Brogan Plays to a Diverse Crowd

Months ago, Minnesota Business Magazine and LaBreche started a discussion around this town on the topic of Reputations.  We set out to tackle the myriad topics that are encompassed by the concept – from intangible and tangible, to management vs. non-management, and crisis communications to measurement.  The discussion happens every month in the magazine and online through a new Reputations column.  And, annually, our two companies have committed to hosting a forum within which an aspect of Reputations can be studied. Last week, as part of our program, we welcomed Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs and author of  Trust Agents to our twin towns to lead a discussion around social media, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtlnjkqNL1c.    We invited businesses of every size – from those with the most advanced social media strategies (Best Buy), to those with the longest tenure in social media (Select Comfort), to newcomers like Quality Bicycle Products. And we spurred the conversation everyone in our market – and markets throughout the world – need to be having.  The conversation drew a diverse mix of the curious, the serious, the hobbyists and the most fluent in the language of social media.  Studying the audience as a microcosm of reaction to the subject was almost as educational as listening to the speakers.  We had the evangelists seated down in front, those who tweet their way through every day, who fist-bumped during the presentation over private social media jokes, and seemed as tight as a clique that meets regularly at tweet-ups over beer and bacon. Then there were closest of Brogan followers, offering up their fan gifts to him before the speaking started.  (Eerily, I might add – some brought children’s books for the two kids we know he has if we follow him on Twitter, and one brought a handkerchief, just because she knew Brogan has an allergy he just can’t shake.)  Ahhh…the intimacy of social media.  Then we had the competitors – there to check out what we were doing and stay close to some of their own clients in the room.  I saw a few who claim on their web site to be social media gurus leaving with multiple copies of Brogan’s book under their arms, more than their allotted one free copy with the price of admission.  Required reading?  Or a sign of the times in terms of just how much cash flow social media is generating for agencies? We had panelists who were nervous because they didn’t have all the answers.  And panelists who had not yet sent their first tweet, though they managed teams who were pumping out thousands of tweets per minute.  And panelists predicting the fall of print media, even though a magazine was the host of the day’s events.   And we actually did have representatives from the companies just trying to figure this whole social media thing out.  I noticed two groups from the same company – representing the still unconvinced and the internal champions, respectively -- sitting symbolically several rows apart, a sign of the internal strife social media is causing within their own organization. And we were all facilitated by the leader of this dysfunctional marching band, made up of those just trying to make music out of tweet beeps, video sound bites and, ultimately, the ringing of cash registers.  Brogan, who flies around the country purposefully putting himself in the middle of such dynamics, preached wisdom at times, made foul-mouthed comments about old-school marketers at others, and slammed the whole point of the entire event:  reputation management – while sneaking peeks at real-time hashtag remarks coming in on his Droid from those in the audience or joining in from the off-site fray…comments ranging from praise to sarcasm to downright rude contradictions. Ahh…Change.  It’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?  It breeds early adopters who hold their knowledge close, yet sell it on the open market.  It causes head-nodding – either up and down, or side to side.  And, above all, it stimulates diverse disruption.  And LaBreche is more than happy to help bring conversations like this to you – whether you’re the client who promptly declared Brogan’s book to be trash after only the first few pages, or the warm welcomer who brought him Minnesota-nice souvenirs just for coming. By now you’re probably wondering what you missed.  Well, according to many of the social media savvy around town, apparently it wasn’t much.  Yet, according to the mid-sized businesses that brought people, took notes and headed back to their offices to get something started, you missed quite a lot, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhrCgJaXEKc.  I’m just glad the event inspired you to say something, and hopefully now do something.  Let’s keep talking.