I went to the  social media roundtable tonight and  took a few videos and got the sense that Social Currency is about earning “points” and “credits” we can use on a social network – here they are ( a list of speakers, directly below).

Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, Co-Founders of FourSquare
Richard Lawson, Entertainment Editor, Gawker
Ryan Brown, Vice President of Operations, Fame Game
Caroline McCarthy, Writer, The Social, CNET News

The first video deals with metrics and how social capital is defined by this group – as credits or other things one can get awarded.

The Second video I took focuses on overdoing something and getting banned  – or unfriended – how much of an activity is too much?

The last video I took focuses on Facebook and how Facebook uses Social Capital. In that sense, I suppose,  social capital is virtual.

It was a good event – one of the better one’s that happened here – and I noticed there are more “Social Media Roundtable” events popping up  – I guess no one really “owns” the concept of bringing people together for Roundtables, and in this case, the panel was very qualified to talk about Social Capital and Social Currency.

Here’s some of the marketing notes -

“Social Media and Social Currency” will examine techniques for building a brand’s social capital, including cultivating an online reputation that complements a brand’s goals, sharing techniques for gaining significance on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other channels and exploring the evolving role of social currency across digital platforms. “

Well – Steve Rubel says much of what I have been thinking for some time – and it was mirrored in what was being said at Entrepreneur Week NYC recently – that advertising is not cutting it anymore – and most sites can’t count of making a living off of Advertising – and Steve says it best in The End of the Destination Web Era

In March the average American visited a mere 111 domains and 2,500 web pages, according to Nielsen Online. What’s worse, our attention across these pages is highly fragmented. The average time spent per page is a mere 56 seconds. Portals and search engines dominate, capturing approximately 12 of the 75 hours spent online in March. However, people-powered sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube are not far behind, snagging nearly 4.5 hours of our monthly attention.

The alternative is sharing online information that mentions brands specifically - or better yet – produce the information.  Most of the corporate managers will not be able to embrace this because it’s too much work – and would necessitate a restructuring of organizations and loosening of control they’re uncomfortable with, for many reasons, including legal ones.

Compared with banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers and sponsored links, articles that include brand information were most likely to lead US Internet users to read—and act.

In addition to making a product so compelling it demands coverage, this requires a more natural, PR-focused strategy of getting the word out. Or in some cases, tailoring ads so they look like articles.

How likely viewers were to take action depended slightly on demographic factors. About one-half of both men and women were likely or somewhat likely to respond to articles that have brand information included in them.

I haven’t said anything different than what Steve Rubel wrote – up to this point in the post – now I will.

Advertising doesn’t have to die - but it does need to radically change - to be targeted into the exact micro fragmented landscapes that have arisen with the democratization on content and online media.  What I’m advocating is to start treating online marketing much as Advertising was treated in Virtual Worlds (similar to vendors like Code4Software’s V-Tracker and AdSoft).  Here’s what I mean …..

AdSoft Network in SL – Ubiquitous placement all over SL landscape created opportunities for large audiences and customized targeting that created better results – contact Code4Software.com for more details.

What we’re seeing now is a micro fragmented landscape where people are beginning to create content, much as they did in Second Life when it was more popular, and consuming content – but in small packets, all over the landscape – with few readers (avatars) being present in any location at any time (due to technical limitations with the platform, mostly).  However, by being ubiquitous and with enough targeted advertising, in aggregate – you could still match results of much larger, mass marketed campaigns.  I think the tracking across sites – in the behavioral networks and Google‘s acquisition of DoubleClick along with the large amount of information collected by Google Analytics and data from AdWords/AdSense, makes the tracking possible – Yahoo and MSN also have a great deal of information, and when you put it all together, you can track across sites – more and more – and find micro-clusters this way.

When I worked at IBM I got involved in planning out Advertising Campaigns for the Virtual Business Center in Second Life- but they were never run, yet, the results from Caldwell Banker and The Red Cross, among other campaigns were impressive.   The virtual world situation mirrors what we’ve now entered into – the age where the destination isn’t that important any longer.  BTW, just want to disclose I am a stakeholder in Code4Software.com and do work with them on various projects.

And it’s the age where aggregating traffic in one place is no longer working – which means that media starts (ie: movie stars, for example) that command large payoffs for attracting large audiences – or sites that do the same thing – are becoming harder to justify.

