Tessa Horehled | Strategic Marketer, Community Manager, Brand Strategist, Digital Communications Specialist | ATL / NYC

How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One) – The Inaugural IgniteATL

Last night was the inaugural IgniteATL!

About Ignite

Started by Brady Forrest, Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Etsy.com, formerly of MAKE Magazine, Ignite was inspired by Pecha Kucha Nights, where speakers are given 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, giving each speaker 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame. The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006, and since then the event has become an international phenomenon, with gatherings in Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; New York, New York; and many other locations.

Ignite has two parts: the Ignite contest, where people make things, and Ignite talks, where presenters get 20 slides and five minutes to make their point. You can opt to only have talks, but the contest is fun and can serve as a great warm-up for the talks.

I helped organize the event with Colin Ake, Michael Mealling and Brandy Nagel and had almost 500 people RSVP for this kickoff event! The crowd gathered at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Midtown excited and curious of what the evening had in store.

We saw presentations about everything from beer to liquid nitrogen and transportation to artificial intelligence! Huge thanks to all of our sponsors, especially MailChimp who enabled our great afterparty at Octane Coffee. An official wrap-up of the event will be over on the IgniteATL site soon with links to the presentations, photos, and video coverage of each.

In addition to my help coordinating the event, I also contributed a presentation on “How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One).” I don’t have video of it yet but below are the slides with commentary — some of which I got to during the presentation, some of which I didn’t (numbered in coordination with slides)! I definitely need to practice with the 15 second time restraint before my next Ignite presentation.

2. You really think you know more than everyone else? Nothing left to learn? Does your intellectual discipline manifest as a divine incarnation? On whose authority?
3. Yeah… because you attract spam bots with the amount of trending topics you partake in and social media lingo you drop. It’s about quality, not quantity. Forget the numbers and pay attention to the value.
4. My Twitter team twold me to twost a twerrific tweetup! He twit. He twat. He twot.
5. Yes! We saw that post you made on Facebook. And FriendFeed. And Twitter. And Digg. And Tumblr. And…
6. Always armed with Flip cam, iPhone, Blackberry/Android/Palm Pre, MacBookPro, digital SLR, USB modem, etc. Always flashes socially and will eagerly discuss with anyone. So where’s the content again?
7. It doesn’t always fit. Just because you have seen it done, know the tools and have read all the critics and evangelists, doesn’t mean you know how to apply those to a company.
8. There’s a big difference between SEO copy, SEM copy, tweets, Facebook status updates, blog content, mailing list content, and so forth. Stop and rethink while considering the format, audience and function before your next communication effort.
9. The 250 is a term “describing the small, cliquey group of self-appointed Web 2.0 insiders who seem to spend their days blogging and Twittering about each other” giving off the appearance that they feel they are “the only people who matter.”
10. Don’t model yourself after this idea and create your own cliques. There’s much less room for fresh ideas, innovation and growth when you’re in bubble.
11. Read or don’t read. Learn. Form your own opinion. Relate it to your own efforts. Don’t imitate.
12. Who would you rather have a drink with? Who would you be able to learn more from? I’d choose the Snakeoil Salesman — at least he has his own stories.
14. These sheep hide easily and many don’t even realize that they are sheep. Look for those with past experience, who work hands-on with fit metrics designed to drive results, and have developed their own roadmaps and processes.
15. Don’t try to impress — try to help. If you are being hired, that is what your client is looking for.
16. Metrics are unique to every project and effort within. What do they mean in relation to these? Does it affect your next steps? Should it?
17. This is where the magic and progress occurs.
18. Not all social networks are created equal. The type of messaging that may be appropriate for one platform, doesn’t necessarily fit on another. Observe and learn the differences.
19. The social web is developing rapidly and because of this, there is always something to learn. Be open to listening to others and evaluating their points before dismissing.