Blog
Thoughts and things I care to shareWhy local events rock
Events are fun. Events are just meetups with a bit of structure. As I’ve been hosting social media breakfasts here in Minneapolis & St. Paul, I’ve been thinking a bit about what makes these types of events worth attending, what makes them special.
It’s really the people that attend. Folks from many different industries, genres, interests, and backgrounds make up the mix. The varied group is a sampling of the total social media population that we interact with online. This group is made up of the early adopters of their respective industries. They lead the way and help guide their industries or groups in the use and exploration of these new ideas and technologies.
Events are also great places to network. With such varied participants, people get a chance to meet and greet. They get to talk with people they may want to (or need to!) do business with. It’s a chance for folks to build their network in the offline world and be able to do that most important aspect of networking. Look someone in the eye, get a firm handshake, and really evaluate them in person.
It does matter. Especially for local events where you need to have that network of folks that you’ll work with or look out for. You share your community with them. Your kids grow up in the same environment and what each of you do and how you participate matters to the outcome of it all. It matters.
Another aspect is simply meeting people who do the same things you do. Explore the same spaces you do. You can learn a lot, not just from each other, but from talking about how you do things. It triggers new ways of thinking of things, opens new doors to everyone involved. That induces change, and change is an exciting ingredient in life.
Good things, good habits, in moderation
So it’s been a great day here in Minneapolis this Friday. Got a chance to know a few folks from the office better – that’s a good thing. Got to spend a nice evening as a family this evening – that’s a good thing. Made myself write a little bit – and that too is a good thing.
What will be more interesting is if I can continue to write a bit this weekend. That’s my plan, and I think it’ll be worth the time invested to get back to blogging, which I really do enjoy. It’s bothersome that I ever let myself get off track and worried that I wasn’t writing what people wanted to read. Wrong thing to worry about, I know.
What is or was wrong was to allow myself to get sidetracked by too many side-shows on the social web. It’s a great time-sink to explore the latest & greatest. Fun too! However, it really is a delicate balance of habits, and knowing when you’re spending too much time on any one tool, network or site is key to gaining the strengths of those sites and leaving the weaknesses behind.
What’s the answer to it all? Moderation. Just like enjoying a nice adult beverage, it’s only enjoyable in moderation. Also, you get the chance to explore and learn things more in-depth and find how they can augment your life positively rather than simply taking up time just to update statuses and read walls.
So take a break from Facebook, lighten up on your twittering, take a walk and bring only your thoughts with you. You’ll learn a lot more than what folks are doing right that moment if you can let yourself take a breather.
Back to basics this weekend
Time for some basic blogging & regrouping this weekend. I’ve been pressing hard on work and letting my writing slide, and this just won’t do. I don’t know what I’ll be writing about in the next 48 hours, but I know that I’m going to go back to the basics of blogging for me.
I guess I’m starting today (so maybe it’s 72 hours – I dunno), and will be simply sharing ideas, stories and such that simply occur to me during this time. It’s more to get back in the writing groove than anything else. Since jumping headfirst into IT consulting more than a year ago, I’ve been distracted from blogging. Not really being able to focus enough attention on writing down those thoughts that keep running through my mind.
So this is the first post of the weekend, I’m starting early and hope in the end, to rediscover the writing habits I’ve neglected for the last many months. While I don’t expect anything grand, I’m sure there’ll be a few fun gems. Well see.
Anyway, get ready to enjoy another great late-summer/early autumn weekend folks.
Living Without Social Media
A Twitter friend of mine recently, jokingly, chastised me for a post some time back about not needing Twitter and social media. That caused me to finalize a few thoughts on the topic and inspired this post – thanks DV!
On that topic, lots of folks do it every day, and yeah they do quite well. In fact, most folks live without the Internet every day and do quite well. So what is it about social media that so entices and enthralls the social media mavens out there?
Since late last year, I’ve been struggling with a number of items about social media that don’t seem to have a purpose. The current phenomenon of "social media" is more a reflection of the growing social awareness of generation X & Y than of anything else.
It’s true that the web 2.0 technologies have empowered us in new and exciting ways, allowing us to further explore new ways of doing things, and exploring new opportunities. The growing social awareness is bringing the idea of friendship and community back into lives that may have been spent focusing too much on work or single-minded pursuits.
Personally, I think that the modern urban psyche is longing for more social interaction, and pushing people to explore new methods for interacting. I believe this to be the root cause of the interest in social media, spurred by the ideas, near ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity, and cloud computing software technologies that allow for rapid development and deployment.
