Rusty Tanton has posted more Podcasts from SoCon09 on generating leads, public relations, the future of social media and  using social media in business to business transactions. SoCon09 was an unconference which took place Feb. 6 and 7, 2009 in Metro Atlanta. Sessions were held at Kennesaw State University during the day on Feb. 7.

SoCon09 – Social Media for Marketing and Generating Leads with Debbie Qaqish

This podcast contains a discussion about generating marketing leads with social media led by Debbie Qaqish of The Pedowitz Group.

Intro and Welcome to SoCon09.

Ruth Ann Harnisch Skyped in from TED in California participates in $1.5 million Center for Sustainable Journalism announcement with Dr. Dan Papp, president of Kennesaw State University, and me.

Jeff Haynie talks of why he left Atlanta for the greener entrepreneur fields of Silicon Valley.

Andrew Wilson moderates a free flowing discussion, asking what is Metro Atlanta’s niche in the Social Media world.

You can see Amani Channel’s Soconj09 livestreamed, now archived videos at MyUrbanReport.

Amani photo by Hyku.

Here is a really worthwhile essay about Socon09 at GRABBINGSAND:

Nobody had all of the answers and more than a few walked away relatively unchanged, but what struck me about SoCon was the unabashed enthusiasm that everyone shared for the sprawling connective thing that brought us together….

One of the best takeaways from SoCon ‘09 was a simple reassurance from Amber Rhea’s breakout session. The title of her panel referred to Online Etiquette, but the conversation took an evolving turn into a discussion of how to be yourself online. As I admitted to the group, it took me far more that half of my ten years of cumulative blogging (and proto-blogging) to realize that the best person I can be online is myself.

Amani Channel is looking for Atlanta to build its Social Media niche via the news media, he writes:

My thoughts on Atlanta’s niche: Since I come from a news background, my hope is that Atlanta can contribute to the development of some innovative journalism practices that will help the profession rebound from the current troubles.

Kennesaw State is positioned play a role in this with the help of a 1.5 million dollar grant to develop sustainable journalism models. Of course, Atlanta has a small but dedicated core of independent media makers like Grayson Daughters, Rusty Tanton, Amber Rhea, and myself. Former AJC reporter Lyle Harris is getting ready to launch the Georgia Online News Service. I’m also hopeful that other traditional local journalism outlets won’t be left out of the conversations. Though there were few traditional media makers, I had some great conversations with a couple of AJC staff members (Eli Wednekos, and Jamie Gumbrecht) who see the social media light.

Jon Gatrell has produced an excellent blog roll of some participants websites. Maybe we should start a social media blog roll wiki.

Urvaksh Karkaria at the Atlanta Business Chronicle wrote about Jeff Haynie leaving for Silicon Valley and about the Harnisch Foundation Grant for the Center for Sustainable Journalism.

Jamie Gumbrecht wrote a piece about real life meets virtual life at the SoCon09 and about the grant. Of SoCon09 she writes in part:

Sure, plenty of these participants are local and have met face-to-face before. They follow each other on Twitter, befriend each other on Facebook, but they don’t usually hang out in groups of 300.

Dan Greenfield goes deep on New Media Accountability at his blog Bernaise Source:

I was in the room filled with passionate online advocates who very much value accountability.  You may not get fired for deception or inflammatory remarks, but incurring the wrath of the blogosphere will lead to loss of credibility and irrelevance.

In my book, accountability is:

• Having no hidden agendas
• Understanding your audience
• Using an honest voice
• Putting your posts in context
• Being prepared to back up your claims
• Being prepared to live with consequences

In the world of social media, all you really have is your reputation.

As I mentioned yesterday SoCon09 co-host Sherry Heyl has a roundup at Concept Hub.

I have probably missed other citations and I will update as necessary, but alas the blog is not dead, long live the blog.

First Update: Nice overview from TechDrawl including a video interview with me.

(Photo by Hyku, see more SoCon09 photos here.)

More than 300 people were at our SoCon09 event yesterday and maybe I heard the word blog used a few times. This year it was all about: Twitter, Twitter and more Twitter. Indeed read all about the full day Saturday Tweet by Tweet here.

Here are a few of my favorite Tweets:

tarynp: I’m still amped from yesterdays #socon09! So many great relationships forged.I’m committed to going to as many similar events as possible.

garbers: Back from #socon09. Great sessions, interesting people, stimulating conversation. Will certainly attend next year. Thanks to all who helped!

Mallory8: Great day at #socon09 now need a nap. (Witt: At least one other person, said he needed a nap, I think that is a good thing, we wore them out. )

Co-host Sherry Heyl gives a quick overview of the day at her Concept Hub Inc. site.  She says she misses the live blogging, and I do agree. Twitter is fast and furious, but alas a bit of depth is lost. However, parts of the day will be captured by the Georgia Podcasting Network thanks to Rusty Tanton and Amber Rhea . We’ll let you know when they post the podcasts.

