Wednesday night I had the opportunity to attend the “Engineering Virality Bootcamp” at Stanford Graduate School of Business (SGSB) sponsored by instructor Jennifer Aaker. I am not sure exactly how I found out about the Bootcamp, but I know it had to do with a cool planning tool called Plancast.
Fortunately the “Bootcamp” was open to the public and optional for the students (space was limited and I was pre-warned that students would have seating priority). The course itself is called “GSBGEN 358: Power of Social Technology (PoST)” with the goal of “harness-ing social technology in support of a clear single, focused goal to cultivate social good”.
What is really cool about the course is that it is not just academics. The course is providing the SGSB students with the best information on the planet about how to use Social Media and what others have successfully done with Social Media. This course forces students to actively use Social Media with practical applications. In fact, 45% of the student’s final grade is based on Social Media (Video no less!) . The list of speakers and panelists reads like the “Who’s Who of Social Media”. As you might expect the students are using many of the Social Media tools as part of their course.
Before the meeting started, it was pleasing to hear several students talking to each other. One said thanks for the “follow” and another thanked someone for a retweet (great Twitter etiquette, generally done on-line 
).
The “Bootcamp” was led by Julio Vasconcellos. There was a short presentation by Andy Smith and two outstanding panels that included Dave McClure, Ed Baker, Matt Wyndowe, and others
I decided I would Tweet (@TimBaileyGR) some of the more profound thoughts with a couple of photos using UberTwitter on my Storm 2
- Andy Smith ripple effects and emotional contagion – dragonfly effect 4 steps to Social Tech Crunch great 4 SEO + early adopters if Tech customers SBS event
- Viral = x y z GT 1
- Jigsaw is LinkedIn 4 people without friends
- PR needs 2 B timed with product life cycle in Social Media- need 2 Id early adopters + engage them
There were many other good insights that I didn’t Tweet about including – do not want to go viral and “piss off” 10% of the population.
Unfortunately, I did not find out until the “Bootcamp” concluded that the hashtag they were using was #StanfordPoST. I would suggest shortening it to (#SGSBPoST) save a few characters and maintain the brand.
I look forward to future “Boot Camps” – please save me a seat!
Discussion of the creation of Viral Loop with Social Media
Tags: #SGSBPoST, #StanfordPoST, @DaveMcClure, @TimBaileyGR, Branding, Jennifer Aaker, Jigsaw, LinkedIn, Plancast, PoST, SEO, Social Good, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Tech Crunch, Think Creatively, Think Differently, Twitter, Video, Viral Loop, Workshop