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via Blogging for Glory « Daniel Durazo’s Blog.

So, I went to South By Southwest Interactive this year, after years of loving it from afar.

It was a fantastic learning experience and I came away with some head-exploding resources and ideas. You can read about my experience at my blog, The Learned Fangirl, but here are 25 things that I came away with from the conference (based on the copious note taking that I did while there) I’ve been sharing with friends, colleagues, and now, you. Hit me up at @ thelearnedfangirl @ gmail [.dot.] com if you want a little bit more explanation, or better yet, check out the podcasts from all of the SXSW interactive panels at the SXSW website. Hope to see you there next year!

1.) Websites: It’s about the user. Web design should begin and end with user needs. Always bring them into the web design process.
2.) Social Media: It’s about the community, not your message. Listen, listen a lot before you enter into a social media community.
3.) Technology scares people. But what’s happening w/ social media isn’t about technology, but about how people are adapting their behavior to it (Clay Shirky)
4.) Social media succeeds and evolves when you do social media (Hashtag evolution, Social media/racism panel)
5.) Do not overwrite on the web. Talk to people as if they are human beings. One on one interaction is valuable here. (Scott Goodstein, Revolution Messaging, LLC. Goodstein was External Online Director for Obama for America,)
6.) Marketing = transactional interaction. Social Media = relationship interaction. Many people new to social media mistake one for the other. (DL Bryan)
7.) 1 way conversations in media are becoming less and less relevant (DL Bryan)
8.) Allow your audience to validate you, let them carry your message and evangelize. Don’t decide for them what’s important. Give them info and let them decide. (Clay Johnson,ex- Blue State Digital)
9.) FAIL HARD. Experiment by listening to your community, but allow for mistakes. Big ones.(Clay Johnson, Scott Goodman,)
10.) Popular perspectives on Facebook/Twitter/MySpace use are often based on assumptions about user cultural background/class. My Space is no longer used by white middle class, college educated. Does that mean it is no longer popular? (Danah Boyd, Microsoft)
11.) Email not dead, but not a priority (Clay Johnson)
12.) Social Media, not about what you say, but about the tolerance you have for what others say about you.
13.) Voice is key.
14.) The five levels of online user experience 1.) interested 2.) invested 3.) commited 4.) engaged 5.) embedded (Leah Buley, UX designer)
15.) Create a web design principle: a statement of what you want your user’s online experience to be (Leah Buley, UX designer)
16.) Measure everything, but against your own benchmarks. Online community is too diverse to adhere to uniform benchmarks (Clay Johnson, Scott Goodman)
17.) No such thing as a social media campaign “best practice” The best examples of successful social media have come from the bottom up (suxorz ‘09)
18.) Online community building. Mind the tyrannical minority, but not at the expense of the silent majority (Alexis Ohanian, Reddit).
19.) Social media does not change corp. culture. The next few months/ years will be about re-education for communications media professionals, Educate before you ask for buy-in.20.) ROI is happiness. Make your users happy. (Tony Hseih, Zappos.com)
21.) Blog out of love and passion for your chosen topic, and people will read (John Gruber/Merlin Mann – Big Name Bloggers)
22.) Don’t be obsessed with staying on message (Amit Gupta, photojojo)
23.) The traditional press release will stop being used by the end of this year. (Brian Solis, PR 2.0)
24.) Social media success? Run small experiments that will fail.
25.) Online content strategy: Plan. Create. Publish. Govern. (Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic)

Influence Through Storytelling.