* Eric Weaver – Account Director and Strategist at Tribal DDB Worldwide
* Dave Hanley – CEO & Principal at Banyan Branch
* Daniel Rasmus – Author of “Listening to the Future”
* Kristen Ruby – CEO, Ruby Media Group
* Dr. Udi Schlessinger – Managing Partner, U Labs
* Darren Williger – President & CEO, Regillo Consulting Group
* Bille Baty – COO & Managing Partner, Phi Concepts
* Jeff Dance – Founder, Fresh Consulting
* Joe Kennedy – Founder of Eastside Entrepreneurs and AKA “The Connector”

Social Media 201 is sponsored by the Microsoft Local Engagement Team and Comcast Business Class. Supporting organizations for Social Media 201 include Fresh Consulting, Eastside Entrepreneurs Social Network, Ruby Media Group, Banyan Branch, Regillo Consulting Group and Tribal DDB Worldwide.

Mike Whitmore, President of Fresh Consulting from Bellevue, Washington explains, “the concept for Social Media 201 stemmed from the Social Media 101 Conference the Eastside Entrepreneurs and Joe Kennedy hosted last September at Microsoft. The 101 Conference helped educate business owners about what social media is and why companies should participate. The new Social Media 201 Conference is designed for those businesses that have begun to delve into social media and want to take it to the next level, find a path to profitability and measure return on investment.”

Registration for the event is available at www.SocialMedia201.com. Use the discount code FRESH to get an additional discount.

Twitter feeds on the event are available from Twitter.com/SM201CONF and you can follow the event tweets via the hashtag #SM201

The Microsoft Conference Center provides free wireless Internet connectivity. A complimentary lunch is provided for attendees thanks to Comcast Business Class.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT

www.SocialMedia201.com

Well the answer came when Sean Debutts from the Puget Sound Blood Center came to give a demonstration to our office on how social media has increased donations by 30%.  He mentioned that they were doing a blood drive for the first few weeks of December because donations drop off towards Christmas, exactly when they need it the most. Supply runs low when demand is high.

So I thought, why not do a blood drive for our office? It’s not asking anybody to spend money, there’s no shopping involved, and it saves lives. Plus it’s unique and different for Christmas. Fresh type of event. Perfect!

And when I brought it up at the meeting, everyone agreed that it was a great idea, nodded that they would like to participate, and so I scheduled our appointment. No big deal, everybody was on board, nothing to worry about.

Or so I thought…

My first inkling that something was a bit off was when I sent out emails confirming our appointment time.

Only one person emailed me back.

Hmmmm…that’s a bit strange, I thought. They must not have gotten the message (although you could send these guys a text at 2 am and receive an immediate response).  Must be really busy with client work.

Slowly the emails confirming the appointment came drifting in late Sunday night.

On Monday of our appointment, one guy who I hadn’t heard from kept coming in to ask me every couple of hours, “We still going to that thing at 3:00 today?” In the same voice of a kid asking, Are we there yet? “Yes,” I would answer.  He would take a deep breath, sigh and say, “Okay,” and walk out of the room, only to come back in two hours later to ask the same thing.  Weird, I thought.  Why does he keep forgetting the time of the appointment?

So I went up to him and said, “Hey did you know I need your date of birth to make the appointment for giving blood today?  I sent you a couple of emails, but you must have been too busy to read them.”

He looked down and then whispered, “It’s not that. I’m still thinking about it.”

“Thinking about it?”

He nodded slowly. “I’ll let you know,” he said.

Okay I was beginning to understand what was going on here.  No wonder the emails were late, the sighs so loud.  But honestly the last thing I would ever think is that the Fresh Consulting guys were scared.  Of like, anything!  Not when they do dangerous sports like rock climbing and snowboarding to the extreme…Basically activities I mentally classify under “Weird Things Men Do That I Don’t Understand.”   I was tempted to ask him: what’s a little needle compared to hanging backwards off the edge of a cliff or dropping a massive cliff while backcountry skiing?

Besides this guy is super nice, and there’s no way he isn’t going to show up and help people and be part of the team!  I nodded and then started looking for his email confirming he was coming with us. But…

11 am: nothing.
12:00 pm: nothing.
1:00 pm: nothing.
2:00 pm: nothing.
2:50 pm, as I’m putting on my jacket to leave, I look down the hall towards his office. I don’t hear any voices.  I sigh, bite my lip, fuss with my scarf. I check my watch again.  We are all standing in the hallway.  Standing outside his office door trying to look casual, wondering if I should go in there, just to, you know “see how he is doing” (no pressure or anything!) when I hear his voice behind me, “Aren’t you guys ready yet?” he laughs.

And just that decision alone saved three lives, and as a team we saved eighteen!  And because he decided to join us, we won the blood drive contest with 100% participation! Steve Hulet even went above and beyond the call of duty by doing a double red cell donation (took three times as long!).  We all had a great time, and it was a great bonding experience for everybody.

I decided to ask Sean DeButts a couple of questions about how it all works and how he’s using social media to help save lives.

Q&A questions with Sean:

1. How is Puget Sound Blood Center using social media to increase donations?

The social media program is increasing donations by building long-term relationships. We use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Announcing blood shortages in Western Washington is important, but we’re going to get the most ROI by being an active member of the social media community. We try to be friendly, thank donors, answer questions, engage people and promote other worthy causes. These give our followers value and invite friends to donate.

