eNetworking 101: The Blog

Being Social #46 - Today people are protesting SOPA & PIPA

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Across the United States today (Jan. 18) many web site will go dark - seemingly offline - for 24 hours as a protest of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). More is being written each day about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). In an effort to point you toward helpful information, I am providing the links below. (I have included a couple of pro-SOPA/PIPA pieces, so you can hear the "other side".) If you are in the U.S., please use these are a place to start educating yourself.

Why are people opposed to these proposal? While the bill names (or nicknames) sound like something that would be helpful, each could be used to stifle free speech. In addition, they would give the government new power and would make it difficult for people (web sites) to share information online. I'm sure there may be other reasons why these bills are "bad", but those are the three that come to my mind.

If you find yourself opposed to these proposed regulations, check the links under "Protests" and add your voice to one of the protest efforts.

If you have additional information or comments that you would like to share on SOPA and PIPA, please feel free to leave them on this blog post.

Proposed Legislation:

Additional Information:

Pinterest, PIPA, Parrot (podcast) - listen to the 1st six minutes for their take on PIPA.
T is for Training audio conversation on SOPA & PIPA with Maurice Coleman & Jill Hurst-Wahl (60 min. podcast with SOPA being the predominant topic)
Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy
White House Will Not Support SOPA, PIPA
The Concerned Librarian’s Guide to the 2012 ALA Midwinter Exhibit Hall
Statement from Copyright Alliance Executive Director Sandra Aistars, RE: Introduction of H.R. 3699, the Research Works Act
Smith to Remove DNS Blocking from SOPA
Motion Picture Association of America Inc. (MPAA), Jan. 13 press release

Protests:

VETO the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information (Petition at WhiteHouse.gov)
Stop the E-PARASITE Act (Petition at WhiteHouse.gov)
Fight the Blacklist: A Toolkit for Anti-SOPA Activism
Boing Boing will go dark on Jan 18 to fight SOPA
Simple Stop Sopa - A WordPress plug-in that will take your site dark on Jan. 18 so you can join the protest.

Most of this blog was originally published on Digitization 101.

Being Social #45 - Tips for Starting 2012 in Better Shape with Your Social Networks (podcast)

2011-12-27T08:30:00.000-05:00

Being Social #45 - Tips for Starting 2012 in Better Shape with Your Social Networks (mp3)

You can also hear the podcast here.

Being Social #44 - Videoconferencing Tips (podcast)

2011-12-13T08:30:00.001-05:00

Being Social #44 - Videoconferencing Tips (mp3)

You can also hear the podcast here.

Being Social #43 - Tips for Being Safe on Cyber Monday (podcast)

2011-11-25T08:30:00.001-05:00

Being Social #43 - Tips for Being Safe on Cyber Monday (mp3)

You can also hear the podcast here.

Being Social #42 - Being Seen (podcast)

2011-10-31T08:00:00.002-04:00

Being Social #42 - Being Seen (mp3)

You can also hear the podcast here.

Being Social #41 - The Legacy of Steve Jobs (podcast)

2011-10-11T08:00:00.002-04:00

Being Social #41 - The Legacy of Steve Jobs (mp3)

You can also hear the podcast here.

Being Social #40 - A Facebook / Social Media Story (podcast)

2011-09-19T19:44:00.004-04:00

Being Social #40 - A Facebook / Social Media Story (mp3)

You can also hear the podcast here.

Being Social #39 - Using Paper.li

2011-08-22T08:30:00.001-04:00

This edition of Being Social is overdue for a number of reasons, including problems with Google's Blogger product which is used to produce Being Social. (This is a good time to remind ourselves that a product that is free - which describes most social media products on the Internet - means that the company may not be as responsive when a problem occurs because you're not paying them.)

So onto this issue...!

Likely you've seen customized daily newspapers being published on Twitter through a service called Paper.li. As the site says, Paper.li turn "Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds into online newspapers in just a few clicks." Here is the paper that I've created, as an example. A new edition is created every day and the older issues are archived. (These is also an option to create a weekly paper.)

Why are these daily papers useful? And who are they for? We can't look at every article (URL) that appears in our Twitter feeds, so it is likely that we miss information that we want to see. Paper.li searches our Twitter feeds - based on the criteria that we set - and then creates a paper with relevant news. Therefore, the first person that this paper is for is you. Considering that you have followers with similar interests, then others will also find your paper to be useful.

The paper I created was originally geared to surface relevant stories from a conference I was attending. The paper helped to keep me informed of blog posts, etc., that I might have missed. While it didn't pick up every URL mentioned during the conference, it did ensure that I saw a lot more information than I would have otherwise. Since the paper was promoted in my Twitter feed, others also could use the paper in order to ensure that they had not missed information from the conference.

If you have looked at these paper.li papers, it is likely that you have seen some that have made sense and a few that have not. Therefore, for this issue of Being Social, I want to focus on how to create a worthwhile paper.li.

Below is a screenshot of the form used to setup a paper.li. Notice that it only asks for a few pieces of information. That makes it very easy to setup as well as easy to create something that isn't useful.

Two of the questions are easy - the title for your paper and what language you want the articles to be in. Since your paper will be promoted through Twitter, keep the title short. If you select a title that you don't like, you can always change it. As for the language, paper.li will only look for articles in the language that you select. I would suggest that you make this the primary language that appears in your Twitter feed or "any language" if that is okay with you.

The other questions - filters - are where you need to do some thinking and perhaps some work. When I created my paper, I wanted it to use specific Twitter lists and Twitter searches. However, I found that my Twitter lists weren't focused enough and so I had to create new Twitter lists. Yes, this took time and the result was a better daily paper.

Knowing that paper.li is using my Twitter lists has also made me aware of who I'm following in those lists and whether the links they include in their tweets are worthwhile. Again, this has caused me to edit my Twitter lists to add and delete specific people.

What else do you need to set or do?

Update frequency - daily or weekly - daily is preferred.
Time of day to create the paper
Background image

Once created, remember that you can tweak all of the setting...and you should tweak the setting, especially the filters. It is unlikely that you will get these filters correct the first time. Pay attention to content of the paper and then modify the filters until the paper produces what you want.

How many articles should the paper contain? The tweaking that you are doing with the filters is so the paper contains enough news, but how much is "enough"? I don't know if there is a good answer to that question. It seems, however, that if the paper contains articles from 20+ news spotters that the contents will be satisfactory. The more news spotters, the better...but don't have so many that the content isn't focused around those things that interest you (or the people that you want to read your paper).

Will every article be on target? No and that's generally okay. If an article is too far off target, you can use your editorial powers to remove it. (This is done on the paper itself and can only be done by the paper's owner/editor.)

If you haven't read a paper.li, I hope you will go to the paper.li web site and search for a paper that may be of interest. (You can search the paper titles.) You can also look for paper.li URLs in your Twitter feed. Reading a few paper.li's will help you understand how they operate and see those that work will (or not).

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Look for the next issue of Being Social soon...

FTC Disclaimer: eNetworking 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a small commission if you purchase a product or service from an eNetworking 101 Amazon link. (Trust me, I'm not getting rich off of Amazon.)

Being Social #38 - Google+

2011-07-27T08:55:00.001-04:00

Likely you've heard some buzz about Google+, which was recently released into a private beta (which means that someone needs to invite you to join it). What is it? Rowan wrote (near bottom of this blog post):

The people who told you "It's not like Facebook, it's like Twitter!" were wrong. It's not really like either. If you want to write a short update with a general blast, it's like Twitter. If you want to write a blogpost with a public audience, it's like a blog site. If you want to write a blogpost with a closed audience, it's like Livejournal. If you want to start an online conversation with only four participants it's like an e-mail thread. And if you want to build and share with discrete communities of people and interact with folks you know, it's like what Facebook *says* it is but isn't. There is no "it's like this and you're using it the wrong way," but that means there's a lot of flailing around to use it until *they* figure out a way to help people flail less initially. That's a developer's job, to help people use their stuff more effectively and efficiently, and that's what beta testers are for, to tell them ways they're succeeding and not succeeding at it.

Patrick Beja has constructed a graphic to explains how it differs from Facebook and Twitter (see). [8/1/2011: URL fixed]

Okay...so this is different. If you receive an invitation, how do you use Google+? Tips are multiplying on the Internet to help you answer that question and here are a few of them:

Mashable: Google+: The Complete Guide
Creative Web Biz: Google+ : Tips, Tools and Resources (4.5 min. video)
CIO magazine: 10 Google+ Tips for Beginners
PC World: 10 Google+ Tips for Beginners (slideshow)
5min: How to Tweak Your Google+ Profile (video)
Janet Fouts: Google+ Tips and Tricks
Geek.com: 1The Best Tips, Tricks & Add-Ons for Google+
Webtrickz.com: 25 Google+ Tips to Enhance Your Google Plus Experience
How to Geek: How to Migrate from Facebook to Google+
Network World: 5 Google+ Tips for Advanced Users

One important aspect is your profile. In order to use Google+, you must create a profile and it must be public. If you already have a Google profile, that will be used by Google+. Be sure to review what is in your profile and remove anything that you do not want to be seen by everyone.

It is critical that you understand circles, which is how you organize your contacts and share information. Google does make it easy to organize and reorganize your contacts, so please learn how to do that. If you don't organize and use your circles well, you will not use Google+ well.

So what do I think of it? So far, I like it...although I must admit that I am still getting used to it. I definitely like the circles. I am thrilled that I don't have to add people to my circles just because they have added me to theirs. I am using it every day and am being alerted to useful information from my circles. The fact that it is helping me surface good information makes it worthwhile.

I do wish that I could create and share a circle. That feature would be useful for a project team or a class. This would be easier than having everyone create the same circle of contacts.

Will I stay with Google+? Yes and I'll figure out how to balance my activity there with Facebook, etc. I don't see it replacing another social network...at least not yet.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Look for the next issue of Being Social soon...

Improvements to the eNetworking101 blog

2011-07-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

I've just completed three changes to this blog and I want you to know about them. What are they?

Consolidation of labels - those tags (on the right) that allow you to see posts on similar topics. I eliminated several labels that were not heavily used and added several new ones. Those labels will retrieve the most recent blog posts in those categories.
A Google search box - This has been added above the "Popular Labels". It will load the search results in that sidebar. Any Internet search engine is not perfect, including Google. If your search term is used in one of the sidebars, Google will retrieve many more pages that are necessary. My suggestion is to try several search terms, perhaps selecting first a term that is not as popular in this blog (e.g.,conferences). Yes, you will occasionally see Google ads (a feature that I can't control).
The addition of "AddThis" - If you look below this blog post, you will see options that allow you to share any blog post more easily.

While I've been testing the changes, I would appreciate feedback from you, especially if something is not working correctly (or could work better). Thanks!

Being Social #37 - Conferences and Social Media

2011-07-06T10:40:00.000-04:00

When you attend a conference (or some other event), there are many ways of making a lasting impression. You might, for example, wear something unusual (or not!). Rather than wearing outrageous clothes, how might you a positive lasting impression? And how would you do that through social media?

It has been interesting to watch the effect of social media on face-to-face conferences. Going back 5-6 years, conference participants were using blogs and wikis for sharing information before, during and after an event. People posted notes online as well as their schedules. They hoped that if their schedules were online, they might be able to coordinate with other attendees more easily. Of course, some conferences had attendees that were more appreciative of this level of sharing and that were willing to do it. (The more that participated, the better.)

While people are still blogging conferences, interactive social media has jumped front and center, and is allowing attendees to have a more immediate impact. Here are tips on how you can using social media before, during and after a conference (or another event) and how you can make a lasting impression on the other attendees.

At least 4-6 weeks before the event, find out what the event's Twitter hashtag is. If there isn't a hashtag, contact the conference organization to suggest one.

If you are suggesting a hashtag, search for it in Twitter and in an Internet search engine so you can see if it is already being used. Overlapping with another use of the same hashtag can lead to confusion and a messy Twitter stream.

If the hashtag isn't well known, tweet what the hashtag is before the conference and share that information with your followers (some of whom will be attending the same event as you).
Check your online photo in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Consider updating the photos to a good recent headshot of you. This will help people recognize you at the event. (Remember that you can take a decent photo with a digital camera, your cell phone, or even your tablet device/iPad.)
Use the Twitter hashtag to announce that you are attending the event and to begin to share information. (More on this in a bit.) Remember to use the Twitter hashtag as one of the tags on any blog posts, photos and videos related to the event.
Begin sharing information about the event on Twitter and as appropriate in other places (e.g., a related group in LinkedIn). Share relevant information such as:

Invitations to specific sessions.
Information on the conference location, e.g., links to maps, the convention center web site, transportation options.
Information on how to get from the airport to the conference site.
The weather forecast (even if it is vague). I have been amazed at the positive reaction I've received from tweeting the weather. People often make assumptions or forget to check, so having someone remind them of it can be very helpful especially if the weather is going to be unusual.
Places where people might meet up at the end of the day. Any local information on places to eat or things to do will be appreciated because people often don't take time to research this. Keep in mind that search engines and local web sites can provide this information, so all you need to do is find a few tidbits worth sharing and then share it!
Tips about the conference itself. Even basic tips will be appreciated, e.g., what to wear.

Blog about the conference before you go. Mention that you will be there and perhaps give a sense for what you will be doing. If you are speaking, moderating, facilitating, etc., put that in the blog post.
If there is a group in Facebook, LinkedIn or elsewhere related to the conference, join it. Try to share at least one thing in those places about the conference that will be helpful to the other members of the group. You can share the same tidbit in each social network since the audiences may be slightly different.
If you get a name badge at the conference, consider adding your Twitter name to it. While some people will want business cards, a growing number of people will just want to know how to find you on Twitter or some other social media site. In addition to putting your Twitter name on your name badge, also consider having your social media contact information on your business card. (Yes, that takes some pre-planning.) You might also create a QR code with that information in it and then wear the QR code (e.g., a sticker on your badge).
Once you are at the conference, you may see or hear something that others need to know, so share it! Is there a shortcut for getting from Point A to Point B? Is there a growing group of people from the conference at a local bar? Is there a hot session that everyone should know about?
Also share what you are learning. You can do this through Twitter as it happens and through blog posts. If you're not into live blogging, do try to publish your blog posts during or soon after the conference.

If you are into taking photos or videos, do that and share them on a photo-sharing site. They will be useful to those that couldn't attend the event as well as those that are there. Even photos and videos taken on a cell phone can be useful (and very much "in the moment"). And remember to tweet their URL!
If you are in a session where notes are going up on a flip chart, consider taking photos of those notes, then sharing the photos online. It is much easier than transcribing the notes and generally just as useful!
After the conference, wrap up any loose ends - final tweets, blog posts, sharing photos, etc. Try to get things wrapped up within 1-2 weeks, while it is still fresh. Remember to tweet/share URLs to your blog posts and photos. Remember to share what you learned and not just that you attended the event. (Show that you actually learned something!)
If you met people that you want to friend/follow, remember to do so.

I know...you're thinking...wow, all that? It sounds like a lot, but - honest - it isn't. It's a plan and it works. I can tell you from experience that people see, read and appreciate the information that you have shared. Because of your clear headshot, people will be able to associate that information with you in real life, and they will walk up to you and thank you! In networking terms, that's a "warm contact" who will be more willing to talk with you and share information.

If you don't have a conference in your immediate future, put a reminder on your calendar 4-6 weeks before your next conference to re-read and implement what I've written here.

BONUS! If you are active on Twitter, you've likely seen links to instant newspapers created using paper.li (free). These instant papers use Twitter to locate links to articles, videos, photos, etc. Before a recent conference, I decided to create a paper.li newspaper for that conference. I used Twitter lists and hashtags to define what I wanted paper.li to search as it created my daily paper. The result was a success because it was useful to me (finding things I had missed) and to others (based on comments received). I had thought that I would discontinue the paper after the conference ended, but have decided instead to refocus it and keep it going. In order to keep it relevant, I will continue to tweak the lists, etc., that it is useful in order to locate stories. You can view it at http://paper.li/jill_hw/1306886585

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Look for the next issue of Being Social soon...

Being Social #36 - More QR code tips

2011-06-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

QR codes are used heavily in Asia, but are still a novelty here in the United States. According to Wikipedia:

A QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

While there is software available that will create highly customized QR codes (both in looks and contents), anyone can create a QR code for free at a number of web sites including (and definitely not limited to):

If you are exploring the use of QR codes, here are tips to help you avoid some of the problems that others have had:

Create your code using software provided by the QR code reader you are going to use (or that you are going to recommend others use). So, for example, use Scanlife software to create the code, and recommend Scanlife for reading the code.This helps readability. This piece advice works if you’re in a situation where you can indeed recommend to people the preferred QR code reader to use.
Older cell phones do not have autofocus cameras, so they can have a hard time reading small QR codes. If possible, create a “larger” QR code, like 1.5 inches square (or bigger if on a poster, for example). Those should work well with older phones.
Print the QR code using a laser printer, so that the image is crisp.
Have good color contrast on the code, e.g., black on white, again to enhance readability.
Try to limit glare on the code (wherever it is used), since that will inhibit readability. So putting it behind plastic, for example, may limit the codes usefulness, if there is glare.
Try your QR code with several different readers, so you’ll see how it works. Vcards (in a QR code) don’t always work well with different readers. Also try out the code in different settings. So if you going to put the code on your badge, test it on a badge to see how it is going to work. (You might also consider how people will read the code and where the best place is to put it.)
If you plan on using your phone to read QR codes, download several different readers, since they all do not work the same (and sometimes you’ll need to try a different reader). Each may read a vcard or mecard differently.
If you are using the QR code as a replacement for a URL (or some other information), have that information handy in a different form for those that do not have a QR code reader.

Still haven't created a QR code? What are you waiting for? Go and get on the leading edge!

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #35 - Have Influence!

2011-06-02T08:30:00.000-04:00

Klout.com -a free service - tries to measure the influence of those that are using Twitter. We can argue whether or not it does a good job of measuring your prestige, but we can't argue that every social media user wants to have influence. What steps can you take in order to increase your influence on the social media sites you are using?

You should have already completed these three steps, but just in case...

