douglasmkelly's posterous

I went to a conference Thursday November the 19th. Yes, I'm finally posting 11 days later, but in my defense: I've been hunting. Hunting deer - hunting clients - hunting new opportunities. I did get a new client. I did get a meeting to discuss new opportunities (in old media - more on that later) and I have seen a lot of deer. None of the deer had horns when I was able to shoot one. The day of the conference, I watched a 4-point chase some does, making me 1/2 hour late for the start of the conference... more on that later too.

The conference was put on by the AimWest Interactive Association of West Michigan. I've been to a few of their events in the past but didn't join the organization until a couple months ago. I'm pretty impressed with the association's management and the amount of buy-in from the local community. AimWest has a good reach too: I met individuals from as far away as Chicago and Detroit. Pretty darn good for a Grand Rapids Based non-profit. This particular conference was called The Social Media ConFab. A confab was not really what this conference was, in the truest sense of the word. There were some great discussions, and there were some good networking opportunities, but this was definitely more of a fabulous conference. So if they were going for the play on words, it worked.

Google was there, or at least a rep was. She talked briefly about Google Analytics. I really wished she'd have brought a bunch of Google Wave invites. That would really have helped collaboration. We could all have benefited from that event. It would have completely overshadowed Cindy Droog's talk on Analytics however. Ms Droog, from Amway, gave a great review of how Social Media has gained traction at Amway and how they manage Analytics. She also gave me a shout out for design work on Amway's Opportunity Zone Blogs, and help with consulting on Social Media for Amway.

Facebook also made an appearance and received many questions including one from Yours Truly that garnered some laughs and actually was posted on YouTube (but not by me). People really seemed to want Facebook to do more with the app. Personally I could do with less. I would like to use it more, and assist my clients more with regards to mining clients' posts and driving revenue. But from personal use, I like Twitter more in the Social Media arena.

The author of Twitter for Dummies was the keynote speaker. Laura Fitton did not unimpress as an expert on Twitter. I found her inviting, interesting, facetious, vivacious and intelligent speaker. I learned much in her hour lecture at the ConFab. My favorite quote from Laura was "Twitter is the stream running along side and with the internet" (paraphrased). Essentially Twitter is the internet in brief. It's the running dialog that we, the users, have about what is going on everywhere. She also reviewed options for business so for me, how I can assist my clients in using Social Media and Twitter specifically. She brought insights in to benefits of using Twitter for more than just Social Media, but for research, content generation and SEO.

Even better than the brief Twitter for Dummies Author hour spent with 240+ other listeners, was the pre-ConFab Tweetup the night before. I was able to meet Laura and 50 others that were to attend the next day's conference. The conversation at Wednesday Night's Tweetup was more stimulating than the actual conference on Thursday. It was also a better networking opportunity, garnering more business cards than 7 hours the following day.

Laura Fitton was also a little inspiring with regards to social media. Fitton also reminded us of how we should approach business by listening first, learning from our clients, taking the time to care and then serving. She explained that we can do all of that from Twitter.

I don't know yet where I will take social media, but I hope to broaden it's appeal in some manner, as Laura has. I've already signed up to be a "Champion" of Tweetdeck, my Twitter application of choice. I was actually able to assist 3 others at the conference to load twitter on their laptop or iPhone. Next I need to draft a plan on how to enable my clients to use Social Media to Confabulate, collaborate, communicate and enumerate.