I’m at the Tribecca Grand Hotel today at the Marketing & Online Communications conference.

Designing for Conversation 9AM – 10:10 am

Heather Gold – she’s happy about Barack Obama, he knows a lot about having conversations and still holding your own opinions; also, she’s gay and due to the close vote in California,if she’s still married.

Also, Howard Greenstein who I know from Social Media Club, is speaking, as well. Started the WAC group in 1994, Howard is a veteran of the beginnings of Social Media on the Web.

Organizing online communities is more than just using the Internet as a Black Box (saying, “my friends”)(cited Hillary Clinton as using social media but killing the conversation).

What Obama did wasn’t so different than what we do in our daily lives. Ann went to spend her election eve party with her Black friends, because of what it means to Africian Americans.

Many watering holes and different connversations around each one.

In fact, the container for a conversation(s) is a person, you need a human face to an organization.

Ann Ferdleson has her own company, sees marketing as about relationships. The topic moved to Twitter, she said she used Twitter to keep her family updated.

Twitter limits you to 140 characters, nut does not really tell you much about feedback fully, but is a step in the right direction.

Mary Lou Floyd – from BT. Figure out what people care about, first. But, there was no management and hosting of the conversation.

Obama’s Campaign was amazing as a marketing. He allowed people to communicate back through multiple channels.

My Takesways from this session are that building online communities involves multiple conversations around different “watering holes” about what people care about, and allowing for response along multiple channels.