Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My Second Twebinar

My Second Twebinar

Today was my second Twebinar day. The Twebinar is a Web-based social media seminar conducted via online video session and Twitter live stream. It was organized by Radian6 and hosted by Chris Brogan.

The Twebinar's theme was: "Who really owns your brand?" It was announced as "a roundhouse discussion on all that's brand in the Web2.0 world."

Some of the questions of today's Twebinar were: "Where are all of the conversations? Does it matter whether it's begun by an influencer? What can you do now that you can't control every aspect of a brand? Who, if anyone, owns 'your' brand?"

Compared to the first Twebinar, I was glad to notice the improvements. Almost all of the points I made here were addressed in the right manner:
  • Twebinar #2 was more interactive because Chris discussed with his guests in real time and addressed some of the questions being raised via Twitter.
  • This time, Twebinar was more structured, focused on one topic--the destiny of brands in the social media world.
  • Twebinar #2 was a live-stream session, featuring "live" speakers, and sparkling conversations (much more social than the first one).
  • The Twitter conversation was centralized through one Twitter stream.
However, the Twebinar was not as exciting as expected.

It seems that our social media leaders got a little tired and lost their "evangelistic" attributes. Or is it just the fact that we need to find some new perspectives in our social media discussions? Should we let some fresh air in our social causerie?

What do you think?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Missed attending Twebinar #2 (but glad to see they'd iterated on the first one), thanks for detailing the improvements.

Regarding your fresh air question, it seems the innovative and disruptive approach to media employed by our "social media leaders" has become mainstreamed, and therefore has lost its punch/edge. The enthusiasm and evangelism level is waning because it's not as new and exciting as it once was.

In other words, the surprise of "we can organize groups of people talking about your brand so you better pay attention" is no longer a surprise. Smart brand folk have learned to jump into the conversation early and participate rather than hover and react only when things veer toward a brand crisis.

So, when I think of "fresh air" I wonder what's the next disruption and who are likely to be the vanguards? Don't know if it'll be the same cast of characters that pioneered the social media effort, but I imagine there'll be some crossover.

FWIW, Clay Shirky does a good job of explaining this in his book "Here Comes Everybody."

Anonymous said...

Thanks again for reviewing the Twebinar and thanks for the feedback - it really does help a lot. It's certainly possible that because we used the same stock of video interviews (but obviously focused on a different topic) that it seemed a bit familiar. Just a theory. Of course we are also trying help grow that list of experts and having everyone together doing the "vulcan mind-meld" on these topics will hopefully prove to be a great catalyst for that to happen. We've had a chance to analyze the feedback on the format from #2 and hoping to tweak some more. Looking forward to tweeting you at Twebinar #3 on August 19th. Cheers. David

Anonymous said...

Hi PRometeus

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you saw improvements and were heard. Also appreciate the personal review there....Ill see about provoking soome thoughts on my blog or something :-)