This post is in memory of a dear friend who took the time to set up my computer for internet access. Then stepped back and smiled and said "There, now you can surf the world wide intenet." When I asked what does it do, he said ask it any question and you will find all kinds of information on anything. I could hardly believe it, so I asked about judo, kendo, and other obscure things, and sure enough there were whole sites out there. He then wryly said, "that will keep you busy for hours now."
He was so right. He was always kind to me, laughed at my lame jokes, buffered me and was a real friend. I will miss him, we went to work for separate companies after awhile, but I'm interviewing at the company he went to work for and thought of looking him up for a quick chat. I tried to find him through social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook before, but couldn't. That was odd, especially since he was an engineer, up on all the latest. Some people like to stay private though, so I didn't worry about it until now. I tried googling him and found very, very little information, which was really odd, but the little I did find, seemed to lead to articles, and when I opened them, they were obituaries. I had to read them several times over before it dawned on me that he really had died in 2007. No wonder my emails went unanswered and my attempts to locate him in social media was futile.
I was rocked, he was only 44, slim, tall, and rather athletic. He died of a heart attack. It just didn't seem real. There were years to catch up at some later time, when work and child raising didn't get in the way.
The lesson for today is, use social media, stay in touch with friends, especially those that matter and mean something to you. Reach out, don't be shy, and say hi to the people in your past that you are fond of. Share a little smile while you can. I just sent a few friends a note to just say hi. Maybe that's odd, but it would be a pity to not keep in touch when I feel they really do matter.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Creativity + Charm + HR recruiting
What does that equal? A very clever HR recruiting slideshow by Penguin, the publishing company, for a "Community Manager" aka Social Media Manager. click here for the link.
This is so clever because with this one slideshow, Penguin can clearly portray what type of environment it has to offer as well as posing the question "Do you fit in to our culture?" This is a great challenge to anyone who might be interested. It sure beats filling out the same application form, with cover letter attached, and crossed fingers. Besides, the penguin is cute, I wonder if it has a name. Wait a minute, that could be the trick! A FB page for name the penguin, tweets when the penguin is named, and how about blogs about naming the penguin.
Too bad I live and work in the US and not in the UK. sigh. That's okay, it does give me ideas to pull my own campaign together.
This is so clever because with this one slideshow, Penguin can clearly portray what type of environment it has to offer as well as posing the question "Do you fit in to our culture?" This is a great challenge to anyone who might be interested. It sure beats filling out the same application form, with cover letter attached, and crossed fingers. Besides, the penguin is cute, I wonder if it has a name. Wait a minute, that could be the trick! A FB page for name the penguin, tweets when the penguin is named, and how about blogs about naming the penguin.
Too bad I live and work in the US and not in the UK. sigh. That's okay, it does give me ideas to pull my own campaign together.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Awesome perspective from the inside
I really liked Larry Wocjiak's presentation tonight. The insight he provided from a decision maker's point of view was extremely important for this class.
On the one hand he could use his limited budget of $30,000 to buy a one month billboard ad at the exit of Ohio Street into Chicago. One month. Sure there's a lot of traffic passing by the billboard during that month, but how many will buy Yes vodka?
On the other hand, he spent less than $30,000 in three months sponsoring events, giveaways, coupons, etc. using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and multiple URL's. In addition, he was able to obtain more bang for marketing buck by paying for the initial click through, but once that person shared this with their friends, the friends click throughs didn't cost him. He was able to have various field marketing events with folks tweeting, providing likes to Facebook, and scanning QR codes. Due to many Facebook profiles containing age, sex, and interest information, Yes Vodka would be able to target specific ads for a specific demographic. Information like that is valuable and the ability to target specific ads to a target audience is a marketers dream come true.Results for this marketing campaign investment? 90,000 Facebook impressions with 20,000 Facebook followers, all at a cost of less than $30,000.
Since I did field marketing early in my career, I know and understand the types of events he puts on and must say, using social media tools is an incredibley efficient way to capture and continue to engage your target audience. It's not just giving out samples and leaving them with a coupon. Yes Vodka can continually engage that captured audience with promotions and events in the future.
Larry mentioned that the ROI results are n't definitive in social media, but he made an excellent point., the billboard can't prove ROI results either.
I really liked how Larry handled this and stays involved in the social media tools his company uses. This validates everything we read in class thus far. That the social media tools a company uses is successful when the company's decision makers and managers are involved.
On the one hand he could use his limited budget of $30,000 to buy a one month billboard ad at the exit of Ohio Street into Chicago. One month. Sure there's a lot of traffic passing by the billboard during that month, but how many will buy Yes vodka?
On the other hand, he spent less than $30,000 in three months sponsoring events, giveaways, coupons, etc. using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and multiple URL's. In addition, he was able to obtain more bang for marketing buck by paying for the initial click through, but once that person shared this with their friends, the friends click throughs didn't cost him. He was able to have various field marketing events with folks tweeting, providing likes to Facebook, and scanning QR codes. Due to many Facebook profiles containing age, sex, and interest information, Yes Vodka would be able to target specific ads for a specific demographic. Information like that is valuable and the ability to target specific ads to a target audience is a marketers dream come true.Results for this marketing campaign investment? 90,000 Facebook impressions with 20,000 Facebook followers, all at a cost of less than $30,000.
Since I did field marketing early in my career, I know and understand the types of events he puts on and must say, using social media tools is an incredibley efficient way to capture and continue to engage your target audience. It's not just giving out samples and leaving them with a coupon. Yes Vodka can continually engage that captured audience with promotions and events in the future.
Larry mentioned that the ROI results are n't definitive in social media, but he made an excellent point., the billboard can't prove ROI results either.
I really liked how Larry handled this and stays involved in the social media tools his company uses. This validates everything we read in class thus far. That the social media tools a company uses is successful when the company's decision makers and managers are involved.
