I finally had a chance to attend one of O’Reilly Media’s Web 2.0 Expos (as opposed to “the more exclusive” Web 2.0 Summit) this morning at New York’s Javits Center –>.
I choose to audit the panel called “Real-Time Marketing: Operationalizing the Use of Social Media,” which featured SM luminaries Jennifer Zeszut (Scout Labs) who moderated, Peter Kim (Dachis Group), James M. Smith (Disney Online), Randy Ksar (Motorola), Aaron Dignan (Undercurrent), Valeria Maltoni (SunGard Availability Services), and Shiv Singh (Razorfish). Here are some select tweets:
@conversationage (Maltoni): Social media is helping us close the loop between prospecting and nurturing customers
@peterkim: social media is just another on-ramp as part of an integrated campaign. not a be-all, end-all
@jenniferland: if people are complaining about their cable service, this is a perfect op for NetFlix to engage
@jenniferland: [Unlike years past when it was difficult to identify specific customers], Twitter offers “a huge firehose” of feedback
Disney Online’s James M. Smith: We have to be careful about marketing to kids. Moms are another story
Motorola’s @djksar: Started with podcasts to elicit feedback for its android products
@shivsingh: client Victoria’s Secret’s FB fan page has 1.8 million fans. No prob finding customers
@shivsingh: Victoria’s Secret solicits its FB fans to vote for a visit to their campus
@peterkim: product development: sounds great in theory… a car? no. car accessories. yes.
@PeterKim: if we can’t [use SM to] operationalize new product ideas, we have to at least to pretend we’re listening
@djksar When taking customer feedback, important to double-back to create evangelists
@Peterkim called the groundswell that succeeded in reviving the TV show “Jericho” ‘squeeky wheels’ The revival failed.@conversationage: it’s hard to have a personality on Twitter with a logo showing
@shivsingh: Humanizing company shouldn’t be the sole objective. Think carefully thru lens of brand, e.g., Disney
Immediately following the panel, I was approached by two reps for Scout Labs, stemming, no doubt, from this tweet:
@peterhimler: Web 2.0 Expo – Host Scout Labs gets plaudits from #opsocial panelists, even though service, in my opinion, not best-in-class
I sheepishly explained that after seeing The New York Times coverage of the company, I asked for and received a demo of the company’s conversation mining application. At the time, I thought it fell short in key areas, but then again, it’s no secret that true sentiment analysis remains elusive for most companies operating in this space…today. Maybe it’s time for a re-visit?
I did find time to talk about the changing agency biz with the always insightful Peter Kim (at left), formerly w/ Forrester, now a managing director at Dachis Group working from Boston. Here’s the audio from our talk. (RT: 4:27). I also ran into the inimitable Stowe Boyd and met Nilofer (@nilofer) Merchant (who has a new book “The New How” on the horizon) and O’Reilly’s VP, marketing, Christine (@christinew_) Walker.