Growing Demand Blog

It’s been a week since our Pluck Socialize conference in Austin, and I still can’t stop talking about it.  Last year’s inaugural gathering was pretty incredible, but this year’s event completely blew me away.

The reason I love Socialize so much is that I get to meet with the customers and business partners who’ve joined us in our commitment to reshape online media and marketing.  It’s clear from our conversations that we share the same vision for the future and face the same challenges along the way.  As I said to the audience during my keynote, we’re all in this together.  That’s why our theme this year was “Moving at Social Speed” – a reminder for all of us that the world of social media is rocketing forward faster than ever, and a reaffirmation of Demand Media’s dedication to staying ahead of the curve.

While the fragmentation of media has been taking place for decades, what’s different today is that audiences now have the complete freedom and ability to fragment themselves.  The companies that survive will be those that work to empower and own the fragmentation that consumers are telling us they want.  With this in mind, “Socialize” was also the perfect opportunity for us to introduce Pluck 4, which enables our customers and partners to take their social media vision to new heights.

Every seat in the room was packed, and the energy was unbelievable.  I’d like to personally salute the over 30 experts and thought leaders who shared their passion and perspective with us.  The caliber of the event was echoed by the strength of our sponsors, industry shapers like IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo!, Omniture, Endeca and Razorfish.  Socialize is a real catalyst for moving the online media space forward, and I can’t wait to regroup at next year’s event and see what we’ve all been able to accomplish, separately and together.

Following is a bit more detail on my takeaways in a recent interview...