Strengthen Community Bonds by Being Social

This month I had the privilege of having a guest article on social media appear in Quorum Magazine, a publication of the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the Community Associations Institute.

Quorom Magazine- October 2013 issue

To read the article in its entirety, click here:

Quorum social media article

While it was written for professional community managers, lessons for all abound. Here are a few excerpts:

Visual social media is big and getting bigger all the time.

Commit to listening and engaging with your community.

Storytelling has gone to the amateur. You become the reporter, the editor, the storyteller, the photojournalist. People and organizations who capture what’s happening are rewarded with greater attention.

Think about campaigns and themes. Think about what you would find interesting. Be curious. Be spontaneous. Find a new angle on an old story.

Develop ways you can be a resource for your community. Pinterest is a great platform for this. You could put together boards on area restaurants or nearby activities.

Ask questions. Perfect for Twitter or Facebook, asking genuine questions and soliciting input is a great way to engage the community.

Think creatively and stay engaged on social media, and you’ll see both your online and offline presence strengthened in the community.

Facial Recognition and the Future of Personalized Marketing

A Face in the Crowd: Say goodbye to anonymity

Recently, I saw the report above from Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes. She made the point that facial recognition is becoming a reality for marketers. It’s no longer Big Brother that we have to worry about but social sites like Facebook which has more photos of people than the government does. The piece also highlights redpepper, an ad agency that has developed Facedeals.

Here’s the way they say it works:

“Facial recognition cameras are installed at local businesses. These cameras recognize your face when you pass by, then check you in at the location. Simultaneously, your smartphone notifies you of a customized deal based on your Like history.”

This could be scary stuff, but it also left me thinking… What are the implications for associations and nonprofits? What is the applicability of this technology for conferences and events?

What are you seeing? Please share your thoughts with me below or on Twitter or Facebook.

xPotomac in Less Than 180 Seconds

xPotomac was billed as an event “where the digital media future meets businesses. This groundbreaking conference features seven media technologies most likely to impact businesses and marketers in the immediate future.” xPotomac was held at The Source Theatre in Washington, DC on February 25, 2013. This post is taken from my notes and tweets:

Dino Dogan, “The New Groundswell”

• Gutenberg democratized access to information.
• 1% of blogs get 99% of attention. And they don’t deserve it.
• Traffic + ads is an antiquated attention model.
• The next big opportunity is in attention plus influence.
•  If you could get attention without traffic, would you want it?
• Google, Twitter, Facebook had a chance to do something different; they chose to show us ads.
• Always cognitive dissonance when you try to match message w/ influencers who don’t mesh w/ your brand.
• Empires crumble, whether you’re talking about Persian empire, Ottoman empire, or Facebook.
• There’s a flaw in our logic about how to drive traffic. What if Google is not best way to drive traffic?

Dino Dogan, founder of Triberr, speaking at xPotomac

Ken Yarmosh, “Multiscreens: Anytime, Anywhere”

• Too far-fetched to have screens on coffee tables for magazines or to download games?
• What if calls could be seamlessly moved from screen to screen as you walk through your house?
• Every device we have should have the same information without configuration.

Geoff Livingston and Patrick Ashamalla, “Looking through Google Glass”

• A great user design doesn’t demand attention; it focuses it. -Patrick
• Wearable computing technology will make smartphones obsolete in 5-6 years. -Geoff

Photo of Tinu taking a photo of Geoff Livingston with a tablet at xPotomac.

Shonali Burke, “Social Scoring: Are You Worthy?”

• Don’t look at numbers, look for context in influence.
• Technology is not for technology per se.
• Great champions beget more champions.

I was able to win a signed copy of Geoff Livingston’s book Welcome to the Fifth Estate at the beginning of this session when Shonali asked who knew their Klout score. I qualified it by stating that I don’t believe in Klout scores and said that mine was 57. I looked it up moments later to find that it had risen to 58, most likely due to xPotomac activities. As of the writing of this, my Klout is at 59. I’ve compared it to an SAT score. It’s a snapshot, but a number doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about a person. I’ve also compared it to college football rankings. I believe it reflects a certain American obsession with ranking and scoring everything- and on an ongoing, all-too-frequent basis.

