The Serendipity Engine

It’s hard sometimes to convince folks that one of the amazing things about the internet and social media has been meeting people you might never know otherwise, and how these friendships, over time, become incredibly useful and amazing. Some of us talk about the importance of these seemingly random interactions as serendipity, or happy, lucky accidents, but they become fortunate and opportune in the same way farming is lucky- you plant seeds, and over time, they can germinate into something miraculous and delicious.

Last year, in January, I spoke at AGS, a graphic design and print company, looking to expand its interactive offerings for clients. They have a series of classes, free and open to their customers and potential customers, mostly marketing managers for businesses and non-profits of all size in the area. I did two sessions on “Social Media 101″, introducing the folks in the room to many of the online tools we take for granted.

Within a week, one of the folks contacted me, Ken Grant, to report he took what I showed him as a to-do list, and was seeing immediate results for his company in terms of the number of hits they were getting from all over the world, and he got invited to sit on the board of their big industry trade show group- tangible results within days, not months. Ken Grant really took to social media like a fish to water, and he has become a true force in Delaware.  Shortly, there were tweetups in the works. Information on social media was showing up in local papers, radio stations were calling for interviews, and politicians started to take notice.  Business groups, like NEWS4Women, Technology Forum of Delaware, and the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce, as well as local community groups like Community Matters, were all engaging and learning about how these tools could work for them.

Wilmington started coming alive.  People were coming out for social events like Ignite, which will have its third version in April.  At Ignite, people hear from folks from all walks of life, in short 5 minute presentations, talking about what matter to them- talks have ranged from Unconferences to the new children’s museum, to how to make your own beer, to self-publishing a book and everything in between.  That alone has been a fantastic and fun way  to cross-pollinate information across the community.

Diana Milburn, from the DuPont Theater has been incredibly instrumental in letting the community have the Ignite event at the Theater, but also offering tickets as prizes, and that’s helped get us out to events as a family more often as well.  The Delaware Symphony has gotten involved as well- the groups one might think of as “traditional” or even “stodgy” are actively embracing everything that building community- local community- through internet tools- can be about.

Yesterday, there was a great Network Delaware event, where Ken Anderson and Congressman Mike Castle spoke, as well as local social media folks including Rodney Jordan, Laurie Bick,  Maya the Twitter Queen, Ken Grant, 2Fish, Wil and Steve who are starting a Wilmington based co-working space called the CoIn Loft, among others, all spoke to a packed room of people about what social media could do to help bring the community together and help their own businesses and efforts move forward.  I was touched and moved when the representative from the local Food Bank said she had also attended my social media 101 session, and afterward started using twitter and other tools to reach out, forming relationships and partnerships that had increased money and food item donations to the food bank.

This is when I realized that so often, we can think that the little things we do- speak to a group, or attend an event or talk to a few people- in the moment, it can seem insignificant, or like a good thing to do, but we underplay what can come from it.    Yet, if you follow the chain of events, AGS asked me to speak, and because I showed people how to use tools I regularly take for granted, those folks have taken the tools and put them to work, and it’s helped all of us, together, to bring our community closer together, to help businesses connect with customers, to generate more business, and to even feed people who are feeling the brunt of the recession through the Food Bank.

It’s so easy to decide to stay home, and not attend an event.  Yet I am finding a year after I spent a morning talking to a group of folks, my community as a whole is tangibly better off and moving forward.  That is the true power of the serendipity engine- of deciding to engage, to help, and before long, exciting things are happening through ripple effects.   I am by no means trying to take credit for all of this, let me make that clear.  I am just amazed at how when you start spreading ideas, they can take on a life of their own, propagate and turn into something much bigger and more wonderful than if you decided to stay home instead.  You can effect change through the smallest of acts, and if you are lucky, sometimes you get to see a small part of the effect you can have.  I got that yesterday, and I feel incredibly humbled by the people I’ve met and the power of teaching someone to fish, as the metaphor goes, being so much more powerful than just handing someone a fish can be.

