LISTEN, CONNECT, INFLUENCE

The Many Ways We Use Social Media

by Sherry Heyl

As more and more people join sites such as Facebook and Twitter, or begin to follow blogs or find that Wikipedia is their primary reference, there seems to be more questions about social media than answers.

This past week I sat at a meeting where everyone in the room was on either LinkedIN or Facebook and everyone in the room agreed that social media was the best way to reach their audience. The challenge was coming to an agreement of what the best approach would be.

I sat and observed as everyone expressed what they felt would be the best approach, from LinkedIN groups to Facebook groups to blogs and branded networks. The disconnect that I witnessed was that everyone was  focused on a traditional top down approach. The goal was to decide what the organization wanted to do and then push the strategy down to the people they were trying to reach. The challenge with that approach is that there are no real established rules, no standardized approaches for how people use Social Media. 

• There are the early adopters, the people who jumped on Twitter in 2007 and created a community, uncovered uses for the tools and developed add-on applications to enhance the tool. These are people who are on to something new by the time the rest of us figured out that this was something called Twitter.
• There are the casual users who have figured out that they can re-connect with old high school friends on Facebook and maintain their rolodex on LinkedIN but have not really integrated social media tools in their world of business.
• There are the strategic hunters who are actively using social media to find business opportunities and to stay connected with what is going on.
• There are the "project managers" who use social media for specific projects, whether it is to promote a brand or to collaborate with a team and share information. 

Many people use social media for more than one of the reasons listed above and they uses different tools, networks, and communities for different purposes.

The very next day I was at a business lunch and the question came up about best practices of "friending" people on each network. Many people see Facebook as the place where they can "hang out" with friends and family and are  trying to keep work relationships out of that network circle, so if your organization is trying to promote an event simply in Facebook you will not be able to reach the people who have chosen to keep their network circle closed. Many people are on LinkedIN but for lack of real training on these networks, do not know how to do much more than set up a profile and make connections, so there are stumbling blocks to reach your audience there.

The top down approach to a social media strategy can only work if you are truly able to mandate and manage which networks people will be on and how to use them. In the meeting I spoke about how social media needs to be a bottom up approach. We need to find where people are and then go to where they are. The challenge with that approach, though, is as mentioned above, people have different reasons for being in their various networks and different levels of engagement in each network.

As I explained the situation to my husband he identified that the best approach is neither top down or bottom up, it needs to be a center-out approach. We need to establish our goals and purpose and then reach out (or syndicate content) to the various networks throughout the Universe of Social Media. 

What really strikes me is that no matter what we are trying to do with social media, we really need to remember that we are trying to reach individuals, not masses of people, and we are trying to develop a relationship with each individual based on trust, respect, and value. As our attention becomes more and more scattered and fragmented throughout online networks the only way to truly reach people is to not worry so much about where our message should be, but to make sure our  communications efforts become more personal/individualized as well as more focused on adding value to the lives of each individual.

Are Your Relationships Helping You Reach Your Goals?

by Sherry Heyl

One of the things that I feel makes the SoCon events great is that they have always attracted a very diverse group; this year more so than ever. We had people from large organizations like UPS and people from Mainstream Media such as the AJC and the Atlanta Business Chronicle, people who use social media for self expression and people who are trying to figure out how to use social media to promote their small businesses as well as entreprenuer's who are trying to find the problems that can benefit from their technical solutions.

It is such a mashup of wonderful ideas and experiences. But there is one common theme to it all which is "how can social media help us reach our goals." The question is more often phrased as;

• "How do I make money with social media?"
• "How do I find a job through social media?"
• "How do I reach more people through social media?" and so on.

The answer is often the same - which is social media is not about making money, getting a job, reaching more people, social media is about relationships.

So I want to re-phrase the question. "Are Your Relationships Helping You Reach Your Goals?"

It is as simple as that. Do you have enough relationships? Do you have the right relationships? Are you nurturing your relationships? and so forth.

Here are five simple steps to build relationships that will help you reach your goals.

1. Nurture your relationships by listening, interacting and providing information that will help your network of friends, peers and clients to reach their goals? People will not follow you if you are only talking about what you need or what your goals are. Relationships have always been a give and take. Even the basic "sales call" works best when it is done with the other person's interest in mind first.

2. Know Thyself. Our interactions and interests are now out there in the open for all to see. Social Media has no established rules. You must establish your own rules based on your values, personal space and goals. You WILL polarize people more than ever. However, you will also begin to attract people who are more aligned with you and your goals. Social Media has been described as the Wild West of the Internet. Feelings can and do get hurt. Reputations can be dragged through the mud. And everyone has an opinion that they will openly share. To avoid being distracted by such chaos it is very important that an individual, brand, or organization truly knows what they stand for and how to align with those who will stand beside them.

3. Give more, receive more, expect little. No one responds well in a relationship that is all about living up to the expectations of others. Relationships work best when it is an unconditional give and take. Every good book written about networking, netweaving, networthing....is about unconditional giving. However social networking is also about receiving. There is lots of information that can be tapped into, as mentioned above, everyone has an opinion  to share. If you listen, allow yourself to open up and receptive to the ebs and flows of your network you will uncover opportunities that will help you reach your goals.

