Flickr Photo: bitzceltI just had a conversation with one of the organizers of the Twebinar, a summer series of webinars about social media hosted by Chris Brogan and Radian6. David Alston, from Radian6, picked up the phone (you remember those, don't you?) to respond to some of the questions I had emailed him about the Twebinar format.

I had expressed some confusion about the series, based on the first session I attended, the descriptions they provided, and the discrepancy I saw between the two. David was generous enough with his time to respond to some of these concerns.

Here's what I learned:

Annaliese was confused about the reference to the twebinars as "pioneering." Haven't people been integrating back-channels and online chats as part of online and off-line events for a while now?

David said yes, this is true -- the term "pioneering" refers to how they're applying and using the integration, not just that the channel is available. The point of the twebinar is to make the twitter component integral: you attend the webinar AND you twitter; they go hand-in-hand, rather than being just a helpful addition.

Annaliese thought this made sense: the more 'mandatory' use of the back channel was a good idea, especially as an enhancement to the content being delivered, since the content is all about social media.

But what about the lack of integration between the twitter backchannel and the actual presentation? The content was delivered as prerecorded video interviews with social media experts. It's great to have these pioneers' takes on the use and potential of social media, but shouldn't something referred to as a "mashup" use twitter to impact the actual session?

David agreed that the organizing and technology parts of the equation got a bit overloaded. So many people participated that simply tracking the conversations became difficult enough, never mind engaging with them. And it never helps when the technology doesn't hold up the way you think -- the Twitter 'Replies' tab didn't work, for example.

They learned a lot from how the first session unfolded and will be implementing new strategies to help make the twitter component more useful and manageable for the next session.

David pointed out that one of the main ideas of the format -- the part he thinks is the pioneering/experimental component -- was that the twitter format provided a social networking opportunity, much like you'd find at a traditional on-site conference:

• Meet colleagues and peers (see comments via summize or hashtags about the session as it's going on).
• Exchange business cards (in the form of twitter profiles).
• Make connections that last beyond the end of the session (follow each other via twitter for ongoing conversations).

Annaliese thinks that David's onto something after all! It's true that connections were made during the session by the hundreds (upon hundreds) of folks who attended and chimed in online. Annaliese thinks that applying the feedback from the twitter backchannel to the upcoming sessions is also a great idea. And frankly, the level of engagement by Chris and David with those commenting on the twebinars is impressive.

Conversation is where it's at: social media and its use for promoting your projects and engaging your audiences is really about the listening, and what you do with what you hear.

(Good thing we've launched a new project to help organize and share all the things we learn about social media in We Are Media: The Social Media Starter Kit for Nonprofits. If you're reading this post, then you might be interested in contributing a thing or two to the project!)