A Social Media Hub?
May 9, 2008 by Ken George
At the recent Social Media Breakfast in Cambridge, a fresh-faced entrepreneurial type—whose name and company my caffeine-deprived brain cannot recall (forgot to get business card, D’oh!)—averred that the Greater Boston Area is in many ways a more significant incubator of social media then the Big, Bad Apple.
The gentlemen didn’t offer any specific data to back his assertion, but I think he was suggesting that in terms of energy and executive talent, the Hub beats the City That Never Sleeps.
Is this just a bunch of Beantown braggadocio or is this indeed the case? Or perhaps I simply “misremembered” the conversation?
Anyone have insights into this? Is there supporting material out there in the way of links to stories, blog posts, et cetera that give some flesh to the bones of this assertion?
And on an entirely unrelated note, welcome aboard faithful listener, blogger, and editor extraordinaire Karen Wise, who has graciously agreed to undo all the damage trailing in my written wake. She has also promised to bless us with some posts when the muse so strikes.
Update: Zach Hofer-Shall, who blogs at Ampers & Dot (Okay Zach, I will make an effort to shorten my blog posts), is our gentleman in question. Given his very detail response to my questions, I am elevating his comments into this post with the hope it will spark further discussion about this issue.
Actually, I think I proudly have to take credit for this one (great to meet you at SMB by the way!). Glad I’m following you on Twitter or I wouldn’t have seen this.
My argument was that after the obvious choice of San Fran, the greater Boston area is home to more influence in social media than anywhere else in the US.
First and foremost: No there is no data to back this up- it’s purely based on speculation.
But my argument then, and now, is that Boston has been a strong hub for tech that arguably survived the bubble boom better than NY because its more remote financial center, but strong hardware concentration (not that DEC didn’t crush the local tech spirits). All many of the survivors of bubble #1 rolled into blogging (if not already) thus giving Boston a strong social media presence.
The other argument made was that Boston does indeed have a very strong startup scene and even though not many of them are directly social media related, many are interactive-web related and thus find an easy connection to blogging.
Lastly, the influence of web 2.0 startups and strong tech community has built a large PR/Marketing field to support it. Defren’s SHIFT is a key player for PR 2.0 and my social media team at Prompt Communications is able to thrive in the Boston area.
And while I’m throwing names around it’s only fair to point out that at the Social Media Breakfast we were joined by Chris Brogan, Stever Robbins, and Steve Garfield… all big players in the social media field.
@Ken
Actually, I think I proudly have to take credit for this one (great to meet you at SMB by the way!). Glad I’m following you on Twitter or I wouldn’t have seen this.
My argument was that after the obvious choice of San Fran, the greater Boston area is home to more influence in social media than anywhere else in the US.
First and foremost: No there is no data to back this up- it’s purely based on speculation.
But my argument then, and now, is that Boston has been a strong hub for tech that arguably survived the bubble boom better than NY because its more remote financial center, but strong hardware concentration (not that DEC didn’t crush the local tech spirits). All many of the survivors of bubble #1 rolled into blogging (if not already) thus giving Boston a strong social media presence.
The other argument made was that Boston does indeed have a very strong startup scene and even though not many of them are directly social media related, many are interactive-web related and thus find an easy connection to blogging.
Lastly, the influence of web 2.0 startups and strong tech community has built a large PR/Marketing field to support it. Defren’s SHIFT is a key player for PR 2.0 and my social media team at Prompt Communications is able to thrive in the Boston area.
And while I’m throwing names around it’s only fair to point out that at the Social Media Breakfast we were joined by Chris Brogan, Stever Robbins, and Steve Garfield… all big players in the social media field.
Thanks Zach for providing a very detailed response to my questions.
And my apologies for forgetting your name. The synapses are not firing as quickly as they should these days.
You present a very compelling argument that merits further exploration so I am elevating your comments to the post level. Hopefully that will spark additional conversation.
Anyone want to take issue with or support Zach’s thesis?
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
Via Twitter, Stan Schwartz (aka Toonerstan) called to my attention to some stats here.
I agree with Zach in that there’s a super-healthy community of startups and social media reps here in Boston. Only if you pay reeeaaaally close attention though. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of cross-promotion or awareness amongst each other.
The Web Innovator meetings help, the Markup and Style Society’s growth will help - but in general there’s too little notoriety or *actual* community across all the people who are doing this. Maybe I’m just stuck in my own little cave doing my thing but I just don’t feel like I’m seeing a “scene” *booming* here. Again, maybe I need to get out more or something