Archive | Breakfast
Many of the Expeditionaries who came hungry to this month’s meet-up might have left hungry, too — but it’s not for lack of breakfast. Any stomach would’ve been growling after Kerry Crawford Trisler (of the Memphis Convention and Visitors’ Bureau) took us on a walk through the I Love Memphis blog, a guided tour through the city’s happenings, hang-outs and seriously good eats.
Kerry walked us through all the facets of the I Love Memphis social presence, from the blog to Facebook to Twitter, as well as talking about her full process for each blog post. Every piece of content that goes up on I Love Memphis will also post to Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, Mark’s Menus and FourSquare, not to mention photos hosted on Flickr and videos on YouTube.
In talking about how she measures successes and failures, Kerry first noted that she had no real job description or expectations when she set out on this project, other than to start a blog. Being able to learn through trial and error has been the greatest asset to maximizing the success of the campaign, she said. Now, managing a Facebook fan page that boasts more than 5,000 fans and a Twitter handle with more than 1,800 followers, Kerry says those numbers are the ones that matter the least. What she’s more concerned with is the number of actual interactions she has with the humans behind those social profiles, because that is more telling of true engagement.
She also shared with the group plans she has in the pipeline for FourSquare, including creating several FourSquare tours of Memphis (a foodie tour included, don’t you fear) and working with local businesses to try to create and implement unique FourSquare promotions, like deals or discounts for mayors and other tie-ins.
While Kerry said a lot of her work with FourSquare is focused on out-of-towners — they use the platform to explore the city most, she said — the spike in readership of the I Love Memphis blog on Thursday and Friday suggests locals are becoming a huge chunk of her dedicated audience, even if just to scout out what’s happening this weekend.
In looking at the Google analytics overview for the blog, Kerry noted a few stats she’s particularly proud of, like the average one minute and forty seconds being spent on the page by visitors. With an average that high, it’s safe to assume that most people who visit the site are taking the time to consume at least one post.
Following a little Q-and-A, the room separated as it typically does into two groups for our monthly Core Conversations. This month the topics were social metrics/measuring success and blogging, both of which were particularly topical given Kerry’s presentation. You can hear a brief rundown of those discussions on this week’s podcast, which you’ll find here later this week.
If you missed this breakfast, definitely mark your calendar to join us in April, and take a listen to last week’s Expedition podcast featuring Kerry Crawford Trisler.
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Whether we like it (or believe it) or not, February arrived this week and brought with it our second Expedition breakfast of 2010, featuring Dave Barger of LunaWeb speaking on social tools for the enterprise.
Dave made reference to one of the phrases that has been a staple of the Expedition for some time: “Social” is a philosophy and a shape-shifter– not just a marketing tool. When it comes to the enterprise, Dave said, “social business’ is the philosophy, and it’s not just about bringing your workplace online.
He talked first about determining the health of your business’s ecosphere. By mapping out all the important nodes of your business — from customer service to clients to providers to marketing — and looking at the connections between them, you can see the ideal version of your business ecosphere and identify current weak points to achieve that ideal.
No doubt several of the nodes in your ecosphere, no matter your business, will be internal. Creating transparency and enhancing communication within the enterprise are just as critical to the social business philosophy as those actions taken outwardly like a Facebook fan page or Twitter handle. Dave ran through a laundry list of platforms and methods businesses may use to achieve this, from wikis to discussion boards to presentation tools like SlideShare or traditional social networks.
Dave then introduced the Expeditionaries to a handful of sites specifically designed for enterprise social, talking most extensively about SocialCast, which was recently adopted by LunaWeb. You can find out more about SocialCast and others like Yammer and SocialText on this week’s Core Conversation podcast, where we’ll be continuing the conversation on social in the enterprise. You can call in at 11:30 a.m. CDT (646-721-9429) or listen live here.
More essential than the introduction to the tools, though, was the underlying philosophy and benefits of use: creating peripheral vision across the enterprise, sharing knowledge, allowing executives to offer praise and set the tone and pace of business and allowing employees to get help and access data easily are just a few examples.
If you missed out, you’ll definitely want to join us for the Core Conversation this Friday.
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Just six days into 2010 and we’re back at it — our January Expedition breakfast kicked off the new year right yesterday morning at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn. The temperatures were frigid, but the coffee and conversation were flowing.
