I had an opportunity to chat with Azeem Azhar at LeWeb last week and get the latest demo of PeerIndex, which is a useful tool that tracks and measures people’s social and reputation capital online. They look at social signals from social media platforms people are actively using online, the primary one being Twitter, with tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and others in line.

What’s interesting about their tool compared to others in the same category such as Klout for example, is their ability to drill down into specific areas of expertise. Focused on relevance, Azeem says, “it’s about understanding your personal brand and whether it’s developing in the right areas that matter to you. In other words, you could be increasing your score in one area, when your ‘real’ area of expertise is in something else.”

It’s a free tool today and since privacy matters to them, you can keep your PeerIndex profile private if you choose. Below is a short video clip of our exchange in the LeWeb Yahoo-sponsored blogger lounge.

Gary Vaynerchuck in his typical form was on the LeWeb stage in Paris last week talking about entrepreneurship to an audience of largely European start-ups, venture capitalists, media and bloggers. As always, he exuded passion and broke all the rules, asking Loic Le Meur to pull down the Twitter board during his talk since he wanted to focus on the "people who showed up" first, suggesting that the board was only a distraction from being present to the "hear and now."

I couldn't help but agree since while having a back channel is useful, I was distracted by the energy on stage with a trailing stream of comments to my left and right as well. He encouraged people to rethink how we view our customers…..he views customers and 'interested fans' as equals and says he tries to respond to everyone. When someone asked about balance, he was 'all for family/work/life balance, yet at the same time, suggested we have to be always be available to respond to the people who give us life. (my words, not his). Translation – customers give us life. Fans give us life. Without those supporters, our voice can easily be lost in the noise.

I've met Gary twice (it was in Paris in fact, a year ago at the Microsoft Biz Spark party — and once at a Tony Robbins event in Vegas) and heard him speak a number of times, and while he is always inspiring, the most interesting response to a question about how to respond to clients who want the social media ROI was this: What's the value of your mother?

While corny on the surface, here's the gist of where he was going with the comment. How do you truly value the ROI of great customer relationships? How do you value a brand who has focused all of their attention on providing great service to customers, their primary attention on giving back, i.e., Zappos? Rather than focus all of our attention on numbers (which investors and the board always want), if you do NOT value time and effort spent on engaging customers, listening to customers and responding to customers, he says, "you shouldn't "fucking be in business."

While so damn simple, here's the sad thing about how I felt about his response – it's the way I was molded and frankly, it's in my DNA, yet it's NOT in the DNA of the majority of companies I've worked with or observed over the years. And as for the clients who have been a huge success, they have either gotten that at the core OR they were simply on a road to a quick exit and didn't really care about the longevity of the business anyway.

Once again, thanks for your most authentic share Gary. Below is the video I shot from the front of the room and it's also posted on our YouTube channel.

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley talked to the massive LeWeb audience about Foursquare from its birth to where they are today. He says that many people think they're so much larger than they are, yet they pull off new feature updates and support with only forty employees.

Sadly, my Blackberry didn't seem to want to acknowledge that I was in Paris since every time I did a refresh, a system update and a reboot, Foursquare still had me listed in the Bay Area. I guess all that means in the short term is that I didn't become the mayor of some of the more quaint, boutique bistros and chocolate 'houses' in the less tourist areas of Paris. I am still the mayor of a cafe in Munich a year later so I guess they should get on the bandwagon and start doing promoting themselves to Foursquare users in Germany.

Oh yeah, and I challenged Dennis to a "text bake off" at a dinner – he on his trusty iPhone and me on my Blackberry and let's just say the "man" is FAST without a keyboard and he won, but I might add, only by one small word. I want a re-match :-). Perhaps at SXSW.

As always, I loved his energy and what they're trying to do. Location is hot and Foursquare is primed to take advantage of a very enthusiastic and passionate user-base, which is currently about 60% US-based and 40% international. Below is the video I shot from the front row.

LeWeb’s Loic Le Meur interviewed Causes’ founder Joe Green on-stage at LeWeb’s DOCKS venue last week on one of the days that it snowed, and snowed…..and snowed.

Joe talked about the mission behind Causes, how and where it started and where it’s headed. Causes was founded on the belief that in a healthy society, anyone can participate in change by informing and inspiring others. They build tools for people to mobilize their friends for collective action, spread the word to friends of friends and acquaintances, and eventually launch movements that span local communities or even the globe. And for those active on Facebook know, Causes is popular, widely used and growing.

