Pretty impressed that the Chinese gov’t would block both Facebook and Twitter.  I understand the “logic” behind blocking Twitter (and youtube); it’s a tool to broadcast ideas.  But Facebook is similar to email, more a communication tool to your network than a broadcast tool to the world.

The web is still an equalizer, but seems to come with some caveats here in China.

14 hour flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was a bit exhausting, but I’m finally here in Shanghai.  Literally at a Coffee Bean near Jing An Si (Jing An Tempe).  It’s been 3 years since I’ve been back to China, 6 years since I lived here, and it’s changes quite a bit.  But here are some random notes in Day 1:

1)  Sat next to a US citizen who’s teaching english in Shanghai.  He pays $60 a month for his apartment.  Might as well be stealing from the Chinese.

2)  After sitting on the runway for an hour, they announced we could get off the plane.  The entire plane went up in a loud cheer.  Chinese people – 1 Swine Flu – 0.

3)  Taxi driver spent the entire 45 minute ride explaining to me the system behind Shangna’s… chinese brothels.  I proceeded to tell him that is illegal in the US, and he prompted relied in Chinese, “That is stupid.”

Man, there are lots of people here in China.  I forget what it’s like to get bumped on a minute by minute basis.

This past week, I took a trip to Costa Rica with a few friends including Rahmin Sarabi, founder of unclasses.com, James Gross, VP at Federated Media, and Matt Jessell, Stategic Programs Manager at Federated Media.

With collectively over 15 years of web experience, most of our conversations were centered around how the web is changing media, consumer behavior, and our daily interaction – typical for a group of web guys on a vacation. Sorry, no bikini girls taking body shot stories here.

But in the context of a third-world country, heavily influenced by the US recession, the web seemed more relevant than ever.

It has become an equalizer; a channel of communication to connect and broadcast to anyone and everyone around a topic in real-time.

Before the leaving for the trip, James had connected with the founder of SurfingNosara.com, Erik Antonson. Erik has been experimenting with social media as a distribution and communication channel and wanted to meet with us to “get advice and talk strategy”.

What came next was a surprise. In an hour conversation with Erik, I realized that I had very little to offer. The specific strategies in using Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, Blogs, Video, and other social media mediums are elementary. The technology is simple and the additional tools such as Twollow, TwitterHawk, Involver, etc can be found in online resource guides.

So how is it that a group of web dudes from San Francisco couldn’t give Erik a more concrete social media strategy?

Because he got it. Living in Costa Rica, thousands of miles from any technology hubs and in the middle of the jungle, he got it. He may not have the best SEO or SEM strategy, or may not be utilizing the best tools to scale his consumer engagement, but understood the foundation the social web was built on.

He knew to:

1) Focus on relevant and real-time content.

Erik posts regularly with interesting and engaging content. No automated content rss fed content from an api of twitter search with geotagged stories from ghost bloggers (I think I got most of the bs terms used). It’s real content from him and his crew.

2) Be authentic.

He’s not going to pretend to be a brand, or hide behind a logo. He is the founder, owner, the company, and a person you can ask questions and talk to.

3) Be passionate about what he is doing.

Erik is a realtor. But he actually cares about what he is doing, and it is easy to recognize that. It is apparent from in his posts, his videos, and the community he has built.

4) Use marketing channels as means to communicate, not sell.

He understood that these mediums are a means to communicate and engage around conversation. He actually cared about your experience, the relationship, and building an online community around Nosara. He makes it nontransactional. (Yes, he’s a realtor and yes, this is possible)

5) Make decisions as if he was 16.

He thinks about his life and his company as if he were a young, optimistic adolescent. He makes it fun, appreciates the process, and in the end, is doing more of what he enjoys. Why does this matter? Because making an extra dollar is not the end goal.

Again, the web has become as equalizer. Understanding the trends, tools, and fundamentals of the social web are no longer restrictive to those in the microcosm of San Francisco geekness. All too often we associate “living in San Francisco” with technological know-how. Sure, the entire globe isn’t using FourSquares or Vark, but Erik started with a solid foundation of focusing on content, his relationships, and his passion; and with these principles in mind, he is going to crush it.