Eric Mathews, co-founder of Mercury Technology Labs and LaunchMemphis, introduced the Expeditionaries to what he called the new digital divide. Currently we use the term to refer to the haves and have-nots of basic web access; the “new” digital divide would refer to the split between the haves and have-nots in the social media realm. The tweeters and the non-tweeters, the Facebookers and, well, surely there’s someone out there who’s not on Facebook.
An even closer look at the divide reveals more distinctions in levels of access or activity, Mathews said, with smart phone users landing at the high end of the spectrum, non-users at the opposite end and levels of involvement in between, from the person who is always attached to social media to the person who uses social tools occasionally through other web platforms. That idea — the integration of social elements in non-social web presences — is what Mathews called “social light.” The concept, alongside location-based services and niche social networks, is where Mathews predicts the money-making will be for web entrepreneurs in the immediate future.
To illustrate the point, Mathews introduced the group to four Memphis-area start-ups: Mark’s Menus, Into Outdoors, Xtrant and NRange. Each company is using one of the tools he mentioned, whether light social, LBS or niche networks, and the results are measurable and impressive. Into Outdoors, a niche network for hunters and anglers, is just peeking out of beta and already has more than 1,200 fans on Facebook and six advertisers who want to get on board, site unseen.
Another of the start-ups, Xtrant, is a social network for the enterprise, a topic that was explored further during the core conversations following Mathew’s presentation, along with WordPress and Facebook in 2010. If you’re interested in learning more about start-ups and technology/entrepreneurship in Memphis, check out Mathews’ Mercury Tech Coffee, happening every Monday at 7:30 a.m. at Republic Coffee.
You can also hear more from Mathews later this month when he’ll be appearing on the Expedition podcast (in the meantime be sure to check out this week’s episode featuring Thom Rigsby — you can find it here later today). In other podcasting news, our first Core Conversation of the year happens tomorrow, so join us at 11:30 a.m. to talk about the mobile web in 2010. You can listen here or call and weigh in at (646) 721-9429.
And don’t forget to check out our Wave to find or post helpful links and continue on conversations you started at a breakfast or tweet-up. For now, just search “Social Expedition” in Wave or contact @SMExpedition on Twitter for an invitation — we’re working on a way to make it more easily accessible to all interested Expeditionaries soon!
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The weather outside was frightful, but the breakfast was so, well, you know the rest. Expeditionaries braved the chilly rain this morning to welcome Dr. Kris Markman to the December Social Expedition Breakfast. She offered up some insight into the hard numbers of social media use and just a taste of the academic research currently underway on everything from perceptions of MySpace to the podcasting community.
Much of Dr. Markman’s talk felt like a look in the mirror; the statistics represent who we are as a social network site using population, from our median age to the specific messages we communicate through even a simple status update. Dr. Markman led off her presentation with a huge number — 46. That’s the percent of adult web users who use social networking sites. SNSs, as she called them, have hit the mainstream. Of those users, 73 percent have a Facebook account, while 48 percent are on MySpace, 14 percent on LinkedIn and just 6 percent on Twitter.
One of the key functions of the SNS that is increasing in prevalence is the status update. 19 percent of adult web users share or read status updates through Twitter or another platform, which Dr. Markman noted would include the Facebook status. Status updaters, she said, tend to be younger adults and tend to be early adopters who are highly plugged in.
But perhaps even more interesting than this increase in status interest is the categories of updates Markman introduced. 80 percent of updaters are called “Meformers,” who post self-focused, “me-now” messages. Just 20 percent are considered “Informers,” who share links or information through Twitter and status updates. Both groups occasionally indulged in the more peripheral categories, opinion/complaint and random thoughts.
Teenagers are a whole different animal, tweeting mostly to follow and interact with celebrities, and obsessed with the number of times they’ve tweeted. The statistics go on, and you can download and read Dr. Markman’s full presentation by clicking here. You’ll see more in the slides about the newly emerging racial breakdown of MySpace usage, incredible increases in online video viewership and a taste of Dr. Markman’s own research on podcasting — who podcasts, why they do it, what keeps them involved and more. It’s particularly interesting to us, because we’ve got a podcasting project in the pipeline to get Memphis podcasters together to talk shop. Keep watching here for more information soon.
