But my job is not done.

My big BlogHer epiphany came to me late at night when I was showing my friend my RIDONCKULOUS (sp?) bag of swag.

Image from Table for Five

At registration, everyone at the conference got an environmentally-friendly @Gettington bag (one of my favorite sponsors, by the way) filled with goodies. Normally I would bury my head inside and go through everything to see what new things I had, but I didn’t because there were just too many things in there.

After breakfast my plan was to sit down with my laptop somewhere but my breakfast buddy, a two-time conference attendee, led the way to the expo space and crazyness ensued. We didn’t get in right away because the space didn’t open until 10am, but as soon as we did I learned why all the attendees were so eager to burst through the doors…..

Now, this is just an approximation, but there were a SHIT TON of brands and booths at the expo. And they all had the coolest swag to give away, lots of great prize drawings, decked-out booths, and things to keep everyone entertained and very happy for hours. There were brands there that I wouldn’t have immediately linked up with women bloggers, but it simply came down to the fact women are THE decision-makers. Admit it, dudes.

At one point I saw a woman carrying three big totes around, but this is not a story about hoarding…  I know she will review her goodies and blog about some of the products and brands. Hence, this epiphany is about just how so very much coveted the female blogger population is.  I’ve read many of the  studies that reveal that women dominate social media, read posts about “mommy blogging” — here is one I really enjoyed, published in 2008…  Insight much? — I even wrote a research paper for graduate school about BlogHer! But only in retrospect did it hit me that Texas might want to let women bloggers have the “Don’t Mess With…” tag line.

And for any brands that have yet to do their research in order to figure out how to best reach women bloggers or that still think that is not a segment of the blogger population that they need to or should be interested in building relationships with… you are so very wrong. I have now confirmed it.

Also… attend BlogHer — you will stand corrected and will be perplexed.

Image credits: Table for Five, BlogHer

August 7, 2010 5:49pm update: I’m sitting in the Grand Ballroom listening to the closing conference keynote, featuring “Need to Know” PBS anchor Alison Stewart moderating a panel with: Marie Wilson, Founder and President of The White House Project, author and activist Gloria Feldt from Heartfeldt Politics, and P. Simran Sethi, Emmy Award-winning journalist, blogger and environmentalist. The topic of the panel is: “Use your voice, your platform, and your power.” Gloria Feldt just said that she was not prepared for the amount of swag she got at her first BlogHer conference. Her epiphany back then was… “Yes. Women have a voice. Marketers understand that… but do we?”

*Gloria hits nail on the head*

Check out the closing keynote live blog.

Also, check out @katebuckjr’s picture of her own bag with ridiculous amounts of swag. Dang!! Right??

Yesterday at retweet frenzy o’clock we heard about the latest news from Facebook. The social network will soon support @mentions within our beloved status updates. Only a few hours later, Mashable’s Ben Parr published a post in which he listed the following five ways the new @mentions on Facebook could impact Twitter.

1. More of the conversation moves to Facebook
2. Users could update Twitter through Facebook instead of vice versa
3. Facebook becomes more attractive to big brands
4. People move to Facebook for breaking events
5. Developers flock back to Facebook

Remember when Facebook introduced real-time to the news feed? And when it bought FriendFeed? And when previews of the now live Facebook Lite first surfaced on the Web?

This is not the first time Facebook has been dubbed a potential Twitter killer. And, not unlike the first time, I don’t think any murders will be taking place around here.

The problem with the term “Twitter killer” is that it’s based on the assumption that Twitter and the other social network in question, in this case Facebook, are mutually exclusive and on the assumption that users will flock from Twitter to Facebook if it completely mirrors Twitter’s functionality.

Dear early adopters, remember the laggards? For the month of August, Facebook and Twitter reported 122,220,617 and 23,579,044 unique visitors respectively. Even if every single unique Twitter visitor was also active on Facebook, we’re still only talking 20 percent here. This makes statements like “especially as many Facebook users utilize Twitter as their status update tool” untrue.

What I think could happen when Facebook introduces @mentions is that the young’uns who are experienced Facebook users and have no clue why on Earth anyone would want to broadcast text-like messages to a following of complete strangers might be able to finally get Twitter because the learning curve isn’t so steep. And perhaps, when the time is right, they too will create accounts on Twitter, understand how it’s different from Facebook and thrive.

Yes, Facebook is undoubtedly vying for user share. And to an extent, I agree with Ed Shahzade and think Facebook should try to be less of a pathetic leech incapable of innovation. However, for the sake of lowering that learning curve, could the fact that they are using the same @mentions terminology as Twitter be a good thing in the long-run?

Only time will tell. Luckily, on the Web, we don’t usually have to wait around too long before things start to become apparent.

Flickr user abnelgonzalez

Pam mentions that she had spent months entering all the contact information into Michael’s Blackberry so that he wouldn’t have to use the rolodex anymore but I’ll save that for another post. Moving on.

Dwight goes through the business cards and discovers that Michael had written two words behind each one of them. The words were meant to help him remember who each client was so that he could have more personable conversations every time he called them to renew their paper contract.

Reading the two words behind his own business card Dwight says, “Schrute comma Dwight. And on the back he wrote great salesman, better friend.” Then he shakes his head at the camera and says, “Tall and beats.”

