Tips from a Social Media One-night Stand

A glimpse of the stage and the screen at Social Media One-night Stand in Seattle on March 18, 2013

When you write about something called Social Media One-night Stand, the temptation, so to speak, is to fill it with bad puns and jokes about its name (like I just did). But this is a post where that's the last double entendre.

Instead, I wanted to bring you social media tips and lessons from my most recent session, which is nothing more than a fancy name for an advanced social-media workshop.

I am just wrapping up a week in the Pacific Northwest. I spent time in digital offices as different as MSN News and Big Fish Games in Seattle, and the Oregonian in Portland. I learned different things at each of those places (all this, by the way, on what is a family vacation - don't ask!). 

At MSN News (@msnnews), I learned about a rumors-in-the-news debunking site and a sister MSN site, MSN Now, which tracks trends in the real-time web.

At Big Fish (@BigFish), one of the world's largest makers of casual gaming software, I got a chance to see games in development (more than 2 billion PC/Mac games and 100 million mobile games have been downloaded). One Big Fish game, Fetch, was released a couple of days ago for the iPad and is currently "New and noteworthy" in the App Store; read a WSJ article by Jason Bellini (@JasonBellini) about how the game was developed (I learned a lot about the finicky games/apps business).

At the Oregonian (@Oregonian), which is the largest news organization in the Pacific Northwest, I learned how a venerable daily newspaper can also be a leader in the digital age. I also learned that an event's success can be calculated in multiple ways, as you will see from this photo:

Two signs of success of a social media workshop: Trending on Twitter and empty pizza boxes.

But the most unusual part of my itinerary was my Social Media One-night stand at the University of Washington's Communication Leadership Program, hosted by my friend Hanson Hosein (@HRHMedia) (the subject of my first CNET News post, in 2012). The event was co-presented by various journalism organizations, including Society of Professional Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association and South Asian Journalists Association, along with the Seattle Times. A Seattle social-media star, Monica Guzman (@MoniGuzman), helped me teach the workshop.

Here are some notes and items about the session, which we called #sreeattle:

* When the hashtag started trending, there was some confusion, including this tweet: "#sreeattle ? WTF?"

* This text post (video embedded below), by KING5-TV reporter Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5), starts in an unusual way, but is extremely flattering:

* Slides from my presentation are at http://bit.ly/sreeattle and embedded below:

* Here are three YouTube videos that show all 3.5 hours of social-media insanity:

* There were almost 2,000 tweets and photos generated that night and I've taken some of the best and created a Storify, a tool that allows you to create a story out of ephemeral tweets and photos. Here's the Storify I made out of #Sreeattle.

I tracked all those tweets thanks to a new tool I showed the audience, OneQube (I'll write about it in a future post). Meanwhile, you can see one of its many features in action here: http://qub.me/2nzG1V.

* Here's another recap of the event: a roundup by freelancer Ulrike Langer (@MauiSurfer25) - she calls the night the "best social media show ever" (presumably that's a low bar); here's the German version: "Beste Social Media Show Ever."

* Amid a sea of positive tweets, including something serious like "Hard to sleep after such an inspiring talk on social media with @Sree. #Sreeattle: (that's @Mel_Fry) and something funny like "@Sree, That was the best *cough* I mean only one night stand I've ever had #sreeattle" (that's @Cynthiasaurus), my favorite is from a Twitter newbie.

Margie Doyle, who publishes hyperlocal site in the Orcas Islands, tweets under @OrcasIssues. She deliberately left her cellphone and laptop in her car so she could concentrate in the session. She ended up taking notes on paper plates:

Margie Doyle an attendee who didn't bring her phone or computer into the session, ended up taking notes on paper plates.

What are YOUR advanced social media tips? Please share them in the comments below, along with any feedback, critiques of the items above. 

NOTE: My next Social Media One-night Stand is Thursday, May 16 in NYC, but will be streamed live so you can attend from anywhere.