I just participated in my first Social Media Blitz. courtesy of BlitzTime. Blitz’s are similar to speed-dating, but over the phone. The BlitzTime website has a place for you to fill out a profile. When you are connect to a person, the page refreshes and their profiles comes up. The countdown timer begins, and you chat for four or so minutes.
I think it’s a great concept. A phone is all that’s required to meet 12 people interested in a particular topic.
The BlitzTime website worked flawlessly from my perspective, although some people said they couldn’t see my profile.
BlitzTime facilitates conversations, they don’t get in the middle or intrude, which is nice. You can see who you talked to during your sessions, and easier refer to their profile, which usually contains a link to their LinkedIn profile. There is a link to email them directly as well. I’ve already received a handful of Twitter followers, LinkedIn requests and emails asking to keep in touch.
Leslie Poston (@geechee_girl) lead off the conversation for the first 10 minutes. She writes for Mashable and knows her social media.
The overview consisted of an introduction to Twitter and how to get the most out of it. Talk about yourself, be interesting, etc. The conversation quickly centered on dealing with the firehose of information that spews forth from Twitter. It’s overwhelming trying to follow all conversations and Leslie has a number of suggestions on how to deal with information overload, including scanning, feeling ok about jumping around conversations, and most importantly, at least for me, to have your A-list important people’s tweets pushed to your phone. She changes her list of people who tweet to her phone monthly, much as I change the blogs in my blogroll.
Mentions Twhirl and TweetDeck.
Neighbor started screaming, had to leave to check it out, nothing serious.
Mentions Ping.fm, social network aggregator service that makes updating your social networks a snap.
The we jumped in to the actual Blitz’s. Here’s who I talked to:
Jake @MushyGushy, Steven Harper @ Plan 2 Win Software, sales software, Peter Ganzel @ Resources Global Professionals, Mike Sachleben President @ Blitz Innovations, Mae Mason, Mutha Mae’s Word To Your Mutha (hilarious voiceover talent), Lisa M. Forbes @ Perfect Solutions- A Virtual Assistants Group, Deb Mullen @ Send a Card on Me, Leslie Poston (@geechee_girl), social media guru who did the initial 10 minute intro, Michele McCormack @ CloudOutLoud, we talked about clubbing in NYC in the early 90′s, memories!, carl wirth, building and developing ways for autistic individuals to deal with life, Larry Lawfer @YourStorys, use your clients stories as your marketing message. Digital content library of stories about why you are so great, Rick & Rebecca Blayney @ SendOutCards,
Whew, a session with nobody else on the line, perfect timing, was getting overloaded. Patience and a succinct pitch tailored to what they say in their profile. Sometimes it’s ok to just talk about the Red Sox for a minute or two and catch your breath.
I wonder why there were several e-card and paper card vendors.
Overall, my first big BlitzTime was a positive experience. I’ll definitely attend more. In fact, I’m leading a discussion about how executives can leverage Facebook at their company on Friday. I think it’s important to make sure the topic of a Blitz is closely aligned with your needs. On the other hand, jumping into a Blitz about custom cars or cooking could be fun.
Skype tried to do these time and topic-based conversations, but I believe they ended up closing down the service. BlitzTime should be able to pick up a large market if they promote the service to the right people and in the right places. So far they are doing a great job influencing the influencers.
James Nachtwey, who’s War Photographer documentary I absolutely loved, is breaking a story on October 3 and has asked people to add a widget to their blog to promote the story. The link the widget in this post points to will change on the third to reveal the true story.