Not sure what to do.
Due to my computer/mic issue, I wasn't able to participate in the Hangout with Margaret and Jeb. They really wanted to obtain the bonus points for using Hangouts, which is understandable. However, not only was I missing from the presentation, but the voice quality was not the best. This concerned me, but not them. I suggested to just post the script and wrote it out, but they insisted it would be okay. I'm still not convinced. Well, it's a team project and I've been outnumbered. Still....
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Computers!
Last night I tried to participate in the Hangout session with my group. I set up my computer with headphones and mic, and waited for the invite. When the invite came through, to my horror, the mic did not work. So I quickly switched to my netbook to log in. For some reason, the netbook, which I had set up with Internet Explorer, wouldn't recognize the Hangout invite. I tried switching back to the regular computer, set up with Mozilla Firefox, to see if the mic would work if I played with it.
Nope, nothing. I switched back to the netbook to see if setting up with Firefox would help, but it was taking too long and I had become impatient and a little panicked, so I switched back to the regular computer and tried to email both Margaret and Jeb to describe my problem. They were already in the midst of the presentation, so it was too late. I felt badly that I was letting them down. They did a fine job, but there was a little weakness in the voice quality on Jeb's part of the presentation.
I did get a replacement mic, but it's too late now. Who knew my mic would die the day I needed it most.
Nope, nothing. I switched back to the netbook to see if setting up with Firefox would help, but it was taking too long and I had become impatient and a little panicked, so I switched back to the regular computer and tried to email both Margaret and Jeb to describe my problem. They were already in the midst of the presentation, so it was too late. I felt badly that I was letting them down. They did a fine job, but there was a little weakness in the voice quality on Jeb's part of the presentation.
I did get a replacement mic, but it's too late now. Who knew my mic would die the day I needed it most.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
The blog I followed
Dan Zarella titled himself the social media scientist. Yet in his latest blog he ran a metric on popup success on himself. That is so far away from any scientific methods that I almost laughed out loud. How can anyone run a metric on himself, on a population of one, and then say that it is representative of all populations? I stopped following his blog because it lacks credibility and I don't have time to waste. There are so many more informative blogs out there.
A classmate pointed us to Lori Taylor's Social Caffeine. I'm liking it already. She has loads of great articles that will take some time to read through, and she is credible.
A classmate pointed us to Lori Taylor's Social Caffeine. I'm liking it already. She has loads of great articles that will take some time to read through, and she is credible.
Presume status
Presentations are time consuming, I know that from experience. So far, I'm not sure what the advantage of using Presume or Slide Rocket is compared to Slideshare. I still don't like Prezi.
I wanted to create a Presume for my career collateral to put on LinkedIn, but this is cumbersome and I'm not sure I will stick with it. We'll see.
I wanted to create a Presume for my career collateral to put on LinkedIn, but this is cumbersome and I'm not sure I will stick with it. We'll see.
Make it so
We're nearly done. I wrote up the strategy, tools, techniques, and timeline section. It probably needs another set of eyes to proof read it so I posted it yesterday in Dropbox. By the way, I love Dropbox. When managing virtual projects for non-profits, who don't have funds for collaboration tools, I often used Yahoo Groups. It was okay, not always trustworthy for sending out notices or posting quickly, but it was better than having a thousand emails to scan through.
I will recommend Dropbox for future collaboration projects, whether it is for team projects in class, or volunteer projects for non-profits. It has got to be the handiest, quickest way to share information. Diigo is definitely handy for keeping track of the numerous articles and blogs I follow. I would bookmark my favorites, but when my computer died or something happened, I could no longer access them. Sure, I don't visit everything, but I do have loads of ideas that I researched and would like to quickly access. I tried Delicious a while ago and found it useless. I'll try most things, but if it isn't quick and easy to learn, and if it isn't quick to implement, forget it. I don't have time to decipher a new way of doing something... make it quick and easy to implement and make sure it's convenient.
Back to the project. We will meet up tomorrow on Hangouts and discuss anything missing or that needs refinement before we submit.
Though the owner bailed out on implementing the social media strategy, I learned quite a lot about social media planning through this project. Already I have plans for the Chicago Japanese Historical Society, for whom I sit on the board. They have a great social media person, but she could use some help. Since I crafted the timeline calendar, reference, and campaign worksheets for Primrose Hill, I can easily change it to be used for their purposes and whatever social media tools they use and plan to use. The workbook on strategy was incredibly useful. Though at times it was repetitive, it guided me through out the process to create the framework. I really like that article. The other ones were very good too, but due to the time limit, I relied on the strategy workbook more.
I will recommend Dropbox for future collaboration projects, whether it is for team projects in class, or volunteer projects for non-profits. It has got to be the handiest, quickest way to share information. Diigo is definitely handy for keeping track of the numerous articles and blogs I follow. I would bookmark my favorites, but when my computer died or something happened, I could no longer access them. Sure, I don't visit everything, but I do have loads of ideas that I researched and would like to quickly access. I tried Delicious a while ago and found it useless. I'll try most things, but if it isn't quick and easy to learn, and if it isn't quick to implement, forget it. I don't have time to decipher a new way of doing something... make it quick and easy to implement and make sure it's convenient.
Back to the project. We will meet up tomorrow on Hangouts and discuss anything missing or that needs refinement before we submit.
Though the owner bailed out on implementing the social media strategy, I learned quite a lot about social media planning through this project. Already I have plans for the Chicago Japanese Historical Society, for whom I sit on the board. They have a great social media person, but she could use some help. Since I crafted the timeline calendar, reference, and campaign worksheets for Primrose Hill, I can easily change it to be used for their purposes and whatever social media tools they use and plan to use. The workbook on strategy was incredibly useful. Though at times it was repetitive, it guided me through out the process to create the framework. I really like that article. The other ones were very good too, but due to the time limit, I relied on the strategy workbook more.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Teamwork - project bump
Over the weekend I created a project plan and calendar and sent it to Margaret and Jeb to edit. I'm very happy with the plan and the calendar, it puts a good framework around this initiative. The calendar is somethign I always create for projects so that I have something to monitor, track and control. The strategy plan was a very helpful exercise for this project. Since PrimRose Hill is at the very beginning of their startup phase, defining the audience, activities, etc. was extremely important. It took a little thought and conjecture, but it's definitely an exercise anyone who is putting together a campaign would need to do.
