Friday, November 02, 2007

Social Media Takeaways #4

This has been another busy week. What's new, right? Well this time, it's been courtesy of some seriously social social media, both in terms of getting out of the house / office and truly connecting with others.

The more time I spend in this field, the more powerful I realize the effect of communities. You just can't underestimate them - nor can you manufacture them. If a client came to me with a request to build a community, my counsel would be that it's not a Field of Dreams scenario. Communities take time, attention and true dedication.

Before B2B, Before B2C, There was F2F
There were big doings over the weekend with PodCamp Boston 2. It was my first time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it - meeting old friends, connecting with people with whom I had only known online previously, and meeting a whole raft of new and smart people - too many to list in this post, but people I'll be following.

SMT: Hitting the blogs on a daily basis, commenting and otherwise propping up the echo chamber is good, but when's the last time you stepped out to meet some of your community face to face? You just can't beat it. But don't take my word for it - see how Mark Blevis sees the world.

The Announcement We've All Been Waiting For
Google finally released what it's doing with regard to social networking: an initiative called Open Social. It's a collaborative effort among some of the most well-known socnets, including Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle. This is meant to thrust Google into direct competition with the likes of MySpace and Facebook.

SMT: As I understand it, this is huge, as it gives you a single place to create profiles and leave updates - kind of a master control center for your social networking efforts. Breaking down the walled garden approach of Facebook is going to get a lot of people interested - especially from the business side, since Salesforce & Oracle are involved. Stay tuned.

What Were You for Halloween?
When the kids go out trick-or-treating and you're left to guard the castle from the marauders, it can be pretty lonely. Just waiting for the multiple doorbell rings (or sounds of eggs splattering). This year, Twitter connected me with a whole network of other guys in the same situation.

SMT: Twitter is really amazing when you know how to use it. I felt like I was sitting around the room chatting with friends. Great updates from @DougH, @cc_chapman, to name a couple. And one final one that just cracked me up.

Labels: Google, pcb2, podcampboston, social media, social media takeaways, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:30 AM

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Saturday, October 27, 2007

My PodCamp Boston 2 Presentation

This morning, I had the opportunity to give a presentation at PodCamp Boston 2. It was a full house, despite being the first session of the morning on a foggy, damp and grey morning in Boston.

Thank you to everyone who attended, asked questions - and most importantly, contributed to the conversation. I admitted that I clearly don't know everything about this field and that I rely on my communities to fill in my knowledge gaps. That's the beauty of the social media space.

My talk, Web 2.0 Tools You Can Use, focused on four web apps that can help you be more productive and get your life in order. I recommended four basic tools - certainly not a comprehensive list, but a basic set of productivity-enhancing apps that can help you keep sane amidst the clutter.

And the Web is cluttered. Some basic facts:

Facebook gets over 54 billion page views a month
Facebook accounts for 1% of all Web traffic
25% of people's free time is spent online
Technorati tracks 70 million blogs
Not to mention that every day, I have to check email, Twitter, Skype, and a boatload of RSS feeds

The question is, how productive can you possibly be amidst all of this? There has to be a way.

| View | Upload your own

My suggestions:

And crayon's latest client, the groundbreaking video chat client, ooVoo - which you can see at the end of the deck, embedded above and hosted on SlideShare.

And then I opened it up to the audience. Some of their suggestions included:

If you'd like a comprehensive list of the tools that I track, you can see it at: http://del.icio.us/socialmediamarketing/tools

Special thanks to Mark Blevis for taking notes during the session and forwarding on the audience suggestions.

Labels: 2.0, podcamp, podcampboston, tools

Posted by Scott Monty at 2:39 PM

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About Scott

For hi-res, click here

The best way to describe Scott is "Renaissance Man." Friends and colleagues that know Scott from one facet of his life are very frequently surprised to learn of his interests and talents in other areas.

Scott is a marketing and communications professional focused on the digital industry — specifically on social media. His career spans a number of industries such as healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications, and includes a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Currently on the staff of corporate communications in Ford Motor Company, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.

Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.

In addition to his consulting and agency background, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking. Scott has been featured in numerous news and business publications, on a variety of podcasts, and on national television. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.

Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the term "tweetup."

You may download a headshot here, courtesy of C.C. Chapman and a PDF version of Scott's bio here.

Books in which Scott's work is featured:
The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Twitterville
Six Pixels of Separation
Monkeys with Typewriters
Read This First
World Wide Rave
Get Seen

Disclosures/Relationships

Scott is on the Advisory board of SavvyAuntie
Scott is on the Advisory board of Business Smart Tools
Scott is a judge for the SAMMY Awards
Scott is on the Advisory board of The Hive Awards
Named one of iMedia's 25 Top Internet Marketing Leaders & Innovators
This blog's content is also syndicated on Social Media Today
Plaid occasionally does web work for me and designed this site
No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

Speaking Events

Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please send an email to speaking [AT] scottmonty [DOT] com. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.

Some previous engagements include:

BlogWell - How Big Companies Use Social Media - Minneapolis - August 13

Who is Scott Monty?

Hi, I'm Scott. I'm the head of social media for Ford Motor Company. This is my personal blog, where I share my perspectives on social media - the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web - for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. This blog contains my personal views.