The @SMWChicago team is sending out a big thank you to Advisory Board member Harvey Morris for getting up early and being on “The Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan,” found on WGN-AM, 720 on your AM dial.

Harvey knows a thing a two about promotion–he directs people to learn anything they can about Chicago.  After today’s interview, we might lean on him a little more for interviews as well!  Take a listen to Harvey’s interview here!

While you’re listening to the interview, check out the Facebook page for “The Sunday Papers”–we like it!

Q: What was your “ah-ha moment” with social media?

In February of 2009 I started learning about Twitter.  I remember being at home and seeing a tweet someone posted about eating at Wow Bao.  I immediately called the restaurant and described the person based on their avatar.  That person was still in the restaurant so we sent them a dessert.  Not only was that person impressed; she posted her experience and pictures on Twitter, TwitPic, Facebook and her blog.  Ironically enough, this all occurred on her first day of tweeting.

The power and immediacy of customer service was not lost on me.  We made a conscious effort to become heavily involved in the conversation.

Q: How do you measure success in social media?

I measure social media ROI based on three factors: 1) Are my sales up? Yes, they are. 2) Are people talking about my brand? Obviously they are because here I am talking to you about it. 3) Am I having fun? More than one can imagine.

Q: What does “transparency” mean to you?

Transparency is honesty.  If you are going to put yourself out there in a public forum, you need to be ready, willing, and able to answer and address all topics people want to discuss.  The more honest you are to people, the more respect you will earn.  We had a situation where a guest posted a pretty negative comment about the restaurant on Twitter.  Not only did we respond to this guest, we reposted his comment for all who may have missed it.  We wanted people to know that we were addressing his concern.

Long story short, this person is now a brand ambassador for us, telling all who will listen how great we are.  We did not ignore the post.  We did not take the conversation offline. Instead we were confident enough in our brand, product and customer service to openly address the issue.  As a side note, that example was picked up by the AP and sent around the world in many online publications including the USA Today, Huffington Post, and CNBC.

Since joining Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises in 1993, Alexander has worked with more than 10 LEYE concepts, including Shaw’s Crab House, Big Bowl, Vong’s Thai Kitchen, and Frankie’s Scaloppine.  In 2009 Alexander took over the leadership role for Lettuce’s Wow Bao Concept.  Under his guidance the concept has added a fourth location (opening this fall), satellite locations at both Soldier Field and US Cellular Field, self ordering kiosks, online ordering, bicycle delivery and a social media presence.  Wow Bao was recently awarded the title of one of the top 20 most influential restaurants in social media.

Q: What was your “ah-ha moment” with social media?

I have been working on the concept of an innovation center in downtown Chicago for about five years. Last year I ended up meeting someone who contacted me from a tweet I sent out over Twitter. That person ended up becoming one of the best connections I ever made.

Since then I have spent thousands of hours connecting with top business leaders collaborating on all kinds of joint ventures which is something I was used to doing without social media. All of a sudden I am finding people with deep expertise in Facebook or Twitter or blogs and we swap our best secrets.

I’ve been on LinkedIn since it started and am one of the few people I know who received a request to go out to Mountain View and present to the entire company. That was another “moment.” I said before I started, “I feel like Dorothy in the land of Oz!”

At LinkedIn I experienced the real people who have created what I consider to be one the most amazing tools I have every used. I keep telling them I am their biggest fan. And I continue to experience “ah ha” moments almost every couple of months with LinkedIn as it continues to add on new features that quickly add even more leverage to my social network. In fact, I recently put up a Slideshare presentation I helped create for a client. Within a few hours my client received a message that his presentation made it to the list of hot slide presentations. That’s amazing.

Finally, it was also an “ah ha” to find that social media could bring about a dream connection like the one I made with Seth Godin. I was reading his blog daily as I decided to read everything I could that he created. So I was prepared when he gave his readers just four days to apply for a place in his “Domino Project Street Team” where we would have the opportunity to be the first to read his latest books and learn about the cutting edge strategies he was implementing to sell books using social media. I was chosen and have been wowed by the whole team and Seth ever since.