I'm reusing the calendar I developed for my KitschnChic business that I hope to get off the ground. Twitter for KitschnChic is doing pretty good, but I have been neglecting it recently. I haven't started a Facebook page or Pinterest yet for it, but I do have one for myself. I'll go through the strategy and planning workbook for KitschnChic, and then use my calendar to plan out a year's worth of social media activity.
This is the part of projects I like, seeing something come together from nothing.
Stuart, the owner of Primrose Hill is being ambivalent about when and if he wants to start selling blankets. It's a bit upsetting but I told Margaret not to worry. We can still put together a robust campaign and program for him. We'll be without a before and after report, but we can definitely put together a strong program. Yes, it's a bit disappointing, but we have to do what we have to do.
I'm reusing the calendar I developed for my KitschnChic business that I hope to get off the ground. Twitter for KitschnChic is doing pretty good, but I have been neglecting it recently. I haven't started a Facebook page or Pinterest yet for it, but I do have one for myself. I'll go through the strategy and planning workbook for KitschnChic, and then use my calendar to plan out a year's worth of social media activity.
This is the part of projects I like, seeing something come together from nothing.
Stuart, the owner of Primrose Hill is being ambivalent about when and if he wants to start selling blankets. It's a bit upsetting but I told Margaret not to worry. We can still put together a robust campaign and program for him. We'll be without a before and after report, but we can definitely put together a strong program. Yes, it's a bit disappointing, but we have to do what we have to do.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Employee and Customers, keep 'em coming back for more
“You don’t make any money the first time someone comes to your business,
it’s when they come back over and over again, and social media helps
with making that happen.”
We watched a video this week with the guest speaker........... He mentioned the above statement to emphasize the importance of using social media to engage the customer and keep them engaged beyond the first purchase or contact. It would support the concept that social media is the tool to keep the customer coming back over and over again. Or not. The importance of using social media well, with timely interactions cannot be overstressed.
We watched a video this week with the guest speaker........... He mentioned the above statement to emphasize the importance of using social media to engage the customer and keep them engaged beyond the first purchase or contact. It would support the concept that social media is the tool to keep the customer coming back over and over again. Or not. The importance of using social media well, with timely interactions cannot be overstressed.
Employee groundswell
For some reason, I just loved this article. Learning that a grass roots level employee movement succeeded in making a company more efficient just made me smile. The two Best Buy employees that started this initiative had the right attitude. They gave employees a voice, found efficient and cost effective ways of serving customers and made day to day business more efficient. Who wouldn't love that!
The other stories also inspired me, and they all showed that upper management needs to be involved from a visibly active and visibly supportive role. No one will trust the systems and tools for social media unless they see that upper management fully endorses it. Each of the companies in the case study, Best Buy, Dell, Razorfish, etc. had full and visible support from upper management.
The one I thought was a clever twist on employee surveys was the one using the format similar to American Idol. Employee suggestions were voted on by the employee population and the ones with the most votes wins. So suggestions were not implemented by decisions from upper management, employees decided which made the most sense. That was so clever! Brilliant even. Total employee buy in to this because they not only made the suggestions , they all decided if this made sense. Management is there to listen, not rule. Bonus: it becomes a fun way to become involved and contribute. This is so brilliant on so many levels.
The other stories also inspired me, and they all showed that upper management needs to be involved from a visibly active and visibly supportive role. No one will trust the systems and tools for social media unless they see that upper management fully endorses it. Each of the companies in the case study, Best Buy, Dell, Razorfish, etc. had full and visible support from upper management.
The one I thought was a clever twist on employee surveys was the one using the format similar to American Idol. Employee suggestions were voted on by the employee population and the ones with the most votes wins. So suggestions were not implemented by decisions from upper management, employees decided which made the most sense. That was so clever! Brilliant even. Total employee buy in to this because they not only made the suggestions , they all decided if this made sense. Management is there to listen, not rule. Bonus: it becomes a fun way to become involved and contribute. This is so brilliant on so many levels.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Teamwork is working
After the initial glitch with our partners dropping out of the class, Jeb, Margaret and I have been able to quickly team together. Margaret and I met a couple of weeks ago to determine what we would like to do for a project. Shortly after that, Jeb joined the team and we had a conference call to coordinate our plans. Last week we had a conference call with the business owner of Primrose Hill, a startup in the real sense of the word.
Stuart, the owner of Primrose Hill, is a co-worker of Margaret's who has just recently decided to import baby blankets from England. The particular mill, G.H. Hurt, where these blankets have been made for the past 100 years is an established company with a strong reputation for high quality blankets and shawls. It's definitely a luxury item with pictures of the Queen using them to wrap the royal offspring and Victoria Beckham wrapping her babies in them.
Since Primrose Hill is a startup distributor for G.H. Hurt, and Stuart has not done this before, we have no website, no email address, no established customer base, in essence nothing at all to work with for the project. It's a bit scary, on the other hand there is a lot of opportunity to establish good practices.
Last night the team divided up the work, but we all conceded that we need to create some traction on this. We have a rough outline, some information to pursue and flesh out, some good ideas on paper, and some action items to do. Besides researching some potential avenues of Social Media, I'm putting together a schedule for the year to ensure there is some consistent engagement with fans, followers, and hopefully customers. We are currently setting up an email, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter account. Right now, we aren't sure about Flickr because we have no photos yet. It's something we need to work on with Stuart.
