I arrived in San Fran Sunday for the Social Media for Internal Communications Conference–How to Engage Employees, Drive Change and Improve Your Bottom Line Using Blogging, Podcasting, and the Latest Web 2.0 Technologies. Yeahhhh, that’s a mouthful. For now we’ll just call it SoMeInComCon HoEnEmDrChImpBottLinUsBloPodLatWeb2.0. Still too long? Alright. I’m going either with SoMeInComCon or SMICC. That’ll work.  

Until I have a little more time to get into the specifics of what’s been discussed so far, I’ll just give a few generalizations that I’ve noticed

1. The Web 2.0 community is tight-knit insofar as the “gurus” on the subject. A number of the books from our class have been mentioned over and over. There’s been mention of “Search”, ”The Long Tail”, ”Wikinomics”, and “The Wisdom of Crowds” to name a few
2. A lot of people (or their companies) are using Web 2.0, or they want to start using it, but not a lot of people know how!   Why? It’s new, it’s constantly changing, and a lot of people are afraid. These have been the constant refrains I’ve heard in the sessions.
3. Ahh, that reliable standby from The Cluetrain Manifesto: Markets are conversations! If no other point has been driven home so far, #1 from the Manifesto certainly has been. Everything related to Web 2.0 is a conversation. Whether between your company and your customers/clients, or between employees, or between management and employees, conversations are key. You have to talk and listen, otherwise Web 2.0 and Social Media/Networking will not work.

 Those are just a couple of the notables. One speaker really hit home a point that I enjoyed. He was describing how the Mayo Clinic is maintaining brand awareness through use of Web 2.0. He said, “To NOT use Facebook and the other new media out there would be a form of media malpractice.” I enjoyed that. My interpretation is that if you’re not trying some of the hundreds of Web 2.0 applications that are out there, you really are missing the boat and performing an injustice to your company, your clients, and yourself.

The hard part though is using the applications correctly and in a way that is beneficial. Trial and error is another constant that I’m hearing. Sometimes you’ll flop, other times your new tool will be a success, but it’s better to just try something and see what works than to do nothing.

So, that’s just a little taste of what this conference is about and I’m hoping that I’ll get a good amount of information that I can use at work and in class.

As an aside, it’s great to be in San Francisco. The weather is beautiful and I really enjoy this city. Plus it’s kind of interesting to know that this is the hotbed of much of the Web 2.0 technology that is being created.

And one more aside: I would think that WordPress would update their dictionary to include terms like blogging, podcasting, and other social media terms. Just my opinion.

Stay tuned. . .