What I find most interesting about this event isn’t so much Biden’s choice of words, but rather what happened after he made the statement and the response from the White House. Sure, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs could have issued an official statement or addressed the press corps directly, but instead he turned to social media, more specially, Twitter, with the following tweet: “And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right…”

This brief, 41-character tweet is just one of many recent examples of the power of social media as a communication tool. From world events such as the earthquake in Haiti or the protests of the presidential election in Iran last June, Twitter has provided – and will continue to provide – a new way to report on the stories of the day.

Whether you’re a fan or Twitter, or not, the social media tool is here to stay and will most likely continue to explode…and continue to report on explosions (verbal and otherwise) that happen in this world we share.

Last week I attended two well planned, successful events discussing social media, and yes, both were here in St. Louis.

Social Media Club

The first event was put on by the Social Media Club of St. Louis, which is an organization that enables people to share knowledge and build relationships. Their slogan is, “If you get it, Share it.” St. Louis founders, Reem Abeidoh (@rabeidoh on Twitter) and Todd Jordan (@tojosan) started the club this year with the goal of building it as a hub for all social media users to exchange knowledge and develop relationships among people they chat with online. The kickoff event was held back in May, and they have had a meeting on the third Thursday of every month since then at various venues throughout St. Louis. Each month features a different panel of social media experts discussing a variety of topics.

Oh, and did I mention that all of their events are free? Well, they are. You don’t even have to sign up for a membership. The only thing they ask is that you RSVP on their Web site, and after that, you can opt to have emails reminders sent to you for future events.

You can also check out their Facebook page for more information on the monthly events.

This month’s panel discussed new media versus old media and featured Craig Cheatham (@InsideNews4 on Twitter), an investigative reporter at Channel 4 News – KMOV; Erica Smith (@ericasmith), multimedia producer at the St. Louis Post Dispatch; Bill Streeter (@billstreeter), a video blogger (lofistl.com), blogger for the Riverfront Times, and teacher/advisor at St. Louis University; and Mike Flynn(@mikeflynn), a blogger at PunchingKitty.com and a web developer.

They discussed the benefits of social media and blogging and how it is changing the face of old media.
Some key points of the discussion included:

• Journalism ethics in blogs vs. print media.
• How bloggers have raised the bar and helped enhance the integrity of journalism.
• Blogs need to be backed up with links and sources in order to be trusted and considered authentic.
• Social media is driving the first response to breaking stories, whereas traditional media is still having difficulty responding as quickly and effectively.

Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Returns Home to St. Louis

The second social media event I attended was the Jack Dorsey Tweet Up sponsored by Webster University. I was surprised to find out that Dorsey (@jack), the co-founder and chairman of Twitter, is a St. Louis native who grew up in Compton Heights and attended Bishop DuBourg High School. He told an audience of almost 1,000 about his story, how his love of maps led to one of his first jobs as a dispatch programmer for emergency personnel and how he eventually started Twitter with co-founder Biz Stone.

For a recap of his speech, the following blogs offer a nice rundown:

Blogger Erin Eschen’s Notes

In Media Res Blog: The Highlights

The Social Media Report’s Recap

Dorsey also gave St. Louis a hint about his new company that is currently in the works with his former boss, Jim McKelvey of St. Louis-based Mira Digital Publishing. He mentioned health care and financial services as possible industries for the new company and he said St. Louis would play a role.

The Riverfront Times reported that the new company would be based on the “three concepts (of Twitter): immediacy, transparency and approachability.” He couldn’t give us much more information, because it is currently still in “stealth mode.”

I would like to commend Dr. Benjamin Akande (@benjamin_akande), Dean of the School of Business and Technology at Webster University, and Webster University (@websteru) for putting on such a successful event. One interesting feature of the event was a large projection screen that was displayed on the stage showing a live feed of tweets with the hash tag #jackatwebster. Dr. Akande also announced at the event that #jackatwebster made it to the list of Trending Topics on Twitter, to which the audience responded with cheers and clapping. While the Twitter feed was a little distracting, it was an interesting addition to Dorsey’s speech and made the event more interactive for the audience.

After his speech, Dorsey took questions from the audience and the media. Dorsey’s visit to St. Louis caused quite a stir in local media, prompting news articles and blogs left and right. To see a list of the media coverage, as well as video of Dorsey’s speech and photos, click here.

