EyeSee

Back by popular demand, I will be offering another workshop in February, called Soical Media Fundamentals for Business. This is a half day workshop that is geared towards Government, businesses, executives or anyone wondering what this all means and how it fits into a business.

This one half-day Social Media for Business teaches:

• History and evolution of Social Media
• Commonly used terms and definitions
• Social Networks
• Blogs
• Twitter (microblogs)
• Social Bookmarks
• Photo sharing
• Video sharing
• Podcasting
• Social websites
• Case studies

Participants will leave with a good understanding on what social media is and how to use it from a business perspective. They will be inspired to be creative and use their new found knowledge to use these technologies to communicate with their peers, customers and more.

Space is limited and is available on a first come and first served basis so sigh up to not be disappointed.

Happy New Year I hope you took time to eat drink and be merry. 2009 was a challenging year for many with the economic crisis still having it’s effects on businesses. This year should be better for everyone.

As a social media strategist I find that customers generally ask the same questions. During the course of the year I will be answering these questions. The biggest one that I will discuss today is the business case for participating in social media.

My answer to that is that it is no longer “should we participate” but how should we participate. Or communications mix has increased significantly since the old days.  We now have

• print – newspapers, trade publications, magazines
• radio
• TV
• website
• micro sites – site for a specific product or promotion
• social networks – Facebook, LinkedIn
• micro blogs – Twitter, Identi.ca
• video sharing – YouTube, Vemio, Blip.tv
• photo sharing – Flickr
• wiki – pb works, Tiki wiki, media wiki

As a communicator it’s now a challenge to pick the right channels to participate in. Although most of these are free your time or your employees’ time isn’t. There is no one tool and it’s usually a combination of tools that are needed in order to communicate effectively.

Communication can be internal within an organization (intranet) or externally. If it’s external communication then it’s easy however if you are interested in internal communications then Facebook, YouTube, Flickr are not the appropriate channels for you.  There are open source and commercial applications that enable you to achieve the same goals.

So what facts do I have to back my claim? Just take a look at your habits at work and in your personal lives.

• How many emails do you get per day? How many of them are directly related to what you are doing vs spam?
• How much mail do you get? How much of it do you read vs put in the recycle?
• Where do you spend your spare time? Is it online playing games, looking at videos, photos etc…

The answers to this is pretty simple we have way too much stuff to read whether it’s email, bills, letters etc. therefore we are very good at filtering. So then as a business who needs to communicate externally with customers or internally with employees how do you get your message through?

It’s through use of these social media tools, photos, video and audio.

I will leave you with this.   Pepsi Skips the Super Bowl, Spends on Social Media Instead!!!!

Quotable quotes

Social media is the invitation to your house party!  (Your house is your website)

The importance of tagging…

“Google juice”

diigo – social bookmarks – a way of tapping into social knowledge-base of Web content

Tip: for your company’s wiki page don’t have it written by the marketing dept. Have employees, customers do it instead – for a better sense of authenticity.

Blogs – company blogs should be integrated into the company website rather than being standalone

Social networks – Facebook. How do businesses participate

- pages – access to ad network

- groups

Remember there are other social networks besides Facebook and LinkedIn, think about where your markets are and find out which SNs are strongly present.

47% of all online users in Cda are on Facebook

Microblogs e.g Twitter. Good for marketing research.

It’s social media so start using the media!

Understand the psychology of social media. e.g. Intel put up photos of their trade show people and speeches because seeing photos brings people closer, makes the customer link stronger.

Use a video to increase survey participationl

Natasha d’Souza is giving a talk about Social Media at the ClockTower Pub. It’s the perfect venue, cozy for our friendly little gathering.

We’ve just finished an ice breaking game – everyone was an ‘ingredient’ in a recipe and we had to find our fellow ingredients to make a recipe for hot dogs and hamburgers.

I’m quickly drafted to be part of a team and it looks like we’re winners.  But now it turns out that I’m the wrong ingredient!  I get kicked out of the recipe team. (snif!)

The presentation is starting.