Greg Verdino, “Digital Ubiquity”

• Futurists do not predict the future. Who does? Crackpots.
• 500 million devices connected to the internet 10 years ago. In 2008/2009, the number of devices exceeded human population.
• Average home in the US has 20 connected devices.
• Smart paint that tells you when your ceiling is going to crack exists today. It’s probably not in your house.
• If you have a product, you better be prepared to be in the services business.
• A refrigerator should be able to talk to a telephone, or we have a problem moving forward.
• Big data should be looked at as a core asset for your business.
• If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.
• As our population ages, more & more systems fail. We never see the Boomers coming.

Jen Consalvo, “Visual Revolution

• Not a lot of brand activity yet on Vine’s 6-second videos platform.
• 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook every day.
• People connect with pictures. Images gain more engagement.

Andrew Keen, “Big Data Threatens Privacy”

• No surprise photos are central to social media age. We’re in love with ourselves.
• No coincidence that social networks came along as we need to sell ourselves with self-employment, etc. We are brands.

I wasn’t as personally offended at Andrew’s comments as some of my xPotomac associates were. I thought he provided some interesting counterpoints to what we had been hearing all day. Andrew Keen definitely came across as condescending, insulting, and egotistical. Was it a thought-provoking presentation? Yes. Would I want to listen to him again? Not really. Rather than end with his naysaying and the negative feelings that ensued, perhaps it would have been better instead to have started the day with Andrew Keen to merely temper the digital enthusiasm we all felt.

Other noteworthy quotes and insights:

• You have two wallets: money & time. -Kathy Korman Frey, quoting Ted Leonsis
• Social scoring is often more about popularity than it is about influence. -Tinu
• Blogs- purposeful audience builders. These are what social scoring should be taking into account. -Dino Dogan

Also worth reading and reviewing:

Geoff Livingston’s Context Always Mattered, Now It’s Crucial

Sohini Baliga’s Augmented Reality: “Yo, Heads Up!

Jamie Notter’s The Dark Side of the Revolution

Mike Shaffer’s Andrew Keen and the Negative 180s

Geoff Livingston’s Flickr photos of xPotomac reveal the smile of Shonali, the halo effect of Ken Yarmosh, and everything in between.

Eventifier’s compilation of xPotomac photos, videos, tweets, and contributors.

I’d also like to thank other xPotomac attendees who aided my understanding with their insights, comments, questions, and/or tweets: Melanie Spring, Sohini Baliga, Mike Schaffer, Shashi Bellamkonda, Sarah Oyungu, Debbie Friez, Tammy Portnoy, Kiki L’Italien, Colin Storm, Maddie Grant, Jamie Notter, Jim Long, Kathy Korman Frey, Isabel Saldarriaga, RaShonda Rosier, and others.

What stood out to you from xPotomac? What were the memorable moments, quotable quotes, and retweetable tweets? What were the lessons learned? What will you do differently in your business?

Digital East in Less Than 180 Seconds

I present to you “Digital East in Less Than 180 Seconds”: the best of the notes, quotes, tweets, and posts from Digital East 2012. I have organized these topically rather than by session or chronologically. I have put in bold ones that are my personal favorites or resonated with me in some way. May the content below inform and inspire you to more and better in the digital space!

Facebook

• Facebook ads outperform Google ads and are much cheaper.
• 99% of sales on Facebook are from Facebook users who see ad but don’t interact with it. Brad Smallwood
• 54% of Facebook traffic comes from mobile.
• Brand pages reach only 16% of fans each week on average.
• 65% of consumer engagement across Facebook is on timeline; 29% in newsfeed, 6% in ticker.
• Photos and videos drive most engagement on Facebook’s top 10 brand pages.
• Facebook posts that include photos are 180% more effective than text posts.
• Videos posted on Facebook are 12x more likely to be shared than links + texts combined.
• Users spend 432 minutes/month on Facebook.
• Fastest growing Facebook segment is women 55+. Have doubts? See @AARP‘s Facebook page. 

