Though I didn’t agree with all of the views shared by my fellow panelists about the best practices (or who you are likely to influence by using SMO), the thing that I found interesting was how SEO centric most of the views were. 

I think Social Media Marketing is about much more than SEO or search engine results.  Done right, it can foster brand evangelists, engage customers in dialogue and support other marketing efforts.  A wider trend that I have noted from several other interactive shows such as CommunityNext and even some sessions at SxSW, however, was the evolving role of social search tools broader than Google or search engines and the rise of communities as tools to help people find information. 

Social search is redefining the way people find, rate, share and consume information online.  Have a quick look at the recent headlines from one of any blogs that focus on new sites and technologies such as TechCrunch or Mashable (among others), and you will get a clear picture of how true this is. 

Thinking about this and walking through the Expo, the one thing that struck me most about the exhibitors was the lack of what I would consider Web2.0 companies or ideas.  For the most part, the Expo seemed identical to what it was in 2006.  Same venue, same three floor format, and mostly the same exhibitors. 

In a nutshell, it was companies selling search campaign management software, new search engines with vertical focuses, or search marketing agencies.  In a world where new startups are springing up every day and the world of search has innovations from visual search to mobile and video search tools – the Expo seemed very Web 1.0 to me.  Perhaps I missed the real innovative tools, but aside from a few standouts like Hakia (which also has a great campaign inspired by Cisco’s Human Network) or ZoomInfo, I left disappointed by the chance to see real innovation in search at the Expo. 

In terms of social search and social media optimization, the one thing that came out of our panel which I was a bit bothered by was that attendees could easily have left with the impression that many of the SMO tactics employed by the panelists were only suitable for small businesses or capable of reaching teenagers with time on their hands.  I read a good summary of our panel by Kate Zimmerman over at SearchViews which shared a similar conclusion. 

Search and the rise of social search has big implications for large brands and requires a shift in thinking.  It’s a viewpoint I bring to my clients every day as I talk to them about their search efforts and how consumers are hearing about (and talking about) their brands.  Adding a social search track to the third day of SES this year was a great step.  Looking forward to the future, I think we’ll see a larger part of the event (and the exhibitors) dedicated to this area.  Based on where other interactive shows are, I thought I might have found more of it this year at SES NY.

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This past Monday, we saw one example of cyberbullying in the case of Kathy Sierra – a good synopsis came from Lisa Stone of BlogHer, an organization that has been (possibly / probably unfairly) dragged into the controversy.

Let’s take a step back and get to the basics: this should not have happened. Yes, the blogosphere gives us a sense of anonymity – us in PR have been attacked by an anonymous blog, but none of us have been physically threatened with death (as far as I know), but have had to deal with venomous emails and threats of livelihoods – but it is a false sense, and should not be abused. The truth always comes out, in the end.

And, we have seen the blogosphere get up in arms over gender equality, which has cyberbullied conferences to include women in panels. There is an odd bit of irony there.

We are mostly adults in the blogosphere. Well, "adults" behind a computer giving some people a bigger sense of worth (most likely self-inflated worth, as seems to be the norm in blogs), and there is a lot of testosterone in the blogosphere that comes out in immature ways against women that should not be tolerated.

But, like I noted, we are supposedly adults that should act as adults. In this instance, the adults have lost to the immature and anonymous.

At CommunityNext, I was speaking to three women about bullying and cyberbullying. One of the women is writing her graduate thesis on bullying – both offline and online – and has been spending time in a classroom to research. The other two women work at a childrens’ social network, and we were joking about the bullying of our childhood. My point was that in our school yard days – the more carefree 70′s – that bullying was not necessarily a bad thing, as it hardened us and prepared us for the real world. It was not totally malicious, and while some kids cried, the next day brought the next adventure, and we were all friends. And, well, bullying was always harshest amongst the girls – man, they could get catty. One of the women talked about her experience as a camp counselor, and teasing the children, who valued and sought the interaction from an adult.

But, there is the difference – that was about children. And, children are not equiped to deal with such bullying, and are now being pushed beyond the norm by being cyberbullied on MySpace comments, IM, and text messaged threats. There is no escaping Cyberbullying, as it follows you from device to device – it is the true idea of presence, taken to a horrific level with horrific results. Cyberbullying takes what we did as children, and ramps it up to a whole new level. That "take their cookies" mentality – one that I still subscribe to – is different, as it is not about being tough, but about pushing the other child down in the dirt as much as possible and pushing them over the brink.

What happened is a travesty and embarasing as a male and a long-time blogger. It was an adult-on-adult bullying, but that is the point: we are adults, and should recognize that too big a part of blogging is sandlot bravado. As a PR person, that is part of my counsel to clients: be prepared to defend your line in the sand, and sometimes you need to be prepared to be attacked and defend.