Natasha’s got a cool idea to get us involved in social media.  She’s got us using vidcams and digital cameras, blogs and tweets during the seminar.

Everyone is introducing themselves and other folks are taking pictures and video!  We’re hearing some amazing career stories:  investors, NGO people, quadrilingualists, PR, high tech, National defense, HR, consulting, startups, fitness.

More snacks have arrived!

/wynn

I am very excited as I am going to be at GTEC on October 7th this time it’s to introduce a very interesting concept that is called Social Signage. This is a joint venture between Corner Portal and Virtual EyeSee.

This concept is geared towards museums and galleries to drive new traffic to their exhibits. Typical visitors generally fall into 3 categories

• tourists
• members
• occasional visitors

Most of these institutions are very heavily funded by various foundations and tax dollars. The revenue generated by visitors is minimal. This has been the model for quite some time but Social Signage aims to change this by getting more people into the museums.

It’s all based on connecting with the community by interacting and sharing their comments during their visit. The end result is for a more dynamic museum/gallery visit.

So if you are in the business of Museums or Galleries and want to know how to get more people through those doors, then RSVP to GTEC@cornerportal.com

Date: October 7, 2009
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Maple Room, Executive Meeting Centre, Westin Hotel

What makes a social network great asides from the obvious are the little touches that are added to make updating you status easy. In the age of less is more it’s nice to have these add-ons.

Ok I am going to cut to the chase, it’s the @mentions or new tagging feature from Facebook. If you are a regular Twitter user you are very familiar with the @username, as a way of replying to the people you are having a conversation with.

This feature is somewhat similar to Twitter however it’s not only user name based but contextual as well. Here’s an example of what I am talking about. Say I want to @ a particular friend who’s name begins with A.

Click on the wall tab and type the @ followed by the word you want to use, in this case it’s @a.

A drop down window will be opened with all the relevant info. related to a.  i.e. Pages, groups, events etc.. that contain a. Keep typing the rest of the word until you find the relevant item.

Click on the item. There you have it. It’s very easy.

So if you have been to an event and want to comment on it use the @mentions feature. If you have a comment for a number of friends then this is a great feature to use as it saves you writing on multiple walls at the same time.

Go ahead it and get @crazy in Facebook.

Several weeks ago I was invited to create a 3 minute video about the use of social media to engage employees. I did create the video however it’s guaranteed to give someone a seizure, my video editing skills need much improvement. It’s on my to do list to edit and improve so I don’t have a video for you to see, however I do have a detailed presentation in regards to this.

When I started to work on this project I knew that there was a number of people that did not like their jobs however I was very surprised to find out the actual numbers.

Only 29% of employees are engaged, 54% are not engaged and 17% are actively disengaged!!! I can’t remember where I found these numbers but they seem to be somewhat consistent across the board wherever you look.

The reasons are many but the one point that I focused on what shortening the gap between the leaders of the organization and the employees. It’s a known fact that business owners, CEOs etc. are very passionate about their company and if you are part of a small organization it’s very easy to feel that energy, know what the vision is and share in that vision. When you are a large organization it becomes hard to have that connection with the owners so to speak as there are many layers between you and the leaders of the organization. There are many ways to shorten the gap and one is by regular meetings/updates with these leaders. However these are few and far in between but what about on a more regular basis? Social media, if used effectively, can enable this gap to be shortened thus driving employee engagement up.

The presentation goes through the various tools available today, how to use them and the benefits to the organization. So take a look and ponder. I have not presented any case studies here however you are only limited by your imagination. So to all the leaders out there, try something new.

It’s been a very busy week in Ottawa for Social Media with on average 2 events per day. Social Media Breakfast Ottawa #11 is tomorrow and I am super excited to attend yet another great session.

When:  Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 – 7:30 to 9:00 AM

Where:  Gowlings, 160 Elgin Street, 26th Floor, Ottawa, Canada

How:  Purchase your ticket at http://smbottawa11.eventbrite.com

People complain about the early time yet do make it all the way downtown to attend these sessions. It’s held at a really great location, The Gowlings offices downtown. It’s especially breath taking in the winter months when you arrive while it’s dark and watch the sun rise over the city.

