Social Media Breakfast 9 - Recap

Bryan Person originally started this breakfast series, which has exploded to cities all over the world, and has left some really big shoes for Bob Collins to fill now that Bryan has left for Austin, TX and passed the torch.  Thankfully our fearless leader stepped up to the challenge and put on another awesome event.

The theme for the October 16th breakfast was “Starting Community Building Programs with a Reluctant Executive” and brought together Jaime Pappas of EMC, David Alston of Radian 6, and Peter Kim of the stealth Dachis Corporation to share some of their experiences dealing with executives and community building programs.

Thanks to EMC for sponsoring the event and keeping us all fed!

(Left to Right: Jaime Pappas, David Alston, Peter Kim and Bob Collins)

(Left to Right: Jaime Pappas, David Alston and Peter Kim)

Via Steve Garfield

While I have always been very impressed by the lineup of speakers that Bryan Person, and now Bob Collins, puts together for these events, it is connecting with familiar faces in the crowd that makes these events so popular and successful.

Via Steve Garfield

There is yours truly hanging out right in the front row during the presentations.

The two things that stuck with me most were from David Alston and Peter Kim.

David talked about relating to executives by asking them what they would do if someone was on the street outside of your company’s building yelling into a megaphone “This Company Sucks!” How long would it take for your PR guy (or security) to come down and deal with them?  Ignoring the online community is just like ignoring the guy on your lawn, except when online, your megaphone is a whole lot bigger and louder.   David also reminded us that Google was everyone’s new home page - and that when people search for a Company - the first or most interesting search result may no longer be the Company website.

Peter Kim talked a lot about making business sense of social media and the short lifespan of CMOs. CMO tenure is down to almost 23 months, about half that of an average CEO’s tenure.   He also talked about the extra pressure on CMOs to justify the results of their spending and prove that marketing is actually delivering value to the business.

To check out other’s reactions to the event and what they got from it, check out the twitter stream for #smb9 or check out these posts from Peter Kim, Bryan Person, Gina, and Tangyslice.