The Rise of the Humans

There was an interesting story published yesterday on Mediabistro's 10,000 Words blog, describing an ongoing "social experiment" by the New York Times social media editors.  Until now, the @NYTimes Twitter account largely has been automated — simply auto-tweeting the headlines of and a link to whichever stories are published on the Times' website.

But for this week, social media editors Lexi Mainland and Liz Heron turned off the auto-tweeter, and instead have been "hand-writing" (as it were) all their own tweets.  So how has this experiment been going?  10,000 Words blog author Jessica Roy writes:

As it turns out, the differences between the automated feed and the handwritten one are pretty stark. For avid Twitter users, some of these changes may seem a little duh-worthy, but for a news organization with a notoriously ambivalent relationship with social media, these changes may represent an important attitudinal shift in regards to social networking.

"Watch Facebook."

A couple of relevant tweets from Wael Ghonim's Twitter page.

Any meeting professional who has ever doubted the power of social networking should have had their doubts smashed this past Friday, when a popular revolution that began and spread via Facebook and Twitter toppled the regime of Egyptian president — excuse me, former president (!) — Hosni Mubarak.

Serentwipity

A view of the "Tradeshow Trends: New Revenues" session at PMCA Convening Leaders.

Yesterday, during day one of PCMA Convening Leaders in Las Vegas, I experienced one of those moments of serendipity that social-media boosters mean when they talk about social networks increasing connectivity and community, rather than the other way around.

"If everyone always has their noses buried in the phones," naysayers say, "how is anyone ever supposed to meet someone new?"

Tweeting a Meeting

One final thought about the 2010 Association Media & Publishing Annual Meeting: A big priority this year was to involve AM&P members in general and Annual Meeting attendees in particular with the conference via social media -- especially Twitter. As co-chair of the Annual Meeting Committee, I tried to set a good example by tweeting before, during, and after the event. During the actual three days of the Annual Meeting, I tweeted more than I ever have, firing off at least one takeaway -- and usually several -- from every session I attended. We were running a live Twitter feed of our hashtag in the exhibit hall, which was also the scene of every lunch, coffee break, and other networking event throughout the meeting, so a lot of people saw it, and were motivated to dive into the maelstrom of tweets, replies, and retweets. Some people even created Twitter accounts on the spot so they could join the conversation.

It was a great hands-on learning experience -- a true living laboratory for social media -- except that at a certain point I found myself listening to speakers not as an attendee who wanted to be educated but as a twitterer who wanted to entertain. I was focusing on sound-bite takeaways that would lend themselves to 140 characters (or fewer, ideally, so people would be encouraged to retweet me). When I realized that, I pulled back from Twitter a bit; instead of instantly tweeting every nugget that came my way, I took old-fashioned handwritten notes, and after a session wrapped up I tweeted whatever seemed tweetable. Maybe I cut myself off from Twitter's instant feedback loop, but at least for a moment, it's what I needed to do.

All a-Twitter

JetBlue created a mob scene in Manhattan on Wednesday, when it used its Twitter account to create a sort of scavenger hunt/giveaway to celebrate its 10th anniversary. According to a CNET News article, JetBlue announced on Twitter that it would be giving out about 1,000 free round-trip tickets at three undisclosed locations in Manhattan that day.

There was a catch: In order to claim the tickets, people had to bring something with them. At the first spot, a birthday card for JetBlue; at the second, an item of blue clothing and something related to planes; and at the third, a postcard depicting the mystery 10th city out of which the carrier started operating flights.

The tickets — around 300 at each location — were gone less than 30 minutes of each Twitter announcement.

Wouldn't this — a scavenger hunt with clues and a prize, announced via Twitter — be a great way to get attendees on the trade-show floor? Or a fun way for them to explore your meeting's host city?