I'm heading to the Florida Keys for a speaking engagement and a mini-vacation. I'll be attempting to go off the grid, but there is a major project that I've been working on that will launch on Friday, so that plan might be shot.

See you on Monday.

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Joe Thornley is doing his usual bang-up job of conference coverage from MESH in Canada. Here is the choice quote from Mike Arrington's opening session:

The best thing that traditional journalists can do is to start wrting their own blogs and to build their own brands. This will protect them against downsizing in traditional media.

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Travel and tourism is a great example of an industry that has been impacted by social media. Not long ago online travel booking spelled doom for the travel agent. Will CVBs (Convention and Visitor's Bureaus) face the same fate?

Savvy travelers are very self-sufficient. They'll book they're own travel and research their own trips. Sure they may look at an 'official' site for a location or hotel, but more and more they'll use a site like TripAdvisor or another third-party site that is dedicated to their destination.

A great example is Disney. There are dozens of Disney-specific web sites such as The Disney Blog or Mouse Planet. These detailed fan-sites can give you tips galore, some of which Disney probably wishes they didn't.

One of the driving forces behind social media is the notion that we trust each other more than we trust media/business. We're looking for good, reliable information. If the CVBs aren't providing it, we'll look elsewhere. We want to know what's good and what's bad. We want honest opinions.

That's the crux of the CVBs though. You're never going to find a CVB web site say, "Don't stay at this hotel." Chances are, that hotel is a paying supporter of the CVB and they wouldn't like it too much if their 'marketing' organization was driving customers away. Perhaps that's why many CVB run social media sites are somewhat sterile.

Most CVBs are funded by tourism taxes (aka bed taxes) and are tasked with promoting their area to the rest of the world, i.e. 'Come Visit Beautiful X'. Swap out the X for your local city, county or state. Statewide CVBs often have huge budgets with large traditional media buys. In Florida, FLA-USA has a budget of $24.7 million and was asking for an additional $34.3 million this year.

CVBs realize that consumers are looking to social media for travel tips, they want to be part of that mix. However, is it even possible for CVBs to run a social media initiative?

Another issue is truth in advertising. CVBs often produce glossy 'Destination Guides' that showcase the beauty of a particular location. The problem is the real thing rarely ever looks as good as the picture. One CVB I know of features a picture of a private home's lakefront on their cover. In other words, the cover photo that represents their destination is somewhere you can't even go to.

Recently somebody created a web site that compares advertised food photos with the real thing. Some of the photos are quite funny. But what's sad is that it is a very similar situation with those guide photos. If you've seen the Dove Revolution video, you know what can be done with Photoshop. If we want to see the 'real' destination, we'll just search Flickr.

I've been thinking of creating a similar site that compares these guide photos with the real thing.

What can CVBs do in the social media world? How can they provide open conversation with potential visitors while not offending their supporting members?

In Part 2 I'll talk about some things that CVBs are doing right and some other options for them in the world of social media.

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I've been debating on whether I should sign-up for NetFlix or Blockbuster Total Access. I'm torn.

I was one of the original NetFlix customers from many years ago, back when they only had one distribution center and those of use on the right side of the country had to wait days for DVDs. Today, NetFlix has a distribution center in Lakeland, FL, less than 25 miles from my home.

However, Blockbuster has the in-store drop-off/pick-up thing which can help with impulse rentals. But then again I have never liked Blockbuster as a company :-)

Who do you use for your online DVD rental? Have any of you tried both services? Have an opinion you'd like to share?

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I have a bit of a problem. In September or October of last year I made a hotel reservation for the U.S Grand Prix in Indianapolis over the weekend of June 16-17th. Now I can't find any record of that reservation. I have no idea what hotel chain or what credit card I guaranteed the room to. I do know it's a hotel on the NE side of Indianapolis.

