Back from BlogWell — a riveting, fast-paced look at how some of the big guys do social media. I caught presentations from The Mayo Clinic, Proctor & Gamble, Sharpie, and Molson (who filled a spot at the last minute and brought much beer). Consistent themes included:

• Start with a simple campaign or technology, then grow.
• It’s not about marketing. It’s about interacting.
• Be proactive about transparency and disclosure.
• Don’t pour beer into a frosty mug (drop a note in the comments to find out why)

I was especially struck by the presentation from Susan Wessel at Sharpie (and not just because of the limited edition Barack Obama Sharpie’s), who indicated that for all their visibility, Sharpie is actually a pretty small company. As the primary PR rep for the company, she engaged in blogging and Twitter on her own time. I think this is the way it’s going to be for businesses for the foreseeable future who are unwilling or unable to commit additional resources to social media campaigns. In this case, she wanted to prove its value and the only way to do that was to do it. This is truer of blogging than any other form of marketing I’ve seen. The worst thing you can do is never start.

Maybe I especially remember Susan since I got her very last limited edition Barack Obama sharpie marker. Good word of mouth there.

Here are a couple of photos of Andy Sernovitz from GasPedal/The Blog Council and Adam Moffat from Molson mid-beer:

Here’s a good write-up on BlogWell from Chicago Tech Report.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Media, Web

Check out Earth Class Mail, which provides a P.O. box that receives and automatically scans your mail into digital documents, deposits checks in the bank, and more. Thanks to my buddy Justin Bradshaw for pointing this out. I know he’s using it in L.A. and it looks appealing for those small (and big) business owners looking to cut down on paper, filing, and driving to the bank.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, General, Green, Technology, Web

1. Larry Seltzer, Internet Freedom and Security Are Necessarily at Odds

Security comes at the cost of flexibility when it comes to computers. Within an enterprise, things are much easier to control than on the open Internet.

2. Michael Lewis, The End of Wall Street’s Boom

Frightening and enlightening insider look into Wall Street to know there really was no wizard behind the financial curtain pulling levers.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, General, Technology