Stuart, the owner of Primrose Hill, is a co-worker of Margaret's who has just recently decided to import baby blankets from England. The particular mill, G.H. Hurt, where these blankets have been made for the past 100 years is an established company with a strong reputation for high quality blankets and shawls. It's definitely a luxury item with pictures of the Queen using them to wrap the royal offspring and Victoria Beckham wrapping her babies in them.
Since Primrose Hill is a startup distributor for G.H. Hurt, and Stuart has not done this before, we have no website, no email address, no established customer base, in essence nothing at all to work with for the project. It's a bit scary, on the other hand there is a lot of opportunity to establish good practices.
Last night the team divided up the work, but we all conceded that we need to create some traction on this. We have a rough outline, some information to pursue and flesh out, some good ideas on paper, and some action items to do. Besides researching some potential avenues of Social Media, I'm putting together a schedule for the year to ensure there is some consistent engagement with fans, followers, and hopefully customers. We are currently setting up an email, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter account. Right now, we aren't sure about Flickr because we have no photos yet. It's something we need to work on with Stuart.
Personal Branding works
This past week and a half since the webinar with Sima Dahl, I have been tweeting and re-tweeting regularly, leaving comments and likes on LinkedIn, and some "like" or comments on Facebook. I've also make more connections on LinkedIn. Early last week my Klout was a paltry 11, this week my Klout score doubled with just the 5 minutes a day that Sima talked about. It may have been more than 5 minutes, but it was steady and regular and the results showed.
I mentioned this to Sima when I invited her to join my network on LinkedIn. She was very positive and enthusiastic about it and proposed I write a guest blog, make a comment, etc., about my experience. These are definitely on my schedule of personal brand building, outside of class.
I mentioned this to Sima when I invited her to join my network on LinkedIn. She was very positive and enthusiastic about it and proposed I write a guest blog, make a comment, etc., about my experience. These are definitely on my schedule of personal brand building, outside of class.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Personal Branding
Sima Dahl's presentation on personal branding was extremely important for all professionals. It served as a great reminder that we all need to be constantly aware of what our brand looks like to anyone at anytime. With the tools of Social Media and the speed of technology, our brand can be built or destroyed in incremental messages. A post on Facebook, neglect on Twitter, or inactivity in LinkedIn can make or break a personal brand.
Just 5 minutes a day on LinkedIn to reach out to someone, leave a comment, update a profile goes far in building a personal brand. That's easy enough to remember and easy enough to do. It's already become my mantra. I'm checking Twitter more often and seeing what content I can retweet, reply, or create. Just 5 minutes. I now check on Facebook, but I've been more careful of what I post there due to their not so private policy. Which leads me to Google + . If only I could get more friends to use this.
My little project is to create a Presume or a Slideshare as part of my resume and career search tool. I will be posting this on my LinkedIn. It something that conveys a couple of messages: Darlene is skilled and aware of Social Media tools, she's up to date on the latest tools, she's creative, and has a fresh approach. That should be a more interesting approach for recruiters.
Just 5 minutes a day on LinkedIn to reach out to someone, leave a comment, update a profile goes far in building a personal brand. That's easy enough to remember and easy enough to do. It's already become my mantra. I'm checking Twitter more often and seeing what content I can retweet, reply, or create. Just 5 minutes. I now check on Facebook, but I've been more careful of what I post there due to their not so private policy. Which leads me to Google + . If only I could get more friends to use this.
My little project is to create a Presume or a Slideshare as part of my resume and career search tool. I will be posting this on my LinkedIn. It something that conveys a couple of messages: Darlene is skilled and aware of Social Media tools, she's up to date on the latest tools, she's creative, and has a fresh approach. That should be a more interesting approach for recruiters.
Googling
I love Google. Always have. Always will. I can say that with all confidence because they will always innovate and keep it fresh. Right now, I'm trying to get more friends to use Google + because FB just scares me with their privacy invasive and pervasive terms. It would also be nice to have just one place to go and one place to track my activities.
This week we watched Ted Talks presentation with Google founders Sergei and Larry. It's interesting how they have attributed their entrepreneurial philosophy and work atmosphere to their Montessori style schooling. This makes it a cornerstone of their company's personality, which in turn will keep them innovating and exploring. Is it necessary to their culture to have 20% of workers time available for exploration? I believe so. As professionals, we rarely close the door and walk away at 5PM, often times we relate our personal times to our work in some indirect way, and sometimes directly. To designate a set time at work to explore something a worker would love to explore will only insure they will keep their work in their thoughts after 5PM. Each of us is a whole unit, not bits and pieces held together with one body.
Comparing some of the Social Media tools, I found Google + would be nice if I could get more of my friends to switch. Google Hangouts is also nicer than Skype, which I have used for years. I never liked the way Skype is warbly and drops calls all the time. Free was the only benefit to using Skype. I didn't like Prezi, it takes too much time to get used to, and it's not fun to watch with the zooming in and out.
This week we watched Ted Talks presentation with Google founders Sergei and Larry. It's interesting how they have attributed their entrepreneurial philosophy and work atmosphere to their Montessori style schooling. This makes it a cornerstone of their company's personality, which in turn will keep them innovating and exploring. Is it necessary to their culture to have 20% of workers time available for exploration? I believe so. As professionals, we rarely close the door and walk away at 5PM, often times we relate our personal times to our work in some indirect way, and sometimes directly. To designate a set time at work to explore something a worker would love to explore will only insure they will keep their work in their thoughts after 5PM. Each of us is a whole unit, not bits and pieces held together with one body.
