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.

"Giant Video Game" by KB35 on Flickr

The speaker for our upcoming breakfast knows this quickly growing industry better than most. Kate Hancock is an account executive at TriplePoint, the industry leader in public relations and marketing within the games and digital media market.

Utilizing a diverse background in corporate and consumer media relations, product branding, PR strategy, social media marketing, event management and consumer electronics sales, Kate has coordinated successful PR campaigns for international brands including Disney, LEGO, Target, Nyko and Gaia Online, as well as an array of companies in the emerging free-to-play MMO and iPhone gaming sectors.

Come join us for breakfast on August 5th (no green mushrooms will be served – we promise), and hear about the rise social technologies in this game changing industry.

Gary Duke shares his Social Media Yay

We were happy to see new faces and familiar friends at the Bronte Bistro in Davis-Kidd Bookstore this past Thursday doing exactly what Social Media is meant for… socializing.

We had a lot of good conversation about our individual Social Media “yays” and “boos” for the past few weeks. People shared their big wins with the group and some of the things that they were struggling with in the social realms. We had a lot of awesome yays from the group and by the end of the dinner, many people had helpful suggestions on how to fix some of their boos.

Here’s some of what we heard from the group:

Yays –

• New Facebook Public Profile
• General social well-being
• New social opportunities
• Fun community involvement from Social Networks
• New Facebook widget
• Posterous
• A successful campaign
• A start up realizing that Social Media is an integral part of its strategy

Boos -

• Facebook app trouble
• WordPress struggles
• The Need for a Facebook Public Profile
• Needing to learn more about social
• Lack of motivation for blogging
• Ignored reccomendations
• Sleazy marketing links on Facebook walls
• Social media regulations and policies (social buzzkills)
• Always having LOTS to learn

Thanks to everyone who came out! We’ll see you at the breakfast on August 5th.

Being a gathering without an agenda, June’s Twilight Camp provided a great opportunity to learn of more regularly-scheduled agenda-free gatherings.  A couple that were mentioned include the weekly Mercury Tech Coffee meeting, which happens Mondays at 7:30 am at Republic Coffee on Walnut Grove; and the First Thursdays meeting of the Sierra Club, which takes place each month at Otherlands Coffee Bar on Cooper Street in Midtown, from 5-7:30 pm.

We also talked about how consumers are gaining more and more social equity with service providers. Though businesses like Google and Facebook keep adding features to their social networks, they aren’t forcing anyone to use the new features.

It’s increasingly all about choice now. With growing frequency, when new features are added to a service, it’s up to the user whether or not they get used. The user’s power is so great that networks would rather wait for the right customer to begin using a new tool than risk turning anyone off.

This is one of the reasons why our discussion also found itself mentioning the idea of an Early Adopter tax credit – the people who jump into new services, tools, and devices frequently pay a premium for the opportunity to figure out how best to use things (like the new iPhone, the Palm Pre, or even netbooks).

One interesting point we drug up while talking about that is whether early adopters are being productive, or whether they’re really being progressive.

Both “productive” and “progressive” seem like – and are – positive adjectives, but there are subtleties there that have really nothing to do with anyone’s political views. “Progressive,” in this case, can be equated with “experimental.” If early adopters are being progressive, they’re experimenting with a new device or new software, trying to figure out how to be productive with them.

Those who wish to be “productive” will eye these technological progressives for new ideas, techniques, and uses. Without the progressives, we would likely not know how to be productive. It seems that the proper term for those of us who wait for those instructions would be “pragmatic.”

There was also interesting discussion of Google Latitude and social currency. There’s more room in those topics than it would be fruitful to discuss here, so keep your eyes peeled for a couple posts here later this week.

Again, a hearty thanks to Arts Memphis for their magnificent hospitality.

A shot from April's Twilight Camp

This month’s Twilight Camp will be switched up a little from the usual pattern. Rather than holding the event at an area restaurant, we’ll be gathering at ArtsMemphis.

The same habits remain, however – we get together for food, networking, and informal conversations about how we use social media in our day-to-day lives. (ArtsMemphis itself has a solid social presence, as we learned from Lindsay Coates at our last Breakfast; check them out on Twitter and Facebook.)

ArtsMemphis is located at 575 South Mendenhall. The event is free, and the mingling starts at 5:30 p.m. Parking is available at Holt Tire on Mendenhall or on Black Street (same street as Brown Dog Lodge). As usual, RSVP is preferred.

The smaller room had two benefits in this regard: the panelists were easier to hear, even from the back of the room, and those who attended were eager to ask their own questions.

Lindsay Coates from Arts Memphis Chats with Kat Gordon from Muddy’s Bake Shop before the Social Media Expedition Breakfast. Media by LunaWeb.

The panelists themselves were gracious in sharing their information and ideas, as well as being quick to answer a question as fully as possible.

The panel, consisting of Lindsay Coates from ArtsMemphis; Beth Sanders, a local design and social media freelancer specializing in churches and non-profits; Kerry Crawford-Trisler from the Commercial Appeal‘s online department; Lori Jackson from Lausanne Collegiate School; and Joe Spake, a local real estate agent.

