Event Review: SocStardom3 with Jay Berkowitz
June 4, 2009 :: Joe LoongOn Monday, we kicked off June with another edition of the SocStardom series of events (SocStardom3, for those keeping track), organized by Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, Robin Ferrier of Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, and our own Shashi Bellamkonda.
The featured speaker was Jay Berkowitz, CEO of Ten Golden Rules. You can see him below, next to the event’s hashtag (#socstardom3), which you can search on to find Twitter posts, photos, videos, event recaps (including Mayra’s) and other related content:
Jay Berkowitz speaking at SocStardom3
The event generated a lot of great crowdsourced coverage, (also, Jay’s presentation slides will soon be available from the Ten Golden Rules Web site), and I believe we’ll be doing a followup entry focusing more on the specific topic of the presentation (”Web 2010: Discover the 10 Strategies Defining Your Future”), so I’ll just stick to a quick topline and throw in a few takeaways from the event.
Jay’s presentation was fast-paced and well-structured, built around those 10 general themes fleshed out with examples and basic and advanced strategies for each. While people versed in social media and social marketing techniques (or can fake their way to that claim) probably won’t find any new revelations from each particular bullet, they do tie together to give a coherent picture (perhaps even a functional roadmap) of things social marketers will want to stay on top of.
And there were some great illustrative examples. For the first theme of microcommunications, we saw the example of Mission Pie of San Francisco, which uses its Twitter presence to keep customers up-to-date on their latest offerings, and consequently have seen a 20% increase in business.
Also mentioned as another icon of engagement was the somewhat mysterious Twitter user Iconic88, whose positive posts make him one of the most retweeted humans in the Twittersphere (and whom Jay met and will be featuring in one of his upcoming podcasts).
In the realm of social search, we were told of online pet supply retailer Petco’s experience improving sales 50% through the addition of user ratings and reviews, and how even negative reviews help sales, by adding authenticity to the reviews.
Jay also mentioned that an opportunity with underdeveloped potential is video, both because it helps conversions, but also because a lot of people still don’t know what to do in that space, and have yet to become competent in producing good video. (Something I can personally attest to, at least to the latter part.)
During the Q&A period, discussion topics included the ever-popular “how do I make money off my content now?” (as opposed to building my name for future business) — a number of people chimed in on everything from ad services, affiliate marketing, and using free content to push people down the marketing funnel. (Jay also mentioned PayPerPost as a possibility, though many, including Jay, find the concept offputting.) There were also questions about specific tools, including strategies for using Twitter clients to follow large numbers of people, and looks into how other cultures use social media (for example, Asia being ahead on mobile and mobile payment, and Australia generally lagging 6-12 months behind in areas).
We concluded with an around-the-room introduction, and then Shashi called in to Jay’s podcast comment line (206-888-6606) so we could record a group thank-you:
In summary, it was another good event, and I say to anyone dissuaded about heading out to Rockville because of geography or that weird Maryland vs. Virginia vs. DC regional feud-thing: You’re missing out.
If you’ve got your own impressions of the event or a writeup or photos you’d like to share, please leave a comment below.
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