While this may seem obvious, select which sites are important to you and use them. While there are a growing number of social media sites, it is likely that there are 3-5 sites that you can commit to use on a regular basis. For example, the four sites I regularly use are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr.
Review your profile on those sites and ensure that it communicates what you want people to know about you.
Check your privacy settings on the sites so that people can see some information about you, but be sure to keep private information that you do not want the world to know. Also keep private pieces of information that could be used to steal your identity like your birth location, mother's maiden name, and complete birth date. (Think about the questions a financial institution asks you when they are verifying your identity and then aim to not share that information.)

Then...

Pay attention for useful information that crosses desk/screen. If any of it would be useful to your followers, pass it along. The information could be an article, information on an upcoming event or breaking news, for example.
Keep most of your information flow "on topic". For example, if you are an environmental attorney, then be sure to pass along information about the environment as well as about the law. Why do this? You want your followers to know what type of information that will be receiving from you, and you do this by being on topic.
While being on topic is important, it is also important to be "in the moment". If you are attending a conference, sharing information during the event about what you are hearing or learning. You don't need to share constantly. A few information packed messages (tweets) would serve you well.
Share information that people don't know that they need. If you and members of your tribe are going to a conference, for example, share information about the weather or other local details that will be useful to your colleagues. I can hear you say..."but I don't have that information!" A couple weeks before I conference, I check Weather.com for the forecast, then I tweet it using the hashtag for the event. I've been thanked for the information from people in the U.S. and Europe. You see, everyone needs to know what the weather is, but some people just won't take the time to look it up! People will re-tweet information that is useful, which expands your influence.
Interact with people. Comment on what others say. Respond to their questions, if you have an answer. No, you don't have to respond to every message or tweet that you see. Aim to interact with a handful of people per day. One way of doing this is to congratulate those that have talked about a recent success. (If you know that it is someone's birthday - perhaps via Facebook - wish the person a happy birthday. It is quick, easy and always appreciated.)
Be authentic! Yes, be you.

Is this magic? Nope. It is easy. The hard part is that you need to be consistent. This isn't something that you do today and then don't do for another month. This is something that you do every day. Be consistent and reap the results!

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #34 - Seth Godin

2011-05-19T15:00:00.001-04:00

Tuesday night, Seth Godin spoke in Syracuse, NY. Godin is a presenter, who uses props, PowerPoint, and stories very well. He is entertaining and informative. He is often provocative and doesn't care that he ruffles any feathers. With that in mind, perhaps what happened on Twitter should not be surprising.

There were a number of tweets during the event, but one that was repeated several times was after Godin asked how many people had been on Twitter during the event and then noted that it was a waste of time. KimInCuse wrote:

Actually, Seth Godin, I was on Twitter during your talk because I was TWEETING about it. It wasn't a waste of time.

Godin shared that he does not value "breaking news" and that day-old news is "warm enough". Yet many people are turning to social media - like Twitter - as a way of deciding what news to pay attention to and also to share news as it happens...like what we were learning from his presentation. Godin's aversion to news-as-it-happens may be why he does not have a Twitter account. (However, Godin's blog automatically tweets new posts titles.) That also means that he is not using Twitter - and likely other truly interactive social media - to interact with his tribe (followers). Given the books that he has written, blog and speaking engagements, Godin is leading his tribe, but he is not interacting with them.

Interact vs. Listen - In fact, you may not always be able to interact adequately with your followers or customers. Sometimes it just isn't practical, but you can always find ways to listen. It is clear that Godin values listening to followers/customers, because that is what he preaches. Only by listening can you understand what they need and want (with want being more important than need).

For you to ponder:

How do you listen to your customers, your followers, or even those whose opinion you value?
If interacting with your customer/audience is important, how and when do you do it?
How do you know that that the information you are receiving is authentic?

By the way, the photo above was taken during the book signing after the event. If you're like me, you've read several of his books. If not, pick one of them up at your local library, borrow from a friend, or purchase a copy. You will not be disappointed.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #33 - On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog

2011-05-03T08:57:00.000-04:00

A Must Read! Before I get to the main topic of this Being Social, I need to tell you about this article - The Really Smart Phone. Smartphone providers have recently disclosed about much information they store about you. This article discusses the wealth of information from our cell phone data which can disclose patterns about our lives, beliefs, etc. It is very much worth reading. It will likely make you concerned about your cell phone use, although I suspect it won't get you to change any of your cell phone use habits. (Why? Because we love our phones too much.)

Now back to our scheduled topic...

I have had a couple conversations recently about the diversity in our society that have revolved - unfortunately - about diversity not be recognized or appreciated. When we speak of "diversity", we are speaking of cultural, racial/ethnic, gender/sexual, and socioeconomic differences. Respecting diversity means not seeing inequalities, but rather celebrating the differences.

In 1993, the New Yorker published a cartoon depicting two dogs in front of a computer with the now famous quote "On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog." Over the years, people have read that to mean that you never know who you are interacting with on the Internet and that could be bad. For example, that ideal person you are talking with on a dating site could be not so ideal in person. The Internet allows us to hide parts of ourselves and even be who we are not (e.g., famous, perfect).

We can look at that saying in another ways...on the Internet, it is more difficult for someone to judge me based on cultural, racial/ethnic, gender/sexual, and socioeconomic differences. If we're dealing in text, for example, those things that make me different from you may not be immediately apparent. You, therefore, must judge me based on my words, my ideas, and my knowledge.

It is also important to note that on the Internet, we all have access to the same Internet-based information. That can also be a wonderful equalizer. Now if we could only get that equality extended to our off-line worlds!

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #32 - Getting Smarter About Facebook

2011-04-21T08:33:00.001-04:00

If you are a Facebook user, likely you believe that it runs smoothly..until, of course, it doesn't. Some of the more public "problems" have been around its privacy settings, but there are other problems (or features) of Facebook that you should know about.

My World is Shrinking! - How much of your friends' news is displaying on your Facebook news feed? It is likely that you are only seeing posts from people with whom you have recently interacted (a feature of the "new" Facebook). If you aren't interacting with someone, their news isn't displaying in your news feed. Admittedly, you might not want to see everyone's news, but likely you'd like to see more than what you're getting now. The solution....

Sign into Facebook and you will be on the homepage with your News Feed. At the top of the News Feed, click on "Most Recent" (at the top), then click on the drop down arrow beside it and select "Edit Options." Change "Show Posts From" to "All Of Your Friends and Pages" and Save the change. Once you do that, you'll see more news in your News Feed. If you are like me, you may be amazed at the news you've been missing.

TMI (Too Much Information)! - Are you afraid that you are sharing too much information with your friends and people that you don't know? Consider creating friend lists, then using those lists to limit what people can see about you. For more information, read "How can I use friend lists to help control my privacy?" on this page.

Security, Please! - Facebook does allow for a secure connection (https) which encrypts your communication with the site. "https" connections are frequently used for payment transactions because of the security provided. For information on how to turn on this feature, read "How do I turn on Secure Browsing (https)?" on this help page.

I Need More Help - If there is something that is a mystery about Facebook, check out Facebook's help pages first. Then turn to your friends, since we all learn different aspects of the service. Finally, look for information on other reputable web sites or - yes - in books. If you do turn to a book, look for one that was published recently. Anything that is 1-2 years old will be out of date and inaccurate because the service changes frequently.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #31 - It's not the phone, it's the apps

2011-04-04T08:11:00.001-04:00

My colleagues are now buying the iPad 2, in order to continue to be on the cutting edge. However, no matter what the device, what matters are the applications (apps) on it. Ask any iPad or Nook user about their device and they will soon be talking about the apps that they use. Mobile devices are nothing without software (apps) that give them the functionality people crave. So in this issue of Being Social, I want to focus on apps that you might want to have.

Note: All of the apps I'm going to mention today are free or low cost.

Staying Connected - Our mobile devices allow us to communicate whenever we want to. Generally that communication is going to be through email, IM or social media (e.g., Twitter). LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have created their own apps. In addition, others have create Twitter apps that provide additional functionality (e.g., Hootsuite or Tweetdeck). All of these apps give you similar functionality to the web version while you are on the go.

Skype does has an app, which I've found useful. Be sure to be connected to a wifi network so that there are no charges.

My must have? Hootsuite

For the Road Warrior - If you are a frequent traveler, then you will appreciate apps that take some of the stress out our trips.

Yelp provides information (and reviews) on restaurants, bars, coffee shops, places to shop and more. Yelp can show you want is nearby and allow you to see user reviews of those places. This is a great feature for locating restaurants in places that are new to you.
GateGuru tells you where food and other services are located in airports. This can stop you from wandering around needlessly.
Local maps - The transit maps for a growing number of major cities are available as apps. Having maps on your phone is handy and will make you look less like a lost tourist.
Hotel and Airline apps - These may not be all that you expect, but they can be worth investigating. Based on my experience with a hotel app, I would suggest heavy testing before you decide to rely on it.
My TSA will give you info on the delays at airport security checkpoints.

My must have? Yelp

But I'm bored - Time to pull out a book or a game. While the game everyone is talking about is Angry Bird, you might want to try something else. Personally, I like the games produced by Lab Pixies such as Flood It, Trio and LineUp. They are challenging and quick.

As for books, there are a number of ereaders available for your mobile device including Stanza, B&N eReader, Kindle app, and iBooks. I suggest trying out several ebook readers with free books that are available to you. Note that some will sync with other devices, so that you can read a book on whatever device you have in your hands.

My must have? Flood It

Information, please -

Your local news media likely has developed some apps. I like those as well as apps from ABC News, CNN and NPR.
One important piece of information you need is the weather forecast. For that, download the Weather Channel app.
Need a sports score? I use ESPN's ScoreCenter.

My must have? The Weather Channel

Things that are hard to classify -

Amazon.com because of its Amazon Remembers feature.
Dictionary.com.
App from your bank.
i-nigma for reading QR codes.
TagReader for reading Microsoft tags (their version of QR codes).

My must have? Dictionary.com

What is not available is an app that will read my mind and write blog posts automatically, which is why this one is late. Perhaps Apple is working on that one?

What apps are important to you? Leave a message and let us know!

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #30 - Automatic facial recognition

2011-03-16T08:30:00.001-04:00

I recently uploaded photographs to Facebook and received a surprise - the system automatically recognized many of the people in the photos! Here is a good article from December 2010 on this Facebook feature and here is the company's announcement. Both note that Facebook is rolling the feature out slowly. They also say that you can opt out of having yourself automatically tagged. But how many people will know to opt out? Or even take the time to do it? (If you want to opt out of this, under Privacy Settings is a setting for "Suggest photos of me to friends: When photos look like me, suggest my name". Use that to disable this feature.)

Facebook says that:

Only friends can tag you in photos
Facebook will notify you when a friend has tagged you
You can remove a friend's tag at any time
Tag suggestions are based only on photos you have allowed yourself to be tagged in

I would add that these are the current rules that Facebook is using. We all know that the company likes to alter its privacy settings and other features, so this too could be changed.

How does it really work? Facebook isn't going to tell us that, but likely it is using similar (or the same) software as security firms. And while Facebook isn't yet doing this, it could use the friends lists of others in the photos (who may not be direct friends of yours) to identify any "unknowns". Think about what that could mean with a photo of a large group of people, where you know some people but not everyone. Facebook could use who you know and then who they know, etc., to automatically identify everyone.

We know that the government has been able to do facial recognition for years, for example, on video taken at security checkpoints. But to have it available for everyone to use?! What are the pros and cons?

Pros:

It will save time for the person who is uploading photos.
We tend to be lazy in tagging photos, so this technology will ensure that more of the 100 million photos uploaded each day are tagged properly.
Facebook could help you identify that person in the photo whose name you're not sure of (or don't know).
Facebook can take advantage of previous tags to train its software and learn who the people are. As more people are tagged, the system will get smarter (and recognize "Mike" from a side view as well as from a straight-on head shot).

Cons:

You have to opt out of this feature, rather than opt in. Facebook assumes that everyone wants this feature!

If you haven't opted out, you may be tagged in photos that you don't know you were in. The good news here is that Facebook now displays on your profile page those photos in which you've been tagged. If you pay attention to it, you'll see any newly tagged photos.
Some people try to live without being "in the system". For example, people whose photos are not on file with the government already (e.g., via drivers license or passports). [Yes, besides the Amish, there are people who try to do this.] These people may be tagged in Facebook by friends and thus find that they have a digital fingerprint. Remember that you can tag people in a Facebook photo that do not have a Facebook account.
People who are at the wrong place (e.g., weren't suppose to be at that party), could find themselves "outed" and in deep trouble with partners, family, etc.
Someone who is in the witness protection program could be accidentally exposed through this feature. I know this is a worst case scenario that could effect a limited number of people, but it demonstrates the potential problem.
You could find more of your life documented in photos than you realized and that you are comfortable with.

What' Next? As far as I know, Facebook is leading the pack (i.e., other photo sharing services) with this feature. However, I could see other photo sharing services implementing this feature. They might even do it by allowing users to connect their accounts to Facebook and then use their friends list in Facebook as a way of identifying who is in the photos. (I wonder how Facebook's privacy settings would handle that?) Would you know if you were automatically tagged in another photo sharing service? Good question. And the answer become more difficult if it is a service that you don't use, but your friends do.

I wonder how the government would use this large repository of tagged photos? Could the government use friend lists AND photos (which would say more about who you really hang out with) to investigate relationships? And how would Facebook - or any photo sharing service - handle an inquiry from the government?

Photos include more information than what we tend to recognize. A photo of me in front of my house may not be tagged with the street address, however, a comparison of photos with similar features (e.g.., homes, landscape) could uncover my exact address. Again this is a feature we assume that the government has, but what if everyone could do it? What could this mean to your privacy?

I feel a bit like I'm saying that the sky is falling. While the sky isn't falling, automatic facial recognition is another "canary in the mine" pointing to the erosion of our privacy. How we think and handle privacy is forever changing and changed.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

Being Social #29 - The Social Network

2011-02-28T16:30:00.000-05:00

The Oscar Awards were given last night. The Social Network, the movie about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, was nominated for eight awards and received three Oscars.

Facebook itself is a stage upon which people act, but we don't always recognize that.

There are young people, who are acting older in order to have a Facebook account.
There are people who are hiding parts of their past (or maybe in their present) in order to attract the attention that they want.
There are people acting rude or mean because the lack of face-to-face interaction gives them the comfort level to do that.
Some people are a bit fake because they don't feel that their colleagues should know the real them. Perhaps they are projecting a more professional appearance, and hiding the non-professional parts of their lives.

I won't ask if you're doing any of those things! However, you should ask if your contacts are. Are you friends with people who "aren't themselves"? Do you know them well enough to see that they are not showing you the "real them"? How does it make you feel?

Now consider what you are saying about yourself through these tools? Could you be more authentic? Would your contacts appreciate that? Would it lead to a higher level of trust?

Facebook Tip: I received this Facebook tip today and know you should have it, too.

When you are signed into Facebook, look at the URL address. If you see http: instead of https: then you are not signed in through a secure session, which means you could be hacked. Facebook does allow for secure sign-ons. To set your account to use secure sign-ons, when available, go to the Account drop-down (upper right corner) and select Account Settings. Then change your Account Security. Put a check mark in the box for "Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible". Remember to Save the change!

Being Social #28 - What is the secret of successful online communities?

2011-02-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

This Being Social is a guest post by Scott Brown, a friend, colleague, and owner of Social Information Group.

I recently conducted a workshop for a client group on using social tools to engage customers in product development. The workshop, and the work that went into preparing it, gave me a chance to reflect on how social tools are increasingly becoming serious and powerful instruments for business.

I believe using social tools for product development and improvement is a "bleeding/leading edge" practice. Some companies, like Adobe, are deeply committed to these tools, and are using a variety of tools to engage their customers and stakeholders. Sure, many companies are using popular tools like Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/Photoshop) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=65596) to engage their communities and customers. But some companies are really seeing the potential of social, online communities to connect with and satisfy their customers, well before new products or new versions are released.

For example, check out Adobe Labs Ideas. The site has idea banks for eight of Adobe's products - you've probably heard of Adobe Flash, and maybe Adobe Air. The process is simple, and outlined on the site (you do need to register for free first):

Click the 'Post Idea' button beside the appropriate technology listed to submit an idea.
Click the 'View Ideas' button to view the ideas with the most votes.
Check back regularly to read and vote on all the latest ideas.

Pretty simple. And pretty compelling. You - yes, you! - can have direct input into developing and improving Adobe's products.

As more and more companies are using social tools to connect with their customers, it's important to keep in mind that, while the tools are new, the dynamics that drive successful communities are still the same. There are many good guidelines out there - Communispace, a vendor of this type of "idea" tool, provides a great white paper on this topic.

Some of the best practices that resonate with me most include:

Seek out and invite the right people.
Make members the center of the community.
Be specific.
Be genuine and "human".
Ask questions.
Don't ignore what comes up spontaneously - negatively or positively.

Lastly, I think it's great that more companies are willing to experiment with these tools. Yes, we are still very much in the experimental phase with many of these. And there's advantage in that - we have the ability to make mistakes, and the ability to be successful in ways we might not have imagined. Responsibility comes with both. It's those companies that attentively and responsibly interact in their communities that will enjoy true customer and community success.

Thanks, Scott, for your perspective! I am always looking for guest authors. If you are interested, please contact me at hurst {at} hurstassociates.com.

Look for the next issue of Being Social in two weeks...

FTC Disclaimer: eNetworking 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a small commission if you purchase a product or service from an eNetworking 101 Amazon link. (Trust me, I'm not getting rich off of Amazon.)

Being Social #27 - The message from Egypt & Tunisia

2011-01-31T08:34:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago, we were watching the uprising in Tunisia and now we are watching a similar situation in Egypt. In both instances, social media played a role in spreading information and helping people get organized. On Jan. 28, Chris Hughes - one of the co-founders of Facebook - was on the news talking about the role of social media. He said that these events could not have occurred without social media. Chris Matthews, who conducted the interview on MSNBC, noted that the French revolution had happened without modern social media. So let's step back for a little perspective.

Major revolutions and protests have occurred using the social media of their time - the American Revolutionary War, civil rights protests in the U.S., protests over worker rights and wage reform, etc. There are examples in every country and region around the world, including both small and large events, where people organized and spread information using the available tools. Let's not forget Paul Revere on horseback in 1775 telling people that the British were coming, or how he received the news which was through the use of a signal delivered with lanterns.