The past 10 sessions have been amazing and here is a re-cap.

David Crow – The power of community
Mark Kuznick – Citizen superheros
Chris Greenfield – http://www.virtualeyesee.com/blog/wp-admin/post-new.phpSocial Media Hype getting past the BS and making it really work
Brady Bilchrist – Fundamental changes in media
Stuart McDonald – Launching TripHarbour in a social web world
Joe Thornely & James Lewis – social media happenings in 2008
Luc Levesque,  Gerard Metrailler, Ian Skerrett, Jen Evans – Online communities
Ryan Anderson – Reputation 2.0
Rob Lane – Using video to build community
Adrian Salamunovic -  social media buzz of DNA11

We are now on 11 and I am looking forward to more great sessions to come.

SMBO is great however there is a team of people that work hard behind the scenes to make this happen and here is a little story of those 3 elves Rob Lane, Ryan Anderson and Simon Chen.

There was Third Tuesday that focuses on social media, why SMBO?

Simon

We don’t view the Social Media Breakfasts as competing with the Third Tuesday or other events. In fact, the SMBs and Third Tuesdays complement each other, offering attendees the chance to learn from a guest speaker and providing an environment where attendees can network with one another. Rob, Ryan and I are familiar with the stereotypical business networking breakfast. We hoped to adapt this format to make it relevant to the business professional that has an interest in marketing, communications, social media, Web 2.0, social computing, etc. We thought the early morning time slot could work for some.

How did you get together with the other team members?

Rob

I have known Bryan Person for a number of years and presented at the SMB event in Boston. I had mentioned to him several times that this would be great in Ottawa as I was getting tired to hearing only of these types of events in Toronto. As chance would have it, Simon and Ryan were having similar discussions and Bryan connected us around this event.

Tell us a little about yourself?

Rob Lane

CEO/co-founder at Overlay.tv, an interactive video platform. Nearly 20 years of both start-ups and corporate life. A Brit by birth, I have worked in the UK, the US and for the last 7 years Canada. Love working with people with drive and passion.

Ryan Anderson

My background is traditional PR. I’ve always had an interest in online culture, and I worked for a large interactive agency as their director of communications as all of this social media stuff was happening, so I got to see how big brands were thinking about it first-hand. I left to start Fat Canary just over a year ago, and I’ve been working with companies to help them with their online strategies ever since. Also, I like to cook.

Simon

Current blurb about me is at http://simon.sixent.com – under the Information tab. Nothing really new about me other than the fact that I just bought a car that I don’t know how to drive (just learning to drive a stick shift now)

Did you ever imagine it to be what it is today?

Rob

Think big, start small, scale fast. Our first event we imagined around 25-30 people. We got around 60. There is clearly a demand in town. Now we have a database of over 400 and regularly get up to 100 at events.

Ryan

We planned to have 30 people to our fist breakfast and hold it in a conference room. We ended up with 60 and had to move to another venue quickly. Since then, we’ve routinely sold out, which is more than we ever expected. We’ve also been able to get great speakers, which is a big part of our successes.

Who are the regular attendees? Who else would you like to attend?

Rob

Types of people tend to have a marketing focus and an entrepreneurial interest. Several are trying to become social media experts and as the industry matures over the next 5-7 years they could be. There are a number of professional companies represented such as lawyers and accountants plus Government. If we wanted other types of people to attend we would target them but for a breakfast 90-100 seems about right. We have considered a full day event for around 1000 people.

Simon

We have been averaging around 90 RSVPs over the past 10 Breakfasts. These RSVPs generally hold through to the day-of-the-event – we’ve enjoyed a low no-show rate. The audience is a mix of professionals in both the private sector and government. A large proportion of the audience is of a marketing and communications background. The local high tech and startup communities are represented as are a few folks from the wider business community.

With 10 successful events behind you what should we expect for the next 10?

Rob

Over the next year we see SMB getting stronger and stronger. Earlier this year we introduced a nominal $10 fee which allows us to fly in speakers and hence raise the bar. Having said that, there is still much hidden talent in our local community that we will look to tap into.