Comparing some of the Social Media tools, I found Google + would be nice if I could get more of my friends to switch. Google Hangouts is also nicer than Skype, which I have used for years. I never liked the way Skype is warbly and drops calls all the time. Free was the only benefit to using Skype. I didn't like Prezi, it takes too much time to get used to, and it's not fun to watch with the zooming in and out.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Cisco's Social Media
I had a fascinating interview with Kevin Petschow,
He provided some excellent Cisco sources to reference for my interview. Cisco has a whole website full of Social Media information. It's very generously filled with blogs, links to their Twitter, Facebook, YouTube pages, but more importantly it also has quite a bit of information on social media itself. Coming from a social media award winning company who has been engaged in this since 2007, the information is a treasure trove of tips and guidelines.
The underlying lesson is to keep the audience engaged, often, predictably, and in various mediums. Listen to them, respond, provide worthwhile content, and stay in touch. While they have a whole team of professional content developers, as well as executives that write some of the blogs, the important thing is that they are constantly engaged with their audience. Not every business has the breadth of resources available to them, but they do have a few minutes throughout the day to tweet, touch base with someone on LinkedIn, "like" a posting on Facebook, dash off a few lines on a blog with a picture, and maybe a quick YouTube tip of the week. Who knows? Someone may be watching and feel compelled to engage the company even further, maybe buy something or refer business to them. The important thing is to stay in touch on a regular basis.
I will keep checking on Cisco's social media page to see what lessons they have to share as social media becomes ever more important in the world of commerce.
He provided some excellent Cisco sources to reference for my interview. Cisco has a whole website full of Social Media information. It's very generously filled with blogs, links to their Twitter, Facebook, YouTube pages, but more importantly it also has quite a bit of information on social media itself. Coming from a social media award winning company who has been engaged in this since 2007, the information is a treasure trove of tips and guidelines.
The underlying lesson is to keep the audience engaged, often, predictably, and in various mediums. Listen to them, respond, provide worthwhile content, and stay in touch. While they have a whole team of professional content developers, as well as executives that write some of the blogs, the important thing is that they are constantly engaged with their audience. Not every business has the breadth of resources available to them, but they do have a few minutes throughout the day to tweet, touch base with someone on LinkedIn, "like" a posting on Facebook, dash off a few lines on a blog with a picture, and maybe a quick YouTube tip of the week. Who knows? Someone may be watching and feel compelled to engage the company even further, maybe buy something or refer business to them. The important thing is to stay in touch on a regular basis.
I will keep checking on Cisco's social media page to see what lessons they have to share as social media becomes ever more important in the world of commerce.
Friday, July 20, 2012
21st Century Resume, Presume
Hannah Phan landed a job by exercising creativity, initiative, and a bit of social media know how. She had been searching for a job for awhile and found Sliderocket to be an up and coming company. She used their product to create a resume, then tweeted it to the CMO of Sliderocket. he receives it as he is disembarking from a plane, and tweets back to her immediately that they need to talk. When they do meet, Hannah is offered a job, and she heads up a new product using Sliderocket, Presume. See the link below for her blog and her Presume: http://bit.ly/n3oAN1
When I saw this, I understand why the CMO was blown away. It was a clever use of the product, it conveyed a message : Hannah Phan is talented, creative, smart, and has initiative. Wait a minute, me too! I think Sliderocket might just be for me. So my plans this weekend are to update my resume, see what can be incorporated into a Sliderocket Presume, post my Presume on LinkedIn. Apparently Sliderocket also tracks metrics of how often your presume has been reviewed. That fulfills a missing link in job search. No one really knows how often your resume is actually reviewed. I like that feature. I wonder how I can incorporate this into an automated "Talent Acquisition" system. Probably as an attachment after filling out the usual form. Would they actually open it and look? Probably not, but someone might catch this if I posted it on my profile in LinkedIn.
Sliderocket has 3 templates on their site. I'll play with the one I feel best fits my situation now, the one for the new MBA, graduate student, and I might build one for the professional Presume.
Here's a YouTube demonstration of how to use SlideRocket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0jqGlx9x8Y&feature=youtu.be
Note that SlideRocket has 35 videos on YouTube, making learning more about the capabilities of their product easy to learn, and share. I'm thinking of several people that need to know about this. But first me. I need to see what my new Presume will be like.
When I saw this, I understand why the CMO was blown away. It was a clever use of the product, it conveyed a message : Hannah Phan is talented, creative, smart, and has initiative. Wait a minute, me too! I think Sliderocket might just be for me. So my plans this weekend are to update my resume, see what can be incorporated into a Sliderocket Presume, post my Presume on LinkedIn. Apparently Sliderocket also tracks metrics of how often your presume has been reviewed. That fulfills a missing link in job search. No one really knows how often your resume is actually reviewed. I like that feature. I wonder how I can incorporate this into an automated "Talent Acquisition" system. Probably as an attachment after filling out the usual form. Would they actually open it and look? Probably not, but someone might catch this if I posted it on my profile in LinkedIn.
Sliderocket has 3 templates on their site. I'll play with the one I feel best fits my situation now, the one for the new MBA, graduate student, and I might build one for the professional Presume.
Here's a YouTube demonstration of how to use SlideRocket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0jqGlx9x8Y&feature=youtu.be
Note that SlideRocket has 35 videos on YouTube, making learning more about the capabilities of their product easy to learn, and share. I'm thinking of several people that need to know about this. But first me. I need to see what my new Presume will be like.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Condoleezza Rice - Former Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice - Former Secretary of State
The online publisher "The Little Pink Book" sends emails and posts articles on Facebook. I came across this article on Facebook.
Regardless of her politics, whether you voted for her boss or not, she is is a woman worth listening to and watching. In this article she describes the hurdles of race and gender that she overcame and how she prevailed by "being twice as good." She briefly described her upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama and her philosophy on women becoming empowered. This story should be shared with our daughters.
The online publisher "The Little Pink Book" sends emails and posts articles on Facebook. I came across this article on Facebook.