After all, for one Julia Roberts that makes 20 million dollars a picture (to get millions of people to go and watch her – essentially repeat her what she does, act, over and over) there are thousands of people who could eck out a living doing things that are half as good, or even as good, and make 60K -80K a year – film makers, performers in user generated video.

Numb3rs – Trouble in Chinatown – Episode 13

Sure – as more people create content – attention is going all over the place – into this fragmented landscape – and where you could not get that many people to watch a blip.tv show than, say, Numb3rs, on Cable or CBS, you could, by targeting the online audience, in little clusters, on the sites where they go to consume and watch (each other) start making up for the loss advertising opportunities that in MSM that aren’t working so well, any longer – and also create revenues on Micro Payments that will eventually, create viable income for some of the better, more liked creators.

And even it Numb3rs case, as shown in the episode I embedded above – superior metrics are coming about through the promotion of advertising to clusters of people who’d watch video online in much the day they watched it on TV or Cable.   In fact, and I’m just seeing it – but what happened to Newspapers (becoming obsolete, for better or worse) is probably going to happen to cable networks down the line – unless they re-invent themselves now (just a guess) – as the landscape becomes even more fragmented, over time.

Look, it’s happening already – just in little pockets – but in 5 years – it will be everywhere.

I’m on a panel this morning at Bloomberg LP on Leverging NYC Resources and will approach the advantages of being an Entrepreneur or Startup in New York City.  As mentioned in my last post, I’ll focus on New York as a  Social Media Hub: New York that’s unique from any other place in the world and a much better place to be, now, than the Bay Area, for example, which is in worse shape than NYC in terms of Job Loss, etc.

New York City is the Social Media Hub of the World:

There’s more Meetup groups in New York than anywhere else; In fact – I’m convinced there’s more professional opportunities to connect, especially in the Technical and Arts communities, than any other place, and some of the Meetups I’ve gone to have been packed full of Influentials and great information including:

NYC Brandhackers Speaker Series – my last Brandhacker meeting was actually covered in MediaPost by Kelly Samardak – Just An Online Minute… There Is No Cure For Brandhacking,where well known authorities in Branding and Social Media come to speak and where it’s easy to network with each other.

Over by my table, before Marshall Sponder, Web Analyst and Artist, plopped down with his juicy burger, and as Oz Sultan, Digital Strategist side, hugged me, I met Shaman D’Souza who is “in transition” — AKA unemployed and hungry! Because she was so lovely and because I have been there, I’d like to take this opportunity to pimp her out, as they say… She has tons of consumer marketing experience with all the fun stuff that goes with it like event planning and being able to speak like a human to people. She’s very outgoing and vivacious — strikes me as business-fearless. Shoot me an email if you want her contact info. Moving on — bullet time! Let’s see what John Gerzema, AKA “Bubble Boy,” had to say:

The Brooklyn Future Meetup Group @ drop.io (+30 years) meetup is another must attend, with recent meetings I’ve attended including Strauss Zelnick on Gaming, Media, and Entertainment +30 and The Environment + 30, lead by Graham Hill of Treehugger.com – in this case, I was able to speak to Graham Hill for several mintues and make an important connection that might tie into Web Analytics work I do (never would have happened had I not attended this meetup).

The Metaverse Meetup is a valuable place to both find out about the Virtual World Community that lives in NYC area, but also, to find very talented programmers who are able to work on innovative projects, and often that’s not easy to find – but that’s just the kind of technical resoruce you’d want and need as an Entrepreneur.  I enjoy the impromptu meetups that sometimes happen with this group, like the one in Williamsburg this Sunday afternoon featuring some well known Virtual World personalities.

NextWeb | NY Web 2.0 Meetup which is organized by @brett,  SEMPO New York organized by Sara Holoubek, Social Media Monday organized by John Matthews, Web2NewYork (New York Web Entrepreneurs) organized by Peter Verkooijen and the largest meetup in NYC, the NY Tech Meetup are wonderful for being exposed to many new platforms and products, mainly Web 2.0 based.   A newer meetup, the  Arts, Culture and Technology seeks to merge Art with Technology – it’s a meetup I’ve been wanting to attend, but the timing never seems to work out for me.

New York is a better place to be to find a new job, or start a new business than just about anywhere else because …

New York City Will Help Retrain Laid-Off Wall Streeters according to a story in the New York Times:

Librado Romero/The New York Times

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg outlining initiatives to retrain financial services workers.