Of course, if it had been liveblogged, the person or persons doing that heavy lifting would have had lots of people pushed their way by the the Tweeters. Personally I am much less interested  in the Twitter chatter than I am in using the Tweets to link me to  more interesting more in-depth reporting.

Of course, out of eight possible breakout choices in the early afternoon, I picked the one on Twitter run by Grayson Daughters. Lots of interesting information. Most interesting: UPS has a team assigned to do customer relations work on Twitter. One of the team members was at SoCon09.

Of course the whole day was perfect for me, starting with the announcement of the $1.5 million Harnsich Foundation gift for the Center of Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University and having  Daniel Papp, president of Kennesaw State University, and  Ruth Ann Harnisch (virutally), president of the Harnisch Foundation, there to make the announcement in front of the 300 people.

When Lauren Booth and Jeannine Jones, who were taking care of the event logistics, ran up to me mid-morning saying we had to order more food, I knew we were breaking new attendance records. Fortunately, we got the food. You don’t want to disappoint 300 people with Twitter power at hand.

Personally I made several great new contacts, two I need to speak with soon — Lyle V Harris, who left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to start the Georgia Online News Service, and David Pope of Inteletix.com which does Social Network Analysis. I am hungry for that kind of information.

I counted 40 people still hanging around having conversations half hour after SoCon09 officially ended, then headed over to the Mellow Mushroom to have a couple of beers with probably another 30 people from SoCon09.

Should have gone home and had my own nap, but went to the Kennesaw State men’s basketball game at which one of the KSU’s team members lobbed a three-point buzzer beater, tied the game and drove it into overtime, during which KSU came on strong and won amidst great cheering by the multitudes.

As I said I had a great day yesterday. Let’s end with this Tweet from Eli Wendkos, product manager for Social Media, mobile, video at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

ewendkos: Refreshed after #socon09. Good news: future looks good. Just going to take much work. Made many friends at the con – hopefully they help

(Photos by Hyku, see more SoCon09 photos here.)

I know at least a few people are coming because they did get laid off. With some 250 people already registered and with many of them making hiring decisions, its a good event to do the necessary networking to get back into the job market.

Registrations are on track to match or exceed last year’s SoCon08 and also SoCon07, which means we will close registrations at 160 for Friday night’s Big Eating, Big Thinking dinner at Maggiano’s in Cumberland Mall and might do the same for Saturday, where the main auditorium in the Social Science Building at Kennesaw State University only holds 300. Here is the full schedule.

We know from our registration questionnaire that people want to know more about Social Media in B2B as well as using Social Networking for doing good works. Lots of attendees are entrepreneurs interested in innovative uses of both Social Media and Social Networking. Others want to know how to use Twitter, make podcasts, shoot video or practice citizen media. The list is long, and we will provide breakout sessions on almost everything our registrants request.

This year’s keynote speaker is Christopher Carfi, an entrepreneur and currently the CEO of Cerado, Inc.. He will speak on seven types of markets that technology has enabled. Jeff Haynie, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Appcelerator, pulled his start-up from Atlanta and took it to Silicon Valley. He will explain why he made the move and what the Southeast can learn from his experiences. Then we will all work together to identify Georgia’s niche in the world of Social Media and Social Learning. After that it is on to the networking lunch and then the breakout sessions.

As I have said in the past, “Our SoCon conferences have been successful because they offer a place to learn, to share and to network in a relaxed atmosphere with lots of very smart and articulate people.”

This is a long way of saying register now at SoCon09.com, don’t get shut out.

Here is more from the website:

Just as with SoCon07 and SoCon08, this year’s SoCon09 is built on the premise that collectively we know more than we do individually. ¶ In the first two years, we introduced social media, user-generated content, blogs, podcasts, video logs, social networking, wikis… but nothing stands still. Find out what you have to know in 2009 to stay ahead of the learning curve. ¶ Find out who is doing great stuff; who has great, innovative ideas. ¶ Network and learn — and maybe even partner with independent content producers, new media pros, academics and people from across the spectrum of marketing, public relations, legal, human resources, and executive ranks.

We will stop Friday night registrations when we reach 155 and Saturday at 300, which were the numbers of attendees we had last year. Don’t get shut out. It is a semi-unconference, so you will help to pick the themes for the Friday night dinner table conversations and the Saturday breakout sessions.

To seed the discussions we will seek the Southeast’s social media and social networking niche (s) and will see how marketing has changed in the world of GPS meets eBay meets you and your professional and personal life. If you are interested in social media and online social networking, SoCon09 is the Southeast’s premiere place to learn, share and network. Don’t miss it. Register now. See you there.