Tags: AGS, Delaware, Deltweet, dupont theater, Ken grant, podcamp, serendipity

The Secret Sauce- Cross Pollination

Julien Smith asked a question recently- when did you last have a breakthrough idea?  And he suspected they probably didn’t come from a blog, or the stuff that “everybody” reads.  That got my thinking- Where do I get my best ideas and insights?

I get my breakthrough ideas when I read a book outside my typical area of interest.  I get them when I attend conferences that are not in my usual niche.  I get them after talking to someone who I might initially presume I have nothing in common with, but find out they have lots of interests and experiences I can learn from.

One of my favorite examples has been reading business books- management, marketing- and applying those ideas to everything from teaching to parenting.  Likewise, some of the great educators and parenting books have the best advice on how to manage clients, spouses, colleagues, business partners, and yes, even teenagers.

The “big idea” here is that you get breakthroughs when you can take a principal or thought from one area and then tinker with it and learn to apply it generally.  For example, books like Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath talk about how to make your ideas memorable- that works in every form of communication.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a letter, a piece of ad copy, a flyer, a lecture, a poster- all of those ideas work when applied to any situation where you’re trying to make an impact with your stories and information, regardless of the context.  Books like those of Marcus Buckingham and Tom Rath encourage us to try to find our underlying strengths and talents- and those you can also apply anywhere, once you get a sense of what you’re really good at.

I see the best meetups and conferences- like Tweetups, Web 2.0 Expo and Web 2Open, Podcamps, Barcamps and the like- all succeed because they draw from different verticals.  It’s not all “tech people” or “business people” or “PR and marketing” types,  “government people” or “web heads” or “artists” or whatever label you might want to apply- it’s a bit of all of these folks in one space, teaching and sharing and learning from one another, and realizing that all the great ideas are probably not isolated to your industry.  This requires being open to the fact that an event might be different or weird or even not your cup of tea- but you’ll never know unless you step out of that shell and consider, even for a moment, that you might have something to learn from someone you might not ordinarily run across.

A great example of this was the recent Delaware Tweetup at Kildare’s in Newark, DE. DelTweet 3 was the third such event in Delaware, and it brought out people from local businesses- real estate brokers, business owners, bloggers, web designers, advertisers, designers, tech company folks, consultants, and tons of people in local politics, including Governor Markell, who started his official twitter account at the event.  The event showed everyone there the potential power of social media platforms to bring people together to share ideas and to really try to make a difference and make progress.  In a small state like Delaware, working together is particularly important.  Having the Governor see the diversity of interests and perspectives that can be drawn together by something like a tweetup has got to make bringing people together to tackle tougher issues like jobs and business issues seem a little easier and less daunting.

It’s easy to stay within your niche, within your echo chamber.  But the best ideas usually come from outside or from having a new perspective, often brought in from the periphery.   Sometimes the perspectives might seem naive or uninformed, but we can get people up to speed- it’s their fresh viewpoint and experience we need to hear, to look at our situation through a new lens, and see it with a fresh perspective.  We can also learn that people do care about what we do and the decisions we’re making- and that caring, passion and involvement is the energy we can really harness to make a difference, together.

My best advice to anyone who feels stuck, feeling like they are in a rut, or that the problems in their area never seem to change or improve, is to step out of that bubble a bit, and try a bit of fresh perspective.  Read a book yo might not ordinarily pick up- try something by Seth Godin, for example, or one of the gazillion books on my list on one of the other pages of this blog.   (I have an Amazon affiliate store with these books in it and the link is on that page- I get a few pennies if you buy a book from the link, for full disclosure purposes)

Step out of the usual, and you’ll be amazed how many great ideas you’ll start having once you get a fresh perspective.

Tags: barcamp, cross pollination, Deltweet, made to stick, marcus buckingham, podcamp, strengthfinder, web 2.0 expo, Web2open

When is an Unconference not an Unconference

A friend forwarded me this link to a new Unconference, PR Camp , taking place in New York on Friday, November 20, a day after the Web 2.0 Expo concludes in NYC.  Given that I will be in New York, since the Podcamp Foundation is helping to organize the Open Unconference  sessions at the Web 2.0 Expo, I was initially intrigued.  I love Unconferences, and as Director of Operations for the Podcamp Foundation, I love to see how other people put them on.

