Keeping up with Insight’s insights became challenging during live tweeting, but thanks to that handy dandy #fashtech hashtag, most notable quotes and numbers were chronicled by the night’s fellow attendees. The audience was as analytical as the presenters on stage, and they caught the best notes on Twitter.

Except, sometimes they forgot how to get their favorite messages out there. Numerous times, tweets came up in the #fashtech feed that were meant to be mentions, but were mechanically structured as replies. It’s easily forgotten while tweeting from a mobile device, but any time a tweet starts with a @handle, it will only be seen by people who follow both the sender and the intended @handle. This leads to a lost opportunity where you could be telling your audience a game-changing insight, but in the end it only ends up being seen by the social media manager of the company you’re talking about.

Watching great almost-perfect tweets come up in the #fashtech feed time and time again reminded me of a conversation I had with former Glamour editor Suze Yalof Schwartz. I gave her some basic tips on Twitter over lunch, and one stuck with her so much she asked for it in lesson form for her popular interior decorating blog, Dwellers without Decorators.

Of course I obliged. If I had to pick one goal in my social media work, it’d be that I’d like to teach the world to tweet in perfect harmony. Here’s a recap of what I shared with Suze’s Dwellers crowd. The gist: Replies and mentions are not created equal.

The One Twitter Lesson I Want to Teach the World

@mentions vs. @replies
Not all Tweets are the same! The subtle structural difference between mentions and replies trips up even the biggest brands.

Mentions are when you include a fellow @twitterer in your Tweet:

Everyone who follows me on Twitter will see this Tweet, and @suzeyalof will see it in her Interactions when she logs into Twitter.

Like before, everyone who follows me will see this and it will show up in the activity feed of each Twitterer I included. Plus, anyone who searches for #followfriday on Twitter will see who I mentioned.

Replies are when you write a Tweet to someone, and you’re keeping it public. Similar to a mention, replies include the person’s Twitter @handle, but unlike simple mentions, replies always start with someone’s Twitter @handle:

My reply lives on my Twitter feed and will only be seen by people who follow both @suzeyalof and me.

Fashion blogger Rumi Neely is replying to Skaist Taylor. We’re able to snoop on their conversation because Rumi started her tweet with @skaisttaylor.

Why make replies behave differently than mentions? To cut down on the Twitter stream clutter from really chatty Twitterers. It also keeps Twitter discussions threaded so that Twitterers can really stay involved in the conversation.

But wait, what if you really want to write a sentence on Twitter that starts with someone’s @handle?

I call this The Elegant Cheat: Just add a dot! Observe:

This simple punctuation mark is all you need to convert your Tweet from a reply to a mention, and it fits in unobtrusively with the rest of your message.

Social media may be a mysterious place, but it wouldn’t be half as exciting if it wasn’t ever evolving.

Happy socializing!

“Tom and Violet’s” profile page contains boards aimed to chronicle their wedding planning throughout the years of their engagement. So far, boards for 2008, 2009, and 2010 depict dresses, food, photos, and other activities, just like a “real” bride would plan her own wedding:

There are several smart things about this. One, using a red-hot social platform to tie into a movie’s plot is a great use case of the service and also a way for potential moviegoers to build relationships with the characters before they even set foot in the theater.

Secondly, there is little production involved: create a Pinterest account, choose images, and curate them onto your Pinboard.
And, finally, it’s a truly organic form of marketing, with potential moviegoers catching The Five-Year Engagement message as they’re browsing through pins of their own.

It turns out, the boards are part of a “Pin to Win” contest, co-sponsored by Martha Stewart Weddings, encouraging others to “help Violet plan her wedding” by re-pinning images onto their own Pinterest boards. But contest aside, creating an inspirational Pinterest board for the wedding is a cute and fun addition to the movie’s marketing plan.

As a bride-to-be glued to Pinterest, there are a few things that I think would make the experience a bit more organic: more pins on each board help create the illusion of a bride seriously deep in planning her own event. Re-pinning others’ pins — from planning sites, wedding blogs, or stores would help round out the boards, and also make the movie’s Pinterest presence a lot more social, encouraging interaction and spreading the message of the film. But as it stands now, the savvy way the movie is using Pinterest to market itself to its natural audience is commendable.

The Five-Year Engagement opens nationwide today, April 27.

