So...What's Next?!?

Post-It Notes

A long time ago I used to work with a man that used post-it notes for everything. If it was not on a Post-It Note is was not on his "to-do" list or he did not get the message.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit through a very energized strategy meeting and guess what they used....yep...Post It Notes.

As I have mentioned, I am working on enhancing some of my presentations and overall approach to various opportunities and I have been reading a book called How to Wow. I just read a section called "the writing's on the wall" and she describes a bit of what I experienced at that strategy meeting. The use of post-it notes to get everyone's ideas on the wall so that we can work through them.

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to run the Nonprofit University's first online class,which is also a classroom training. It is a 3 hour class where I literally need to be two places at one time, online and in the class. So I am re-working my presentation to give it some kick. I think this post-it note idea, which we can have a virtual post-note thing happening, is exactly what I am looking for.

Brilliant ideas can be so simple sometimes.

The best idea that was not mine

A couple of years ago Jim Stroud suggested that we launch an online training series. I said no. I insisted it would not work because I needed to be able to see the students, to know if I am making contact, if there is confusion as well as to get student participation.

Well today I held the first class of session 2 and was quite pleased. I am still having some technical issues with Webex, and we have a bit more tweaking of the content, but I really liked the dialog that happened today.

The session was about optimizing your content for the social web. We talked about how search is changing and people are starting to get more information from their social networks. We talked specifically about StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us and Google's Open Social initiative.

The discussion went into how to address these tools and trends with the IT departments of Enterprises who lock these tools out. That really is the current big hurdle in front of me right now.

We had a very good discussion and we will continue looking at case studies and articles in the ongoing support community. I believe that will be the topic for this week's corporate blog post as well.

It turns out these online classes were a great idea for learning, discussion, and overall moving things forward.

Thanks Jim!

Not a way to run a business OR a blog

I launched my online training classes. I decided to use PayPal for credit card transactions since attendees need to pay prior to attending class and checks could take too long.

I sold the full training series and ran the payments through PayPal. I went into PayPal to transfer the funds to my bank.

The next day I was informed that my transfer was reversed and for 4 days PayPal has been holding my money to review the transaction with absolutely NO communication to me about what is going on.

I have spoken with a kind representative once when I called and all she could do is take "my side of the story" (no this is not a customer dispute - PayPal is suspicious of the transaction).

So I looked online to see if there was any contact information/email address for an executive. Nope -

But I did find their blog. Overall it is a pretty useless blog. They do have some guidelines;

We value your thoughts, ideas and suggestions, but please keep comments on-topic and do not use abusive language. If you like our point of view, let us know. And if you don’t, tell us why.

Fine - I will comply - I looked for a post that might be relevant to my issue. Obviously this is a security policy and they MUST have a blog post about it....The closest thing I found was this post about a payment notification issue. Eh..close enough - I will post my question and concern there - respectfully....

No - no I won't. For this post the comments have been closed.

Well - so much for conversations with their customers. So much for transparency. Oh - comments are open for their fluff posts.

Being in as many rooms with executives and PR professionals discussing social media as I have been in the past few years, I can just imagine the conversations at PayPal of "controlling the conversation" and not wanting anyone to say anything bad about the company.

Well - guess what - you can not control it, but you can manage it. First - speak to your customers - ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE NOT ALLOWING THEM TO HAVE THEIR MONEY! Second - let customers speak their mind on your site. It is much easier to find and respond to ...i.e. manage - then when we get so frustrated and blog on our own site.

For the record, I will no longer be taking payments via PayPal.

How Can You Compete With Cookies?

For anyone wondering, the training class went really this morning. I ended up using Webex instead of GoToMeeting because GoToMeeting does not support Mac users (losers) and WebEx was better overall anyway. I was very happy with it.

After the training class I took my youngest son to his best friend's house and went to a 2 hour lunch meeting. Then I picked my son up and came home. It has been a long day already.

I was welcomed by a Fedex box on my doorstep, which I assumed were the books I ordered from Amazon.com.