I won't be able to make the trip this year since I have a business engagement the Monday after the race in Tucson, AZ. My fear is that I won't find the details and then will eat the cost of a room I'm not staying in.

So far I've been calling the major hotel chains and have them look, but no success so far. Anybody else have any ideas?

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The nGen Works gang in Jacksonville has always been a great group of web dev dudes. Ever since they moved into their current office they've posted unique messages on their window. In a recent blog post Carl explains the story behind the window and what the future plans are.

Why do it? It's part of their personality and it leads to business. Carl says:

A lot of people ask if we ever got any business out of the window. The answer is yes, if you trace it back. In fact one of our biggest clients found us that way.

You can follow the window via their Flickr feed. Or just drive by if you're ever in Jacksonville.

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Jackie Huba posts a recap of their recent book tour to promote Citizen Marketers. She lists a number of stats, two of which are shown below:

- Number of books sold: 7,445
- Blog subscriber increase from 15,735 to 47,798 during tour, via Feedburner. (The jump in subscribers on 2/18 is due to Feedburner adding Google Reader subscribers.The hiccups in May are due to a Google problem in reporting subscriber counts to Feedburner.)

While the primary goal of a book tour is to sell books, I think the increase in RSS subscribers is a more important result.

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An association I am a member of is holding their annual conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota in early August. Last year we live-blogged the event with much success. This year we want to repeat the online conference coverage. One problem, the cost of wifi at the Ritz.

The cost for wifi in a conference room is $300 per single-user, per day. Now this isn't for a speaker or for general use, it's for one person to be able to sit in the audience and use wifi. Now there is a break for additional users, they add $50 per user/per day. With the event lasting three days, the total cost for wifi for three people will be $1600. I don't even want to know what it would cost to enable wifi for everybody in the room.

Ridiculous? Of course, but too often it's standard practice at conference space. I think that when negotiating any contracts with a conference hotel, wifi should be provided as a base service. If you can't do it, then don't even submit a bid.

A fellow conference blogger said this:

It’s ironic that the hotels charge so much and yet our blogging actually is promoting their hotel. Think of the pictures we posted in last year’s conference blog… golf course, beachfront views, decorated ballrooms… all free advertising for the hotel.

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Wow, I write one thing about Star Wars and I'm already receiving unsolicited press releases for Star Wars related news.

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"This is a cool way to do the news"

That's what Billy Townsend, a reporter with the Tampa Tribune told me a few weeks ago on a Friday afternoon. We were in the middle of piecing together an interesting local story that would lead to bigger things. The news story would eventually unfold on the newspaper's web site and a number of local blogs. It was also an interesting exercise in how news is transforming, specifically the relationship between newspapers and local bloggers.

Here's the backstory.

CSX, a major rail/transport company is considering building a intermodal facility in Winter Haven, Florida. CSX and the City of Winter Haven are promoting the project as an economic boom for the area that will create jobs and increased tax revenue. With any development of this nature there are concerns over: growth, traffic, environment, etc. For the record, I believe the project will be a benefit to the area, but the proper steps need to be taken.

From CSX's standpoint the project/permitting process was moving along nicely. The surrounding communities in Polk County paid little attention to the project, it was perceived as being a 'Winter Haven' thing. At first, the local newspapers did very little reporting, mostly discussing some of the economic benefits.

I run a hyperlocal blog in our community called Empirical Polk. The first post about the CSX project appeared on EP on February 1, 2006. For the most part, with EP I can only comment on issues or share insights I've found from other news sources. In the case of CSX project, my blog along with other local blogs have all contributed to the ongoing story.

The first newspaper to do any sort of digging into the story was not really a local paper. The Tampa Tribune does not distribute their paper in the area and just recently hired Billy Townsend to cover the region. While Billy does file stories about Polk County for the print edition, his primary publishing tool is the Polk County News Blog. Billy is a reporter that has truly embraced blogging. He posts often, links to the competition and interacts with bloggers in the community.

