The 140 Conference in New York produced by Jeff Pulver is a fast paced mindmeld of businesses and personal brands on Twitter. It also featured a clash of social media advocates Robert Scoble among them, leading the heated discussion with mainstream media over their news judgment about the coverage of the Iranian election protests. (I’ll have a link to the video of the panel when it is posted) I’ll highlight here and cover in more detail in subsequent posts.

Business

Jeffery Hayzlett the chief marketing officer at Kodak believes Twitter is something to be embraced by corporate America. His premise is that it is always a good thing to be in a place where your customers are. Whether it is getting new ideas for products or services, engaging customers to drive sales, or refuting mischievous competitors trying to game the system (the latter of these individuals are called Twangers), Twitter is a dynamic place to work in real time. He was excited to bring back some new product ideas that audience members shared with him.

Personal Brands
Chris Brogan is a leader among personal brands online. His demeanor and giving spirit are perfect for a medium that rewards candor and creativity. In the panel on the making of Twitter Celebrity – clearly different than celebrities on Twitter – the ability to for those who are committed to providing value can attract a loyal following. Is this a career? Can you pay the mortgage? So far, I believe the model and ratio is about the same as the non-twitter world. You can with hard work, good timing, and the right niche. The similarities I draw here is that just like other mediums TV or radio, are more people join Twitter there will be greater segments of channels, in this case personal brands, with smaller followings relative to other media, but within the context of social media varying degrees of audiences.

Those individuals that have created terrific and engaging personalities on Twitter that we featured on this panel were

adventuregirl (@adventuregirl) aka Stefanie Michaels
Julia Roy (@juliaroy) –
Justine (@ijustine)

TwitterTainment?

An engaging presentation by Carri Bugbee and Helen Klein Ross who tweet in the characters of Peggy Olson and Betty Draper respectively. In what may have seemed like a character/brand hijack, has turned into a creative, award winning way to use Twitter in character. It’s even spawned a new genre called Twittertainment (work with me here). The beauty of this presentation is the raw ingredients that can be thrown into the Twitter pot, it is a medium where you can make of it what the audience wants to receive, and that is exciting.

News and Analysis

Robert Scoble led a dynamic conversation about whether the news media missed covering the Iranian demonstrations last weekend and are they playing catch-up to the news being disseminated over social networks.

This panel was at time divisive, Ann Curry of NBC referenced the tension in the room, but the bottom line is how mainstream media will coexist with social media initiated information. Will there be the time to fact check and provide analysis to the fast moving images and tweets of a breaking news event. I believe this analysis is a critical aspect because it allows for a counter balance to the emotion of the mob and the similarly emotional reaction that such video elicits.

No doubt social media is plugged into mainstream media. I saw this while researching a project with the Society for New Communications Research about the differences in topics covered by the social web and mainstream media during the presidential campaign of 2008. My colleague Emily Metzger, assistant professor at the University of Indiana School of Journalism and I examined this premise and concluded that mainstream media was essentially monitoring or reporting on the major topics being discussed in social media.

Will events occur where social media uncovers or is giving more conversation to an issue? Surely, and mainstream media will likely be aware of this issue as well. I understand why social media advocates would get up in arms about it, however, the Iranian election street demonstrations show how valuable social media can be as a medium on its own, regardless of whether mainstream news decision makers agree or not.

Upcoming Topics

This conference is loaded with seeds of ideas and examples of further discussions I’ll have on this blog. We’ll also have podcasts with conference speakers, including Jeffrey Hayzlett of Kodak and Steve Rubel of Edelman.

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