O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Seeks Diversity in Conference Participation

From the O'Reilly Website:

"O'Reilly Media and UBM TechWeb believe in spreading the knowledge of innovators. We believe that innovation is enhanced by a variety of perspectives, and our goal is to create an inclusive, respectful conference environment that invites participation from people of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities, religions, and sexual orientations.

We're actively seeking to increase the diversity of our attendees, speakers, and sponsors through our calls for proposals, other open submission processes, and through dialogue with the larger communities we serve.

This is an ongoing process. We are talking to our program chairs, program committees, and various innovators, experts, and organizations about this goal and about ways they can help us achieve it."

There's a current call for participation for the New York Expo, which takes place October 18 - 21. The call for proposals closes 11:59pm 04/12/2010 EDT. For more info on submitting a proposal, check out Web 2.0 Expo New York Call for Participation.

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The ARF: Inspiring Better Brands

The "Inspiring Better Brands" video was presented by Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer, The ARF, at Re:think, The Advertising Research Foundation Annual Convention + Expo on Tuesday, March 23.

"Inspiring Better Brands" was created by the ARF and Thinktopia, and brings together views on transforming the research industry from Rick Clancy, Head of Corporate Community, Sony; Stan Sthanunathan, VP Marketing & Strategy & Insights, Coca-Cola Company; Chris Baldwin, President of Snacks Business Unit, Kraft; Pete Blackshaw, EVP Digital Strategic Services, The Nielsen Company; Gayle Fuguitt, VP Consumer Insights, General Mills; and Alan Wurtzel, President, Research & Media Development, NBC Universal.

The ARF research transformation initiative will create the blueprint for industry change, so insight teams can enable marketing organizations to become agile, fast learners whose innovations shape the future. The Research Transformation Council will be Co-Chaired by Donna Goldfarb, Unilever, and Susan Wagner, Johnson & Johnson.

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Listening To Multicultural Consumers

Presentation on Listening to the Multicultural Consumer from The Advertising Research Foundation (@The_ARF) Annual Convention Re:Think 2010. Presented by Lynne d Johnson, SVP, Social Media, The ARF and Anita Lai, Director of Research, Uniworld Group.

I'm looking to expand this project into a white paper, so if you have insights or case studies to share in terms of using social media for marketing research to better serve multicultural consumers, then please reach out to me through my contact form. I'm also looking for insights into Web and Social Media adoption and behavior.

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Social Media/Web Jobs: Panasonic, Iconoculture, Inc Magazine

Social Media Analyst wanted by Iconoculture (Possibly Virtual)
We are looking to fill the newly created position of Social Media Analyst. The ideal candidate must have extensive social media experience from the consumer, marketer, and researcher perspectives. This position will use a range of social media tools and focus on deriving consumer insights from social media analytics and information. This person will be a member of Iconoculture’s Editorial team and work closely with editors and writers across all areas of coverage, including global information.
More Info

Social Media Editor, Panasonic (Seacaucus, NJ)
The Social Media Editor will serve as the web content and community catalyst for Panasonic North America's social activities.
More Info

Senior Web Producer, Inc.com (New York, NY)
Executing the day-to-day editorial operations of Inc.com, such as creating, scheduling, and updating content; overseeing the production of special editorial packages; producing newsletters; and helping to manage and engage Inc.com’s community of users.
More Info

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Living A Value-Added Life

Today I tweeted a new commitment I made:



I now feel like I tweeted this into a vacuum and it needs some background, context, and clarity. So let's begin at the middle, go back to the beginning, and then end up with my tweet today.

The Middle: I've been feeling a little overwhelmed and down lately. Sometimes procrastinating or just not getting anything done. Inspiration has been at an all-time low. Having started a new job in September and with some major changes happening in my family experience, I'm getting hit every which way to be doing something (which feels like all the time). But I couldn't get out of the rut no matter what I tried to do. I didn't even know why I lacked inspiration and any sort of conviction about anything I'm doing -- or better yet, supposed to be doing.

And it came to me in a tweet...

The Beginning: So there was this meme on Twitter the other day: #whenifirstmet and I decided to get involved. I'm not always one to jump on the trending bandwagon, but I did. I saw a couple of my IRL friends doing it, so I shouted a few of them out. One in particular jayhovawitness, was having fun with it, so I decided to talk about when I first met him. But you know what, it wasn't all love when I first met him. Why? Because the impression he had of me wasn't all favorable. He admired my hustle and what I was doing on the web and in the journalism game at the time, but what he didn't admire was that he reached out to me and I was all two deaf ears.

Here's what happened...

He was coming up in the game. Doing Allhiphop in Delaware and going to J school. He somehow met Kevin Powell, who suggested he reach out to me and some other folks. Jay sent me a heartfelt letter that I actually remember. But what I hadn't remembered is that I never got back to him. You see I have this habit of holding on to email that I think I need to have a thoughtful response for. But you know what happens when I do that? Yep you guessed it, I never get around to responding. The email sits there, sometimes for years.