Social Media

• Shark Week: 20 million viewers; 1.6 million tweets; 35% of cable TV social conversations about Shark Week.
• The heart of everything you share on a social network is a story.
• There is marketer and audience. But we are all slaves to third party platforms we use.
• Engage your customers before you meet them.
• LinkedIn is an oft missed social property for brands; you already have a presence – use it.
• It takes 2 secs to create a channel; takes a lot longer to create a community.
• Ad dollars are moving online at a record pace- to display, video, mobile, social. Digital would outspend TV by 2016.
• Social networks reach 82% of the online population.
• Two types of social media: bridging (people not like you) and bonding (people like you).
• Must-read social media books from @gbyehuda: Connected, The Shallows, True Enough, Cognitive Surplus, Reality is Fun
• We talk a lot about listening & engagement but people still want to listen primarily for compliments.
• @devonvsmith‘s Twitter tools to check out: Crowdbooster, FollowerWonk, Topsy, Rowfeeder.
• What to share on social? 10% direct promos, 30% links to company content, 60% links to 3rd party content .
• The social web is about communities of interest.
• Google+ is driving engagement… but not traffic. Important for another reason.
• Pinterest generates more clicks than LinkedIn, Google+, StumbleUpon and Twitter.
• Make everyone part of the social media team. Increases buy-in and brings new ideas to the table.
• PBS has a 1x/wk social strategy meeting that includes anyone who has an interest in social.
• Empower your staff to become your brand. People want to follow people, not organizations.

Images/Video/Audio

• Convey the significance of numbers with visuals.
• 90% of information transmitted to brain is visual. YouTube & Pinterest are platforms leveraging this statistic.
• Storify makes anyone a journalist; Instagram makes anyone a photographer. Users will be creative w/ your content.
• An Instagram is worth a thousand tweets.
• Turn quotes into images and use them on Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.
• 40% of top brands have Instagram.
•  Approach every campaign by thinking about how it can be represented visually and in graphics.
• Video infographics are the immediate future of video marketing.
• 20% of online video views click away from a video in the first 10 seconds or less.
• People watch 12-14 minutes of live streaming vs. 2-3 on an archived platform (like YouTube).
• #1 reason to stream live media: to amplify a brand event.
• Facebook uses live streaming to connect w/ users who can’t be there. 1500 present, 450000 online.
• There is a tremendous opportunity in digital audio. Saves time. Think podcasts.
• Mobile photo apps can do 90% of what Photoshop can do.
• Visual marketing is the trend. Infographics rule.

Mobile

• 70% of desktop searches lead to transactions within a month. 70% of mobile searches lead to transactions within a day.
• 64% of mobile time is spent in apps.

Fundraising

• Simple thank you emails without ask for donation brought higher-than-average end-of-year donations for Nature Conservancy.

Word of mouth

• 80% of all purchase cycles involve some form of word of mouth recommendation.

Content

• Content strategy must be rich, repurpose, recycle. Write once; use many.
• Sweet spot for valuable content: Intersection of your goals w/ your customers’ interests & pain points.

For more from Digital East check out “Top 10 #DEast12 Tweets We Absolutely *Love*” from Ruiz McPherson Communications and the Storify “Digital East 2012: The 10 Best Things I Learned” by Dan Oshinsky of StryUs.

What would you add to this list? What are your key takeaways? What other Digital East 2012 blog posts or links to presentations have you gotten additional insights from? (Feel free to provide links below.)

I’d also like to thank Casey Higgins, Michael Murray, Leigh George, Scott Shepherd, Joseph Olesh, Philip Luca, Chris Brooks, Merge, Timberlake, Razoo, Extole, Amy Bridges, Yvette McKechnie, Angela Brown, David Plotz, A.K. Strout, Todd Thurman, Devon Smith, Mick Winters, Heather Kuldell, Melissa Makfinsky, Susan Cato, Allison Wallace, Kevin Dando, Christie Michalec, and so many others who made it fun and interesting and for their tweets, presentations, comments, and contributions to my understanding.