Under a program unveiled on Wednesday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the city wants to invest $45 million in government money to retrain investment bankers, traders and others who have lost jobs on Wall Street, as well as provide seed capital and office space for new businesses those laid-off bankers might create.

The plan is intended to stem a potential exodus of banking professionals from the city during the restructuring of the financial services industry, which has been the city’s economic engine for decades, and to speed the industry’s recovery, which will take at least several years, officials said.

Also, it was annouced recently that NYC plans a  start-up workspace partnership

he city’s Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) plans to announce a new initiative to partner with a number of local start-up workspace companies. These office space providers rent desks, cubicles, conference rooms, and other resources to new and small businesses that aren’t yet ready to take the full plunge into office space in a notoriously expensive market.

According to a source in the city’s venture capital community, the agreement means that participating workspaces will provide discounted services and event space access to the city in exchange for promotion and publicity. Basically, this means that instead of actively developing rival shared work spaces–which could undercut existing private ones–NYC EDC will primarily collaborate with the ones that are already there.

A media relations representative from NYC EDC confirmed to CNET News that there would be an announcement on Wednesday but declined to provide any details.

The source said that initial partners in the agreement include Sunshine Suites, Nutopia, and New Work City, among others. But the partnership’s first hub will be at 160 Varick St., in the SoHo neighborhood, which had already been selected by NYC EDC as a collaborative workspace.

Meanwhile, a lot of money is flowing into New York City for development and Green Energy projects that Entrepreneurs can take advantage of, as a result of the $787 Billion Dollar Stimulus Package recently passed in Congress and signed by President Obama.

And another type of meetup that I often find helpful to attend is the various Social Media Breakfasts (Jeff Pulver and Social Media Club both put on breakfasts on a regular basis).

New York is a Great Place for Startups …

Another thing about the New York Technical Community is the great resources it has just for Startups, in general starting with Ultra Light Startups (recently referred to as Self-Help for Startups, by Businessweek) and where I recently spoke on Ultra Light Web Analytics – which takes place at For Your Imagination, on W.27th Street in Chelsea part of Manhattan.  Ultra Light Startups focus on those beginning a startup and wanting to connect with others who can help them or collaborate.

When you get a little father along with our plans and have already formed a business and have funding, you can get your business looked at by a panel, while the audience watches, at The Hatchery; as the site suggests Unique technology companies Submit to pitch at the Hatchery and in return, they receive priceless guidance and feedback from successful Entrepreneurs.

Along with NY Tech Meetup and Web2NewYork (New York Web Entrepreneurs and a few others, there’s a wealth of local events and parties thrown or contributed to by Mashable such as the MashBash last year or Just An Online Minute… Mashable Throws The Hottest Party Of 2009.

WebGrrls and Girls in Tech also throw regular events that are alot of fun to go to and have opportunities to meet and network in a meaningful way.

New York Events that take place every year

Internet Week, last year, was fantastic and jam packed with events and opportunities to meet people – this year, it’s going to be even better with Ignite NY happen June 1st and the MediaBistro Circus, which I’m hoping to get a press pass for, Mashable Next Up NYC: Social Media Marketing 101, the NY Social Media Roundtable: Social Media For Non-Profits and a Digg Meetup finish up the week with the Webby Awards.

Identifying  and Locating  New York Influentials using Web 2.0 Tools

A lot of well known Internet Personalities and Micro Celebreties live in New York and it’s possible and likley to meet then in many of the events I’ve listed above – but it’s now possible to use Web 2.0 tools such as Mailana to find the Influentials near you, and in this case, New York City -

I happen to have met almost every single “Avatar” that appears in the map, above, at the meetings and events I mentioned above:

1. brett – ozsultan info

2. 2xlp – ozsultan info

3. ceonyc – innonate info

4. brett – savvyauntie info

5. ceonyc – juliaxgulia info

6. brett – fredericguarino info

7. billcammack – brett info

8. brett – mcaldecutt info

9. ozsultan – savvyauntie info

10. mavindigital – ozsultan info

11. billcammack – ozsultan info

12. ceonyc – epc info

13. mcaldecutt – savvyauntie info

14. innonate – rachelsterne info

15. epc – innonate info

16. dorianbenkoil – mcaldecutt info

17. 2xlp – brett info

18. brett – lucidanna info

19. brett – juliaxgulia info

20. mcaldecutt – tiffanypr info