In the middle of a protest in Egypt on Friday, everyone stopped for prayer. Prayer times have been announced in Cairo for decades (if not centuries) not with the buzzing of cell phone reminders, but by the call from the minarets. This is like the noon whistles that sounded in every factory town announcing that it was time to go to lunch (and then time to return to work). Very "old school" and it still works.

What We're Learning: The first message from Tunisia and Egypt is that social media is important. No one can deny this. It is influencing how information is transmitted around the world.

Egypt has also taught us that our reliance on social media (web 2.0 social media) can be cut-off. That means that we're relying on something that we don't ultimately control. Social media is "controlled" by the companies that create the tools, the Internet service provides, and the countries which allow the companies and service providers to exist. There have been calls for "net neutrality" and it is clear that this concept is not universal.

That leads the final message, which is "old school" social media - newspapers, radio, banners, bullhorns, etc. - is still very, very important to understand and use. We cannot put our faith in just one communication medium. We cannot be knowledgeable in using only one medium; we must know how to use them all. And they must all survive or our ability to communicate will be diminished.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in two weeks...

Being Social #26 - Social Media Trends

2011-01-17T08:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social! This issue is about social media trends.

Let me look into the future...what do I see?

Location Matters - Social media services that use your location will grow in prominence and adoption. Trails blazed by FourSquare, Yelp, Gowalla and others will be followed by an increasing number of location-based services. More of us will using smartphones, which will help location-based services grow in popularity.

Make it a Game - Location-based services are being combined with games (e.g., SCVNGR). At the moment, location-based services are used by a minority of cell phone users, which means that those that are involved in games that use location-based services are even a smaller group. While this is likely not going to become mainstream in 2011, it will catch more eyeballs of consumers, product developers, and the media.

Closed for Business - You may wonder how some social media companies make money. While investors are pumping lots of money into some these companies, generating revenue isn't always easy. This year, a few high-profile companies may go out of business and make us remember that these companies -- and tools that we love -- could be gone in a heartbeat.

Separating Friends from Friends - All of the tools allow us to "acquire" large lists of friends and acquaintances. This year, more of us will separate real friends from our acquaintances, and even those that we don't really know. People may decide to drop friends, may use different tools for different groups of friends, or may use features within a tool to segregate friends.

Privacy Concerns - Separating friends is one way that people will deal with privacy concerns. Some people may delete accounts as a way of increasing their privacy or deleting details about themselves in an account. I have a friend who recently deleted 99% of his profile information in Facebook in order to deal with privacy concerns. Another friend deleted 99% of her friends in Facebook in order to regain some level of privacy. While these seem like isolated instances, they won't be in the year to come.

It is important to note that concerns over privacy will be fueled by more user accounts being hacked as well as social media sites tweaking their privacy settings in way that people find unhelpful (especially if the setting cause people to accidentally disclose more).

Will these trends really come true? We'll have to wait until 2012 to find out!

Try This @ Home: Christopher S. Penn, in his January enewsletter, suggests searching Twitter to find decision-makers that you want to follow. But don't do the search in Twitter. Instead, use the "site" command in Google. For example, to look for profiles or tweets that mention CIO and New York, the search would be:

"CIO" "new york" site:twitter.com

While the results will not be perfect, it will retrieve profiles (people) who will be of interest to you. Follow them! More than likely, they will follow you back. Once you're connected, then you can begin interacting with them and making your connection a strong one. Strong connections equal influence.

You Need 2 Know: On Friday, a civil uprising in Tunisia caused that country's president to step down and flee. The uprising used social media to spread information and coordinate.

In 2009, Andy Carvin (NPR) wrote "In Iran, The Revolution Will Be Tagged". In light of what has occurred in Tunisia, this 2009 piece is worth reading.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Next issue of Being Social will be in two weeks...

Being Social #25 - I Need to Hear from You

2011-01-03T08:52:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year and welcome to the 25th issue of Being Social! On Jan. 15, 2010, I published the first issue of Being Social in response to a perceived need for information on using social media that was more instructive than some of the stuff that's out on the Internet. From the feedback that I've received, I've met my goal of creating content that you find useful. And while I don't know who you are, I do know where many of you are located. According to Google, the countries were you are located include: (in order of pageviews by country)

United States
Netherlands
Canada
South Korea
Germany
United Kingdom
Russia
Pakistan
Italy
Spain

My goal was to publish an issue twice a month and I've done pretty good at meeting that schedule! I am reminded, however, of Bob Rankin and Patrick Crispen's Internet Tourbus, which used to publish twice a week on an ish-basis (Tuesday and Thursday-ish). In other words, sometimes life would get in the way and they wouldn't be able to publish on time. That has happened to me, too, and I thank you for your patience with my ish-ness.

While I seem to be delivering what you need to hear, after a year of you hearing from me, I need to hear from you. I need your feedback.

What do you need to know about social media?
What type of information do you want me to deliver to you?
Which tools do you want me to focus on?
What am I doing right? Where could I improve?

Yes, I really do want your feedback. Please email me, leave a comment on this blog post, or use another way of contacting me. I would like to hear from every person who reads Being Social. Please flood my email with your comments! Thank you!

2010 Issue Index & How to Search Being Social

How to Search Being Social: In May, I updated all of my web sites to have a consistent look and feel. An unintended consequence is that the archive of eNetworking 101 (and Being Social) is difficult to access. The labels on the right side of the blog will show you recent posts on that topic, but may not go back far enough. I didn't think this would be a problem, but I've received a few emails from people who want to be able to search the archives and so I'll have a search feature implemented in 2011.

By the way, you can use your favorite Internet search engine to search this site (e.g, site:enetworking101.blogspot.com plus whatever terms are relevant to you).

2010 List of Being Social by title:

Being Social #26 - The next issue of Being Social will be on trends...what happened in 2010 and what trends are in play for 2011. Look for it in two weeks.

Being Social #24 - Death to business cards!

2010-12-14T14:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

At one point, I had three Rolodex^TM business card rotaries or trays. Three! I kept business cards because they told me how to contact people, but do I really use them for that purpose? No...and so I have been tossing out business cards. Why?

If the person is someone with whom I want to be in frequent contact, I enter their contact information into my digital contact management system or friend them on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn.
Connecting to the person online ensures that I have more information about the person that what is contained on the business card, and it is likely going to be more up-to-date.
If I'm trying to locate a person or organization, I no longer go to my business card file first. In fact, my business card file isn't generally where I am! Instead, I head online to look the person up. If I need to familiarize myself with what the person is doing, then looking the person up online is going to provide access to more information that what is on the card.
Most business cards that I've kept were kept "just in case". That is no longer a good reason.

I can hear you scream, "scan all of the cards into your contact management systems!" Having now sorted through hundreds of business cards, I can tell you that would have been a waste of time. Doing that doesn't mean that I would use the card or connect with more people. It only means that I would have created more data.

So what is my current thinking about accepting business cards? Some of it hasn't changed.

I accept cards from people I want to follow-up with for whatever reason...and I do the follow-up. For example, perhaps I need to email the person a piece of information.
I will connect with those that I want to be in close contact with through one of the social sites, e.g., LinkedIn.
If the business card has no residual value, then I'll toss it. <-- this is a new step!

My business card contains several ways for a person to connect with me including pointers to my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts as well as the URLs to my blogs. I've included this information so people can connect to me where and how they want to.

While my business card does not yet contain a QR Code, I have a QR code, I have created two QR codes that contain my contact information. The one of the left is posted on my office door so visitors can quickly add my contact information to their cell phones. (The information at the above and below the actual code helps to signal what the code is for.)

I've experimented with placing a QR code on a name badge to use at conferences. In the correct audience, that could be quite useful, and so my experimenting with that will continue!

Finally, I do know of a couple of people that have QR codes on their business cards! That allows people to input their contact information more quickly into their smart phones. You could even enter the information into your phone, then give back the business card.

Do I really think business cards are dying? No, but I do think they are becoming less important. I do think that if you have a business card that you should rethink what it contains. Remember that its function is to tell people how to contact you. In our web 2.0 world, does your business card really do that?

Tips: Facebook continues to change its services, which is receiving mixed reviews. It is also changing how it broadcasts information that you post. For more on this, read this blog post by LibrarianByDay.

For Your Information & Entertainment: How do you find a good restaurant when you are in an unfamiliar location? While at a conference recently, I found an excellent restaurant by following a tip left in FourSquare about Hattie's^TM in Saratoga Spring, NY. If you are using Yelp, FourSquare or other social media services that allow you to view tips, do it! You'll be accessing information left by people who have passion about specific locations and are willing to share that passion. In addition, don't forget to leave tips for other people. Tell people about places to visit. Give them little-known facts. Provide information that will help their experience be the best possible!

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Being Social #23 - Lists are THE answer!

2010-11-30T08:30:00.002-05:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter...on many social media sites, you have the ability to create lists in order to organize your friends. In LinkedIn, I created lists so I could tell those colleagues that I know well from those who are acquaintances. In Twitter, I've created several lists so I can quickly see tweets organized in some manner (e.g., Twitters located in Syracuse, NY or library Twitterers).

I'll admit that I avoided using lists for a long time, but now I can't live without them! In Twitter, I became convinced that lists were for me, when I realized that I could put noisy Twitterers off into their own list so they were less annoying. In LinkedIn, my lists will help me if someone requests a referral or recommendation, because my lists clue me into how well I know the person. And now that Facebook allows you to use your friend lists to help protect your privacy, Facebook lists are essential!

Yes, a list takes time to create, but once you done it, you'll be happy. You might schedule time to do it while you're watching TV or waiting for a repairman. If you're stuck in an airport, that would also be a great time to work on your lists!

Tips: If you are using Twitter lists, I recommend that you use HootSuite and Mozilla Prism to make your lists easier to view and use.

Why do I like HootSuite?

It is easy to use. (quick start guide)
You can see multiple lists at once.
You can organize your lists into different tabs. I have my tabs organized by broad topic areas.
You can sync your browser version of HootSuite with the version that is on your phone, so each has the exact same columns (lists) and tabs.
The free version has a lot of functionality to it.

Yes, I recommend that you use the free version of HootSuite. A few of you may find that you'll need to upgrade to the pro version, but most will be quite happy with what the free version provides.

And what is Mozilla Prism? Mozilla Prism will take a web site (URL) and create a desktop application that only runs that URL. Since HootSuite does not have a desktop app for the PC, I used Prism to create a desktop app for it. When I run the app, I go right to HootSuite. I prefer running HootSuite in its own window, rather than running it from within my browser where I may be quickly opening and closing browser tabs, and accidentally close HootSuite.

Here is a short video about Prism. At least one of the commenters on the video says that there is no point in using Prism with a web application, but I can tell you that I'm not the only person who uses it for HootSuite!

For Your Information & Entertainment: This book by Erik Qualman peeked my interested because of chapter titles such as:

Death of Social Schizophrenia
Winner and Losers in a 140 Character World
Next Steps for Companies and the "Glass House Generation"

Qualman also has a useful blog entitled Socialnomics. Be sure to check out this post on the "World’s Top Social Media Sites".

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Being Social #22 - Social media conferences?

2010-11-16T11:30:00.001-05:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

If you look around, you'll see that social media is a topic that is being discussed at many conferences - marketing conferences, management conferences, library conferences - you name the conference, and there are sessions on social media. These conferences put social media in the context of something larger...how do you use social media as a marketing professional, for example. You will find these sessions to be very popular because the speakers understand the audience and can tell that audience exactly what they want and need to hear.

If you look around, you will also see conferences just on social media. Some of these conferences have found a good audience, while others have not. For example, #140conf draws a huge crowd which includes celebrity social media users as well as small business owners and students. At $80/person (early bird registration) and an extensive selection of sessions, this conference is seemingly worth every penny.

Some social media conferences are really unconferences, where the participants help to set the agenda and deliver the content. Based on the wisdom of the crowd, these event are powerful because they attract people that are willing to share what they know. And since they don't have the normal conference trappings, they can be offered at a very low cost (if not free).

Other social media conferences are struggling to find their voice. They perceive a need, but haven't yet figured out how to capitalize on that perception. Their competition are things like #140conf (and others) as well as normal conferences that has sessions on social media, and even tweetups and other informal gathering.

So if you're want to attend a "social media conference", how do you decide which conference to attend?

I don't think this is a straight-forward decision. You need to decide what you want to learn and who best you can learn it from. For example, it could be that you would be better served meeting up with other people in your geographic area informally to talk about your use of social media and to share tips and techniques. With minimal organization, you could gather a room-full of people at a local restaurant who want to learn from each other.

If you decide that you need attend a formal event, check your professional association to see if it is offering sessions at its conference on social media or even webinars. Since people in the association will have similar needs to you, the content should be just what you're looking for.

If you decide to attend a "real" social media conference, check the agenda and list of speakers to ensure that it is going to cover what you need. Can you see value in it for you? Is it worth your time and money to attend? Can you see what's in it for you? If you can, then go. If you can't, then find another way to satisfy your need.

Tips: Over the next six weeks, we have several major holidays. Along with those holidays will come emails from friends, family members and complete strangers offering well-wishes, jokes, shopping discounts and more. Among those emails will be spyware, trojan horses and viruses. If you receive email from someone that you do not know and which you were not expecting AND it has an attachment, don't open the attachment. Also don't click on any of the hotlinks or URLs in the email because they could give you a virus (or worse). If you receive an email from a friend or relative that seems suspicious, again don't open any attachments or click on any hotlinks; instead delete the message. And if someone you know sends an email with hotlinks or attachments for jokes or something "cute", consider just deleting it. Evil "ware" is often spread through things like that. It is more important to keep your computer safe than to have a quick laugh.

For Your Information & Entertainment: Here are two books by Joel Comm, who is a frequent writer on social media. The first one (Using Social Media to Promote and Enhance Events and Conferences) is only available on the Kindle.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

FTC Disclaimer: eNetworking 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a commission if you purchase a product or service from an eNetworking 101 Amazon link.

Being Social #21 - Tips from Kodak, books for your shopping list, and giving away content

2010-11-02T08:30:00.001-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

One great use of social media is to get double mileage out of presentations. Give the presentation to the intended audience, then give away the content via social media as a way of providing value to your followers.

Below are the slides from a three-hour workshop I was scheduled to give in late October. Unfortunately, low enrollment meant that it was cancelled. (Yeah...bad news for me, but driving six hours round trip isn't always what you want to do with your time.) Without publicizing it, the slides have already been viewed nearly two dozen times and I expect the number of views to continue to increase. That means that people, who may not know me, have now been introduced to some of my thinking on social media. Since this presentation is in SlideShare, it can be found by interested people for weeks and months to come. In addition, the slides are appearing in my LinkedIn account, which is giving them more exposure.

Time for you to ponder...What have you created recently that you could give away to your followers and thus increase the impact you are having on them?

Being Social: How to Start and Maintain Your Online Presence

View more presentations from Jill Hurst-Wahl.

Tips: This 16-page document contains social media tips from Kodak for other businesses. While it shares information, it is also self-promotional. For example, pages 9-11 contains Kodak's social media policy, while page 15 shows were you can find Kodak online. It's well-written and might be useful to show your management if they have not yet realized why social media is good to do.

For Your Information & Entertainment: Time to start making a list for end of the year gift giving. Here are some of the books that have been mentioned this year in Being Social:

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Being Social #20 - What's Good for the Goose

2010-10-19T09:11:00.000-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

There is an old saying which is "what's good for the goose is good for the gander." (Or what's good for the female is good for the male.) When I think of computer technology, including social media, I interpret it to be that what is good for one industry is good for another.

Hardware and software companies - especially those with radically new services - know that one of their early adopters is an industry that is geared toward satisfying "bawdy" desires. Knowing that industry's desire to exploit every technical advantage, it doesn't surprise me that sites such as Craigslist are being used by it. The problem is when those bawdy services are on the same sites as non-bawdy services, and especially when some of the bawdy services are clearly illegal.

I don't think we can stop someone (or a business) from using social media, even if they're involved in illegal or immoral activity. Remember Prohibition? All that happened is that the businesses concealed their activities and spawned more crime and illegal actions. We can try to police social media. Yes, we'll have some success, but some will just move their activities elsewhere in an ongoing shell game (sleight-of-hand). What we need instead is to teach people how to use social media and search engines in ways that will help them avoid illicit and immoral content. For example:

Do not accept a friend request from a stranger automatically. Check their profiles to be sure you want to connect with them.
If a site allows you to limit content you are shown from your friends, eliminate any content that does not fit with your wants or needs.
When searching on the Internet, be aware when you search using a term that has an alternate meaning that could retrieve undesired information. If possible, search using an alternate term.
In your Internet search engine, consider turning on any "safe search" features, especially if you are sharing a computer with a child.

And if someone has used your computer to find bawdy content, do clean out the browser's cache, cookies, and recent history. You don't want that content to be used to sway what "the Internet" will find for you in the future.

Tips: One of the podcasts that I enjoy listening to is Marketing Over Coffee with Christopher Penn and John Wall. Their weekly podcast is always entertaining and full of useful information for those interested in social media and marketing. Penn and Wall literally tapes these over coffee at 5:30 a.m.! Besides the podcast, they produce a periodic newsletter. The latest issue focuses on Twitter and undoubtedly has something in it that you will be able to use.

And my tip...subscribe to the Marketing Over Coffee newsletter and podcast!

For Your Information & Entertainment: Here's a video about the Social Media Addicts Association:

And in case you didn't catch it, that is actually a Sony ad!

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Being Social #19 - Teachable Moment

2010-10-04T09:50:00.003-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

On Sept. 13, a Twitter user wrote:

Every time I go to @PriceChopperNY I realize why they r not @wegmans . Tonight -bare produce areas & this sign 4 ex {url deleted}

Unbeknownst to that person, this tweet would cause a firestorm that would launch a variety of discussions including Price Chopper, a regional grocery store, having to ~~defend~~ account for the actions of one employee. You can read about it in one of these articles:

This flurry of activity has become a teachable moment in social media classes and in the business community around the need:

Of organizations to communicate to its employees expectations for reacting to feedback received via social media.
For organizations to make clear who is authorized to speak on behalf of the organization in social media (just as it would with print media).
For employees to be educated about social media, its use and impact.
For organizations to have clear social media policies that are disseminated to every employee.

