But it’s not all bad! We’re joined this week by a new member of our team, Ansley Fones, and our guest Jonathan Lyons, public relations and marketing coordinator for the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. Jonathan gave us the scoop on how the Peabody is using social technologies to create community among its guests and among Memphians, including crowd-sourcing ideas for the perennially popular Peabody rooftop parties. You can find the Peabody on Facebook and Twitter.

Dave Barger, Elizabeth Cawein, Jonathan Lyons, Matthew Crawford Trisler

Also in this episode you’ll hear our thoughts on some new random chat services, particularly ChatRoulette and Omegle. While Elizabeth is creeped out by the very idea, Matthew and Ansley throw in some ideas on how the random chat concept could be a great addition to the social scene with the right tweaks and filters. Of course, Matthew’s opinion may have been influenced by this potato chip bear, shown to him by someone from an Omegle chat.

Be sure to join us this Friday for the Core Conversation, happening at the usual time (11:30 CDT) and in the usual place (listen here or call in at 646-721-9429). We’ll be talking about everything new and next in social business, including the possible uses of Google Buzz, new social features in Outlook and other platforms like Chatter. Next week’s Expedition podcast will feature Kerry Crawford Trisler, better known as @ILoveMemphis on Twitter, who will also be joining us at our March Expedition breakfast. (RSVP here.)

Download the podcast here, listen with the player below, or click the iTunes logo to subscribe.

It’s that time of the year where we dust off our latent soothsaying skills and make predictions about the coming trip around the sun. We’ll be eyeing the future ourselves and hope you’ll join us.

If you can’t call in, we’ll be conducting the conversation simultaneously on Twitter. We hope you’ll join us!

What about all those people you’re friends with on Facebook or follow on Twitter who, years ago, never would’ve appeared on your Christmas card list? Do you feel more pressure to extend your gift-giving based on your extended social media network? Has your holiday party schedule been maxed out by Facebook event invitations?

That’s the topic we’re delving into on this week’s Core Conversation, happening at the usual time (Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) through our friends at Blog Talk Radio. We’d love to hear from you — you can call in and participate at (646) 721-9429, or you can listen to the entire show live here.

On this week’s show, we’ll be delving into the concept of social equity: how much is social media “success” worth to you or your business? Is there a dollar sign on the face of each Twitter follower or Facebook fan? If so, how high is it and how much are you willing to invest to get it?

We’ll also be talking about the ongoing adventures of #FeedbackFriday, and inviting anyone with a social-media-stumped situation on their hands to give us a call and hash it out. What’s your latest road block? What are you trying to figure out? Call in and let’s work it through this week. We’ll talk to you on Friday!

BarCamp attendees in the MemphisConnect.com BlogHaus

With today’s Core Conversation podcast, we’re tackling BarCamp with a start/stop/keep format. Let us know what was missing, what needs to go away, and what worked for you.

At our usual Core Conversation time (11:30 a.m. Central) we’ll be available to hear your thoughts on how we can make the next “camp” experience the best it can possibly be. You can listen to the entire podcast live or later here, or dive in and let us know what you think by calling (646) 721-9429.

At our usual Core Conversation time (11:30 a.m. Central) we’ll be available to hear your thoughts on how we can make the next “camp” experience the best it can possibly be. You can listen to the entire podcast here, or dive in and let us know what you think by calling (646) 721-9429.

We’ll talk to you on Friday!

If you have an opinion about the relationship between business and social media, we want to know!

You can call in to listen or join the conversation, at (347) 857-2345.

Alternatively, you can listen online at Blog Talk Radio.

 We’ll be making a scenery change this time around, hopefully with the benefit of a slightly quieter atmosphere for our core conversations. This time we’re meeting at the Bronte Bistro inside of Davis Kidd bookstore from 5:00 – 7:30.

If this will be your first TwilightCamp, this is the after hours version of our Expedition breakfasts. It’s a little more casual, but still packed with information and networking opportunities. There will be plenty of time to catch up with your Memphis social community, as well as some more core conversations to help each other stay on top of our Social Media game. We hope you can all make it out. RSVP here.