This crossed the line, but are we going to see a backlash where the sentiment is going to be "get a thicker skin"? While that is not the right answer, the blogosphere is fluid, and unfortunately, at times it can be cruel. But, at least we have the hardened years of adulthood, and can sigh a breath of relief that we are not growing up in a world where cyberbullying is the norm.

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1. Akash Garg of hi5
2. Sean Suhl of Suicide Girls
3. Max Levchin of Slide
4. James Hong of HotorNot
5. Markus Frind of PlentyofFish
6. Drew Curtis of Fark

Now, some of that may be because I‘m about to moderate a panel myself on User Gen, and I want to emulate Guy’s success here, but it’s also because I loved finding out how these guys created such viral communities.

Funniest comment:

Drew said they were taking alot of flack from the Washington Post because one of their headlines had said Anna Nicole Smith’s condition was *upgraded* to dead.

Most interesting:

None of these guys planned to go where they are with these companies, they followed their users ideas and they went with the natural flow of what was necessary. In fact, Sean said, in effect, the planning has to be loose, and you can’t just follow the rules.

Most consoling:

Turns out fear is ok. When I think about this blog or anything I’ve created, I always wonder when it’s all going to end. I know I’m not alone as so many entries on the blogosphere (and off) have to do with ‘the bubble bursting’, but I was consoled that Max says he’s often terrified that it will all disappear too. Made me feel better to know there was someone else out there that was obsessive about it.

Most exciting:

James says passion is everything. Just like I say about blogging that you won’t succeed if you don’t like what you are doing (ie pick a topic you love), James says you have to love what you do as an entrepreneur. If you can’t be passionate and love your product, then find something you can love and go with it.

The ‘duh moment (that everyone needs to understand):

Listen to your users. Passionate users know your product, even better than you do. When they talk you need to listen. Slide would be an entirely different product without user suggestions.

Although, I’d insert the fact that Markus says some users should NOT be listened to. Use your brain, and think about where your bread and butter is. Don’t implement stuff just because it was asked for… Some features are not helpful and could actually destroy the community you have created (ie chat rooms full of married people on a dating site).

On Marketing:

Most of these guys said that marketing was of little value to them (gasp). They said the viral things that really made them successful was an accident. Sure you can come up with a great idea, but the real truth is that if your company is doing something cool, people will talk about it.

HotorNot said that by the end of day one they had 40K unique users, and within a week they were seeing millions of page views per day. They showed it to cube-locked geeks (Intel workers, ironically) and they passed it around immediately. Sean from Suicide Girls says they spent tons of energy on a CSI episode in which their girls were featured, with no result and got a ton of result from a column on their site and from a YouTube video one of their girls uploaded (she was lipsyncing to a Hall and Oats song).

Now, as a marketing consultant, I want to disagree, but I can’t… Communities are where it’s at, and marketing has to make their job showcasing the communities that have evolved naturally and making them more user-friendly (off-site buys+clear, directioned thinking involving on-site assets). Marketing isn’t dead, but it’s way different than it was just last year.

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The event was a fun gathering of extremely smart folks from some of the hottest online communities today – and panelists/speakers shared many great thoughts on topics ranging from how to be more awesome, to the genesis behind HotorNot.com.

Through the day, I took several notes and during the flight back to the east coast, started to aggregate the day into some central lessons about online communities gained from listening to many of the speakers, as well as looking at what is making many of the sites from attendees stand out. Here’s my list of 10 lessons that I took away from the event, as well as a few great sites that are worth visiting for further exploration:

1. Avoid being just "niche" – Over and over from founders of online communities was the desire to do away with the word "niche." It seems to stem mostly from the assumption that niches are small things, whereas each of these online communities is spent bringing together anyone with the same passion – not just people from "niche" groups. The lesson here seems to be – don’t think small.

2. Listen to your users – If there was one thread heard over and over throughout the day, it was the power of listening to your users. Each of the featured sites had amassed significant numbers of passionate individuals who provide their time and energy to the site and the community. They are highly likely to share their opinions, and most likely to appreciate and publicize it if you actually listen to their opinions.

3. Use accidental marketing – An interesting panel question Guy Kawasaki asked at the end of the day focused on the fact that members of companies on the founding panel didn’t seem to need or value marketing very much. In a telling response, Max Levchin of Slide shared that they didn’t do any marketing because "the service already was viral." Well, I would argue that viral has to do with word of mouth, which some would consider marketing – but the interesting thing was that most founders didn’t seem to feel there was a way to plan marketing, it just happens. Not sure I agree with this view, as I think smart marketing has a lot less to do with ad buys and a lot more to do with doing things that are noteworthy … but it was interesting to hear their experiences nonetheless.

