Why the Web 2.0 Expo Will Rock and How You Can Go for FREE

by Sam on March 26, 2009

The countdown to Web 2.0 San Francisco is on! I wanted to highlight a couple of sessions that I am really looking forward to.

Also, if you have not done so already, be sure to submit a quick anecdote, personal experience, or hack on the theme “how to do more with less” and you could be awarded a free ticket from LeveragingIdeas, courtesy of the great folks at O’Reilly Media and TechWeb. You can email me or submit a comment and I’ll be sure to publish the resulting advice and thoughts next week. Deadline is Friday.

Situation Normal, Everything Must Change.
(Simon Wardley, Canonical Ltd)

In today’s computing world, it can often feel like we are drowning in wave after wave of new trends such as mashups, service oriented architecture and cloud computing. Our  industry is moving from a product to a service based economy. This shift is a result of the commoditization of IT, but then again not all IT is being commoditized, some is still an innovation, isn’t it?
I couldn’t agree more that we’re shifting to a service based economy. Everything old is becoming new again. Especially in a world that is inundated by products with cool features and slick interfaces, the companies that will really stand out and succeed will place a high emphasis on understanding and supporting the customer.
Collaboration at Scale: Why Technology Alone Doesn’t Work

(Doug Solomon and Gentry Underwood, IDEO)

Innovative companies increasingly want to collaborate across time, space and organizational structure restrictions. Web 2.0 technology holds great promise, but in practice often comes up short. This session focuses on how to maximize the value of technology, by systematically understanding human behavior, motivations, and organizational design to build optimal solutions.

There are many companies that implement web 2.0 applications and believe overnight their business processes will transform. Web 2.0 to a great extent is about sharing and participation, attributes that are rooted in the DNA of a company and the makeup of its individuals. My post yesterday about Context, Timing and Perception is very relevant here. A holistic approach must be taken to get adoption and buy-in for full potential to be realized.

I also have a number of friends with great panels I wanted to highlight:

  • http://jamtoday.org jamtoday

    “Doing more with less” usually just means making a better product that will be better for customers. There is a balance, and when you “do less” on your side, it in turn reduces the side effects of “doing more”.

    For instance, when you reduce the number of moving parts (read: less code), the result is less bugs, less performance issues, less security issues.

    When you reduce the amount of money you're spending, the result is that you can charge less for your product and depend less on misleading advertising. You can also take less investment, and have less outside influence on your decision making process.

    Here's a personal anecdote that while not directly related to web 2.0, really illuminates this theme. When I was involved in my high school theater group, our school was accepted as finalists for our rendition of “The Iceman Cometh”, a long and difficult Eugene O'Neill play. When the time came to perform the play for several thousand people and a panel of judges for the state finals, we discovered that a significant number of our costumes were missing.

    Rather than improvising costumes for those of us who were missing them, our instructor demanded that none of us wear costumes. Instead, we would all wear matching plain white garb. The audience wouldn't notice, our instructor insisted.

    So we didn't wear our costumes, and when we performed there was a noticeable electricity in the air, perhaps because the experience felt renewed, like we were all doing it for the first time.

    Needless to say, we won the finals. Several people in the audience commented to me after that they “loved the costumes”.

    Doing less with more, indeed. I'm looking forward to the Expo!

  • http://supportingcharacters.com/ Carri Bugbee

    Sam, I work with entrepreneurs and business owners and much of that work these days involves training them to use social media to market their products or services, which can cost far less than what they used to pay for traditional marketing services and media.

    The DIY approach to social media marketing absolutely falls under the heading of doing more for less! It also allows for genuine communication with customers that can lead to better service in addition to marketing.

    That said, there are a few things any business or entrepreneur can do to get started quickly without missteps.

    #1. Retool your perspective – If you’re not familiar with the protocols and social mores of conversational media, you need to get plugged in. This means committing the time it takes to interact frequently, getting comfortable with the idea that you (and your business) will be an open book, and embracing the notion that it’s better to give than receive (because it will come back to you).