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Though it’s only been eight months since Dr. Kris Markman last spoke to the Social Expedition, so much has changed in the social media realm that we could spend 10 tweet-ups just catching up.
And while we might not have that kind of time, we were able to pencil ourselves in to Dr. Markman’s 7:30 to 9:30 slot on Dec. 2 for the upcoming Expedition breakfast. She’ll be presenting “Current Trends in Social Media Usage,” talking about the big changes that have been afoot on the social media scene in 2009, and as usual we’ll break up for core conversations following the presentation, so do a little brainstorming on what topics you’d like to see on the shortlist.
The details remain the same: we’ll be at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn and the cost to you is $20, or $15 for you and a guest if you bring along a brand new Expeditionary. Either way, remember to RSVP.
Here’s a little more background on Dr. Markman, taken from her University of Memphis vitae: Markman’s academic research focuses broadly on the areas of identity & anonymity, language & social interaction and organizational uses of technology. She is also interested in the relationship between the internet and popular culture and new forms of media production and distribution. She teaches Computer-Mediated Communication (Communication on the Internet), History of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Media 2.0: Production & Distribution in the Internet Age and Broadcast Regulations & Programming Policy.
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Since its launch in March of this year, MemphisConnect.com has been viewed by people in more than 1,300 cities across the globe. It’s an impressive figure, and even more so when you consider that 50 percent of those 1,300 are municipalities outside the region. So instead of the Forbes Most Miserable list, those thousands of outsiders are getting the real Memphis as told by real Memphians.
That’s one of the ways Elizabeth Lemmonds, director of marketing and communications for The Leadership Academy, sums up the message of MemphisConnect.com. But however you choose to describe it, the site is using community blogging not only to refresh the national (and international) perspective on our city, but also to connect its citizens and create a hub of information on what’s going on, what’s gearing up and what’s good in Memphis.
Elizabeth Lemmonds, MemphisConnect.com
Lemmonds spoke to Expeditionaries at the monthly breakfast this morning about the history and purpose of the site, but also about the challenges of community blogging and the ways the site is working with social media tools to build and expand. Though she faces some challenges that any blogger could empathize with – keeping a conversation going once it’s ignited, for example – she also faces challenges unique to this medium. For example, you probably wouldn’t hear a blogger complaining about having too much content, but it’s an issue for Lemmonds. With so many contributors and authors, the content, she says, is realistically too much to manage on a daily basis.
But – and maybe she’s crazy – she still wants more. “You have to grow, because if you don’t grow, you’ll die,” she said. So instead of turning content down, she’s constantly looking for new opportunities for growth and learning. In that growth, the site has undergone some changes, like the addition of Facebook Connect to make the log-in process easier for new users.
Cracking the code of that natural ebb and flow of user participation and commenting is another hurdle for the site, Lemmonds said. One of the greatest functions of MemphisConnect is conversation, but it isn’t always easy to keep it rolling. She gave a specific example of a Halloween happenings post by Memphis Daddy Blogger Buck Rogers, and how many comments it received. “One commenter even said, ‘I’ve been online all day trying to find this information, thank you for posting this,’” Lemmonds said. It’s that type of participation (and utility for users) that will keep people coming back.
Lemmonds said the site also aims to bring people in through social media channels, specifically through Twitter. For example, each week on Thursday posts go out through the MemphisConnect Twitter handle asking followers what they’re getting up to over the weekend. The responses are re-tweeted and also posted on the site. Lemmonds said she hopes to see a new functionality in the future that would allow users to post photos in comments, meaning they could give feedback during the week on how all those weekend recommendations turned out.
If you missed out, the good news is that you can get a little taste of what Lemmonds has to say about MemphisConnect through last week’s Expedition podcast, still available for listening or download here.
Expeditionaries gathered in Core Conversations
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The time flies when you’re having fun, because it’s already time to mark your calendars for the next Social Expedition Breakfast. If you enjoyed hearing from Lindsey Coates last month about what ArtsMemphis is up to, you’re going to want to hear what Elizabeth Lemmonds, of The Leadership Academy and Memphis Connect, has to share about community blogging and moving Memphis forward through Web 2.0 tools.
