Trafcom News

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In these posts you’ll find news and opinion about strategies and tactics for communicating in person, in print and online, with a special emphasis on multimedia, including podcasting. If it’s your first time here, please consider subscribing via RSS or email so that you’ll be sure to catch every post (use the boxes on the right side of the screen). Thanks for stopping by!

Reasons to keep LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter updates separate

Social media sites are converging. Now you can easily update Facebook and Twitter at the same time, or LinkedIn and Twitter, or… You get the idea.

Speed and simplicity are wonderful, but what about communication? When I teach business writing, one of the first points I discuss with the class is the concept of knowing your audience and your goal. So I think of my online audience's needs and my own goals before I publish any status update anywhere.

In my world, LinkedIn relationships are the most formal; this place is strictly for business. Facebook is more social; many of my “friends” are actually family members and old schoolmates. Recently on Facebook I wrote about my aunt’s 95th birthday party and commented on someone’s new baby pictures.

Twitter is my online water cooler, research department and referral engine, all in one. Most of my Twitter updates are business-oriented (such as an invitation to my upcoming Podcasting 101 Webinar), but some are more personal, showing my authentic self, as they say. (I heard a great quote last year, and I wish I knew the author: Facebook represents the people you used to know; Twitter represents the people you’d like to get to know.)

If I posted the typical Twitter update on Facebook, most people would be flummoxed. The RTs and @ signs don’t contbribute much to readability when you’re not used to them.

Each of us uses these social networks slightly differently, but I doubt that many of us are speaking to the same audience in each arena.  At least for the foreseeable future, I’ll continue to update each site manually, with rare exception.

April Dunford discusses social media and product marketing

I was fortunate to meet the well-known product marketer April Dunford at ProductCamp Toronto last month. In the latest Trafcom News Podcast, April shares her thoughts on social media for product marketers.

We also get into an animated discussion  about who should be blogging about products – the PR department or the product people.

Hop on over to the Trafcom News Podcast to listen to this 15-minute podcast and read the show notes.

Photo of April Dunford by Calum Tsang. For more of Calum’s photos from the event go to Flickr.

How authentic should the CEO be on Facebook?

Here’s an interesting story for a Friday afternoon.


After Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre, a chain of boutique hotels in California, attended the Burning Man festival, some photos of him shirtless (and in one, wearing a tutu) appeared on Facebook. His blog post about the contretemps that followed is a great study in authenticity.

To me, the photos show the real Chip, and he is proud to be that guy. Most CEOs would not be too comfortable with such candid photos on Facebook, but he is. What do you think?

Why should your event be social-media friendly?

In a recent post, I wrote about HOW to make your meeting or conference social-media friendly. A commenter then asked for more information about WHY you would want to do so.

I have covered the “why” elsewhere in my PodcastYourConference site and in various presentations and Webinars, but here is a quick list of the reasons why you should consider incorporating social media into your event planning.

• Running an event blog, or blogging about the event on your regular blog, will help to publicize the event among potential registrants.
• Tweeting about the event can do the same. In fact, Twitter, which encourages re-tweeting, may help your message spread even more quickly than will your blog. Of course your content has to be interesting. You can’t keep rebroadcasting the same “Hey we’re having an event” message.
• Ditto with building your presence on Facebook or any other venue where your audience gathers online.
• Pre-event podcast interviews with key speakers offer potential attendees, exhibitors and sponsors a glimpse of what they might be experiencing in your event's keynote presentation, workshops, breakouts or other sessions. You’d be amazed at how much interest you can generate with a 10-minute audio podcast.
• Suppose you’re running an annual event, and your members, employees or customers are traveling from all over the world to be there. Do you think this is an opportune time to capture audio and video conversations, presentations, event feedback and so on? In my humble opinion, YES! The cost of recording, editing and publishing this content is likely to pale in comparison to your total event budget. USE this content now and in the future. Repurpose it. Repackage it. Make the most of it!
• If you take a few minutes to create an event hashtag (such as #iabc09), you make life easier for those who are blogging and tweeting about you. You also simplify your own tracking of the conversations about your event. Do you care what people are saying before, during and after your event? You should. This feedback is real and unvarnished, and can help you to organize even better meetings in the future.

Social media can help you to create buzz, boost registration numbers, foster a sense of community among attendees, entice exhibitors, and create relevant content for your Web site and marketing efforts.

Remember: Conversations about your organization and your event are happening, whether you’re listening to them or not. Be a part of them. Doing nothing is not a viable tactic.

RELATED POST: Please see Conference Podcasting: Why and how

Is your event social-media friendly?

Over the course of a typical year, I will attend several conferences, speak at a couple, and participate in others on behalf of clients – producing content, particularly podcasts. Since I’ve been in this arena for a few years, I’ve come to observe organizations that “get it” when it comes to employing social media and new media tools before, during and after an event. This "social-media friendly" list is by no means  exhaustive, but it can serve as food for thought when you’re planning your next conference.