On his blog, Billy began to look into the CSX numbers and how the development would impact the rest of the county. One of the issues was the increase in rail traffic. In Florida, CSX operates two main freight lines, a North/South and East/West. As part of the Central Florida commuter rail deal CSX will be shifting much of their traffic off of the E/W line to the N/S line. This can also be combined with a general increase in freight traffic related to the intermodal. How much of an increase is still up for debate. Freight traffic on the N/S line will mostly likely double, and might even triple.

On March 28th Billy blogged about Polk County's central location within the CSX freight system. The N/S and E/W lines cross in Polk County. The question was where? At first CSX didn't even know where. For any geek/blogger, of course Google Maps can help with a question like that. The problem was that we were looking for a natural crossing, as in X marks the spot.

On a Friday afternoon, I think I had figured it out. The lines didn't cross in a perfect X, instead they joined and ran along the same corridor for a few miles. In other words, all the N/S traffic would run on the E/W line for a short stretch. The problem though, was that the short, joint stretch runs through downtown Lakeland, FL. Like many towns in the south, the main rail line bisects the downtown Lakeland region. This causes traffic and noises issues downtown. With this discovery, it seems that those problems will double or triple as a result of the increased freight traffic from the Winter Haven intermodal facility.

Billy and I exchanged e-mails discussing my find and we eventually met up at a local coffee shop in Lakeland to go over things. The evolving story was spelled out on Empirical Polk and the Polk County News Blog. Being the reporter that he is, Billy followed-up with CSX to confirm the crossing and then he began talking to Lakeland civic leaders. While they had heard about the CSX project, the increase in rail traffic in downtown Lakeland was news to them.

Suddenly, the 'Winter Haven' project was having a major impact on Lakeland. Lakeland community/business leaders requested a meeting with CSX and the local media finally woke up. Lakeland-specific blogger Chuck Welch began following the story at LakelandLocal.com and has even created a content archive of all things CSX.

To this point the CSX project had avoided a DRI or Development of Regional Impact classification. A DRI brings with it a process to study and approve any development. That process takes time and money. With the increased media attention, the county and surrounding cities began requesting DRI status for the project.

What will happen next remains to be seen.

It was during our coffee break on that Friday afternoon that Billy said, "This is a cool way to do the news." I imagine it was like any group of reporters working on a story, except that I wasn't on the paid staff of the paper.

I have said before that what I do on my hyperlocal blog is in some sense lazy journalism. I don't have the resources to investigate or the contacts to get the interviews I want, but Billy (and the traditional media) does. I can pose a question on my blog and a reporter can follow-up on it. One local news-pro once joked that Empirical Polk was a great tip-sheet for their newspaper staff. The funny thing is that he was only joking halfway.

What can be learned from this?

Obviously we know that the business and reporting of news is changing, and fast. The tracking and reaction to news is just as fast, if not faster. From a PR standpoint the traditionalists might not like this, but there is a some benefit. All of this is happening out in the open. As more reporters blog (and blog more frequently), and hyperlocal blogs become more prevalent, the stories are now out in the open for all to see.

Reporters and bloggers are asking questions first on their blogs and the writing the stories later. Savvy PR practitioners can answer those questions if they're following along. Imagine knowing the question before the reporter calls, of better yet calling them first. Can't get to the reporter? Contact the local blogger, or leave a blog comment. The good local reporters are reading the local blogs.

The media and blog coverage of the CSX project will only increase and leave a detailed digital-paper trail for anybody to read.

So what is a PR person to do? Later this week in Part 2 I'll talk about what CSX and the Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce have been doing with blogs.

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Star Wars weekends are coming up at Disney-MGM Studios in the month of June. To promote the event a series of posters have been made for Orlando International Airport (MCO). Since OIA seems to be my second home it's great to see that the posters feature actual photography of the airport. The one shown below has Yoda waiting in baggage claim.