We’re excited to learn more about not only what the Leadership Academy has accomplished through Memphis Connect thus far, but also the challenges they’ve faced and how they’re overcoming them and how they’ve marketed the site and started a conversation through social media.
We’ll be at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn as usual, and we’re looking forward to seeing faces both new and old at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Please RSVP though, as there is a limited amount of space.
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The first time Lindsey Coates’ wheels started spinning on arts and iPhone applications, she was sitting at a Social Expedition breakfast listening to a presentation from Resolute Games. Now, that seed of an idea is a bona fide app — it’s been live for less than two weeks and ArtsMemphis is already etching out a plan to market it to other cities. And what better place to talk about the new app than where it all began: a Social Expedition breakfast.
Coates spoke to the Expeditionaries this morning not just about the app, but also about how ArtsMemphis is using social media at large to reach the next generation of arts supporters. They’ve got a group for arts fans under 40, but it doesn’t stop there: ArtsMemphis also has a separate Facebook presence for the group, called ‘Bravo,’ and communicates with its members in an entirely different way. Their e-mails are quick, bulleted and digestible, for example, because they’re young, busy professionals who need to get their info quickly.
Lindsey Coates laughs with the Social Expedition Breakfast
Coates said that the strategy for Bravo and for ArtsMemphis’s online presence as a whole is identical to their offline strategy. Connect, embrace, engage, interact. It’s the philosophy that guides them on Facebook and face-to-face. She said a major key to their success in social media has been embracing the learning process, and taking lessons from their own mistakes. For example, when they launched ArtsMemphisTV, the first episodes were 15 minutes long. They quickly realized that short and sweet would be far more likely to keep people coming back for more.
“We’ve learned a lot,” Coates said. “Make mistakes, make more notes and move forward with what you’ve learned. I didn’t want to over-promise and underachieve, but I had to get over that — this was unknown territory. We had to try new things and be willing to make mistakes.”
That learning curve has gone a long way for ArtsMemphis, leading them to their latest innovation: the iPhone app. It’s an interactive arts calendar with events from arts organizations city-wide. You can buy tickets, map locations and read and post reviews all from your iPhone. The app is a free download.
Not only has the feedback already been overwhelmingly positive on the application, Coates said ArtsMemphis is working toward selling the model to other cities. “We haven’t found anything as comprehensive that allows for so much engagement in any other city,” she said. “We’re excited to have Memphis on the forefront of that.” The app is sponsored by Iberia Bank, and it’s already gotten 14 reviews in the iTunes store — Coates said the entire office is pretty excited with the results in just two weeks.
As the app begins to gain traction, Coates and ArtsMemphis aren’t resting on their laurels. She said the Web site will be undergoing what she calls “Web site Botox” soon — not a total redesign, but a tightening-up, so to speak. New colors and new pictures should help to keep things fresh, she said.
After Coates’ presentation, the Expeditionaries broke into core conversation groups on LinkedIn, blogging and WordPress design. And of course, much like Jell-O there’s always room for a little more networking and connecting. If you missed this month’s breakfast, be on the lookout for more information about our evening meet-up, TwilightCamp, coming Oct. 21, or our next breakfast on Nov. 4.
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You can doodle and paint. You can figure out the name of that mystery song on the radio. You can even auto-tune yourself, all with the click of an iPhone app. Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, “there’s an app for that” has become the buzz phrase for just about any functionality you can dream up in a mobile device — and now, there’s an app for arts in Memphis.
As of Sept. 24, iPhone users can access comprehensive calendars to find arts events in the city, Google Map the destination, get tickets and post a review of the event all with the newly launched ArtsMemphis app. And if you can’t get out to see the real thing, you can watch ArtsMemphis TV for a helping of local culture from pretty much anywhere.
Lucky for us (and hopefully you), Lindsey Coates, ArtsMemphis manager of marketing and communications, will be the featured speaker at our upcoming breakfast. She’ll be able to fill us in on the development process for the app — on which ArtsMemphis worked with local developers ResoluteGames — and also how ArtsMemphis is using its new iPhone connections plus Twitter and other web 2.0 functions to reach arts lovers in and outside of Memphis in a totally new way. Plus, as a non-profit, ArtsMemphis faces its own unique challenges when it comes to web marketing and social media. Coates will address those challenges and how they’ve been working through them during ArtsMemphis’ 18-month process of establishing a social media presence.
