As you can see by the two blog posts I recently posted; I really enjoyed SOBCon this year. That said- since I love the power of video (and it’s ability to depict an experience) I wanted to shoot a quick video blog while I was there! Check out my video blog on YouTube and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel! The inspiration of this video blog didn’t come until about the second day when I realized that I wanted to provide something that highlighted both the experience of SOBcon -but also highlight everyone who attended. Hope you enjoy it!

This past weekend I was in Chicago attending SOBCon (Biz School for Bloggers). This was my first year attending and overall the entire weekend was great time with some pleasant surprises (like riding a scooter in downtown Chicago). In my opinion, the difference in this conference is it has a more intimate, interactive, feel and makes it easy to really get to know almost everyone who attends (view my video blog). While we all had a common interest of utilizing the Internet, the people I met were made up of such an eclectic mix of focuses it was interesting to hear the different perspectives.

I’m a proponent of going to conferences and doing as little talking as possible (which for those of you who know me, it’s hard for me to do). Ask, ask, ask questions is what I say. There were several presentations, but the most engaging part for me at this conference was all the conversations in between. This is where I got to hear the stories of what works, what doesn’t, what struggles others have faced was interesting- and motivating.

It was also interesting to ask how people were either making money marketing social media or utilizing social media.

One thing I’d like to share that really resonated from people and presentations was the concept that social media is more than just marketing.

Social media is just a way where people can talk to each other and that can affect the entire company. Marketing just so happen to be where the money is, that’s why people are talking about it. It’s much more than just marketing.

BINGO; social media can touch everything in a company like: customer service, operations, research and development, compliance, human resources, public relations, product development, etc. etc. So while marketing and lead generation may get most glitter and attention- it’s not the only consideration when executing strategies as a company. For example, consider what a social media HR strategy has to it: In what ways do potential employees engage looking for jobs at your company? Does having a presence in certain existing online networks help facilitate recruiting? Does this require that you not only ‘fish’ for candidates in social networks- but also contribute in order to positively position your brand in the long run of potential candidates?

Your objectives dictate how strategies should be executed and formulated (online and offline). And the bigger point is that these objectives involve more aspects of the company other than marketing or new business- understanding this is the first step, but executing and measuring (then repeat) is vital in order to see success.
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This past weekend I attended SOBCon (Biz School for Bloggers). I snapped some pics when I was there — check ‘em out in the gallery below. I’ll be posting a video blog and my thoughts about the conference later this week. You can view all the photos on my flickr account here.