More than 600 professionals from corporations, non-profits, agencies and academic institutions converged on the luxurious Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas this past week (March 6-7), seeking the knowledge and tools to harness the power of social media.

The Social Media for Communicators Conference, presented by Ragan Communications and the Public Relations Society of America, featured social media innovators such as David Pogue, Shel Holtz, Steve Crescenzo, James Ylisela, John Spagnuolo and Angela Sinickas, and included 18 seminars, three keynotes, and a series of pre- and post-conference workshops.

After attending six seminars, plus the keynotes, and having a couple extra days in Vegas to digest what I heard – thanks to the winter blast that shut down Cleveland – here are a 5 Things I Think I Know About Social Media:
 

1) Ignore Social Media at Your Own Risk

It’s not just coming . . . It’s here!

The social media revolution is reality, and if you haven’t taken steps to integrate it into your career and your business, then you are in danger of quickly becoming obsolete.

Don’t delay any longer. Get started now! Check out our archive of social media blog posts to learn more.

2) I’m Tweeted Out . . . and I Haven’t Even Started

I still don’t get Twitter. This wasn’t a featured topic at the Conference, but it’s just one of those social media tools I struggle to grasp. I mean, I understand the technology (for the most part), but I just can’t figure out how business owners and professionals find the time to remain productive while constantly “tweeting.”

This is just a personal opinion from a guy who has yet to test the technology, but between email, phone calls, social networking sites and instant messaging, I’m about as connected as I want to be.

3) We’re Still Waiting for the Social Media “Experts” to Emerge

There are few, if any, true social media “experts.” There are, however, many pioneers who are leading the revolution, but it’s too early to classify many of these professionals as experts.

What is obvious, after two days with some of the industry’s leading minds, is that social media is still very much in its infancy. The technology that drives social media evolves at a mind-numbing rate, and the experts will be those professionals and organizations that display an uncanny ability over time to consistently integrate and innovate ahead of the masses.

4) It’s a Foggy Future for Mainstream Media

Mainstream media is not going away, but it is fighting an uphill battle to remain relevant as the Net Generation (born 1977-1996) exerts an ever-growing influence on business, news, the economy and society.

Net-Geners inject a culture of openness, participation and interactivity into workplaces, markets and communities. They rely heavily on peer-to-peer opinion and social networks, rather than traditional wisdom and conventional media channels. They spend their time online searching, reading, collaborating and socializing.

As a result, the print and television media landscape will change drastically over the next three to five years, as organizations continue to pour marketing dollars into social media channels, which offer unmatched reach, tracking, analytics . . . and potentially ROI.

5) Anyone Who Tells You They Know What’s Coming Next in Social Media is Lying

No one knows where social media is taking us, or what organizations will emerge to completely alter everything we thought we knew about communications and business. Just think:

• When Technorati, a leading blog search engine, launched in November 2002, it counted less than 13,000 blogs. Today, it is tracking more than 110 million and more than 1.4 million blog posts per day.

• Social networking on MySpace and FaceBook was a phenomenon known primarily to high school and college students, that is until LinkedIn made it in vogue for more than 17 million businessmen and women.

• Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia created entirely by its users, has more than 75,000 active contributors working on some 5,300,000 articles in more than 100 languages.

• Five of the top 10 Websites (in terms of site traffic) in the United States are social media sites.

The time to get engaged with social media is now. Stay tuned for more timely insight on social media news, resources and trends; and contact us any time if you can use a helping hand navigating into this new and exciting world.