One tasty example: Last month I stayed in LA’s Beverly Wilshire Hotel with a friend. I spent the day working from the hotel, and around 3 pm, all I wanted was a grilled cheese sandwich. Nothing fancy, nothing from a fancy Beverly Hills restaurant down the street, nothing from the pricey room service menu. Prone to tweeting cravings as a way to alleviate them, I mentioned that I was loving my stay at the Beverly Wilshire, but what I really wanted was a no-frills grilled cheese.

The voice behind the Beverly Wilshire’s Twitter account took notice and responded.

No grilled cheese on the @BeverlyWilshire room service menu. Other than that, I never want to leave.

March 13, 2012 10:06 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@kh

Kristen Hawley

Thirty minutes later, a room service waiter knocked on my door and presented me with a heaping tray of perfectly simple grilled cheese sandwiches. I immediately took a photo and thanked them via Twitter.

O.M.G. Best hotel ever or best hotel ever? Thanks, @BeverlyWilshire! http://t.co/FBu5qAUH

March 13, 2012 11:09 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@kh

Kristen Hawley

Why this works on a consumer level: we all love free stuff. I really, really wanted this grilled cheese and probably would have ordered one for myself eventually. Instead, the Beverly Wilshire smartly spent the small amount of cash necessary to make me a bunch of simple grilled cheese (cheddar on wheat, was delicious), deliver it to my room, and enjoy the digital squeals of delight coming from my Twitter feed. Why this works on a marketing level: the response the hotel received and the number of Twitter users who saw the exchange after several Retweets and replies spread the story to hundreds if not thousands.

Do I think I would have had the same response if I had been craving dungeness crab and caviar? Probably not. Are people more likely to stay at the Beverly Wilshire because of the possibility of free sandwiches? Doubtful. But what this experience did do was reinforce Beverly Wilshire’s brand image: luxury, service, and individual attention, all for the price of half a loaf of bread, a few slices of cheese, and a Tweet (free!).

Real Food with Bradley Ogden is a father-son cooking program that features Chef Ogden preparing a full menu – from market to table – alongside his son Bryan, an accomplished chef in his own right. Check out the first episode’s teaser video, and let us know what you think.

An award-winning chef, Chef Ogden was a pioneer of fresh, seasonal, farm-to-table cuisine before it was en vogue. He’s cooked alongside the likes of James Beard and Julia Child, not to mention in the kitchens of a number of notable restaurants, including California’s Lark Creek Restaurant Group and Bradley Ogden in Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas.

Chef Ogden has always connected with his diners through the freshest, most delicious food available, and we’re thrilled to help him re-connect with existing friends and fans as well as reach out to new fans by building his digital presence. Already, he has been announced as a part of Foodily’s official team of Tastemakers alongside personalities Chef Cat Cora and actor Rob Riggle. The momentum is just beginning.

Follow Chef Ogden himself, @chefbradleyo, as he prepares for his screening and shows off all his hard work!

At SXSW Interactive, one of the best panels we attended was “Top Chef: How Transmedia is Changing TV,” a discussion conducted by Bravo executives and talent focused on what they’re doing to increase engagement while the shows are airing, but also to keep fans’ eyes and interests focused on the content when the shows aren’t on TV, or when fans are away from their sets. They call it “transmedia” and define it as the extension of a show’s narrative across multiple platforms, including social media and the Internet.

8M streams of Top Chef Last Kitchen. More streams than another NBC/U show. 26% of TopChef viewers watched the online spinoff series. #sxsw

March 10, 2012 5:22 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@redmagnetmedia

Red Magnet Media

Bravo’s first official foray into transmedia started with the latest season of “Top Chef,” which was, appropriately, filmed in Austin.  Instead of posting just outtakes or other supplementary content online, Bravo created “Last Chance Kitchen,” a web-only series that invited eliminated chefs to compete against one another to win a chance for another shot in the main competition. Bravo heavily promoted the content on-air, encouraging viewers to watch on mobile devices — an opportunity to reach them at a time when they aren’t in front of a television. And the nature of “Top Chef” — fans root for their favorite to win — ensures that the more content viewers consume, the stronger they’ll feel to their favorite chef-testants. “Last Chance Kitchen” ended as a great success. Execs were hoping for one million streams of the series and ended the season with eight million. Twenty-six percent of people who watched “Top Chef” watched the online series. That’s a lot of dedicated fans.