You might think that the social media user may need to be more careful. Rather than being more careful, I think the user may want to consider the best way of communicating negative feedback. Is the communication meant to evoke a change? Is it meant to alert other people? Is its function only to voice an opinion? Depending on the answer, and the preferred method of communication of the person/organization being complained about, the delivery of the negative feedback might be different. Unfortunately, there is no one correct answer.

Tips: In light of the Price Chopper incident, these tips seems perfect:

This text from that last link is crucial:

When someone posts something negative about your company, reply to that person honestly. If you’re not going to fix the problem, say so and why – then I suggestion trying to steer the conversation in a different direction. If you are going to fix the problem, then this is a golden public relations opportunity to come out looking like a superstar! Thank the poster, fix the problem, and thank the poster again by giving him credit for bringing it to your attention (even if you already knew about it) – you’ll gain huge brownie points with him...

If only the Price Chopper employee had consider that.

For Your Information & Entertainment: These books are are all on social media etiquette:

2:34 p.m. - Above, I've substituted the words "account for" for the word "defend". I was reminded that Price Chopper did not condone the actions of its employee and therefore did not defend those actions. But the company did have to understand what had occurred and why, and be willing to discuss it with the media and others. I hope that the phrase "account for" better communicates what I intended.

Being Social #18 - It's the Rage!

2010-09-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

I'm sending out a Being Social this week in order to get back on schedule AND so I could share a presentation with you that I gave last week for the Technology Alliance of Central New York (TACNY).

The audience at TACNY included people who had never heard of Facebook (honest!) as well as some who are using social media to promote their organizational activities, and some who were truly curious to understand how they could benefit. Below is my presentation from the event, and a few slides may even spark some conversation among you and your colleagues.

Tips: One question that is often asked is how much time to I spend each day on social media. Truthfully, I don't know. I have a sense for how long a blog post might take me (15 min. - 1+ hour depending on the amount of research and editing needed), but haven't tracked how much time I spend on Twitter, Facebook, etc. To me and others who are heavy users, they are part of our communication and marketing methods. Engaging with our networks is more important that the time it takes.

If you want to limit your social media use, then schedule it. For example, spend 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon reading and responding to social media conversations. And if time-boxing it is important, you may want to avoid having access to social media on your phone, since then it will be too easy for you to communicate at other times of the day.

For Your Information & Entertainment: Harrisburg (PA) University blocked social media for one week in order to help students understand how much they were using it. This experiment thrusted the small university (under 800 students) in an international limelight, which it may not have expected. And the result? According to this article, some students report that the experiment had a positive effect, while others found ways around the ban. I do like what Eric Darr, provost and executive vice president for the school, said:

We do want people to think very carefully about the technology they use, because some of our students will be creating new technology in the future, we hope. As they create those new technologies they need to think about how it’s going to get used and what’s the impact. This is helping to build their skills to do that.

Being Social #17 - Sphere of Influence

2010-09-13T09:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

The last three weeks have flown by in a haze called the end of summer and the beginning of the school year, which is why this Being Social is late. But do not fear...being late does not equal having nothing to say!

In August 2004, I began my first blog (Digitization 101) as a way of allowing people to know me and my area of expertise. I figured that I could reach more people -- potential clients -- through my blog than I could possibly reach in face-to-face interaction. The blog also allowed me to become part of the digitization community which is dispersed around the globe. Blogging and then my other use of social media became a way for me to affect how others think about digitization, not only in North America but in areas of the world that I will never visit. Social media has allowed me to have influence.

A friend and colleague, Anthony Rotolo, has coined the phrase "sphere of influence" when talking about social media. That phrase captures the benefit that I and many others have seen. A business' sphere of influence (SOI) may be limited to those that visit its storefront. Others may use advertising to expand their sphere of influence. Social media allows a business to disseminate information AND engage actual and potential customers in conversation (huge SOI). Yes, shoving information at people can be useful, however, conversations have the ability to persuade.

Businesses are always concerned with return on investment (ROI) and will ask if social media has an ROI. You may be unable to prove direct sales from your social media efforts, but you should be able to prove that your sphere of influence has increased. And your sphere of influence should positively impact your business' income, although you won't be able to draw a direct correlation.

So...as you use social media and engage in conversations, be aware of your sphere of influence. Expand it. Feed it. Use it.

Tips: The law firm of Armstrong Teasdale LLP wrote a client alert on tips for businesses exploring the social media universe. The tips, which include "Be Aware of Potential Employment/Labor Relations Issues", are easy to understand and will likely prompt conversation within your organization. If you are not in human resources or the "C suite", why not tell them about this two-page document and offer to help them discuss what it means to your organization?

For Your Information & Entertainment: Cisco commissioned a study and white paper on social media last year. The 12-page white paper, entitled "Social Media:Cultivate Collaboration and Innovation", includes results from interviews with 97 people in small, mid-size and large organizations from 20 countries (including me). The report provides tips, brief organizational spotlights, and other information. It is a quick read and one that you will benefit from.

And to wet your appetite...what tools were report participants using? (in order of popularity)

Social networking (e.g., Facebook)
Micro-blogging (e.g., Twitter)
Blog
Collaboration portal
Wiki
IM
Video on demand
Virtual world
Teleconferencing

Being Social #16 -- Thinking About Our College Freshmen & Social Media

2010-08-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

I wrote a post on Sunday in my other blog (Digitization 101) on my "alternate to the 2014 Beloit College Mindset List." The blog post has attracted a ton of attention and positive comments. Those comments - and my original thinking - have kept me focused on the mindset of our college and university freshmen, especially when it comes to social media.

Consider the fact that our freshmen were born the same year that AOL announced its international email gateway. AOL began its instant messenger service, according to a commenter, when our freshmen were five years old. And when Facebook was launched, they were too young to use it. If you consider just those three facts, you can see that they would automatically consider email as normal or perhaps even "old school".

While you need to use newspapers, radio, television and the phone to deliver messages to older generations (yes, I'm generalizing), you need to use social media to reach our freshmen. Want to talk? Likely you'll need to IM or Facebook. Want to market to them? You'll need to deliver your message on the sites that the visit or they won't see it. And what are those sites? Likely an interactive site with social media at its core. Oh...and they are accessing these sites on their cell phone. (Wait until they're in front of a computer? That is so lame!)

I can hear you saying, "This is nothing new" or "I know this already". Okay, you know it, but have you thought about what it means to your organization? How does this impact how you communicate with your employees, your suppliers, and your customers? And if you are truly targeting our freshmen class, are you still relying on the methods that you used with their parents and grandparents? If you are, you are saying that you do not want to survive.

If you are beginning to panic, s-t-o-p and check out these previous Being Social issues, then talk to your marketing department about putting in place the communication channels you need in order to reach this market:

Being Social #11 - Who Should Do Social Media in Your Company?

Being Social #10 - Building Your Reputation Online

Being Social #9 - FTC Guidelines & Your Employees

Being Social #7 - Reluctant Learners

Tips: Here are four articles that peaked my interested and I think they will peak yours too.

Dealing With Employees Who Are Social Media Celebrities

How Wheat Thins Mined Twitter to Surprise Fans

6 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking

Guilt by Association: Do You Really Know Who You Are Linking To, Parts 1-12

By the way, the topic of employees who are social media celebrities is one what organizations need to be aware of. Many organizations have social media celebrities in their midst, whether they know it or not. These are people who belong to an online community (however you define it), have a loyal following, and are respected. Among their followers, they are more respected that the organization. When they speak, people listen. What happens when they out-shine the organization? Is that good for the organization? And what happens when they inadvertently or purposefully say something negative about the organization? Does it have a greater effect because of their celebrity status?

For Your Information & Entertainment: We're nearing the unofficial end of summer. With one more holiday weekend in North America to go, here are a few books to take with you to the park, beach, or backyard so you can read while you relax.

Recruiting with Social Media: Social Media's Impact on Recruitment and HR

Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media

Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business

The Linked Photographers' Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media, 1st Edition

Becoming The Media

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #15 - Time for Some House Cleaning

2010-08-09T09:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

Depending on where you live, you have had unusually hot temperatures this summer, uncharacteristic flooding or other odd weather phenomena. When the outdoors isn't inviting, what do you do? Here's a great way of spending a few minutes...clean up your social networking sites. If you are like most people, your profile pages have too much stuff on them, some of the information is out of date, and you have made 'friends' that you really don't know. Like that spare bedroom that is full of junk, your social networking sites have become an unattractive catch-all. So what should you do? Here are a few tips:

If you belong to sites that you never ever use, delete your profile/ID. It can be better to delete your profile, than to not be engaged in the site and interacting with the people there.

On the sites that you do use, organize your 'friends' into lists/groups. On some sites, you can then set permissions different for each group, so that your acquaintances do not have access to the same information as your close friends.

Decide if you want to be 'friends' with everyone that you are connected with. Some people do want to connect with everyone, while others only want to connect with a more select group. If you only want to connect to a select group, now is a good time to go through and weed your friend lists, if necessary.

Change your profile photo. Do this especially if you've been using the same photo for more than a year. This minor change helps to keep your profile fresh. Yes, people will notice it. (And if you don't have a photo on your profile, have a professional head shot done and use it!)

Update your bio/profile with more current information.

If there is content on your profile page that is no longer relevant (or perhaps distracting), delete it.

Don't try to do this all at once. Instead, do a little every day. For example, you might change all of your profile pictures one day, and update your profiles the next. The net result will be social media presences that better reflect who you are!

Yes, everyone needs to follow some of this advice. We all tend to let our profiles go stale or have accounts that we don't use. In fact, this summer I have deleted myself from three social sites that I wasn't using. As for keeping my profile fresh, like you, I know I have room for improvement.

For Your Information & Entertainment: This 4-minute video from Fox Business News talks about the cities that are most social media savvy and why small businesses need to be using social media.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #14 - Going Viral and Keeping Secrets

2010-07-26T08:40:00.001-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

It is no secret that videos of the Old Spice Man are a big hit on the Internet. Everyone is watching them and talking about them. Isaiah Mustafa, former NFL football player and now actor, may not be a household name yet, but everyone knows his face. In what can only be called brilliant, Old Spice used Mustafa and a creative team to create YouTube videos over a two-day period to respond to comments posted on the Internet. These videos are now being re-posted, tweeted, and imitated.

But what do all of these viral videos have to do with selling Old Spice? mmm....

The videos have got you using the phrase "Old Spice", which means that phrase has been captured by your mind and is being remembered. That's a big plus!
You may have a memory of Old Spice that your mind is now recalling because of the videos. For me, it is the fact that my grandfather wore Old Spice and so I associate that scent with him (and a person I loved). Connecting with a positive memory is good for the brand.
If you remember a negative memory about Old Spice, these videos could get you thinking about smelling the scent again. Again, a positive for the brand.
While you may not be putting Old Spice immediately on your shopping list, the fact that the videos have made a positive impact on you could mean that you might be disposed to trying the product in the future.
Finally, even if you don't buy Old Spice, you're forwarding the videos and talking about them, which is a ton of free publicity for Old Spice.

Creating viral videos is not easy. Most in fact, are accidents like the Piano Stairs video. In the case of Old Spice, they used social media, including Twitter and Facebook, to draw attention to what they were doing. The fact that some of the videos were responses to celebrities helped. They also did custom videos to respond to media outlets like the Huffington Post, which undoubtedly got them more exposure.

One important thing about "viral" is content. If the content doesn't resonate with people, it cannot go viral. Knowing your audience -- likes and dislikes -- is key. Clearly the market research Old Spice did prior to its Super Bowl ad helped them position these videos so they would go viral.

Since "viral" is so elusive, there are -- of course -- books and advice on the matter, including:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition

Web Video: Making It Great, Getting It Noticed

YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day

You may be thinking about how to create your own viral Internet campaign. Keep in mind that you may need to do a ton of work in order to create the right environment for it to go viral. Don't be afraid to experiment, but also take time to learn. And if at first you don't succeed...yup...try again!

For Your Information & Entertainment: Below is one of my favorite Old Spice videos:

And for good measure, here is an excellent "knock off" done by Brigham Young University:

Tips: Every social web site asks you to create an account with a password. Here's what we are know about passwords:

Every password should be unique.
A strong password contains letters (upper and lower case), numbers and special characters.
You should memorize your passwords and not write them down.
Having many different passwords can cause you to write them down, while reusing a few passwords across many web sites could allow you to memorize them.
Sometimes you can use the ID and password from one account elsewhere, like using your Facebook ID on a web site that can connect to that ID and password. However, if your Facebook ID is lost or compromised, then several of your accounts are compromised.
Open ID can solve your password nightmares, but it has not caught on widely.

Unfortunately, we all end up with too many passwords. While everyone has a methodology behind how they select their passwords, the TV show "Leverage" taught a great way to great unique passwords in a recent episode.

Each of us has a memory of an important event or place that we can recall in great detail. For the villain in the episode, it was high school. He related all of his passwords to his high school years. Since his experiences were different from everyone else, his passwords were unique and difficult to guess, yet easy for him to remember.

What if you decided to related all of your passwords to the house you lived in as a child, for example? Passwords could then relate to the house address, phone number, room descriptions, pets and more. If the house address was 1100 Charles St., you might turn that into a password by both shortening it and including special characters so it became "!!00chst". Voilà!

I don't know about you, but I have a ton of passwords and userids, so any trick I can use to keep track of them all is useful. Currently, relating them to a place or event is one trick that is working well for me.

But...what about password services or storing them in encrypted files? While those will work, the problem is that we are not always on the same computing device and so would we always have access to those files? Likely not. In fact, password purgatory always occurs when I'm accessing an account from someone else's computer and I can't remember a password. In times like that, an encrypted file or password service does me no good. But relating my passwords to something in my past would provide the clues I would need to remember them. It might not be 100% foolproof, but...then...nothing is.

Since we can never have enough password advice, more advice from Bruce Schneier, a security technologist.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #13 - Quick Response!

2010-07-12T15:00:00.002-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

I received my first "up close and personal" experience with quick response codes (QR codes) at a conference this spring. While they were not new to me, I hadn't really seen them in action. Now I'm beginning to see them more frequently and in places I wouldn't have imagined like business cards.

What is a QR code? According to Wikipedia:

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Moreover, most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.

These funky looking codes can pack a lot of information. For example, if you read the one above with a QR application on your mobile phone (e.g., iPhone), it will display my contact information which can then be saved in your phone's address book. Four free QR code reader applications for the iPhone are QR App, i-nigma, 2D Sense, and ScanLite. (I've been using QR App.) QR codes are showing up on business cards, web sites, movie posters, marketing materials. and other places. Below is a video demo of a QR code on the Iron Man 2 movie poster (1:30 min.)

Now that you know what a QR code is, what do you need to do?

First, download QR code software to your smartphone, so you can read a QR code. You can ever start using the software by reading the QR code above.

BTW newer smartphones will do a better job of reading QR codes because of their improved cameras. Older smartphones may be a bit finicky, especially with QR codes that are small in size. You may need to experiment a bit so you know what to do so your phone will read a QR code.

Second, keep your eyes open for these codes. Once you are aware of what they are, I think you will begin to notice them around you.

Third, experiment with creating your own QR code. There are many sites that will allow to to do it for free. The QR code above was created using www.mskynet.com/static/maestro

Tips: This week, there is something for everyone...no matter who you are!

For Your Information & Entertainment: We tend to think that the gadget in our hands can't harm us because we own it. Sadly, our gadgets can be used against us. This article -- 5 Terrifying Ways Your Own Gadgets Can Be Used to Spy On You -- is meant to scare you a little, so you become aware of possible dangers. Does it mean that you should stop using your favorite gadgets? No. In some cases, it means keeping a tighter control on who has access to them, as well as understanding what software has been loaded on them. You also need to be aware of their capabilities.

As the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #12 - Location, location, location!

2010-06-28T08:01:00.001-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

Likely you have noticed the rise of location-based services for your cell phone. Gowalla, Four Square, and others are using the cell phone's physical location to provide more information to you. The first location dependent service was implemented in Japan in 2001. In the last year, the number of cell phone applications that use location have increased and more people are using location-based services every day.

I bet you have heard of Gowalla and Four Square which allow users to "check in" at a specific location and then make their friends aware of where they are. Four Square has a bigger audience than Gowalla, although competition in this space may just be beginning. Four Square has a bit of a gaming element to it, which keeps people involved. And while you may not think you care where your friends are - or even telling them where you are - these geo-social networking tools allow us to learn more about ourselves and our friends/colleagues by knowing where people really go.

By the way, Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Four Square, has pondered out loud that Four Square could suggest places you would like to visit based on the places you've been. For anyone who travels frequently, that could be quite useful. In other words, don't tell me about every place, but only the ones that match what I normally do.

Besides Four Square and Gowalla, there are location-based applications like Yelp which can tell you what places (e.g., restaurants) are nearby and provide user-rating information. If you have a newer smartphone, the Yelp application will use augmented reality to overlap information about restaurants, etc., over a camera-eye view of the street. (See image to the right) And there are games that are using augmented reality to overlay the game on your view of what is around you.

While you may think of location-based services as being something you're not using, it is likely that one of the applications on your smartphone (if you have a smartphone) is using your location to customize the information you receive. For example, Weather.com uses your location to provide weather for where you're standing. Your local news media's application may be using your location to filter the information it gives you.

As for augmented reality, you may not yet be using an application that does this, but likely you will be in the next year. If your phone supports augmented reality, you may want to give the Yelp application a try. If your phone doesn't support it, ask a friend who just purchased the latest iPhone to demo it to you. (And because they are so proud of their new phone, they will gladly comply!)

Tips:

If you are a Four Square user, add tips for locations that you visit. While we think of tips as being positives (do this!), you might want to offer tips about things that someone should not do or provide words of caution (e.g., wait staff is inattentive).

When you travel by plane, check the Four Square tips for the airport before you go through security. Often people will leave tips about the quality of the food, etc., that you will find in a terminal. If their advice is to eat before going through security, you'll want to know that. (BTW reading the tips in Four Square that people are leaving can make signing-up for the service worthwhile.)