Webster University then honored Dorsey with the Success to Significance 2009 Person of the Year award. However, Dorsey’s day did not end there. After visiting Webster, Dorsey went on to St. Louis City Hall to receive the key to the City of St. Louis by Mayor Francis Slay. Lastly, he ended his eventful day by throwing the first pitch at the Cardinals game that night.

It was a big day for Jack Dorsey, the St. Louis native and Twitter CEO, and yet an even bigger day for St. Louis. This may be the jump start St. Louis needs to become a key player in social media.

The Harvard Business Review has expanded their social media presence from @HarvardBiz to now include @AskHBR, @TheDailyStat and @ManagementTip. Just one glance at the recent tweets by @AskHBR tells you it is a must-add to your list of Twitterpals.

The first post on their page when I logged on read:
Tutorial: What business are you really in? Is your answer the same as your customers’? http://bit.ly/a0R9c Questions?

Following the link, I read through the article and am now thinking about “What business am I really in?” and I want to ask the team I work with what their answers are.

The title of the article is “Marketing Myopia” and seems to be a well-chosen name. The brief presents four myths of marketing positions that, in the writer’s opinion, put a business at risk. The responses are things I believe TVG practices with our client service, yet it requires a deeper look at the “physician-heal-thyself” risk that consulting firms often ignore.

There has been a lot of churn in the economy, the ways clients spend money, the ways clients make decisions and the ways professional service firms in the marketing communications field are positioning themselves. Yet, who is thinking about mar comm from the vantage point of ‘what business are we in?’

If a consulting company turns our teams and our creative talents outward, to serve the marketplace, we achieve success for the short-term. If we focus these teams on looking inward as well, we stand a better chance at long-term strength. We’ve started down a path of rebranding TVG for 2010, and I think I’ll add this question to our next thinking session. So for those of you on my team, be ready to answer: What business are we really in?!

Instead of providing a long synopsis on some of the lessons learned, I wanted to share a few of my favorite tidbits and tweets from presenters and attendees.

I hope these tidbits get your mind going about interactive marketing and social media within your organization. For more of a wrap-up from WOMM-U, visit their conference Web site.

The social media realm has really taken media’s center stage over the last 12 months. With the boom of Twitter and growth of social networks among older demographics, companies everywhere are not only starting to take notice, but they are making room in their budget for social media programs.

What WOMM-U demonstrated was companies are also starting to understand the unique qualities of this medium, especially the need to put some of the control into the consumer’s hands. The common mistakes of controlling the conversation over the past few years seems to be fading and companies are truly embracing the conversations…and it is paying off for their business!

I recently attended the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC) expo in Orlando. I tried something new at the TVG booth. I pulled out my iPhone and tweeted that I would be giving away a brick of St. Louis-based Bissingers chocolate to the first person who stopped by the TVG booth on the show floor.

Turns out my original tweet went a bit “viral.” Someone I’d never met before, Glenn Batuyong from the Unified Port of San Diego stopped by my booth after seeing my twitter post. He had not been following me, but saw the tweet on the NAGC twitter site, which picked up my post.

Glenn in turn tweeted about winning the chocolate and posted a picture of the chocolate, the flash drive he picked up with TVG information and our crisis communications brochure. You can see the picture at http://twitpic.com/3upu8.

One of Glenn’s followers, the Social Media Guide then retweeted about Glenn’s post. In the span of about three hours, my followers, NAGC followers, Glenn’s followers, the SMG followers, even TVG followers saw my original tweet and Glenn’s tweet. That adds up to nearly two thousand people. Not bad for a few minutes work in between conversations at the booth.

To quote from Glenn’s tweet, “Marketing over Twitter works!” I couldn’t agree more.

Follow Andy on Twitter: @TVGmediaguy

Start your week off on YouTube to learn about past marketing campaigns, start a conversation in your office or just get your creative juices flowing with a good laugh. Enjoy.

The Now Sprint Commercial. Ok, I really saw this on TV first, but then saw it again on YouTube. This is a great example of a company appealing to the social media savvy while still reaching old-fashioned media audiences who watch television instead of chatting on Twitter or Facebook.

Will it Blend? This YouTube campaign has been around for a while, but I just learned about it last week from a blog post by Zeus Jones, “The Best Social Media Marketing.” The people at Blendtec bring energy, humor and interest to a product as simple and everyday as a blender. With almost 3.5 million channel views, this proves social media can benefit just about any business- it is not just for the tech and teen products.

