Last month, the SUXORZ panel had some fun with Denny’s at Social Media Week. Denny’s, trying to get into the “Social Media” game, had printed the wrong Twitter address on its menus, sending customers to the page of a random guy in Tawain named Dennys.

It was an honest mistake. After all, Denny’s owns “Dennys” on Facebook and YouTube, and Dennys.com, so why wouldn’t they own the Twitter handle?

This year, Denny’s has turned a corner on the social web, making great strides towards ROXOR status. Their actual twitter account has almost 40x the followers of the guy in Taiwain, and this month has seen the launch of the awesome new web series “Always Open with David Koechner.”

In the videos, SNL alum David Koechner has extremely casual conversations with his comedian friends at a real-life Denny’s in L.A. The first two episodes have featured Sarah Silverman and Jason Bateman, whose production company, DumbDumb, co-created the series with Electus and NY agency Gotham. The spots really emphasize the comfort you feel in America’s Diner, where you can sit with a friend and be completely open — all night.

Distributed via College Humor, as well as Denny’s own social media pages, the spots, which are set to feature Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and more, are getting lots of admiration from the ad industry.

And is it just me, or do these videos remind anyone else of the diner scenes in Seinfeld? To this day, tourists see that Upper West Side diner and say, “Hey, this is where George and Jerry ate!” Maybe kids will start showing up at this Denny’s in LA saying, “Hey, this is where Sarah Silverman made Dave Koechner uncomfortable! Let’s get some eggs!”

Join Clive Thompson, Lenore Skenazy, Steven B. Johnson, and Maud Newton as they discuss how social media is transforming the experience of writing and reading books — and what the changes may mean for authors, readers and publishers.

From Social Media Week 2011.

SOCIAL READING
0:16 – Clive describes the primal “social book”
1:37 – Will Maud respond to comments within the text of her book?
2:35 – Steven reacts to Kindle’s “Popular Highlights”
4:51 – Clive watches the “margins of the unpopular”
6:19 – Steven describes Findings.com, his new social reading project

SOCIAL WRITING
8:38 – Clive discusses blogging and the writing process
9:26 – Lenore uses her blog for source material
10:14 – Steven maintains a private relationship with the reader

INTERACTING
11:08 – Maud creates new connections on Twitter
12:27 – Steven on responding to criticism online
13:15 – Can Lenore turn comments into a book?

THE FUTURE
13:50 – Clive: we can’t imagine books ten years from now

We’re hosting two panels next week during Social Media Week NYC:

1. Social Books: How Social Media is Changing the Writing, Reading and Promotion of Books

#SOCIALBOOKS

Books are everything social media is not: composed and consumed in solitude, written and read at leisure, conceived and bought as blocks. Yet readers and writers are increasingly connecting to each other with tweets, apps, and book-based social networks.

Join four authors as they discuss how social media is transforming the experience of writing, reading and promoting books — and what the changes may mean for authors, readers and publishers.

Panelists:

Steven B. Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From (@stevenbjohnson)
Maud Newton, book pundit and nascent novelist (@maudnewton)
Lenore Skenazi, author of Free Range Kids (@freerangekids)
Clive Thompson, New York Times Magazine writer and Wired columnist with book in progress (@pomeranian99)
Henry Copeland, moderator, Blogads.com (@hc)

The hashtag for this event will be #socialbooks. Register here.

2. SUXORZ: The Worst Social Media Advertising of 2010

#SUXORZ11

Amid tales of genius and triumph during #SMWNYC, the #SUXORZ11 panel will be the Greek chorus.  We’ll dissect the twelve worst social media campaigns of 2010, and then throw them to our drunken audience for comments and voting. It’s like what we’ve done in past years at SXSW… with the lubrication of complimentary beer and wine. Who will be crowned this year’s SUXORZ champion?

Panelists:

Jessica Amason, Mother NY, ThisIsWhyYoureFat (@jessamanson)
Brian Clark, GMDstudios (@gmdclark)
Brian Morrissey, Ad Week (@bmorrissey)
BL Ochman, Proof Digital Media (@whatsnext)
Henry Copeland, Blogads.com (@hc) moderator

The hashtag for this event will be #suxorz11. To get in the spirit, feel free to submit SUXORZ candidates to http://on.fb.me/suxorz. Register here.

Tickets are going fast, so make sure to sign up now. Follow @blogads or catch us here: www.facebook.com/blogads to keep up with event updates. We also have notes from last year’s panels.

See you next week!