I’ve often said that if I could live in “SXSW Land,” I would.
I’m only joking when I say that, but where else in the world can you find such a cool gathering of people creating and changing the future of music, film, and all things interactive?

That’s why I’ve put together two SXSW Interactive panel proposals for 2011 that I believe people will find interesting and valuable:

1. Samsung’s Social Media Journey Towards Customer-Centricity  with Cosmin Ghiurau @cosguru

2. How To Get A Job Using Social Media with Sarah Austin @pop17, Brandon Prebynski @Prebynski, Chris Kahle @chriskahle, Joel Cheeseman @cheezehead, myself @socialnerdia @samsungesteban, and moderator Ryan Paugh @paughginney 

It would be great if you created a SXSW PanelPicker account to vote for and comment on both of them. Your votes make up 30% of the decision. SXSW has already told me that they like both topics so your votes are extremely valuable.

To help us spread the word, click here to retweet on Twitter and click here to share on Facebook.

While I created this blog as a creative exploration of the convergence of tech, marketing, and social media, I also had two secondary goals in mind: To speak at SXSW Interactive in 2010 and to work full-time in social media within one year. Speaking at SXSW Interactive earlier this year was a great experience and Social Nerdia was definitely the platform that enabled me to join Samsung USA as Social Media Manager. I’ m very grateful for the many opportunities that have come from this tiny spec of Internet data called Social Nerdia. Thanks, as always, for reading. I hope to see you at South By next year.

Social Media is really all about this: integrating life and technology.

Facebook is the most widely used, widely known, and perhaps widely trusted social network in the world. As someone who got on Facebook when it first launched for universities (I was part of the SMU network before most people knew what Facebook was), I’ve seen Zuckerberg & Co. grow and change through the years, and one thing is for sure: Facebook has a bold and ambitious vision to become the web’s social platform.

I vividly remember having conversations in which people made fun of Facebook back when MySpace was “the social network.” I also remember making fun of Facebook myself… only to jump in a few days later and realize that social media was what I wanted to do with my life. I figured that the social web is full of visionaries and I’d rather spend my time learning from them and becoming a bit more like them (creative risk-takers with ideas that could change the world), than simply doing the whole get-a-job-to-buy-the-groceries thing. The social web was is fascinating and it’s evolving at a pace that is astounding. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook eventually actually try to connect us to everything (like I jokingly predicted a year ago).

Anyways, if I’m right in saying that social media is about the integration of life and technology, then Facebook is really unto something.

As the Social Media Manager for Samsung Electronics, I worried a bit when the rumors about the terminology changes from “Become a Fan” to “Like” started to emerge. I wondered about what Facebook was thinking about and whether this would actually be good for users (because if it’s not good for users, it’s not good for anyone in the long-term). I like to think that most of the people who decided to join our Facebook Fan Page (sorry, but I will probably call it a ” Fan Page” for a while) are real fans, so saying good-bye to that word seemed confusing at best. The word “Fan” had seemed perfect for the longest time because it was like making an emotional decision: “Yes, I am a fan!”

I also figured there was something greater going on, something more “visionary” than simply changing the word with which people decide to associate themselves to a brand or a band or a book or a personality on Facebook.

After hearing the announcements from Facebook’s f8 Conference, and seeing the new “Like” button appear on sites like Levi’s Store and NHL (as well as the interesting “Recommend” button on CNN, and the newly socialized version of Pandora), I got excited. Very excited.

Maybe a bit too excited for my beautiful wife (and the average person) to understand.

I won’t get into the details about the new Graph API and Social Plugins, but I highly recommend RWW’s “Definitive Guide for Publishers,” Shiv Singh’s “Internet’s Glue” argument, Dave Winer’s not-so-optimistic thoughts,  Dare Obasanjo’s “Web Dev Perspective,” and Jeremiah Owyang’s “First Take Analysis.”

Make sure you also check out Scobleizer’s “Facebook Ambition” post.

The fact is that I like the social web and I am fascinated by apps/services/sites like Twitter, Foursquare, Plancast, Yelp, Digg, Stitcher, DailyBooth, Cinch, and 23andMe. ChatRoulette frightens and intrigues me, but the idea makes sense in the world we live in, and I’m guessing it makes more sense to the next generations than my own.

I don’t actually use most of the vast array of ”integrations of life and technology,” but I think they give us a better glimpse about each other’s lives and about human interaction as a whole.

While most people don’t get excited about the concept of the internets, and probably don’t think about it much, many of them (getting close to 500 million) are on Facebook. And they’re on Facebook a lot.

