Hillary drinking a Shiner at last year's SXSW

We love it when March rolls around – it means warmer weather is on the way and we get to make our annual pilgrimage to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest Interactive festival!

Be sure to drop us a note if you’re attending, as we’d love to meet up. Below are a few SXSW events that we’ll be actively involved with – check them out if you get a chance.

The State of Music Blogs in 2010 – Tuesday, March 16, 5:00pm
Austin Convention Center
I’ll be moderating a panel of prominent music bloggers, PR and record label executives to discuss the impact of music blogs on the industry today. More info: http://my.sxsw.com/e/692

Silicon Prairie Party – Sunday, March 14, 9:00pm
Lanai Rooftop Lounge
Lava Row has signed on as a sponsor of the Silicon Prairie Party and we couldn’t be more excited! This event will be an excellent opportunity to connect with innovators and entrepreneurs from the Silicon Prairie. Stop by and say hello, and don’t forget to RSVP on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=356824300398

See you in Austin!

It’s that time of year again – South by Southwest Interactive is right around the corner! In our latest podcast I spoke with Bryan Person about the festival, what keeps the city of Austin weird, and the Social Media Breakfast SXSW event being organized there.

You can listen to the podcast below, or subscribe in iTunes. As always, thanks for listening! If you’re going to be attending SXSW, please leave a shout in the comments section – we’d love to meet you!

 

 Standard Podcast [17:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Despite its audience of 60 million users, LinkedIn remains widely misunderstood by the mainstream business audience. We continually meet people that have a LinkedIn account, but rarely curate it or proactively make connections inside the social network.

On Wednesday we spoke at the American Marketing Association (AMA) Iowa chapter about the nuts and bolts of LinkedIn and how to use it as a platform to showcase your reputation, get found online, and generate new business connections. Below is our presentation posted on Slideshare.

LinkedIn is absolutely one of the most important tools in our business development arsenal at Lava Row. How are you using it? What success stories can you share?

On Friday I gave a presentation called Fostering Community with Social Media at the Midwest Newspaper Summit (put on by the fine folks at the Iowa Newspaper Association). The audience was a mix of journalists and editors from regional newspapers as well as college students excited to break into the media industry.

The journalism world (specifically newspapers) is currently in a state of flux, and many are wondering if anything will be left standing five years from now. Yes, media platforms and reading habits have evolved, but the point of my session was that community equals opportunity – advantages go to those who embrace technology shifts and understand how to operationalize social networks for their gain.

While most of the audience was there to learn, I did my fair share of learning from them, as well. The session allowed me to connect with smart people who are working on innovative things, right here in Iowa. Thomas Ritchie (Online Editor at the Sioux City Journal) has put a focus on harnessing the real-time web and live-blogging stories for his newspaper, and he’s achieved quite a bit of success from it. Steve Buttry, who blogs about the future of journalism and media, sat in the front row and asked all sorts of good questions. I was also impressed by many of the college students I met, who are eager to break into the industry and tear it up using their knowledge of self-publishing tools and networks.

I have lots of opinions on where this is all going, but I certainly don’t have all the answers. What are your thoughts on the future of newspapers and news media? Please chime in below.

February is shaping up to be a busy month, speaking-wise. Starting tonight, we’ve got 11 gigs in 28 days – now that’s a lot of talking!

Recently some of you have been asking about what events we’re participating in and where to find us, so we’ve posted a detailed list (ones that allow public registration) below. We’ll go ahead and throw March’s trip to Texas into the mix, as well. If you decide to venture out to any of these, please say hello and ask lots of questions. We’d love to meet you.

Midwest Newspaper Summit
Friday, February 5
Downtown Marriott Hotel, Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: Social Media – Fostering an Online Community Around Your Newspaper

Social Media and Health Care (Iowa Hospital Association)
Tuesday, February 9
Thompson Auditorium, Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: An introduction to social media

A Journalist’s Guide to New Media (Drake University SJMC)
Saturday, February 13
Meredith Hall, Room 104, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: Linking w/ potential employers, clients and professionals via social media tools

American Marketing Association, Iowa Chapter
Wednesday, February 17
Hilton Garden Inn, Johnston, Iowa
Topic: How LinkedIn are you?

