The following are my notes from today’s Brando Social event at the Soho Hotel in Central London.  I can honestly say it’s been one of the speaker sessions where I have been the most engaged in my life! The content was brilliant and the execution right on the money! It was an all around balanced and deep chat about all things social media - the changes in the industry, the change in social behaviors, and of course, the business implications, they were all addressed.  It’s no surprise then that I took massive amounts of notes, which I am now passing on to you.  My notes are all in the form of quotes, thoughts, and one-liners that were mentioned during the session.  I must point out that these shouldn’t be taken word for word as I have added some fillers/$0.2 cents to provide some context as I understand it. Also, the quotes in red represent what I consider as main takeaways from the session. Click here to check out the specs of the event (i.e. topic titles and speakers)

-We’ve been doing this (i.e. social behavior) all along. What’s different now is that the message really gets out. Technology and the fact that everybody has jumped onboard has been key drivers for making it happen

-Social Media in one word description: POWER. We have power because we can all become critics by voicing our opinion, and we become publishers when sharing it openly on the social web

-We can connect with one another very simply

-Content created by people and made to share with each other

-P2P (Peer-to-Peer) takes advantage of herd behavior

-Amazing what people of similar interests can do when they come together and take action

- It’s not about broadcast anymore, it’s about conversation

-You can contribute, you can participate

-The internet is winning the ‘return on attention’ game; a trend that will only continue

-Even today, most visited parts of cyberspace are social places (blogs and even yahoo/google)

-More video added to YouTube on last year than in tv - EVER!!!

-Not only changed as creators and publishers of our own content, but also as consumers

-Not a world where media/messages are consumed anymore, it’s a world of participation of media/messages

-Every single part of Social Media is created by users, even their profiles/avatars

-No longer should be focusing (or placing value) on # of eyeballs as results, but ears and mouths instead

-Cannot adapt to an environment, without living in it

-The internet helps tap into niches of consumer interests

-Groups can form at little or no cost

-3 key disruption in outgoing model:

-who creates content now? Everyone

-who can distribute content now? Everyone

-who can create user experience? Everyone

*bonus - (I add the 4th one) who is all this intended for? Everyone

-People that transmit message hold the stage

-If you have been part of the creative process, the more likely it is that you will pass it on

-We are seeking to engage with each other, not billboards; eyeball to eyeball, not eyeball to billboards

-Messages (in any form of media) have to be easily transferable from one to another, and key is for each passer to personalize the same message

-If one has participated in the creative process, it becomes more likely you will pass it on

-Technology + global scale + real time is what has changed, not the fact that we trust peers and that we are social beings

-Always look to serve the community as a practitioner

-All brands are in a position + have a need to listen AND respond

-Place value in *real* human interaction

-ROI = Return on Intention

-Listening is not enough. Need to know how to respond needs to follow.

-This is not only for geeks anymore

- Call to action: WE ARE THE PEOPLE WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

-If there is no pre-established context (between customer and brand), there is no meaning, which makes you as a brand irrelevant

- Dictionary definition of Folklore: the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth ---> YouTube is recording today’s folklore in mass quantities

-Consumption (of messages, media, etc) is participatory in today’s world

-People embrace what they create

-Naturally, there is a massive resistance to change by some in the industry - a very human reaction

-As practitioners we must help in navigating the social web

-Tagging for instance is one way commerce is stitched into the social platform

-Social media only works when there is trust

-No point in engaging without having proposition for value (that may even come in the form of listening, as long as there is an intention to take action on what is being said. You can’t only pretend to listen)

-Personality matters

-With old-school type advertising, the value disappears once the $$$ runs out; no longevity in the relationship can be attained

-Social Media inverts the customer service relationship as we used to know it.  Through monitoring we can now seek out an provide the service to a customer based on the context of his expressed need.

-More efficient to convince a client to stay than to win over a new client from scratch

-Need to be able to live with the risk of realtime relationship building/maintenance.  Just like with family and friends, you may sometimes be at odds during the lifetime of the relationship.

-Personality/Humanity at the heart of Social Media

-We’re not going back to an a-social web, just not happening

-As a practitioner, watch out for attempts to over control

Stay tuned for v.2 of this post that will include the slides to the presentation slides, as well as some other goodies.

Lastly, congrats to Jamie Burke, David Cushman and the Brando team for a job well done!!!