Some people have asked about my minimal work setup—it’s down to the superb Wingstand product I supported on KickStarter.
Category: insights
Ulearn11 | How Twitter Makes An Event Global
Above is a quick and dirty infographic created as a mini Ulearn conference evaluation (a superb educational annual event organised and run by CORE Education).
The big takeaways:
- #Ulearn11 was trending in New Zealand the two main days of the conference
- the massive reach the 300 active tweeterers accumulative follower network has (TweetReach indicated it at nearly 750,000 impressions and a reach of about 70,000 people)
- how easy you can measure the ‘popular kids in the playground’ (those who tweeted and were tweeted about)
Couple this with twitter conversations not using the hashtag, the connections made through the tweeted ideas plus the retweets, then you’ve got an indication of how Twitter can enable an event to go global.
How do you measure the social media elements of your events? Do you display them graphically or in a different way than above? Drop some knowledge in the comments below.
Defining Social Spaces
How do you decipher and explain the different social spaces / platforms?
Well, a while ago I wrote a blog post describing the Golden Rule of Social Media—it’s really simple and is summed up as:
IT”™S JUST LIKE BEING IN A BIG ROOM, FULL OF REAL PEOPLE
This morning a colleague emailed me with her own definitions of the social spaces and how they relate to real world scenarios (like cocktails and offices etc). Here’s my response:
- Website—your online ‘shop front’ and everything inside from the products, customer service, to what you discuss related to your industry etc.
- Blog—same as above (if you don’t have a blog then you don’t have a space to inspire people to be awesome)
- Twitter—(mainly) public conversation party, giving you an opportunity to connect with people you would never usually get a chance to (great for just listening in and gleaming amazing ideas and information)
- Facebook—private members club with exclusive insights and offers others can’t get elsewhere (rewards based model. Why? Most people are on Stalkbook not to buy but to connect with people they know.)
- LinkedIn—old school drinking mens establishment where not much happens. It’s great for getting introduced to interesting folks although you then try to get them into other spaces as the current place (LinkedIn) sucks and smells of old people
- YouTube—your Tivo (another words what you want to show to other people relating to your passions, your ideas and maybe your products)
What do you think? How would you define the above?
Working Yourself Out Of A Job (And Other Bold Public Statements)
In two years time I will no longer be the Social Media Manager for CORE Education.
It’s not due to a limited budget or a time-specific contract but making a public statement like the one above focusses intent. Creates an end. A cut off point. A window to get things done.
Of course there’s danger in this. The idea that in two years time my approach would have succeeded, all the tasks will be completed and the organisation will be social media superheros, one and all (especially in this fluid space), is a bold forecast.
The reason for this strategy can be summed up in one word: sustainability.
Some of you will be old enough to remember working in places which had ‘typing pools’. A group of (usually) women whose soul task all day was to type unending letters and transcribe recordings of meetings from others.
With the advent of cheaper technology/software, the distribution of these new tools plus the burgeoning rise of professional development in the workplace, meant typing became a skill which quickly dissolved into expectation and one which now isn’t even questioned.
Social media managers are typists. A function which will soon become obsolete as the understanding of tools/platforms, adoption of practises and their execution become commonplace.
Any approach has to have a sustainable core and a comprehension that the measure of success is not how awesome my job is but how awesome I make other peoples jobs (through their elevated appreciation and use of social media).
This is what matters.
And I have two years to do it.
How much time have you given yourself?
Wisdom from Hugh MacLeod.
What Does A Social Media Manager Do…?
“The best leaders… almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.”
Tom Peters
The above just got sent out to the 100 or so employees of CORE Education as an attempt to introduce their new social media manager and my approach to the role (YouTube version).
Like any newbie I’ve been busy for the past month acting like a sponge, taking it all in, finding out who’s who, where are the opportunities, the needs, the toilets, and stuff like that. Now it’s time to earn my wage.
This morning I presented the above to the exec team along with other initial ideas of social media adoption, exploration and management. One of the things they agreed was allowing me to share on this blog the whole development and implementation phases of what I’m doing here, the likes of which will include :
- baselining—creating a clear benchmark plus track and review process of social media activity and its impact relative to the overall aims and goals (quantifiably and qualitatively plus some other big words)
- gamified training—skilling up the employees in a funky, systematic way (using game theory as a model)
- ambassadorial networks—finding and establishing champions and creating hubs of knowledge around them (especially relevant as our colleagues work nationally across nearly 30 different geographical locations)
- creating a social permaculture—basically working myself out of a job in the next two years whilst ensuring sustainability
- productising our approach—hoping to transfer the learning and successes across to MediaSnackers at some point to package and sell on further
Over the coming months this is what will appear here and would love to hear from you, especially if you’re a new or established social media manager, head of digital content, director of educational technologies, online communication leads, chief bloggers etc. on your approach, pitfalls, mistakes and successes. Does the above sound like a good ‘start’?
Big thanks to the picture takers : plindberg, cousinali, vatobob, jb-london, x-ray_delta_one, kurtxio, azrainman, andrewmorrell, simonehudson, melissaadret, redroom, rosauraochoa, neilrickards, olpc, dantaylor, torley, birgerking, _fabrizio_, booleansplit, 40006794@N02, 94801434@N00, findyoursearch, markwalker, pip_r_lagenta, ref, gareth1953, jaako, 25023895@N02, ryanr, bossco, chrisdlugosz.