    #2. Get some training – You can certainly learn the ins and outs of social media by yourself. Many people do. But you can get up to speed much faster (and avoid faux pas) if you get a little training. Spend a few hours with an expert (you might want to do this over a span of several weeks). Get that person to help you with a plan and then keep that person on call to mentor you when you need it. This is more economical and much more effective over the long run (think authenticity) than hiring an agency to do the work for you or engage with customers on your behalf. As you become more knowledgeable, you can even trade tips and tricks with other like-minded professionals, which won’t cost you anything.

    #3. Be practical – I recommend starting with a plan that includes strategic and tactical approaches to the three best ways to gain visibility online. This will be slightly different for every business, but you can DIY with just a little bit of guidance. Things to consider are search engine optimization (SEO), social networks, blogs (creating your own and/or participating on others), engaging with news aggregators and ratings sites, Twitter, and video/photo sharing sites. I recommend tackling just three of these (for example, SEO, Twitter and Facebook) because you’ll need a little synergy to get good results, but you don’t want to get overwhelmed and give up.

    #3. Read, read, read! – Everything you need to know to be a successful DIY social media marketer is online. Your mentor should be able to direct you to a few sites to get started, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll find the quantity of ideas out there is astounding. Books can be helpful as well, but be cautious about anything written earlier than 2008. Social media platforms (and marketing strategies) are evolving so quickly, most books aren’t current enough to be relevant, though some are great for offering in-depth analysis of long-range trends and historical perspectives.

    #4. Connect with those “in the know” – This is key! As you’re ramping up, you should aim to follow (and eventually engage with) thought-leaders in different areas. This should include those in your business category who “get it” and marketers who are knowledgeable about platforms, programs and strategies.

    #5. Get your geek on – You won’t be successful at any of this stuff if you are timid about technology. I find this to be single biggest impediment for most people. They think using social media (even just setting up accounts, profiles, etc.) is much harder than it is, so they put it off until they’re in a panic to make something happen. If need be, get your mentor to help you get set up. Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll see that many platforms follow similar protocols and you can even use some of the same information over and over.

    #6. Train someone else – Nothing will help you hone your expertise better than training someone else to do what you’ve just learned. Chances are, you have employees or business partners who will need to learn how to market your business via social media anyway. Remember, you’re trading outside expenditures for your time. While you won’t have as many outside expenses, social media marketing can be very time-consuming, and time is money! You’ll need others in your company to get with the program.

    Doing more with less really is possible if you follow these simple guidelines. I’ve done it for myself, and helped others do the same.

    @CarriBugbee
    SupportingCharacters.com

  • http://www.leveragingideas.com Sam Huleatt

    Carrie – Thanks so much for your comments! Sorry – I was out of town this weekend. Unfortunately the contest had to end a day early as per request of O'Reilly so I had already contacted the winners. I really love your suggestions though and would like to re-post them as an actual post on this blog —- would that be cool?

    It would have been great to meet at SXSW; hopefully we'll meet soon!

    Sam

  • http://www.cehd.org/ Resveratrol

    “#6. Train someone else – Nothing will help you hone your expertise better than training someone else to do what you’ve just learned. Chances are, you have employees or business partners who will need to learn how to market your business via social media anyway. Remember, you’re trading outside expenditures for your time. While you won’t have as many outside expenses, social media marketing can be very time-consuming, and time is money! You’ll need others in your company to get with the program.”

    Number 6 really stands out to me Carrie, and is a wonderful idea. It definitely helps you hone in on different kinds of skills that you normally wouldn't use, that brings everything full circle!

    - James

  • fakegrass

    How did this conference end up? I was mildly interested in the “Why Social Media Marketing Fails and How to Fix It” panel because I totally agree with that sentiment. Too many people see it as the panacea along with “real-time search” for replacing Google and I think they are totally missing the boat. Commercial phrases don't need real time search, news needs real time search and we've all seen how poorly newspapers are monetizing their content.

  • fakegrass

    How did this conference end up? I was mildly interested in the “Why Social Media Marketing Fails and How to Fix It” panel because I totally agree with that sentiment. Too many people see it as the panacea along with “real-time search” for replacing Google and I think they are totally missing the boat. Commercial phrases don't need real time search, news needs real time search and we've all seen how poorly newspapers are monetizing their content. To see how people fix their lawns, get some http://www.fakegrass.org so they can go without water, much easier that way.

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