I was the “fourth panelist” with Erica Hargreave, Richard Gustin, Peter Raymont, and Gresham Bradley on stage. I led the interactive side of things with Lee Robertson and Karen Brownlee helping me spread the word. What was amazing was how the audience outside the room got involved in the discussion. So much so that Erica and I believe that we made the top twitter trends for a short period of time. To my knowledge I believe that’s the first time a conference and session was pushed to the top mostly by the people outside of it instead of the people attending. Pretty damn amazing.

Saturday Erica and I spent most of the afternoon, could have gone on longer if not for the amazing awards gala, helping people get on Twitter. The broadcast community are like social media sponges, they just want to learn more and more about how to reach out to their fans and the community.

Erica and I didn’t pick Twitter over blogs or Flickr or YouTube because it’s the “in thing” we picked it because it’s easy to get started with. We know that there is a lot of hype around Twitter, but given that we could get someone an account, put up a profile pic, and start using the tool in a few minutes, well it makes for teachable moments.

Like sending pictures through Twitter of a woman winning two awards (including the big festival prize) to her sister. Instantly. Before the awards had been warmed by her hands, a sister 1000s of miles away who couldn’t be there, was there.

Tris Hussey, Richard Gustin, Gresham Bradley by Erica Hargreave

Showing producers and writers how their characters could come alive online. Showing filmmakers how building an audience during production can build enthusiasm for their works down the road.

Powerful stuff.

I’ve said many times lately that Social Media is at a great point in time right now. We’re at a plateau that allows us to be creative and take the new tools and put them together in creative ways.

After launching the Urban Peasant, and meeting with the broadcast people in Canada, I’m more excited than ever to be here at M2O.

Better watch out, the next big thing might be right under our noses.

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So without further ado here is Episode 1 of This Week in Social Media. Intro and outro music: Mighty Mullane by Derek Miller.

[podcast]http://blogm2o.com/wp-content/uploads/ThisWeekinSocMedEp1.mp3[/podcast]

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[From Hummingbird604.com » Blog Archive » Third Tuesday Liveblog - Tris Hussey on the Paradox of Communications in the 21st Century]

It’s a good thing that Raul takes such great live blogging notes, because I don’t speak from notes anymore. My slides, for what it’s worth, are more talking points for me. I recommend following the slides with Raul’s live blog, they might make more sense that way.

Regardless,here are my slides…enjoy!

Update: Forgot to include links to the article on how people read online and the Globe & Mail article on Ray Lam.

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I know I’m not blogging as much as I used to. Myself, those quick, passing thoughts that pop into my head are pushed out in 140 character bites instead of 200 word blog post, but what about everyone else?

By my read, “blogging” is on a downslide, and this is a good thing, but writing and reporting online using a blog engine as the platform is stronger than ever.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but what I’m seeing is a steady evolution and maturation of the online publishing community. Twitter fills a great gap between having mass email lists that clog your inbox (can you imagine an email list with 2,000 recipients and people constantly hit reply to all to chat with other members?) and IM (again, massive lists, lots of chatter, easier to ignore though). You can easily turn it off, direct messages come into email to get your attention, and if you want to just catch up on tweets directed to you a quick search will do the trick.

Online publishing, especially combined with the rapid dispersal possible with Twitter, is a powerfully strong way to speak your mind, show off your creativity, or even make a company like Amazon squirm. I’m still writing, and even writing a book on blogging (where I also note that I don’t care if it’s called “blurging” because it’s still writing), and intend on writing more and more (it’s only time that prevents me from doing this).

Face it, we all love fads and trends. Twitter is hot just like blogging was hot in 2005-7. Something else will be hot soon, so let’s just not forget that it’s what the tool does within the greater scheme of communications, media, publishing that matters in the end.

In the meantime, did you read that tweet about…

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Bradley Shende and Linday Smith

A couple weeks ago Paul posted that Bradley was going to be on a panel on Free Online Services for Businesses, well, when Massive Tech CEO Lindsay Smith was doing some filming over here at M2O HQ she mentioned that they needed another body or two for the Twitter for Business panel. Paul being the great guy that he is said that Lindsay should have me on the panel. I guess she took his advice:

Twitter for Business: Is Twitter the latest fad or a symbol of tomorrow’s communication?

Find out what all the hype is about and if it’s a reflection of change in how people share information.

* Twitter what is it and why should your business care about it?

* Will this affect how businesses communication with each other, their clients/customers and employees?

* Twitter has a language of it’s own…what’s this all about? Should business leaders take the time to learn it in order to understand their employees and their customers better?

[From Twitter For Business with Kris Krug - Raincity Studio, Tris Hussey - Blogger, and Richard Smith SFU]

I’m honoured to be on the panel with Kris and Richard and I’m sure it will be pretty entertaining. I haven’t been on a panel with either of these guys before, but knowing Kris as I do (like four years now) I know I can count on Kris to have strong opinions.

Lindsay Smith

In thinking about Twitter for business, I don’t think about marketing and pitching, I think about information ebb & flow. I look at the sources of information and I rely on Twitter to be a firehose of information (yes I know this can be a bad thing sometimes) and a way to share links and posts.

I should also not diminish the business networking and relationships that I’ve found on Twitter. Hmm, maybe Twitter is more complicated that we give it credit for.

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I’m anxious to hear what they all have to say about the changing digital landscape. Still, the keynote I’m most looking forward to is: “How Social Media and Social Networking are turning sales and marketing upside-down” – featuring Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger.

We’ll have a booth at the show, so be sure to come by and say hi. And we’ll also be giving away some tickets – so check back in over the next couple of weeks.

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