RyanShell.com

Marketing, public relations, social media... and a little of this and that.

Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit

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One great thing about living in New York City is that I can now actually attend some of the great conferences and events that I could previously only read about or watch via a live stream on the web.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Mashable and 92Y Social Good Summit. The event was put on in partnership with the United Nations Foundation and it was jam packed with awesome content.

Notable speakers included:

  • Susan Smith Ellis, CEO of (RED)
  • Soledad O’Brien interviewed Geena Davis (Academy Award-winning actress)
  • Sherri Rollins Westin, EVP & CMO for Sesame Workshop (great presentation – video to come)
  • Judy McGrath, CEO of MTV Networks
  • Howard Buffett, Director of Agriculture Development, U.S. Department of Defense (Yes, he’s part of the Buffett family you are thinking of)
  • Jessica Jackley, Founder/CEO of ProFounder andFounder of Kiva (Super impressive female. Would love to sit down and chat with her)
  • Dr. Lisa Masterson, co-host of “The Doctors”
  • Doc Hendley, a CNN Hero and fellow NC native that started WinetoWater.org – def check him out
  • Chris Huges, Founder of Jumo, more notably, co-founder of Facebook
  • Edward Norton, Award wining actor, and guy that remotely looks like me
  • Ted Turner, no intro needed… he’s actually hilarious

In short, the event schedule was packed with tons of great talent and I’m extremely happy to have been one of the many attendees on hand. Did I mention how impressive Jessica Jackley was?

There is one thing on my mind though. Tons of people saw this event in person and online yesterday, but in a weeks time that collective energy will not have been harnessed and will eventually fade. There has to be a way to change that… the wheels in my little brain are turning.

Click the photos below to enlarge them.

Why I Like Gmail’s Priority Inbox & how it Saves Time

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If you use Gmail it’s highly likely that you’re either using, or have at least seen something about the new Priority Inbox.

Personally, I think it’s phenomenal, but can imagine that people may have seen it and thought to themselves, “I like the old way” and dismissed it almost immediately. Call it human nature to stick with what you are comfortable with.

But let me tell you, the Priority Inbox lets you quickly get to the important stuff right away. Time is extremely valuable, especially in NYC, so anything that helps me sort through the clutter is worth a second look.

First, if you aren’t familiar with Gmail’s Priority Inbox let me share with you the three ways it separates your email:

  • Important and Unread
  • Starred
  • Everything Else

I won’t try to explain how an email is deemed “Important,” but will tell you that if the system gets it wrong you can easily increase or decrease an emails importance and the correction should stick.

One thing you may realize pretty quickly is that you get a lot of junk, or emails you simply don’t read that often. I receive a good number of eNewsletters and things of that nature, some of which I read and some I don’t.

The Priority Inbox really helps you see what isn’t “Important” and for me personally, has made me really question why I haven’t unsubscribed to certain things. Needless to say I’ve since done so and my Inbox is much more focused and I spend less time sorting through junk.

If you haven’t already, give Gmail’s Priority Inbox a try… I think you’ll like it. If you’d like to know a little more about it, take a second and watch the video below.

Video: The New Twitter

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Twitter.com is getting a makeover and they hope you’re going to love it. It will transition from a one column site to two, and give users the ability to see different forms of media without having to leave the site.

Twitter will be rolling out the new design over the next few weeks. Make sure you give it a test drive when it’s available to you.

How Important is “Twitter’s Most Elusive Statistic?”

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I recently read a blog post over at brandsavant.com titled “Twitter’s Most Elusive Statistic” that prompted me to leave a comment.

The basis of the post was the following tweet that the writer recently saw in his Twitter stream,

“What’s the value of a tweet sent by a person with a million followers? What’s the Cost Per Tweet Impression?”

I’ve written about followers before (and how the system can be gamed) and noted that a lot of people are simply getting caught up in the popularity contest of who has the most followers.

In my opinion, the big value isn’t necessarily with the size of a following, it’s with what your followers do for you. Here’s the comment I left at the post.

“We all have these little opinions floating around in our head… but give this some thought.

I don’t think valuing a twitter follower is where the focus needs to be. It seems like we have to shift the thought process to more actionable thinking. Meaning, yes, followers are great… but if they don’t do anything for you then they their value reduces.

We need to pay more attention to the network as a whole, not just followers.

If someone has 10,000 followers, none of which frequently RT, or 100 that actively RT… you’d have to put more value on the lower quantity that helps drive results/traffic about your product/message.

Large numbers of followers are like wrapping paper, but at the end of the day people rip that stuff off and want what’s inside… and in this case, that’s hard data.”

What’s your take? Give it some thought.

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