4. Get smart on recruiting – Everyone is recruiting, and many of them are seeking the same types of people … but the theme of the event seemed to be positioning your community as a great team to join. It was an interesting angle on "sales" – as usually these events are focused on sites recruiting either members or advertisers. Here, I think any of the online communities would have been happy to find the right person to join their team out of the event.

5. Foresake VC funding - I felt a little bad for Guy in the last panel as he heard from company after company that each had avoided taking venture capital funding. Of course, there is still a big place for VC and leveraged correctly, it can really mean the difference between success and failure. But there was a vibe running through the event that most folks starting online communities would do anything they could to avoid taking VC funding. It seems to have become a last resort.

6. Have a passion – This was one of the points made very early on by Josh Spear and Aaron Dignan in their opening presentation about Brand Utopia – and repeated throughout the event. Passion in what you are doing may come from different places as founders of online communities shared. For some, it’s a personal passion. For others it comes from seeing the way that users embrace a service and feeling connected/responsible to those users. Either way, passion is a prerequisite.

7. Master the emotional return - One of the best points made by Premal Shah as he talked about Kiva was that the model and concept of the site had mastered the art of providing people with an emotional return as an incentive that was far more important than a financial one. For those unfamiliar, Kiva is a site that allows people to provide microloans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Of course, everyone needs to make some money. But a successful online community is one that can consistently provide that emotional return to users. That’s the most important ingredient – and if you don’t have that, then the financial aspect will not last that long.

8. Don’t lose the fun – James Hong of HotorNot.com was the chief brand ambassador of fun on the final panel of the day, and his site reflects it. In an entertaining way of describing the mission of this site, he noted that it was to "waste as much of corporate America’s time as possible." It’s a classic rebel mission, and one focused on fun as a paramount concept. The fun factor can be the toughest element to keep as a site grows. James has a lesson for any online community worth heeding.

9. Keep it real – From using error messages with personality, to not being afraid to have a voice as part of the community – keeping it real is a big deal. Part of the appeal of many communities is the personal story behind it and the founders. That’s what gets people engaged to start with, and that’s what keeps them engaged throughout. Communities are made up of real people. To succeed you have to start real, and stay that way.

10. Be better than you - I kept this point last because I thought it spoke well to the future of online communities and how they must always be evolving. The guys from Threadless were probably received as the most popular of the day (aside from Guy Kawasaki, of course) – and one of the most entertaining of their slides was the growth chart which plotted time on one axis, and awesomeness on the other. Over time, they have basically gotten more awesome. But a key ingredient in that is always improving – because any competitor gunning for you is aiming to be better than you. So you have to aim for the same thing.

Hopefully, these lessons are useful for those of you who weren’t able to attend the event. For those who were there, I’d love to hear if you think I captured the essence of the event or there are other lessons that stood out for you. As requested by Noah, I am tagging this post "communitynext2007" and request any others who write follow up posts to do the same.

And a Few Sites/Ideas That Stood Out …

•   Kiva.org – Speaking to Premal about this site, it’s tough not to get caught up in the idea and promise of Kiva. Not many online communities can truly have the power to change the world. This is one of them.

•   AnimalAttractions.com – Surprised to find another attendee from DC, I shared a drink with Dan and talked about the great concept behind his site … helping pet owners to meet one another through their shared passion. A brilliant idea that is themed after interactions that already happen in real life – if you’re single and have a pet, you need to visit this site.

•   Iparklikeanidiot.com – This is quite possibly the most useful site I have ever visited, from the creative folks at Skinny Corp (also behind Threadless.com). For anyone who has felt the wrath of not being able to park in a spot due to someone else’s stupidity, just order a set of 20 of these (low-tack) stickers and slap one onto the offending car for the ultimate revenge. Love it!

•   Loopt – Taking the concept I just wrote about in my post on "Beaconvertising" even further, Loopt has a cool concept for helping friends to find one another in the same space using principles from IM. The service lets you find a friend that is within a set distance, locate a place nearby to meet, send IMs and lots more. I wish I had this when I was in college (and had 100+ people to add to my list) … but even now (when my list is much shorter) there is still great potential in this.

•   DeviantArt.com – Probably the most mentioned favourite site of people at the event, aside from Flickr, DeviantArt is worth a visit for this reason alone. The site has artists of all types uploading some very high quality stuff and offer an almost addictive experience once you get there. They couldn’t have gotten better buzz from the event if they had been a sponsor …

•   MyChurch.org – Joe Suh had this great idea to connect some of the 300,000 Christian churches nationwide into an online community and created a comprehensive set of faith-based tools to help churches connect with one another and share knowledge and community events. As he starts to recruit more parishes and get more members – this will be a force to watch.

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About the Author

Rohit Bhargava is the Vice President for Interactive Marketing with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com