Why I write, why they read

Why I write

I write because I am a teacher, not as a profession- at least not any longer- but in my heart it’s who I still am. I want to share what I’ve learned, who I’ve met, the resources I’ve discovered. I was “sharing” and “liking” long before the internet, long before Facebook and Twitter and Google+. I was the type who would tear articles out of magazines or cut columns out of newspapers to give to friends with a passing comment of “I read this and thought of you” or with an “I thought this was relevant to our discussion the other day” note attached with a paper clip. Perhaps you’re nodding as you read this because you are this person or you have a friend just like me.

Social media has only magnified this behavior. It’s easier now to simply retweet or comment on blogs, articles, news, announcements, etc. that I think my friends, associates, and colleagues would be interested in or benefit or learn from.

If being a teacher is at the very heart of who I am, writing is woven into the very fabric of my being. I could certainly regale you with tales of how writing has been integral to key moments of my life from memorable classes to scholarship applications to time overseas to business ventures through poetry, creative writing, journals, blogs, publication, etc. I choose to write and am compelled to blog because it gives me that voice to lend a perspective to what I’ve learned, who I’ve met, the resources I’ve discovered.

I like to talk to people, to interview them, and to learn of their stories. I am naturally curious. I enjoy doing research about a topic I am unfamiliar with. Like a reporter I want to ask thought-provoking questions that bring about well-thought-out answers that take the dialogue to a new level or on another trajectory. I want to put the angle on a story that no one envisioned. I stay sharp by reading the thoughts and perspectives of others. These tendencies lead me to formulate new ideas and responses, to bring together more than one concept into a new light.

Why they read

People love a good story. If you know me, you know that I love a good story. Everyone has a good story. It’s really a matter of asking questions to get at that story.

The problem is when organizations begin to think that their purpose in writing is merely to sell publications or increase conference attendance or give the latest statistics pertinent to their industry. When this happens, they’ve lost their way, they’ve lost their soul. Even corporations, associations, and businesses need to tell stories.

We’re in the business of storytelling. In fact I have this concept for a future blog post on “The Art of Storytelling”. When you tell stories, people respond. Your employees, members, and customers begin to see themselves in these stories. Stories should be about successful transitions– the little guy who makes it big, the one who was down and out who overcame odds or obstacles, the one who has a unique take on an all-too familiar problem.

When you tell stories like this… guess what? Your employees, members, and customers will start repeating them for you. They’ll start sharing your stories– not because they’ve been asked or to win a prize in a contest. They’ll be compelled- and it won’t be just online.

 

 

 

#SMfastfwd: 11.10.10 recap

ChatterBachs hosted a #SMfastfwd tweetchat with a special #SoMeT tie-in on Wednesday, November 10th. Here is a recap of that tweetchat. I’ve tried to put in a format where the actual flow is easier to follow and makes sense, background chatter has been minimized, and so that the most valuable information and insights from #SMfastfwd are presented without this blog post getting too long. Again, it was quite the flurry of activity with so many great insights and comments being contributed. A special thanks to the following guest panelists/participants for making this #SMfastfwd tweetchat a great success: Richard Bonds of visitPA (@visitPA), Anne Hornyak (WhosYourAnnie), and Jenny Matheny (MathenyJenny) of @TNVacation and @paramoreredd.

How has #socialmedia impacted what you do on a daily/weekly basis?

ArcadiaPD:  Improving community engagement, another tool for notifications & effective communication.

visitPA:  SM channels have become a primary way 4 us 2 promote PA – especially w/ mkting budget cuts

transpr:  Compare to 5 yrs ago, we have ability to be our own “newsroom” to communciate directly with public. No more middle men.

WhosYourAnnie:   social media is on the brain 24/7

TravelND:  and to extend our brand in places we couldn’t touch with traditional media.

BSStoltz:  #SM amplifies my who I can reach and who reaches me – and shortens the learning curve.

How are #socmedia responsibilities divided in your org?

visitPA:  we handle all SM channels 4 dept: tourism, film & EconDev, FB,Twitter, 4sq Flickr Youtube,linkedIn & blog

WhosYourAnnie:  I think if SoMe responsibilities are divided, the organization really needs to be organized and have solid strategy. Start with strategy. Then account for processes and people.

NCCmeet:  All social media by our marketing assistant, however talk of creating a marketing team w/ diff. departments

MathenyJenny:  I am the primary strategizer & executioner of all things social for @tnvacation. I have help when I’m on vacay.