So basically tweeting #whenifirstmet Jay and then seeing him tweet the backstory, got me to thinking that I live for other people getting some of what I got and getting put on. Basically, I love to see others shine in the best possible way that they can. But the problem is, I was leaving emails around that hadn't been responded to because I always thought I'd respond to them later. What kind of customer service is that? Aren't I supposed to be someone gifted in community and social media skills? So why had I broken down on one of the most valuable forms of communication?

I needed to backtrack and take the time to respond to every little request (big or small) that came across my path. How would I feel if people who have helped me move in my professional and personal life never got back to me? What if I wanted someone to give feedback on a song or poem, or blog post and they just never responded? How would I feel? And sure, I made the excuse that between the requests I get at work and personally there's no way I could respond to each and every one. How could I? There's no way anyone could expect me to do that. But you know what, I was/am wrong. Others do it. Others who receive far more email than I do. Others who are Internet famous, or entertainment famous, or just mad loved.

Today: This morning I slept only one or two hours because I was awake and responding to every email message that ever came through my contact form on my website that I hadn't dealt with, or that I told the emailer that I'd get back to them later. And I felt better for it. I felt great. Inspired. Motivated. And those who responded to my response, all showed appreciation, even the ones who I hadn't responded to for over a year. I apologized, cleared the slate, and offered any assistance that I could provide. You might say this is a big step, but it's not. Because all people really, truly want is acknowledgment--to know that someone is listening. I'd read the emails, but they just sat there waiting for me to take care of later. But why not take care of them right now?

So every day, I will act on all communication ASAP (this also means IMs, tweets, and blog comments, but not always FB or FriendFeed messages as quickly). I won't let it lag, unless there's really no way I can get to it--right now. I will explain that ASAP so it's not held over. So that the requestor is not left hanging, thinking I never received the email or probably just don't care. If nothing else, it's a way to achieve "Inbox Zero." Otherinbox, is an email product that helps me manage that even more so that those important messages get to me right away, while the newsletters, spam, email lists, etc. go somewhere else and wait. And that's what should be waiting, not real, live people waiting for responses. Not real, live people who took time, effort, and courage, just to ask my advice or for a connection or feedback...whatever.

Thanks to Jay and #whenifirstmet for bringing me this clarity. For helping me to provide true customer service and to deliver real value. But what's in it for me?

I'm inspired.

I'm motivated.

My work is singing...swinging...moving ahead.

Why?

People have shared their lives and time with me, making a deposit, and then they made a withdrawal when I shared back. How much do you want to bet they'll think about that when someone asks them for something? How much do you want to bet they'll continue the cycle? You're damn right they will.

That's how I'm planning to live a value added life. How are you living a value added life?

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Ogilvy Hosts 'Blacks In Tech Panel' At SXSW

DISCUSSION TO LOOK AT THE IMPACT OF MULTICULTURALISM IN TECHNOLOGY NETWORKING "MEETUP" TO FOLLOW March 10, 2010: 03:14 PM ET

NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Ogilvy & Mather North America will host and moderate a panel and discuss the impact a multicultural and multi-ethnic society has had on technology and the digital space on March 12th at the acclaimed South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SXSW). The panel will be followed by a networking "Meetup."

Featured panelists include musician and new media pioneer Ryan Leslie (http://www.ryanleslie.com/), Kety Esquivel (http://www.ketyesquivel.blogspot.com), CEO for Latinos in Social Media; James Andrews (www.BeEverywhere.tv), founder of digital strategic consulting firm Everywhere; and Nichelle Stephens (http://keepingnickels.com/), blogger and social media expert. This year's panel follows last year's successful Blacks in Tech launch at SXSW that attracted over 100 participants and provided a forum to engage the black technology community in the festival itself. With this event, the group is expanding its reach to include the Asian and Hispanic communities to provide a multicultural exchange.

According to Jeffrey Bowman, the organizer of the event and a Partner at Ogilvy & Mather's Consulting Practice, this year's event at SXSW kicks off the first of three discussions taking place around the country in 2010 within the multicultural technology and digital community.

"Partnering with SXSW and Ogilvy to create the festival's first diversity driven event builds awareness of the tremendous multicultural talent and thought leadership within the technology space," explained Jeffrey Bowman of Ogilvy. "This panel and the event following it expands on both the festival and the agency's efforts to foster greater diversity and inclusion within the industry." We've worked with social media strategist like James Andrews (www.BeEverywhere.tv), Wayne Sutton (http://socialwayne.com), Adria Richards (http://butyoureagirl.com), and Maurice Cherry (http://www.mauricecherry.com) to pull this event together."

SXSW is seeking to promote diversity and inclusion as a cornerstone of the Festival and has created a series of panels that feature diverse thought leaders within the festival. The Ogilvy panel will be followed by the "Blacks in Technology Meetup" from 6- 9 pm at the Carver Museum, also hosted by Ogilvy. The event is open to all new media professionals and those hoping to break into the industry. To register and learn more go to http://www.eventbrite.com/event/594984615.

