I enjoyed a rare treat last night and attended the Social Media Club of Dallas‘ event featuring Chris Brogan. As you can imagine, it was a who’s who of social media savants and marketing junkies from the MetroPlex. I decided to show up, too, and I’m glad I did, this being my maiden voyage into one of the club’s events. The event was held at the Angelika Theatre, which is always a nice choice.
Call it catharsis, or whatever comes to mind, but I left the event with both some huge, dwell-on-it-for-days takeaways, as well as some stare-in-the-mirror-and-hurl disappointments in myself. Probably not the call-to-action you wanna hang on the flier, but it worked for me, I think. Here’s how I break it all down:
- It’s amazing how many of us are just trying to figure it out. Maybe it’s just a man thing, but I can’t help but go to an event like this one where there are so many social media and marketing giants and start ranking myself among the crowd. The thoughts kept crossing my mind early on until I finally slapped myself across the chops and repeated the following mantra: “Social media is not a competition.” The event got a lot better after that for me.Seriously, why do we drive ourselves so hard to be the best that it squanders chances like this where we can learn so much from others who are clearly using the tools in super-creative ways?Anyway, I ranked myself low. Very low.
- The idea of customer managers: Probably the thing that stuck with me most from Chris’ speech was the idea of customer managers instead of product managers. Product managers typically go make a product and then look for someone who should buy it. Customer managers get to know their customer and then find products that make them happy. It’s not a new thought; Seth Godin has been preaching this sermon for years. But to go so far as to change titles and think of it departmentally only makes it more definitive, and it reminded me how much easier marketing becomes when you simply commit to knowing your customer.
- I’m about all learned up. For the most part, I didn’t learn too much new at this event. I’ve read and talked and listened and thought a lot about all the new tools the web has made available. But it struck me that I’ve done next to nothing with all of this learning. As Chris kept making his point of truly connecting and listening, his bluntness and clarity made me realize that I still don’t do these things very well, even though I know better. I love telling people that it’s important, but there’s not a lot of proof in this pudding.
- Forget selfish listening. Okay, maybe don’t forget it, but it dawned on me that the real opportunity with Twitter search, for example, isn’t so much in knowing what people are saying about your company, but rather in searching terms that people who could benefit from your company are probably using. And then go find them and connect.
- Be patient and giving all at the same time. Chris’ book Trust Agents is a New York Times bestseller. He said the formula for getting a book on the bestseller’s list was to help people out and never ask for anything in return for 11 years, and then ask for one thing once. Pretty profound, and it sums up the other key takeaway of really making sure that what you’re publishing and producing is truly seen as a valuable gift to others. And then keep doing it.
- I suck at solo networking. I flew solo for this event, which was a mistake. I knew a few people there, but not enough to where it felt right to hang with them all night long. So, I was mingling on my own, trying to spark a few conversations. I called it quits after introducing myself to Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame, basically pulling the Dumb and Dumber equivalent of “Big Gulps, hey? Well, catcha later.” Let’s just say there was an awkward pause after my first sentence, which was also my last. Though I’m definitely at ease once a conversation starts, I gained an even higher appreciation for those who know how to start them.All that said, I did manage to have a great chat with Colin Burns (@CBurnsTCU), a power-Yelper and Chipotle’s leading man in the realm of new media, as well as Doug Caldwell (@Doug_Caldwell), facilitator extaordinairre. I also got to catch up with Tyler Horton (@HortonTyler) from Moroch PR, which is always nice.
All that to say it was a good event, and a great first impression of Social Media Club Dallas. I wish Chris’ speech had been a little longer, but, of course, he could’ve gone another hour and I probably would’ve wished for that.
Big thanks to the sponsors: TripCase, Nomee, Southwest Air, Fairmont Dallas and Firehost.
Any of you who were there, what was your biggest takeaway? Also, how to you get the conversation going when you’re flying solo?
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So naturally, I rushed over here seeing my name and “disappointment” in the same title. Yikes!
But now that I’m here, I hope that you write a follow-up post in a few weeks, after some of your thoughts above sink in a bit deeper still. I wonder what it will say to you. Because I think you’re not alone in feeling a lot of this. Ultimately, that’s a big part of why I wander around doing what I do. I am trying to wake us up again and remind us that there’s a huge shift afoot. I try to be the red pill
And to your point about not learning, I’d offer that you learned a lot. I think we ALL know about the tools in some form or another. The question becomes, what are we DOING?
And that, I believe is the trick of it all.
Glad you came, Brett. Please follow up and let me know what comes next.
Misleading blog title.
Chris – sorry for the alarmist headline. The encouraging thing is that doing something doesn’t normally happen unless motivated by disgust and/or disappointment. So I’m feeling good about this.