Some of us have Twitter accounts, LinkedIn accounts and Facebook profiles and pages where we follow, connect with and befriend hundreds of people. That’s a ton of contacts. But how many do we really know? How many do we pretend to know? Are we ever really interested in people? Do we just follow, befriend or connect with those whose acquaintance might be beneficial to us in the future?

We’re constantly looking for ways to turn down some of the noise online. So I understand how writing two keywords behind a business card can be perfectly acceptable as a jumping off point. But if you stop there then you are not doing yourself of anyone else any justice. There is more depth to people than two words.

I’d had the opportunity to meet some great, brilliant people through a few of my social networks. People who I’m sure I will stay in touch with for many many years to come. Yes, it’s impossible get to know everyone we meet on our social networks. My point is, if the opportunity does present itself – don’t just let it pass you. Take the time to jot down a few more words behind people’s business cards. You may exchange a few tweets after that, maybe an email or two, maybe you’ll never speak to or see that person again. But don’t discount the chances that one day – when the timing is just right – you’ll might find yourself going through your Rolodex and that person is exactly who you needed to talk to at that moment in our life.

It’s simple actually. Be human. Don’t get greedy. Be genuine. And, for Pete’s sake, don’t sign up for any service that promises to get you 300 followers per day or turn you into a social media superstar.  That would be like stealing the bowl of business cards from a restaurant that collects them to give away free lunches, saving the contact information and spamming everyone. And dishonest Rolodex is nothing to be proud of. You would only be helping dilute the definition of the word “relationship” and those are tough to develop, nurture and take to the next level as it is.

I’m ashamed. This is the worst possible excuse. If at any point I wait around for the Web to “slow down” or the peak of its dynamic evolution… I’ll be waiting around forever.

I did it. I changed my background. And in the process I revisited my online presence – for example, I’m sticking with Ustream and Qik (because it’s jailbroken-iPhone-friendly) Sorry Kyte, etc. I also made very useful use of Google profiles so that I wouldn’t have to change that static JPEG constantly.

Why:

The default Twitter backgrounds are cool, no doubt, but if you are taking the time to be on Twitter and engage in conversations online you should go big… or go home, offline. Like the TwitTip post says, your background is your first impression on Twitter. If anyone is debating whether to follow you or not a background can help them figure out whether they share a common interest with you and can give them a sense of what kind of person you are – professional, personable, fun, serious, etc. Customized backgrounds are one step towards establishing your personal brand as well. If you have a blog or other social network profiles it helps if your background matches or is somewhat cohesive with the rest of your online personalities. Multiple identities is something that many of us struggle with on the Web but the more time you invest in customizing each of those identities in order to create some unity the easier it will be for others to wrap their heads around who you are. Finally, you can list other sites where people can find you online with a customized Twitter background image. This is a good way to cheat the fact that Twitter only allows you to provide one URL to list under your bio.

NOTE: The goal is not to accumulate more random followers by having a cool background. The idea is to help others determine whether or not you are follow-worthy for them and build relevant communities.

September 19, 2009 Update: Thanks to ClickableNow and the Firefox add-on, the links on my Twitter background are clickable. You should check it out, there much more to the ClickableNow site than just the links. They continue to develop the service so that you too can very easily customize your Twitter background. Thanks to @TDefren and the people at SHIFT Communications.

I have a great passion for education and, especially when it comes to communications, I believe there is nothing better than when scholars’ work goes hand-in-hand with that of those who pratice the profession in order to improve best practices.

As an undergraduate I read my share of public relations and marketing text books, sat through lectures and took tests to eventually earn the degree that now lets others know that I probably know something about the Uses and Gratifications theory and the four P’s of Marketing. But theory is best learned when put into practice. My interships allowed me to truly see what I was getting myself into in context.

I know about social media because Facebook launched when I was a freshman in college and ever since then it has been second nature to me (also I am very curious). But what I think we are coming to, finally, is the inevitable – the writing of social media textbooks and the acknowledgement of social media as not only a field in communications but perhaps an industry in and of itself.

My alma mater taught courses on Web design and virtual reality games while I was still in school, Syracuse University managed to establish a New Media Studies graduate program but ended up dissolving it last semester (the courses are still available as electives) and more universities are offering new and social media courses to complement existing communications programs. Here is a description of Birmingham City University’s social media M.A. program.

Here are my questions:

1. If or when degrees in social media become widespread and standard, how will universities ensure that students get the amount of hands-on experience that this field requires?
2. Where does a master’s degree in social media leave the self-taught?
3. If social media is best learned through practice, how do we even out the playing field for future generations?
4. Will social media also lead to the reinvention of academic curricula (I must admit that’s the first time I’ve used the word curricula) with less time spent in class and on theory and more time spent “out there” and on practice?
5. Will social media degrees only be offered at the graduate level so that students can first learn a more traditional trade?
6. Can we think of the books, blogs and analytics that are already out there as the first pages of the new social media textbooks? Will they only be available to students on Kindles?
7. If Edward L. Bernays is known as the father of public relations, who is the father of social media?
8. Who is the mother?
9. And, generally speaking, shouldn’t it be mother instead of father seeing as how the mother literally births and nurtures the child? Just a thought.

If you wish you were back in school raise your hand.

Flickr image user, 100 watt dream