You would figure that a wise Jedi like Yoda would just use carry-on to bypass baggage claim altogether.

Another poster has Boba Fett wheeling a frozen Han Solo along using a Smart-Carte.

Now I don't want to get too technical......but the shot is 'composed' near the security screening stations in the glass tunnel after you get off the trams from the gates. You're not allowed to have Smart-Carte's in that area. But then again, he's Boba Fett and can probably get away with that.

Hat-tip: The Disney Blog

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Paul Stamatiou has posted his review of the Sprint UpStage phone. I have the same phone as part of the Sprint Ambassador program, and I agree with just about everything Paul has to say, with a few exceptions.

Here are my quick thoughts:

- It is super-thin and feels great in the hands. The rubber-ized covering reminds me of a ThinkPad X-series.
- The touchpad area is a real pain. It's constantly jumping around and canceling items I'm trying to view.
- While others say they have been able to get the UpStage working as a modem for a Mac, I have not had much luck.
- Paul doesn't think there is a market for the TV function, but don't tell that to my son. He loves Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Both of those channels are on the 'Live' TV list and they are live.
- The flip gets annoying. The constant flipping back and forth to enter text makes me not want to use the phone.

On that last point, I think you really need to decide what you want a phone for (other than being a phone). If you want something with MP3 capabilities that perhaps can compare with the iPod then this is your phone. If you want something for texting and other 'business' communication then this is not the phone for you.

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Sometimes I stop and think about what I've seen so far this year and the pace of it all. It's kinda scary. Last Saturday I was looking at the Pacific Ocean and taking photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. Two days ago I was looking at the Atlantic Ocean and today I'm looking at the St. Louis Arch.

This year, social media has taken me to: New York, Miami, San Francisco, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Houston and St. Louis. In the coming months I'll be in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Tucson, Seattle, Key West, Chicago and who knows where else.

I'm not complaining, the opportunities and work have been amazing. But you miss things like T-ball games and other random things that 5-year-olds do.

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Looking at the stats the other day I see an inbound search for 'how to write a statement to the press' from Google. The number one result? My post on useless language in corporate press releases.

I wonder if the person doing the search took my post seriously as a genuine 'How-To' and wrote an honest release?

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It's great having good friends out there. I set out this morning to work on the BlogOrlando 2007 session list. After an hour of e-mails, IMs and a tweet or two, I'm almost done. Just about everybody I asked has said, 'Count me in' or 'Let me confirm the date, but otherwise we're a go.'

I posted the names of the confirmed session leaders so far, and a few more should firm up in the next day or two. The plan is to have a diverse series of tracks. So far they are:

- Local/Florida
- Marketing & Communication
- Journalism/Media
- Society
- Developers
- Newbies

If you don't know about BlogOrlando, it's a FREE un-conference held in Orlando from Sept 27-29th. The main event is Friday, Sept 28th. On Thursday we'll be doing some fun stuff that might involve the Mouse. Saturday is the 'official' Disney day with a group trip to one of the theme parks.

As for hotel and travel, everybody is on their own. Hey, it's a free conference what do you expect! Dave Coustan will recommend the EO Inn. I think he's already made his reservation.

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Paul Stamatiou has learned that once you go DSLR, it's hard going back to a point-and-shoot camera. I have found the same thing to be true. The quality of shots you get with a good DSLR makes me ashamed to ever pull out my old point-and-shoot or worse-case scenario, the camera-phone. Sure it's a bit heavier and bulkier than a pocket camera, but it's worth it for me.

Paul received his Nikon D80 as part of Nikon's blogger outreach program, so did BL Ochman. While BL is also impressed by the D-80 she still likes the convenience of her Canon A-85.

The only downside to the DSLR addiction is cost. As some of the comments on Paul's post have pointed out, the cost of the DSLR body is only the start. The real investment is lenses. However, the investment in lenses only makes the camera (and hopefully) your photos better. My most recent lens purchase, a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 cost more than my camera, but it's been worth every penny.