Now, I have gotten into many interesting debates with people over what exactly constitutes an Unconference, and where the line between conference and unconference lies.  We talk about scale, what elements are crucial to success, and which ones have some flex in them.

For me, the heart of the Unconference is the sharing.  It’s speakers coming to educate, and to learn themselves, to be participants as much as leaders and educators.  The essence to me is about learning and sharing, and that everyone has something to say and teach someone else.

The rules about “The Law of Two Feet” and being able to leave any sessions, to create your own experience, is important.  The rules about “no pitches” and encouraging people to walk out of any session that becomes an infomercial is important to maintain the community spirit of the event.    The rules about “No Rockstars- everyone is an equal” is important too, as is the fact that anyone can sign up to lead a session, which tend to be more discussion and questions and answer based, rather than lectures.

Barcamps tend to adhere pretty strictly to the rule that anyone can present, and the schedule is created that day- people can sign up for rooms and to lead sessions the morning of, not in advance.  At Podcamp, we bend this rule a bit, and while we maintain open space where people can create content on the fly and in the moment, a good portion of the content, sessions and scheduling are set within a week or two of the event.  Why did we make this choice?

After Podcamp NYC, where we had over 1,000 people sign up for the event and over 100 sessions in rooms of vastly different sizes in which to place these people, we decided that having people sign up for sessions in advance was crucial, as was organizing the sessions into some rough tracks, just to make the event logistics a bit easier for everyone.  For example, one room night have great content about online video, while another focused on Search Engine optimization, and another on marketing your projects on the web.  We found that Unconferences can scale, but logistics and fire codes are still important factors to consider!

The advance scheduling of sessions has had another interesting effect-people who typically might be a bit nervous about this Unconference thing attend, because they know a bit about what to expect in advance.  They come and participate, and many have what I would call a conversion experience, where the differences in what they get out of an unconference compared to a traditional conference changes their minds completely about what a conference can be.

One of the things we say frequently about Podcamp is that at traditional conferences, the hallways and social events can be the best part of the event, and we try to turn the whole conference into the hallway.  Chris Penn often says that we provide the canvas paint and brushes, but the experience and art you take away at the end of the day is up to you- you structure your experience to get the most out of it, rather than having it dictated for you.

So let’s take a look at PR Camp.  It’s one day, limited to 200 people.  So far, so good.   The tickets range from $199 to $295, depending on when you sign up.  That’s way out of the league of the charge of most unconferences, many of which are free.  In fact, Podcamp Philly charges $20, but that money goes not to cover conference costs but to a local community charity, to help further support our community- this year was Covenant House.  Likewise, Podcamp Boston charges $50, some of which covers operation expenses not covered by sponsors, and helps cover things like lunch, with any extra funds going to the Boston Foodbank.  I have a hard time, even knowing what it costs to put on an event in NYC, how this pricing structure is in the Community-based, non-profit realm, which is also at the heart of most unconferences.  Strike One.

The confirmed list of discussion speakers is a list of PR Professionals, but there seems to be no room for anyone in the community to sign up and lead a session.  Strike Two.

I see a lot of people I know and who I know know unconferences participating, so I have some hopes that there will be some “unconference” in this event, but from the outside, it looks pretty much like a regular old conference to me.

I know that there are things the Unconference movement can bring to make any old conference better and more productive.  But if you are going to call yourself a “camp”, if you are going to adopt the name unconference, particularly if you are in Public Relations, you have got to realize you are treading in shark-infested waters.  Your PR brethren may not understand the difference, but there are legions of geeks who do who also consult to marketing and PR firms about the social web, and this is pretty much a poor PR move if ever there was one.

And if I think this use of the terms Camp and Unconference is over the line and not appropriate for this conference, being the poster child of the Hybrid Conference myself and constantly getting heat from Barcamp folks about it, all I can say is: batten down the hatches and good luck.  It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Tags: barcamp, chris penn, christopher Penn, podcamp, PR Camp, unconference

Rethinking Search and Strategy

One of the best things we ever did at Podcamp Philly was to team up with Li Evans and SearchCamp.  The Searchcamp topics cover everything about search engines, optimization, marketing, and more.  For anyone producing any content online, I am convinced you need to have at least a rudimentary understanding of search to understand how to help the search engines do their job better, to help them find you, but to help them also learn and understand relevancy better and better over time.