If a location-based service wants to broadcast your location to the world (e.g., Four Square), use whatever options are available to limit that broadcast to friends that are using the same service (rather than pushing the information out through Twitter and Facebook, for example). It may not always be beneficial to tell the world where you are. First, you may annoy people who really don't care. Second, you may be telling too many people when you're not home. (No one is home...rob me!) The assumption is that your friends will use the information wisely.

For Your Information & Entertainment: I keep running into people who are changing careers, often because their current/last employer hit a slump. Sally Hogshead, who is well-known and respected in the marketing world wrote a book called Radical Careering, which she is making available for free (PDF version). Hardcopy and Kindle editions are available from Amazon.

John Wall and Christopher Penn, from Marketing Over Coffee, have released a list of marketing and social media related ebooks they think you might want to read this summer. All of the books are available as PDFs. To see their list, go to http://www.bsfurl.com/44da/3aX

Of course, you may want some light reading...!

and

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #11 - Who Should Do Social Media in Your Company?

2010-06-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

I found these two quotes from Information Week that I really like (Jan. 18, 2010, p. 22):

...many companies are driving social media deep into their organizations. General Motors offers a video course on its intranet that introduces neophytes to the basics of social networking and the company's policies concerning it; about 3,000 GM employees have viewed the course. A more advanced course...trains employees to become social media proselytizers and teachers; about 500 have completed the training.

And...

Let subject matter experts interact directly with customers, potential customers, and partners; and promote authentic voices as company representatives in the community.

Your employees are using social media anyway, so why not educate them and help them understand how to represent your company online?

Yes, train them. Given them guidelines to follow. Create a social media policy. Support them in their social media efforts on behalf of your company. Tell them how to get help - when necessary - to address a supplier or customer concern that comes to them via social media. And reward them when their efforts help to increase your company's reputation or market.

Your employees can be great ambassadors for you, if you help them and let them!

Tips: When was the last time you talked with a group of people about the technology that you're using? When was the last time you brainstormed with a colleague how you could use technology differently? When was the last time you asked someone to demo a new piece of technology for you?

Last week, a friend pulled out her Apple iPad during a group dinner and allowed others at the table to try it out. What followed was an informal Q&A as well as some brainstorming on how it could be used in different situations. One person kept the brainstorming going via Facebook afterward. Today - again over food - two photographers talked about technology and one mentioned how she is incorporating an iPad into her client work. Both of these conversations were educational and useful, and occurred because the participants were:

willing to share information
acknowledge that they didn't know everything
interested in helping someone else

The truth is that we all can't know everything. We rely on those around us to provide information that we need. And those conversations will occur when we're willing to drop our guard and engage.

For Your Information & Entertainment: Interesting statistics courtesy of Information Today, May 2010:

The number of LinkedIn members (Dec. 2009): 55 million
The percentage of LinkedIn members who are international (non-U.S.): 50%
The number of active users on Facebook: 400 million
The percentage of active users who log in to Facebook on any given day: 50%
The percentage of Twitter users with fewer than 100 followers: 82%

From the March issue of Information Today:

In 2009, 26% of polled organization reported firing employees for misusing the Internet.
51%-66.8% of organization have implemented email retention policies and detection schedules.

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Due to two conferences that I will be attending, the next issue of Being Social will be published in about three weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #10 - Building Your Reputation Online

2010-05-24T10:50:00.000-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

Growing up, one of the phrases my mother would say was "what would the neighbors think?" As a child, deciding your actions based on what the neighbors will think seems very strange. Why should I care about them? However, as you grow older, you realize that the question is really about your reputation. Reputations can take a long time to build, but can be ruined in a matter of seconds. What I want to talk about today is how to build your reputation using social media.

First, decide what you want to be known for. That sounds simple, but it requires thought. What it is that you do? Why should people know you? What words and phrases would people use to look for someone like you? (Notice I didn't ask what words and phrases you would use. You're potential customers or employers will likely not use those words.) Remember to look for and use synonyms.

While you can easily write a paragraph on what you want to be known for, you need to get it down to as few words as possible (e.g., 3-5 words). The fewer words, the easier it will be to communicate no matter what tool you are using. And it will be easier to remember.

Second, select social media tools that your want to use in order to develop your reputation. You don't have to use every tools that's available. You do have to use several tools and use them well...perhaps even creatively.

For example, besides the obvious sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn), consider uploading a presentation about you and that area for which you want to be known to SlideShare. Use both graphics and text, include examples and your contact information. Don't make it complete self-promotional; instead include information that someone can truly use. This demonstrates your area of expertise and will bring more people to the presentation. By the way, be sure to tag your presentation with as many relevant words and phrases in order to make your presentation more findable. You can link to this presentation in Facebook and LinkedIn, which will give it more "legs".

SlideShare allows you to create slidecasts (presentations with audio). If you can do a good oral presentation to go with your slides, that can make you stand out. (You've also added something to your reputation - a good presenter.)

You might also create a video and put that in YouTube or create relevant photos (or screenshots) and put them in a photo-sharing service (e.g., Flickr). Be sure to create links back to your web site or LinkedIn profile, so that everything is connected together. Why do this? You want people to run across information about you (and from you) in different forms. All of it will help to build your reputation (and search engine rankings), especially if there are pointers between the different content pieces that show that they relate to each other.

By the way, if you are looking for a new job, consider creating resume in the form of a presentation or video, and - of course - pointing people toward it! You might do it as a story of your career that explains why your experiences are relevant in today's job market.

Third, follow-through on using the tools, pointing people toward your online material, and updating your stuff as needed. While putting the stuff out there is great, you can't just let it sit unattended. Add more, edit what's there, point people toward it...! Keep in mind that the more people to look at your stuff, the better because more people will know who you are. Of course, it's even better if they link to it! (Search engines love that.)

Fourth, review and repeat! Creating and maintaining your reputation is an active process. You can never rest on your laurels. You must work to ensure that "the neighbors" have good thoughts about you!

Tips:

Have you checked to see what the Internet knows about you? Using several search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo and Bing) search on your name (in quotation marks). For example:
"jill hurst-wahl"
Look through the information that is returned. Are the results about you or someone else with your name? Do the search engines return information that you want people to see or is there information there that you would like to have forgotten? Don't just look at the first 10 hits, but skim through 50-100 hits.
Now that you know what a search engine will find about you, is there information out there that needs to be updated or deleted? If you've been using the Internet for a long time, it could be that there is older information online that is no longer accurate. Maybe you should try to update that information or have it removed. If there is information online that is not flattering, then see if you can have it removed. You may be able to do it yourself or you may need to contact the site owner. (Please ask politely.)

If could be that there is no information online that really does you justice. If that is true, then use your web site, your blog, and the information above to create the content that you want people to locate on you. Then point people to that content. For example, include the URL for your LinkedIn profile in your email signature file. When people ask for information on you, point them toward your web site. In other words, get those pages used! The more they are used (including links from other locations), the better. Search engines in general rank more highly pages that are frequently references.

For Your Information & Entertainment: We all know someone who is job hunting. These days, job hunting requires techniques that are very different than even 10 years ago. You must be able to stand out from the crowd and sometimes being a bit unconventional can help with that.

This book -- Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job -- caught my eye as being potentially helpful to those who need to employ different tactics in order to land the job that they want. And the reality is...we can always new tips to help us get noticed and 'stay noticed" whether we're job hunting or not.

And totally unrelated...one of the podcasts I listen to is Future Tense (Australian). The April 15 episode was quite good and contained two very relevant segments to our use of technology.

The thoughts of Douglas Rushkoff on remembering to maintain control in a world swamped with choice and information. (~8 min.)
Weekends without Wi-Fi about an Oakland, CA coffee shop that wants customers to interact with each other rather than with technology. (~8 min.)

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #9 - FTC Guidelines & Your Employees

2010-05-10T09:00:00.005-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

In the May 2010 issue of Information Today, Bart A. Lazar - a partner in Seyfarth Shaw, LLP - offered tips on creating social media policies for your business. Lazar wrote that:

...employers should pay particular attention to several concerns: that they follow the guidelines that the FTC has expressed regarding employee blogging, that employees who blog on behalf of the employer are well-trained in company policy, and that employees who are not permitted to blog on behalf of the employer are trained to use appropriate notifications and disclaimers.

The guidelines are all about disclosure - disclosing if the employee is or is not allowed to blog about her place of work (POW).

When there exists a connection...such connection must be fully disclosed.

Notice that even if you do not allow your employees to blog (or talk) about your business using social media, they still need to acknowledge a connection to their place of employment. They can either say "yes, I am able to discuss what we do" OR include disclaimers and notifications that state this her words are not associated with her place of work.

Frequently I see people mention their POW (or MPOW - my place of work) by using that acronym. While that seems to distance the person from her workplace, generally if the person is using social media, it is easy to figure out where the person works. Looking at the guidelines, it would be better if the person had text on the blog (or social media site) that noted that the person's thoughts about work are truly her own.

What should you do? If you are in a position of authority in your organization, read the guidelines provided by the FTC and look at the included examples. If you have authorized social media users, make sure that they understand the company's policy on social media. (And if you don't have a policy, now is a good time to create one.) Undoubtedly, you have employees who are using social media and who are not authorized to speak on behalf of your organization. Draft simple and clear text that they can use as a disclaimer and make it available to them.

You will wonder if you need to monitor your employees and their use of social media. I prefer education and awareness versus monitoring. If you train your employees well and give them knowledge they need to comply with the FTC guidelines, then I think you should not need to monitor their social media use. And honestly, it could take too many resources to do it and cause a lack of trust in your organization - both of which can harm your environment.

If you are not in a position of authority within your organization, consider discussing this matter with someone who is. This is an important issue that should not be ignored. (Feel free to show the person this blog post as a way of starting the conversation.)

Tips: I've got two Twitter tips for you and one more generic tip.

Use the search feature in Twitter to locate tweets of interest to you, then comment on the tweet or just retweet it. You could also use the search feature to follow interesting events, topics or trends.

While Twitter keeps improving, it still doesn't do all that we want. Enter the world of "Twitter clients". Here's a quick review of several of them. On my PCs, I'm currently using Hootsuite, but have also used Tweetdeck and I like both for different reasons. On my iPhone, I have those two installed and Twitterrific. I would suggest trying 1-2 to see if they help you organize your Twitter-stream. If they don't provide the functionality you want, then try a couple more. And don't be surprised if your preference for Twitter clients changes over time.

If your using any service that allows you to update your status, use it! If you don't want to say what you're doing, mention a relevant article that you have read or a news story that relates to your area of interest. If it interested you, it will interest others.

For Your Information & Entertainment: This book -- Twitter Power -- on how to dominate your market one tweet at a time is available both in print and for the Kindle. The book isn't just about sales, but also about building your brand and interacting with your customers. Isn't that what we all want?

Want to read previous issues of Being Social? Go to:
http://enetworking101.blogspot.com/search/label/Being%20Social

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #8 - Breakfast & Privacy

2010-04-26T08:34:00.003-04:00

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social!

Help Wanted! Help me spread the word about Being Social. Please forward this issue to a friend or a colleague that could use this information, and encourage them to subscribe. Thank you!

What did you have for breakfast? Social media sites allow us to broadcast mundane details about our lives, like what we had for breakfast. Those mundane messages are what naysayers of social media hold up as why they don't want to participate. They don't want to know what we had for breakfast or what we're doing right now. They want important and relevant bits of information.

On August 20, 2009, I got a grilled breakfast sandwich from Murray's Cheese Shop on Bleecker St. in New York City and I posted a photo to Flickr and Facebook to commemorate the event. Murray's is very famous and their variety of grilled cheese sandwiches is impressive. A few of my friends commented on the photo when they saw it in Facebook, giving my breakfast selection positive feedback. Was this meaningless chatter? Yes, but it also made a connection between me and a few others around something we love - food. Do I always talk about what I'm eating? No. In fact, I rarely talk about it, unless it's something extremely memorable and I want others to know about it (remember that the best advertising is word of mouth).

The other important element of my sandwich story is that I know that many people who saw the message didn't really care. It was only important to a segment of my community. We tend to think that every message that someone sends using social media should be relevant to us. In reality, every message is relevant to the sender and to some segment of that person's network. That means that there may be messages to are totally irrelevant to you and that's okay. It is up to you to decide if those irrelevant messages (the noise) are too frequent and are canceling out the messages that you truly care about. If the noise is too much, then stop "listening" and delete that person as a friend or filter your stream so that you don't see those messages.

Tips: Facebook keeps tweaking its privacy setting. Of course, it wants you to make your profile less private because that helps them and their advertisers. You likely would like to keep some stuff very private, which is why this is a great article to read --Time to Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings, Here's How. If you use Facebook, read it, print it out and use it. If you know of anyone else who uses Facebook, tell them about the article and encourage them to update their privacy settings.

For Your Information & Entertainment: Dave Evans is speaking in Syracuse on May 27 at Syracuse Biz Buzz, a one-day event on social media. (I know, minimal info on the site, and I trust that the organizers will update it soon.) Evans is known for this book on using social media and so it's your FYIE for this issue of Being Social.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #7 - Reluctant Learners

2010-04-16T18:30:00.000-04:00

I published this issue on April 12, but it has taken a few days to get the setting on the new site correct. Therefore, I'm republishing this so that all subscribers will receive it. My apologies for any duplication.

Welcome to eNetworking 101 and Being Social! This blog made a successful from from its old URL to http://enetworking101.blogspot.com Please sure sure to bookmark it.

This week, I am speaking at the Computers in Libraries (CIL) Conference on reluctant users. We tend to think of reluctant users as being Baby Boomers and older, but I have a different take on the topic. (More about CIL.)

First...yes...those who didn't grow up with the Internet as part of their everyday existence may be a step slower to adopt to new social media tools than those that are early adopters. However, people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. have learned about the power of people networks. They understand that it is not always what you know, but who you know. And it is not just who you know, but also who your connections know.

For those who understand the power of their people networks, social networking tools are powerful allies in making the right connections and then staying in contact. We're using the tools to connect to current friends and colleagues, as well as locating and connecting to those people from our past. Then we are using those connections to find information and opportunities.

Are their other generations that contain slow adopters or reluctant learners?

Of course, some members of our older generations (older than Baby Boomers) have no need to learn about the online social tools or social media. Some may be interested in using the tools in order to keep up with younger family members, which could give them a reason to learn a bit about them.

I'm also see slow adopters (and a few reluctant learners) among Millennials (Gen Y) and Gen X. What?! Yes, there are Gen X and Y people who keeping in touch with their friends through social media. Remember that Facebook was created so students could contact each other and find girlfriends/boyfriends. Yes, some are using social media because their are content creators, which is a subset of what we can do with social media. Yes, some of them are entrepreneurial and recognize the power of people networks. However, their mindset maybe that they don't need to be in contact with a lot of other people in order to be successful. They want to create their own success. Yes, they tweet, but are they using it like the 30-somethings? Probably not.

The thing to remember is not everyone sees the same value to social networking and social media. People will use the tools if they see the value to them or their work. If people don't see a value, they won't use the tools and they will be slow adopters or reluctant learners. Doesn't matter their age.

Tips: Here are some things for you to do.

Where did you used to work? Go into LinkedIn and locate a few of your past, trusted colleagues and connect to them. This not only puts you in contact with them, but also expands your network because their networks become accessible to you.
Who could recommend give you a good recommendations? In LinkedIn, ask those people to write a recommendation for you. Yes...you need to ask, since most people will not volunteer to do that on their own. Yes, you may reciprocate by writing recommendations for them.
Who would you like to give an unsolicited recommendation to? If you're connected to that person in LinkedIn, go ahead and do it. As the saying goes, "pay it forward"!

For Your Information & Entertainment: LinkedIn Answers can be a good way of showing your expertise. Here's a video about this part of LinkedIn.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

This blog has moved

2010-04-07T23:08:00.001-04:00

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Being Social #6 - Take Your Friends With You

2010-03-27T13:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the latest issue of Being Social. First...an announcement. I use Blogger and its FTP publishing service for this blog. That service is being eliminated on May 1, so it's time for me to move this blog so I don't need the FTP service. If you come to the web site to read Being Social, you will be redirected to the new site. If you receive Being Social via email, you won't notice a difference (I hope!). If you are using an RSS/blog reader (like Bloglines), you will need to point your reader at the new location (which is currently under development).

Now let's get down to business for this issue.

Take Your Friends With You: Social media gurus may disagree on many things, but there is one thing they do agree on - you need to know who your friends are (and how to contact them), so that you take them with you when you move to a new tool. For example, back in 2008, many of my colleagues were using Twitter, which was having stability problems. One day, Josh announced in Twitter that he was moving to Friendfeed. Friendfeed was attracting a good following and it allows for threaded conversations. Within hours of Josh's announcement, a large group of people had moved to Friendfeed. We didn't abandon Twitter, but we found that we could have better conversations on Friendfeed and the platform was more stable. How did Josh get us to move? He contacted us through a tool that we were using. Why did we all move? Because we valued his comments and conversation. And the result? A vibrant community on Friendfeed that has rich interactions and knowledge sharing.

Who are your key friends and colleagues? Do you have their email addresses? Are you connected to them in multiple tools? If you have their email addresses, then you can easily invite them to join you in whatever tool you are finding useful. Some sites will allow you to add friends (contacts) easily from Twitter or Facebook, which makes your connections on those sites even more valuable.

Notice that you need to know who your friends (or colleagues) are and have their email addresses. That is key.

Notice, too, that if you have their contact information in electronic form, then using it is easy. That information could be in your email management program, Facebook, LinkedIn -- someplace where you can access it and use it.

Finally, people will accept your invitation to join them in a new tool if they find you, your knowledge or you comments to be of value. You need to demonstrate your value through your online and offline activities and conversations. This doesn't mean that you need to be the noisiest person online, but it does mean that you comments need to be thoughtful.

Not Every Site Catches On: By the way, I've mentioned a site called FriendFeed and it's one what you may not know. FriendFeed caught on with early adopters, but not with "the masses". It's now owned by Facebook which gives Facebook a cool tool to integrate into its offering. It also gives Facebook the very creative development team from FriendFeed. Do you need to be on FriendFeed? No. Stay where you are. Honest.

The lesson from FriendFeed is that many social media tools and sites are developed, and each will garner a following. However, even if a tool is awesome doesn't mean that it will be wildly popular. As tools come and go, we need to be ready to move to those that are demonstrating their usefulness and move away from any that aren't useful (for whatever reason).

