Small World Labs

Are you a white-label social network provider? Are you exhibiting/sponsoring Enterprise 2.0? If you answered "yes" to both questions then I'm call you out to join us on Wednesday night for a white-label battle royale. Before you start practicing your signature body slam, hold on, I'm talking about Enterprise 2.0 Social Network Shoot Out.

Here are the details:

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HR has never been the poster child for early technology adoption but this report from Forrester's Zach Thomas makes a pretty convincing case that HR in large corporations stand to gain from embracing corporate social network. Gains in retention, workflow, and recruitment alone seem to make it a no-brainer. A word of advice for HR departments currently investigating social media, don't get thrown by the technology in the market.

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Anyone who has spent time trying to explain social media to a parent or grandparent can attest to the fact that breaking it down to concepts they get is a crucial part of the talk. A few people have done an outstanding job of it including Common Craft. But who will make it relevant to my generation- raised on YoMTV Raps?

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Yesterday was a bit of a roller coaster of expectations set and met with an ending that epitomized the day. I finished the day at by far the best panel I've attended so far "Weaving the social web" (which was, incidentally less than a quarter full). A the panelists were great mix, consisting of an evangelist, practitioner, analyst, and super user. They each brought good slides and did an outstanding job of painting a broad picture of social media from the end user to the business application in dollars and cents.

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I just got out of the "Outside-the-Box: Nontraditional Approaches to Transforming Newspapers" panel and for those of you not following me on Twitter, the name didn't fit the majority of panel. The team from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution demonstrated just how far off the mark the newspaper industry is by presenting their recent reorganization as a case study of "out of the box" change. In the truth lives the irony.

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I have discovered that Marine Corp Marching Band is better than coffee for riding my morning grogginess. Standing by a random convention hall floor I was startled by the blast of trumpets playing us into the hall. My search for coffee, now unnecessary, has been replaced with preparing for today's busy schedule.

On tap for today are some big name speakers, namely all three presidential candidates, and several social media panels. Unfortunately, they are all at the same time as the presidential speakers so we'll see who has the better draw.

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I'm writing from the Washington Convention Center in DC, trading (from what I've been told) is a gorgeous day in Austin for a chilly overcast afternoon in the nation's capitol. It is not only the weather that is cloudy, the newspaper industry- still reeling from the collapse of their traditional business model- is holding their annual meeting here and news is not good. With adverting dollars increasing difficult to come by there is a huge debate about the future of the industry and the role "citizen journalists" play.

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Listening to Jen Bouchard from Save The Children talk about the challenges of managing internal employee social networks got me thinking of how hard it is to bridge the culture gaps that exist within an organization. Not only do you deal with individuals who maybe already interacting on existing sites such as Facebook and MySpace but also with people who may not have any idea what online communities are.

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I've been following Geoff Livingston's blog, The Buzz Bin, for a little while now. I had the chance to read Geoff's part II post on Social Media for business and have not been able to stop thinking about it.

In it he writes:

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SXSW just posted up the audio from our panel on community management. You can check it out here:

http://2008.sxsw.com/blogs/podcasts.php/2008/03/10/managing_communities

We'd love to hear what you think and any feedback is welcome. We had a great time and thanks again to our panelists.

Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday - just wanted to post up the resources that were listed on the screen:

www.communityguy.com
www.web-strategist.com/blog
www.onlinecommunityreport.com
http://www.gindie.com/content/sxsw.html
Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelist (Facebook Group)

Panelist sites:
http://community.beliefnet.com (Fox Entertainment)
www.neighborsgo.com
www.gindie.com

11:25 Wow- great turn out here at the panel. Miles opened up by asking the audience what they wanted to hear covered. They request:
- What are community "killers"?
- What some things you do to drive participation?
- Moderated vs "free" communities
- What have you done that doesn't work?

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Today begins the influx of interactives and filmsters for SXSW into Austin. For those of you joining us from elsewhere, here are a few of our favorite Austin secrets to enjoy.

1) Burgers at Casino El Camino. Located on 6th St this heavy metal inspired bar, surprisingly, is home to the best burgers in town. Get there before 8 or be prepared to wait. http://www.yelp.com/biz/casino-el-camino-austin

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Just a note that the Small World Labs crew will be all over the place at SXSW Interactive over the new few days and are looking to make some great new friends and reconnect with others.

We'll be in booth 410 for the trade show and don't forget about the Managing Communities that Work panel on Saturday.

We're also looking to hire a few people:

Creative Director
Account Manager
Community Sales Executive
Quality Assurance Engineer
Senior Web Engineer

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Last week we had the pleasure of being interviewed by a remarkably prolific Guardian Online reporter who was trying to understand the value of niche social networks in the context of the Financial Times’ new and exclusive foray into social media. Having just read the article (no quote from us, ouch), I think she missed the boat. Pushing the angle that the FT was merely jumping on a hot new trend downplays two important things (imho):

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We're happy to announce that Jennifer Bouchard M.ED, Sr. Specialist, Knowledge Management, Technology & Training for Save the Children will be joining the Managing Communities that Work panel at SXSW. Jennifer, besides having an impressively long title, brings her experience managing a global closed community to the panel. Another all-star addition to a star-studded panel!

We're really excited to announce that we are hosting our first panel at SXSW Interactive this year, Managing Communities that Work. You can read the full release here but I've included some details below. We're hoping that a mix of clients big & small as well as an expert voice in community management will provide some great conversation and overall learnings about managing your community.

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Bill Johnston over at the Online Community Report has a very good post on how to develop a community strategy- great information. The concept of an 'ecosystem audit' is really strong - being able to identify the right actions and areas to drive participation is key.

Another great series of posts from the Community Guy full of insight on the process of hiring a community manager and mapping their skills to the goals of your community.

How do I hire a community manager?

Follow-up: Hiring a community manager

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I found a link to the POST method on Jeremiah's blog this morning and it really hit home with how we are working with clients at Small World Labs.

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