It’s this combination that makes social media what it is. Mostly the "media" part is the tools; networking, IM, photo hosting, video, podcasting, web conferencing, sharing, bookmarking… these are just things that allow us to connect the way we do – tools our parents and grandparents did not have. The social is what I talked about previously – that the maturing generations that have been exposed to computing and world-wide networking technologies have new ideas of how relationships can be built.
Still there are millions more who simply don’t need these tools and these technologies. The social part for them still exists because they always have been social. Participating & building their community is just part of their lives. Sure the Internet can add value – but not in the ways that social media technorati get value. For them it’s about news or entertainment, or simply ordering something that they can’t find locally. That’s the value for them – and that’s a good value.
Photo credit: AlvarocK!
Social Media Breakfast – Twin Cities 7
Looking forward to the next Social Media Breakfast? So are we! We’ll be meeting at the Best Buy headquarters in Richfield, MN again this time and will welcome the co-founder of Blue Shirt Nation, Gary Koelling who’s going to share some stories and background on Best Buy social media initiatives like BSN, Gift Tag and so on.
We’ll also talk about social media “Purists” vs. “Corporatists” in the enterprise, take a quick look at the SMBMSP social media site on Ning, and hear from ThreeVolts about web video. We’ll see you there!
Location: Best Buy (yes, again – I’ll try to keep the suits out 😉- Date: September 19th, 2008
- Time: 8am to 10am
- RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1084480/
Agenda:
- Gary Koelling, co-founder of Best Buy’s BlueShirtNation will talk about BSN and GiftTag
- Group question: Social Media “Purists” vs. the “Corporatists” in the enterprise. What’s your take?
- Three Volts will talk about web video and it’s use by companies
- Conferences – Who’s going and why (BlogWorld Expo, DEMO, Defrag, SXSW)
- Local event/meetup update – what’s coming up & details on SMBMSP8.
- Announcement: We have a bacon sponsor!!!
Breakfast sponsored by:
Chat:
http://www.meebo.com/room/smbmsp/
I’m hoping his works for the remotes and us behind a firewall at SMB – any other ideas or suggestions?
Video:
Please note that we’re using the Meebo chat listed above rather than the embedded Mogulus chat. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Social Media Breakfast & Social Media Club
Local conversations, with national connections!
September 11th, 2001
Blog Day 2008
So here are my offerings for Blog Day 2008 – a little belatedly I’ll admit. Somehow it always sneaks up on me. This year though, I’m glad to say I have at least five blogs that I highly recommend. Great knowledgeable bloggers writing about interesting and useful topics.
- Small Biz Survival – This great blog is focused on small business and small town businesspeople. Written by blogging friend Becky McCray and her team of small-biz professionals. A must read for any small business in a small town – or a large one!
- WinExtra – Written by longtime blogging pal Steven Hodson, WinExtra covers the technology beat from a great Canadian curmudgeon. Honestly, Steven’s perspective on Web 2.0 and social media makes for fun reading that definitely isn’t the usual cookie-cutter posts you’ll find around the blogosphere.
- The Personal Branding Blog – Fellow columnist for Personal Branding Magazine, Rob Cuesta is a respected authority on personal branding. With new ideas and tips, Rob can help you start and grow the brand that is you.
- Word Sell, Inc. – I met blogger Brad Shorr at SOBCon08 in Chicago this past May. Brad brings his real-world B2B experience and passion for communicating and connecting to his blog.
- Fresh Focus – Blogger Kris Rowlands blogs about productivity, exploring tools and techniques, especially Getting Things Done. Kris shares tips & ideas for enhancing productivity along with with custom designed GTD templates.
I hope you check out these fine folks, and share your own list of 5 bloggers today with your readers and friends with the world..
Thank you to Nir Ofir, "initiator" of Blog Day 2008!
🙂
How Do Companies Find Their Community Managers?
It’s a new field where there are no experts; no real training for classification or certification, and it’s difficult for folks participating in it to explain how it works. It’s not a lawless field where anything goes, but the cowboys still roam the prairie where social media grazes. Christopher S. Penn describes the problem and the process quite well in his post How to Become a Social Media Expert, comparing social media to the nuances of martial arts training – pretty good analogy in my book.
Since there are no real experts with years of schooling and experience, how does a company find a community manager? Heck, how do they determine what they’re looking for – most companies really don’t even know exactly what they need. Several are starting to here “community manager†more in relation to social media, and I suppose it does make a bit of sense to the average hiring manager.