To my very pleasant surprise, what I found in the box was a bouquet of cookies from Vocus.

Hmmm....why would they be sending me cookies?

Vocus has been doing some very aggressive advertising with Google Ads. I see their ads to download a free white paper EVERYWHERE! Josh Hallet, who was one of the first people I started following in the social media world now works for Vocus, so I decided to download the paper and check it out.

Because the white paper is being used as a good lead generation tool it was required that  I fill out my information to receive the white paper, which resulted in a sales call, and then another one, and then another one and now cookies!?!

Alright, perhaps I should have returned one of those sales calls. I mean I do believe in Karma. When I waited on tables I used to tip well even when I received bad service just because I did not want the Karma of bad tips. As someone who makes sales calls I guess I should return sales calls. ...sigh

But I have a long list of things I need to do that take priority. So I thought by ignoring the sales call it would go away. Yes - for those clients who can identify with my alternate title of "professional nag" - you may be seeing the Karma here.

The thing is...I am a very small company - I know social media very well...I was interested in what Vocus had to say, but I am not a prospect.

Now I have cookies! Very good cookies! In fact, they are my favorite, Peanut Butter....how did Vocus know that Peanut Butter Cookies were my favorite?

Anyway, the reason I decided to blog this experience is because I started to think of the cost of the lead generation that Vocus has incurred from the ads, to the phone calls, to the cookies. On me alone that is a bit of money, for an unqualified prospect.

I have to give them credit though, because if they were my competitors, I have to admit that my next  thought was....how do you compete with cookies?

Class Will Be Held On Thursday

It's official! in fact here is the course syllabus

Download course_syllabus_session_1.pdf

We have about 15 people signed up and ready to learn! The complete course list can be found at http://www.socialmediaguide.net

Managing Expectations

This week I will be launching our first online training class!

I do not want these sessions to be basic presentations that you can hear at conferences and association meetings. I want them to be real opportunities for learning and applying that knowledge to improve the lives and businesses of our students.

So in addition to putting together the training guides and lesson plan, I have been really studying adult learning theories. I found this link: Tips to Improve Interaction Among the Generations.

As I was taking notes, I was thinking about the different people in my life that fit into the stereotypical values and expectations of each generation. What I realized is the generation time clock is not so exact.

For example, because my first job right out of college was an IT recruiter, I fit the exact profile of the Generation Xers such as having the entrepreneurial spirit, perceived lack of loyalty to any one company, independence and creativity, and the need for continuous feedback.

However, these traits did not come from my upbringing. They came from my experience of watching who was getting hired, who wasn't, who was succeeding in their careers and who was staying stagnant. I got a front seat view of the consequences (good and bad) of people's career choices for the first 3 years of my own career.

What I saw was companies not investing in the long-term growth of employees - expecting to churn and  burn their teams. The rule at the time was 1 year was a long term employee - we would like to see someone with a track record of two years - anything over 5 years meant their skills had become stagnant. The team that got the highest pay and status were the contractors and consultants. This was the late 90's - the time when Gen Xers were coming of age.

As I read through the traits of the Baby Boomers, their expectations in life are a lot different. Where they are the same is in that both generations value change and innovation and believe in hard work. However to climb the company ladder, Baby Boomers believe in company loyalty and many still expect to be at their companies long-term.

Now the year you were born does not necessarily subscribe you to the traits and values of that generation. I know many people who were born between 1966-1977 that would like to stay with their company long term and go up the corporate ladder. Those values and ideas would have been passed down from their family. They may not have witnessed the chaos that I witnessed early in my career.

So how will this affect how I teach social media?

I am realizing that when I stress the "need to know" it has to align with multi-generational values. If you are a long-term employee climbing the corporate ladder, you "need to know" how to get recognized and add value to your organization. If you are in this game for your own development in spite of who you work for, you need to keep your skills relevant and in demand.

More importantly, while going through this exercise, I am starting to understand the generation gaps and cultural breakdowns more and more - there are definite bridges between the generations, but there needs to be some prodding to get each group to cross over them. The younger generations do need to look to the older generations more for some core values related to hard work, drive and resilience and the older generation can no longer throw there hands up and claim that these new technologies are for the youth.

