Blog Eye

Just an update, last night was June’s New York Social Media Roundtable Event in Manhattan, and the theme was social media and pets! The panel included Kristyn Pomranz of I Can Has Cheezburger, Kimberly Miller of PeoplePets, Jane Harrell of Petfinder.com, and Jason Scott, owner of the most famous cat on Twitter – Sockington.

Mostly it centered around their experiences from inception to today, which was quite different for each company. In terms of Sockington, it was interesting to hear that he actually spends about 5 hours at the beginning of each month coming up with Sockington’s tweets in advance, and then schedules them throughout each day of the month. Interesting stories included some interesting gifts that Sockington has received at his PO Box, including at one point 50 pounds of tuna. Jason Scott was very approachable, and certainly didn’t hold anything back in terms of the direction he wants to go with Sockington and what has made Sockington a star to this point. His most rewarding part of the entire Sockington experience has been some of the photos he has received from fans adopting their own stars – pets that needed new homes just like Sockington himself.

The general message from all the panelists was to find out what is going to make our followers happy (sometimes by just asking them), and being early to adopt it. Creating real relationships with power users or influencers on Twitter and Facebook were important for growth. Use share buttons on your main website or blog. Those two points alone increased the social audience for Petfinder by 500% in the last 9 months.

Use your website/blog as the primary source of information for your followers, as different types of social media will go in/out of style, but use the current social media to draw people to your site, and people will always know where to find you. The networking alone with some of these people was worth the trip, not to mention the free admission!

On the left (in grey) is Kristyn Pomranz of I Can Has Cheezburger, in blue is Kimberly Miller of PeoplePets, and standing is Jason Scott, owner of the most famous cat on Twitter – Sockington.

Are you confused by “Lost”? These cats will explain it to you.

Adorable!