Tips:

Social networking tools are meant be learned socially. That means that you learn the tools while using them with your friends. Have a tool that you want to learn? Ask a friend that is using the tool to teach you about the tool or just to give you some tips and hints.

Can't find someone to help you with a specific tool? Check to see if your local public library is offering any classes that would be helpful to you.

Want to connect with a larger group of people in your area that are using social media? Host a tweetup. A tweetup is a loosely organized gathering of people that use Twitter or who want to learn to use Twitter (and other social media). Here are tips for organizing one.

For Your Information & Entertainment: No...we're not dumb, but sometimes we need books that present information in a way that is really easy to understand. There are many, many "dummies" books and among them are:

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #5 - The art of the introduction

2010-03-15T08:30:00.006-04:00

Welcome to the latest issue of Being Social. This is the fifth issue and I'm looking for feedback. How do you like Being Social? All feedback is welcome. You can email me or comment on this blog post. Thanks!

I'm going to change things up and make this issue all about tips and resources. So here we go!

We all believe that we're memorable and assume that a person whom we want to connect with online will know who we are. We might also assume that a person will be willing to connect to someone even if they don't know us. Let's not assume. If you really want a person to accept your invitation to connect, take a minute to write a note of introduction. Tell the person where you have met or why you want to connect. If the person, who is receiving your invitation, cannot tell quickly why you want to be "friends", your invitation may be rejected.

In most cases, there is no reason to tell a person why you don't want to connect with them. However, I often feel that it is appropriate in LinkedIn to write a brief note of explanation, especially if you really do know the person. For example, it could be that you know the person but not well enough to feel that you should be connected in LinkedIn. (Remember that in LinkedIn, you should feel comfortable referring your contacts as well as having them refer you.) If you don't feel a strong connection at this time, tell the person and say that you would be willing to establish a LinkedIn connection once you know each other's work better.

Are you connected to people in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or on some other site that you don't want to be connected with (for whatever reason)? It is okay to remove them from your friends list AND they will not know. Yup...I've tested it. They don't receive any notice that you've dropped them. By the way, it really is good to clean up your friends list occasionally since it is easy to accept an invitation that you later regret.

A good use of social media is for marketing. A business should include social media as part of its marketing mix. Twittown has written The Marketer's Social Media Cheat Sheet. I wouldn't consider this the last word on using social media in marketing, but it is helpful. The chart will definitely be useful for anyone that hasn't considered what's possible.

Wondering still about fitting social media into your day? If you haven't done the rock-pebble-sand time management exercise, try it out. This version of the exercise doesn't have you assign time for work and it doesn't ask about social media, so remember to think about both. Is social media a rock, pebble or sand in your life? Or maybe in ranks with water and surfing the net?

Want to be a social media champion at work? Jason Falls has written a good article on the topic which contains six times. The best tip is to "illustrate the benefits". If you can use social media and reap demonstrable benefits, then others in your office will be more willing to follow your lead.

For Your Information & Entertainment: When most people think of social networking, they think of the consumer products that are always in the news like Twitter, Facebook, etc. However, there is enterprise software that can be run behind a firewall which will bring in-house the ability to connect, share and collaborate in a social way. An excellent article on the subject is "Can Enterprise Social Networking Pay Off?" (InformationWeek, March 23, 2009).

Of course, there are books on this topic, although you may find most of what you need through magazines like InformationWeek. One book is Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges, which has received positive reviews.

Burson-Marsteller did a Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study and found that "Twitter is the social media platform of choice among the Fortune Global 100. The study found that 65 percent of the largest 100 international companies have active accounts on Twitter, 54 percent have a Facebook fan page, 50 percent have a YouTube channel, and one-third (33 percent) have corporate blogs. Only 20 percent of the major international companies are utilizing all four platforms to engage with stakeholders." The full report is available online (13 pages).

Cisco commissioned a study that "reveals proliferation of consumer-based social networking throughout the enterprise and a growing need for governance and IT involvement." Cisco has published highlights from the study. I've heard that a report from the study will be available this month.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

Look for the next issue of Being Social in about two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #4 - How Millennial Are You?

2010-02-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the latest issue of Being Social.

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has released a 49-page report entitled "Online as soon as it happens". The report raises a number of concerns about privacy online. However, what it doesn't acknowledge is that we are becoming more willing to give up our privacy if we see a benefit. This is what drives some people crazy about millennials and others who are using social media. We see them give up their privacy and wonder if they recognize what they are doing.

The rule, when I was growing up, was "don't tell everyone your business." Now the rule seems to be "tell everyone your business!" Privacy was something to be cherished, now privacy is something we give up IF there is a benefit. Those benefits can be very personal. For example, a person on a business trip may be willing to update his status constantly in order to keep his family in the loop. Those updates, however, may be unwanted personal chatter to others in his network.

Another example...I've been using a site called Four Square that allows me to tell my Four Square friends where I am and track where they are. While I don't broadcast where I am all the time, I'm willing to announce many of my locations. This trivia allows my friends to get to know me better. The benefit - as more information is shared, richer friendships - and spheres of influence - develop. [BTW There is also a game element to Four Square, which helps people stay involved with the product.]

The other benefit of Four Square users giving up their privacy and announcing the locations they visit is that it creates a trail of popular spots. Businesses are even using Four Square to attract people and promote what's interesting and unique about them. The benefit - information about products/services/locations leads to increased foot traffic.

Many of my friends on Four Square are not in Syracuse, but they are people I'll be attending conferences with later this year. I'm already looking forward to how we'll use Four Square to find each other, coordinate our activities, and exchange information on worthwhile sessions.

In that last paragraph is a point that's worth discussing. While I'm having fun using Four Square here in Syracuse, I know that the real "bang" will come when I use it at a conference with hundreds of people. I'm getting used to it now...building my network in Four Square now...knowing that it will pay off later. Meanwhile, as more people in Syracuse begin to use it, I'm see benefits. For example, yesterday I sat in a pizzeria and looked at all of the tips (things to do) people have placed in Four Square for the locations around me. Imagine if I had been a tourist or someone new to the area? Those tips might have led me to explore the neighborhood and find products/services that I would not have found otherwise.

For all the information I put "out there" on the Internet, it might surprise you that I'm really a private person. However, I've learned that balancing what I need to keep private and what I'm willing to share is very d0-able. If I can do it, you can too. Remember to create your rules about what you want to share and with whom, then use them!

By the way, I know you are frustrated with the growing number of social media tools and sites. You want to know which ones to use and which to ignore. Use the ones that your audience is using. Yes, what they use will change and you'll have to change with them. There is no getting around that.

Tips: Last year, Mashable published "7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media". These tips are definitely not what your parents told you!

Conduct a people search instead of a job search
Use attraction-based marketing to get job offers
Be proactive on Twitter
Capitalize on LinkedIn
Advertise your brand using AdWords and Facebook Social Ads
Construct a video resume and upload it to YouTube
Subscribe to blogs that have job listings

I know! Some of these seem very unusual, but if you read the article, you'll realize that some of these aren't that odd (or hard).

For Your Information & Entertainment: According to research by the Pew Research Center, millennials are "confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change." The report overview states that "It's not just their gadgets -- it's the way they've fused their social lives into them. For example, three-quarters of Millennials have created a profile on a social networking site, compared with half of Xers, 30% of Boomers and 6% of Silents." Pew has created a quiz to let you see how "millennial you are". The 14 question quiz is fun and will get you thinking about how similar or different than you are with the generation that grew up with computers.

By the way, I -- a baby boomer -- scored scored 69 out of 100. A typical baby boomer would score between 11 and 33.

And...looking for a book for your nightstand? Try:

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations which talks about the changes that people are adopting with web 2.0. For example, chapter 4 is entitled "Publish, then filter". Web 2.0 is allowing everyone to be a publisher of content. People are publishing content for their friends, colleagues and even people they don't know. With so much content being created, what is important is how we filter through it all. This is very different from the models (e.g., newspapers and broadcast media) where content is filtered before it is published. That change is what causes stress and confusing for many people, yet for others -- millennials and those who act like millennials -- publishing, then filtering is normal.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #3 - The Rules

2010-02-12T08:30:00.006-05:00

This issue of Being Social is about creating rules.

Are the core of web 2.0 is the ability for our lives and organizations to be more transparent. This comes at a time when we seem to value more transparent companies, government agencies, etc. Transparency means that more of your decisions and activities are known to those around you. In web 2.0 terms, that means that your putting more of "you" (or your organization) out on the Internet for others to discover.

Whenever I talk to a group about social media, there is always someone in the audience that is afraid of this transparency. They believe that social media makes everything known to everyone, and that you cannot control what information is shared. They see an out-of-control environment that will lead to a lot of bad things happening.While we have never had complete control over how information is shared, belief is that web 2.0 and social media makes it worse and thus magnifies people's anxiety.

I believe the way to combat this anxiety is to mirror what we do in our day-to-day lives and organizations; have rules about what is shared (or not). Those rules may include how we share information about family, friends, relationships, work, clients, etc. The rules may be different depending on the situation. For example, I may talk about family with my close friends, but not with people I meet on the street. And the rules will definitely be different from one person to the next. None of us look at transparency and its opposite - privacy - the same way.

This week, I want you to work on your own rules about transparency and privacy. Please write down your rules, even if its on the back of a business card. If you write down your rules, you will spend time thinking about them and you'll be more likely to follow them. As you do this, questions to ask yourself include:

What information about myself and my personal activities do I want to share online?
What type of information do I want to disclose about my family or home?
What would my employer feel was appropriate for me to share about work?
What don't I want to share?
Given the level of transparency that I'll have online, who do I want to have as friends in the social media?
Who would I want to keep out of my online social circles?

Notice that most of the questions as positive. It is more powerful - and helpful - to think of what you want, rather than what you don't want.

BTW I've written about privacy before, including some of my own rules. Considering that I and my friends/colleagues use a wide variety of tools, there is a lot of information about me online including photos. (Yup, even photos of me singing karaoke.) Thankfully, I've never found anything posted online about myself that was harmful. Humorous - yes, harmful - no. If I did, I know that there is a way to handle it - ask that it be removed. I know...the Internet has a long memory, just like many of my friends. What I hope - just like you - is that the good that is known outweighs any negatives.

If you are in the position of creating social media guidelines for an organization, also use this week to work on those guidelines. Those guidelines should reflect your corporate values. For more information setting guidelines for your organization, look at:

List of corporate social media guidelines, including IBM, GM, Yahoo and BBC, http://socialcomputingjournal.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=826
Understanding Social Media Guidelines for Employees, http://tinyurl.com/ksvz8d
Global Study Reveals Proliferation of Consumer-Based Social Networking Throughout the Enterprise and a Growing Need for Governance and IT Involvement, http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2010/prod_011310.html

Tips: Here are links to 24 tips from other people that I know you'll find useful.

14 Tips to Use LinkedIn More Effectively -- The questions that Pete Kistler asks will be easy for you to answer and take action on. The first one - "Is your headshot up to date?" - implies that you should have a headshot. It doesn't need to be a professional headshot, but it does need to be appropriate AND up to date.

10 Ways Facebook Pages Can Help Local Governments Better Serve Their Constituents -- Even if you're not in government, you will find these tips to be very appropriate. For example, "Provide useful profile information." That may seem obvious, but it's definitely not obvious to everyone.

For Your Information & Entertainment:

Written by Seth Godin, Tribes has helped many people think about the groups they are forming and the movements they are creating. Some consider this a book about unconventional leadership. The premise is that tribes (groups) form around shared interests and communicate in a variety of ways (as appropriate for that tribe). Leaders emerge that can help with the communication and that can harness the energy of the tribe.

I've read the book and really enjoyed it. It's a "quick read" and contains nuggets that will give you an ah-ha moment. From reading reviews, however, it seems like a lot of people didn't like this book. I guess liking it is in the eye of the beholder.

One thing that everyone should be intrigued about is how the book was marketed. Before Tribes was published, Godin created a tribe focused around the then upcoming book. That tribe became a community that was given access to excerpts from the book. As members of the tribe, they could also exchange ideas and learn from each other. Best of all, they were able to become part of the companion to Tribes called The Tribes Casebook (pdf). As the Casebook says, "The Tribes Casebook was written (or cheered on) by more than 3,000 people. Each case had a lead author, and the community at www.triiibes.com contributed advice, examples and encouragement."

In order to become a member of the Tribes tribe, people had to pre-order the book. What was interesting is that Godin then - unexpectedly - sent every tribe member a free copy of the book and asked that they share that copy with a colleague. Not only did he pre-sell thousands of books, but then he used that network to get more books out into the hands of potential readers (at his own expense). Can you see the benefit? Would you do something like that? Would your company?

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #2 - Making Connections

2010-01-29T08:30:00.010-05:00

Welcome to the second issue of Being Social. Based on the feedback you have sent my way, Being Social is providing needed information. I hope you'll continue to provide comments, as well recommend Being Social to your colleagues.

Six Degrees of Separation: I remember when the trivia game surrounding the actor Kevin Bacon first appeared. It was fun to think about which actors has a connection to him through their work with other actors. (Who has worked with someone who had worked with Kevin Bacon?) It then became fun to think about ordinary people who were six connections (or less) away from a famous individual. For example, I know "C" who knows Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who knows President Barack Obama.

Making those connections visible and more usable is what LinkedIn does (for free). The mission of LinkedIn is to connect you with the colleagues that you respect and trust. With over 55 million members in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, it is likely that there are several people using LinkedIn that could be important contacts for you. They could help you advance an idea, locate a supplier, find a new opportunity, or remove a career barrier. Some industry associations are encouraging their members to join LinkedIn, in order to become more visible. The more visible you are, the more likely opportunities will come your way.

If you haven't joined LinkedIn, then you need to sign-up (free) so you can take advantage of the extended network that is awaiting you. You'll need to set aside time to create a complete profile on LinkedIn. Yes, the profile asks for a lot of information! But the more information you put in LinkedIn, the easier it will be for other people to find you. In addition, once people in your extended network find you, they will be able to see your accomplishments and capabilities. You are then no longer an unknown entity. Keep in mind that that you're not creating a classic resume in LinkedIn. Instead, you are writing prose to explain what you have accomplished as well as the positions that you have held. You want to include those words and phrases that will be meaningful to others in your industry. Those that see your LinkedIn profile should be able to understand what "you bring to the table" and why you matter.

One of the powerful features of LinkedIn is to ask colleagues to write recommendations for you. You need to ask people for recommendations. Don't assume that they will do it without being prompted. The more recommendations that give information on your successes and skills, the better.

If you are a member of LinkedIn, it is likely that you could be doing more to interact with your extended network, as well as those who are in your area of interest.

Using the Network Update feature, tell people about a recent success or provide a useful tidbit.
Use the message feature to send messages to some of your connections. Do more than just say "hi". Tell them something that will pique their interest or give them information that you know they can use.
Join a group that is focused on your area of expertise and then participate in the group discussions. Yes, some people use the discussions to post self-serving advertisements, which can be annoying, but you can be different. Ask meaningful questions and engage the group in worthwhile discussions.

Like nearly every social site, LinkedIn has privacy setting. Take time to review and update your settings. While you may want to keep some of your information private, keep in mind that the more visible you are, the easier it will be for people to find and engage you.

By the way, here is my LinkedIn profile. I consider it to be a continued work-in-progress. Like my resume, it is never finished.

Tips: So the obvious tip for this week is to join and be active in LinkedIn. In addition, implement these five ideas:

Add your photo to your LinkedIn profile. Profiles that contain photos are viewed more frequently. If you don't have a recent photo, you can easily have a friend take a photo that you can use. For a more professional photo, hire a photographer to do a headshot for you that you can use online (and offline).
Connect only to people that know you and your work. Your direct connections should be able to recommend you. Don't connect to people that you don't know as a way of increasing your connections. People that don't know you are not likely to make the introductions that you need or pass along the information that you require.
Weed your connections. Undoubtedly, you've added people that you really don't know. Take time to review your contacts and delete anyone whom you don't recognize or remember. Hint - they will not know that you've ended your connection with them.
Get in the habit of providing a Network Update weekly, if not daily. If you are unsure about what to share, read what your colleagues are sharing. Keep your Network Updates positive. No need to have any negativity associated with your LinkedIn profile.
Include the URL to your LinkedIn profile in your email signature, on your business card, or on your web site. Since you can have your profile viewable by anyone (whether or not they are a member of LinkedIn), it can be a great way of sharing who you are with others.

For Your Information & Entertainment: Here are two books that I think you'll find useful.

Steve Tylock wrote The LinkedIn Personal Trainer in 2007. I read my copy on a cross country flight and then couldn't wait to implement was I was reading. Tylock does a wonderful job walking you through what you need to do to setup your LinkedIn account. Completing your profile can seem like a daunting task, but with Tylock's help, it becomes much easier.

Read This First: The Executive's Guide to New Media-from Blogs to Social Networks was written by Ron Ploof (2009). Ploof began this work as something to use with his clients. He wanted a paper that he could give to an executive to read before their first meeting. Feedback told him that more people could benefit from a work like this and the book was born. If you are an executive or if your pitching social media to an executive (e.g., your boss), this book could be very helpful.

And here is a video, provided by LinkedIn (via Youtube), that helps to explain its usefulness. If you're trying to convince someone to join LinkedIn, this video may be very useful.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in two weeks. Until then...!

Being Social #1 - Starting the Conversation

2010-01-15T10:30:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Being Social. Being Social is a new twice monthly feature of eNetworking 101: The Blog. The name - Being Social - reflects the core value of social media. While we want to use social media to promote our endeavors, find clients, sell products, etc., the goal of social media is to give people the opportunity to:

Connect with others
Be in a community
Be involved in social activities
Enjoy the companionship of others
Share information
Collaborate

Or in other words, to be social. Of all of those, the first thing that happens with social media is connecting with others. Being involved in social media is not a solo activity. It is through the interaction with our connections that we become more proficient in using social media. You may have noticed that most sites have limited or useless help screens. While that can be seen as a flaw, the positive side is that you are then reliant on your connections (friends) to teach you the finer points of using the technology. Being in the "same boat" can be a powerful bonding agent, so don't be afraid to dive into a tool like Twitter with the vow that you and your friends will figure it out together. (Don't worry - I'll be giving you tips too!)

