socialTNT

TGIT! You know what that means: it’s time for our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min.” In the spirit of citizen journalism, SocialTNT puts bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters and communications practitioners on the future of media .

This week, SocialTNT caught up with Principal Analyst Charlene Li from Forrester Research. Charlene researches social media/web 2.0 technology and relates its uses to the marketing professional. In today’s “3Q’s in 3 Min,” Charlene talks about entering the conversation, letting go of control and the idea of “attention economy.”

More about Charlene and the video, after the jump…

As one of the analysts that “get it,” Charlene is a social media rockstar. If your client has anything to do with Web 2.0, you best book a briefing with her ASAP. Not only will she offer valuable insight to your client, she is one of the most quoted analysts at Forrester.

She also happens to give amazing presentations, like this one from this week’s Graphing Social Patterns conference. It was hard to follow such an amazing presentation, so I was a little nervous when it came time for the interview. On the way to find a suitable filming location, I felt like Charlene’s bodyguard; she was swarmed with fans and groupies intent on asking a question or two. Even though she was pressed for time, she remained personable, answering all their questions.

Some insight garnered from eavesdropping:

• user adaptation of social networking comes in waves–currently, “older” demographics are joining as their colleagues, organizations or reunion groups utilize social media
• there is a lack of Facebook applications intended for enterprise
• Salesforce has the membership to become a truly professional social network, and should not be overlooked

Facts about Charlene

• She is on Facebook and LinkedIn
• She is a member of the Twitterati
• Elements of her “Groundswell” blog will be adapted into a book on social technologies to be released in May
• She started out in media as a “citizen publisher” in 1996 with community newspapers before the technology was truly ready for it

As the next session was about to start, Charlene was finally clear of groupies. We headed out into the (HOT) San Jose sun to do a quick interview. Although coming from a marketing perspective, Charlene’s answers can provide some valuable lessons for setting up a social media campaign.

Take a look:

I know. I know. I broke format again with FOUR questions, but HEY, it’s not that often you get to have uninterrupted face time with an analyst. I could have chatted with her all day.

I’m really diggin this idea of “attention economy” that Charlene touches on. As PR–read “Public Relations” not “Press Relations”–it’s often important to remind our clients that slowly seeding discussion is often about raising awareness of the product, service or company. Any thoughts?

It’s also interesting that interest itself should be considered a form of low-level tagging. As some of you know, I’m nuts about tagging. To me, its easy utilization with Facebook photos gets mad props. As tagging becomes easier and is presented as valuable to the consumer, it will become an amazing resource in charting the “social graph.”

So, any thoughts on Charlene’s interview? Please feel free to discuss anything she touched on in the comments below.

Thanks so much for your interview, Charlene!

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