ConverStations | Archive | November, 2008

Archive - November, 2008

Sites Shared – 11/25/08

By Mike Sansone on November 25, 2008 in Whistle Stops with 0 Comments

Sort of a mini-Whistle Stops post, I’ll share sites I share in offline meetings in these posts. This will help those I talk with have a reference point, but I also hope it helps those I haven’t met with to see what I’m sharing most.

Twitter – A great way to build community and conversation (but start with a blog!)
Mr. Tweet – A new way to build a network based on who you are already networking with
Facebook – We did a few searches for relevant or targeted individuals and groups
Brightkite – As a location based marketing search tool
TwitterLocal – Same thing… location based search
MicroPersuasion - Showing how comment threads can turn into conversations between commentors
Zane Safrit’s Blog – Zane came up first in a relevant keyword search. Nice job!
Escape From Cubicle Nation – Because it’s a must read for any entrepreneur
Twemes – Showing what a twitter meme is and how it can add to the conversation/networking
BlogTalkRadio – Because it’s free – and it’s easy – and everyone can use it.
FeedBurner – Every feed should be published through these folks (FULL FEEDS, PLEASE!)
LibraryThing - A great way to find books via reader tags.

Lunch n Learn with Twyla Tharp

By Mike Sansone on November 15, 2008 in Brain Stew with 0 Comments

Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit is a book I devour often and has a permanent place in my library. Here is some of her thoughts on creativity:

We Are the World – And a Small World it Becomes

By Mike Sansone on November 12, 2008 in Video with 0 Comments

A post at Joyful Jubilant Learning turned me on to this musical project that brings it all together – from all over the globe:

Amazing stuff when you think about it – and think of what can be done with classrooms, boardrooms, or book publishing. The world gets smaller. The connections made faster. The stories more inspiring.

Is Fear Disabling Our Students’ Future?

By Mike Sansone on November 6, 2008 in Education, Social Media with 0 Comments

While reading Born Digital, the introduction struck a chord and said succinctly what I’ve been trying to say for years (emphasis mine),

“There is a huge risk the we, as a society, will fail to harness the good that can come from these opportunities as we seek to head off the worst of the problems. Fear, in many cases, is leading to overreaction, which in turn could give rise to greater problems as young people take detours around the roadblocks we thing we are erecting.”

Too many times, our schools block websites, social networks, and brilliant content rather than emphasize education and appropriate use of these tools. Most of the time, the decision makers don’t even know what it is they are banning. They act out of fear.

When Davenport area schools blocked MySpace (two years ago), there was a surge of new membership for MySpace in that region. Rather than teach students how to use these tools to better themselves, we just ban them? It still goes on today! Glad we didn’t do that with cars (a much more dangerous instrument than a computer).

A 21st Century Learning System must start at the top, but we also must have chain-reaction support — a simultaneous clarion call to action — from teachers, parents, media, lawmakers, and even students.

A program like TechAngels, where students are teaching teachers technology, can go a long way to bridging this divide and better preparing our future.

Scott McLeod is leading such a charge in Iowa, and I’d love to hear from others elsewhere who are doing likewise.

Target Audience or Key Relationships: Why it’s Okay to Miss the Bullseye

By Mike Sansone on November 5, 2008 in Blog Coach, Conversations, Marketing, Social Media with 0 Comments

In marketing, we hear a lot about target audience and get concerned whether we’re hitting that target. I’ll agree that we need to be aware of who we want to build relationships with most, but every relationship you build in social media can be valuable — if building relationships and connections is what’s important.

Back in the day (and still today in LODBAU*, USA), target audience was a key phrase. After all, we need to know how many qualified prospects would see that half-page newspaper ad or hear that 30-second radio spot. While the term ‘target audience’ is still important to think about, ‘key relationships’ may be more important to think about.

I encourage my students and clients to look at social media and social networks like a dartboard. Even if we miss the bulls eye, just about everything outside of our target has some value. And eventually, it all adds up. But first, we must join the conversation.

If your business sits along Main Street in Smalltown, USA, your target audience is probably the folks living in Smalltown. But developing conversational relationships with like-minded people well outside of that target will help you in several ways:

By those connections (both with the person and most likely, hyperlinks to each other), your learning and influence network grows.
By the relationships, collaborative opportunities will become present.
By the conversations, you become smarter and better in your business.
By the activity, you and your business become more findable.

So, don’t be afraid to miss the bulls eye. In fact, sometimes it’s better to do so.

*Land Of Doing Business As Usual

Social Media Success Plan for Beginners: 6 Hours for 6 Weeks

By Mike Sansone on November 3, 2008 in Blog Coach, Social Media with 1 Comment

During last night’s conversation at Drake University’s Delta Sigma Pi meeting, I encouraged the students to follow a simple formula for social media success

2 + 1 +2 + 1 = 6

Two ways to view these numbers: By the Calendar and By the Clock.

Let’s look in our social media toolbox and see what we need to get started, hmm?

A Blog (2)
A RSS Feed Aggregator (1)
Twitter (2)
At least one other Social Media/Network publishing tool (1)
- YouTube
- Flickr
- SlideShare
- Podcast

By the Calendar

Week 1 & 2: Start with a blog for two weeks. Get a feel for the software. Practice using eye rests. Begin reading other blogs, noticing what you like and dislike.

Week 3: By the third week, you’re ready to subscribing to blogs you like. Also begin subscribing for terms and phrases important to your own content. This will allow you to comment on other sites who are talking your talk. And the connections begin.

Week 4 & 5: How Tweet it will be. You’ve been blogging (both reading and writing) for three weeks. You have a foundation of thought others can refer to. Now it’s time to Twitter. There’s a formula for this too — 70-20-10.

Week 6: Time to branch out with your creative juices. Pick a medium you have a passion for (video, photos, drawing, audio) and find a tool that you can both publish too AND use for your blog posts. By doing this, you also make yourself findable in multiple places.

By the Clock

Being disciplined by the clock is as important as the calendar — maybe more so. Take 6 hours a week for your social media. Yes — 6 hours. You probably watch that much TV. Here’s the breakdown (probably looks familiar):

Blogging (2 hours each week MINIMUM)
Reading RSS Feeds (1 hour each week MINIMUM)
Twitter (2 Hours each week MINIMUM…think about it – an average of 20 minutes a day)
Other social media tool (1 hour each week MINIMUM)

Miss the minimums and do pushups (I’m a coach not a consultant)

If you want to see last night’s conversation, we UStream’d it for your viewing pleasure (about 60 minutes)