Check out his shiznits at SurfingNosara.com.

As the NAA Conference nears, I’ve been thinking about questions the industry would want to ask Tony Hsieh, Jeremiah Owyang, and Pete Flint. Instead of guess what the space would want to ask,

What would you want to ask Tony Hsieh, Jeremiah Owyang, and Pete Flint?

Put your questions in the comments below and I’ll try to ask it during the Thought Leadership panel Saturday morning.

See you all this week!

About the Panelists:

Panelist #1 – Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com

Tony Hsieh has grown Zappos.com from $1.6 million in 2000 to over a $1 billion in revenue in 2008. Before Zappos.com, Tony co-founded LinkExhange which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million. After LinkExchange, Tony founded a startup incubator called Venture Frogs, which invests in early stage startups.

Panelist #2 – Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research

Jeremiah Owyang is a senior analyst at Forrest Research and a leading expert on social computing, social media and interactive marketing. Jeremiah’s blog was ranked 19th by Advertising Age, he has consulted for large brands such as Hitachi Data Systems, and he is a speaker and educator at many conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW and CES.

Panelist #3 – Pete Flint, Founder of Trulia.com

Flint founded Trulia.com in 2005 and it now is one of largest and fastest growing real estate Web sites in the United States. Trulia.com has over 5 million unique visitors a month and has raised more than $33 million in funding. Prior to starting Trulia.com, Pete was part of the original launch team of lastminute.com, Europe’s largest online travel company where he was responsible for Interactive Marketing and Business Development. During his 5 years with the company he helped it to grow to more than 2,000 employees in 12 countries and over $1billion in annual transactions. The company was acquired by Travelocity in 2005 for more than $1.1 billion. Pete earned his Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Oxford and his MBA from Stanford University.

In 1997, I can recall my older sisters saying how cumbersome email was.

In 1999, I can recall high school classmates saying that Napster will never replace music CD’s.

In 2005, I remember friends saying how stupid Facebook is.

Today, I have my own friends and peers asking me the value of social media as a distribution, marketing, and communication tool.

I think it’s important to note that we’ve seen disruptive technologies and changing consumer behavior change industries. This seems particularly true in the newspaper and television industries as of late. And the inability to adapt to this change has caused large print and television corporations to lose market share.

What should have happened is these well-funded and well-positioned companies should have identified the trend, and set up division to experiment, explore, and develop new technologies in line with consumer demand. In essence, Gannett should have created Blogger, NBC should have created YouTube, and Yellowpages should have created Yelp.

In terms of the Multi-family housing industry, I’m not defending the value of Twitter as a lead generating service for the apartment industry. It may never provide significant results as a lead generator. And I am not saying that Twitter, FriendFeed, or Facebook is the next platform that will change the way we find apartments. But I think it is a mistake to make all decisions based on measurable results.

Here is why:

1) It takes time to build and adapt to new technologies.

There is a learning curve involved. You cannot just get a PageRank of 9 overnight. You cannot build a network of followers for your blog with one post. You cannot build your online content presence by creating a Facebook Fanpage.

2) Social Media is also an engagement, communication, and customer service tool.

Not all results of customer service are immediately measurable. I do not need to defend the value of transparency; we all use UCG and review sites everyday. But I feel like I need to convey this… The way we (consumers) communicate, interact, and consume information is changing and for the most part, has changed. The social web, reviews, and UGC influence our purchasing decisions.

Conclusion

Social media is a rapidly growing consumer trend and many companies are still figuring out how to use it effectively. However, it has changed the way consumers make decisions and it is important that companies understand how to employ it to their advantage.

The recent months, the hot topic in the multi-family housing industry has been social media. There are those who understand it, those who are experimenting with it, and those who deny it’s existence.

As we gear up for the NAA educational conference and the social media panel with Tony Hsieh, Jeremiah Owyang, and Pete Flint, I have noticed that there are some people that have never heard of large companies like Zappos.com. 

So to reward those who know what Zappos.com is and want to see Tony, Jeremiah, and Pete discuss Social Media, but cannot afford tickets, NAA has graciously sponsored a contest to give away 1 FREE NAA CONFERENCE TICKET and 50% off 1 NAA CONFERENCE TICKET.