Q: How do you measure success in social media?

I use tools like BudUrl and others to track quickly how fast my links are spreading. I agree with Billy Dec who talks about click throughs and such, and I would also add that I get three to five great leads from LinkedIn weekly that turn into at least one to two great new clients a month. My clients are people who are working on books or implementing social media campaigns and so their decision to work with me results in substantial fees. It astounds me the power of a good profile on LinkedIn coupled with a lot of great blog content and solid trust building online to create new client engagements.

Q: What does “transparency” mean to you?

My belief is that 99% of the time you should look for the good things happening out there and share them. Most people I know appreciate helpful information that will make a difference in their lives. However, I have used Yelp a couple of times for very bad service experiences. I read an article today with the title something like “Service is the new marketing.” I thought that was clever and accurate. Sometimes it is good to share something that really bothers you, especially if it helps in changing the business or thing you are sharing about for the better.

Melissa Giovagnoli Wilson is founder and CEO of Networlding, which provides publishing, PR and social media expertise to authors. She blogs at NetworldingBlog.

Q: What was your “ah-ha moment” with social media?

I got pooped on by a bird on the way to work! I tweeted about it and my replies went through the roof for the first time. I spent six months [after that] working hard at tweeting all about cool celebrity, red carpet, VIP events I was trying to promote at my venues. No one cared like they did when I got pooped on. It baffled me. I mean, really baffled me.

No one I knew at the time could help since it was relatively early on [in Twitter's popularity], so I immediately went to Twitter and asked my followers what I was doing right and wrong and what they want more or less of and began to hear things I never expected. They wanted to know the bad, the good  and everything in between; what I do and what I go through as just another human being. Basically, they wanted the truth. They wanted reality. And they wanted all of it.

It seemed really awkward because I was in charge of marketing, PR and branding for my businesses for years, and that meant I made sure we controlled and communicated the final product in its finest form. But my gut told me that organic, instantaneous communication of reality was now the wave of the future, or the present, so I tried it.

Immediately, when I began to tweet my “behind the scenes” work– pain, happiness, confidence, creativity, confusion, obstacles, solutions, passion– personal and business, people began to recommend me to others who worked hard to create, love and enjoy the same things. And before you know it, I not only have 18,000+ followers, I– more importantly– have a ton of new relationships that I can share real things with. Guess the old saying is right, it is good luck to get pooped on by a bird!

Q: How do you measure success in social media?

A: For Twitter, I’d be lying if I didn’t say, “by numbers of followers, retweets and replies.” I just think it gives you some indication of positive response to your efforts to communicate, [the] value [of] having a relationship and demand around the things you care about and share. I consider it successful when [people] are having fun and being active, giving, honest, relevant.  All of which positively effects the numbers of followers, retweets and replies.

Q: What does “transparency” mean to you?

A: Transparency is like nudity: The fact is, you pretty much always need a some sort of clothing when it comes to interacting with others.  There are very few people in this world that should see you without it totally, and only then is it OK when done at the right time and in the right way.

People require less clothing in certain circumstances, more in other circumstances.  Sometimes you have to approach a situation with a very specific kind of clothing you may not like but others require it. Some situations allow you to just be you and you can wear whatever you want. It’s an important decision, because whether completely nude, or way over and inappropriately dressed, if at the wrong place at the wrong time, you could really be exposing yourself to a very bad look for eternity.

Billy Dec is an Emmy winning entertainment TV contributor, restaurateur (owner of Sunda, Rockit, Underground), attorney alum of Chicago-Kent Law and Harvard Business School and shares entertainment, events, arts and culture news in Chicago as @BillyDec on Twitter, on Facebook, his blog, A Chicago Thing and Live on ABC TV’s “Windy City Live” every Thursday at 9 a.m. This feature is part of an ongoing series of brief Q&A sessions with Social Media Week Chicago advisory board members.