Social Media

At the Greystone Internet conference yesterday, I listened to Shel Holtz, a web communications guru, and he shared many practical examples of how organizations are using social media and really engaging consumer segments by utilizing all the social media to make the human connection. He encourages transparency, authenticity and ethical behavior and believes that not filtering negative information will add credibility.
I really liked the way he simplified social media into the following platforms:
Conversation-enabled publishing
-blogs and podcasts
Social Networks
-LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook
Democratized content networks
-wikis, Digg, bulletin board, Dell IdeaStorm
Presence networks (micro-blogging)
-Jaiku, Twitter, Pownce
Content-sharing sites
-YouTube, Flikr, del.icio.us
Virtual Networking
-SecondLife, There.com
He had some wonderful examples, like DeLoitte, who created a recruitment video called “The Green Dot.” He also talked about the consumer involvement in product development, and referenced the Dell ideaStorm site, MyStarbucks (which I belong to) and the P&G Connect and Develop site, which now drives a majority of their new product ideas.
There was some dialogue and questions about the legalities and risks of blog information, and he suggested reviewing IBM’s social computing guidelines for recommendations. Great stuff…