BSStoltz:   It’s not in the hands of interns or newbies, that’s for sure. It’s too important to pass off and forget about it.

mobethann:  Me, myself, and I! NO one else here “gets it.”

How have interactions with the public changed w/ the use of #socmedia?

WhosYourAnnie:  Tourism organizations can reach out to individual visitors now. It’s not about pushing your info. It’s about helping others.

MathenyJenny:  More personal tips, and insider info is being pass around to complete strangers. Great way to be in the “know”.

visitPA:  more personal interactions enables us 2 have an honest personality & can be more responsive & timely

NCCmeet:  Interactions with the public are selfless. SM is not to promote yourself but to share info and expect nothing in return

Keri_Mellott:  Quicker responses help the public engage with brands in real time. Adds to cust satisfaction & smiles 🙂

What are the biggest challenges your org faces with regard to #socialmedia?

WhosYourAnnie:  Time Management

mobethann:  Staff time, support, proving ROI to director and board, tracking results.

visitPA:  Fighting the “fad notion”, changes in administration may mean changes, finding the right best next thing 🙂

Keri_Mellott:  Challenge- getting businesses to learn the tools, then incorporate into a consistent strategy to build presence & credibility

samallgood:  Lack of employee knowledge and passion stemming from lack of same among city management

Kelly_Ryan_:  Biggest challenge is getting tourism partners to understand importance of SM! Some get it, some don’t!

NCCmeet:  1st it was trying to figure out our strategy – now its trying to convince others why they should be involved in social media

RvanHilst:  Not letting socmed become the magic bullet for every problem. If there’s no biz strategy, there’s no social media strategy.

Where have you seen the most success in integrating #socialmedia w/ other comms efforts?

visitPA:  Everything has 2 work together from website 2 SM channels 2 adv & PR-all supporting each other

mobethann:  We created @ChiefsinStJo FB page when we got the KC Chiefs Training camp. Earned over 3000 fans in weeks. Highly successful.

WhosYourAnnie:  most success is when you use networks together in campaign. Must have strategy and goals.

transpr:  SM allows real-time engagement for public impact on projects I work on such as road impacts. Invaluable tool now.

NCCmeet:  Our blogs about local events. Using WP Stats we can see what visitors searched 2 find it -often used search terms 4 the event

MathenyJenny:  Social has to be integrated in all mktg. outlets. If u aren’t cohesive in brand/message, then u aren’t doing it right

Keri_Mellott:   The key is in the combination of using #socialmedia online with meeting IRL to strengthen ur message & build trust.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from #socmedia that you now apply to “real life”?

mobethann:  Talk TO and WITH people, not AT them.

Keri_Mellott:  How important it is to stay in touch. Whether friends from HS or new clients. Staying in contact is so easy now!

carlapmurray:  People appreciate it most when you say something meaningful…and they like pretty pictures too.

desabol:  To be present and spend more time listening than talking.

In what new way will you begin to utilize #socialmedia in 2011?

carlapmurray:  QR Codes and smartphone apps.

visitPA:   keep moving ahead, we launched @foursquare badges this yr & works really well 4 us, keeping pulse on next thing

MathenyJenny:   I’ll be doing more social related contests, FB deals, QR codes, and focusing on the conversation.

NCCmeet:   In 2011, Engage in more meeting planner/travel/#eventprofs discussions & blogs. And, have our sales team become active on SM

desabol:  Location based apps, more mobile, exploring QR tags, and integrating things even further.

brianjohnriggs:  Also working on integrating SM with traditional communication tools/vehicles (like postcards) to created blended experience

The following comments while not directly related to a specific question were just too funny or too insightful not to include in this recap:

Keri_Mellott: My hot oatmeal is now cold sitting next to me. Too much fun on #SMfastfwd! haha

BSStoltz: It’s “soft” money. With a sound strategy & measurable objecties + time, U reap rewards that would cost much more.

MathenyJenny: Reaffirms that social is about being personal & having a convo. W/O that personal touch, social will fail.

