Attending Podcamp Montreal, I was inspired by both Mitch Joel and CC Chapman’s challenge to do something you’ve not tried before, and in my case, that would be a full on video post so here is mine, extending on a theme mentioned at the same session about ranting and calling companies out online. In line with “podcasting from the heart” I did this in one take with no edits. Let me know what you thought and if you’d like to see more of this!
Julien Smith gave a mindblowing presentation yesterday on trust agents and social capital. I cannot believe I have never heard of him before because his stuff is nothing short of awesome.
It got me thinking back to my “Blogs worth reading” feature that ran for a few months but has fizzled out recently. There are a few reasons for this. One was that I was getting very busy in summer with freelance work and just had no time to explore blogs the way I used to, the second is that my Google Reader was already getting overloaded, and thirdly, was that these blogposts just weren’t generating much interest for my blog, traffic-wise.
But Julien’s talk reminded me that sharing these links is creating value and social capital. It’s not about me and my traffic. It’s about sharing these resources to people who might not discover them otherwise, and the value that they bring. Even if that’s just to one person.
Stuff surrounding Social Media Breakfast | Singapore and certain events have affected my love for the local social media space over the last few months, but this really made me think back to why I started the blog, why we were helping each other on Twitter, why we went out on a whim and started Social Media Breakfast | Singapore with nothing but faith that it would work out.
And it was captured in one comment yesterday: Because that’s the kind of world I want to live in.
I hope you’ll think back and remember why you got into this space to begin with, and if where you are now is a far cry from that beginning. If it is, why did that happen, and is that something you want to continue to happen? If it isn’t, what changed?
While a lot of thoughts here at Podcamp Montreal have been personal, a fair amount of them relate back to the social media scene as a whole back in Singapore as well. I do have a couple of observations comparing the different parts of the world:
1)Singapore may not be as far behind as we think
I’ll be the first to say I’m constantly bewildered about why companies don’t use or experiment with social media enough back home, but from what I’m seeing, the business questions are only just starting to be raised here and even then, not the tough questions yet. Maybe it’s the lack of people back home talking about the space or social media is more common in the tech or social aspects of the web that makes it seem like it’s more quiet than overseas, but it’s not necessarily the case.
I will say this though. I feel like people here have been dealing with social media as a passion for the last year or two, and are now moving into the business aspect of things, whereas back home, people are jumping the first stage, and immediately looking at results and implementation. I’m not necessarily saying it’s wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s going to yield very different results and have very different implications.
2)Social Media usage may not be as different as we think.
Again, maybe because there are just so many more social or Meepok blogs back home, we tend to think that it’s just us who are really into using the web as a social tool, but I do see a lot of Seesmic users who are here purely for social reasons with minimal business or personal applications. And that’s alright. Everyone gets something different out of the podcamp.
3)No one’s really an expert
Maybe what people at home need to learn more than anyone. No one is really an expert in all aspects in the field. Different questions go to different people, some are better suited to answer some questions than others, and depending on what field you’re in, the answer actually changes. It’s more important to get someone who understands your niche and how it works, than someone who is a self-declared “expert” in all things social media
4)These events don’t have to be a big affair.
Compared to the events in Singapore, Podcamp Montreal is almost simplistic in its setup. Three rooms for talks and a hallway is all we have. The value is created in the interactions, not the venue.
5)Sponsors are largely invisible
This was an observation made by someone else. There are pretty big sponsors here (not huge corporate identities), but they aren’t putting up booths or waving pamphlets in people’s faces. They’re just here to interact with people and see where that leads. This, combined with point #3 really gets me thinking about Social Media Breakfast | Singapore, and all our sponsorship/venue issues all over again.
6)It’s strange being new
I’m not naturally an outgoing person, but it’s easier to deal with that back home at events because people know who I am and what I do. Here it’s a bit different. I know who they are in most cases, but it’s not always two ways. And that’s a little bit intimidating. I didn’t push myself totally out of my comfort zone, but I did go around meeting a couple of people, and had very, very awesome conversations.
7)Gen Y is startlingly missing.
I asked the question “Where are the youth” in my video yesterday. And I’ll ask it again. I don’t understand how I’m the youngest person here at all. Exchanging stories here I hear how the misconception is “Let the person in her 20s handle it because they understand Web2.0”, but the managers who are supervising these people will tell you that’s not true. In some cases, they know more than the younger person does.
Call them Gen Y, millennials, digital natives, what have you. I think there is a very large distinction between living in the digital world, and understanding it. I cannot imagine how anyone in school right now can think they don’t need to know how the digital world works to get by later in life.
If you were at Podcamp Montreal, do let me know if you agree or disagree my thoughts, or if anything particularly stood out for you, or if any of these differencesI mentioned make sense to you at all. If you’re reading this from Singapore, do you think the similarities exist? Or are there truly cultural differences that we need to think about?
I’m attending Podcamp Montreal this weekend and so far it’s been awesome. I’ve met Mitch Joel and CC Chapman so far and hopefully many more soon to come.
Halfway through Mitch’s presentation I started wondering at the lack of college people at these events. Social Media Breakfast | Singapore may be an anomaly because it’s primarily youth-initiated, but generally, where’s Gen Y?
I noticed quite a few “business” questions today. Like how can my organisation use this, or how would this make sense for my message. People in organisations (read: our bosses) are trying to figure this stuff out, so why aren’t we? Are we safe in the delusion that learning about the 4Ps is going to get us by in the workplace? I was back in a marketing class after not taking one for a year, and it struck me how the stuff being taught is simply not relevant to my (read: Gen Y’s) world anymore.
Getting to the point, we have all these conferences back home that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to attend. Why don’t we have one by us students for students? And I’m not talking about people like me talking just about social media. Maybe it’s someone in a local band talking about how his blog is attracting new fans, maybe it’s someone with a fashion site talking about expanding her presence via Facebook. Sort of like the way we talked about wellness, food, photography, haikus and social media in our audio discussion.
So for the people in school going out to get a job soon. Or thinking of switching a different job because your finance job doesn’t look as glittery as it did a week ago, what do you think? Do you need social media in your job? Would you attend small gatherings to improve on them and share? Or do you think you can learn it all at work? Feedback please!