Network- Turn off your TV! Ending with something entertaining and thought provoking. I found this video thanks to my younger brother’s personal blog. The clip from the 1976 movie is cynical yet inspiring, and still applicable today. The brilliant performance by Peter Finch brings to mind today’s media conglomerates, closing news companies, rumors of Google and other vying to buy Twitter, the changes of how we communicate with each other and much more.

And why not? Here are a few key reasons I can see why their business model fits so well into social media- Twitter, Facebook, blogs.

First, they are usually smaller companies with tight marketing and advertising budgets. They use to be confined to bridal magazines but now they have all these social outlets that are free and easy for one person to manage. For example, instead of hiring a web designer- they are setting up their own blog.

Weddings have always been all about word-of-mouth, even before social media. The wedding industry runs on recommendations and preferred vendors. This is the biggest day of a bride and groom’s life- they want to be confident about their decisions. The majority of referrals come from friends, family, coworkers and friends-of-friends. For example, my caterer came recommended by a venue, my invitations from a sister, my DJ from another sister’s coworker, my hairdresser from a friend’s aunt… okay, you get the picture. Now with social media, these vendors are able to extend that priceless group of friends and family exponentially online.

Their business is driven by one personality. With most wedding vendors, they own and run the business. There is no mascot, CEO or major brand profile that would take on their Twitter persona. This makes it easier for them to settle into sites like Twitter, build a network and be authentic. They only have to worry about speaking for themselves, not a greater body of employees.

The audience is already there. It makes perfect sense for wedding vendors to join sites like Facebook. I joined the site in its first year, and now my fellow college students and I seem to be spending a lot of time and energy (and money) getting married. Facebook is a part of our everyday lives and has been for quite some time. As long as vendors approach the site in a personable manner, where they aren’t trying to simply advertise, Facebook’s core and long-time audience is bound to listen.

Weddings are a giant industry in the U.S. consisting of television shows, magazines, dresses, photographers, caterers, bakeries, musicians, florists and venues. This industry is just another sign of how social media sites are becoming mainstream business tools–especially for small and self-owned businesses.

I look forward to hearing from my vendors about the benefits they see from social media in the coming months.

And it is a social media experience!

Last night, for the first time in years, I watched the entire Super Bowl. From the opening songs performed by Faith Hill and the amazingly talented Jennifer Hudson through the Boss’ rocking performance to the repetitive instant replays to show Santonio Holmes’ touchdown, I saw it all. And it was fun. And the only time I wasn’t staring at the TV was when I was responding to food needs of my own team (family) or Twittering.

Last time I wrote about Twitter it was about politics. Well, this time it is about sports – and that was possibly even more fun than politics! Who knew?

So the question: Is Twitter more fun when it is about sports? I don’t think so. At least not in my recent experiment. What I’ve learned is that Twitter is more fun when there is a community.

I have nearly 200 followers now, and I’ve interacted with most of them during the past four months. What does that mean? And why am I writing it down? It means that there are ongoing conversations with people that now include the game, the ads and the music.

So what made Twitter more fun last night? Maybe it was @EileenMacLean’s comment she couldn’t pay attention to the game because of Jennifer Hudson’s amazing voice. Maybe it was @timjeby’s agreement with the point from Saturday Night Live that announced the Cardinals and Steelers were opening for Bruce Springsteen. Maybe it was @PaulHuse and @SomeChum, who I learned were Cardinals fans as I was cheering for the Steelers, and the appropriate teasing and betting commenced. (I’m buying lunch, but @SomeChum has to drive to my part of town to eat.) Maybe it was the plethora of tweets about the scores on any given ad and how they resonated with the various audiences. Maybe it was the discussion of food and fellowship that was happening on line and in my living room that enriched the conversation, as more than once I laughed out loud then quoted a Twitterpal to my “real life” pals in my house that night.

My conclusion: Twitter + snacks + shared experiences + smart conversation = fun. (Super Bowl not always included)

Come join the conversation with me, @KellyFerrara.

If you are not familiar with Twitter check out this article from The Wall Street Journal describing the site. Originally toted as a site for “micro-blogging,” I think, for better or worse, Twitter has become so much more.

My personal Twitter evolution:
A Newbie: I first created a Twitter account in May 2008 out of curiosity and to share thoughts with a few colleagues, I was still connecting with the vast majority of my friends online through Facebook. In the first months, I was slow to embrace Twitter. I was only sharing with people I saw on a daily basis, so I was skeptical of the practical applications, let alone business purpose for this emerging site.

