A year ago I had an amazing time at Blog World, 2008.  In many ways that event was an out of body experience.  It was my first ever speaking event.  I was on a panel with Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, Brian Solis, Toby Bloomberg and Becky Carroll.  I could never imagine speaking with such stars.  What I did not realize at the time (at least until the after parties), many considered me a star too. During the party, when people realized who I was, a crowd gathered around.  The whole experience was something I will never forget.  I am especially grateful for all the friendships that developed.

Well Blog World is about creating experiences people will not forget and 2009 was no different.  Again I was on an incredible panel for Social Media Success Stories with Samantha Gammell (Oscar Mayer — The wiener mobile!), Justin Levy, and Brian Wiegand.  It was great to be paired with such terrific people.  Blog World is so much more than a simple panel that I participated on.  Of course there were a lot of parties and meetings.  I had a terrific time at the Techset Party at the Bellagio, thanks Brian Solis!  AdvertureGirl also put on a great party at Lavo; thanks Stefanie (I also appreciated the burger!).  I also have to thank @WynnLasVegas for great conversation about social media and a terrific dinner at Wazuzu.

A big topic of conversation has been charities using social media to raise awareness and funds.  This is a topic that has been close to me.  As many of you are aware, I helped create the Comcast New Media Exchange, an event for non profits to learn how to use social media.  For Blog World, 2009 the topic came up the moment I was getting on the plane.  Behind me was a my friend Jay Scott, CEO of Alex’s Lemonade Stand (He and his wife Liz continued the effort of their daughter Alex, and are both hero’s in my eyes – read this prior post).  When I arrived one of the first discussions I heard about was setting a world record for conversations in social media.  The effort was to #beatcancer.  You can view some of the tweats on their website.  As you can imagine beating cancer is a big goal in my life.  When we ended my panel I put out a plea for the effort in memory of our Angel Gia.  Through the #beatcancer hashtag we reached a world record and raised a lot of money for cancer! Thank you Miller-Coors, eBay and PayPal!

The few days were a whirlwind of activity.  I met up with so many friends, and gained many new ones.  As it was all wrapping up, I was looking forward to going home.  I received a call to go on CNN to talk about social media with Don Lemon.  The spot featured Blog World found Rick Calvert, Jermaine Dupree, Tamara Knechtel, and my friend from Ford Scott Monty (The new Taurus SHO is very nice!).  It was an amazing opportunity.  I think I did okay, but looking at the tape I could see the nerves.  There is one clip online and it is the one I messed up the most.  Oh well, I was still happy with the experience, and hope to have it again some time.  After the driver brought us back, I went to dinner with Anthony Edwards (you may know him from Top Gun, Revenge of the Nerds, or ER).  I have met a few stars, and different than many, Tony was down to earth and a genuine nice guy.  I am so happy we had the chance to meet.  We were discussing his efforts to raise $10 from 500,000 people to help build a pediatric hospital in Kenya.  I provided a few ideas to create a viral campaign, but I know they would love more.  Please feel free to post them in the comments and I will share with them.  The effort is part of Shoe4Africa.  Visit their website to learn more about the effort. or watch the video below:

Social media, no matter if it is a blog, Twitter, Facebook or other space on the internet, gives you the opportunity to change the world.  Seize the opportunity and share your passion to make a difference.

I have been meaning to write this post since an event I was at last week.  One of the brand marketers had a great presentation that I agreed with many of the points, but one was, in my opinion, the wrong approach.  I am not mentioning the brand on purpose but I have a lot of respect for the presenter and the work they have done bringing their company to a new level in social media.

Well the reason I am writing this post now is because the NY Times posted an interesting article titled “F.T.C to Rule Bloggers Must Give Full Disclosure.”  I have never been a fan of giving bloggers products, or in the case of the presentation I was at, rewarding those that speak highly for your product.  The reason is easy, once I heard the company rewarded positive commentary, I no longer believed any positive post I have ever read about the company.  I now questioned the true motives of anyone that has ever posted about them.  I remember about 6 months ago I was approached by marketers (that did not work for my company) wanting me to identify bloggers and provide free products.  They were offended by my simple one word answer “No.”  The reason was not because I do not want people to see the great products from my company.  It also was not that I was afraid of what they may say, but it was really about what people may think if they did say something positive and someone later found out.

I admit, I am cheap and would love free stuff, but if you offer it, please do not expect a blog post.  Ultimately it would hurt my own credibility and that of the brand.  I will admit that I was invited to an event to receive free products and listen to pitches from people.  I was tempted to go, but I declined.  My temptation was to see the product and to truthfully people watch.  But it did not fit in with my own belief structure for the social web.

I am not a fan of government regulation in this area.  My preference would be to see the blogosphere self regulate this, but at the same time for events like the one I was invited to or presentations mentioning rewards for good commentary, we are not doing as good of a job as we should.  I expect many will disagree with my thoughts, especially those within the marketing field, but I will say, from experience, allow your Customers to say the good and bad.  Listen to them and continually work to improve your product to meet the Customer desires.  For the bloggers, I understand the temptation for free products, but think about your own credibility and long term potential.  It is so important to be true to who you are.  That will bring the best long term results.