Regardless of her politics, whether you voted for her boss or not, she is is a woman worth listening to and watching. In this article she describes the hurdles of race and gender that she overcame and how she prevailed by "being twice as good." She briefly described her upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama and her philosophy on women becoming empowered. This story should be shared with our daughters.
Friday, July 13, 2012
"Damage Control" vs. fixing the problem
Politicians and companies have to remove those two words from their vocabulary and mindset. They have to stop letting PR folks run the situation and put real strategists and really bright managers in place to fix a highly visible situation. Yeah, I know it sounds so cool to use two word sound bites to convey an idea, but it's just jargon "damage control." No real meaning behind those words if the problem for the consumer or constituent is not fixed.
The typical consumer today is a bit jaded, economically fatigued, and a bit skeptical of any statement by company or government officials. So the term "damage control" has a totally different subtext to the man or woman on the street. "Damage Control" means another excuse laden, vague promise making, and/or sketchy side stepping PR moment(s). It just means "protect the company or the politician with words and promises or even lies if need be." The amazing part is that companies and politicians and their PR strategists don't seem to understand: no one is buying a story line, people want action and remedies, not stories.
The BP parody video was wonderful. For some reason, breaking the whole incident into something much smaller that can be more easily grasped, showed even more poignantly the ridiculously ineffective "damage control" tactics. It was so apparently simple, just remedy the situation by cleaning up the spill. Done.
The "United Broke my Guitar" video was again so simple to remedy. Reimburse him for the guitar when you broke it. Done.
The Ralph Lauren "Made in China" uniforms for US Olympic athletes at the summer 2014 games. Simple solution, work like mad to find a US vendor to get uniforms made and sent to the athletes. With unemployment so high, bet there are vendors out there willing to work this out with Ralph Lauren. What did Ralph do, issue a promise for 2014. Really Ralph? All words and no action? It's a new day, a different economy, and a whole new game. People are tired, they're angry, they're broke. Now you insult their intelligence. Not a good PR strategy.
Sure, there are logistical nightmares to work with the vendor, sew new garments, and have them shipped in time. Maybe it wouldn't get there in time, Maybe they could if they paid enough folks, lost some profits, but just made it. Maybe it would get there in time for the closing ceremony. Maybe that's too much integrity to do the right thing. It's much easier to issue a quick PR statement "For more than 45 years Ralph Lauren has built a brand that embodies the best of American quality and design rooted in the rich heritage of our country." No one is believing that one Ralph, after all the label says "Made in China."
If they fix the problem, the issues don't go viral. Even if an issue goes viral, as in the Ralph Lauren case, had they said they were working with XYZ company for Made In USA uniforms to send replacement uniforms immediately the remedy would have been the damage control.
PR statements do not equal damage control
Remedy the situation/problem equals damage control
It also takes the wind out of a complaint. Just saying.
The typical consumer today is a bit jaded, economically fatigued, and a bit skeptical of any statement by company or government officials. So the term "damage control" has a totally different subtext to the man or woman on the street. "Damage Control" means another excuse laden, vague promise making, and/or sketchy side stepping PR moment(s). It just means "protect the company or the politician with words and promises or even lies if need be." The amazing part is that companies and politicians and their PR strategists don't seem to understand: no one is buying a story line, people want action and remedies, not stories.
The BP parody video was wonderful. For some reason, breaking the whole incident into something much smaller that can be more easily grasped, showed even more poignantly the ridiculously ineffective "damage control" tactics. It was so apparently simple, just remedy the situation by cleaning up the spill. Done.
The "United Broke my Guitar" video was again so simple to remedy. Reimburse him for the guitar when you broke it. Done.
The Ralph Lauren "Made in China" uniforms for US Olympic athletes at the summer 2014 games. Simple solution, work like mad to find a US vendor to get uniforms made and sent to the athletes. With unemployment so high, bet there are vendors out there willing to work this out with Ralph Lauren. What did Ralph do, issue a promise for 2014. Really Ralph? All words and no action? It's a new day, a different economy, and a whole new game. People are tired, they're angry, they're broke. Now you insult their intelligence. Not a good PR strategy.
Sure, there are logistical nightmares to work with the vendor, sew new garments, and have them shipped in time. Maybe it wouldn't get there in time, Maybe they could if they paid enough folks, lost some profits, but just made it. Maybe it would get there in time for the closing ceremony. Maybe that's too much integrity to do the right thing. It's much easier to issue a quick PR statement "For more than 45 years Ralph Lauren has built a brand that embodies the best of American quality and design rooted in the rich heritage of our country." No one is believing that one Ralph, after all the label says "Made in China."
If they fix the problem, the issues don't go viral. Even if an issue goes viral, as in the Ralph Lauren case, had they said they were working with XYZ company for Made In USA uniforms to send replacement uniforms immediately the remedy would have been the damage control.
PR statements do not equal damage control
Remedy the situation/problem equals damage control
It also takes the wind out of a complaint. Just saying.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Twitter overload
Whoa, I just spent a couple of hours reading tweets, following links, following followers, finding new folks to follow (like my illiteration?), and generally spending way too much time on Twitter. I did find interesting articles, and that is the addictive part. There's a lot of interesting articles. They are like rabbits, my browser was soon full of tabs of interesting articles. I'm taking a break right now to blog about this.
No wonder I see so many people in the head down, phone in hand posture. They are absorbed in their Twitter account.
I'm giving it a rest for the day to play with Diigo and Evernote.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Tools: Dropbox and Evernote - Wow!
I just signed up for Dropbox and Evernote tonight and I am so excited. I love this cloud computing stuff. I'm thinking of all kinds of personal, business, project management uses for this. They are both so incredibly versatile. I have to let everyone know about it. If they would just try it they too could think of all these possible convenient uses.