Also, thanks for the reminder to go read Ogilvy. I’ve never read his books, but I’ve always associated him with the old way of doing things. The old attitude (put it in enough magazines, newspaper and commercials, and sit back and enjoy). So thanks for setting me straight, and for the red pill.
Thanks for coming through Dallas.
Brett, good on you for looking inside yourself, and for being so bold, and honest about it in public. I’m finding a lot of the same feelings in me about ‘doing’ stuff…and I’m sure that many people who are drawn to your post by the BRILLIANT title will read and see themselves, too. Good on you for prodding each of our self-reflection.
As it turns out, I’m someone that’s always been really good at getting conversations started in group settings, and I know a grand total of 2 people in SMCD. Next event, let’s tag team the crowd, and meet some people. I’m @cyclebob on Twitter…my picture’s there. Look me up next time.
While disgust and dissapointment does get attention, you may be burning bridges for followers/customers. Make sure you practice what you preach “…what you’re publishing and producing is truly seen as a valuable gift to others.” I hope your calculated awareness technique gains you more than it loses as you have at least confused 3 and at most alienated more.
Shannon
Brett, I feel your pain. It’s awkward walking into a networking event without having a few people there to use as a home-base hub. I hope you’ll come back to the SMC event next month and give yourself a chance to get to know a few more of us. I meet one or two new people every meeting. So, every time I come back, my circle of friends is greater! Before you know it, you’ll know everyone in the room. It’s really helpful to plan on attending the tweet-up after the event. There’s only 30 minutes or so prior to the speaker at each SMC meeting. While I always enjoy the speakers we host, it’s the meet-up afterwards that provides the real networking opportunity. This is where friendships/partnerships are made!
Cynthia Smoot, Gangway Advertising and SMC/VP of Events
Bob – I’ll definitely have to come find you at the next event. And it’s encouraging to to hear from a few who wrestle with the same “knowing vs. doing” thing. Of course, that’s probably what separates those who really get the most out of any area of life: turning just a fraction of what we know into doing.
@MarketingChief & Isis – OK, good point. However, I can assure you when I originally wrote the title to this post, it was not motivated to bait anyone. This was honestly the oxymoron that described the night best for me. Looking back, I probably could’ve picked a better word than “great;” I was using it as “better than good,” but obviously it can read as “huge.” I’ll admit, once I was done, it did hit me that the headline might cause some double takes, but I ran with it. I certainly didn’t intend to burn any bridges (in fact, none of these bridges were in place to be burned anyway), but I know my motives, so I’m cool with whatever. Hopefully you don’t feel too alienated; I’d love to keep the conversation going.
Cynthia – first, thanks for everything you did to pull the event together, and thanks for the encouragement. I promise I’m not the wallflower this single post makes me sound like. I’ll definitely be coming back whenever I can. Maybe I should learn some magic tricks or something to break the ice …..
bd
Nice clarification rebuttle. In the end it was your experience and feeling so it cannot be wrong. And making connections with intelligent thought and intent is all we can truly hope from social media. And maybe a few buck along the way.
Yeah, I’ll take a few bucks!
Thanks for posting an interesting perspective of the evening. I had planned on going, only to learn I’d be out of town, only to find out Wednesday I’d be staying in town, lastly to discover the event was sold out. There’s my disappointment.
So, now I’m catching up on the Brogan SM event via pictures, blogs and video… online. How unintentionally apropos.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike D. Merrill, David Swinney, Cynthia Smoot, bdunc1, bdunc1 and others. bdunc1 said: My recap of #smcdallas with @cbrogan: a Night of Great Disappointments: http://ow.ly/ZDhq [...]
@Brett – RE Solo Networking: AGREED! If I’m with folks I know, I’m good, but having to “work a room” of mostly unfamiliar faces by myself, forget it. Next time we can be each other’s wingmen!
Hi Brett,
Thanks for checking out my blog post on the SMC Dallas event! Although my post highlighted all the positives, the people I was with, and myself included, were disappointed when Chris didn’t take questions after his presentation. Like you mentioned, I also found myself thinking back on some of his points and evaluating my approach to social media – definitely a good presentation.
I’m also totally with you on the awkward instances that occur at these types of events. If the people I usually hang out with at these events aren’t there, I feel very uncomfortable. Hopefully you and I will run into one another at a future SMC Dallas event and we can avoid solo networking.
Angela – I’ve heard from a few people that were disappointed there was no Q&A. Of course, now that I think of it, we should’ve just tweeted them his way before his presentation, or during. But yeah, having a Q&A would’ve been nice.
OK, I’ll be looking for you at the next event.
Tyler, you just scare people off cuz your arms are too dang big! The ironic thing about having trouble networking is that it was a SOCIAL NETWORKING event. Go figure.
[...] here. I’m talking about good ol’ fashioned networking with actual people. You can see here that I started the year in utter frustration, but I think it was the impetus I needed to get my head screwed on straight and actually improve [...]