I welcome your additions, comments, and questions.  Thanks again to everyone for your contributions to #SMfastfwd.  I look forward to having you join us again for #SMfastfwd on 11.17 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Notes from NDU iCollege’s Social Media Conference, 11.09.10

Yesterday, I attended the National Defense University iCollege’s Social Media Conference entitled “Social Media Implementation Across Organizational Boundaries”.   The sessions were informative and interesting.   Below you will find some of my notes.  This is in no way intended to be a comprehensive representation of the sessions but rather just some of the highlights, based on what stood out to me and what I can include here without making this blog post too lengthy. In fact there were two fascinating sessions that I am precluded from commenting on… you know- national security concerns and stuff like that…  One final disclaimer: I am not going to attempt to make comments attributable.  These are just notes (and not all of the ones I took).  Glean from them what you may.  In the process I hope that whether you participated at #NDUiCollege or not that you find a nugget that challenges or inspires you in your use of social media.  I welcome your comments, insights, additions/corrections, and questions.

Haiti Disaster Response:

• Made Twitter and Facebook primary tools for getting information out, can turn news over more quickly.

• News used to be a lecture; now it’s a conversation.

• We’re not going to build “the” site that everybody wants to go to.  “Survivors of Hotel Montana” on Facebook became a site for all news related to disaster.  Have discipline to take a step back, find the site where dialogue is happening and contribute

• Opensource mapping: crowdsourced, able to update

• Cell phone migration data: how many people have left?  Where have they gone?  Needed to deliver services there; they were a strain on the local economy.  We needed them to stay there as long as they could, but they would need support.  Could see movement a month after the earthquake, not individuals, but based on which cell phone towers were being used.

• Where do the responsibilities for social media reside?  Turnover, new tools.  There’s so much out there.  Where do you go to pull it all together?

• Command centers: single points of failure.  The more we rely on centralized knowledge, the more we miss out on the benefits of crowdsourcing.

Social Media Debate:

Social media definition from Wikipedia- web-based tools to create interactive content

Benefits of social media:

1.      Communication between people

2.      Collaboration- 2005 Wikipedia- 3.9 errors per article; Encylopaedia Britannica- 2.9; 2010 Wiki- 2.8, EB- 2.9

3.      Creates situational awareness/transparency

4.      Information captured

5.      Sharing knowledge

6.      Post questions/get answers

7.      Find information

8.      Get access to communities of practice- shout out to GovLoop

• Communities not limited to time and space

• It’s not either/or; it needs to be implemented

Risks:

• We put a lot of information on the internet.  Some that we put on social media sites that we wouldn’t announce in a room of 400: birthday, address, where you went to school

• Think before you post.

• Security settings.

• Robin Sage: Intelligence Analyst, fake Facebook profile

• 80 million queries on Facebook in 30 seconds, 80% of those come from outside the US.

• People collecting data for whatever their purposes are.

Government as Enterprise: Beyond the Silos with Social Media

• Not just about the story that we have to share but about what we build together

• Have the public shape the story of government and what it should be

• Open government- what are the ways that we can open up and collaborate?

• Do we need standards? Do we need policies?

• Convergence- you can tweet a message with a link to YouTube and simultaneously put that on Facebook for friends and colleagues on LinkedIn.

• Data sets are just data sets; it’s the conversations that happen around those data sets.

• Regionality is captured in a virtual world.

• Data.gov- it’s what the American people think that they can do with the data.  250 applications that help people makes decisions.

• Not that the hierarchy disappears; it’s that it just works a different way

4 ways to turn what you’re already doing into blog posts

Sometimes when I talk to people about social media, I get the distinct impression that they don’t know what to talk about on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or on blogs.  And, yet, when I ask them about their position, business, or industry, they often come across with such passion and insight.  And, it doesn’t matter whether they’re in technology, finance, education, or interior design.