Robert Scoble interviewed Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker at LeWeb in Paris last week. A snapshot of that interview can be found in the video below.

At this year’s LeWeb in Paris, they held a start-up competition where companies submitted their pitches to a panel of judges which included some of the top VCs and investors in France and Europe. August Capital’s David Hornik moderated the session.

None of the winners were from the states btw, and each one presented on-stage following the announcement after which the judges drilled them with tough questions. The winners included Super Marmite from FRANCE (food/cooking), Waze.com (traffic/location) from ISRAEL and Paper.li (publishing) from SWITZERLAND.

Their presentations are below in a two-part video I shot from the front row.

Among other fabulous photographers, I had the pleasure of meeting and learning from celebrity portraitist Brian Smith at the recent San Francisco World Photography Festival.

Based in Miami, he came to the event to share some of the things he has learned from photographing celebrities, CEOs and models over the past thirty years.

A few things I took away from his style, which is very different from my own, yet he makes it work so well, you can’t help but admire his work in the same way you’d admire a Salvador Dali but may not want to hang it on your wall. 

There’s a fabulous shot that doesn’t look like much when you first look at it, but note the careful selection of white against white yet his shoes nearly match the floor; natural earth tone next to natural earth tone. And….it just works.

Whereas this one combines a natural look with a little glitz in the background, but glitz in a solid color making the whole thing feel unified and balanced.

A few other takeaways.

Use contrasts. If you’re shooting a boring subject – a traditional conservative CEO for example versus a Las Vegas singer, set him in a dramatic environment or change his / her clothing dramatically, i.e., outside the office and against a large gold pillar background or his example of putting Bill Gates in a black turtleneck.

OR combine the look of deep rich contrasting colors with contrasting images that don’t appear to go together — on the surface, such as what Brian did below. I LOVE THIS PHOTO btw. 

You can also put celebs or other subjects you’re shooting in different clothing, different backdrops (tennis player in a suit on the top of a large building or an athlete in a graveyard showing their strength/that the rest of the industry should fear them because they’re so good). He made some really interesting points about getting creative with ‘how you depict’ something.

For example, there are several ways outside of traditional thinking you could visually represent wealth or academia or entrepreneurship or design or glitz or fashion or beauty or health. You get the idea.

Other tips on speed….he says, “you don’t always need to shoot 10 frames a second or more, you can do it one shot at a time with a strobe.”

Apparently he uses strobes frequently and on touching photos up in the post shooting process, he had this to say, “I like to touch people up so that they still look real, but perhaps just left a really fabulous spa treatment – in other words, it’s not so dramatic that someone wouldn’t look at the subject and say it’s an unrealistic representation of them.” I thought it was great advice.

The keep it simple message kept coming up, which frankly is a message that works for most things in life. He also suggested not skimping on production or background since the environment (next to lighting) could make or break your shot.

I found him inspiring and down-to-earth, not to mention an easy listen. What I loved about his “show-and-tell” approach was the human part of the shot, i.e., not just what light or lens he used for the shot, but what the environment was like, the situation and occasionally adding funny add-ons throughout. Below is some video that I shot during the session.

Check out his work over at www.briansmith.com, where you can see countless images, ranging from travel, lifestyle and celebrity portraits to fine art and athletes.

Below, Ford’s head of social media Scott Monty on the TWTRCON stage, says, “People don’t change, they want you to think and feel and be just like them.” Globally, trust is down year after year and less than 40% of people trust ads. “Who people trust are third party experts and people like themselves.”

Transparency and authenticity are key when you’re dealing with human emotions and rather than use robotic language that won’t have an impact on people’s emotions. He says, “we’re training people to talk like humans again.” He also emphasized the importance of relevance.

Says Google’s Avinash Kaushik at the recent TWTRCON Conference in San Francisco, don’t get caught up in sheer numbers – whether it’s followers or hits. He also says don’t spend a ton of the time on positive, negative versus neutral sentiment, but focus moreso on people’s emotions. He says with humor, “HITS stand for How Idiots Track Success.” In other words, HITS alone equate to a ‘glorious datapuke.’

What’s even more critical, he says, is to understand the behavior behind tweet purchases & data links.

I've been meaning to attend TWTRCON since its first one now over a year ago, so was thrilled to discover I'd be in San Francisco when their second one hit the west coast last week.

TWTRCON is entirely focused on the business use of the real-time web with social media tools like Twitter a core part of the conversation.  

