Geoff Livingston noted a kind of "social media fatigue" in Texas, along with a "consistent undercurrent revolving around what's next."
"We are in a phase where it’s no longer hip to announce your new social capabilities," he writes. "You either do it, or you need to quietly learn, adapt and get it. Further, it needs to be integrated within the larger offering."The social media conversation is turning to specialization, he says, with location technology like FourSquare on many agendas.
Horn Group's Susan Etlinger picked up on a new "culture of sharing" amid social technologies, per Altimeter Group's Charlene Li, who offers five guidelines for engaging an audeince online.
"So what can you do?" asks Etlinger. "One very basic thing is to be engaged with people who are at the bottom of the 'engagement pyramid'; that is, people who watch or share information rather than publishing or curating it."
Linsey Krauss of Lois Paul & Partners offered some logistical notes on SXSWi, including lines (40% more attendees were at the interactive show than last year), AT&T managing the concentrated strain on its service better than in '09, and the continued buzz surrounding Chatroulette.
Renee Blodget picked up some key tips for producing online video for viral pick-up, including one we think is too often ignored: "Embed, embed, embed," she writes. "If people can't easily embed your video across multiple platforms, it's going to be that much harder to spread virally."
Mark McClennan of Schwartz Communications picked up an interesting observation in a session with game design Peter Molyneux comparing gaming vs. movies.
"Movies can never engage like games," McClennan writes. "Movies want flaccid robots. Think about that in terms of traditional public relations or marketing, and now how PR has evolved. By making consumers’ voices heard, knowing they have a stake in your brand, companies can create an emotional connection they could never create through shouting."
Ogilvy's Rohit Bhargava reports on highlights from the rogue SXSH "unconference" which delved into social media and healthcare. Tackling the issue "trust" in the sector, he solicited input from various attendees to assemble 10 ways the healthcare industry could combat a "culture of distrust online."
One example: "Large organizations in particular are often good about communicating outcomes or results in financial terms on a quarterly basis or some kind of cost related metric, but not as good about communicating impact of their efforts in human terms."
