This is an update to my recent post, Five White Men Talk About Social Media. When last we visited the little drama surrounding our local Chamber of Commerce event with a surprising lack of diversity, I had been invited to be on the panel. The following day the invitation was withdrawn because I'm not a member of the Chamber. (Brenda Thompson, part of our Every Dot Connects team, is a Chamber member and the one who originally brought the event to my attention.) Also, we were in error that "five white men" constituted the panel; there are only four of them.

The Chamber's policy of featuring members at their events is reasonable, even laudable. While it does not excuse the lack of diversity, I certainly have no quibble with their policy. I do have quibbles about the content that will be presented, or at least the way it is described in promotional materials for "Today's New Marketing Tools." One of the panelists, a flyer says, "specializes in using new media and viral tactics which leave an indelible impression on a target audience." Another "advises clients on how they can exploit digital and social media ..."

You get the drift. I can't help thinking it sounds like tacking some new buzzwords over traditional marketing methods.

Of course, my opinion is colored by my immersion in the world of social media. My business partner, Mike Chapman, and I do social media consulting, and I serve as the executive director of the international Social Media Club. I also just agreed to be a contributing author to the 2008 edition of The Age of Conversation, subtitled "Why Don't People Get It?"

Yes, I am blatantly self-promoting here. That was, after all, the gist of comments to my "Five White Men" post: women are not as likely as men to promote their own work. Advice taken. The comments, by the way, are well worth reading, and I appreciate those who took the time to add their thoughts to mine.

My original post spurred others to write about the topic further. In Everydotconnects Post Ispires Michelle's First Official Rant, Michelle Greer said:

We've never seen a female U.S. President. Great Britain elected Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher. Indira Gandhi served as Prime Minister of India. Finland, a country with the highest number of scientists per capita in the world, elected Conan O'Brien look-alike Tarja Halonen as president. Although the Catholics in Argentina will not see a female priest, they did elect Cristina Fernandez de Kirschner, who is following in the footsteps of her husband and former president Nestor. Pakistan, a primarily Muslim nation, elected Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister in 1988 and she was leading another election until she was assassinated last December. This is supposedly the freest place on Earth for women, and yet, a Muslim nation elected a female for a leader 20 years before we even get a viable candidate for President.

One of the men who contributed to the discussion, accessibility consultant and web designer Pat Ramsey, wrote in Gender, Social Media, Why It Matters, OK...I'll Dive In:

It's an uncomfortable subject for many. It cuts down to a deeply personal level in us, a group already made up of uncomfortable, fidgety socially awkward nerds, geeks and dweebs. Uncomfortable though it may be, we've got to look at this.

Brenda Thompson and I will be attending the Chamber event on April 30. I look forward to learning a thing or two from four white men who are very successful in their respective fields. Seriously. It just won't be about exploiting social media, because I know just how unsuccessful attempts to manipulate the conversation (buzzword alert) can be.

I also intend to follow up on the tongue-in-cheek recommendation of Jackie Huba, who left this comment on my original post: "Maybe we should do a women-only panel on social media for the Social Media Club. And maybe at the last minute we'll invite a man to be on the panel."

Stay tuned for that news, which will be posted on Austin Social Media Club as soon as I can get with Jackie to determine a date. If you want to talk about "Today's New Marketing Tools," you couldn't ask for a better presenter than Jackie.

And in the meantime, if you're in Austin, plan on attending SMC's April 17 event featuring Jon Lebkowsky, an authority on social media, online community, technoculture, Web strategy, and Internet trends. Jon helped pioneer both the theories and the software behind many of today's new marketing tools and technologies.

You might say he is One White Guy Who Really Understands Social Media.