Vancouver Social Media Wonks prove their mettle at Vancouver Board of Trade

Contrary to what a lot of folks might think, we social media folks do emerge in sunlight, aren’t stuck behind computers, or incapable of speaking in English. This afternoon a quartet of the best of Vancouver’s social media gurus told the folks at the Vancouver Board of Trade how to make social media can work for them.

Colleen moderated the session and Rebecca live blogged the whole thing (and much better than my live tweeting) while I snapped a few shots:

You could be a little cynical about the content of the panel. Many of you reading this post would be saying “yes we knew that three years ago…”, however integrating social media as a tool and not a fad or “we need this too…” tactic isn’t easy. The information is slow to trickle down to all levels.

You mix in new tools like Twitter, well things can really get wonky.

I think some of the best things the panel repeated were to:

• be open, honest, and transparent
• at least listen to the conversation
• whatever you do or say online will be noted, indexed, and be “on record”
• you can’t hide from social media, you’re already in it even if you aren’t listening.

It’s important for us all to remember that we still need to keep listening, keep teaching, keep learning.

Keep growing social media

Tagged as: Social Media, Vancouver Board of Trade