They highlight case studies from leading brands, workshops led by social media practitioners and mini tutorials about real-time tools. They also collect and publish social media business case studies, statistics and videos on their site.

What I loved most about their event is how well it combined great networking and high quality speakers and sessions with "fun." They had beach balls on the tables and introduced a game at the start of the day as a way to meet others and tweet out a little love about the person you just met.  

Some of my favorite people were on stage, in the audience and sponsors with tables.

As a non-morning person, I was shocked that I managed to make it there for Laura Fitton's (aka @pistachio) early morning keynote which kicked off the day.  

Her message focused around relevance – in other words, don't just go for numbers, go for engagement. And after you kick that into gear and are part of the conversation, remember to use the right analytics tools: links, click throughs, conversations AND context. All are important. 

Kara Swisher interviewed Adam Bain on revenue models, digging for more data on how Twitter will make money. It's clearer that revenue is coming – what's the ole saying? Build an audience first and the money will follow and it's not as if they can't tout numbers – real numbers. 

Adam says they plan to focus on the product plan in the next year and product growth will be key over revenue, at least in the next twelve months.

On future revenue models, he reminds the audience that with traditional display advertising, .5% engagement is considered a win and with Twitter, they're seeing single and double digit percentages in engagement.

Tons of major brands are already using Twitter and setting up campaigns to increase engagement and get customers on board – it's an organic movement that is only growing, not shrinking. Small businesses are seeing a tremendous benefit as well. 

Then, Google's Avinash Kaushik talked analytics. Full of energy and passion, he zipped from left to right across the stage emphasizing all of his key points – with humor…..a lot of humor.

He talked about the whole notion of HITS and tracking hits alone, which he says stands for: (HITS = How Idiots Track Success). He referred to it as a glorious datapuke. 

He reminded the audience not to get caught up in straight hits or simple analytics around positive, negative and neutral. Sentiment analysis is key – focusing on people's emotions and how they're feeling and thinking when they retweet or make a comment. It's important to understand the behavior behind tweets purchases and data links, he says. 

Stefanie Michaels (aka @adventuregirl) talked about the value of Twitter to create change and make a positive impact on the world. 

"In social media, your reward is YOUR reward," she says. In other words, focus on what you care about and talk about that on Twitter and elsewhere on the web.

It can be as simple as helping ten kids out and having an impact on two of their lives in a way that can not only be life changing for them but for you in the journey you take along the way.

They had an interesting small business panel which included Nic Adler from The Roxy Theatre, Andrew Israel from AspenSpin, Akash Kapoor from Curry Up Now, and musician Zoe Keating.

Below, HootSuite's Ryan Holmes, Maksim Ovsyannikov from Zendesk, Sprinklr's Ragy Thomas, and Gigya's David Yovanno talked about real-time strategies and tools now and what's next.

Ford's Scott Monty showed up in a bow-tie and raised the bar for the local geeks who dressed in t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. He shared a few case studies and talked about some of the lessons he has learned through implementing social media campaigns over the last few years.

At the end of the day, people still care about the same things they have always cared about, he says. "People don't change, they want you to think and feel and be just like them." Globally, trust is down year after year and less than 40% of people trust ads. "Who people trust are third party experts and people like themselves," he says.

Transparency and authenticity are key when you're dealing with human emotions and rather than use robotic language that won't have an impact on people's emotions, "we're training people to talk like humans again."  He also emphasized the importance of relevance.

Below are a few random shots…..I'd love to see them turn this into a two day event in the future. Kudos to Tonia Ries and her team for an incredibly well-executed event.

Above: Tonia Ries, Fusicology's Zsa-Zsa Rensch and James Bowyer

Musician Zoe Keating

Kara Swisher

Thomson Reuters' Alastair Goldfisher, Marie Domingo, Harry McCracken, Renee Blodgett

Above – Marylene Delbourg-Delphis and Rachel Polish (taken by Harry McCracken)

HootSuite had a mascot 🙂 The Owl was dancing around all day! (and then some)

Laura and friends sign books – Twitter for Dummies. Twitter for who?? 🙂

And, unlike a lot of conferences, the sponsors actually made sense and were very relevant for the 'conversation.' You didn't feel pitched and the companies that showed up all had a solution for putting together real-time strategies and solutions in small businesses and corporations.

The "relevant" companies included folks like CoTweet, HootSuite, Objective Marketer, ThreadMarketing, tap 11, Foursquare, Sprinklr, ZenDesk, TweetReach, Fliptop and others.