Now I'm saving for the 70-200mm f/2.8.

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I'm back home for a few days after a great trip to San Francisco. I planned to spend most of the day on Saturday taking photos, but a sleepless Friday night due to stomach flu changed those plans. Chris Heuer, Jeremy Pepper and I did take a short trip to the Golden Gate Bridge for some photos.

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Kevin Dugan posted some thoughts about the unusual design of the Urban Outfitters blog and asked David Armano and I what we thought. What's unusual about it? It features a horizontal scroll.

Well I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for horizontal scrolls. After all, my photography blog uses a horizontal scroll. That said though, you need to consider the audience, the type of content and how you want people to interact with the content.

One of the issues with a horizontal scroll is that you want to keep the content height short, so you don't introduce a vertical scroll as well. Now you're limiting the content you can display based upon a design limitation. The beauty of a vertical scrolling blog is that each post can have a different height. Sometimes you might post a single sentence, other times a long article.

With a horizontal scroll, every post needs to fit in an imaginary box. With my photography blog that's not an issue since all I show are photos with a brief caption. With Urban Outfitters it's similar. They have a photo and then some brief text, but they can't expand upon this.

However, most blog and web site readers are used to a vertical scroll format. While a horizontal is a unique design twist, will it annoy people in the long term? I don't know of any sites that I visit frequently that use this format. My thoughts are that the initial 'hey look at that' functionality of the Urban Outfitters blog will give way to usability issues.

But you might say, why diss that format if you use it? Well I do use it, but my photo blog is not meant to be something you look at often and it isn't a major content piece. It's more of a gallery format. I would venture to say that Urban Outfitters intent is to constantly engage the readers with new content.

Of course if the majority of your blog readers are RSS subscribers, then your design is a moot point :-)

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On Wednesday I head out to San Francisco and Palo Alto for a few days of business and one day of fun. Thursday and Friday I will be in Palo Alto at the offices of Voce Communications working with Mike Manuel and the rest of the Voce gang.

Friday afternoon/evening I head to San Francisco for dinner with Shel Israel. Saturday will be spent with Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells doing touristy type things and taking plenty of photos.

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Ah yes the corporate press release (or statement). A document that is carefully worded to not offend anyone or put an organization at legal risk. In some cases a paragraph sees so many revisions and passes by so many lawyers that the price-per-word must be higher than the per-capita income of many third-world countries. One of the original 95 theses of the Cluetrain promised us that:

In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.

In the case of a disagreement or debate on a sensitive topic:

They Write: We don't want to rush to judgement

We Read: We're not changing our minds.

They Write: We respect their opinion.

We Read: They're idiots.

They Write: The best course of action is to step back, let all parties have their say, and then build a consensus.

We Read: We're going to stall for time so we can continue to spin our position while dis-crediting our opposition under the false pretense that we care what they have to say.

They Write: It has been brought to our attention.

We Read: It's been all over the internet for weeks, but we just noticed it.

They Write: Our internal investigation has revealed.

We Read: We had a corporate-wide cover-your-ass session.

They Write: We're currently exploring all our options.

We Read: We have no idea what we're going to do.

They Write: We're re-stating our earnings.

We Read: We got caught.

They Write: We're preparing a statement

We Read: We have dozens of lawyers writing a paragraph that will hopefully deflect all blame and absolve us from any wrong-doing.

They Write: Our general counsel assures me...

We Read: The general counsel is pushing me to the wolves while he escapes to Brazil.

They Write: ...that we will prevail

We Read: We're screwed.

They Write: We're working with the proper regulatory agencies at this time.

We Read: We're really screwed and have tuned to bribes, blackmail, etc.

They Write: He has left to pursue other interests.

We Read: He was fired.

They Write: I'm genuinely excited about the opportunities available to me.

We Read: Wow, I have no job, what am I going to do?

