Notes from Ragan’s Social Media conference

So I said it would be light, sporadic posting here while I sponged up info at the Ragan Communications Social Media Revolution Conference here in Chicago. But I’m picking up plenty of morsels to share, and I just can’t keep it all to myself. Here are some of the more salient or interesting links from today’s various sessions:

Twitter and tweeting on the campaign trail. Presidential candidates John Edwards (a Democrat) and Fred Thompson (a Republican) are both using Twitter to let folks know what’s going on in their harried, public lives. (Thompson’s tweets are in an odd third-person voice, which is how Norm MacDonald imitating Bob Dole might approach it.) What a great way for politicians to share information with the public. I wonder if any busy college presidents would follow their their example. Shel Holtz mentioned the candidate/Twitterers (candidate/Tweeters?) in this morning’s keynote session, “A Communicator’s Place in the Social Media Mix.” (That place, in Holtz’s view [and that of many others], is out in front as a conductor of a symphony of communicators — no longer mere producers of content or slick publications and websites but also teachers and counselors.)

A late addition: John Bell‘s take on Thursday’s opening session.

Is your organization ready to do social media? Find out at YourSocialMediaScore.com, a site discussed by Paul Vogelzang in his session, “Social Media for the Rest of Us.”

Monitoring blog activity. You’re probably aware of Technorati, blogpulse and Google Blogs and use them to keep track of what the online world is saying about your organization. But not all blog monitoring services are created equal. In an afternoon session, Shel Holtz directed us to Jeremiah Owyang’s list of the various services on his Web Strategy blog. What Shel didn’t tell us was that Jeremiah had compiled a list of services that measure online video, too.

Sorry, Mac users. The Why Macs suck video is old news, but it’s just too good to leave unlinked.

Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction. View all posts by andrewcareaga