Special thanks to over 1,000 attendees that took part in the September 15th, 2010 international networking event.  We gathered SEVEN cities in THREE countries and TWO languages as they mingled to talk about new ways the industry is changing.

Spanish Tweets :)
@MauBarba: 127 asistentes en el #medialeaders de ayer en Barcelona y buen proceso de desvirtualización de muchos de vosotros..hasta otra!

II. Things we had to overcome – similar to corporations
a. You have to have three entities on board
i. Someone who understands “social media currency”
ii. Someone to technically put it together (incorporate FB on pages, for example)
iii. Support from management
b. Fear
i. Transcends age
ii. Lack of control of the message
iii. Scared of how they represent the company
c. Solution
i. Education – Train people on Twitter, how to use it and what the online community is like
ii. Communication about how to deal with feedback and questions

III. You have things up and running – how do you incorporate user generated content?
a. Just b/c you build it, doesn’t mean they will come
i. Sweet Leaf success
ii. Our first call out had no returns (we had no social media currency)
iii. Doesn’t mean you should stop
b. Examples of it working
i. Severe weather (it takes collaboration)
ii. ATXPlaneCrash – Have someone monitoring feeds
1. Why Flickr? – It increases your SEO when you put a link to the article in the captions
2. The power of Twitter search
3. Facebook search now allows you to mine updates for links and media, just like Twitter

IV. Where do we build from here?
a. Keep the site open – the key is having an editor
i. iReport on CNN
ii. CurrentTV

V. Bloggers have put themselves in positions as editors
a. While we have the responsibility to reach people where they are, bloggers need to connect with media people
b. The press release is not dead
c. SOCIAL MEDIA ENCHASES YOUR ABILITY TO CONNECT WITH TRADITIONAL MEDIA
d. Best way to connect is still through the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why) – edit yourself
e. These collaborations are already taking shape
i. Example: ATX Fashion Week
ii. Now Austin = DO 512 + NBC

VI. In conclusion:
a. The new world is all about collaboration: Traditional media will survive by not only adopting, but collaboration with new media
b. Social media currency is about creating and sharing usable content (provide value)
c. And remember – we’re all having fun and figuring it out as we grow… and we’re tweeting the whole way through

(can’t see this video? Click here: http://vimeo.com/14620718)

Here’s some tips on how to host your own successful giveaway on your Facebook fan wall:

1) Pick some content (picture or video) that your fans will like
2) Select something cool to giveaway that your fans will go crazy over (something of value to them)
3) Carefully construct your messaging to be clear in your first sentence as to what you’re giving away
4) Post the giveaway to your wall and watch it grow!
5) Monitor your comments so people don’t start bad-mouthing our brand

Have suggestions? Let us know! Comment below this video to share your stories!

- @JoshOchs & Team @MediaLeaders

(can’t see this video? Click here: http://vimeo.com/14217957)

Here’s some tips on how to use twitter to network before an event in your city.

1) RSVP for the event
2) Check out the attendee list and review the twitter handles of other attendees
3) Click on the “More” button to learn about their bio and followers
4) Copy their twitter handle and insert it into your twitter page to reach out to them.
Example: “@altavert Hey there. Noticed you’re attending this week’s @MediaLeaders event. DM me to chat before or meet up at the event!”
5) Reach out to 4 or 5 people to setup meetings. This will ensure you leave with some quality contacts at the event.

Have suggestions? Let us know! Comment below this video to share your stories!

We use the Twitter @Anywhere hovercard on @Medialeaders and we love it. It’s a great way to let visitors on your site follow you while reading, watching a video or just browsing. Watch the video above to see how it works and why you should use it on your site.

If you have questions on how to implement the code, please reach out to us and we can help.

Here’s what the Twitter @anywhere website has to say:

When we designed Twitter, we took a different approach—we didn’t require a relationship model like that of a social network. Keeping things open meant you could browse our site to read tweets from friends, celebrities, companies, media outlets, fictional characters, and more. You could follow any account and be followed by any account. As a result, companies started interacting with customers, celebrities connected with fans, governments became more transparent, and people started discovering and sharing information in a new, participatory manner.

We’ve developed a new set of frameworks for adding this Twitter experience anywhere on the web. Soon, sites many of us visit every day will be able to recreate these open, engaging interactions providing a new layer of value for visitors without sending them to Twitter.com. Our open technology platform is well known and Twitter APIs are already widely implemented but this is a different approach because we’ve created something incredibly simple. Rather than implementing APIs, site owners need only drop in a few lines of javascript. This new set of frameworks is called @anywhere.

When we’re ready to launch, initial participating sites will include Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube. Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page—and that’s just the beginning. Twitter has proven to be compelling in a variety of ways. With @anywhere, web site owners and operators will be able to offer visitors more value with less heavy lifting.

Here’s how we have implemented the Facebook “Like” button on our site @MediaLeaders.

Have you used the “Like” button with any success? What are your thoughts on this new way of recommending items for your friends?