They Write: We wish him the best.

We Read: Our lawyers are waiting to revoke his severance should he violate his NDA.

They Write: Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

We Read: We're so desperate that we overpaid.

or We Read: We got such a deal, but we don't want to crush the ego's of the previous owners once everybody realizes they left money on the table.

They Write: It will allow our best minds to work together.....

We Read: The best minds are already packing their bags and leaving to work together on a new startup.....

They Write: ....for the long-term health of the company

We Read: ....they'll end up buying/crushing us in a few years.

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We launched a new site/blog today for SeaWorld San Antonio and the Journey to Atlantis thrill ride. The site is half traditional content / half-blog built on WordPress and incorporates a number of social media elements. The videos are from Veoh and YouTube while the photos are from Flickr.

We're encouraging folks to 'Share their Stuff' and upload photos and videos from their ride experiences once the ride launches on May 12, 2007. Fan content will be highlighted on the blog in the coming weeks.

Kami Huyse is the lead on the project and has been working with the SeaWorld San Antonio gang on strategy and content. Kami is also building a blogger relations program to reach out to the numerous coaster/thrill ride blogs.

Kami contacted me a few weeks ago to help build the site. Total development time from start to finish was a little over two weeks.

The design was done by Jeremy Lazanowski from LazCreative and the gang from cnp_studio (Pete, Nick & Mike) assisted with some of the WordPress modifications.

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Being behind on feed reading I see Todd Defren's Twitter about Mike Manuel's blog birthday for Media Guerrilla. Mike has been blogging for three years. Congrats.

I start to think about a new business developing blog birthday cards, cakes and other 'celebratory/party' items for your favorite blogger. It turns out that Apple has a great birthday iCard to fit the bill. Here is the one I sent to Mike. The headline says, "Seriously, Go Outside."

Being in the birthday mood, I think, when is the blog birthday for Hyku, I really don't know? I do a quick look and it turns out to be today, that's kinda freaky. Yep, the first post went up on May 3, 2003. To be fair though the posting was rather sporadic at first and I did take some long breaks in there.

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Peter Kim recently blogged about Delta's new look coming out of their bankruptcy. If you call Delta the voiceover will say they want you to 'feel' the new Delta, i.e. better service and a better travel experience.

Well I'm feeling it alright.....in my ear and arm after holding for close to 30 minutes on the SkyMiles member line to change a reservation. I eventually hung up, called the normal reservation line and got right thru to somebody. What a way to treat your 'loyal' members :-)

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There isn't a week that goes by that I am not contacted by somebody wanting to use one of my photos from my Flickr account. Sometimes it's just a blogger, but more and more it's a publication. Recently there have been a run of chambers of commerce and CVBs who find my photos of their towns from my travels. I don't ask for monetary compensation, just a simple photo credit and a copy of the publication.

Like many other bloggers, most of the content I produce is covered under a Creative Commons license. You're free to do what you want with my photos and blog posts as long as you attribute me and share-alike. When I relay this story to traditional media audiences they are often baffled. Why do all these people give their stuff away, for free!

Well like many other folks I'm not in it to make money directly off my content by selling it or allowing advertising on it. I make money off the services I provide, so like Dave Winer has said, the content is the ad, for me.

Getting back to photography, I am constantly pointing folks to Flickr for stock photos. Chances are you can find somebody that has taken a photo under a CC license that you can use. All you need to do is following the licensing terms, or contact them directly if you wish to discuss using the photo in a way that doesn't fit the CC license.

When I attend a conference and take photos, I seek out other bloggers at the event and point them to my photos from the event telling them they're free to use them in their posts, "Take my pictures, Please!" The end result? Other blogs use my photos and link to me, and I am getting offers to attend conferences for free (or reduced cost) to take pictures. Who says giving something away for free doesn't pay off?

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Am I the only one that looks at this LEGO Ludo set and thinks, Village People?