Mike Grehan, from ClickZ, and Search Engine Strategies, gave what we called a Fireside Chat, where he spoke about search in general and profound ways, making me rethink how I approached SEO and SEM.  Here are some of the things Mike said:

-Google and all the other search engines are based on crawler technology.  Crawlers are not contextual in nature, and they’re not very fast.  In addition, they aren’t able to index all of human knowledge, especially given the rate of new information from user generated content being produced.  What shows up in search engines is largely based on links to help ferret out what may be more important or relevant from the rest, assuming Google knows it’s even there.

- The Web and the Internet are different things- most email and IRC chats, for example, are not on the web per se, so they are not indexed and will not show up in search.  This means all that chat alongside your Ustream show will not be indexed.

-Algorithms are taking more and more notice of social media, and incorporating rankings, ratings, and all of that information into search to try to make search query results more relevant to the end user.  This means that every time you rate something in Amazon, you are helping the search engines do a better job at getting the next person the best and most relevant information for what they are looking for.  While this means we are all contributing to Google’s information each time we rank something, we also benefit from everyone else doing the same thing- an aggregate benefit from every click.

-Ultimately, reputation- how popular you are, how many people talk about you, rate you highly- will, in turn, lead to organic traffic, more links, and a higher presence in search engines.  If you have no content to harness, de facto, the less important you may be considered online.

-Pictures, mulitmedia and the like, now part of search results for queries in Google, help attract more traffic, so it’s even more important to tag that nultimedia in all of your blog postings.

-User generated content versus mediated content has a greater effect on search relevancy.

-Google tracks not only every click through, but every click back to results, to figure out whether it’s serving up the most relevant content.

So what does all this mean in the aggregate to me?

-SEO is not dead, but it’s getting trickier to game it.  However, it’s going to become even more important to link out, create in-depth experiences, use multimedia and social media in your marketing strategies than ever before. I know it’s making me already be less lazy with links, and to think if links less as creating a bibliography for every blog post, but as creating a reference library and referral library that benefits both myself , the subject matter and people I talk about here equally.

-Reputation and remarkability- your basic business issues- are still the cornerstones to success.  If you aren’t worth talking about, your rank will reflect this.  You have to be awesome, as Chris Penn says; you have to be able to differentiate yourself in the marketplace, and you have to be good enough to be worth talking about.

-There’s a greater convergence coming between text and multimedia.  So for all of us out there, producing podcasts, videos and other multimedia for the web- we’re prepared to get a greater benefit as search starts to index this better and better over time.  It also means that if you are “just a blogger”  you need to start considering whether a more multimedia beyond mere text and mixing it up will be more successful overall in the long run.

There’s still a lot to think about, to mull over and process, but I wanted to take a moment not only to thank the Podcamp Philly and SearchCamp organizing teams, our fantastic sponsors, presenters and more, but to share the important take-aways I had from the conference this weekend.

And, a quick mention for a swag bag sponsor-you can get your own Twitter Jewelry from Survival of the Hippest- click on the Finch to save 10% and tell them Podcamp sent you.  Got to love the link juice, anyway.

Tags: clickz, Li evans, mike grehan, podcamp, search, searchcamp, SES

No Longer New

I’ve been talking to a bunch of different podcasters I’ve known for a few years now, and there’s seems to be a common theme among many- including myself- of having lost some of the energy and direction that got them to where they are now.

A few years ago, having your own show, producing podcast or video for the ‘net was cutting edge, new and different. Now, in half of my eleven year old’s classes, they will be expected to produce a podcast as part of their science, history and literature projects. While I feel like my background will be incredibly helpful to my kids who are already Podcamp veterans, I can imagine for many parents, this is like being dumped into a brave new world, where their kids are doing things they barely ever heard of themselves. Podcasting is now clearly no longer fringe, but mainstream.