Dropbox: My daughter's Mac recently crashed and she lost all her photos. She had some on Picassa, but not all. Mostly it was her older files. My own computer crashed in May and my email on Yahoo was hacked in June (4 times). I lost everything going back to March on my Yahoo account. It would have been easy to save files on Dropbox. I could then access them on various devices, even at school or the library, switching easily to job applications or to homework assignments. It's so easy. The best part is the SSL security. With SSL (Secure Socket Layer) you know this is going to be secure. No more fretting over jump drives or thumb drives and forgetting them, losing them, or destroying them. Just access your Dropbox account through the web. Slick.
This makes a great collaboration tool. All anyone needs to do is set up a folder for the project and allow team members access to it. Great collaboration tool. It would make it easy to work on documents that need everyone's input and/or approval.
Evernote: Whoa, the possibilities are incredible. I imagine researching antiques, for example, Tiffany lamps. I keep all my notes in Evernote, including pricing, descriptions, pictures, and warnings about fakes. Then let's say I'm at a rummage sale and stumble upon something that looks like a Tiffany lamp. I pull out my smartphone or iPad and look up my notes about it in Evernote. Then I snatch up the lamp before anyone else realizes that this is the one long last lamp that is so rare no one else realized it. (Well, this is my example and I can have fun with a little fantasy, right?). That 's one use of Evernote.
I can also envision this being used to manage projects, homework, recipes, scanned documents (to finally archive my huge paperwork mountain), and various things I come across and want to note. No more little snip its of notes tucked into my purse, Filofax, desk, bulletin board, Rolodex (yes, I have one that I scrapbooked up into a very girly looking one), and lots more. This is probably the one tool that will free me from paper and yet give me access to whatever I feel needs to be archived - just not in my little place.
What am I going to do with all this free space once the papers are archived? More craft and antiques! Yeah! The 21st century technology allows me to collect 19th century antiques. There's poetic justice in this.
Dropbox: My daughter's Mac recently crashed and she lost all her photos. She had some on Picassa, but not all. Mostly it was her older files. My own computer crashed in May and my email on Yahoo was hacked in June (4 times). I lost everything going back to March on my Yahoo account. It would have been easy to save files on Dropbox. I could then access them on various devices, even at school or the library, switching easily to job applications or to homework assignments. It's so easy. The best part is the SSL security. With SSL (Secure Socket Layer) you know this is going to be secure. No more fretting over jump drives or thumb drives and forgetting them, losing them, or destroying them. Just access your Dropbox account through the web. Slick.
This makes a great collaboration tool. All anyone needs to do is set up a folder for the project and allow team members access to it. Great collaboration tool. It would make it easy to work on documents that need everyone's input and/or approval.
Evernote: Whoa, the possibilities are incredible. I imagine researching antiques, for example, Tiffany lamps. I keep all my notes in Evernote, including pricing, descriptions, pictures, and warnings about fakes. Then let's say I'm at a rummage sale and stumble upon something that looks like a Tiffany lamp. I pull out my smartphone or iPad and look up my notes about it in Evernote. Then I snatch up the lamp before anyone else realizes that this is the one long last lamp that is so rare no one else realized it. (Well, this is my example and I can have fun with a little fantasy, right?). That 's one use of Evernote.
I can also envision this being used to manage projects, homework, recipes, scanned documents (to finally archive my huge paperwork mountain), and various things I come across and want to note. No more little snip its of notes tucked into my purse, Filofax, desk, bulletin board, Rolodex (yes, I have one that I scrapbooked up into a very girly looking one), and lots more. This is probably the one tool that will free me from paper and yet give me access to whatever I feel needs to be archived - just not in my little place.
What am I going to do with all this free space once the papers are archived? More craft and antiques! Yeah! The 21st century technology allows me to collect 19th century antiques. There's poetic justice in this.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Twitter
Twitter's revenue has been a concern, they keep posting loses each quarter. Yet VC's are still plowing money into the company. They obviously believe Twitter is on the right track. How they plan to monetize their business model is not apparent to anyone outside the company. They examples of marketing campaign successes, such as the Paramount summer blockbuster movie, Virgin mobile, and Audi, are very exciting. It shows the potential to reach the right buying audience in a short "act now" campaign. I love it.
In the meantime as they work out creating more marketing campaigns and building up their base of advertisers, they continue to build their subscriber base. True. If their subscriber base wasn't so large and rich in diversity, the campaigns wouldn't have worked. The campaigns wouldn't have worked if there wasn't a joint effort to advertise them in different medias. But what a success.
Lesson Learned: I may not be crazy about Twitter, but as someone who knows the value of marketing, I will stay involved and keep an eye on how this develops as a marketing tool.
Blogging
Blogging, both internal and external is another social media tool used by large corporations, as in our business case study of DRK. I loved the progressive and open attitude of Rangaswami. I also loved how he allowed employees of various work groups to choose their OS system, PC or Mac, and to choose their own programs. He called it a natural selection process. I call that listening to your employees so they can effectively get their job done. Love it.
Internal blogging is something I wish other companies utilized. I'm always coming up with efficient work arounds, new uses for programs to make the job easier, and work processes to make the job easier. I would gladly share this with others, and I have. My processes have become part of company policies, used to customize programs, and helped others streamline and organize their work. Some of those folks have worked in their position 17 years and started adopting my methods. I bet there are others out there with great ideas that could make everyone's job better.
External blogging would be nice to see as well. When blogging first became more popular among companies, they would hire someone else to write the blog for the president, VP of X"YZ or some other executive. You could always tell. That's not really the intent of blogging, but if it makes them feel like their doing something edgy, I guess it works. When Warren Buffet writes his annual letter to stockholders, everybody is holding their breath waiting for the letter. It is so meaningful for stockholders and non-stockholders to hear what the financial genius of the 20th and 21st century has to say. If he had a blog, imagine the traffic and visits to that blog! It could be another source of revenue for Berkshire Hathaway. Hey, maybe I can propose this to Warren and get a job managing it. I better study hard in this course then.