Working from Home: Then in July I moved to a brand new city (New Orleans) and started working from home. I found myself turning to Twitter more and more to feel connected to the marketing and PR world, as I was deprived of the day-to-day sharing and stimulation of the TVG office.

Making new “friends”: Often an introverted person in the real world, I am also introverted when it comes to “following” or “friending” people on social networks. However, come fall I started to come out of my shell and see the real value of sharing and listening to these perfect strangers. As I expanded my network I started to learn more from experts in the marketing, PR, journalism and business worlds. I had tapped into this wealth of knowledge, and it was free and friendly!

Getting down to business: Come September, TVG decided to jump in. I was wary at first. Because Twitter is really a personal network at its core, it is not always friendly or useful to a corporate identity. But above all, we saw Twitter as a new medium in the communications world- one to learn, share and continually build our company personality. We don’t have a customer base to monitor, such as companies like JetBlue or Dell might, but we have a voice and wanted to join a conversation about our industry, the St. Louis region and the business world in general.

Where’s the $$ at?: TVG is having a great time utilizing Twitter as a professional development tool. Those comfortable with the site provide updates, those less comfortable share update ideas via e-mail for others to upload, and in return, users e-mail the staff great blog posts, case studies and news found from those we follow. But at the end of the day, as a company you have to ask, where is the bottom line value in this?

The business value of Twitter has been well documented in the industry as it emerges – staying in tune with customers, virally publicizing campaigns and promotions, journalists finding story leads, executives creating stronger public personas and brands. So, TVG now has to be able to recognize those clients who have the time and enthusiasm to invest in yet another social network.

Finding the time: As discussed by Seth Godin and Chris Brogan back in November, Twitter can be a time- consuming platform with a lot of noise and a lot of misunderstanding. It is inherent in its format and 140 character limit. So it can take a lot of man-hours to truly use Twitter effectively and gain significant value. Just think about it — listening to hundreds of people (sometimes thousands, depending on your following size) speak all at once, all day long! But under the confusion lies true value for our clients to build a stronger brand personality and more direct connection with their customers. They just need to be aware it is not just something to casually add to their to-do list because “everyone else is doing it.” Twitter requires time for a learning curve, building an audience, developing meaningful content to share and above all, hands-on participation.

Back to me. So as I’ve now decided to watch part of the Republican National Convention (RNC), I am doing this on my computer via a news station that wants to be America’s trusted source for news. And I’m flipping back and forth to Twitter – yep – to read what the Twitterpals are saying about what we are all listening to live or via satellite.

In case you don’t know me — I don’t do things like this. I’ve dabbled in the social media world – but I’m really spending tooooo much time on Twitter. Yet in the weird world that is mine, there are people like me out there. We’re all reading the Twilight series. We’re all tracking the presidential race. I’m also tracking hurricanes and tropical storms. And one of my newest followers…drum roll please: SantaClaus25. I’m not kidding! One of his latest posts was about today’s vet visit and which of the reindeer need to be on a diet. Impressive!

You can track people in your hometown and discuss restaurants. You can track any of the political candidates and major news organizations – even the minor ones are out there. And you can track the conversations of the influentials. So I’ll shout out to Lisa in Arizona, Brian in Massachusetts, Tom in Illinois and Marijean in Virginia…and of course Santa in the North Pole! Thanks for making me laugh and making me think. I’m enjoying all of you!

This nerd thing, it isn’t so bad. And I love the iPhone. But no pocket-protector! A girl’s gotta draw the line.

And I have to shout out to my pal James who is in Minneapolis, because I saw him on TV when I wasn’t sending or reading Tweets.

Twitter Directions:
My username is KellyFerrara, if you want to join Twitterpals. Log on to www.twitter.com, select a username and a password. You can then click the “Find and Follow” link at the top right and type in my name. When you get to www.twitter.com/KellyFerrara, you can click “Follow” underneath my photo. The trick – you have to go back to Twitter to see what I’m writing about, or to make your own posts. The easy part is you can post from any computer, web-enabled phones or from instant messenger. I find it useful to hum a little Genesis…. “Follow me, I will follow you, all the days and nights that we know will be…” Yeah, I know already. I’m old. I know Genesis lyrics. See you on the net!