• Is there an event blog and podcast? Have you produced audio and video content before the event, to build excitement? Do these include interviews with key speakers?
• Are you as the organizer posting updates on Twitter before, during and after the event? Are you encouraging registrants to do so as well?
• Are you creating audio podcasts and shooting video at your event? This can enhance the experience of those who are at the event, and help you to create marketing materials for next time.
• Have you considered using a tool like CoverItLive to encourage live blogging?
• Did you create a unique hashtag so that bloggers and Twitterers can use a uniform tag to refer to your event?
• Does the venue have strong, freely available wifi?
• Are there electrical outlets where attendees can recharge their laptops and other devices?

Please contribute your own comments!
You can find more content like this at PodcastYourConference.com.

Next Webinar: Podcasting 101 for Communicators and Marketers

Back by popular demand! Podcasting 101 for Communicators and Marketers.

Sign up for this free Web-based seminar to learn what podcasting is all about, including: how to find podcasts relevant to your interests; how organizations are using audio for internal and external communications; how to create a podcast; how to sell the concept of podcasting to management.

You need just a computer and an Internet connection to attend this free 45-minute session. It's at 2 p.m. Eastern on Thursday,  November 19, 2009. Just send an email to receive the login instructions.

LinkedIn 101 for entrepreneurs and business professionals

Last night at a meeting of the Halton-Peel Communications Association, several members ran table-top discussions and demonstrations of various social media and new media tools. Rob Clark talked about blogging, Sue Horner covered Twitter, and Joan Vinall-Cox showed audio and video for the Web. (Here's a link to Sue's blog post on her presentation. You can  see Joan's resources on this wiki.)

My topic was LinkedIn. Although I agree that it’s a powerful social network for entrepreneurs and business professionals, I wouldn’t call myself a power user. Still, I was able to show the basics, while learning a lot from the attendees. Here is a recap of the discussion.

LinkedIn for beginners

Build a better profile

• List your current and past positions and education. This helps people and opportunities find you.
• Be sure to add a profile photo!
• Add a summary paragraph and keywords.
• If you don’t have a Web site, you can use your public LinkedIn profile as your URL. (You can add a custom URL with your full name.)

Be sure your connections reflect your real-life network

• From Gmail, Outlook, Palm, or Mac Address Book, you can import the names of all the people you know who are already on LinkedIn. You can then select those you want to invite to join your network. (Connections are by mutual agreement.)
• You can also see colleagues and classmates who are already on LinkedIn.

Leverage your network

• Post a question in the Answers section and tap into the experts you’re connected to and even the entire LinkedIn network. Remember that asking a question can be just as valuable as answering one.
• Write recommendations for people whose work you admire. Many will reciprocate.
• Look up someone’s profile before you meet them. Learn their background and see who you know in common to get off to a fast start.
• Search for jobs, and use your connections to introduce you to the people who already work in your target organization.
• Add LinkedIn to your browser tool bar to make it easier to visit the site.

Bonus

During our discussion, I learned more about LinkedIn applications, where you can add things like “Company Buzz” to your LinkedIn home page, helping you to keep up with news about people in your organization or your clients, for example. The Amazon Reading List is a nice way to share your favourite books with colleagues.

To learn about LinkedIn, I suggest visiting the Learning Center at LinkedIn, which is well hidden at the bottom of the home page. On that page, also look for the special user guides.

 
And check out these blog posts:

Ten ways to use LinkedIn to find a job

Five steps to a fantastic LinkedIn profile

How to build your personal brand on LinkedIn

33 ways to use LinkedIn for business

100+ smart ways to use LinkedIn

Time wasting is a management issue, not a social-media problem

In my former life as a systems analyst, I had a cubicle neighbour named Norm. He was a friendly chap. Too friendly. For approximately two to three hours a day, Norm would visit the other analysts’ and programmers’ desks, to update us on his scintillating life: his award-winning meatloaf recipe, the latest sin committed by his greedy ex-wife, his mother’s health crises, and so on. A week after I joined the company, I wondered why the heck Norm was hired, and why he was still there.

Once, when he was away on vacation, one of his clients needed me to run a report. I turned it around in one day. When Norm returned, he was upset: “I tell them it takes a week! What can I do now that they know it can be finished in 24 hours!”

I left the company after a short time (can you wonder why?), so I don’t know what happened to Norm.

The issue is: Many organizations have a Norm or Norma or two. In today’s competitive economy, time wasting may be less overt, but it’s still happening.

Perhaps you’ve seen one of the many recent studies stating that organizations are losing millions to employees Twittering or Facebooking the day away.

These studies bother me for two reasons:

1. They seem to measure only “costs” or “wasted time,” not the benefits gained from employees’ presence on social networks.
2. They fail to account for the time the employer gains while the employee checks email at home, answers mobile phone calls at all hours, etc.

As my example shows, people who want to waste time will find ways to do so, whether they’re chatting on the phone all day, taking endless smoke breaks, playing computer solitaire, or excessively updating their Facebook status.

This is a people-management problem, not a social media problem.