They weren’t the only local social media elite contributing to today’s breakfast, either; Kat Gordon, proprietor of Muddy’s Bake Shop (5801 Sanderlin, if you must know – and yes, you must), donated a couple boxes of cupcakes, just to fill us up a little bit more.

The discussion about how the panelists use social media to promote their businesses stretched longer than expected, and ate up the time normally reserved for core conversations. Ultimately, though, the discussion proved valuable, as the panelists shared not only the tools they use, but how they measure their return on investment (ROI).

The goal of using social media in a business setting is always to make or raise money. The exception is Beth Sanders, whose work for churches usually entails her following their mission to go out and meet people where they are. Ultimately, though, the other non-profits and commercial ventures are doing the same thing.

Most of these businesses are using social networking to reach people where they are. Twitter alone, according to Kerry Crawford-Trisler, earns CommercialAppeal.com 20,000 page views a month. That’s not counting their Facebook presence and other social efforts.

So how do these businesses measure their ROI? It seems pretty universal that they don’t measure it in the number of followers – though they don’t mind having their message in front of a large and growing number of eyes. From larger companies to smaller efforts, the panelists all agreed that it’s a matter of quality over quantity. Joe Spake mentioned how he uses Twitter and Facebook, along with Yelp and LinkedIn, but prefers Twitter and Facebook for the way it allows him to engage and become engaged with his audiences.

The panelists all agreed that even if the purpose of being in social media is more prosaic – to drive page views and ad prices or to seek purchases or donations, that building relationships with the audience makes people care more about where they spend their time or money. That right there is the ROI.

In more immediate terms, counting Facebook fans or Twitter followers is always secondary to measuring community involvement via @replies or wall posts. Lori Jackson notes that when Lausanne alumni comment on video from a school play, something that wouldn’t be possible without social media, that is the central reason for her participation in social media.

And if page views must be measured, said Lori Jackson, Google Analytics is a great tool. That statement was verified once it was established that Analytics was nearly universally used among the panelists. But, as Joe Spake noted, SEO – search engine optimization – is being slowly but surely being supplanted by YEO – you, engaging others.

And so we dispersed from that room back out into the world, keeping the thought in our heads that the purpose of social media in business is to engage others.

"The long line to get in" by Brian Caldwell on Flickr.

June’s Social Media Expedition Breakfast is coming up Wednesday, June 3. It’ll be at familiar stomping grounds – the University of Memphis Holiday Inn. As always, it’ll be a great opportunity for good food, good conversation, and some pre-lunch networking.

As usual, admission will be $20 ($15 if you bring along someone new), and you can RSVP at Meetup.

There’s a catch, though: This time, seating is limited to the first 30 people. So act fast, and don’t get left out.

You may be wondering when Web 3.0 will come around. You’re not alone. We’ve been wondering, too. Which is why we’re hosting a panel about the Semantic Web, what many see to be the foundation upon which Web 3.0 will be built.

"I don’t know what you mean.." by Dullhunk on Flickr

The concepts are a little fuzzy around the edges, but the basic idea is that the Semantic Web makes it easier for users to interact with information. Instead of using a search engine to find places to look for the lowest price on a DVD, the new standards will make it possible – even easy – for a search engine to do that comparison shopping for you.

There’s more to it than that, and even Wikipedia’s best explanation is in the first half of the first sentence, where they say "The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web."

The goal is, essentially, to make Web 2.0 more machine-readable, to make searching, updating, and even creating information easier. This is similar to the goals behind the new "computational knowledge engine," Wolfram|Alpha – but interesting as it is to see the way Wolfram|Alpha interacts with raw data, it’s not quite ready for primetime use. It, along with most of the rest of the semantic web, is mostly conceptual and nebulous at this point.

The Semantic Web is still in the proof-of-concept stage, and it seems that the concepts being proven could still use some explanation.

The difficulty behind defining the Semantic Web is why we’ve assembled a team of people knowledgable about the ideas behind it to present a panel discussion at a future Social Media Expedition Breakfast.

In the meantime, we’ll be keeping an eye on developments, and we’ll keep you updated on how the coming of Web 3.0 is going to affect you.

"I know what you mean.." by Dullhunk on Flickr

May Twilight Camp by LunaWeb on Flickr. View the full May Twilight Camp photoset.

Social Media Expedition’s latest Twilight Camp descended upon Davis-Kidd bookstore’s Bronte Bistro on Thursday. The food was delicious, the company was dear.

It was great fun to chat about new ways to distribute information in a place where printed media still thrives.

It’s funny, but most of the conversation around our dinner that evening centered around feeds. We gathered our minds together trying to sort out how best to use RSS feeds and the social aggregator Friendfeed.

The ease and convenience of using RSS feeds – through readers like Google Reader, Newsgator, and even mail applications like Outlook or Apple’s Mail.app – leads pretty much every regular user of the technology to the same problem: overload.

And while talking about how to trim the content to what’s useful, we also swapped our favorite feeds.

Discussion around Friendfeed centered around how to find real usefulness from a service that essentially aggregates content from other services. Some people were very much in favor of it, and everybody seemed curious.

It was great to see everyone out at the latest Twilight Camp, and we hope to see you again next time. Stay tuned for more information about our next Twilight Camp, as well as the Social Media Expedition Breakfast.

 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.