SXSW Interactive was an amazing experience. These recaps from Sara Davidson and Scott Bishop explain the feelings I have about the conference, so I won’t write my own personal recap in order to avoid repetition. Besides, I’m sure anyone who is reading this blog has read enough SXSW recaps by now anyway.

Beyond personal feelings about the conference, I had a realization surrounded by such creative and talented people: The most talented, interesting, and creative people in our industry have actually built something tangible with social media.

What have you built with the help of social media? Have you built a network? A community? An application that uses social media monitoring software to provide real time feedback on Super Bowl commercials? Have you implemented a social business design in an antiquated organization? What about starting your own Hyperlocal news site that is praised by folks like Jeff Jarvis?

I met people who did all of these things at SXSW. I also met plenty who’s first question was something along the lines of, “How many Twitter followers do you have?”. You tell me, what’s more impressive, 27,000 Twitter followers or developing an Iphone application that allows you to let your friends know where you are sitting in a giant ballroom?

Let’s be honest: Whether good or bad, any intelligent person can take advantage of social media to learn about an industry, call themselves an expert, and make recommendations – good or bad, to folks who are either afraid,  or generally do not understand the power of social media for both business and personal purposes.

While there is a place for this kind of consulting, hell, I do it at my job everyday — It is time to move beyond “Social Media 101″ and into “Social Media 434: Building applications, networks, and innovative tools that improve the lives of your customers.”

So the next time someone asks you, “how many Twitter followers do you have? Be sure and respond with, “What have you built with social media?” Also, you should maybe consider slapping them in the face, but that’s another story.

After SXSWi I’m convinced that the power of social media lies in the ability for brands, business, and individuals to provide useful innovations for their fans, customers, and followers.

This means more than networks, closed communities, or two way communication between consumer and brand. While these are the foundation of any successful foray into social media marketing, it is time for brands and individuals alike to provide something more for members of their social graph.

Here are some examples:

Individual: Bud Caddell

Bud Caddell works at Undercurrent and consistently provides more than witty quips or updates on his location to his Twitter stream. He provides a weekly “mix-cast” where he hand picks music for his followers and friends to download and enjoy. It also helps that he writes posts like this, where he provides case studies, data, or insights that help me do better work at my own job.

If you’re an individual, stop obsessing about your “image” or “personal brand” or “responding to every twitter reply” and obsess instead at providing content that makes your friends smile, think, or laugh. Be remarkable by using social media tools in ways that no one else in your social graph has thought of yet.

Brand: Homescout Realty, Chicago, IL

While there are thousands of brands providing useful tools and resourceful information for both current and future customers, I’d thought I’d pick an example that you may not have heard of,  and that has the potential to do even more with social tools:

Homescout is in a very competitive industry, it specializes in finding rental apartments for young professionals in Chicago. They do a good job of sponsoring networking events and do a good job of cause marketing. They are also good at social media. Each one of their agents has a branded Facebook fan page and connects immediately with satisfied clients. All of this isn’t innovative, it’s just good business.

Recently they have gone a step beyond, creating a “inside Chicago real estate blog” within Facebook where they share updates and information that every renter or homebuyer can use. Real estate companies have been doing this on blogs for a long time, but placing this information on Facebook is a more powerful way of connecting with your customers.

Now, this isn’t exactly mind blowing, but imagine if this informative Facebook blog was combined with rent and mortgage calculation tools, a “what Chicago neighboorhood should you live in?” quiz, and a sponsored downloadable app that alerted you about specials and deals in your area? What if Homescout Realty sponsored Broke Hipster, or brought him on full time as his their community deal and cultural event curator? That would be cool. This is just one small example.

Let’s do more than network and community build with social media, let’s build things that revolutionize the way we interact with each other, the way we market products, and the way we target advertising. Who’s with me?

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