I had a fantastic day yesterday. Seriously fantastic.

I was privileged to be asked to sit on a panel at the Triangle AMA Social Media Bootcamp on Crucial Connections: Effective Engagement and Outreach. As part of that privilege, I got to attend the entire session, which was so totally fabulous I really can’t put it into words. Cord Silverstein of Capstrat and his planning team put together a truly talented line-up of speakers.

So what was so great about yesterday? I LEARNED.

I spend a lot of my job at Scandinavian Child engaging in social media but I definitely don’t know it all. I don’t even come close. This was evident by all the gems I took home from the event, specifically on video (courtesy of Gregory Ng of Brooks Bell Interactive.) In fact, Jim Hazen of Capstrat made a point to call himself a “learner” and not a “guru”, which I thought was great. This is still a relatively new medium and we’re all find new and improved ways to use it.

Here are a few things I didn’t know that I thought I’d share:

• There are many tools that can help you track forum and discussion board conversations.  Check out boardtracker.com, boardreader.com and omgili.com.
• When posting a title to your YouTube video, use the word VIDEO as many people actually search that way. 
• When writing a description, lead with a URL.  YouTube only shows the first two lines and most people don’t click through to see more info.
• You can add tracking codes to URL’s with Google Analytics for specific campaigns.  As an example, you can blast out a URL on Twitter and a seperate URL on Facebook and compare your visitor stats.  Search URL builder.
• For bragging rights, you can analyze your “social media influence” on Twitalyzer or Klout.com. (Both Scandinavian Child and I are spiders, in case you care. On Klout, I am a persona and Scandinavian Child is a connector.)

I actually learned a substantial amount more about analytics, but it’s hard to put into concrete though here, so you’ll just have to check out Jim’s presentation once it’s uploaded to Slideshare.

As for my panel, I got to sit in with Chris Moody and Jeremy Smith, two fun guys who have a wealth of knowledge in the social media realm. We talked about the importance of the pitch and having normal, everyday conversations with people.  Online relationships are just like real life relationships.  You have to talk in order to have someone talk back to you. 

Bottom line: Have a goal in mind when you start in social media.  Know what your objectives are and HAVE FUN!

Unfortunately I missed Nathan Gilliat’s presentationon Social Media Monitoring but you can view his presentation here. And since I came in late for Cord’s Crisis Communication topic, I’ll share that one with you too.

Want more? Visit the following sites for more recaps or visit Slideshare for access to all presentations.
KarlSakas.com
Media Two Point (oh)

Erin serves as Director of Marketing Communications for Scandinavian Child. A drama queen with a strong love of Starbucks, she can also be found at her personal blog Tales from a Marketing Mama. She has an adorable 18 month old son and a hilarious, fabulous husband.