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Social2011, Radian6’s first user conference,  was just right for a few reasons. First, it was narrowly focused. Everyone in attendance knew and understood that social listening is important and is an evolving practice that must be understood by social practitioners. For that fact alone, keynotes, panels and discussions were more engaging, direct and on-topic. Most sessions were “fluff-free” (thank goodness!).

It also felt very personal. By my guess, I’d say about 700 people were in attendance along with an army of Radian6 employees. Still, I didn’t feel like I was getting “sold” to the entire time. I felt like Radian6 was more interested in creating and showcasing a better tool, not just convincing us that they were the best that there is to offer. There are shortcomings in all social listening tools and I think Radian6 understands these limitations. Their product demonstrations and customer testimonials showed that they’re as interested as we (their customers) are in sourcing the most accurate information about our brands online in an efficient way.

A few examples of how Radian6 is helping brands listen in social included:

• Dell is using social listening to transform how every employee interacts with consumers.

• Gatorade’s impressive Social Media Command Center is powered by Radian6.

• The American Red Cross is implementing social listening to engage their community during and outside of natural disasters. (Watch the closing Keynote to hear more from Red Cross Social Media Director, Wendy Hartman).

All in all, it was a strong conference, that probably could have expanded to another day with more emphasis on training. Next year at Social2012, I hope that the dialogue shifts from “social listening is important” to a greater focus on “social listening led to this great action and engagement.”

After the opening keynote, I attended my first break out session, “The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social” led by Amber Naslund (who also happens to work at Radian 6). She and Jay Baer wrote a book with the same title and she was here to talk about how companies can equip their employees to respond and interact with consumers in real-time.

She started off by reminding the audience that sometimes organizations and brands create social media messes for themselves and that thanks to technology, we’ve adapted to the speed of business (telephone to fax machine, to email, etc.), but we haven’t adopted our businesses to the speed of social. Herein lies our problem.

To fix this, Amber suggests that companies must start from within. This means decentralizing communication and empowering all members to represent the organization online. Engaging all members ensures that consumers are taken care of in-real time and as Amber stated, “A committee meeting cannot be held every time the organization needs to respond to a consumer’s tweet.”

To alleviate apprehension that leaders may feel about decentralizing communication, set and determine guidelines and hire trustworthy people. Amber stressed that there was room for all members of an organization to be involved at some level, with varying responsibilities. Like a baseball team, the organization’s members must act together to accomplish the task (or win the game). This can’t be left to one person to do single-handily.

Towards the end of her presentation, Amber said something that made a lot of people around me nod in agreement. Social Media is just a role right now, but sooner or later, it wont just be a job, it’ll be a skill. We don’t have a manager of “the email” or of “the phone.” Those are just skills. I understand her point, and agree for the most part but I think that there will always need to be someone overseeing the social charge, even if the rest of the organization has mastered the social media skills.

In a few years, Amber predicts that every company will be social because consumers are demanding it. This isn’t a threat, rather it’s a huge opportunity to be highly in-tuned and engaged with consumers. To stay ahead of the curve, companies need to implement social listening programs throughout the whole organization because one day (thanks to social), all employees will become unofficial members of the marketing team.

Is the “The Now Revolution” here? I don’t think so, but it’s on its way.