Perhaps it's the goatee on the first guy and the combo of stubble and tilted hat on the third. Add in the cop and you're almost there. The only one that doesn't fit is the race car driver.

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Annie Heckenberger just sent out the official announcement about BlogPhiladelphia which will be held on July 12-13, 2007 in Philadelphia of course.

Here are the details:

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) and uwishunu.com are pleased to announce the inaugural BLOGPHILADELPHIA.

This two-day “unconference” will be open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike. There will be a few panels featuring leading tech pioneers spanning a wide spectrum of technology platforms and social media experience. We also plan to bring together a good cross-section of experts to lead break-out sessions covering various areas of social media: avatars, blogging/vlogging, mobile/sms technologies, online & mobile social networks, podcasting, PR in the world of CGM, virtual communities, community-edited news sites, social bookmarking, and of course, where and how marketing fits into all of this.

Whew! Overwhelmed yet?

Well, don’t be! As we all know – there are no established experts in this evolving field. That’s why the unconference format is a great opportunity to catch up with other like-minded individuals and innovators and swap intel.

And of course, while you’re here in Philly, we’ll getcha a cheesesteak and then run it off with a ceremonial Rocky-esque run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. You better believe that’s going up on Blip.Tv and Youtube.com!

I've been working with Annie behind-the-scenes on this event for quite a while. Their plan was to model this after BlogOrlando, which BTW will be held on Sept 27-29 this year :-)

I'll be in Philly, will you? If I lived in the Northeast I'd probably hop on the train to head down, but a train trip from Orlando to Philly would be an adventure in itself.

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Coming out of New Comm Forum there was a roaring debate over live-blogging. Since I do quite a bit of live-blogging for conferences, I figured I'd put in my two-cents (Another great live-blogger is Joe Thornley). For the background you can read the following posts:

- Steve Crescenzo's original post
- Shel Holtz responds to Steve
- Shel Israel responds to the response

From my perspective, Steve didn't like what Shel Israel wrote so he questions the validity of live-blogging. Is this one of those shoot the messenger not the message situations, or perhaps in Steve's case shoot the message, the messenger and the medium?

One way to get called out on the blogosphere is to make a broad generalization like 'live-blogging is useless' or 'all women who blog are mommy-bloggers'. Do you agree with either of those statements? Didn't think so.

Much of the debate seems to hinge on the word live-blogging, or as I define it, writing real-time notes of an event and posting them during the event. It's an interesting phenomena. Last year at Mplanet, Ann Handley commented on this real-time process:

Josh -- I think I'm having a meta experience. I'm in the back of the room while you are live-blogging this...seeing these guys on the stage at the same time I'm seeing the photo here. Cool...and only a little scary....

If you're questioning why somebody is doing something than the Cluetrain hasn't taught you anything. Bloggers and individuals do things for a number of reasons. Questioning their reasoning or saying it's not worth their time is very short-sighted and selfish. It's my time and energy, I'll do with it what I want thank you.

I recently spent quite a bit of time live-blogging the WOMBAT event and Forrester's Marketing Forum, was that useless and a waste of time or was the quality of the coverage lacking because I live-blogged it? I don't think so.

There are new wrinkles to the discussion. Jeremiah talks about people using his concepts/content in sessions and not crediting him. Chip Griffin also talks about live-blogging and about video blogging and conferences.

One of the benefits I see about conference blogging is that it's forcing organizers to get good speakers. If you have lousy speakers or people that use the time to pitch their own products/services the word gets out rather quickly and kills the vibe about your conference. The long term relevance of blog content via Google is becoming key to conferences. Google the name of a conference, the first result should be the official conference web site. More and more though the other results are blog posts from attendees.

I choose to attend conferences not based upon marketing materials I receive but the comments and feedback I get from friends that have attended the conference or blog posts from attendees. In other words, conference blogging is becoming an important part of the 'marketing' of conferences.

