SMX Social Media 2008 Recap
Posted on April 28th, 2008by Michael Gray in conference
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Last week I attended the SMX Social Media Conference in Long Beach California, here are some of my thoughts about the event.
The one thing that really stood out about this conference was the “focus” or “intensity” most of the attendees had about coming to learn and take in as much information as they could about the subject. At most conferences there’s a significant group of people who are there because there boss sent them, or they are looking for an excuse just to get out of the office, I didn’t see many of those people, most of them really came to learn about SMM.
IMHO one big change from this show over the last one was the lack of focus on Digg. The first show was digg, digg, digg, something else, digg, digg, digg. This show featured a much more balanced distribution of topics and subjects. Sure Digg is still the 800lb gorilla, but it’s good to recognize they aren’t the only game in town.
One of the new things we tried about this conference is twittering on the SMX twitter account. Full disclosure Danny handed the keys over to me on the account, but I’d really like some feedback there. I’m a big boy and if I sucked you can tell me, but at least tell me why it sucked, what you want to see more of or what in your opinion would make it better. I also was monitoring for SMX mentions using tweetscan. If you are speaker at a conference something you should be aware of if you suck or don’t connect with the audience chances are they will tweet about you.
Lisa Barone of Bruce Clay covered the conference and you can cruise over to the blog get a SMX conference session wrap up. Hey any chance we can get some info on how much traffic twitter sent you that week … c’mon pleeeeze ….
Jason Calacanis was one of the speakers and he created quite a stir. Sure he talked a bit of trash but I’m with Shoemoney you guys are way to easy to bait. Hey don’t take my word for it listen to the presentation and judge for yourself …
My two favorite presentations of the show were Brent’s on link building and Randy Woods on Linkedin.
Later in the week Susan of Bruce Clay asked what’s the value of niche shows like this, while my initial response was sarcastic and flippant (hey c’mon it’s me) I think the real value is you get exposed to the bleeding edge of development in an industry. At some of the bigger shows it gets a quick glossing over but it’s hard to really dig your teeth in. At this level of show you really can get exposed to people who are doing some interesting, unique, and bleeding edge stuff, you can also network with some of the rising stars in the field, and IMHO that has a lot of value.
Want some other opinions check out 20 Take-Aways from SMX Social Media and SMX Social Media ‘08 - Long Beach Recap
Missed this show … be sure to register now for SMX Advanced I have it on good authority there’s going to be some good stuff and some real tips on the ‘give it up’ panel 
April 28th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Nice little recap Michael and related links. I really enjoyed watching the SMX twitter account and getting to keep up. Being away from the conference sucked, but it was nice to keep up with the happenings through twitter.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Michael, SEO is a subset of Social Media, if it is not yet, it should be.
The most important part of social media is Public Relationship!
How do you take something negative and turn it into positive?
There is a saying, “Small fish does not take the bait!” But in the case of social media, it is the other way around. “Big fish be scared of the bait!”
One blogger angry at a brand can cause billions of dollars in damage! Can Goliath win over David?
April 28th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
It’s hard to disagree with the idea that someone should write better content. I agree though that the SEO Industry is in a shift and that a lot of the tools and techniques used will change drastically soon.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Probably one of the most enjoyable search conferences I’ve been to yet. Had twitter up on the screen both days and I liked it, as SMX tweets were a good reminder to stay focused. Also followed Lisa’s live blogging efforts. Information I took away from this event was exceptional.