So, here are 4 ways to convert what you’re talking about, thinking about, and doing every day into material for blogs and social media platforms:

1. What do you find yourself talking about? Are you repeating the same testimonial from a customer again and again when talking with prospective clients?  Are you using certain stories or illustrations repeatedly in presentations?  Do you have a favorite fact you like to reference?  Are there new laws, guidelines, or mandates that govern your business or industry?  What about at informal gatherings, when someone asks you what you do, how do you respond?  My guess is that there is a blog post- maybe more than one- or material for social media in the answers to these questions.
2. Who are you talking with? We each have a unique set of friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues, associates, etc.  Some of them are quite knowledgeable, sometimes on topics seemingly unrelated to what you do on a daily basis.  But look for the parallels.  Look for the ways to apply their approaches, lessons learned, best practices, and enthusiasm to your responsibilities.  Also, remember, that not everyone is getting to have these conversations but may benefit from reading about them on your blog or social media profiles.  In the process quote or mention that friend, family member, neighbor, colleague, or associate.  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to be quoted or mentioned, particularly when you’re talking about something you learned from them.  This may also get more eyes on your blog and faithful followers for future posts.  See how I did this recently as I converted a #SMfastfwd tweetchat into a blog post.
3. What are you reading? Perhaps you have subscriptions to magazines, trade journals, national newspapers, and/or local newspapers.  Maybe there are certain web sites or blogs you visit on a daily or weekly basis.  Again, your list of sources is unique to you.  As you read, think about what your circle of contacts would be most interested in knowing about.  Again, it makes you a valued resource when others know that you are well-read and that you are keeping them in mind.  Reference your sources, and let the publications know you used them.  They will like it and may let others know about your blog or profile.  I do this at times by using guest blogs; you can see here how I did this with “Building a Facebook Presence” by Gini Dietrich.
4. What are you attending? One of the greatest uses, in my opinion, of blogs and social media is allowing people to virtually attend events that they might not otherwise be able to be a part of.  While your at an annual conference, symposium, or meeting, why not turn what you’re learning into a blog post?  Or consider contributing to the event’s Twitter hashtag and doing live tweets.  It’s a great way to keep your following informed, and the event coordinators love to have the extra coverage.  See how I did this recently as I simply turned my notes from the Adobe Government Assembly last week into a blog post.  In fact I just found out this morning that Adobe PR sent employees a link with the press coverage they received on the event which included my blog post.

Where do you go for ideas or inspiration for blog posts or social media profile updates?  What other approaches work for you?

A few of my notes from the Adobe Government Assembly (or “What I learned from David Plouffe”)

Yesterday, I attended the Adobe Government Assembly at the Reagan building. This was my second #govtassembly. I took 2 1/2 pages of notes from the afternoon keynote by David Plouffe, author of “The Audacity to Win” and Campaign Manager, Obama for President 2008. I thought I’d put some of my notes here so that you might potentially benefit from them as well:

* How do we reach out to influencers?
* Offline connections are still the most influential.

* With an email list, you can reach your audience anytime, through any method.

* Tell your community first about things, instead of the press.

* In 2012, the ability to receive/access information is only going to increase.
* People are designing their own digital news sources.
* Where is it all headed? People are going to have more control. It’s more difficult to connect, but you have to build relationships.

* Give people an opportunity to give input. Let them know what’s being changed. They’re going to be thinking, “I don’t expect my idea to be adopted, but I want to know that the ideas of others are.”
* Reward volunteers (like getting to be a part of an event). If it’s just an online relationship, that’s fine in the beginning. It gets lonely when you think it’s just a digital relationship.

* We’re sending too many text-only messages. People will retain a video message more than written.

* Digital piece has to be at the center of strategic objectives/initiatives.
* It’s like in 1960, when the Nixon campaign mistakenly thought that TV was not going to be important to the election.

* The thinking used to be… if it (the negative news about us) is not on the nightly news or the front page of the paper, then we’re fine. The news about you may not be on the nightly news or in the paper, but it may be in 50 million people’s email, on Facebook, on blogs- and it’s more insidious.

* What you want- sermonizers.
* How do we increase the number of people we’re communicating with and then monitor it?

In response to my question about having your message stand out in a sea of emails:

* Ask people what they would change about your communication with them. People appreciate the opportunity to give feedback.
* Emails are all about the value. Give me people the opportunity to have a “tailored” relationship with you.
* Send people two emails. Then ask them- “What did you get out of it?”
* Just asking for feedback is key.

Did you attend the Government Assembly? What were your takeaways? What else did you learn from David Plouffe or from the other sessions?