Lesson Learned: Blogs are effective collaboration tools and motivate employees. I also learned that a leader can be bold and trust his employees to do the right thing. I liked Rangaswami.
Twitter's revenue has been a concern, they keep posting loses each quarter. Yet VC's are still plowing money into the company. They obviously believe Twitter is on the right track. How they plan to monetize their business model is not apparent to anyone outside the company. They examples of marketing campaign successes, such as the Paramount summer blockbuster movie, Virgin mobile, and Audi, are very exciting. It shows the potential to reach the right buying audience in a short "act now" campaign. I love it.
In the meantime as they work out creating more marketing campaigns and building up their base of advertisers, they continue to build their subscriber base. True. If their subscriber base wasn't so large and rich in diversity, the campaigns wouldn't have worked. The campaigns wouldn't have worked if there wasn't a joint effort to advertise them in different medias. But what a success.
Lesson Learned: I may not be crazy about Twitter, but as someone who knows the value of marketing, I will stay involved and keep an eye on how this develops as a marketing tool.
Blogging
Blogging, both internal and external is another social media tool used by large corporations, as in our business case study of DRK. I loved the progressive and open attitude of Rangaswami. I also loved how he allowed employees of various work groups to choose their OS system, PC or Mac, and to choose their own programs. He called it a natural selection process. I call that listening to your employees so they can effectively get their job done. Love it.
Internal blogging is something I wish other companies utilized. I'm always coming up with efficient work arounds, new uses for programs to make the job easier, and work processes to make the job easier. I would gladly share this with others, and I have. My processes have become part of company policies, used to customize programs, and helped others streamline and organize their work. Some of those folks have worked in their position 17 years and started adopting my methods. I bet there are others out there with great ideas that could make everyone's job better.
External blogging would be nice to see as well. When blogging first became more popular among companies, they would hire someone else to write the blog for the president, VP of X"YZ or some other executive. You could always tell. That's not really the intent of blogging, but if it makes them feel like their doing something edgy, I guess it works. When Warren Buffet writes his annual letter to stockholders, everybody is holding their breath waiting for the letter. It is so meaningful for stockholders and non-stockholders to hear what the financial genius of the 20th and 21st century has to say. If he had a blog, imagine the traffic and visits to that blog! It could be another source of revenue for Berkshire Hathaway. Hey, maybe I can propose this to Warren and get a job managing it. I better study hard in this course then.
Lesson Learned: Blogs are effective collaboration tools and motivate employees. I also learned that a leader can be bold and trust his employees to do the right thing. I liked Rangaswami.
I started a Diigo account a while ago, and didn't understand how to
use it or the benefits of using it. This past week, I've had a chance
to explore it a bit more and can see the benefit in using it as a
repository for all the professional articles I've been coming across.
In the past I would bookmark them. Bookmarking is extremely limited
because we can lose them if the computer crashes, change jobs, or switch
computers.
I've also had a Twitter account for about a year. I'm not very active in checking it or tweeting. The content can be limited depending on who we follow. For instance, I follow Guy Kawasaki who tweets all day long. Sometimes the content is interesting and worth following, sometimes it's irrelevant. Following tweets can be beneficial if the tweets are relevant to career or business interests, for the most part, I've noticed people using it to promote their own business activity that is not relevant to me.
Facebook is a nice way to stay connected to old friends, and to reconnect with long lost friends, but I have viewed glimpses into people's lives or thought processes that I find draining. For example, there are several people who post one sided arguments with innuendo's to a certain someone, etc. etc. I am not interested in this nor have the time to read this. I've also been frightened by an old colleague who was extremely down right after the holiday due to a divorce filing. He sounded suicidal. Then in two weeks, he posted he was dating, a week later he was in a relationship, and for the past couple of months he posts all his dating photos, and trips with her. This is a little weird and almost manic/depressive. Did I want to know he was unstable? No. Did I care? Only when I thought he would kill himself. It's very uncomfortable seeing posts like this.
LinkedIn has been developing into quite a nice tool. As an early adopter, hardly anyone was on LinkedIn during the early days, and during that time, I found the tool to be useless and pointless. Eventually more people started using it and the possibilities opened up. Now I connect with peers from previous companies, students, and professionals in the industry. I'm finding business articles of interest and leads for jobs. Of course, one still needs to be wary of accepting whatever is written, not everything is objective or well researched.
I've also had a Twitter account for about a year. I'm not very active in checking it or tweeting. The content can be limited depending on who we follow. For instance, I follow Guy Kawasaki who tweets all day long. Sometimes the content is interesting and worth following, sometimes it's irrelevant. Following tweets can be beneficial if the tweets are relevant to career or business interests, for the most part, I've noticed people using it to promote their own business activity that is not relevant to me.
Facebook is a nice way to stay connected to old friends, and to reconnect with long lost friends, but I have viewed glimpses into people's lives or thought processes that I find draining. For example, there are several people who post one sided arguments with innuendo's to a certain someone, etc. etc. I am not interested in this nor have the time to read this. I've also been frightened by an old colleague who was extremely down right after the holiday due to a divorce filing. He sounded suicidal. Then in two weeks, he posted he was dating, a week later he was in a relationship, and for the past couple of months he posts all his dating photos, and trips with her. This is a little weird and almost manic/depressive. Did I want to know he was unstable? No. Did I care? Only when I thought he would kill himself. It's very uncomfortable seeing posts like this.
LinkedIn has been developing into quite a nice tool. As an early adopter, hardly anyone was on LinkedIn during the early days, and during that time, I found the tool to be useless and pointless. Eventually more people started using it and the possibilities opened up. Now I connect with peers from previous companies, students, and professionals in the industry. I'm finding business articles of interest and leads for jobs. Of course, one still needs to be wary of accepting whatever is written, not everything is objective or well researched.
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