Ryan

I don’t think we want to grow SMB into something too big. What we have now works well for us, and works well for our audiences, I think. As Rob and Simon said, I’d just like to see what we have get stronger.

Simon

We’d like to showcase more great people and stories from Ottawa in addition to bringing in folks from out-of-town. We hope to use more social media to generate conversation before, during and after the event around the topics that our speakers bring up.

Some final words.

Rob

The final thing for me is in making myself available to the community. I’m no expert in many areas but I’ve made enough mistakes and understand the “joys” of starting and running a business. I’m more than happy to share this with people who reach out to me and help them with their big plans possible.

Ryan

We’ve had a great community built up for the past year – I hope that we continue to see the old faces, and start seeing new faces with every event. Social media should be inclusive, and I hope that people who haven’t been feel free to participate.

Simon

Thanks to all the people that have helped us get the Breakfasts up and running and for supporting the events and our speakers. Special thanks to Alex Kilgour at Gowlings for providing a venue for the Breakfast events!

Traditional advertising is costly and these days it doesn’t seem to be very effective.  So what are the alternatives if you don’t have a large budget for advertising but want to let people know about your brand, business etc.

The answer to this dilemma is Social Media. So what is Social Media anyway? Social Media is a term used to reference sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and more.

Currently there are 12,381,640 Canadians on Facebook. Statistics Canada’s  population clock estimates that the total population of Canada is 33,760,010.

That’s a significant amount of Canadians on this one social network. This does not take into account the number of people spending their time on social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogs etc…

Based on all the statistics it’s very apparent that social media is here to stay and is not just a fad. So as a business how do you advertise or market yourself in these sites? It’s through social media marketing.

Then what is social media marketing?

Marketing is about building relationships and social media tools help you achieve this in an online world. Social media marketing is about using sites like Facebook, YouTube et. to create awareness and credibility about a brand. This is indirectly translated to growing revenues for your business.

These sites are free however it’s very important to

• tie your business goals into your participation in these spaces
• not spam your audience
• use these sites the the way they were inende, entertainment
• start a dialogue with your customers (build relationships)
• incorporate this  into your business processes

Participation online takes time, effort and consistency.  If you are spending time online building your business then take time to track your efforts and tie this into your website analytics.

So before you participate in social media start paying attention to who is visiting your website and where they are coming from. This will give you a baseline to start from. Then track the difference between the traffic to your website before and after your participation in social media.Tweak this as you go.

Mother’s Day was last month and to celebrate I hosted a special evening, Social Media Moms Nite out. In researching this event I found out that there were a lot of Mom bloggers in Ottawa. The reason mom blogger was that they were moms of different ages but blogged about their kids or hobbies not work or business. Now that it’s Father’s Day I thought that I would see what the Daddy bloggers’ are up to.  So with the same criteria in mind I trolled the web and Twitter.

So here’s a few dads that I came across.  Not a whole lot, it seems that Dads don’t seem too keen on talking about their kids and fatherhood they seem to talk about everything else but.

I did find a few so here’s some of them.

How using social media has helped me be a better dad

This is a great blog post by Jeremy Biser from the Remarkable Parents site.

“A few years ago, I didn’t even know what “social media” was.

I read the newspaper, a few magazines and when I went online it was for work or to manage my fantasy sports teams. I thought a blog was something that people used to share pictures with their family members, and My Space was the place where pervs and wannabe musicians hung out to seduce young girls.”

He talks about his ignorance about social media and how he wouldn’t have grounded his daughter for signing up for My Space. He would have still grounded her for lying about her age.

He is now a tech savvy parent teaching his friends and neighbors about social media.  He talks about the social media that he uses on a regular basis. He then states how does all this social media stuff help me be a better dad?

It’s a great read.

Discovering Dad

Family and Parenting

Husbands and Dads

The Life of a Father of Five

7 Green Dads

Now a list of Twitter Dads. And finally Dads do make time for play.

Enjoy, Happy belated Father’s Day.