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Today is Twebinar Day.  The twebinar is a web-based Social Media Seminar conducted via online video sessions and in parallel via Twitter.  It’s sponsored by Radian6 and hosted by the irrepressible Chris Brogan. 

It starts at 2pm EST today.  Go sign-up. 

I was truly honored to be asked to participate along with a stellar cast-of-characters such as Rohit Bhargava, The Two Shels, Tim Ferriss, Chris Heuer, Dell’s Richard Binhammer, Paul Gillin, Kami Huyse and many others.

Some of my colleagues have already written up the details, such as Kami and Jason Falls, and Radian6’s own vp-marketing, David Alston.  Those posts all sum up the event nicely.  So, beyond asking you to visit those links and the Twebinar’s official site, I’ll pass on chatting up the details.

Instead I want to briefly look at the POST methodology of the Twebinar.  I do so without having spoken with Alston, so maybe he can weigh in via the Comments if I mess this up.  (POST is Forrester Research’s angle on how to think about social marketing strategies: it stands for People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology).

Radian6 is a “social media monitoring” firm.  The People they want to reach are, generally speaking, “marketers (in-house and agency) concerned about Social Media.” 

Thus the Objective of the Twebinar is to educate the decision-makers and decision-influencers among these marketers, and in so doing augment Radian6’s own expert credentials. 

Secondarily, Radian6 is trying to show that they have the leadership aura to attract all the cool kids to their brand.  The People who are concerned about how Social Media will impact Marketing are enthusiastic adherents to at least a subset of the experts presenting via the Twebinar.

The Strategy is based on “Content Marketing” and “Engagement.”  Provide high-value content, give it away for free, and provide legitimate avenues for discussion that will draw additional consumers into the fold.

Technologically (and tactically), the “high-value content” comes in the form of thoughtful video interviews with Social Media stars, which will be archived for future viewings.  These videos will be freely delivered to all participants, who need only register for free (can you say, “database marketing?”) … But, if the users don’t care to see the videos, they can still interact in a live & lively discussion with all the Twebinar’s experts, via Twitter. 

Radian6 is smart to not force the issue vis a vis registration.  The people who follow @twebinar on Twitter will likely wind up registering to see the vids anyway, when they see all the fun conversations going on!

So Radian6 is offering both archived video content that can be mined for ideas, and a time-delimited session of direct engagement with experts via Twitter.  All great content.  All for free.

Benefit to Radian6?  A big-time brand boost that will likely reverberate for weeks to come.

I’d hate to compete with Radian6.

DISCLOSURE: SHIFT Communications is a Radian6 client.  But I was not asked to write this post, nor did I collaborate with Radian6 in its development.