As I’ve been looking around in this space as a consultant myself, I’ve noticed a bit of mislabeling, and misunderstanding of what these positions do. They can range from being a glorified forum moderator, to the public figurehead of the company in social media circles. The vagueness and inconsistency is frustrating to both those looking to move into these jobs, and the companies who realize they need someone to fill this indefinable niche they have.
Normally, a company would hire a consultant to help define the needs, address the process, and sometimes assist in filling the role. The problem though is… aren’t consultants experts and there really aren’t any social media experts? Catch 22 huh?
Some firms are looking internally and finding candidates in their existing staff. This could be anyone from marketing, to information technologies, to human resources (and beyond). Sometimes it’s easy to get noticed and get in front of the right people. Other businesses are going for the big guns and hiring out consultants from the A-List to assist them in their social web endeavors.
At least, several of the A-List actually have participated in building, shaping, and forming the concepts of the social web through the work of Cluetrain and their own pieces through the years. This is a great place to start, even for organizations with small budgets – many of the thought leaders in social media give away really good information for companies to start from.
So in this nascent “industryâ€, there is confusion on both the side of organizational need and individual growth in social media. The next step for those mastering the dark arts of the social web is to be bold, go forth, do good things, and prove that you have the vision and understanding. Both to the founding concepts of Cluetrain and to the fiscal responsibilities of corporations that want to participate in, not control, the message.
Photo credit: .mw
Right Now
What are you doing right now? Are you moving forward, stagnating or slipping backward? Why wait to launch your biz, your idea, your brand? Why wait to spend time with your family or call your parents back?
There’s no better time than the present to do something.
Right now you could be:
- Building something new
- Spending time with your kids
- Finishing a project
- Outside
- Helping a friend in need
- Building a website
- Mowing the grass
- Working on a community project
- Reaching out to someone
- Stimulating the economy
- Supporting your local charities
- Practicing your golf swing
- Taking responsibility
- Yielding to pedestrians
- Taking your family on vacation
- Applying for that position or job you want
- Visiting a elderly relative
- Taking the stairs
- Finishing several projects
- Saving money
- Getting away from the computer for awhile
- Fishing
- Building your personal brand
- Returning that phone call
- Taking steps to become the person you want to be
What I really want to convey is the reality that there is no better time to do something for yourself, your family, your community, your country, or the world than right now.
Inspired by Van Halen’s Right Now
Photo credit: Pat Rioux
Fire Drill Projects & Ownership
Have you had the pleasure of participating in a “fire drill” project? You know the kind, the ones that are rushed into being with such a flourish as to miss many (heck, most) of the components that make a successful project. I only mention this because I’m in the middle of such a project (again), and continue to marvel at how often it happens to any size company.
That is not to say that fire drill projects are always a mess, or always a failure, or don’t meet there objectives within budget or timeframe. Often, their outcomes are successful, mostly due to the determination and diligence of the core project team – almost always because they take ownership of their tasks, and even the project itself.
It’s this concept of ownership that interests me quite often. People who could otherwise be mere desk driving time punchers, believe in the project, product, process, or other outcome that the project is driving towards. It’s these people who make or break a project or a company. It’s not that they are indispensable – everyone is – but, they bring such a combination of work ethic and pride to what they do. They bring leadership and peer or team encouragement that is worth much more than their salary alone.
These are the people that make startups work, that can drive a simple idea to success through tireless ours of focused work and attention. It’s also these people I wish had more time to work on their own ideas and agendas, but that’s another post. Folks like these are the ones you want to have on your project, especially when one of the three key factors of your project has been removed from your control (namely time, money, resources). If you’re having to deal with a project that you can’t control all three components, you need to have more of the other two – mostly the best chance for success is to have one or two of those passionate leaders that will take ownership in the outcome of the project and work as hard as you are to that end.
For those working on their personal brand, one of the best things you want as part of your word of mouth marketing about yourself is that you see things through to completion. No matter if it’s through hard work or buy-in on the project, you want to be one of those passionate advocates for the projects you work on.
As for those fire drill projects – they can be as fun as they are frustrating, just make sure to bring a fire extinguisher.
😉
Photo credit: EgjishG
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
I think it’s safe to say that @GovEvers should stop blocking audits in Wisconsin and open the books…
“Only AMERICAN citizens should vote.”
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Wrong. Democrats are solely responsible for hours-long airport lines.
They voted to defund TSA three times and won’t even entertain a conversation about reopening it. Why?
They’re using it as leverage to stop enforcing immigration laws.