Simon's iPhone alarm goes off on stage, while Alistair Helms laughs

Didn’t make it to Social Media Junction? Missing a conference is never the same in the age of Twitter.

There’s photos, videos, and tweets. There’s a pretty darn thorough writeup in StopPress.

I got asked what I got out of it (see my comments and others’), especially considering I probably know a lot of the stuff already. Admittedly, I didn’t get a whole lot of new knowledge. But that’s not why people go to conferences.

Conferences are about making personal connections, meeting the “imaginary friends” you already know online (and making sure they’re real!).

Conferences are often about getting inspired to do what you already know you should do. Never underestimate inspiration.

I had a huge dose of inspiration from Julien Smith, one of the keynote speakers, who was also an “imaginary friend” I listen to on the Media Hacks podcast. Julien’s also co-author with Chris Brogan of the book Trust Agents.

Julien’s presentation, which kicked off the day, went to the heart of adopting social media – the need to be courageous and choose innovation. Here’s a taste of what he said.

It was great to speak to Julien before and after the conference (video coming soon), and to be challenged by this NYT bestselling author to do what I do (reasonably) well – write.

So watch this space. And it won’t be a book about social media, it’ll be about leadership, because that’s what social media will require of you. I’d better hurry up, the topic is on the radar already.

Other highlights:

• The irrepressible Aisha Hilary’s case study of how SBS is using social media to connect with its TV audiences (yes, audiences, they have 4 main segments who are very diverse)
• The practical (and full-of-local-examples) practitioner’s panel, chaired by Vincent Heeringa.
• Mike Hickinbotham’s in-depth case study of culture change and social media adoption at Telstra.
• The very entertaining Andy Beal’s very detailed and practical session on social media monitoring. Full marks for some great local examples – and pronouncing nz as en zed!
• Justin Flitter gets what social media is all about – the opportunity to create a customer-centric organisation.
• Our former neighbour Paul Reynolds (the incumbent, not the Telecom CEO) had some inspiring case studies of social media in the cultural sector.

Heard from the floor

I caught up with marketing veteran Steve Bridges, who at 69 years old has just bought an iPhone. He was loving the conference, enjoying the new information while also reassured that good marketing is what it always has been – creating a customer-centric organisation.

While Social Media Junction had good representation from telcos – with Telstra from Australia and Vodafone, Orcon and 2degrees from New Zealand – it was a bit of a mystery why Telecom weren’t part of the practitioners panel. It was a mystery to Rebecca from Telecom, too, who nevertheless was an enthusiastic live tweeter during the conference.

Fortunately, Rebecca gave a great presentation at last week’s Social Media Club Auckland. Video coming soon…

My top tips

I had the privilege of chairing a bloggers’ panel made up of some veteran bloggers (and one newcomer): Bernard Hickey, Mauricio Freitas, Russell Brown, Alistair Helm and Greer McDonald.

Themes from the panel, in no particular order:

• Have an opinion. Bernard Hickey put it this way: the best bars have the best bar fights. Be controversial.
• Promote your competition. Another one from Bernard, strongly echoed by Alistair. The main aim is to provide interesting stuff for your audience, whether or not it comes from you.
• Adapt to your audience. Greer expected her audience to be people like her – penniless generation Y women. Instead, it’s “old fat rich white men” … although perhaps that’s not too surprising!
• It’s an ongoing campaign. Mauricio runs the metrics on his blog like a perpetual campaign. He sets regular goals and keeps track of them.
• Do it yourself. Alistair’s first post was by a PR company and he didn’t like it at all. The best content comes from inside the company.
• Use the whole ecosystem. As other social media platforms have arisen, they’ve been very powerful as blog distribution mechanisms. I mentioned a Korean study that showed how Twitter is a broadcast medium, with the ability for dialogue when needed.

And finally, here are my top 5 tips for compelling content:

I’ve tweeted and blogged about it elsewhere, but I thought now was a good time to sum up my personal highlights of the conference. I haven’t included everything, just the things that stood out to me most as I surveyed the clouds on my trip back to NZ.

One of the things I discussed with friends on the trip was the slow food movement. I’m going to take the same approach to these blog posts. One thought at a time. Here’s the first thought … are you ready?

Gavin Heaton – Servant of Chaos

It’s the second time I’ve met Gavin Heaton, and I am constantly impressed by how thoughtful he is, in both senses of the word.

Gavin’s thoughtful in the way he sees the strategic implications of social media (see his presentation here). And he’s also thoughtful in the sense of being considerate, recommending the Posterous blog for last year’s conference (which continued to be a valuable resource this year) and using Twitter to curate the conference experience, rather than just amplifying it.

It wasn’t anything that Gavin particularly said that struck me, it was who he was in the conference.

There’s something in that for brands.

I had a blast at the Connect Now Conference in Sydney last week. This episode I speak with Deb Schultz from the Altimeter Group. Deb’s a Tummler, and she’s going to explain exactly what that means!

(Watch all the way to the end, it’s worth it!)

Also check out Tummelvision.tv, interviews with Tummlers from around the web.

What do you think? How do develop your own inner Tummler (or cultivate your Tumularity?) – and how does a company groom and prepare Tummlers?

Laurel Papworth, iJump’s Simon Young, Stephen Johnson, David Armano, Jim Stewart, Gavin Heaton and Siobhan Bulfin at Marketing Now, 23 Sept 2009

Marketing Now was mind-blowing. I’ve been to plenty of conferences where we’ve discussed social media, this time we used it.

There was a level of audience participation I’ve only seen in the geekiest of conferences before, but most of this audience were marketers. I guess Aussie marketers are fairly advanced!

I had the privilege of kicking off the proceedings on Tuesday morning. Here are my slides:

And thanks so much to Luke Grange of Knowledge Solutions, who uploaded this video of my closing. I appreciate the video and your kind comments, Luke!

The Marketing Now conversation continues – including the question, what should this movement be called (it’s obviously not just about Marketing) – at the Marketing Now Posterous page.

Update: there’s also a fantastic summary by Trevor Young (no relation)

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