestions as a comment on this post.

Third Tuesday Measurement Matters Preliminary Agenda

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Yesterday, I talked about why we are holding the Third Tuesday Measurement Matters conference. Today, I’d like to talk about what that conference might look like. And I’d like to ask for your input into the preliminary agenda of the conference.

What and who?

Third Tuesday Measurement Matters will bring together social media measurement experts and technology leaders.

We have a full day to organize. I’m proposing a single track so that we all share the same experience. That also keeps things simple and makes it easier to find a suitable venue.

Who then should we hear from? I think we should have a mix of

  • Experts who can talk about how to approach the challenge of measuring social media. What should we be measuring? What metrics should we be applying in what situations?
  • Measurement suite vendors who will provide practical demonstrations of the leading edge measurement tools. This should give us insight into what is possible now. And we should ask them to provide a preview of their development plans so that we can look ahead at how measurement will evolve in the near future.

Preliminary Agenda

The agenda will feature a series of panels of experts discussing key social media measurement issues. Between panels, the leading social media measurement suites will be demonstrated and we’ll hear about their strengths and development plans.

8:30 Opening Keynote

9:00 – 10:15 Panel: Monitoring: How to set up and run your social media command centre

10:15 – 10:35 Social Media Measurement Suite Demo 1

10:35 – 10:55 Break

10:55 – 12:10 Panel: New metrics for new media – influence, engagement, resonance – and others?

12:10 – 12:30 Social Media Measurement Platform/Tools Demo 2

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch & Keynote

13:45 – 15:00 Panel: Analysis – more than skin deep – how to find real meaning

15:00 – 15:20 Social Media Measurement Platform/Tools Demo 3

15:20 – 15:35 Break

15:35 – 16:50 Panel: Show us your ROI – Yes, we can demonstrate a return.

16:50 – 17:30 Closing Plenary – Participants talk about the best insights of the day

Theme sessions will feature three or four panelists. Each panelist will be asked to speak for five minutes on a single issue or idea that he or she thinks is of paramount importance and will be asked to clearly state one big or actionable idea that we can all take away. That will leave almost an hour in each panel for questions and discussions with participants.

The Measurement Suite Demos will feature three different leading-edge measurement suite vendors. We’ll ask vendors to avoid giving a standard sales pitch. We’ll ask them instead to talk to us about their approach to measurement – what metrics do they apply and what algorithms and measurement techniques do they use. We’ll also ask them to conclude by providing us with their views on the developments in measurement that they think we should watch for in the next year.

Does this work for you?

What do you think of this proposed approach? How can we improve it? Are there other topics we should address? What do you think of inviting leading edge vendors?

I’d like to hear from you. So, please leave a comment to discuss the ideas I’ve advanced in this post.

Announcing the Third Tuesday Measurement Matters Conference

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We’re kicking off the fifth season of Third Tuesday Toronto (#TTT) with something special: a day long conference on social media measurement.

Third Tuesday: Measurement Matters conference (#TTMM), Sept. 28, 2010

“Are we there yet?” “How much longer before we arrive?” Every vacationing parent recognizes these words as the first expression of our need to know where we are and what progress we’re making.

Measurement matters. It’s how we know whether our efforts are having any impact. It’s how we know whether we’re making progress toward a goal or whether we’re stalled.

We measure what’s important to us. We measure to understand what is going on. We measure to provide insight into what works and what doesn’t.

Measurement really matters in emerging and fast changing fields. And social media is a field that is evolving rapidly. Evolving in participation, as it transforms from something for early adopters to a part of mainstream life. Evolving as new tools and platforms proliferate. Evolving as people adopt it and find new uses for it.

Anyone who uses social media for their work or is serious about it must understand what we can and should measure and how we can do it.

That’s where Third Tuesday Measurement Matters comes in.

A discussion of best practices and leading edge thinking

Many smart people are spending a lot of effort figuring out measurement methodologies and developing new metrics and measurement tools. They’re developing insight into the nature of participation in social media and the new patterns of social interaction. They’re developing new metrics to measure these new interactions. And they’re developing suites of tools that enable us to monitor, measure and analyze what’s going on in social media.

We’ll be inviting leading experts in social media measurement and companies who are developing the measurement tools to participate in Third Tuesday Measurement Matters. They’ll talk about the measurement challenges we face and offer their thoughts on how we should tackle these challenges. They’ll also demonstrate the best tools we can use to measure social media.

Help us shape the conference that you’d like to attend

We want this conference to deal with the issues that interest you and answer the questions that matter to you. So, we want your input into what we should discuss and who you think has insight to offer on the important issues.

In the coming days, I’ll post a preliminary agenda and ask for input on the topics that you’d like to discuss and the speakers you’d like to hear from.