According to Top Chef head judge (and Last Chance Kitchen judge) Tom Collichio, the series also helped solve a practical problem faced by the show’s talent: a strong chef who gets eliminated because they had an off week. It also gave the chefs an opportunity to interact in real-time thanks to their presence on Twitter and Facebook, another important element in creating a successful transmedia presence and also building rapport with fans and followers.

Thanks to its success, Bravo is continuing to invest creatively in more transmedia projects. Next up: content co-creation with fans. This summer, expect a social game that lets you enter the world of the Real Housewives. (Can’t wait for that one!)

Bravo’s next step in transmedia is content co-creation w/ fans. This summer a soc game that you to enter the world of Real Housewives.

March 10, 2012 5:36 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@redmagnetmedia

Red Magnet Media

Bravo’s dedication to transmedia has proved a successful case study for any brand or content provider: extending your content off of its original platform through new and different channels can help increase fan engagement, create brand loyalty, and also allow you to be creative during the process.

Ahead of the Fashion is an accelerator program for those technologies, and with keynotes from the likes of Kenneth “Hap” Klopp (15 years as CEO of North Face) and SF Mayor Edwin Lee, it is an event that is particularly up to snuff. Panelists including Fluid CEO Kent Deverell and Gymboree and Yoga Studios Founder Joan Barnes gave invaluable feedback to pitching companies like Boutine and pitch winner Boditecture.

Here are some highlights from SF Indie Fashion and AF Accelerator (and my favorite Ed Lee quote):

more than a few people turned up @afaccelerator http://t.co/3LH7YFb1

March 7, 2012 2:50 am via InstagramReplyRetweetFavorite

@sfindiefashion

SF Indie Fashion

Image via SF Indie Fashion

.@mayoredlee wants the art of fashion to go “bazonga” in San Francisco – and intern @ Julia Morgan Ballroom http://t.co/s94vtro0

March 7, 2012 2:25 am via InstagramReplyRetweetFavorite

@mayka

Mayka Mei

Image via Mayka Mei

North Face founder #af http://t.co/k22Tyz57

March 7, 2012 2:30 am via InstagramReplyRetweetFavorite

@AFAccelerator

AF Accelerator

Image via Ahead of the Fashion

Daniel Sudar team waiting for presentation. #AF http://t.co/ouZFKLW6

March 7, 2012 4:15 am via InstagramReplyRetweetFavorite

@AFAccelerator

AF Accelerator

Image via Ahead of the Fashion

If you’re looking for resources to guide your next big idea, get your sea legs at the next Ahead of the Fashion! San Francisco may not be the first place you think of when thinking about fashion, but we guarantee it won’t be the last on your mind.

In her talk with Jonathan, Mayka described Pinterest as a sure win for “an audience that’s hyperconnected and doesn’t read anything anymore.” She meant the last bit mostly in jest, but we also know from conversations with Mayka that she has strong opinions on why Pinterest is the poster child for the spirit of tomorrow’s most successful apps.

“Pinterest does two things,” she says. “It’s a curation service, which is basically all the rage right now because it puts the feeling of being an editor into the average consumer’s hands. Second, it fulfills a sense of validation. Either they are feeling heard through their pinboards being seen, or they feel good when someone repins or likes what they add.”

Pinterest: Not just for women

No doubt Mayka’s background in fashion marketing and daily Web window shopping (She says it’s a good, quick break, and assures us she’s just browsing.) make her the prime-targeted Pinterest user, but that’s not to say that Pinterest is only for the fashion set. In fact, new Red Magnet Media client Chef Bradley Ogden has started playing with Pinterest, too. Follow chefbradleyo on Pinterest to see beautiful food and beautiful restaurant interiors.

Pinterest vs. The Fancy

Even though high-end bookmarking competitor The Fancy claims to have mastered monetizing curation in a way that Pinterest hasn’t, Mayka predicts that she will continue to use both services as usual. “[The Fancy and Pinterest] have different crowds, so different content works better on one than the other,” but she concedes that most people, even the hyperconnected ones, aren’t likely to keep two curation profiles equally active. Still, if curation services are the future, we’re braced for who “wins” in the monetization race.