Flying is fun. Right now I’m sitting in The Village Inn after checking in at London’s Gatwick Airport. In a couple hours I’ll board a US Airways plane for flight number 32 of the year and number 8 across the Atlantic. Even though US Airways seriously dropped the ball (several times) on that infamous number 30 flight, flying is still a kick.

Here are my Top 10 Things I Love about Flying (with a few bonus likes thrown in):

1. The opportunity to fly. What an opportunity it is to be able to move about. Every trip reminds me to be thankful. Every trip reminds me to DO something with opportunity and not let it go to waste.
2. Getting the chance to read something I’ve been wanting to read for a long time (for this next flight, I have 9 Kindle books queued up plus 18 TED Talk videos; probably too much. Also have 5 episodes of Dick van Dyke and 2 episodes of Dr. Who queued up, too.).
3. Checking in on Foursquare someplace new (and especially at someplace old, like the Starbucks in Concourse C in CLT, where I’m still mayor at the moment. Yeah.).
4. The approach to the runway at the end of the flight. I’ve often wished the entire flight was at 3,000 feet (except over the Atlantic, in which case 35,000+ feet is good).
5. The shoe-shine from the hard-working small business owners in the Charlotte (CLT) Douglass International Airport.
6. Being on the “you’ve made it through” side of security.
7. Being able to turn on and use my mobile phone on the “welcome home” side of US Customs (the other side of Customs is not such fun; someone should let our US Customs people know it’s okay to smile at foreigners and say, “Welcome to the United States. We’re glad you’re here.” I realize that might not be a true statement, but, still, they could say it anyway.)
8. The roar and thrust of the engines as the plane launches toward take-off.
9. The people I meet on the airplane.
10. The people waiting for me at the end of the flight (though, I do miss the people at the other end).

Bonus likes:

1. That driver waiting for me at the Glasgow International Airport who whisked me away to a waiting full size Mercedes. (Thank you to Mark Jennings @markofrespect and Media140 for that treat!)
2. Mothers who are really, really good (and quick) at successfully comforting their children (especially those mums with triplets. Wow.).
3. Bose over-the-ear noise canceling headphones and a well-stocked iPhone.
4. Whatever US Airways @usairways eventually does someday to make up for their performance and communication meltdown regarding flight #30.

What do you LOVE about flying? (Okay, the human tendency is not towards expressing love about flying, so feel free to share what you not-love about it, too.)

If you pay close attention, many best selling authors (Bob Burg, Tony Robbins, Tom Asacker, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan and others), keep saying something like, “Be generous…be helpful…” No doubt they would credit Zig Ziglar as an influential source for the philosophy.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with the master motivational speaker himself, so I asked him what the “secret” to effective marketing, sales, life, etc. is. Without hesitation, this is what he said…

Monitoring social media is probably the next-big-thing. The London bootcamp on the topic brought together a full conference center theatre of remarkable people from across Europe (and from North America, too, since Nathan Gilliatt and I were there).

In true social media conference tradition, we lost Wi-Fi and Internet access not too long after the conference began. Some were a tad disappointed (and some of us were nearly lost), but most seem to take it in stride. The conference organizer, Luke Brynley Jones and Our Social Times, worked diligently to get things restored. Late in the day we discovered there had been a fire in one of BT’s major hubs that took both Internet access and cellular service offline for the day.

Based on what I heard from the presenters and the audience, here’s my prediction for next year’s social media gatherings.

The speakers had rich content and freely engaged with the audience on stage and off. The big content take away for me was the solid description of three genres of monitoring:

1. free tools
2. do-it-yourself tools
3. tools with human intelligence added

Two classic responses to audience questions:

• When asked why a free tool didn’t offer a certain feature, Marshall Sponder answered, “Well, it’s because…well…you get what you pay for.”
• To a frustration-wrapped question regarding pricing, Nathan Gilliatt said, “Pricing is a black art.”

The bottom line: if you want to DO something with social media, you should be monitoring. There are tools and people available to help you gather, categorize, and make sense of the data. Figure out what you want to accomplish and then find them.

After attending a variety of social media conferences in the United States and Europe over the past two years, I’ll venture both a prediction for next year’s conferences and proffer suggestions for them.

My first official international keynote. LikeMinds 2009 in Exeter, England. Photo by Britt Warg @britt_w

Prediction: Next year’s conferences will focus almost exclusively on case studies. Top presenters will be the storytellers with quantitative and qualitative stories to tell. Theorists and evangelists will be turned away (some will be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail).

Proffered suggestions: Here are my wild ideas for speakers, attendees, and organizers.

If you’re a speaker:

• do NOT throw your name in the conference speakers candidate pool if you do not have a supply of STORIES chock full of these details.
  -short description of the company, product/service, and market landscape
  -detailed, specific definition of the challenge (problem statement)
  -details concerning the impact of the challenge on the company
  -decision making process the company went through to define the problem
  -decision making process the company pursued as they sought a solutiondefinition of the solution
  -description of the details involved to implement the solution
  -narrative regarding the implementation of the solution
  -narrative of the problems encountered implementing the solution
  -statistics describing the problem before and after the solution
  -your thoughts on the next steps for the company
  -the universal application of the problem, solution, results
• do expect highly informed audience participants who will press you regarding the problem, solution, it’s execution, and it’s results.
• do not expect fawning audiences; that’s so 2009.