Check back here in the next few days for more information and your opportunity to shape the agenda and lineup of speakers.

Third Tuesday Measurement Matters (#TTMM), Toronto, September 28, 2010.

Social Mediators 9: Promoting a book with social media

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Recently, Terry Fallis found both of his novels – the Leacock Award winning The Best Laid Plans and the soon to be published The High Road – in the top five of the iTunes Literature podcasts. In this week’s episode of Social Mediators, Dave Fleet and I talk with Terry about how he and his publisher, McClelland & Stewart, are using social media to find and cultivate a fan base for Terry’s novels.

Also up for discussion this week: Social media adoption still isn’t universal among communicators.

Do you think social media is just a niche expertise or should it be a core skill set for all professional communicators?

Social Media, the G20 & our view of the news: Inside PR 2.10

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In the next few days, both Canada and the United States will be celebrating our National Holidays, on July 1 and July 4 respectively. And these holidays fall only a week after the G20 summit of world leaders held this past weekend in Toronto.

So, it’s not surprising that Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and I found ourselves focusing in this week’s Inside PR on earth-moving news (yes, we had an earthquake in Canada too!), including the G20 Summit and the view that social media, especially Twitter provided of this event.

In a nutshell, the social media coverage was visceral, diverse and community-oriented. Traditional news media, on the other hand, while capturing pictures of the street level action, had a near monopoly on coverage of what went on inside the secure perimeter of the actual G20 Summit.

Does this highlight a limitation of social media? People can’t cover what they can’t get access to?

Listen to the complete Inside PR Podcast

Inside PR 2.10 [ 22:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thanks to @michael_kerr @hummingbird604 @SeanMoffitt @digitaljoy @dereklothian for suggesting the topics for this week’s podcast.

Shownotes prepared by Inside PR Producer Yasmine Kashefi

0:27 Martin opens the show.

2:17 Martin tells us how the G20 impacted his move to the new energi PR offices.

3:46 Joe paints a picture of what the G20 was like over the past weekend in Toronto and introduces this week’s first topic: the G20 and social media.

6:36 Joe points out the limitations of social media during the G20.

12:51 Joe wonders why the G20 organizers failed to incorporate elements of social media to inform the public during the talks.

14:53 Martin introduces the second topic: how social media is breaking “news” before traditional media.

18:18 Gini explains how it is difficult to determine what is and isn’t credible on Twitter.

21:18 Martin closes the show.

Taking The High Road with Terry Fallis

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Terry Fallis‘ story started out the same as that of almost any other unpublished writer with a first novel. Pitch it to every publisher he could find – and be rejected by every one. And it could have ended there – as it does for most first time writers.

But Terry knew something about social media. And he decided that, if he couldn’t get his book to readers in the traditional way, he’d try to get it to readers in a totally different way. He’d read a chapter a week and distribute it as a podcast on his Terry Fallis blog and via iTunes.

And that’s the way The Best Laid Plans found an audience. Via social media. Virally. One fan at a time found it, liked it and passed it on to friends.

Some of the people who heard about the book and read it were on the selection committee for the Leacock Award. They liked it. In fact, they liked it so much that they nominated it for the award. And in a true Hollywood ending, Terry Fallis’ The Best Laid plans won the Award in 2008. And then traditional success followed. He picked up representation from one of Canada’s leading literary agents and a traditional publishing deal from one of the country’s most prestigious publishers, McClelland & Stewart.

Well, Terry’s back with a sequel, The High Road. And he’s persuaded his publisher, McClelland & Stewart to test his approach again to see if lightning will strike twice. This is a first for a Canadian publisher. And I’m sure that others are watching closely to see whether podcasting the book in advance of publication will lift sales.

This week’s Inside PR, features an interview with Terry about how he and McClelland & Stewart are using social media to promote his book. Following the interview, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and I talk about Terry’s experience and whether it can be more broadly replicated.

Listen to the episode:

Inside PR 2.09 [ 29:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here are the complete Inside PR show notes, prepared by our producer, Yasmine Kashefi.

0:23 Martin opens the show.

2:50 Joe mentions that Terry Fallis’ book podcast has made it to number one on the iTunes literature podcast charts.

4:03 Joe interviews Terry about how he used social media to promote his two books.

13:00 Martin, Joe and Gini comment on how innovative Terry was with his approach to social media to promote his book and himself.

19:00 Joe presents this week’s topic, recent developments in social media. He starts with the YouTube news feed and how citizen journalism has changed how news is defined.

24:21 Joe adds that the move toward government 2.0 has been gaining momentum and cites the Australian government’s Gov 2.0 as an example.

25:53 Martin introduces a new closing segment, the round up.

26:12 Gini kicks off the last -30- segment on Inside PR.

28:14 Martin wraps up the show.