Kennedy-Spaien, Dot Com

It has been over a week since the end of PodCamp Boston 3, and I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts on the experience. Here they are in no particular order:

1. It is rewarding to run a 1-on-1 101 session for a newbie.
2. Creating content on the fly is exciting, even if somewhat daunting.
3. Use websitegrader.com
4. That rule of 2 feet? Use it. Ruthlessly.
5. Chris Penn is a font of amazing practical knowledge. (Seems I re-learn this at each PodCamp I attend!)
6. Spend time in the brainstorming area.
7. See a useful freebie? Pick up an extra and then give it away on day 2 to someone who missed seeing them.
8. If at all possible, attend any extra social events in the evenings.
9. Occasionally, the Fail Whale can be amusing!
10. I’m not the only human with social media overload issues.
11. Never, ever doubt the power of a focused and like-minded group of creative thinkers (to crash a Harvard University load balancing server).
12. If you have a question, keep asking around until you get an answer.
13. Don’t assume presenters are recording the sessions they lead. Bring a media device of your own.
14. Don’t concentrate on networking with just A-listers or just peers, bring everyone into your social network, Today’s newb will probably be tomorrow’s Rock Star/Ninja.
15. Don’t condescend. You’re not all that.
16. Don’t get involved with melodrama: you’re here to learn and share, not star in a soap opera.
17. Have a ready answer for the question: “What do you do? / what are you working on?”
18. Polish up that elevator pitch!
19. Not everyone with an elevator pitch knows what he/she is talking about!
20. Give and give freely - it comes back to you.
21. Link to stories on CNN.com. They link back.
22. In July Heat, get specific directions to meetup places before setting out on foot to find them.
23. Bring a camera, even if audio is your shtick.
24. Bring a lanyard with a badge-holder.
25. Stuff your business cards into that badge-holder for quick access.
26. Drop your card in the raffle bowls!
27. Understand that a lot of the sessions may focus on Industry. If you don’t like that, create breakout sessions on stuff like “Using Audacity” or “WordPress SEO 101″.
28. Yes, your XYZ business should have a social media presence to one degree or another.
29. Is your site’s Raison d’Etre hard to succinctly describe? Figure out a simple way to say it and put it on your front page.
30. Guido Stein is a mensch - Find him and befriend him!
31. Whitney Hoffman’s kids are fully capable of leading a 101 “What is a PodCast” session.
32. No matter how good the alternatives are, Twitter is too sticky to go away (any time soon). They could drop the whale on a bus full of children, then bake their parents into meat-pies and people will still use Twitter over anything else.
33. Chris Brogan is not only a competent rhythm guitarist, but is amazingly good at extemporizing on social media themes. Search for a recording of the “New Media VS. Old” breakout session he moderated on day one to see what I mean.
34. Use Ping.fm to help avoid social media overload.

Not that anyone should care if I follow them on Twitter, but because people are adding me at an alarming rate since PodCamp Boston 2 (and I’m talking about strangers, not people I met and swapped cards with) I’m going to be frank. If I don’t add you back, there’s a reason and it isn’t because you are a horrible person (I actually do follow some horrible people - they can be funny!).

When I get a notice that someone is following me, the first thing I do is go and check their last page or two of tweets. If it is all about their kids, dating, what they ate with no content that is related to social media, new media, web 2.x or something at least tangentially related, I probably will not add you back, although I will check your blog or web site and may still add you if that knocks my socks off.

Now, please understand that I am spoiled. For a long time I followed only a handful of folks and an even smaller subset of those followed me. I was able to maintain a twitterstream with a ridiculously clean signal-to-noise ratio. As a necessary evil I accept that as I follow more people there will be an increase in tweets about sporting events and favorite foods, even the antics of pets!

Rest assured, I want to follow you. I’m sure that by virtue of your being interested in what I have to say, I’d be interested in your thoughts and perceptions. So help me want to follow you, by tweeting those thoughts and perspectives. You can still post about the Patriots or the Celtics, but try to have some meat in there, too!

This is a response to a great post by Nicholas Butler called A Social Network Startup Pack.

Nicholas presented on the Social Media Startup Kit at PodCamp Boston 2. I sadly did not attend this session, but read the above post, and the following occurred to me:

Here’s a hint. If you are just starting to get into Social Media, by all means add the folks recommended in Nicholas’ blog. But you may find that many don’t add you back.

If your web presence is new and you haven’t yet really wrapped your brain around this whole “Social Media Thing” there may not be much in your Twitterstream that is of interest just yet.

Now, Many of these fine folks WILL add just about anyone back, but understand that with 2000 followers, they may not have the bandwidth to read all the stuff addressed to them on Twitter.

Many have secret profiles for those whose words they value most.

But, fear not! After you have become more established and have a body of relevant Tweets and blog posts linked to your Twitter profile, you can drop people and then re-add them. This gives them a second bite at the cookie of recognizing you as the valuable community member you are.

Fantastic. Met up with Ellen Moschetto and Pistachio and many more. Attended 3 sessions so far: Viva La Vida freelance (www.freelanceliving.wordpress.com - join the fun!), The Bigger, Better Deal Of Podcasting with Chris Brogan and David Eckoff (touchy feely wellness and empowerment goodness) and The New Rules Of PR with David Meerman Scott, which was invaluable. Grab his free ebook at http://davidmeermanscott.com/.

I’ll edit later to add more links.

I will be at PodCamp Boston’s Kickoff party (Thanks to sponsor The Student Loan Network) at Tequila Moon in Kenmore Square this evening. Look me up, shake my hand and tell me your life story… I’m always looking for material!

So I didn’t make it to PodCamp NY ‘07. While I wish it would’ve been possible to go, at least I can take solace in the fact that I am in good company: Justin “Rob Sharp” Kownacki didn’t make it. Neither did Barack Obama, for that matter!

While it would have been a great networking experience, and I would get to see The Mayor (Who lives 10 minutes from me!) and Whitney Hoffman plus all kinds of new friends, I did get some networking in via Twitter.

With an event that big, if you add yourself to the event twitter group, people just seem to assume you are there! I scored a few new twitterfolken, including jMoonah of Uncle Seth (we met fleetingly at PodCamp Boston ‘06) and Tiil who is working on a new video aggregation channel.

On the flip side:

Since Ben Yoskovitz has sadly left Grasshopper New Media, Whitney, Megin Hatch and I have been doing some talking about exciting new directions to take our various properties (together in one way or another, I’m pleased to say). It will be a lot of fun to boldly forge a new path for all our great shows and blogs!

I’ve also decided to outsource my record label’s retail fulfillment operations to CDBABY, which will free up a lot more time at the Kennedy-Spaien homestead!

Working on my taxes, it seems that for the first time, Disc of Light is operating at a profit! Woot! Well, except for paying the taxes on that profit, but hey… what are you gonna do?

Other things I’m grateful for are that we’re 2 episodes in to a great new show - Yoga: It’s a Gas! and that Michelle at Healthy Helpings TV has managed to recover from a broken camera only missing one week!

So, in retrospect “Takin’ Care of Business” was probably the better choice for me this time around, but I really hope to make PodCamp Pittsburgh ‘07 (If they can set a date, already!) and wild horses won’t keep me away from PodCamp Boston ‘07. I hope to do VON Boston as well!

If I don’t see you there, add me as a Twitter Friend!