There are now organizations like WOMMA, FPRA and PRSA that actively seek out and support conference bloggers. This is a smart move since they have a hand in the blog coverage of their events. This is where thing can sometimes get sticky though.

I am often asked and compensated to live-blog a conference. This usually includes free conference registration and sometimes partial (or full) travel costs and in some rare cases I am paid for the service. In this role I disclose what I have been given. I am also there to document the sessions and not necessarily critique them. If you read through my live-blogs of events you will see they are more of a play-by-play than an analysis.

Yes there have been cases where I am sitting in a session saying to myself, "Boy this person is useless, or this is a pure sales-pitch." While I might not come out and say this directly, I usually find myself writing less about that session than others. On the flip side if I am at a conference on my own dime I might call out a speaker, but I usually don't.

Looping back to the recent New Comm Forum which started this whole debate, I can say that there were a few sessions I would probably call out, but I didn't blog much from NewComm....why? Sometimes it's good to step away from the laptop and enjoy the sessions rather than covering them. Plus I'm having more fun with photography at conferences anyway :-)

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Over at Marketing Profs, Lewis Green talks about the benefits of chamber memberships for business development. I agree with many of the points Lewis puts forth, with the caveat that your business fits a local model to some degree.

While I am a member of my local chamber, I know that I won't be getting many clients from my local market. It's just the nature of my current business. My major clients are based in: Florida, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Seattle and Silicon Valley. I joined my chamber to support the local business environment and community.

However, many years ago (1996-2002) when I owned a locally-focussed web design firm, the local chambers were indeed a huge part of my marketing mix.

So how does this relate to social media? When I talk to pr/marcom folks I often use the analogy of a chamber with social media. Here are a few highlights:

- Starting a blog, like joining a chamber is the first step, but it's only an entry. You need to put something in to your blog/membership to get something out. Bob Gernert of the Winter Haven Chamber says membership is like a health club. Joining is easy, but you need to actually go and exercise to see any benefit.

- Build relationships first before pitching/advertising. Imagine if you joined a chamber, went to the first social function and grabbed the microphone and shouted, "Hey my name is Stan and I sell car insurance, everybody needs to talk to me now!" I think the majority of the membership would look at you and say, "Who is that jerk?" That initial faux-pas will be hard to overcome, everybody will always remember you as being that jerk who sells insurance.

- At chamber social events introduce yourself to other folks, make the purpose of the conversation to learn about others, not to pitch your product. At some point in the conversation the other person will say, "What do you do?" Use that opportunity to say a little about yourself. If they're interested in your product/service they'll ask a bit more. Now you'll know who they are, what they do and how your product/service could benefit them.

- Learning about who you are talking to will avoid a number of embarrassing situations. Back when I had my web firm I can remember a few instances when a new over-zealous web firm would appear in the local market. At a chamber event one of their salespeople would come up and start talking to me, they wouldn't ask what I did, they just wanted to tell me about what they did and how my business could benefit from a new web site. I would let them talk for a few minutes before mentioning that I actually had a web site and was pretty sure it was built by somebody that knew what they were doing.

- It's conversation and relationships not advertising. When you think back to a recent event you attended what do you remember, the sponsor of the event or the conversations you had? For me it's mostly the conversations. At too many 'sponsored' events there is usually that awkward moment when the sponsor gets up on stage and gives a hurried, in-effective pitch to people who just had their conversation/lunch/dinner interrupted. That's not really the impression you want to leave with people.

- It's a long-term play. Sure there will be times you'll walk away from a chamber event with a solid lead, but it's the long-term relationships that pay off. I can't tell you how many times I would meet somebody and they would say, "Yeah we just had our web site built by X." No problem, in 2-3 years they'll need an update and guess who they always turned to? :-)

In the end, when I look at my years of chamber memberships I don't think about the business value, but more the relationships built and friends I have gained.

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