ABOUT BLACKS IN TECH (BIT)

Blacks In Tech originally started as a few blacks within the technology and social media space met at the SXSW Interactive Conference in the Spring of 2005. At the time the world of technology and social media was emerging. They pondered the idea of having more blacks in technology and hypothesized about barriers to being more social on-line. Some of the early thought leaders that night were Lynne D. Johnson (http://www.lynnedjohnson.com), George Kelly (www.allaboutgeorge.com), Jason Toney (http://misterjt.typepad.com), jbrotherlove (http://www.thebrotherlove.com/journalogue.php), Tiffany B Brown (www.tiffanybbrown.com), E J Flavors (http://ejflavors.com/) and Jeffrey Bowman (Twitter: @jeffreylbowman).

In 2009 they organized a mini panel at the SXSW Conference and exceeded conference organizers expectations. They'd proven to organizers that there is a thriving black community within the technology and digital space. The mission for Blacks In Tech is to accelerate technology innovation, education and wealth creation within underserved markets through the use of technology. You can follow Blacks In Tech on Twitter @blacksintech.

ABOUT SXSW

South by Southwest (SXSW, Inc.) is a private company based in Austin, Texas, with a year-round staff of professionals dedicated to building and delivering conference and festival events for entertainment and related media industry professionals. Since 1987, SXSW has produced the internationally recognized Music and Media Conference & Festival. In 1994 as the entertainment business adjusted to issues of future growth and development, SXSW added conferences and festivals for the film industry (SXSW Film) as well as for the blossoming interactive media (SXSW Interactive Festival). Now three industry events converge in Austin during a Texas-sized week, mirroring the ever increasing convergence of entertainment/media outlets.

ABOUT OGILVY & MATHER NORTH AMERICA

Ogilvy & Mather North America (www.ogilvy.com), is the largest unit of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, a subsidiary of WPP Group plc (Nasdaq: WPPGY). It has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Durham, Minneapolis, Denver, and throughout Canada. Ogilvy & Mather North America brings together all the capabilities of the Ogilvy network to provide integrated marketing solutions to the agency's clients. It encompasses Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyEntertainment, OgilvyOne, Neo@Ogilvy, Ogilvy Healthworld, Ogilvy Public Relations and OgilvyAction.

SOURCE Ogilvy & Mather North America

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Using Google Buzz for Research, Insights & Conversation

I've been on Google Buzz pretty much since it was available to me, but I did have some issues figuring out the best use case for myself. Initially, I thought I should use it just like FriendFeed, but I found that to be wrong all too quickly. It's not meant to simply be an aggregator (neither was FF, given how the leading community there ended up using it).

What Buzz is good for, is, well, Buzz. Having conversations and creating Buzz. I've managed to have great conversations there, both in my own Buzz and in other Buzzes, and thereby have gained great insight and feedback and have had richer experiences for it.

One thing that's been great is that folks I've known since I first started blogging back in 2001, are starting to interact with me there and it's nice to be talking to them daily, again. Could I have more feedback? Sure I could. But the fact is I'm receiving quality feedback and conversation that's contributing greatly to projects I'm working on.

Example one: I asked the Buzzverse whether I should review Brain Solis's Engage or Joseph Jaffe's Flip the Funnel for the next issue of the Journal of Advertising Research. The feedback for Engage was overwhelming, to say the least, but Jaffe still wins because I'll follow up with him to do an interview styled book review for my ARF Social Media Insights MediaBizBloggers column.



Example two: I'm leading a discussion at MediaBistro Circus in May about the opportunities and challenges that social media presents, and social media's impact on marketing, advertising and media. So, I asked the community, which issues have they been dealing with or do they most hear being discussed. I plan to use the questions and feedback shared in a post leading up the the event, and it will end up being the basis for how I lead the discussion. I'm not receiving overwhelming feedback there, but the feedback I'm receiving is invaluable.



Example three: I just recently listed this example, so I'm not quite sure what the feedback will be. But in two weeks, I'm presenting a workshop entitled, "Listening to the Multicultural Consumer," at the ARF Annual #reThink10. Since Research Transformation and Listening are big initiatives for the ARF, when we thought about how the mainstream was changing, it only made sense for us to figure out how to use social media (digital media) to listen to the multicultural consumer. I'm working with Uniworld on that project and we've got loads of data, but what we're lacking is case studies--examples of how digital media was used to learn more about a consumer group to either reposition a brand message or product, gain new customers, monitor and track brand health, and all the other great insights that customer insights and market research provide to make marketing goals, customer service, and product development more effective. I'm really not sure how many of those examples are out there, but here's the ask.



Of course, I'm not receiving Mashable-type feedback, but the feedback I'm receiving has been extremely useful and will go into further developments of my current projects. This is only a miniscule experiment that some brands have been successful with on a larger scale, such as Mashable and Read, Write, Web. Nonetheless, the experiment shows that Google Buzz can work. If you are clear about your objectives in this space and give as much as you receive, then the experience can be far more than rewarding.


How are you using Buzz?

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