If you’re a participant:

• don’t wait until the conference to go to the conference.
• do invest time before each conference to fully understand
  -exactly what the conference promises to deliver
  -who else will be there (speakers, fellow audience attendees and exhibitors)
• do start connecting with conference players well before the conference; you’ll be amazed what you’ll learn by interacting with presenters before the conference; connecting before the conference will significantly enhance your own ultimate conference take-aways.
• do take responsibility for your own conference experience. While conference organizers and presenters will invest a ton of themselves into your experience, the quality and value of your experience is up to you.

If you’re an organizer:

• do plan on having massive bandwidth
• do take the initiative to not only get people to the conference, but to also connect everyone well in advance of the conference (and after the conference, too)
• do determine your Twitter hashtag in advance and start using it, and make sure everyone knows about it, long before the conference (and after, too). It’ll help people connect with one another before, during and after the event.

The topic of social media conferences probably warrants a full book-length treatise. For now I can summarize by saying, conferences are about, in order of priority, connections, content, and conversations. It’s in your best interest to take the initiative to ensure all three happen for you.

BUG IN DISQUS: I have not closed the comments but Disqus, my commenting plug-in, apparently has a bug in their upgrade. I’m working on getting the comments open again and am very sorry for the challenge. I cherish your comments.

While TED is all about “ideas worth sharing,” LikeMinds was a place for people worth meeting. Here are just a few video snapshots of some incredibly fun people to know (fun means perspective, joy, generosity, friend).

Christian Payne at Exeter Cathedral

Christian Payne, known quite affectionately as @documentally, always has a blast of perspective and insight. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face and probably make you think a little more deeply, too. I shot this inside Charter House, part of the Exeter Cathedral.

AJ Pape at Southgate Hotel

AJ Pape boldly challenges your thinking AND encourages you to make your thinking audible so others can share in the process too. We were at the “before party,” at Southgate Hotel, the night before LikeMinds 2010.

Yann Gourvennec right before LikeMinds 2010 gets underway

Yann Gourvennec, of Orange Business Services, is ready to take in the LikeMinds conference—he has the ubiquitous Moleskin, netbook, Kodak Zi8, and even a plastic pen. We’re on the upper level inside the Exeter Conference Center just a few minutes before Scott Gould would take the stage to kick off the conference. For a full interview with Yann Gourvennec recorded at Bovey Castle following the LikeMinds Summit, see B2BBloggers.com

Greetings from Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan was just a ton of fun. (I wish my congressman was more like Chris. The world would be a better place if ALL our leaders followed in Chris’s footsteps. More about Chris later.) We were in the “green room” waiting for our time on the program (we were last). Chris was the final keynote of the day; I was the moderator for the final panel of the day. The crowd responded as at a rock concert when Chris took the stage. I think they were ready to go to the after party when I took the stage. The after party was good.

Faye Gould talking about Scott Gould

Faye Gould, wife of Scott Gould the cofounder of LikeMinds, shortly after we kicked off the 2010 event.

Glenn Le Santo talks about the Twitter party

Glenn Le Santo is a content creator who knows how to discover and develop a story. He’s also quite the adventurer. I’d love to go off through undiscovered country with Glenn and Christian. We’d have a blast.

Maz Nadjm and Trust Agents

Maz shows us page 155 of Chris Brogan’s first book, Trust Agents, where Chris mentions Maz’s work at Sky.

Chris Brogan in the green room

After a very long journey, Chris Brogan is still fun to be around. Here he recounts how Apple & AT&T drop the ball (actually, dropped the call) while Chris was closing a $300,000 deal.

How to turn that cell phone ringer off

Christian Payne shows Daren Forsyth how to silence his cell phone so it won’t make a lot of noise again during a keynote presentation.

There’s more to come from LikeMinds 2010.

Thanks to Greenville’s Chamber for bringing everyone together. Thanks, too, to Adam Landrum of Merge. He’s an exceptional emcee. The topic, of course, is social media and is one of the first big discussions in our community on the topic. We’ve come a long way since then.

From the archives, here’s the video from the inaugural meeting of Social Media Club Greenville at Soby’s on Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina. Meeting held on January 9, 2009, less than one month after our first “are you interested in forming a club” gathering at Liquid Highway.

Here’s the original caption for the video:
The inaugural meeting of the Greenville Social Media Club, headed up by Trey Pennington of ShowCase Marketing, was held on January 11, 2009 at Soby’s on South Main Street in Downtown Greenville. The guest speaker was Geno Church, a word-of-mouth-marketing trailblazer and creative genius. About 100 of the “social elite” and others that were interested in growing their business through social media were in attendance. Two Greenville ex-pats (Steven Weathers in Shanghai and Rob Williams in Orlando) picked up the live stream and hosted remote (hey, even international) Social Media Club Greenville meetings. Business Black Box sponsored the event, www.InsideBlackBox.com. Now you get a chance to see what you missed!

