Archive for the Social Media Category
7
I’m often asked about how to best handle social media maintenance and management tasks. Over four years or so I’ve developed a few shortcuts that work well for me. I’ll explain each in a separate post, but we’ll start with feedreaders! Yay feedreaders! Using a feedreader to track blogs I’m interested in along with keyword searches is my number one shortcut. It was thanks to Bloglines, my first feedreader that I really started to understand social media. I subscribed to PR, social media, marketing and advertising blogs left and right. By doing so, I learned best practices and social media etiquette through observation. My use has changed a little bit, which I’ll explain. First, though, take a peek at this video from Common Craft, it’ll give you the basics (click on the image). Common Craft recommends Google Reader, which is very popular. The aesthetics of Google Reader just don’t work for... Continue Reading
1
I look back on the last 4-ish years of blogging and am amazed at how much I’ve learned. I’ve shared a lot of that here on this blog, but a lot has also been from tons of smart people in my industry. I often find myself sharing the same posts on certain topics over and over. In case you don’t want to go digging through my archives and those who I recommend following, I’ve put together this list of some of my favorite posts. Enjoy! Blogging Creating a Compelling Blog Post: A Checklist (me) Beautiful Blog Posts Have Great Bone Structure (me) Twitter Twitter for Business (Twitter) Split-Second Decisions: My Twitter Follow-Back Tips (me) Finding Friends and Building Your Network on Twitter (me) LinkedIn Using LinkedIn: A Primer (me) General Five Ways to Support Your Favorite Fan Page (Verve) How to Use Social Media Guide (TechnoTheory) An Introduction to Social Media... Continue Reading
1
I’ve noticed a new tactic with spammers lately… they are awfully complimentary of your content, your blog and your writing style. Flattery is hard to resist, I know. So here are some tips for keeping the spam out of your comments section. If the comment seems to be over thesaurus-ized – common words turned into $5 words that aren’t quite used right – you’re probably looking at spam. If the comment could be related to any blog, any post, anytime? It could be spam. If the commenter asks about your fabulous layout and how you did it – yup, spam. (I fell for this one, hard!) If you’re not sure, check the possible inputs on the comment form for consistency and legitimacy. Individually, they might not raise any red flags, but combined can tip you off: Name: By itself this might not be a problem one way or another, unless... Continue Reading
3
An email floated around a couple of weeks ago about free premium Prezi accounts for educators. Always game for the next shiny new tool, I decided to give it a shot. I had a presentation coming up for Local Food Connection 2010 that I was going to have to start from scratch on Keynote, so why not give Prezi a try. I watched the tutorials, viewed some other people’s Prezis and poked at one for a while. Honestly, the blank canvas was terrifying at first. I’m a very linear thinker, I guess. I need outlines and plans and things in order. I had a hard time visualizing all the parts of the presentation (not literally, of course). However, just last week, I had listened in when Professor Deb Morrison lectured to the Gateway to Media class on creative process and mind mapping.I decided a mind map might just do the... Continue Reading
3
Creating a blog post is really more than just writing good content. The following checklist can help you ensure that your post is readable, findable and shareable. Do you have a compelling headline? There’s some dos and don’ts. Does your post have good structure & provide useful information? Plenty of folks have written posts on how to write posts. Take a look around. Does your post invite feedback or ideas? Did you provide at least one in-text hyperlink? Don’t include links as text, hyperlink them using the “link” button. Did you include an image? (or other multimedia)
Some blog templates require an image, but even if it’s not required, an image helps to make your post more visually attractive.
Try istockphoto.com, sxc.hu, or flickr (creative commons licensed) for images. Or check out some of these sites for free or cheap images. Did you assign a category or categories? Categories help to organize your content. When your... Continue Reading
14
It seems like a good idea. When you update Twitter, why not update Facebook automatically… and while you’re at it, how about LinkedIn? To me, each of these tools serves a different purpose and therefore needs different content. Certainly there is overlap in many instances, but it’s important to think about how each fits into your overall personal social media use – or how, as an organization, each helps you reach your objectives. I know that the social media time suck is a big deal and we’re all looking for ways to make the most our time in front the screen – but if you’re going to “do” social media, do it right. And be prepared for how much time it takes. Twitter: Short updates, more “real-time,” drive traffic to Web or blog, personal appeal. Tweets often don’t make sense out of context and when you add hashtags, RT’s and... Continue Reading
3
When you’re ready to launch a blog, rather personal or professional, it’s important to think beyond just “what am I going to blog about?” Your blog is a window into your professional life and what people see and how they see it is up to you. Have a strategy: Even if you’re creating a personal blog, have a sense of what you want to accomplish with it. Do you want your blog to be informational, to help you to define and explore your thoughts & ideas about working in public relations or maybe show your interest and expertise around a topic or issue? Think about functionality: Think about what you want the experience to be for your readers. Making your blog easy on the eyes and simple to navigate is the first step. But remember that window analogy – what do you want your readers to see? Do you want... Continue Reading
6
I had the pleasure of being part of a panel on KOPB’s Think Out Loud the morning of October 6. The topic was using social media in local government. A few key points I think came out of the discussion (based on feedback I got from people): Organizations must be deliberate and approach social media thoughtfully and strategically. Be human and be real. If you’re not, people won’t want to interact with you online. If people/orgs appear insincere, consumers will stop reading or following. Social media will not replace traditional channels of outreach and is not a panacea for organizations to connect with their constituents. Social media is a paradigm shift and is about sharing, not about one way information. In preparation for my participation on the panel, I thought about potential topics and made some notes for myself. I covered most of these in my remarks, but I wanted... Continue Reading
2
If you’re thinking about getting started in social media and have designated “this summer” as a chance to do so, the first thing you should do is start reading. Find 10 or 20 (or more) blogs that cover areas of public relations, marketing and social media that you’re interested in and start reading. Not sure how to begin? Two PR agencies (and me) have created tools to get you started. Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence’s Daily Influence: Powered by Netvibes (also my feed reader of choice), Daily Influence has tabs for categories in advertising, public relations and social media and subscribes to a lot of the most influential blogs in each. You can create an account on Netvibes and customize your page based on Daily Influence. Keep what you like, delete what you don’t and add in your own. MWW Group’s M.Insight is a mobile app, which rules. You can get... Continue Reading
1
I recently switched from Bloglines to Netvibes for my feed reader. Netvibes is just more visual and also makes it easy to access recent posts. One of the other cool features is that I can share my subscriptions with you pretty easily. I’ve set up a public page with three tabs from my personal feed reader. There are two for public relations (one tab for professionals and one tab for educators) and one social media. You can check it out here. Please feel free to use it to start your own reading habit.... Permalink
Comments