This is a great series because it helps put a real person to the avatar. The joys of tweetups, conferences etc… are that they help us realize just who eachother is. Without actual human connections, social media would not exist. I was more than happy to participate in something like this, even though I hate being on camera.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Do you know what South by Southwest is? Sure, it’s a great music festival, but did you know it is also one of the best tech conferences around?

SXSW Interactive is a compilation of some super quality speakers and panels as well as some of the best networking (read: parties) around. It is by far one of the best events I’ve attended.

Loading…This year’s event, however, has a different appeal for me. I was able to secure a pretty powerful panel for Etelos founder & CEO Danny Kolke. OpenID, OAuth, Data Portability and the Enterprise will explore the challenges enterprise class companies face over data ownership.

Featuring Joseph Smarr from Plaxo, Kaliya Hamlin, AKA “Identitywoman” and Bob Blakely from the Burton Group will join Danny to discuss if OpenID and OAuth are good for the enterprise and how to implement them.

Shifting the focus

I think this will be an excellent topic for this year’s event. Layoffs are piling up, mandatory furloughs are being enforced and startups are folding. As the emphasis shifts from true innovation to a successful business model, the debate over identity and data ownership becomes essential.

A prospect or sales lead is an invaluable commodity, and this is even more true in today’s economic climate. But who owns that relationship? Who owns that customer’s contact information?

Meetup Tweetup Restup

Lots of exciting parties have already been announced and dozens more will undoubtedly pop up as March approaches. I have an awesome idea for a smaller, more intimate meetup opportunity if anybody is looking for an opportunity to host something.

I look forward to meeting you all out there and discussing some public relations goodies. As an extra bonus, Kaliya is organizing a lunch that will follow the panel. Come, join us there too!

I’m in the process of building up a schedule, but I want to get your input. What sessions have you excited? What speakers must you see? What parties are already on your list? Fill out the handy-dandy form or post a comment.

There is no etiquette, there are no rules. Make your own and make them known.

Do you find yourself facing social media overload? With Twitter followers, Facebook friends, Flickr friends, LinkedIn connections and countless other social networks to manage, sometimes I just find myself a touch overwhelmed. Do you?

All of a sudden, I found myself with more than 800 followers on Twitter, which compared to some isn’t a lot, it is a daunting number to me. I can’t follow everybody back and feel like I’m making genuine connections. And this is leading me to make my social media rules.

Be genuine

The old standby is back again. If you’re putting a false impression of yourself out there, people will associate you with that and not respect the “real” you. Don’t be fake.

Twitter is disturbingly Google friendly. I spent a few years as a reporter and most of my articles have been over taken by Twitter musings, blog posts and a video interview I did more than a year and a half ago. It is vital that anything you put out into the public be representative of your talents, skills and opinions.

Be visible

If you truly want to foster genuine connections, don’t sign up for every shiny new bubbly social network that pops up. Unless you can actively spend time there and create a community. If you neglect connections and networks, they will quickly dissolve. I like to say that the best part of social networking is that it is a passive technology — you get out what you put in.

By focusing your efforts/connections into fewer places, you are able to have more quality interactions that are more beneficial to both parties.

Be flexible

The other day, I unfollowed about 50 people on Twitter, but since then I’ve followed just as many new people. There’s a sociological theorum out there called Dunbar’s number, which states that a human is only capable of so many stable connections at any one time. I think that social networks have greatly expanded that capacity, but your brain and attention are still finite resource that require flexible management.

It’s important to know that you can’t connect with everybody and you can’t manage 1,000 profiles. By being flexible with your interactions, you are able to provide a more genuine social interaction.

In a nutshell

Here are my rules in a nutshell:

• I will be myself
• I will not follow, friend or accept everybody.
• I will engage, interact and participate
• I will not be disappointed by a lack of response
• I will ask for you to read this blog
• I will not force this blog down your throat
• I will look at your profile.
• I will be genuine.

What are your rules? What are your social networking guidelines? I would love to know.

Do your customers and prospects trust your blogs? New research from Forrester says they don’t.

Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff recently released a report that had this interesting tidbit, amongst others:

Consumers trust company blogs less than any other channel.

This result comes from a survey wedid in Q2 of 2008. Have a look at the data yourself. Not only do blogs rank below newspapers and portals, they rank below wikis, direct mail, company
email, and message board posts. Only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them. If you’re a corporate blogger or somebody who advises companies, you need to take this into account.

I’d like to know if you trust what we say here on these pages. we strive to create an open discussion on cloud computing, enterprise software and Web app distribution, amongst other topics.

Last year, Etelos was named as one of Inside CRM’s top 20 corporate blogs because we have made an effort to make sure every post is not a promotional spin piece for Etelos.

More to the story

There’s more to this story, though. In the original post, Bernoff lists other sources that people trust more than corporate blogs.

This graph is from Forrester and explains the break down in what sources people trust.

“Email from people you know” at the top is no surprise, but to see items such as wikis and yellow pages ranked higher is interesting. Most yellow pages services are sponsored listings — ads.

Quite frankly, I’m more willing to put faith in a quality, open and honest blog post than in an ad.

What I see in the general trend of trusted sources is that newer sources of energy are decidedly at the bottom of the list, while established or older relationships trend toward the top.

Earning trust

In his summary blog post, Bernoff advises that an open discourse is essential to establishing trust. Basically, what that means is that trust is earned. For a smaller company in a specialized industry such as we are, this trust is earned first in a small circle of companies.

So, how can companies earn trust? Here’s a couple of ways:

• Don’t just blog about the positives. Perfect software doesn’t exist, especially if yours is wearing a Beta tag.
• Link out, link early and link often. I feel that referring to others enhances your credibility.
• Let your content speak to your expertise. If you are truly innovative, your content will say so.
• Convers with your readers. Invite comments, respond to comments and post comments on others blogs.

So, my challenge to you is to earn some trust. Let me know what steps you’re doing to earn that trust.

Most large companies simply aren’t agile enough to actively be involved and followup on a campaign. And a lot of smaller companies simply don’t have the time to be actively participating in conversations.

Participating in a marketing campaign is about connecting with the audience. Let them into your world. Show them how things work and show them why your product is the best.

One of the best examples of participation is Wine Library TV. The point of WLTV is not to get video views or Twitter comments, it is to sell wine. The videos that are produced, the events Gary speaks at and the messages he sends on Twitter are a means to an end.

But other examples exist as well. Every party thrown is an act of participation. When Scott Beale at Laughing Squid has a drink up, the goal is to meet new people, interact with his audience and hopefully score some new business.

More traditional methods exist as well. Take the Webinar as an example. A project manager or product architect giving a personal, non-marketing tour of a product or technology goes a lot further with an engaged audience than a banner ad on Digg.

So, participate with your audience. It’s not about being seen, it’s about seeing and connecting with the audience.