Interview with a person of genuine influence: Ellen McGirt of FastCompany Magazine.

Earlier this year I met with Ellen McGirt at 7 World Trade Center in New York, New York. As I walked into her conference room on the 29th floor, I was in awe of the beautiful view. I could see across the Hudson into New Jersey and saw Lady Liberty standing tall. As I walked to the window, I was impressed with the beauty of FastCompany’s conference room. Then, I looked down, down straight into the crater that was once the foundation for 1 and 2 World Trade Center. I cried.

Needless to say, my now dear friend Ellen McGirt, cried with me.

Since then, Ellen has held a special place in my memory, not just because of our shared experience once again on that great American tragedy, but because of her zest for life, friends, and her insatiable curiosity about how people connect and grow.

When I heard she’d be in Greenville, courtesy of our mutual friends at Brains on Fire, I grabbed the opportunity to have her speak at Social Media Club Greenville. She honored me greatly by asking me to interview her, so, to a packed house at Table 301′s Soby’s on Main Street in downtown Greenville, this was the result.

Thank you to Bobby Rettew for both the original video and for recently pulling it out of archives and recompressing it for us. Thank you, too, to Robbin Phillips and our friends at Brains on Fire for making it possible for Ellen to be with us. Finally, thank you to Richard Peck and the folks at Table 301 for making the morning at Soby’s so memorable.

There’s something about the independent retailers, those heartwarming “mom-n-pops,” that’s downright exciting. I’m thrilled to see SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) not only venture into leadership in social media, but to kick-off their bold endeavor in my hometown with the first Southern Social Networking Summit. Their efforts will bring Gary “Vee,” David Allen, and Dan Zarella into Greenville, South Carolina for a two-day conference at one of our flagship venues—Hyatt Regency.

Here’s my disclaimer:

1. I’m pumped to meet Gary Vee, David Allen, and Dan Zarella. Gary and Dan have taken the time to correspond with me via Twitter and email and I enjoy them as people. David Allen helped me see processes much clearer and has been a huge benefit to me. So, that means I’m one of those “that guy” fans.
2. The Hyatt Regency has helped me a ton with Social Media Club Greenville. They’ve also jumped in with both feet to support social media enthusiasts (and thereby, many small businesses in the area) too.
3. Finally, if you’ll look very closely on the agenda for SIBA’s Southern Social Networking Summit, you’ll see there’s a fabulous session to weave two days of learning into one wrap-up session. <insert huge smiley face here>

So, if you’re in the Upstate of South Carolina January 6-7, 2010, take advantage of the opportunity to meet Gary, David, and Dan, and then stick around to wrap it all up in the fabulous last session. If you want to meet with Gary Vaynerchuk for dinner on January 6, watch the SIBA event page and Table 301 for more information.

PS. Here’s a link to a PDF: How to Beat the Big Boxes—an article I wrote several years ago to encourage independents to stay in the fight and leverage the opportunities CREATED by the “Big Box” stores.

Though I typically custom create each presentation I give, it seems I frequently mention some resources over and over again. To make it easier for folks who hear me speak access those resources, I’ll do the “social media thing” and list them in a blog post:

For Search Engine Optimization:

Google Trends and a sample trends search using “Crimson Tide”

Google Insights and a sample insights query on “social media marketing”

Free Keyword Tracker and a little info on keywords. (disclaimer: I am NOT a SEO guru nor do I use keyword research to shape content to “trick” search engines. For me, keyword research gives me a “feel” for the questions readers are asking. I’m not into “gaming the system,” but I am eager to learn more about the challenges readers face AND the words they’re using to define them.)

For Social Media Monitoring:
Radian6

Ken Burbary’s Wiki Ken maintains a comprehensive wiki monitoring monitoring tools. He’s worth following on Twitter, too.

For Social Media Return on Investment (ROI)
Collaboration between Kris Colvin and Olivier Blanchard: SMROI a helpful, multi-media site dedicated to common sense understanding of social media and ROI. ROI is an objective measure. Kris and Olivier help you understand it and help you build a model to track it. Value, on the other hand, is subjective. “What’s the ROI?” and “What’s the value of” are not the same question and they are not answered in the same way. Kris and Olivier provide a solid answer for “What’s the ROI?”

Olivier Blanchard’s immensely popular slide deck on SMROI posted to SlideShare. Yes, it is included on the SMROI website. I include the link to the SlideShare version so you can see for yourself just how popular the presentation is.

For everything Twitter and Social Media
Big collection of Twitterstuff maintained by my self-publishing mentor John Kremer

Just up-to-the-minute, peer-reviewed news on social media: Mashable (For what it’s worth, Mashable’s Pete Cashmore did just happen to mention Kris Colvin, Olivier Blanchard, and me on his “social media linkers” list he promoted on Mashable right after Twitter released the “list” feature.)