The airwaves are getting crowded, not only with more people, but with more professionals entering the pace as well. This seems like the perfect time for those with more experience to shine and to use their skills to take projects to the next level, whether it’s for themselves or for others. This seems like the perfect time to cash in, so to speak, to leverage your demonstrable skills and to do this stuff professionally. Yet I have heard more than once “I’m doing this for the love of it, it’s my passion” juxtaposed with the “I am not getting as much attention/money that I’d like, and this has become a hassle, it’s no longer fun.” Heck, I’ve felt that way.

Are we entering into a time where longevity is on the verge of really paying off, (coming out of Seth Godin’s Dip) but many people are deciding to give up and falling off the curve? Is this the time of differentiation between the tenacious and those who have just run their course? Or has this whole era of independent media jumped the shark? If everyone can use the tools, if everyone is special, does that mean no one is?

As media channels continue to fragment, the bulk of attention no longer has a recognized center of gravity. Podshow, now Mevio, is no longer the center of the podcasting universe. The New Media Expo has joined forces with BlogWorld. People ask me if we’re ever going to change the name of Podcamp since it’s not just about podcasting any more. What’s happened to the tight knit group of independent producers, and what’s caused them to change their pathway which once seemed so clear and full of energy?

I am not sure there’s any one answer to these questions. I do think that production of digital audio and video is more mainstream and is no longer all that fringe. Apple’s increased market share in computers alone puts easy to use tools in more and more homes. What was scarce is now abundant. What has become scarce is the experience to make those tools sing, and that’s where our value may lie.

People who have honed their editing skills now have marketable talents they can sell to businesses and others, especially since we’ve passed the early days when crappy sounding audio was acceptable. There’s an expectation that everyone can have a broadcast studio in their homes, but those of us who can show them higher production standards, and how to take the DIY standard to the next level could have a comfortable marketplace available.

The challenge is that the people who have done this for several years are starting to burn out. The projects no longer seem new, they seem like work. Because they seem like work without a lot of compensation, the fun is gone, and we start to move on to other projects that have that sense of adventure added in again. We’ve grown and changed and taken on new things, developed new passions, and found once again, it’s time for a change and a challenge.

The reason some people started podcasting has been lost in what seems like a project with no end, no meaningful conclusion, no boundaries. Unlike TV seasons, there’s no set production schedule, and there’s no one who will let you know when it’s time to pull the plug, either. And what does it say to all you’ve done if you cancel your own show? Is it admitting failure? Is it putting a chapter of your own life to bed? Is it giving up?

I know I got into podcasting as a way of expressing my own voice. I wanted to be heard and to help others at the same time. I still do. Now that I am producing programs for others, teaching and consulting, there’s simply less time to do what was an all consuming, weekly schedule of production. While I am experimenting with a less regular production schedule, putting up shows as time allows, I know this isn’t what it once was when it was a weekly show. I don’t want to give it up, but I really love all the other opportunities I’ve had for growth and for helping others understand digital media and how it can help their businesses.

Podcasting isn’t new anymore.  It has become the tool we all knew it was, and it’s a tool we’re putting in the hands of everyone, as our semi-rural school district is showing its students.  This takes away some of the magical allure podcasting once had, and it makes all of us reconsider how we use this tool as not the focus of a project, but just as a piece of a larger picture of our lives, who we are and what we do.

Being a podcaster isn’t really a job description anymore.  It’s only a part of an overall communications strategy, a piece of a larger puzzle of finding our voices and our purpose, and getting others to listen and find value in what we have to say.  This is why Podcamp, and Podcamp Philly in particular, strives to include classes on social media, marketing, search engine optimization and more, as well as how to use these tools in different industries, for nonprofits, and more. It’s not about just picking one channel. You have to have a bigger vision or purpose than just podcasting in order to keep the project on track- there has to be a reason to use each tool, and integrating many tools into a larger whole – blogging, and print and video and audio- using each tool as is most appropriate, to tell our story, to communicate your message and to engage others and gain their most valuable possession- their attention.

What do you think?  How do you maintain energy on a project that is open-ended?  When do you give it up?  And when is it time to decide whether or not to “cash in” and use your skills to help others just starting out?  What happens when what maks you special seems commonplace a few years down the line?  How do you keep things fresh for yourself?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Tags: attention, ego, podcamp, podcasting, seth godin, The Dip