EntreFest 2010
Friday, February 26
West Des Moines Marriott, West Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: Using Facebook to build your business

South by Southwest Interactive 2010
Tuesday, March 16
Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas
Topic: The State of Music Blogs in 2010

Photo credit: visual_dichotomy via Flickr

Today we interviewed Julia Rosien, Director of Communications at Natura World, about how she’s using social media to build the brand of a mattress company. We chose to highlight Julia to prove a point – that smart, strategic use of social networks can benefit any business, regardless of the product or industry.

The discussion also touches on the FTC’s recent guidelines for blogger outreach and disclosure, and the importance of transparency within Natura’s marketing efforts – differentiating them from other organic businesses that might dabble in less-than-honest “greenwashing.”

You can listen to the podcast below, or subscribe in iTunes. Thanks for listening, and let us know if you have ideas for future guests or content.

 

 Standard Podcast [15:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

We’re only one week into Foursquare being available here in Des Moines (and every city), and already I’m seeing a large volume of chatter from people who are confused by it, scared of it, dismissive of it and don’t see the value. This is a classic symptom of a “hot” social network.

In fact, many of these conversations are very, very familiar. We had the same ones about Twitter in early 2007 (I was one of those confused voices) until we each had our personal “a-ha” moments, and then we suddenly got it.

Last week I wrote about Foursquare’s potential for local businesses, but let’s step away from the biz angle for a moment and discuss the personal and social reasons behind why I use it. Please note: This is not a command that you must start using it, or that you should use it in a similar way. I’m writing this for the “I don’t get it” folks – those who are confused by the whole thing and want some clarification.

Broadcasting your current location

When you “check in” to a specific location on Foursquare, the application allows you to auto-broadcast your current location out to your social networks. One misconception about Foursquare is that this is all users will ever do, and the fear is that our friends’ Twitter feeds and Facebook updates will become an endless barrage of useless “I’m at Venue XYZ [LINK]“ updates. This is a legitimate concern, and it’s the reason why I turned off the auto-broadcast feature in my settings. I want to check in to locations to rack up points, compete with friends, and move up the Foursquare Leaderboard, but I’m assuming my Twitter followers don’t need to know about it every single time.

There are circumstances where I do want people to know where I’m at and what I’m doing. For instance, during last Friday’s Des Moines Tweetup I used Foursquare to announce that I was there. (This is something I would typically tweet about, anyway.) People were using it at the Central Iowa Bloggers meetup that same morning in a similar way, saying “Hey, I’m at this cool event, and you’re missing out if you’re not here.”

I left auto-broadcast switched on for announcing that I’ve become the Mayor of a venue. This is for bragging rights. I want people to know who I’ve dethroned. It’s part of the competition, part of the gimmick.

Handling friend requests

Right now there’s a lot of conversation surrounding this issue: “Who do I accept as my friend on Foursquare?” Social networks have forced humans to deal with all sorts of new social mores, and to further complicate things, our connection preferences in each network are going to be different. Bryan Person wrote a great post about his own selection filters, plus his readers’ perspectives. Here’s my rule: If I’ve actually met the person in real life, I’ll accept the request. Yes, in a few circumstances I’ve bent this rule both ways. This is similar to my Facebook filter (IRL connections only) but very different than my Twitter filter, where serendipity rules all.

Managing privacy

If you are legitimately concerned about privacy, you do two things: 1.) Avoid Foursquare altogether, or 2.) Use the settings and filters described above to control updates and select who gets into your network. It’s your world.

So, that’s how I’m currently use it, and why. What’s been your personal Foursquare experience thus far? Please chime in below!

Image credit: dpstyles via Flickr