But I Have Nothing To Say: Connecting with others is more than just "friending" the person; you need to engage that person in a conversation. I'll admit that some of tools, like Twitter, don't seem like places for conversations, but they are. The give-n-take can feel disjointed, like two people talking while jogging on a track but going in opposite directions. There can be a lag in the conversation or the conversation can feel one sided...just like two people exchanging words as the pass each other twice on each lap. While that is something you'll have to get used to, the bigger problem is that people feel that they have nothing to say.

I run into people all the time that say they don't want to use social media because they believe that cannot contribute anything to the conversation. For some, the "nothing" is because they cannot talk about their work. For others, it's a belief that nothing they are doing would be of interest to others. However, we all have interesting personal and professional lives that should give us much to talk about. For example:

The title and URL of an interesting article that you read
Information on an event that you're involved in
Pointer to something that is occurring that concerns you
Heads-up about a networking opportunity ("Anyone attending XYZ Conference want to meet for coffee?")
Something you did that you're proud of (e.g., big contract, running a marathon, staying on track with your goals, giving good customer service)
A tidbit of information that you believe should be shared (e.g., new product announcement, local news story, a piece of wisdom)

Since the idea is to converse, you can -- and should -- also respond to what some of your contacts are saying. That response can be an answer or just giving more information. Sometimes it is just a "me too" or an message of support.

But you want to influence and sell and...! I know. But as any salesperson will tell you, the conversation comes first. It is through the conversation that you learn who that person really is and what his needs are. Talk and listen, then the rest will follow.

Notice that I haven't said which tool this conversation should happen in. It is not the tool that's important, it's what you do with it. Conversations can happen in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Friendfeed to name a few. If you're using enterprise social software (or Enterprise 2.0), it can happen there too. So if you're using a social media tool today, start talking to those that you're connected with. If you're not using social media, ask your colleagues what they are using and then select one to join. You'll automatically know at least one person there that can help you learn "the ropes" and introduce you to others.

By the way, this morning I've already shared two book titles with my contacts (or followers) that I knew they would appreciate. I can see from the interaction that followed that indeed people did like them.

Tips: Our communications are becoming shorter in length. Consider that Twitter allows for messages of 140 characters. Although that is more restrictive then other sites, it is clear that being long-winded isn't valued. Sean Branagan, founder of Communigration, said that we need different versions of our elevator speeches, including versions that are 10 words and 3 words in length. Sean told a story about a plumbing company whose 3-word version was "We Show Up". When you have to call a plumber, it's likely an emergency, so showing up is vital! With social media, a 3-word version would definitely work no matter which tool you're using. So...

Take your personal or organizational elevator speech and rework it. Get it down to 10 words. Then find the essence and phrase that in 3 words.
If you're using a social media site where you can have a brief profile, use the 10-word version there. In LinkedIn, consider making it your "professional headline".
When someone asks what you do, have the 3-word version ready to go. With only 3 words, you'll be able to respond to the person quickly not matter what keyboard or social media you're using.

For Your Information & Entertainment: In each newsletter, I'll highlight a few resources that might intrigue you. Since some of them will be less than serious, I'm titling this section appropriately!

There are an ever increasing number of books about social media and today I'm highlighting three. Digital marketing guru Mitch Joel bundled his knowledge normally reserved for his blog and podcasts into a book called Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. I listen to many of Joel's podcasts and have heard him say that the book is available for those that want it, but that much of the same wisdom is in his blog and podcasts. He knows that some people just want "the book", so he wrote one. Yes, he's definitely worth listening to or reading (blog or book).

While Joel's book provides advice on reaching your global audience, The Twitter Book is geared towards making anyone a power Twitter user. Co-authored by Tim O'Reilly, this could be him just jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, since thousands of people are power Twitter users without reading any books.

Finally, Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less is a compilation of fun tweets. It's a nice reminder - if you need one - that social media can be a pleasant diversion.

Comments? If you have a comment about this issue of Being Social, please email me or leave a comment in the blog. Thanks!

The next issue of Being Social will be published in two weeks. Until then...!

I don't want to keep this secret! (Launching something new just for YOU)

2010-01-11T08:06:00.004-05:00

In one week, I'll be launching a series here at eNetworking 101: The Blog on how to use social media more effectively in your daily life, both personally and professionally. The series will be newsletter-style blog posts, meaning that each Being Social blog post will contain tips, an article from me (or a guest columnist), and links to useful resources.

Over the last year, I've seen a number of resources on social media -- and so have you. They either talk about how easy it all is OR give you a supposedly tried-and-true series of steps that will guarantee you phenomenal results. The truth is actually someplace in the middle and it is a middle that I will explore twice a month with you.

Twice a month, Being Social will help you understand how to use social media to put yourself and your business in front of the people that need you.

You will hear from those -- people like you -- that have found success through social media and learn what they did that has made a difference. You will then be able to improve your social media practice by following in their footsteps.

Being Social will also talk about specific tools, tips and techniques that can improve your social media practice.

If you are not subscribed to automatically receive eNetworking 101: The Blog automatically, then sign-up today. The first issue of Being Social is coming soon! Make sure you will receive it.

I connect, therefore I survive

2009-12-31T10:36:00.000-05:00

The holidays are not always joyful. In "the old days", some people might have felt quite alone in their grief or depression while being surrounded by a myriad of happy faces who thought that the holidays were the best time of the year. I've been in that situation and can tell you that it's not fun. For a few years, I felt that the best gift I could have given myself was to go to some remote location for the holidays by myself so I wouldn't have to hear the joyful noises of others.

No, though, people who aren't as joyous during the holidays can connect with others people online who are feeling the same way. They find each other not only on forums, but also on social media sites that allow for rapid exchanges and instant community-building around a thought or idea. My bah-humbug can instantly be met with a "me too" and words that remind me that we will all get through this.

My holidays, by the way, are no longer events that make me cringe, but I know that there are those around me for whom this wasn't a jolly time. As I look at them, I do see them connecting to lifeboats via social media and using the tools to help them survive.

Oh shiny! (it's really about community)

2009-12-24T10:59:00.001-05:00

This is the time of year when we're surrounded by shiny objects. Everything glitters and attracts our attention. Like little children, we may find ourselves running from one shiny object to another. And while that's fun during the holiday season, that behavior when it comes to social media might be fun, but it isn't useful.

On February 10, I'm giving a presentation entitled "Social Media: Do's, Don'ts & Why Not's" for the Syracuse Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. I'm going to talk about the problems, pitfalls, joys, and benefits of social media and one of those is the "oh shiny" effect.

The "oh shiny" effect is what happens when people are attracted to the next social media tools (i.e., a shiny object) and continue to run from one tool to other. More productive is to be more selective. Yes, you need to try a few tools in order to know which ones are truly appropriate, but then make some decisions and don't feel like you need to use everything. Using everything means that you're splitting your time across many tools, rather than concentrating your efforts on a few tools.

It can be helpful to keep in mind your real goal. The goal isn't how many tools you can use. The goal is establishing or becoming part of an active community, and then interacting with that community so they value you and what you do. Oh...but you want to sell stuff. People will do business with you if they know you and value you. Use the tools to establish relationships and the money will come.

Everything is meta

2009-12-18T10:22:00.000-05:00

I've grown fond of listening to podcasts because I can do it while on a bus, train or plane. I'm amazed at how much I can listen to while traveling or just normal commuting. This week, one of the podcasts I listened to was Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation #178 - Media Hacks #20 Live (To Hard Drive) From New York City (54 min. Rated "L" for language).

The Media Hacks version of his podcasts are round table discussions. This one really interested me because they discussed the use of Twitter at conferences, which then morphed into talking about the fact that "everything is meta". Rather than living in the moment, people are living in the details and providing a comprehensive (meta) commentary of their lives. For example, this couple updated their Facebook pages at during their wedding ceremony, while others are sharing granular details of their lives. If you are doing that, can you really be enjoying what you're doing? If you are tweeting about every song during a concert, are you really being part of the audience and part of the live experience?

Maybe when people talk about what they don't like about social media this is what they are really talking about. They don't want meta. They don't appreciate that level of detail. And perhaps when they see people providing that level of detail about their lives online, they wonder if these people are really being present in their lives or if they are just observing their lives.

As you can tell, I was really fascinated with the discussion. I know I'll do some more thinking on this and I suspect this will change how I use social media.

Updated privacy setting for Facebook

2009-12-13T10:50:00.002-05:00

Facebook has unveiled new privacy settings. Facebook users are being prompted to review the settings and make any changes that they want. While you may just ignore the need, I encourage you to review your privacy settings and really think about who you want to see what. You might even want to review your settings periodically to see if you want to tighten or loosen the settings. Personally, I believe that you should tighten your settings. There is no need to share all of your details with the world!

For information on the new privacy settings, go to:

Article: Brace yourself for the real-time Web

2009-12-12T09:02:00.002-05:00

Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, writes a column for CNN.com. His latest article is entitled "Brace yourself for the real-time Web". Real time? Many of use are already involved in the real-time web. Honestly, I get really annoyed when Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc., etc., don't update immediately. Come on -- I need to know what's happening NOW!

Cashmore acknowledges that the real-time web is here and tells us that more real-time services are coming. In the article, he lists six that he believes will pervade the web in 2010:

Real-time location
Real-time news
Real-time comments
Real-time reviews
Real-time auctions
Real-time collaboration

Yes, he does mention real-time search, which is already here and which will only get better.

I have to admit that I do miss the delay that used to occur in how we communicated. Faxes, email, etc., all have/had a delay in them. But I'm also addicted (a mild addiction!) to information flowing in real-time. As real-time become the norm, it'll be interesting to see how how lives, decisions, and communication styles change. I can see a negative effect...the inability to deal with delayed information.

Will CEOs be willing to wait for information that they can use in their decision-making processes? I hope so. While transmitting information could happen in real-time, synthesizing it and making it actionable could take time.

The benefits of social media (or the SLA name change vote)

2009-12-11T10:04:00.002-05:00

Most of you will not care that members of the Special Libraries Association voted to keep its current name and not change its name to the Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals. What you will care about are the tools that were used during the discussions for and against the name change.

The Association used its official changes, including is e-newsletter and blogs. Chapters and divisions in the Association also used their blogs and email lists to talk about the benefits of the name change. A Facebook page was created for those that supported the name change and there were comments on FriendFeed and Twitter.

With the official channels obvious being used to support the name change, opponents had to use tools where many opinions can be heard without feeling as if they might be censored. Opponents used comments in Facebook, FriendFeed and Twitter. They also commented on a wiki page that was used to collect input. While their voices may not have been as loud as those coming out of the Association in support of the name change, their voices were loud enough to remind people that not everyone was in favor of the change. The message was "you're not alone in your feelings" and that was a powerful message. People knew that their "no" votes would join other "no" votes, and that their votes would matter.

Now that the vote is over, the Association and its members are wiser about using social media. People within the Association have been preaching about social media for a couple of years. Who would have thought that a major initiative (the name change) would have been the impetus to get people to use it? Pretty cool!

Turning your online network into a face-to-face network

2009-12-06T12:50:00.005-05:00

Josh Shear has a nice blog post about meeting people face-to-face that he's interacted with on Twitter. We tend to think that our online acquaintances and friends are only people that we see online, but often they become people that we interact with face-to-face at local events and conferences. They may become people that we do business with or that we collaborate with on projects.

Turning your online network into a face-to-face network happens with a little effort. You coordinate a local tweetup or host a tweetup as part of a conference. Mashable gives useful advice for tweetup do's and don't's. While you may think that just one tweetup is enough, I can tell you from experience that some people who want to attend won't be able to and that there will be others who will not have heard that it is happening. Therefore, do a series of them and encourage participants to spread the word about them.

You might also identify specific people that you would like to get to know better. Consider having breakfast, coffee or lunch with these people. Why breakfast, coffee or lunch? These are time-bounded commitments, so if the meeting doesn't go well, your commitment is only an hour max. If the meeting does go well and you'd like to interact with that person more, then you can set up a follow-up event. (Be sure to pick a neutral and safe place for your first meeting. Even though you have gotten to know this person online, it's always good to be a little cautious with your first f2f meeting.)

Of course, one of the best ways of meeting online buddies f2f is to realize that you are all going to the same event and can meet there. Because you're at an event, it means that you have someone in common that you can discuss, which may make that first f2f more comfortable. This happened to me at the Chris Hughes event where Josh Shear introduced me to Patrick Shaughnessy and others. I also got to meet Bradford Morse, who I traded tweets with during the event. And I connected with people who I knew but didn't realize that they had a Twitter account. We found each other through the events hashtag.

As Josh says:

For those of you who are worried that spending too much time on a network like Twitter is going to cut down on your face-to-face time with people, you need to re-think that....it's a pretty simple tool that costs exactly nothing to expand both your social and professional networks. Seriously.

Making the right connections on LinkedIn

2009-11-27T19:44:00.000-05:00

Congratulations! You have a LinkedIn account and you are using it to expand your network. As you reach out to connect, keep these tips in mind:

Don't use LinkedIn like Facebook -- Facebook and LinkedIn have different purposes. Facebook is for connecting with friends, acquaintances and people with whom you share a common interest (but don't know). In contrast, LinkedIn was built to give business people a way of networking with people they know from various parts of their careers so they can find new opportunities, exchange information, and improve their careers. Keep in mind that you should know and be able to professionally recommend those that you connect with in LinkedIn.

Tell people why you want to connect with them -- LinkedIn will construct a generic message to send to someone when you want to connect with them. Rather than sending that message, take 30 seconds to create a customized message. Remind the person how you know her and why you would like to connect. If you're trying to connect with someone that you see infrequently, that note could be extremely helpful. It could be the difference between making an connection or not.

Use your network to contact people that you want to know better -- If there is someone that you don't know and whom you'd like to be in contact with, use your network to make an introduction for you. Having a "warm" introduction can really pave the way for a good conversation. By the way, notice that I said "contact" and not "connect". Keep in mind that you should only connect with someone if both of you know each other's work and would feel comfortable providing recommendations.

It's okay to weed -- Undoubtedly you'll connect with people with whom you really don't have a relationship. It happens. So occasionally go through your contacts and delete weak links. Don't worry, the person does not receive a message tell them that you've dropped them and it is unlikely that the person will notice.

Remember quality over quantity -- Finally, remember that it is more important to have a few high quality connections in LinkedIn rather than a high number of poor quality connections.

That's it. If you keep these in mind, you'll have a high quality network in LinkedIn that will be ready to help you when you need it.

Co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes, spoke in Syracuse last night

2009-11-18T08:33:00.005-05:00

On the same night that Robin Williams spoke at Syracuse's Landmark Theater (bummed that I missed that), Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, spoke at Onondaga Community College as part of the Famous Entrepreneurs Series. Now in its fourth year, the Famous Entrepreneurs Series brings acclaimed entrepreneurs to Syracuse to talk about their work. At the beginning of the night, we were encourage to tweet the event and several of us did.

Chris Hughes was 19 years old when he co-founded Facebook and now he's 25. In between he also worked with the Obama campaign on My.BarackObama.com. Facebook was an idea that the founders ran with and then expanded because it seemed to fulfill a need. In its first three weeks, Facebook attracted 6,000 users. Now it has hundreds of millions of users.

The lessons that Hughes learned during the last five years are not earth-shattering. In fact, @PaddyShaughn wrote:

The majority of Chris Hughes speach [sic] boils down to common sense, adaptability and your gut when it comes business. No fluff

He believes is looking at the core of your idea and then building a product for that. The core of the idea should address as real need, not just a want. Start small, analyze what happens, then build upon that. He believes that entrepreneurs should focus less on formalities in the early days and more on the product. He recognizes that they made some mistakes early on with the formalities, but he believe that focusing on the formalities -- business plan, etc. -- can get entrepreneurs bogged down and inhibit them.

After two huge successes, I wonder what it will be like when Hughes fails. He has obviously learned lessons from his successes, so what will he learn from his failures? No, I didn't ask that question and I don't that he would have known the answer. It will be interesting, though, to watch his career and see what's next.

During the Q&A, one question that was not asked was able a Facebook update being used to prove that a young man had not committed a crime. Timestamps on access badges, computer files, etc. have been used before to prove where someone was or wasn't. Back in 1983, I know of a corporate data center that was able to unearth unethical behavior with the computer log. So using a Facebook status (and the IP address, etc., associated with it), is not as unusual as it seems. It has attracted attention, however, because it is Facebook.

Hughes is not a dynamic speaker, although -- if you're into social media -- he is very interesting. His slides were a bit like those of Larry Lessig - sparse and likely done that way in order to make a statement and get his point across. However, he is not Lessig, but maybe he'll grow into being more like him and a bit more dynamic. He's only 25, so he's got time!

I must say that among the Twitterers at the event were friends and people that I knew by association but had not met in person. Good to see @Communigration and @JoshShear. Good to finally meet @PaddyShaughn, whom friends thought I already knew. Nice to meet @DigitalCoach and others!

If you want to read more from the event, you can check out the tweets for more info. Our local newspaper did a story on the event, but it doesn't do a very good job of summarizing it. A much, much better summary has been written by @joshshear, so be sure to check that out.

Addendum (11:25 a.m.) -- I just had an interesting hallway conversation. Reportedly, there was a rift between the Facebook founders and two were not on speaking terms for a while. That article points to something that Hughes didn't say last night - there were four founders of Facebook! They were Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin. Hughes never even alluded to Saverin. Wow!

And other conversation this morning pointed to another problem with Hughes' talk - he didn't really talk about Facebook. We're sure that we could have learned from his stories about juggling founding Facebook with school work, as well as stories about getting their first investors, etc. But he talked about none of that. And what about controversies and criticisms with the service? Nope, didn't talk about that either. He seemed very comfortable last night, but maybe he really isn't comfortable talking about what they've done.

11:35 a.m. -- One final thought. It was disappointing to see the lack of cultural diversity at last night's event. I'm sure several factors (e.g., price for sponsoring the event) caused that. I hope that these events will seek to increase the diversity of their audience.