The Gates Foundation | Inspiring The Grant Givers
This time last week I was in Seattle delivering some social media goodness to the Education programme team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
I presented for 90mins on the shift of the media landscape (with particular attention to young people) and explored how social creates many opportunities to engage with a wider audience. After that I lead a 90mins roundtable with the senior exec team to talk strategy adoption, and finally a half days training to about thirty of the staff (at their newly opened campus).
The feedback was positive:
It was a good day.
There was lots of discussion with individuals / groups about how they could use some of the ideas / platforms directly in their work—here’s a few of the ‘big’ ideas shared :
- it’s more reveal than conceal—a challenge to share the process not product of the organisations endeavours;
- be human—the brand is so well known it has a danger of becoming faceless through some of its communication;
- engage—I challenged them to think about the following : what if all you could do was comment on other content out there (adding weight and value to it) rather than creating your own? This would in part enable more directive messaging plus leave lots of digital breadcrumbs;
- play—how, as an organisation, are they creating the time and space to learn by stealth
Obviously, all of the above could apply to many sectors / organisations / brands.
Personally, the biggest takeaway was that size doesn’t matter when it comes to exploring the social landscape. Sure, the context is slightly different between clients but the aims and mechanics are the same. It comes down to one thing, your appreciation and insight to anything is greater increased if you become an active user rather than a passive observer.
My function is to either move people closer to that outcome and / or lower the barrier to entry (based on their attitudes and ideas to embracing it).
It was an stupendously humbling experience to work with a collective with brains / pedigrees the size of planets and here’s hoping I get a return invite…
Reach Beyond Your Grasp
The following message I wrote to myself after a thirteen hour flight from LA to Auckland, just after 6am in the morning and still digesting the fact I had just emigrated to the other side of the planet…
“It’s time to to be the humble-peaceful-hungry-for-life-warrior you deserve to be; this is the place to become that bonfire and dare the world to put you out!
To be open to new experiences, to give people all the goodness you have, to treat smiles as the currency needed and to challenge yourself to always reach further than your grasp.
Be mindful of your actions (and others) and their intents. Be graceful and aim to make others shine (even if it dulls your own talents).
Above all, make people think / smile.”
Image taken during a tour of the Googleplex
Moving To Christchurch | Post Earthquake(s)
On the morning of February 22nd 2011 I was in Istanbul and got a text from a friend simply saying “have you heard about New Zealand?”…
Thoughts immediately went to my brother who lives on the North Island and after logging into BBC News a wave of relief settled my nerves as the earthquake I was now reading about was in South Island.
This emotion was quickly followed by one of compassion and concern for the community I had visited a little over a year ago and then a pang of selfish worry””Christchurch was the destination of my outstanding immigration application.
Over the next few hours and days the sad story unfolded as strangers, contacts and the general media tweeted, blogged, and covered their experiences.
A week later my application was approved.
The city is still getting aftershocks, the business district is a no-go area and needs to be rebuilt plus a few of the surrounding communities are still without water and sanitation.
So (the question from my Gran), why am I still moving there?
Apart from falling in love with the country and city, the basic reason for my emigration is adventure.
There was/is nothing wrong with my life other than the nagging feeling of wanting to explore new challenges and opportunities—moving to the other side of the planet creates that situation of starting again, establishing a home, a friendships, a business, a career, a life etc
In some way there’s a synergy between that and the city as it strives to rediscovers itself again. Christchurch will have to be re-imagined. Rebranded. Rebuilt. Relaunched.
Who knows what my attitude will be like when those aftershocks test my metal and I’m under no illusions it will be challenging to be in a place which has experienced such loss and devastation. It is not my city or home yet but it will be soon, and I don’t know how but in some way I’m hoping to positively contribute to the redevelopment.
So here goes nothing.
“When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it.”
Amelia Earhart
Image linklove
“We Should Have Sent A Poet Not A Pilot”
50 years ago this month, Yuri Gagarin broke beyond earths gravity and floated around in space for 108 minutes. He orbited once and then returned, a hero, a legend.
Here’s how he described what he saw and felt :
“I can see clouds. I can see everything. It’s beautiful.”
“The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.”
Getting the first man in space was and still is a monumental achievement in human history, although, Sergei Korolev, chief designer and scientist behind the whole Soviet space adventure, once remarked, they “should have sent a poet not a pilot”.
Reminds me of discussions with my clients around rethinking social media, especially away from just another broadcasting channel (ref : golden rule). Instead I get them to focus on exploring the opportunity to be themselves (humanisation of brands) and describe the process not product of their offerings.
The big hurdle is reversing the trend that social media sits within marketing or public relations, who, with their specific set of monologue communication skills around crafting messages for the masses or the gatekeepers of the many, fail to be conversational.
I’m not dismissing these professions just challenging the assumption to truly capture experiences you need more than simple descriptions and statements of fact but instead emotion, lyricism and sometimes (dare I say it) poetry.
(Extension and personal followup to my recent article on Why Social Media Shouldn’t Be Outsourced.)
Image credit
Origin of quote in title is from the Titanium play. Quote was also paraphrased in the film Contact.
Writing A Book About Social Media?
Been there. Done that.
Zen And The Heart Of Social Media is…
…a collection of mantras / insights / statements / principles / standards which have evolved through our experience of working with a cross-sector group of clients and which have their roots in a decade of online activity plus roles in the public & private sector”.
Currently playing around the penning the second version / follow up.
Read it online for FREE or buy the PDF / paper book version by clicking below:
