Brand Autopsy

At the GOT SOCIAL MEDIA conference in Houston last week, Kelsey Ruger, from Pop Labs, infused his presentation with elements from The Matrix. Brilliant.

As the above image depicts, companies today can take the Blue Pill and pretend that nothing has changed in the marketplace. Or, companies can take the Red Pill and begin to experience a deeper connection with customers through using Social Media. I hope Kelsey sees how deep the rabbit-hole goes with THE Social Media MATRIX. He is onto something potentially big in helping more people understand why it is important for companies to swallow the Red Pill of Social Media.

For those who missed the GOT SOCIAL MEDIA conference, you can riffle through some of the presentations on SlideShare. (Video of the presentations will also be uploaded somewhere online soon.)

The one-day event was co-organized by Erica O’ Grady, a social media dynamo. She is doing big things and will do bigger things with all this social media stuff. Get to know Erica on her blog and follow her on Twitter.

The line-up of presenters hand-picked for the event were outstanding.

Besides Kelsey, Giovanni Gallucci (aka Digg the Link Hunter) shared his take on how to maximize links and views. Steve Latham outlined a few methods to measure the ROI of social media marketing campaigns. Stephen Anderson delivered a thought-provoking presentation on how design matters in social media. Ed Schipul entertained and informed us about how tapping into the 3 Motivations of People can help non-profits (and for-profits) make a difference. And, Laura Mayes sprinkled smart tid-bits throughout the day. (Unfortunately, I missed Chris Bernard and his presentation.)