While introducing JWT Director of Trendspotting Ann Mack, Social Media Insider Summit emcee Cathy Taylor asked who in the audience has used Vine -- the new 6-second video posting app. Most had. But when she asked who has produced a 6-second commercial, only one attendee said so. Incredulously, Taylor asked, "You've produced a commercial?" The attendee said, yes, "but it was for myself." (Pause) "Isn't that what Twitter is about?" Twitter narcissism aside, the notion of 6-second Vine commercials reminds me of the old Cinemax TV series "Max Headroom" -- remember that? Remember the "blipvert" commercials that ran, well, about …

Opening Social Media Insider Summit panel moderator Drew Neisser is CEO and founder of Renegade, but he's running this panel like a gameshow host. And he's not half bad at it. While introducing a question on "what's new on Facebook," Neisser described it as, "The coolest thing since the like button replaced genuine conversation." The panelists weren't quite as funny, but has some constructive suggestions. Later, when Neisser asked if the panelists would invest their kids' college funds in Facebook stock, and all four of them said, more or less, yes. Bank of America's Chris Smith noted that with "1 …

Twitter Head of Global Product Marketing Guy Yalif showed some fascinating applications of Twitter data, including how consumer sentiment can be tracked by Bluefin to determine which TV shows perform best. Recalling a New York Times story from a year or so ago reporting on data indicating that Twitter has a biorhythm to it -- that people begin their day upbeat and optimistic, but end it downtrodden and pessimistic -- so I asked Yalif if Twitter was beginning to utilize any of that data to help brands target consumers. "We don't, but it is something we love third-parties to do," …

During his introductory remarks at the Social Media Insider Summit, MediaPost chief Ken Fadner corrected what he said was an erroneous fact about some of the famous people who reside on Captiva Island, the summit's venue. Fadner said that he had mistakenly said that Microsoft Founder Bill Gates has a house here. But Fadner said he later found out that information was wrong, and confessed that he learned about it from a busboy at a nearby restaurant. Fadner said that while that fact may be incorrect, it is now part of the social graph, because, as he said, if you …

Before taking the stage to deliver his opening keynote at the Social Media Insider Summit Guy Yalif, head of global product marketing at Twitter, chatted with me about some surprising and unintended uses for Twitter. Among them, he said, is that people are beginning to use it as an early warning system for natural disasters, especially earthquakes. I told him that I heard that when the earthquake ran up the East Coast a couple of years ago, there was a Twitter tweet trail that corresponded to it. Yalif went me one better, telling me that one of his Twitter feeds …

While showing examples of paid, owned and earned social media content, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Ragovin started with one that demonstrated you don't necessarily have to pay or own to generate lucrative business results. And he demonstrated it in a very personal way. Ragovin showed an "earned" social media post touting jet maker Boeing's store, which was offering limited edition replicas of Boeing jet windows. "I bought three," Ragovin noted, adding, "That's a $1,500 conversion for nothing." The anecdote taught me two things. One, earned media can be very effective. Two, Salesforce Marketing Cloud execs are paid …

Day One of the Social Media Insider Summit got off to a not-so-insidery start this morning, with a sponsored breakfast presentation by Jeff Ragovin, Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud (formerly Buddy Media). It's not because Ragovin isn't an insider. He is -- he was like employee No. 3 at Buddy, SMIS conference chair Cathy Taylor just confided in me. It's because Ragovin is kicking things off with some pretty basic primer stuff -- not exactly insider fair. "People still don't know the difference between paid, owned and earned," Ragovin asserted, scanning the meeting room at the South Seas Island …

Where does media placement fit into an RTB strategy? Nowhere, really, "as long as we're controlling our (key performance indicators)," and ads are not running alongside offensive content, says Joel Nierman, Marketing and Media Director at Critical Mass. That said, Rob Griffin, EVP and Global Director of Product Development at Havas Digital, says you can't underestimate the importance of context, and, therefore, media placement is still necessary in an increasingly RTB-led world. Indeed, "There are bad (ad) placements," Anne Hunter, SVP of Advertising Effectiveness Products at comScore, reminds OMMA RTB attendees on Thursday.

Hosting an afternoon panel at OMMA RTB, MediaPost editor-in-chief Joe Mandese is talking "serendipity," and his fear that ever more accountable advertising is losing that magic ingredient. David Cohen, Chief Media Officer at Universal McCann says it's not an issue. It's not an "either/or" thing, Cohen says. The serendipity business is actually thriving, he assures -- It can't not, he adds, because consumers see an average of 1,200 ads a day, the majority of which they tune out. "Optimization is in no way a bad thing, but we need to be careful that we don't think it's the be-all and …

Here at OMMA RTB, we're placing bets on how long it takes Barbara McHugh -- Senior Director of Marketing at Major League Baseball Advanced Media, and our afternoon keynote -- to make her first "Moneyball" reference. (Anytime the topics of baseball and complex ad technology converge, the book by Michael Lewis -- and later movie starring Brad Pitt -- is sure to make a cameo.) In the meantime, it's worth noting that McHugh is really happy with her RTB-driven campaigns, which are handled by Quantcast. Today, the campaigns are delivering 40% of revenue (in ticket sales), while using only 22% …