As usual, we’ll be at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, with breakfast and casual conversation before the presentation and core conversations afterward. Please RSVP at the Social Media Expedition Meetup page, and do so quickly; we do have a limited number of seats available.
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Wednesday morning’s Social Media Expedition Breakfast was definitely a good one, but we’re just gearing up for SocialCamp, Sept. 19. We’re pulling out all the stops for that one, so make a point to stop by the SocialCamp Memphis website for more information about that.
After our usual announcements (which, by the way, included SocialCamp), we were treated to a special welcome from Shelby County Commissioner / founder and CEO of Flinn Broadcasting / radiologist Dr. George Flinn who had some kind, generous, and flattering words to everyone who takes part in the Social Media Expedition – and that includes attendees.
It’s easy to get so deep into what you’re passionate about that you lose perspective on how what you do affects the community around you. To be reminded that the relationships and communities we build bring noticeable good into Memphis was a powerful and empowering way to start the morning.
To have Dr. Flinn come and remind us of the good that we are all building is nice. But what would be nicer would be to pass on the good will – and to pass on his closing sentence, “Thank you for making Memphis and Shelby County great.” Seriously. Thank you.
What really made the September breakfast something special was the structure. Rather than have a single speaker, as usual, we embraced a show-and-tell format.
Each presenter shared a single topic, service, program, or idea for about seven minutes. One of the greatest things about gathering people together for is the wide range of experience, knowledge and curiosity that everyone brings to the breakfasts.
Our presenters were, in order, Blake Palmer, Beth Sanders, Matthew Crawford-Trisler, Jonathan Lyons, Dave Barger, and Robert Staub.
Palmer and Crawford-Trisler are both social media specialists at LunaWeb, though Blake will leave at the end of this week for CommercialAppeal.com. Sanders is a freelance design and social consultant. Lyons manages social media in the marketing and PR department for the Peabody Hotel. Barger is President and CEO of LunaWeb. Robert Staub is a small business success coach and host of the weekly Small Biz Show.
Blake Palmer Presenting the Yelp iPhone app
Between Blake Palmer’s talk about the emerging trend of augmented reality applications for smartphones and Beth Sanders’ run through of Evernote, the online/real world service that works as an augmented memory application, we were handed a very interesting view of the future in which technology will aid and combine human tasks and knowledge in ever more helpful, present, and intuitive ways.
Matthew Crawford-Trisler delivered an in-depth presentation about the need for and use of the Free Music Archive, a curated cache of Creative Commons-licensed music which, because it is free – as in both beer and speech – is a great resource for music to use in videos, podcasts, presentations, or to load up your iPod.
Jonathan Lyons talked about how he uses Social Media on behalf of the Peabody to build and expand upon existing relationships in the community, and to positively impact the image of the hotel among Memphians. He had to figure out how to promote the hotel without being spammy, create personal content, and navigate photography rights when covering events. He shared his experience with the blurring line between Returns on Investment and Returns on Engagement.
Dave Barger spoke about the trouble in looking at social media as a way to expand your business’ audience. While it’s possible, he notes that it is a big time commitment. If you’re just stepping foot in for the first time, it’s likely going to be best to focus on existing relationships. Facebook and Twitter are important, but are not the only answer.
Barger recommended the simplified blogging service, Posterous, to communicate with employees and clients alike, along with internal tools, such as Yammer or Socialcast. When it’s time to turn outwards, there’s always services like Ning, which are quite useful, but, Barger warned, only if you’re going to put the time and effort into making it a good resource before the doors are ever even opened.
Robert Staub has put a tremendous amount of effort into his latest venture, Small Biz Memphis, which launches Sept. 18th. The site, built on Ning, promises to be a valuable resource for small business information and for online business networking in a city where most networking is done face-to-face. By gathering as much information as possible about small businesses and events in one place, it promises to be a one-stop shop for small businesses in Memphis.
Each presentation went off without a hitch, and we felt honored to host such a stellar series of presentations. Dr. Flinn had it right when he thanked everyone who came this morning for making Memphis and Shelby County a great place. And once again, we’ll pass that thanks along. Thank you.
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