This was one of the busiest Marches I can remember. OSBC. CloudConnect. VoiceCon. EclipseCon. Gartner PCC. My clients seem to be going to them all.

But the grand daddy of them all is South by Southwest Interactive.

I didn't go. I didn't have clients going.

Still, seems the season for SXSW recaps. So based on my brief exposure to South by Southwest tweets, articles and blogs, here is my own "best of" list for 2010.

Best Tweet about Twitter's ads:

Nadja Blagojevic/Lewis PR

@NadjaB: I'll be excited to see what the Twitter ad platform looks like, but I hope we don't have to start talking about twads http://tcrn.ch/9MmpC1

Best interview by an Alcatel Lucent influencer management guy of an Alcatel Lucent marketing lady at the ElevenAPI lounge:

Mike Maney/Alcatel Lucent

YouTube

Best "I have no reason for going but I wish I were there" tweet:

Ray George/Page One PR

@rgeorge28: I need to go to #SXSW in 2011

Best advice about SXSW:

Paul Carr/TechCrunch

"(SXSW) sucked last year, and it’s going to suck again this year. You’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise."

Most excited to meet Ashton Kutcher even though she was in Portland:

Jennifer Cloer/Linux Foundation

@jennifercloer: @the_spinmd if you don't buy you know who a drink frm me, well, that just might be the end of our friendship. hook a sista up.

Best Camera Phone Photo:

Lynn Fox/Palm

@foxycar: I feel so under dressed. #sxsw #austin #6th st http://yfrog.com/0bmebbj

Fun with social media and SXSW

I am not going to South by Southwest (SXSW) this year. I have no clients going to SXSW this year (although I do have one client who recommends Elliott BROOD ...SXSW at The Legendary Continental Club on March 19).

I don't have much time to get distracted during the work day. I have an account with Filtrbox. I kind of geek out on PR.

So mixing these facts together today, here is a poorly thought out effort to oversimplify and track the social media buzz coming out of SXSW 2010.

If you need two opposing perspectives to get up to speed on SXSW:

- The fun: USA Today writes on GM/Chevy's "Amazing Race 2.0" leading up to SXSW

- The skeptic: Paul Carr from TechCrunch offers this advice "(SXSW) sucked last year, and it’s going to suck again this year. You’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise."

So before I go back to work, I did quick searches for big brands and sxsw and put these into social media search tool FiltrBox. I did this on Thursday, March 11 around 3 in the afternoon MT (Filtrbox only tracks mentions after I start a search - it does not track any mentions before that time). Filtrbox can give suspect results sometimes (especially when I move fast - plenty of room for my own user error) and they say they are going offline all weekend. Still will be fun to check in and see how various brands are faring.

Editor's note: With all due respect to Jon Swartz who wrote the USA Today story above, I noticed GM/Chevy's SXSW program a few days ago from a Tweet from Tammy Camp (@tammycamp on Twitter) and a nice follow up Tweet from one of GM's social media guys Christopher Barger (@cbarger). I've added #chevysxsw and #sxswsf, Tammy's team Amazing Race Team, to my tracking.