2. What are your upcoming technology plans?

The next version of our “Donate Blood” Facebook application will let donors form competing teams. We will also add fun features such as awards, quizzes and newsfeed posts to encourage viral growth. The program also will incorporate location-based applications and mobile technologies. Thanks in part to some pro-bono advice from Fresh Consulting, we are creating a Google Maps mashup that will display the locations of blood drives. I hope that eventually we’ll have applications for iPhones, Androids and Blackberries.

3. I understand you’re using social media to encourage ethnic minorities to donate blood?

Yes, social media is crucial for that. Less than one percent of donors in Western Washington belong to ethnic minorities, and it can be a matter of survival for patients to receive blood from donors of the same ethnicity. Receiving from someone who’s genetically similar to you helps ensure compatibility. Social media sites, especially Twitter and MySpace, are perfect for spreading that information to motivate new donors.

It’s really easy, and fun to do as a group. Almost anybody can give blood and by doing so save lives. Here’s the Facebook link to make an appointment.

To learn more, check out the first part, second part, third part, and fourth part of our 5-part series.

To see an even more comprehensive list of Twitter tools, visit Web2Review and click here.

To learn more, check out the first part, second part, and third part of our 5-part series.

It got so bad that finally I had to break down and pull out my laptop to take notes (high school peer pressure never really goes away!).  I always knew the Fresh team were super mega MAJOR Web 2.0 enthusiasts, but how do normal, ordinary  people know when they’ve officially crossed that invisible line into nerdom?

I started thinking back to a few things that have actually happened to me in the last few months with the Fresh team and put together a little quiz to help the team realize how nerdy they really were… and help others evaluate the same.  Give yourself one point for each thing below that you can relate to and don’t forget to add bonus points if you have gone the extra mile.

1. When you want to go out to eat, the first place you go is Yelp to look up restaurants. When we were in San Fran at lunchtime when I was VERY HUNGRY, there were two wonderful restaurants right in front of us, but we couldn’t make a decision because nobody could figure out which one was best–10 restaurant reviews at 100%, or 20 reviews at 90%?(+5) Bonus Points if your first reaction to this dilemma is: “I’m sure there is an algorithm or iPhone app for that!” (Yep, one of the guys said exactly that as we were trying to figure it out.)

2. You talk about the logistics involved in using social media to selling products online –anything from selling Girl Scout cookies on eBay and direct messaging your friends on Twitter to spread the work to launching a holistic social campaign for a major brand. Just normal morning conversation over bacon and eggs when you work with these kind of guys! (+2) Bonus Points if you push your kids fundraisers on Facebook.

3. You read about your conversation with a client on Twitter…before you hang up the phone. (Glad he had something nice to say!) (+5) Bonus Points if its got its own #hashtag.

4. You know your company meeting is over, not because anyone leaves the room, but because everybody has stopped talking and the only sound in the room is people quietly tapping away on their computers. Nobody at Fresh thinks this is strange when this happens at our weekly meetings. (+3) Bonus Points if somebody starts snoring in there.

5. You find out you’ve been dumped when your great aunt Ruby in Ohio emails you to find out why your girlfriend just changed her status to “single” on Facebook. (Okay this didn’t really happen to me, but still….) (+5) Bonus Points if she sends you over the LinkedIn profile of the neighbor down the street that she wants to fix you up with.

6. People start recognizing you by your online avatar.  Recently a strange man commented on the outfit he had seen me wearing at a social media event because a few days prior somebody had taken pictures and tweeted them out.  (Honestly, how can you tell the stalkers from the people that are just really, really connected anymore? It’s a fine line!) (+10) Bonus Points if you start talking about “your tweeple” (Twitter friends) in the same way you would say “my public.” Okay, you can add the bonus points if you ever even think of using the phrase “my tweeple.”

7. You use your iPhone to take a picture of the Row and Number in the garage where your car is parked (+7) Bonus Points If you take a video and tweet it out making at least one of  your followers DM you with congratulations that you got a space so close to the handicapped stall. Score!

8. You’ve been involved in a Virtual Reality experience. (+100) Bonus Points if you’ve paid actual money in Second Life to buy a tropical island in the Pacific for your work meetings. (Yep, people really do this. Are the fruity drinks with the umbrella straws real there too?)

9.  You are so interested in increasing your online connections that you “friend” the person who shared a cookie with you in second grade. (+5) Bonus Points if you ask her for a recommendation on LinkedIn… after all, the two of you “go way back.”

10. You do one of the following AT LEAST three times a day: (+4) Bonus points if you do these ten times per day:

1. Talk about your new iPhone applications.
2. Think or say, “I’ve got to tweet that out!”
3. Roll your eyes when people that say “Social media is just a fad.”

Scoring Range

1-5  Points: You are on the cusp of normality. Acceptable level. Hey you live in late 2009! Nothing to worry about.

5-20 Points: You are sliding fast into nerdom. Tipping Point time, baby.

21+ Points: Get thee to a psychiatrist!

So how about you… what are some of the ways you can tell when someone’s crossed that invisible line into official web 2.0 nerdom?

You can view the first part here.