This past week I had the pleasure of attending a social media summit. This half-day event included three speakers: Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation and Julien Smith and Chris Brogan, co-authors of Trust Agents. The presentations were excellent. I had the privilege of spending a few minutes talking with Chris; he was an absolute gentleman. Though the talks were fast and furious, I wrote as fast as I could on Twitter and wanted to share some of my thoughts with you:
From Chris’ talk:
- @chrisbrogan giving a new presentation: mindset (babymind), business, currencies, trust
- People who grew up on the “will click anything” web are poised for success – they’re not afraid of breaking things
- most of us are in relationship businesses but we don’t know it
- @chrisbrogan “community is my favorite business tool”
- tell stories, use human interaction to get your message out
- “stories sell things in a way your stupid copyright never will”
- @chrisbrogan promotes others twelve times more than he promotes himself; when he needs help from others it comes immediately
- blogging is @chrisbrogan ‘s way of letting people get into his head
- One of the biggest mistakes we make on the web is we forget to ask about the ‘other person’
- from @chrisbrogan “small, private communities are where some really cool things are going to happen in the next few years”
- The real opportunity is to switch from “recipes” to “restaurants” – take the info you’re learning and put it to work to gain
- 3 things to pay attention to: 1) mobile (not just a “Foursquare” checkin)
- 3 things to pay attention to: 2) private networks/communities (cermo, others) – not Farmville
- 3 things to pay attention to: 3) Social CRM – a real opportunity to get closer to both the dollar and the customer
- a question to ask yourself: “how can I be helpful faster” @chrisbrogan
From Julien’s talk:
- Quotes from @julien “The channel is forever” “controlling you future means controlling the channel”
- “Build a network *before* you need it” “A network doesn’t just help you with jobs, it makes you happy”
- Networks dissipate over time; you need to be consistently working to improve them over time
- “Building a tribe is critical” you need to offer people a place where people gather and care – @julien
- “pattern breaking” every time you create an emotional response people remember you
- the Internet is the best (only?) place where you can convert social capital to monetary capital … @julien
- @julien recommends the book Connected – http://amzn.to/aFCKU7
- More from @julien: “be the lead goose” if you become the lead goose, everyone will follow you; you will help your network #leadership
My #1 takeaway from the conference was this: the more you give to others and look out for their best interests, the more you’ll get back in return.