How’s your bracket?

We’ve reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA College Basketball March Madness tournament. Although, I’m ecstatic that the University of Washington Huskies are still alive, my bracket is limping along as I only have two final four picks still alive. But it’s been great entertainment.

 

Yes Tim, it’s been a fun $10! This year has been a crazy tournament with so many upsets and the conversation has been enhanced via Twitter. I’ve written before how Twitter enhances the sports experience, whether talking about the Red Sox, Shaq, or the NFL.

Since those early posts, athletes from all sports, professionals and amateurs have joined Twitter to speak with their fans.  There have been so many athletes on Twitter that you may not be able to track all of your favorites. So I was quite pleased to learn of this fantastic site from the Wall Street Journal that allows you to follow the tweets of players and coaches in the tournament.

 

The site is organized like a bracket so that you can see the most recent tweets for the two opponents in each game.  It even enables you to follow a list of your favorite team’s players. Of course, I followed the Huskies.

So how is your bracket doing and who are you following?

 

 

 

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Speaking out

Yesterday I spoke on a panel about How to Use Social Media at MarketMix 2010 which was produced by the local Seattle chapters of the AMA and DMA. Our panel was well attended and it was great to engage with people at a conference from outside the social media fish bowl.  Since many of us have been deeply immersed in social media for what seems like a long time, it’s always surprising to find other marketers that are just starting out. There were many great questions, both from the crowd and our uber-moderator, Kunal Muzumdar, who kept things moving.  One of the most popular questions was for a book recommendation on learning about social media.  Although it seems like everyone in social media has a book (or at least an upcoming book deal), the one book that has had staying power for me is Join the Conversation by the inestimable Joseph Jaffe. Published 3 years ago, this book still resonates.  Jaffe is very passionate about the subject and gives  great examples of how companies are doing things right in conversational marketing.  And that means giving up control, not always being right, respecting people building relationships instead of running campaigns, listening and acting like caring human beings. And since I’ve now outed myself as a true Jaffe fan-boy, his new book, Flip the Funnel is a fantastic take on loyalty and Retention Marketing. A Must Read!

Now back to the conference

Seattle Chef Tom Douglas gave a fascinating lunch keynote in which he shared his approach to branding while he prepped a beautiful king salmon as a metaphor for his branding and connection to the local market. Fascinating speech with some great sound bites:

The conference was a big success with over 400 people in attendance, the most popular conference that we’ve had in a month of marketing/ social media conferences in Seattle.  Congratulations to conference organizer Brian Ratzliff for a splendid event.  At the end of the month, I will also be speaking on Listening at the Social Media Conference NW at Western Washington University.  I hope to see you there.

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