My wife, parents, grandparents, pre-teen cousins, friends from High School I never thought I’d see again, and pretty much anyone with an internet connection that I know of.. is on Facebook.

It’s a bit surreal when you think about it.

People are on Facebook because it’s easy to get immersed. It’s easy to connect. It’s easy to reveal your identity, and to be yourself with your friends. The complexity of Facebook disappears when you see your friends’ thoughts, pictures, videos, and dare I say it, pokes.

The idea of extending the world’s best social network, into any web site, in order to bring a huge part of the social web into it, is simply brilliant. It was a really good move by Facebook.

Of course, there are a few scary parts in this, including privacy concerns and the potential for evil (with great power comes the ability take advantage of that power).

More than anything, Facebook Connect, the Graph API, and the world-wide-web “Like” button continue to integrate life and technology in a real-time, creative, and even  somewhat perplexing way that adds social context to the web.

It’s hard to predict exactly where this is all going. But, if people like it, use it, learn, and innovate from it, this could be a wild and fun ride that further connects us, and hopefully takes us offline a bit to meet for lunch to talk about how much we like Jarome Iginla, and how excited about the 2010 World Cup we have been for the last 4 years.

I had the very cool opportunity to speak at this year’s SXSW Interactive as part of the Future15: Diversity series, which was organized by Glenda Bautista. The presentation, titled “The Online Latino: A New Digital Native,” was all about Latin Americans and the web. 

While it is a myth that Latin Americans are not online, only 30% of them are. The presentation went into the challenges (poverty, inequality, censorship, and the social/economic/digital divide), as well as what is changing (tech hubs, encouraging governments, businesses rolling out infrastructure, and a rapidly growing online community).

If you’re interested in learning more about what is happening online and offline in Latin America, including Streisand effects, citizen journalism, social networking, innovative start-ups, and stories about the people that are converting ideas into movements, check out the slides and videos below. Feedback (through email or comments) is appreciated

Thanks to Diego Contreras (aka Diegoliath) for helping me with the design, Jon Gipson for recording the video, and Kara Andrade for writing the original proposal with me and helping out with ideas, insights, and stats.

Google Buzz has created some buzz in the past couple of days. A Twitter killer it is not, but it is definitely the most exciting social web service I’ve seen since FriendFeed. Tim O’Reilly has said that Google has “taken the social media lessons of Twitter,” and Jason Calacanis thinks “Google Buzz 1.0 is better than Facebook after six or seven years.”

Not only does Buzz combine some of the best aspects of Google Wave, FriendFeed, and Twitter, but it’s also built into GMail. By adding the mobile component (so we can take it anywhere), and integrating feeds from Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Blogger (so we can pull outside content), Google Buzz starts to sound like a very promising service of its own, and not just another GMail feature.

But the question that everyone is wondering about is:  Can Google really create a new social network that people will want to use?

It is true that Google has failed at many, if not all things social in the past, but this time it seems different. From day one, Buzz already makes great use of multimedia, is open to anyone, makes use of @ replies (ie. @socialnerdia@gmail.com), and allows us to have conversations in real-time.

So, with early adopters rushing to test, criticize, and/or embrace Google Buzz, should companies be creating accounts just as they have done on Twitter and Facebook?

Traditionally, companies have been slow to join social networks. The idea of unproven and confusing new social services creates unwillingness to jump in until other companies have. But with a rapidly changing and increasingly social online landscape, it is essential to understand the things that people are doing. In order to really “get it” companies could spend months researching, brainstorming, and strategizing. Or they could just do what regular people do: Jump in and experiment.

Earlier today (well, technically yesterday), I opened up an account on behalf of Samsung USA. If you have not read my blog before, I recently joined Samsung as Social Media Manager; exploring new technologies and services is part of what I do for a living now.

In the first two hours I posted a few thoughts and started commenting on other postings, similar to how I usually interact on Twitter, but mostly focused around how Google Buzz works. I started following some of the people I usually think of first on Twitter. I figured I could try to do a #followfriday, even though I know Google doesn’t support it in the way that Twitter does. So I “@ replied” some early adopter “buzzers” who were posting interesting things on Google Buzz and added a tag with meme potential: #BUZZwednesday.

After a couple of hours of playing with Buzz I decided to head out for a work out. On my way back, I received a “kudos” tweet with a link to a TechCrunch article. The title and link worried me at first, but it made sense once I started reading. Apparently MG Siegler, one of the “buzzers” I had written about had posted screenshots and thoughts about our Samsung buzzing. While the @ reply was what made MG aware of us, it was also what led him to think that “this” could “get annoying” because it so happens that when you @ reply someone on Google Buzz, it sends them an email that appears on Gmail’s Inbox.

And I agree, it could get annoying, but not because of brands or people commenting and @ replying, but simply because Google still has some work to do in regards to how it organizes and helps us filter data. LifeHacker has some tips on how to filter it yourself, but I believe Google could help us out a bit.

Google is probably actively paying attention to what people are saying and how they are using the service. From Kevin Rose and Chris Pirillo to Robert Scoble and Dan Schawbel, everyone has great ideas about what Google Buzz could or should be. We are all starting to wonder if we will see clients like Seesmic for Buzz, as well as opportunities for third party apps, integration with monitoring services like Sysomos, and all kinds of other things.

As for me, I intend to continue to explore Google Buzz. I really think everyone working in business, marketing, advertising, customer service, and anything related to the web, should start exploring as well.

Google Buzz is great for personal use, but it will also evolve to be a good place for companies to listen and engage with people. As cheesy as that may sound, “listening” and “engaging” with customers and potential customers could be more valuable than what we have typically come to know as marketing.

I’m very proud to work for a company that embraces the future of the web and is willing to explore areas that are still “unproven.” I’m also proud that Samsung was the first major brand to give Google Buzz a try. It was very cool to see that many of those already on Buzz were not only welcoming, but also highly encouraging of brands like Samsung joining in:

Disclaimer: I am a Social Media Manager for Samsung Electronics. While I am employed by Samsung, the views expressed on this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samsung.

Samsung is one of the most admired companies in the world. With a roster of high-quality HDTVs, smartphones, and cameras, it is not surprising that the company’s products speak for themselves, but there is also very talented people making sure the world knows about the latest and greatest from Samsung. Last night, on The Social Nerdia Show! live podcast’s 28th episode, I had a conversation with Matt Moller and Keith Swiderski, Samsung’s Social Media Strategists. They told me all about their customer-centric approach to engaging with people on the social web and provided some advice for making an impact in social media.

You can listen to the entire conversation with Matt and Keith on the Flash player below. You can also subscribe to all our shows on iTunes, stream it from a mobile phone on Stitcher, and listen to it LIVE on Thursday nights on blogtalkradio.

Samsung has been doing several things all over the social web, including campaigns like Tap & Take, Twitter accounts, and even incredibly popular Extreme Sheep LED Art. However, Samsung is not new to social media. From message boards and forums like the ones found on CNET to early social networks, Samsung has always paid close attention to what people say online.

“In addition to listening and gathering, we want to go out and actually engage customers and help them get the most out of their products,” Keith explained. “When Windows 7 beta came out a lot of people were using our netbooks. We found out that people really liked it and it enabled us to know how people were using our products.” He continued by saying that “moving on to Twitter and Facebook was a natural extension to let consumers know that we’re about more than just our products.”

Social Media at a Large Multinational

Because Samsung is such a large company, “a lot of these (social media efforts) evolved from the bottom-up. Samsung empowers its people with getting involved in new things and being on the cutting edge,” Matt explained. Samsung doesn’t have a social media policy with specific details about what employees can and cannot do online. “Samsung feels strongly in its employees right to freedom of speech and being able to express themselves.”

Matt also said that the different territories and regions worldwide are able to take control of how they reach customers with social media. While there is a consistent and unified message for the Samsung brand, Matt also said that he doesn’t think there will ever be a “central entity that will control all social media” because that would not really align with what social media is about.

With so many people talking about Samsung, the company tries to connect with as many people as possible in an “open and honest” manner, and they also try to give some extra attention to those with increasing influence, including bloggers. “Bloggers have become as important as traditional media, if not more important in our space.”

Matt told me that he’s always seen social media as being very similar to CRM because “it’s about building communities, engaging with customers who have express an interest, and talking to them in a real, transparent way.” The future of how CRM evolved may really come down to how people decide to provide their information to companies. Matt emphasized that “there’s a lot of people that are concerned about privacy. I want to honor everyone’s privacy and at the same time give them the most relevant experience. It’s a sensitive exchange.”

The Ultimate Democracy

Marketing has changed dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years. Direct marketing has lost a lot of its weight because the internet has allowed us to communicate with each other from anywhere in the world. Today, marketers get immediate feedback. “We couldn’t do that before without doing surveys, focus groups, or using your gut.”

The internet also allows companies to better prepare for the worst. Keith explained, “we anticipate possible problems and create scenarios so we can react to them. We now can have people react before (a problem) mushrooms into a stampede.”

Social media has not only allowed marketers to move quickly, but it also has changed the dynamic of what it means to engage with customers. As Keith said, “it’s a great time to be in marketing. It has become the ultimate democracy in that you are actually having one-on-one conversations with your customers.” Real conversations means that marketers actually have to listen. And marketers need to care. Keith compared it to a party in which you want to interact instead of simply talking about yourself.

In terms of how success is measured, the internet has allowed us to obtain very detailed data about how customers visit a web site. However, it is sometimes difficult to put a dollar value on the results from social media. “The actual investment in social media doesn’t have to be that large and that’s part of why it’s such a great medium. Some of our goals are engaging with the brand and creating loyalty, and a lot of times that can’t be quantified with a number,” Matt said.

Advice for Future Social Media Managers

I asked Matt and Keith about what it takes to be a social media manager. They explained that you need to be a good communicator, develop best practices, work with various divisions, understand the culture of the company, and actually care about the customer. You also need to be passionate.

“Don’t feel like you have to go to school and have a PHD in social media. We want people that breathe and live the internet,” Keith said. “Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. You want to get going and constantly be moving forward. Just go on and do it. Try it. Learn from it,” Matt added.

Keith provided a great idea for any company that is still hesitant about getting involved with social media: “The best advice I can give a company that isn’t sure about social media is to get online and type the name of their brand and see what people are saying. I defy them to wait a day before they get on to start talking. “

People-powered. Those two words joined by a dash immediately remind me of Wikipedia. And Wikipedia might be the biggest inspiration for GiffGaff, a new MVNO in the UK running on the O2 network, that promises to change things in the mobile world. MVNOs have come and gone for many years, usually with little more than clever branding and low prices.

However, we already established that GiffGaff was inspired by Wikipedia, remember? And Wikipedia is a very social site… that’s, well, powered by people. So maybe this MVNO has something new that’s worth looking into.

GiffGaff, whose name comes from a Scottish expression  that means “You give something, I give you something back,” claims to also be powered by people. They haven’t launched  (the plan is to become available before Christmas of this year) and no customer phone calls have been made, but the company is already leveraging the wisdom of the crowds. GiffGaff’s in-the-making community has already provided ideas such as “copy to Twitter” functionality for text messages. So GiffGaff is not crowdsourcing ideas, but that’s only the beginning. They are also going to crowdsource their marketing (again, not a huge deal). But more importantly, they are going to crowdsource customer service.

There are a lot of intelligent and passionate people helping each other out on forums and blogs all over the web, from cell phone geeks to home improvement DIYers, so it makes sense to think that people could help each other out in such a way that a company no longer needs a call center. I can imagine that PowerPoint presentation going something like this: 1) Customer service is difficult. 2) Customer Service is expensive. 3) Let’s make customers serve each other.

It’s a scary thought, and yet a bit utopian. The question is whether GiffGaff can pull it off. How could a mobile provider like GiffGaff possibly get the right people to sign-up for the service in the first place? I mean, if you’re going to crowdsource your customer service then you’re going to need enough intelligent, savvy and passionate people willing to provide it.

GiffGaff has a few things to entice potential customers: Low prices, ability to use any unlocked SIM phone, and no long-term contracts. But GiffGaff’s biggest differentiator is that they are going to reward members for getting involved “not with silly gifts, but with real money.” Anyone that gets involved in the mutual giving at GiffGaff will get credits. That means that someone’s bill could actually go down to $0. Savings can also be donated to charity. No one is forced to participate, but those that do share info, providing technical support, and helping each other out will definitely have a reason to do so.

Crowdsourcing is not exactly a new concept. We’ve seen interesting and sometimes controversial examples like Doritos’ TV ads, Brammo’s logo, Fiat’s Brazilian R&D, and Starbucks’ idea generation. All by the crowds, for the crowds. Ultimately, each of these examples required some mind-set transformation, regardless of whether the term “crowdsourcing” was appropriate or not.

That’s what GiffGaff might be doing: trying to change mind-sets and challenge “business as usual.” If the idea resonates with people in the UK, it might be the beginning of a new wave of social customer service that rewards customers (or “members”), not for their purchases or their time as customers or for their waiting on the phone for 4 hours, but for their voices. Rewarding people for their voices has never been done, at least not in the way that GiffGaff wants to, so this is either a big scam, or it’s marketing that’s so good we can’t even grasp it.

I wonder… If ideas, thoughts, answers, and recommendations became a new form of currency, would you join in the conversation?

If you complain about the current state of customer service, would you be willing to be a part of it in order to change it?

Should we get excited about companies trying to do things in new ways despite the risks, despite the skepticism, and despite the lack of historical evidence that it can work?

Or could this be the beginning of Social Customer Service?