Technorati tag: Facebook

Lose control & gain credibility

2009-10-31T12:40:00.001-04:00

Someone said this at the PRSA Northeast District Conference several weeks ago. With social media, you need to be part of the ongoing conversation and not worry about micromanaging your words or image. Instead, put yourself "out there" and get involved using the social tools. Be yourself and you will gain credibility. People will think more highly of you because you are being open and honest in your communications.

Amazingly, this is the same as face-to-face communications. We like those people who are themselves and who do not try to control all of the words that come out of their mouths. We find them to be more credible.

Are you trying too hard to control your image online? Are you holding back from using social media because you are afraid that you might lose control? Consider just being yourself and don't worry so much about controlling your image. We'll like you for who you are and appreciate your honesty.

I declared bankruptcy

2009-10-30T21:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I declared bankruptcy. No, nothing to do with my finances. I looked at my RSS reader and declared RSS bankruptcy. I had way too many unread RSS feeds and there was no way I was going to catch up. So I marked 90+% of the items as read in an effort to start fresh.

Someone said recently that we don't have information overload; we have filter failure.

Often we try to consume information like water coming out of a fire hydrant. The information flows at us fast and furious. Instead of being able to take small sips, we find ourselves drowning in information. What we need to do is find ways of filtering the information so that only what we need gets to us. We need tablespoons of information, not rivers.

Unfortunately, we either don't use the filters that we have available (like using rules in Microsoft Outlook or specific sub-feeds from a web site) or adequate filters don't exist. We need to take time to use the filters that are available to us. This week, I setup more rules in Microsoft Outlook in order to move part of my email information stream automatically into folders. I also unsubscribed from some email lists, which will help to cut down the amount of information that comes to me. (These were lists that were not providing high value to me.)

In some cases, though, the filters I need aren't there, so I'm receiving information that I want intermingled with information that I don't want. I haven't quite decided what to do with these information sources. Do I eliminate them or keep them? Is it worthwhile keeping them and having that information flow towards me, even if I never get to read it?

By the way, I'm having the same problem with the information I receive in the form of journals and newsletters. Here I need to become skilled at using the table of contents as my filter.

So what information am I paying attention to at the moment? Well, I'm paying attention to the conversations that are happening around me in Twitter and FriendFeed. Often these point to information that is important and useful, which I do read. There are some announcements and conversations that happen in email, too. I'm also taking in information through podcasts because I can download them and listen to them when I'm commuting.

I don't like to think that my knowledge at the moment is based on what I hear in Twitter and FriendFeed (and a few other places). It is a bit like saying that all I know about local politics is what I hear at the local diner. It's not wrong, but it is a limited view. For now, it is the view I have until I can get filters to work for me. I need to be tapped into the fire hydrant of information and fill my tablespoon.

Podcast: Get To Work On Facebook

2009-10-23T10:50:00.000-04:00

The podcast Beyond the Book is one that I often listen to. They are generally interviews and are focused around publishing. This one is an interview with Paul Dunay, who has co-authored the book Facebook Marketing For Dummies. No matter what you're using Facebook for or how long you've been using it, I suspect that you'll hear something in this podcast that will make you think. For example, how does Facebook compare to photo and video sharing services in terms of volume? Where does Facebook rank in the most heavily used web sites?

The podcast is 28 min. in length.

Technorati tag: Facebook

Presentation - Meeting on the Lines: Teleconferencing & Webinars

2009-10-16T09:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I spoke at the New York Library Association annual conference in Niagara Falls, NY. Since some of the content may be appropriate for people who read this blog, here are my slides.

Thanks to the Library Administration and Management Section for inviting me to speak.

Meeting on the Lines: Teleconferencing & Webinars

View more presentations from Jill Hurst-Wahl.

Event: The Mobile Delivery of Content: Challenges and Opportunities

2009-10-12T08:05:00.000-04:00

Received via email....

The Mobile Delivery of Content: Challenges and Opportunities, scheduled for October 30, 2009 in Philadelphia, PA.

As professional members of the Information Community, we all need to be up-to-date on the use of mobile devices as an information delivery channel. For example, did you know that 75% of today’s 1.4 billion Internet users access the Web via a mobile device (29% exclusively via mobile; 46% via mobile and PC)†. In fact, the global acceptance of wireless mobile devices for communication and accessing information has grown to the point that the technology is now at the threshold of transforming the information industry. According to a recent Pew report, by the year 2020 such devices will have completely morphed into powerful computing devices that are portals to the online world. I sincerely hope that you will be able to join us on October 30th to learn more about this rapidly growing content delivery channel. Virtual attendance is optional if you are unable to travel to Philadelphia.

The program will open with an overview of the current landscape for the mobile delivery of content. This will be followed by case studies presented by content providers who are currently delivering to mobile devices, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, John Wiley and Sons, the American Institute of Physics, and Ref-Works-COS. The meeting will then take a look at the challenges that content providers must meet in order to deliver content to mobile devices, such as content preparation, meeting e-publishing standards, and adapting to diverse technology platforms and infrastructures. New business practices and policies that are emerging as a result of this new information delivery channel will be discussed, and in closing we will take a look at how this channel will evolve over the next five years.

The program, registration form, directions to the meeting location, list of nearby hotels, and general information on Philadelphia is available at: http://www.nfais.org/page/212-mobile-delivery-of-content.

On-site Attendance: NFAIS members pay $395 and non-members pay $445.

Virtual Attendance: NFAIS members pay $365 and non-members pay $415.

Unlimited Virtual attendance (3 or more registrations) is $995 for NFAIS member organizations and $1,195 for non-member organizations.

For more information contact: Jill O’Neill, NFAIS Director, Communication and Planning, 215-893-1561 (phone); 215-893-1564 (fax); mailto:jilloneill@nfais.org or go to http://www.nfais.org/

Jill's October & November Speaker Schedule

2009-10-05T09:20:00.000-04:00

I'll be "on the move" over the next month and speaking at:

Oct. 8, PRSA Northeast District Conference, Rochester, NY - Establishing Your Social Image to Enhance Your Public Image (Presentation with Alison Miller)
Oct. 15, NYLA Annual Conference, Niagara Falls, NY - Meeting on the Lines: Teleconferencing & Webinars (presentation with Kevin Vebesey)
Nov. 9, Assoc. of International Librarians & Info. Specialists(AILIS), Geneva, Switzerland - Planning & Management of Digitization Programs (Workshop)

The October 15 event is a nearly last minute addition to my calendar. I'm taking Karen Schneider's place, who is now in the middle of a move from Florida to California. Congrats Karen!

If you and I happen to be at the same event, I hope you'll tap me on the shoulder and say "hi"!

Technorati tags: Digitization, Social Networking Tools

SPOS #168: An interview with Avinash Kaushik

2009-10-02T09:39:00.000-04:00

This morning I listened to this podcast interview of Avinash Kaushik on the Six Pixels of Separation podcast (#168). Kaushik is Google's Analytics Evangelist and the author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity. This podcast was geared towards marketers and those that track the impact that marketing has. Kaushik is passionate that marketers need to change and adopt Internet marketing. While he believes that you can survive in the near-term without Internet marketing, in the long-term you will not. He also noted that new companies would be more likely to adopt Internet marketing rather than old companies that want to do it they way they always have. Those companies need to challenge themselves to change. The podcast is 25 minutes in length and worth listening to.

Mitch Joel, the host, does Six Pixels of Separation weekly. He is also the author of the new book Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.

Technorati tag: Marketing

Still preaching about the online social tools?

2009-09-28T08:34:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of the year, Kelvin Ringold and I talked about doing a series about the online social tools. We're still talking. With so much "out there" on what the social tools are and how to use them, we're wondering if two more voices are needed? Given that Alison Miller and I are talking about the social tools at the PRSA Conference in Rochester, NY on Oct. 8, I guess the preaching about the value of online social media is not yet done.

I think we're still talk about -- and preaching about -- the online social tools because many people have not yet decided to use them. Why? People complain about the lack of time, need, and ability.

The Lack of Time -- We all have time constraint. Yup, even me. So what should you do? Carve out time to create a complete presence on tools just as LinkedIn, Plaxo or Facebook. That means creating a complete profile and then connecting to some people you know. That's a great activity for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Once you have yourself setup, then you only need to spend a few minutes per week on maintenance. Maintenance include connecting to more people, tweaking your profile, and interacting with others. The benefit is that you have now put yourself in a place where you can be found and where people can see information on who you are. That is vital in moving yourself forward in your career, no matter who you are.

The Lack of Need -- People who don't feel that they have the need believe that their current network is perfect. They might also feel that they don't need any additional help or information from others. While that may be true of today, what about tomorrow? The best time to build and expand your network is before you need it. If you do it before you need it, then you can do it methodically and perhaps slowly. It will not be an activity born out of desperation.

The Lack of Ability -- Yes, it does take time to learn about these tools. Select 1-2 tools to begin (e.g., LinkedIn and Twitter) and concentrate on them for a period of time. Then apply what you have learned to a couple other tools (e.g., Facebook and SlideShare). You will be surprised at how quickly you can learn and improve your ability. However, it won't improve unless you activity begin to learn. Standing on the sidelines doesn't work.

Finally, I would encourage to keep in mind that just like in your face-to-face world, your online networking is never complete. Just as your are continuing to learn how to networking better live, you'll continue to learn how to network better online. And s your network will never be big enough. So go ahead...get started!

Technorati tag: Social Networking Tools, Social Media

Email and Web 2.0 Marketing, part 4

2009-09-15T08:41:00.000-04:00

I've talked about the means I used to promote the speaker series and now I want to talk about the content that was created by the series.

As soon as I agreed to produce this speaker series geared towards micro and small business owners, as well as business students, I knew that I wanted to create something lasting as a part of it. I knew that there was a possibility that many people would hear the speakers live, but that many more people might watch videos of the events. So I looked to ensure that there would be something for people to see after the events were over.

First, I acquired a domain name for the series and had that domain point to http://enitiative.syr.edu/talkingbusiness/. I felt that it would be easier for people to remember SyracuseTalkingBusiness.com while I was promoting the series, than something less memorable. (All of the collateral material included that easy to remember URL.) It was the Enitiative Program that gave me a grant for the series and that was willing to host the videos, etc.

If you look at the Enitiative web site, you will see information on all of the events. Prior to the event, this was promotional material. After the event, this became a repository for the materials that were created for the long-term. The materials created include text, video recording and photographs.

Text -- I was fortunate to have access to a student who was able to write notes for several of the sessions. For the other sessions, I wrote notes during or after the event which are admittedly at varying quality levels. All of the notes give the reader an idea of what the session entailed and hopefully entice the person to watch the video.

Video -- I contracted with a video service to video record all of the events and to make them Internet-ready. Having a videographer is not necessarily cheap, but it allows you to create a wonderful resource that is available at any time for someone to use. The videos are linked to the event pages on the Enitiative web site.

Photographs -- I also hired a photographer for the series. The photos were used in several ways:

I used the photographs in some of the email promotions. I thought it would be helpful for people to see what the series looked like.
Every speaker received photographs from his or her session as a speaker gift. I was amazed at how appreciative the speakers were when they got photos from their events. If you are considering a different speaker gift, consider giving photos after the fact.
A few of the photos from each session were placed on the Enitiative web site.
At least one of the photos was used in the Enitiative annual report.
Several of the photos were uploaded to Flickr where people often trip over interesting content. All of the photos have links back to the Enitiative web site.

I should note that one of the effects of having a videographer and a photographer at the sessions is that people took the sessions more seriously. It was clear that these sessions weren't "throw away" events. Everything that was done to promote the series and to ensure that quality content was left behind made people feel that these sessions were meant to have an impact.

I will admit that this was all a lot of work. I produced on event per month, which gave me little downtime between events. Once one event was done, I needed to begin work on the next one. In hindsight, I should have done few events. Maybe I should have done them every other month. For sure, I should not have done sessions in the summer (July and August) or in December. Those are times when weather -- both good and bad -- becomes a factor.

All of the work was worthwhile when people learned something new, made new connections, or found a new resource. I kept hearing that I was doing good work and the smiles I saw on the faces of speakers and participants tell me that was true.

If coordinating an event or speaker series is in your future, I encourage you to try some of the things that I did. Yes, it will take time, but I guarantee that it will be worthwhile.

Thanks to Enitiative, Syracuse Technology Garden, South Side Innovation Center, WISE Center, Franciscan Collaborative Ministries, and Women Business Owners Connection for being partners, funders and sponsors. Thanks also to all of the speakers because without you this series would not have been possible.

Technorati tags: Email, Marketing

Email and Web 2.0 Marketing, part 3

2009-09-04T09:30:00.001-04:00

I've talked thus far about the email marketing I did using Constant Contact. Now let me talk about the other ways I promoted the series, which were a combination of "old school" and "new school" techniques.

Press releases -- A month before the next event, I would write and distribute a press release promoting it. The press release was send via email to the local media and to many local groups that I thought should know about the event. Several media outlets added the sessions to their calendar of events because of the press releases. Many people learned about the series because of the press releases.

A press release does have a specific format and so the first one can take time to write well. After that, however, you can quickly modify the original press release for the next announcement. PRweb has tips for writing a good press release.

Newspaper calendar items -- Being in the business calendar published by the local newspaper and business journal was a good move. Many people scan the calendar in order to learn about upcoming events. Be aware that most news media require calendar items 2-4 weeks in advance.

Media interviews -- People often groan that they send out a press release and that the media never use it. You should never consider a press release to be a waste. Yes, there are times when a press release generates no interest and no mention in the media. Remember, though, that someone at the news outlet has seen the release and read it. That means that you have built awareness with someone in the media and that awareness may pay-off when you least expect it. For me, one of the pay-offs was being asked to do a live radio interview about one of the sessions entitled "The Ugly Truth About Small Business."

While I didn't contact the media specifically to offer myself or any of the speakers for interviews, that is something that you may want to consider. Some media outlets are starved for content and may be very receptive to a telephone interview.

In-person Announcements -- At any meeting or event that you attend, ask if you can make brief (or maybe long) announcement about your event. Yes, it can be time-consuming to attend many events for this purpose, but it will help to build awareness and it will allow people to connect you (a real person) with the event.

Giveaways -- You could spend a fortune on cute giveaways to promote your event. I decided to use postcards and flyers. It is very easy to create and order a great looking postcard online. If you want other promotional items, it would do you well to check what's available online in addition to checking local suppliers.

I did order many postcards and handed them out at sessions, events where I announced about the series, etc. The real trick to to give out as many as possible, which can be hard to do it you're shy. Art Zimmer, owner of the Syracuse New Times and one of my speakers, said that he gives out 500 business cards per month or 16 cards per day. Imagine if you handed out 16 notices per day about an event you were hosting? Zimmer doesn't worry about handing his cards to qualified people. In his mind, the more people that know about him, the better. For you, the more people that know about your event, the better.

Twitter -- In an effort to spread the word even further, I began tweeting about the sessions. And yes, I did have someone attend that specifically said he had heard about it through Twitter.

In 140 characters, you may be able to give the title and URL for an event. Consider mentioning the event in advance and then the day of. Try to be provocative (without being misleading), so that people will open the URL and read about the event.

Flickr -- Photos of events in Flickr do get noticed if they are given good descriptions and tags. You don't need to put many photos online, but they should be photos that will help people understand the event. And be sure to point people at the photos and use the photos in any web promotions that you might do.

If your event is not a series, you may think that placing photos -- or even video -- online will not help, but understand that some people will want to know what the event or venue looks like, so try to find or create photos that will promote the event or help people understand what the event will be.

Likely your amazed at the amount of "old school" promotion that I did. My promotion techniques matched the audience in this region that I wanted to attract. I was after small and micro business owners, and that group locally is not necessarily web 2.0 savvy.

I also struggled against a history in this region of people saying that they were interested in a topic and then not showing up. My thought was that getting info in front of people in multiple ways might counteract that. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't.

I do think that it is important to understand your audience and what marketing methods they will respect and value. Not every method works for every audience. Sometimes you may have to do a bit of trial and error in order to find out what works.

Of course, what we really want is to create buzz about our events. Buzz happens when other people are excited about what you're doing. Everything listed above will help you create buzz, but the most important factor is to have an exciting and worthwhile event.

Next week, I'll talk about the materials that were created by this series and what they have to do with marketing. Yes, the series does live on!

Previous Posts:

Technorati tags: Email, Marketing

Blog Day 2009: Thinking about podcasts

2009-08-31T10:45:00.002-04:00

Every year I celebrate Blog Day. This rules around this day are:

Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2009
Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2009 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

I've pointed you to the podcasts that I listen to, but thought that this would be a great opportunity to provide a bit more information:

Beyond the Book - The site says: "Copyright Clearance Center's Beyond the Book program explores issues facing the information content industry and helps creative professionals realize the full potential of their works, while encouraging respect for intellectual property and the principles of copyright." Christopher Kenneally has a nice interview style, which makes these very listenable and interesting. The programs are generally 30 minutes in length (weekly).
Future Tense - This is a program out of ABC News Radio in Australia that explores "the social, cultural, political and economic fault lines arising from rapid change." These are often about technology, but in a broad sense. Weekly, 30 minutes in length.
Six Pixels of Separation - This weekly podcast provide information on digital marketing, new media and personal branding. The web site provides very good show notes. The podcasts vary in length from 20 - 60 minutes.
Marketing Over Coffee -This weekly podcast is indeed about marketing and contains interesting insights. The show notes on the web site are excellent. Shows are 30 minutes in length.
T is for Training - This is a twice monthly podcast with Maurice Coleman as the host. The show features a fluid number of librarians and library trainers talking about a broad range of issues, concerns, ideas, techniques, etc. loosely related to technology training that is conducted in/by libraries. Information on how to actively participate in the show recording is on the web site and all are welcome. URLs mentioned during the shows are posted to del.icio.us under T is for Training. The shows are 60 minutes in length. {Full disclosure - I'm often a part of this podcast.}

I am especially liking the marketing podcasts that I'm listening to. They are lively, interesting and contain useful ideas.

When do I listen to podcasts? I download them to my PMP (personal media player) and listen to them when I'm commuting (bus) or traveling (train, plane). That means that I don't always listen to them immediately, but that's okay (for me).

BTW If you have recommendations for interesting podcasts, please leave a comment on this blog post.

Previous Blog Day post:

Blog Day 2008: Five blogs worth knowing about

Technorati Tag: blogday2009