This is definitely an area I expect to being exploring more along the way.

Social Media Training - What a Concept!

So, here's the deal.

When I started looking into what was going on in the world of social media I had an epiphany. There is no one to train people about all this new technology.

This was an epiphany for me because I taught myself all the technology that I know, from Windows to Word, HTML to CSS and the great but failed attempt of trying to learn networking and Java Script.

However, I had the great blessing, which at the time seemed like a curse, to sell training for a couple of years. I learned quickly the value of training. I learned that although I knew the basics of Word, Excel, and Outlook, there was A LOT I did not know and training made life a bit easier. I also learned many people prefer to be trained than to "just figure it out themselves."

So, immediately, training became part of our offerings. We offered classroom training for a minimum of 5 students and a full day campaign kick off training. The past two years, this has been at least 1/2 of our revenue.

Here is the problem I faced though. It was not fiscally reasonable to train just one or two people and there was a geographic barrier to how we were providing our training.

A couple of weeks ago I provided the Human Resource Association of Broward County a 2 hour workshop. At the end of the workshop I had 54 business cards of individuals who wanted to learn more. That put a magnifying glass on my problem, (Individuals in FL).

It took way too long, but all the pieces in my head finally started to form a picture...online training.

I officially launched the idea over the weekend and we already have a number of people signing up for the full series of classes. I will officially start marketing the idea later this week.

Here is what we are offering:

What to Expect from the Training

• Each session will be 90 minutes long and will be held as a live session with the ability for a two way dialog .
• Each session will be archived for the students to review after the session for two weeks.
• Each session will come with a pdf training guide.
• Each session will have a moderated private online community for students to continue to collaborate and ask questions.

Price - $299 each or a series of 10 at $2490 

Contact:

Sherry Heyl, Chief Strategy Officer
404.386.9801
sherry@empoweringconcepts.net

http://www.empoweringconcepts.net

1. Introduction to Social Media (RSS, RSS Readers, and Tags)

Pre-requisite: Computer/Internet Experience

Date(s) Offered May 29, 2008 9:00-10:30 am

2. Advanced Internet Syndication (optimizing your content)

Pre-requisite: Solid Knowledge of RSS and Tags

Dates(s) Offered June 26, 2008 9:00 - 10:30 am

3. Analyzing the Online Marketplace

Pre-requisite: Solid Knowledge of RSS and Tags 

Date(s) Offered July 31, 2008 9:00-10:30 am

4. Blogging 101 (How to start)

Pre-requisite: Solid Knowledge of RSS and Tags 

Date(s) Offered August 28, 2008 9:00 -10:30 am

5. Advance Blogging (Building your network)

Pre-requisite: Solid Knowledge of RSS, Tags, Hyperlinks and Trackbacks

Date(s) Offered September 25, 2008 9:00- 10:30 am

6. Social Network Communities 101 (Getting the most from your profile)

Pre-requisite: Understanding of Aggregating Content

Date(s) Offered October 30, 2008 9:00 - 10:30 am

7. Advanced Social Network Communities (Building Communities)

Pre-requisite: Understanding of Aggregating Content 

Date(s) Offered November 20, 2008 9:00 - 10:30 am (one week early due to Thanksgiving)

8. Media Sharing 101 (Communication Channels and Content)

Pre-requisite: RSS, Tags, Hyperlinks, Trackbacks and Aggregating Content

Date(s) Offered January 29, 2008 9:00 - 10:30 am

9. Advanced Media Sharing (Going Viral)

Pre-requisite: RSS, Tags, Hyperlinks, Trackbacks and Aggregating Content 

Date(s) Offered February 26, 2008 9:00 - 10:30 am

10. Social Bookmarking and Editing (Research and Collaboration)

Pre-requisite: RSS, Tags, and Hyperlinks

Date(s) Offered March 26, 2008 9:00 - 10:30 am