Enter the contest and see if you are a social media guru. 

“I want to highlight two main problems with that old, tired, me-first approach. First, it distracts you from what’s truly important, and may lead you to compromise your values and your principles and commitments. Think about it. It’s in chasing titles and status — in worrying about the next election rather than the national interest and the interests of those who you’re supposed to represent — that politicians so often lose their ways in Washington. (Applause.) They spend time thinking about polls, but not about principle. It was in pursuit of gaudy short-term profits, and the bonuses that came with them, that so many folks lost their way on Wall Street, engaging in extraordinary risks with other people’s money.

In contrast, the leaders we revere, the businesses and institutions that last — they are not generally the result of a narrow pursuit of popularity or personal advancement, but of devotion to some bigger purpose — the preservation of the Union or the determination to lift a country out of a depression; the creation of a quality product, a commitment to your customers, your workers, your shareholders and your community.

…

That other stuff — that other stuff, the trappings of success may be a byproduct of this larger mission, but it can’t be the central thing. Just ask Bernie Madoff. That’s the first problem with the old attitude.

But the second problem with the old approach to success is that a relentless focus on the outward markers of success can lead to complacency. It can make you lazy. We too often let the external, the material things, serve as indicators that we’re doing well, even though something inside us tells us that we’re not doing our best; that we’re avoiding that which is hard, but also necessary; that we’re shrinking from, rather than rising to, the challenges of the age. And the thing is, in this new, hyper-competitive age, none of us — none of us — can afford to be complacent.

…

Many of our current challenges are unprecedented. There are no standard remedies, no go-to fixes this time around. And Class of 2009 that’s why we’re going to need your help. We need young people like you to step up. We need your daring, we need your enthusiasm and your energy, we need your imagination.

And let me be clear, when I say “young,” I’m not just referring to the date of your birth certificate. I’m talking about an approach to life — a quality of mind and quality of heart; a willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame; a willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink old dogmas; a lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige — and a commitment instead to doing what’s meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world.”

Text – Obama’s Commencement Address at Arizona State University – Text – NYTimes.com

Recollecting the best sessions at Web 2.0 conference, Eric Ries’ session on the lean startup was one of them.  If you haven’t seen it, here it is for your viewing enjoyment.

In a recent Kanye West blog post, he states his esteemed opinion on the value of Twitter.  In typical self-absorbed Kanye form, 

(This spaz comes courtesy of losers making fake Kanye West Twitter accounts) I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER… WHY WOULD I USE TWITTER??? I ONLY BLOG 5 PERCENT OF WHAT I’M UP TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. I’M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I’M NOT AND I’M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN’T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF. THE PEOPLE AT TWITTER KNOW I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER SO FOR THEM TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO POSE AS ME AND ACCUMULATE OVER A MILLION NAMES IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DECEITFUL TO THERE FAITHFUL USERS. REPEAT… THE HEADS OF TWITTER KNEW I DIDN’T HAVE A TWITTER AND THEY HAVE TO KNOW WHICH ACCOUNTS HAVE HIGH ACTIVITY ON THEM. IT’S A FUCKING FARCE AND IT MAKES ME QUESTION WHAT OTHER SO CALLED CELEBRITY TWITTERS ARE ACTUALLY REAL OR FAKE. HEY TWITTER, TAKE THE SO CALLED KANYE WEST TWITTER DOWN NOW …. WHY? … BECAUSE MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS LOUD!!!!!!!!!

I agree that the Twittersphere, by following squatters, is providing positive incentives for them to continue to squat.  However, unfortunately Kanye seems to miss a big part of the value of Twitter; searchable and real-time news and information transfer. 

Sure, I don’t want to know that Kanye is on a beach or why spell check is not working on his blog, but I’m sure he wants to know about the latest trends in music, or how consumers are reacting to his lyrics, message, brand, or songs.  Information, feedback, news, and content in real-time is not a trivial function of the social web.  

I especially enjoyed his statement that “I’M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME”, implying that being creative and delivery content are inversely related.

Last, I’m going to make a prediction.  Kanye regrets his statement and in the next 18 months starts using Twitter.