Last week I had the pleasure of attending Social Media Jungle: New York City, a Jeff Pulver event. On the agenda were both individuals exploring corporate social media questions as well as questions regarding personal implications and opportunities for social media. Although the growth with social media has been and continues to be rapid, it is still early in its development and its evolution will continue to be dramatic and fast.
 
Although I will do a data dump for you below of some of the more interesting learnings of the day, the power of Social Media Jungle event is in the attendees themselves. The attendees are a fascinating mixture of those newly exploring social media and those with a ton of experience. Every one there is eager to meet, discuss, share and explore. In my view the best way to prepare to attend one of these conferences is to develop a list of questions or ideas that you want to explore with a fantastic and diverse group of people.
 
Some of the salient data points that I gathered during the conferences include:
 
1. Social media enables communication with a large network and can instantly affect outcomes i.e. Facebook status.
 
2. Humanness is a necessary component of social media even for brands.
 
3. It takes thought and reflection to understand the true nature and power of permission and how it can be leveraged.
 
4. Attention Economy: with every abundance there comes a scarcity. Social media has enabled ridiculous reach at zero marginal cost. As a result, getting an individuals’ attention has become the new scarcity.
 
5. We are now in an environment of Community Driven Marketing (CDM) where good old-fashioned word-of-mouth has the most impact. As a result, messaging has to give people a reason to talk about you and with you.
 
6. The focus of outreach should be on the individuals that are most passionate about you, your product or brand (raving fans). Raving fans will spread your message further and faster than any other method currently available.
 
7. Measurement and monetization of social media are still in their infancy. A new measurement model emerging for social media measurement is ROCI, Return on Consumer Investment, which is a measurement on the return and investment of all initiatives and outreach that touch the consumer. According to Ben Grossman, discussion leader, the rise of the semantic web and utilities like Facebook Connect are going to make this type of measurement easier and more cost effective. Ben calls the amount of data available, breadcrumbs of data. Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital has been talking about this for a while and calls it data exhaust.
 
8. There are many gray areas when it comes to an individual twittering regarding when they are representing their individual opinions and when they are representing their employer or brand. The trick with social media is to remember your role at all times and interact appropriately.
 
9. Social media not only offers a huge platform and opportunity to get your message out but it is a huge opportunity to listen and hear from those around you. According to the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hseih, social media is not about being interesting, it is about being interested.
 
10. TV and the Internet are on an equal footing at this point and most experiences are becoming social.
 
11. All forms of presence are starting to become interconnected (hence remembering your role is that much more necessary).
 
12. The discussion around monetization of social media is becoming more expected and accepted.
 
13. Social media is not new but the speed at which it works today is.
 
14. Social media for the Social Good is being heavily explored.
 
15. In order to understand the dynamics of adoption of social media, you need to realize that social media and technology are like languages that need to be learned.
 
16. Participatory Marketing is in. Social Media Marketing is out.
 
17. I am old (according to Oz Sultan and Israel Minsky) and the greatest amount of growth within social media is from women 35 and older!
 
18. Corporations and brands have huge opportunities to deliver value to their users in new and meaningful ways and that corporations are just starting to realize this.
 
Anyone interested in social media should definitely plan on attending one of Jeff’s excellent events. I learned a great deal but more importantly met some fantastic individuals.

Warmly,
Karen