So, I’ve decided to eat the $25 that I spent to go to the Politics4All.com Social Media Workshop and spend another $35 to head over to Vulcan for the “More Clients = More Money” .

As I attested to in an earlier post, I’m not a huge fan of politics. I guess I was looking for a legitimate excuse to not drive down to Montgomery (though I hate that I’ll be missing Paul Chaney speak, again). And I’m thinking more and more that a gathering of Media Professionals will be a touch more interesting.

I’m also looking forward to hearing Phyllis Neill and Andy Ford, two great entrepreneur here in town. Not to mention Tammy Hart…

Going to be great people, don’t wanna miss it!

(PS – if anyone wants my ticket to the Political Social Media Workshop in Montgomery email me)

David Griner and crew over at Luckie are hosting a great panel over at the Virginia Samford Theatre on (you guessed it) Marketing to the Modern Mom. David and crew have brought in blogging moms and marketers to help you and your business connect with web savy Moms.

And I hear that if you put in the code “FRIENDOFWADE” you get $10 off… and a hug from local blogger/writer/editor Wade Kwon (made that last part up, no hug guaranteed)

Wow! What a weekend of Social Media goodness. I honestly wish I could have done more (not that 2 conferences isn’t enough), but alas, I’m only one person. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

New Media Atlanta – For Social Media People, Not By Social Media People

Friday morning at about the butt-crack of dawn, I jumped into the car with @briancauble, @andreafwalker, and @joshgrenon for a little road trip goodness. As the anointed driver of the group (voted most awake and most caffeinated), I navigated us (via GPS) to GaTech for New Media Atlanta.

First think I must say about #nmatl is that it was well organized. But from the time that I walked into the lecture hall it was being held in, I knew it wasn’t going to go well. It immediately reminded me of a quote that I had recently hear from one of those big named social media folks…

The difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing.

Now, having been to #soso in August, (not nearly as well organized as #nmatl) I realized that while the people who ran #nmatl may use Social Media, but I seriously doubt that they are Social Media people.

#soso focused on interaction, not just lecture. Granted we grouped together to hear @ajkeen and @mideastyouth, but most of the conference were tag-team sessions that promoted more discussion than lecture. One great example was where @jasonfalls and @RichardAtDell discussed creating a Social Media strategy and asked the audience the question while guiding the conversation. Kudos to those guys for a great session and the organizers of #soso for using that format.

Now I realize that most of the people in attendance were marketers (a live pole was done via text) and that marketers are used to the “bullhorn”. But, social media is about interaction, discussion, networking, etc. And I quite frankly feel that I didn’t get that kind of value from #nmatl. The biggest takeaway from the conference is that I won’t be back next year if they don’t change the format.

With the exception of Brogan. Hearing Brogan was worth the price of admission. Just wish I had known that a week ago, and I would have planned to go listen to him in Nashville.

Now, don’t think I’m spiteful. I think that #nmatl is a great idea and would benefit from some tweaking of the format. I’m hopeful that the organizers will listen to the feedback (hopefully they are hearing the same feedback that I have been) and change the format of the conference. Atlanta has a great deal of marketers, PR people, companies, conference space, etc. Essentially, all the ingredient to make #nmatl nationally recognized as the place to be for Social Media Pros.

I think a lot of people will be interested to see what happens next year.

Now, I’m not a guy to take one thing and stick to it. I deal in systems. Things working together to make a whole. Like a computer. Like a retail store. Like a company.

And a Social Media Consultant has to be a product of a system. Be versed in not just Social Media, but other aspects of how a business operates. I’m not just talking about day-to-day operations. Yes, you need to know those to be able to generate content. I’m talking about 3 other key “job skills” that will make anyone in Social Media (consultant or otherwise) successful.

1) Public or Media Relations – I worked as a student social media consultant for a university for a little under a year. The little bit of information that I picked up there has probably served me better than any other former job that I’ve had. You never realize how a little bit of the wrong information can cast a bad light on an organization. Now, I’m not telling corporate blogger not to be honest and genuine. I’m just saying that you don’t have to post every detail of everything.

2) Marketing – I spent 4-5 years working closely with the same university’s athletic marketing department. I learned two things from them: the real definition of hard work (I swear they never slept from August to May) and how to market effectively using a hell of a lot less resources than you should have. Trust me, as a consultant, I emphasis to my clients that I do things as cost-effectively and user-friendly as possible. There are a lot of free services that, if coupled with some low-cost options, are just as good as some “all-in-one” services.

3) Running – No, I’m not talking about a marathon. I’m talking about being a student runner in the same university’s provost office (can you tell that I was busy in college?). Being able to watch how a business worked and how business works (which ARE two very different things) has taught me more about connecting with people than social media will ever teach me. While Social Media is great to get information about people, actual face-to-face contact with someone will never replace how business gets done. Making that personal connection personalizes the interaction and makes people more responsive to opportunities.

First off, let me let you know where this question is coming from. I was talking with my friend Andre over at The Terminal and he mentioned “guerilla” marketing, then corrected himself and said “viral” marketing and that got me to thinking, is there really a difference? Have the two really become so common that they are interchangeable?

To me, the difference is huge, but our culture is bridging the gap between the two terms because of how they were incepted and there effectiveness.

Let’s look at “guerilla” marketing. Wikipedia says…

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities on a very low budget. Such promotions are sometimes designed so that the target audience is left unaware they have been marketed to and may therefore be a form of undercover marketing (also called stealth marketing).

Ok, so as a social media geek, this screams out to me – MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc…and more and more you are starting to see companies such as FOX and The Terminal throwing up MySpace pages like there’s no tomorrow…and almost all of this is done without the consultation of anyone who has or uses these social media sites. Now, FOX and The Terminal are probably two really bad examples because I think they are (or are going to) use them to their full potential.

Ok, before I get any further into my rant, let’s get that “viral” marketing definition out of the way. Again from Wikipedia…

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.

Viral promotions may take the form of funny video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even SMS text messages.

The term “viral marketing” is also sometimes used pejoratively, to refer to stealth marketing campaigns–the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.

What? Stealth Marketing? I think we have out first real connection!

It seems to me that all viral marketing is, is guerrilla marketing on the internet. And it seems to be working much the same way guerrilla marketing worked in the 80s and 90s…the main difference is that one can reach out to thousands in just a few minutes, rather than hundreds in a few hours…getting out the message, packing the theatres, stands, parks, whatever…