Design Notes + Photos

See the ReadysetDC post from this morning--including the menu!--before visiting tonight's official opening! My who's who in just a bit.

                                               

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I think we've started a movement! - @bloch_party

Update: Thanks, DCist, for the mention! Check out the ReadysetDC tweed ride wrapup. An awesome day for our team.

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A great book on conciseness, written w/ Twitter in mind by @Dom Sagolla. Just passed it along to a journalist co-worker. Here's the Amazon link. Check out @thebook. Happy tweeting!

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TWTRCON - Real Time Brands.aac (7893 KB)

One of my favorite sessions at TWTRCON DC.  I'd like to share my audio notes, while we wait for video.

• Moderator: Laura Fitton, Principal, www.oneforty.com
• Mike DiLorenzo, Director of Social Media Marketing & Strategy, National Hockey League
• Brian Dresher, Audience Acquisition Marketing Manager, USA Today
• Amy Reed, President, Chick Downtown

Laura Fitton: What is the thing that stands out the most for you, about what's different about Twitter, as opposed to the many platforms coming out?

Brian Dresher: We've done brand studies at USA Today. They say we are informational, fun, approachable. What makes Twitter so unique is that it goes from down that macro-level brand study right down to the microlevel: the journalist. The journalist is now the brand, on a very 1-1 personal basis. That human connection has elevated the discourse between the brand and the Twitter community.

Amy Reed: I get to share the excitement, of, e.g., opening a box and sharing w/ followers. Tweeting a photo shoot-- every 15 minutes sharing a picture: what the models are doing, what the crew is doing. Share w/ them: what we are excited about--we in turn get immediate feedback.

Mike DiLorenzo: The accountability of the brands now. People have the ability to speak out, point out a flaw, ask questions, and we do our best to respond.

Laura Fitton: What I love the best about your answers is how the listening component plays a role in all of this. The ability to hear. The ability to hear fast.

Laura Fitton: Tell me about some of the mistakes you've made. [Her own first].

Brian Dresher: Automatic RSS fed into Twitter. Doesn't work well. E.g., automatic headlines--not retweet friendly. Nothing interactive about it. Doesn't get Twitter. Now, most of our 100+ Twitter feeds are manually managed.

Amy Reed: Twitter better than mailing list. I DM my followers constantly. I get to know them. Advice: Try combining Twitter with your blog.

Mike DiLorenzo: Created a social media department at NHL. Opportunity for engagements in other environments. Dedicated resources for these channels.

Laura Fitton: What are some things you want to try, experiment, test?

Brian Dresher: To further emerge ourselves with the social. We like to think we are platform agnostic. We want to be URL agnostic. Often overlapping.

Amy Reed: Another promotion: Send someone to a city every week; offer clues.

Mike DiLorenzo: We want a true second-stream experience. Integrate Twitter into our live streams.

Laura Fitton: Mobile is a game changer. 4 billion handsets. What do you want to see?

Mike DiLorenzo: Mobile clearly an untapped opportunity. Sports are tribal. NHL particularly. We want more people under the tent with us.

Brian Dresher: 2010-2011: A fantastic opportunity for local news outlets.

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Wonderful personalities, each with their unique take on '3 tags' (what were yours?). Session proposals--shared interests and theme-setting. See the Flickr photos.

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Pubcamp - NPR Success Stories.aac (13429 KB)

For the rest of the presenters, could you let me know who you are so I may tag you on the wiki? Thanks!

greglinch: Thanks for posting! RT @acarvin: My slides from the #pubcamp #success stories session of NPR social media projects http://slidesha.re/1U8Lnm

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Pubcamp - Julie Drizin on New Media Forms.aac (7058 KB)

Read the tweets here. About Julie Drizin. (Typo in my last post - Drizin, not Drizen).

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Pubcamp - Nexus between professional and citizen journalism .aac (9925 KB)

Notes here: http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/MLSOverviewPage?sid=Zm78QdhMBp0P

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You must try HootSuite 2.0. The web-based application caters to serious tweetheads and social-media-savvy groups. So, non-profits and businesses, take notice.

The app's recent upgrade will knock your socks off. My favorite features: scheduling tweets, customizing columns as you would in TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop, and analyzing short URL link traffic--all from the comfort of a beautifully designed, single-window dashboard.

The single-window experience brings me to why you should also love Fluid for Mac OS X. Within a matter of seconds, Fluid lets you create standalone Mac apps out of your favorite and often-visited websites. Also known as Site Specific Browsers, SSB apps such as Fluid allow you to focus.

You don't feel self-contained with Fluid, as you would with something like WriteRoom. Instead, the combination of HootSuite and Fluid will give you a great desktop-feel experience.

Installing HootSuite as a Fluid app is only slightly tricker than the usual minute-long install. Change the setting illustrated in my screenshot by going to HootSuite --> Preferences on your menu bar. If you prefer a step-by-step walkthrough, check out David Chan's how-to article, which includes plenty of screenshots.

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Imagine being a graphic designer or web worker at a tradeshow full of architects and interior designers (the A+D crowd; the kind that enjoy reading Dezeen and Archinect). NeoCon 2009 is that show. Think of it as SXSW for the A+D community: A yearly mecca. A showcase. A place to mingle with the pros. Above all: a place to challenge industry concepts with innovate products and brilliant thinking.

Green design was not the only trendsetter at NeoCon. Today, I am in conversation with NYC-based Art Director Rus Yusupov. Rus talks to me about the social media campaign he designed for the NeoCon09 event, in partnership with Designer Pages. Rus is the creative mastermind behind the redesign of CNN.com and the interface and branding of Hulu's website.

The campaign encouraged attendees to tweet using hashtag #NeoCon09. "Citizen bloggers" helped spread the message.

A+D exhibitors learned to embrace the social media aspect of the exercise, participating along with guests to produce visually appealing, real-time streams of conversations that were displayed throughout the event space.

Rus shares some stats that are quite impressive: over 7,500 tweets and more than 900 twitpic images were shared by over 700 unique heads. The twittter messages flowed in and out of the eyes of more than 30,000 people during the conference. A+D blogs and websites welcomed the idea by implementing widgets of their sites. The result: more than 50,000 unique visitors and over 115,000 pageviews for the conference!

The qualitative aspect of the project is what I find most exciting. Community-driven sharing as a first-time experiment for an old and respected institution.  I am equally excited to see non-tech spaces embrace social media projects. This year, NeoCon should be proud for innovating on the web in the same way it does with real spaces.

Rus is a celebrity in my eyes for his gifted eye and stunning projects. I am happy to be interviewing him about website redesign for large news organizations--stay tuned!

             

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