ASE09: Tuesday Peter Shankman Keynote

I’m a lover of both Chris Brogan and Peter Shankman, but I have to say that I took more from this keynote than Chris’.  I was surprised that Peter wasn’t TOO hyperactive, but was still incredibly entertaining and engaging.

• Peter Shankman, Founder & CEO, The Geek Factory (Twitter @skydiver)

Bullet Point Review!

• HARO has grown to just under 100,000 subscribers in 14 months.
• It’s helped 24,000 journalists.
• $0 to just over $1,000,000 revenue in 14 months.
• Peter worked at AOL News launching their digital news.
• You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.
• Social media is trust.
• Social media is the ability to screw up to a bigger audience in a faster amount of time.
• We’re a society that loves to be finders.
• Doing something to be nice gets you remembered, not just recalled.
• We covet what we know.
• 4 Ideals of Social Media
  • Transparency -> Immediate Trust -> Viral
  • Relevant
  • Brevity
  • Top of Mind Presence
• Social media is 2 way communication – you must be prepared to talk and listen and respond.
• Giving people what they want, when they want it.
• Have you ever asked your audience how they like to get their information?
• The average attention span is 2.7 seconds, or 140 characters.  (Coincidence, Twitter?)
• There are three categories email falls into
  • Ones you can answer immediately and delete.
  • Ones you have to wait until you get back to the office to reply to.
  • Ones that aren’t getting to the point and require too much attention to figure out what it is they want or need from you.
• Learn how to write; take a class if you need to.
• You have 1 paragraph to get someone’s attention and keep them interested.
• Paramount Studios CEO Barry Diller was known for getting to the office 30 minutes early and opening his Rolodex and calling 4 or 5 people randomly just to say hi -> this created good will and helped build relationships that could later be leveraged.
• Peter checks Facebook every day and sends people a short note when it’s their birthday – this is his version of the Barry Diller method.

I know that now I have to find a Poken since they just look so cool and really start to think more about the altruism of business, something I don’t think most people think about.  As an added bonus, Peter showed us a video that was just GOOD and so it went viral.  Here it is – it’s a bit longer than a video I’d normally watch, but it’s worth it.  Funny yet touching.  Enjoy!

Here’s the recording of Peter’s Keynote as well for your viewing pleasure: