Father’s day makes me proud to be a Dad. I realize there is no more important role for me to play in life, than to be a the best Father and parent I can be. And this day reminds me of the gravity of my responsibility and makes me proud to have hefted the load.

You’ve got expecting Dads, first time Dads, sons and daughters missing their Dads, and family men of all sorts who will get the ritualistic Hallmark card and remote control meat thermometer that dispenses beer or whatever Brookstone has decided that we want this year. Those endless gift ideas won’t really bring Dad what he wants, which is just a big “Thank You.”

Father’s day is about recognizing the men in your life and the contributions they’ve made to your family. You could be the Father of a pug, or a fish, or a 3 year old kid, but you are all committed to supporting and caring for your ‘family’–and for that–this is your day!

Let’s face it, Father’s day doesn’t compare Mother’s day, but in end, the message is the same. Show your genuine appreciation for the men that lift you up and provide the foundation for you to achieve. If you’re not brimming with appreciation today, you could use today as an opportunity to forgive and move on. Use today to say something you otherwise wouldn’t.

Dad’s aren’t perfect, and that’s beyond stating the obvious. But I’d attest they are perfectly imperfect; and your family has molded itself around those imperfections in a way that shapes generation after generation.

Families are a reflection of the men that support and propel them; and the women that hold them together. So, save the meat thermometer for that blind holiday gift exchange, and just give Dad a genuine Thank You. And if you effectively communicate genuine appreciation, there’s no greater gift to get.

It’s now about 8:15am on Sunday, Emma is probably just waking up and I am going to head to brunch with the ‘fam.’ Italy has leveled their match with New Zealand and my coffee is now cold. The crowd at the cafe is cheering and supporting their team; meanwhile I am going back home, to applause of the ultimate fans, my family.

Photo courtesy of Boston.com

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This year’s show seemed much different than year’s past. Not sure if it’s the evolution of the show, or Matt Browne, or both.

The last two shows I was blown away by the content of the panels and keynotes. I literally couldn’t take notes fast enough. I was consistently taken aback by the creativity and accomplishments of the randoms strangers I met serendipitously.

Durring a video taping of @SocialMediaClub someone said it best, “you first come to Southby for the content, and you keep coming back for the relationships.” I agree!

For me, this year was more about relationships than curating the next big idea. As much as this conference caters to early adopters in tech, their purpose has dramatically increased in scope. Now Southby Southwest Interactive is becoming the place to launch your mainstream consumer product to an highly influential audience. Evident by Chevy, Pepsi, and Microsoft’s presence; whom all were vying for the attention of the tech elite and making big investments to do so.

I will remember this year as the year Southby shed it’s geek image and mainstream marketers were certainly the catalyst to this change.

Just watch Pepsi vs. Coke. Or Chevy vs. Ford. I would bet that brands that are making the investment in Southby will show strong awareness and equity in next 12-24 months.

Tip of the hat goes off to the Southby organizers for scaling so well. The volunteer staff was absolutely amazing. Lines were longer, but didn’t seem to go any slower. Charging stations were _everywhere_. They even had charging lockers, where you could lock your electronics up for free and come back to a full battery. AT&T, that was brilliant!

The parties were out of control this year (but that’s not really new). If you weren’t on a VIP list, you might as well enjoy your spot in line. I literally saw some of the longest lines I have ever seen, some being over 5 city blocks long. The Mashable party had close to 10,000 RSVPs; sufficed to say more of us were disappointed than not. On the last night Evan Williams and Ashton Kutcher were spotted hanging out at the FourSquare party in the VIP, which was pretty cool.

As far as the tangible updates coming from the show, the most profound announcement was that of Twitter’s new platform called @Anywhere. In the same vain as Facebook Connect, you can now extend the viral success of Twitter on your own site, without asking your visitors to leave and go somewhere else. Though Evan’s announcement lacked the passion you’d expect from a CEO making a large announcement at a keynote, it didn’t take away from the impact this update will have.

Twitter’s API is widely known in the development community as much more stable and well documented than Facebook. This, combined with the sheer power of Twitter’s simple features, make the @Anywhere platform something that will catch on fast, potentially quicker than Facebook connect.

My two favorite talks this year were by Ze Frank and Clay Shirky. If you haven’t seen either of their TedTalks, I’d start there. If you have, then I’ll tell you these guys are even more amazing in person. They both commanded the attention of the room and delivered on the greatness their reputation promises.

People often ask me why I make such a big deal about Southby and what I hope to get out of it– and that’s a really good question. I supposed it’s changed over the years. At first I came to this show to put my little startup on the edge of the tech and social universes. However, now my focus is a little different.

I come to Southby now to fill my creative cup. I come for vision. I come to humble myself. I come for inspiration. I come because I believe it has been one of the most important conferences in technology, social media, and mobile. I believe more innovation happens, ideas hatched, and _real_ relationships cemented in Austin than anywhere else all year long.

The sheer serendipity of a chance meeting with Jeff Jarvis or Tony Hsieh is what I enjoy most. Or better yet, someone you’d never heard of–that will change your future–and you’d have never met them any other way. It’s all about putting yourself in the realm of possibility where greatness come to get even better.

I love all of my Southby peeps. Thanks for making this year so memorable and something I’ll always come back for.

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For some it’s not even thought. It a corporate requirement, or right of self passage, or whatever. You don’t think about these things. And don’t want to. And you probably should abandon this post now. For those that don’t take certain assumptions for granted, you’re my kind of people. That said, I’ve always been the kind of person that hated carrying business cards.

I liked the thought of remaining incognito; if someone wanted to find me they had to put for a little bit of effort into it. I liked that. That subtle barrier kept out people that weren’t motivated beyond arms reach, which allowed me to focus my energy being proactive, charting my own course.

And then it went from incognito to just plain lazy. In the era of Twitter, I found it quite convenient that 6 characters separates you from my identity and complete contact information – aka “sdMatt”. So, I relied heavily on that. I have to admit, I’ve been fearless about not having cards. Some people would get embarrassed, not me. Never. If I ever ran into the situation where it was obvious I should have had a card, I just shrug it off. “I ran out…” I’d say… thinking, I ran out without cards on purpose.

Really, I never cared about the title on cards. It just didn’t matter. I’ve funded a business with a multimillion dollar valuation, I’ve cash flowed another business doing hundreds of thousands in revenue, and I’ve never needed a card to get by. Never. Not once. In fact, many startups form before branding, colors, card stock, and code.. they start on a napkin or a white board. It’s all about ideas. “And ideas don’t have cards…” I’d tell myself.

Maybe my renegade status is waining, because for the first time in my business career I am excited about ordering some cards. And not because I’ve succumb to the doldrums of a public company, far from it. Because I’ve changed my perspective on the business card.

Business cards are viral.

When I realized this, cards became avant garde again.

Here’s the thing. When someone asks for your business card in person, there’s usually three or four other people around. When someone asks for your card in front of other people, those individuals are likely to say, “hey can I get one of those too?”

And there by taking your card through a viral expansion loop. You do that 10-20 times throughout a tradeshow, and that’s how you can run through more cards than you brought.

It must be my 30′s, but I am long passed worrying about being incognito. I can take comfort in knowing that others know how to get a hold of me easily. Overall, yes- I’ll say it- I am being more responsible.

So, I am going to mix it up and try something new. I think am going to roll with standard size Moo cards, because I love that company and I can count on the cardstock, print quality, and price. (Plus, they’re giving away 50 free cards, ATM)

Oh, and If you see me out and about, be sure to ask me for my card. I’ll know you read this post and I’ll smile.

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The privacy updates are so slimy, they’ve prompted me to reflect on how I use the service.

In fact, Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook’s CEO) is touting how privacy isn’t a social norm anymore.

Well Sorry Mark, I don’t agree! I never gave my friends permission to control my privacy. And by no means do I buy into your corporate convenient vision that your users are throwing their privacy out the door.

To take back your privacy on Facebook, I’ve put together some simple steps to follow to put your profile in your hands, not your friends.

Following these steps will prevent your ‘friends’ from sharing your data.

Before you think I am an alarmist, consider this:
Apps are the biggest privacy culprit on Facebook. You may not install apps like Farmville, but your friends do. When you share your personal data with friends, you are also sharing it with your friend’s apps, AKA Farmville. So, Farmville or MafiaWars now has all of your personal information, if your friends are playing them.

If you limit what your friends can share, you are taking steps to control your own privacy. Facebook made it difficult to change these settings on purpose. The more open they are, the better it is for their budding startup. Unfortunately, these new privacy settings break the initial (unspoken) agreement Facebook had with it’s members, which led to people trusting them in the first place.

I afraid Facebook is probably too big to have the same melt down MySpace did, but if they keep this up, they might test that theory.

[image from Harry Halpin's Beyond Walled Gardens]

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If you haven’t considered joining the Y, it’s a ‘no brainer.’ It’s such an amazing asset to our community, and I am excited to support it.

For those that don’t know, this why I am uber-stoked to be joining the local Y.
* Access to multiple locations that all have unique qualities (Hazard, Toby Weels, Friars)
* They have Nike+ iPod for all their equipment
* They offer affordable group training, 1-1 personal training and even bootcamps (for nominal costs)
* They have amazing programs for kids, great play area, play dates
* They have Yoga, Swimming, and Basketball – ’nuff said
* A wide demographic of people that work at the gym, which is always nice
Read about each facility and determine which has the best programs for you.

[Our local YMCA stepped up their web site in May of this year. They're boasting a feature rich site equipped with a lot of latest social and sharing features we've come to know and love (like Facebook, RSS, Youtube, etc).]

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I think I know the answer you are going to give. “I spent 8-10+ hours a day with these people, why would I want to connect with them on Facebook?”

I’d like to answer your question with a question. What are you really afraid of? Someone seeing a picture of your family–or worse–maybe you with a beer in your hand? I’ve got some advice for you; get over it!

Within the enterprise, there is no bigger asset in social media than involving employees. Tony Hsieh has built a culture of happiness at Zappos.com, and that is very evident on Twitter and other social sites. This is a rare example of a company culture manifesting itself in the social sphere.

When you first start any social media initiative, your first thought might be, “who will be my audience and share my content.” Answer, the people getting a paycheck, and the people that care about those getting a paycheck, will be some of your strongest advocates initially.

You may want to consider running a training for all your employees on Facebook. Show them how they can segment their family content from professional interests, and let the team know you want them to share your message. In fact, I’ve seen some enterprises directly prohibit the proactive of sharing and commenting of company messages within the social sphere. This is just backwards. Employees should be first. Then influencers, significant others, and the greater community.

If you start your social media efforts internally, by framing how you’d like employees to utilize these new tools professionally, you will be building value for the enterprise while simultaneously increasing personal development and education for your team. [win-win]

I find it rather odd that we spend the better portion of our days working for a company, but are scared to share photos of the people that show up at the Holiday parties. We are afraid to show our real selves to the people we spend the most time with. The largest social networks often exist within your enterprise. It is incumbent upon us as marketers to learn how to leverage social connections for productivity, and increasing the value each team member brings to the table.

You might start by writing a social media policy for your company. Then proceed with outlining realistic ways you plan to interact with the community. After that, have a regular trainings with employees who want to participate and guide them to professional productivity on the social web.

If you’ve had success getting larger businesses adopt social media into their enterprise, I’d love to hear your commentary.

Attributions: Photo by Little Pengiun

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The first major announcement was Twitter Lists, which went live to all users on Friday. I agree with Scoble, Twitter Lists are the most significant upgrade to the Twitter platform since inception. Fresh on the heels of this announcement, Listorious created the first Twitter list directory site.

Twitter had a hot week. But they weren’t stopping there. Tweets from the Web 2.0 Summit were steadily quoting @Ev about the future of Twitter. My favorite quote from the show, “Twitter is an information network, not a social network.”

Another big move for Twitter last week was when they struck a deal with Bing and Google to populate relevant Tweets in search result pages. This was a clear warning shot across the bow of real time search startups like OneRiot.com.

In other big news last week, Google had their share of announcements.

Google Social Search is one of the more interesting developments from my perspective. Utilizing your Gmail contacts, Social Search finds results from your friend’s blogs, Twitter, and other social sites, and lets you filter out any results you don’t want included.

Google continued their string of announcements with the launch of Google Comparison engine which was released Thursday on the Adwords blog. This move, coupled with the Google maps redesign for Real Estate, is evidence Google is making a serious play in the Real Estate space.

And finally, Facebook:

Facebook made news with their homepage redesign last week. The move was prompted to give Facebook applications more exposure and relevancy moving forward. Users, as usual, reacted by forming groups that protested the new design.

Facebook also revamped it’s privacy policy, another move that sends shivers down the spine of their community.

Twitter made the most strides last week. Google was not far behind. And Facebook appeared to be mired by the diplomacy of their recent changes. It was a good week in tech news, with many substantial updates coming to fruition that will affect on the way we utilize these services.

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These were the questions the panel at the ROI smack down attempted to answer.

There was a spirited debate over quantitate metrics versus qualitative metric measurement between Muhammad Saleem (marektingmaven.com) and Beth Harte (community manager of MarketingProfs.com). The consensus among the group was that companies need proof positive evidence of the quantitative growth in sales and revenue, if we as social media evangelists are seeking long term employment. No one disagrees that there isn’t an intangible benefit to social media, however, we must find creative ways to document and track these benefits or they will be lost on upper management.

If we talk in terms of followers and retweets, the traditional business community does not yet realize how to translate that to value in P&L environment. So Deborah Micek, of Quansite revolution, demonstrated how authors are driving more people to their book signing through social media, than almost any other avenue. I wanted to see more examples like this from the panel.

Another interesting point that the moderator Stephanie Agresta addressed was how do you measure the ROI of a PR disaster avoided. If you stop a tweet from turning into a blog, from turning into a movement, what is that worth to you company? What would Taco Bell pay to have that BellHedz crisis avoided?

I felt that this was a topic that could have been explored in devoted track. I would have love to seen cases studies, formulas, spreadsheets, and real life examples of ROI working to drive social media.

The cumulative affect of social media is such that, each month you continue a campaign it gets easier and easier to grow it. What that means is that social media campaigns will never cost as much to the organization as they do the first quarter or first year.

As you amass followers, build relationships, and reach out the community; you will experience rising retweets, shares, and exposure over time. Each month you continue with social media should become more profitable, and if documented appropriately, you can really impress the CFO of your organization.

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Twitter and Facebook has enabled charities and causes to do some amazing work at healing and building spirits for those suffering. The folks and Alex’s Lemonade stand, and Spirit Jump really touched me with what they do.

Because the only investment necessary to grow a community on Twitter and Facebook is time, non profits are flocking to these free social tools to spread their message and build relationships.

Between Don Lemon and Blogworld, the hashtag #beatcancer was repeated more than 700,000 times and raised over $70,000 for charity thanks to matching donations from eBay and Paypal. For more information visit: Beatcancereverywhere.com

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