Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Social Media with write-up

View as grid

Sunday 11th March 2012

• The Nick Denton Interview: The Failure of Comments

  The internet was supposed to allow media outlets not only to display the talent of their writers -- but to capture the intelligence of the audience. Remember that rhetoric? We've abandoned it; the most that publishers can claim is that their comments are not quite as bad as the competition's. Trolls and spammers are not the problem. They can be dealt with by brute-force moderation. The real tragedy: the triumph of mediocrity. People with time on their hands drown out more valuable contributors. We've all designed discussion systems with the most avid commenters in mind. We've given them stars and moderating powers and allowed them to develop cliques and a sense of ownership that shades into entitlement. They are not the only readers. They are not even the smartest of our readers. If we're truly to capture the intelligence of the audience, we need to design for the most intelligent of the audience.

  • Blogging
  • Social Media

  At 11:00am to 12:00pm, Sunday 11th March

  In Ballroom EF, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage audio clip write-up sketch note

Monday 12th March 2012

• Events Are Now Platforms: Seven Tools for Success

  Our goal with this session is to make events better for all of us. Events no longer exist in a vacuum. The new ideas and relationships we all seek from events are now available to us across a continuum of ongoing social tools, so audiences give as much attention to their devices as they do to a speaker, or to the person sitting next to them. How can we as event participants, producers, and sponsors best adapt to this new reality? How can these digital tools serve to humanize and improve our experiences, and make us more present, as opposed to being just another source of distraction and overwhelm? Join with leaders in the field as we explore best practices for using the wide array of tools that are emerging in the event space. Please visit www.buildingalliances.com/blog for a list of our invited guests representing key products and services in the space and links to the tools we encourage you to check out and use in advance of our discussion (including here at SXSW!)—Brian Duggan

  • Emerging Technology
  • Event Planning
  • Events Industry
  • Mindfulness
  • Social Media
  • Twitter

  At 11:00am to 12:00pm, Monday 12th March

  In Room 616AB, Hilton Austin Downtown

  Coverage write-up write-up write-up write-up write-up

Tuesday 13th March 2012

• Your Social Media Job Is Dead: Now What?

  The digital world is changing too fast to let the industry label its roles with yet another buzzword. Remember digital ninjas? Social media mavens? Twitterholics?

  One moment, you are a self-proclaimed "guru" -- hey, it doesn’t make it less real -- and the next, you discover that you are not the only one.

  Younger marketing & advertising professionals are entering the workforce in social media-specific roles and finding that they must expand outside of their niche or risk becoming obsolete. As social media becomes more commonplace within organizations, it is evolving into another platform that good digital strategists and planners can handle with ease. More importantly, it reveals a schizophrenic situation in the industry. We want our developers to code in different languages, but we pigeonhole our strategists – people who are, by definition, entrusted with “big picture” – into smaller and smaller areas of specialization.

  And what about the people who started out as Social Media Coordinators and moved onto Community Managers and eventually Social Media Strategists? Where will they go from here? Or is there still room for specialization as strategists?

  Join us as we duke it out in a battle over the future of digital engagement jobs from the POV of people who have had all sorts of social media job titles, abandoned those titles, never had those titles and still proudly wear them.

  • Careers
  • Social Media

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Tuesday 13th March

  In Brazos, Marriott Courtyard Austin Downtown/Convention Center

  Coverage audio clip write-up