4. Manage your time wisely. Yes listening takes time - there is a lot to pay attention to. However let's think about our day. In the morning we might read the news, what if we took that time to find out what our network is saying about the news - sort of like hanging out at the watercooler. During the day we focus on our work, if we are in sales we can use our social networking time to look for warm sales leads, to learn more about our prospects and clients and competitors. If we are developers we can leverage our online communities to find answers to bugs we might run into. Basically we need to focus our social networking time for the task that we are undertaking at the time. We can use our breaks during the day and in the evening to socialize with friends and family. When managed appropriately Social Media should help you be more productive in your day.

5. Remember it's not about the tools. So many people are looking to Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIN to be the "magic tool" to help them reach their goals.  I blame Microsoft for this mindset. Their tools "solved" every challenge that an organization faced and so we now think of technology tools as being a "solution" to a need. LinkedIN, FaceBook, Twitter...and so on brings people together - people that choose to come together on that specific platform. Your entire network is not on Facebook or LinkedIN - they are on both or maybe neither. They were on MySpace then Facebook, now they are on Twitter but now Facebook opened their status updates so it is predicted that people will move from Twitter back to Facebook and so on and so on. Be where you need to be but focus on building the right  relationships first, regardless of where those relationships are being built or nurtured.

SoCon09 Conversations

by Sherry Heyl

Yesterday's SoCon09 event was record breaking. We hosted more than 300 people at Kennesaw State University.

Each year SoCon starts with a welcome message by Dr. Richard Vengroff, Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

This year he greeted us through a live stream.

Leonard Witt also had a surprise for everyone (including me). I knew about Leonard's success in blogging about his Representative Journalism idea, but we were able to learn the details and meet with with his partner Ruth Ann Harnisch, President of The Harnisch Foundation, who was visiting us from the TED conference who announced a $1.5 million gift to Kennesaw State for a journalism program.

Jeff Haynie returned to Atlanta and provided a session on lessons learned from Silicon Valley.

His slides can be found here.

His assessment that Atlanta had a branding problem was an interesting lead in to Andrew Wilson's discussion about what is Atlanta's niche? or as Andrew tried to stress, should we be so narrow as to try to find a niche?

That was an interesting interactive discussion where we heard the passion of the arts and creativity that exist in this city, we discussed how the Atlanta Brand encompasses both OTP and ITP (many, many counties and cities). One participant asked the question about the challenges Andrew faces with the ATL Insider, which led to some discussion about creating an online commuity.

As our keynote speaker we welcomed Chris Carfi. Chris led a very interactive discussion which started with the idea of reverse marketing. "Yesterday's vendor driven world had 3 things:marketing, sales, and support. but what happens if things are driven by the customers?"

I heard many positive comments about the afternoon breakout sessions. The session I chose to lead was Social Networking 101. I expected a small group of people; the room was packed. We discussed how online social networking is very much like offline social networking and then we got everyone in the room to sign up for a new site. I happened to mention that Delicious is my favorite network, which resulted in many people in the group signing up for Delicious :)

There was A LOT of twittering going on. Yes I heard all your ideas about having twitter projected on a screen during the conference. I have experienced that a couple of years ago at another conference, and in my opinion it is distracting. But, the idea will be up for discussion for next year.

I also have to admit, I really miss the days of live blogging the conferences...

Here is the Twitter Stream.

I also want to thank everyone who posted photos on Flickr. Josh Hallet, as always, has some amazing shots.

Big thanks  to Amber and Rusty for podcasting the morning sessions.

I was very impressed that Amani Channel live streamed the morning sessions.

Thank you to everyone who helped us promote SoCon09.

The SoCon09 Line Up

Only 3 days left to register! http://www.socon09.com

Friday night is our annual Big Thinking, Big Networking Dinner at Maggiano's.  Over 100 people connecting with new ideas, new friends, and new opportunities. We will have tables set up for focused conversations around;

• Podcasting, Video, Citizen Media
• PR and Social Media
• Digital Serial Entrepreneurs
• Social Media for Business
• Social Media for Social Good
• Best Practices with Twitter

Saturday we will launch the day with opening remarks by Leonard Witt and myself. We will hear from Jeff Haynie, who has spent the past year in   Silicon Valley building his latest venture. 

During the planning stages for SoCon09, there were a lot of questions about what Atlanta had to offer? What was our niche? SoCon is the premiere social media un-conference in the South, but what does that mean to the bigger picture of Social Media? We explored the ideas that the South was known for our great story-tellers and southern hospitality. We acknowledged that Atlanta has not been the city of innovation or bleeding edge trends and technology, but that we have held our own as early adopters. The conversations became so passionate and enlightening we decided to make it the theme of our conference..."In Search of the Southeast’s Social Media Niche," hosted by Atlanta's Andrew Wilson.

Andrew is a six-year resident of Atlanta, he has also lived and worked on four continents which has given him a broad perspective to critically evaluate the destination product. He was the Chief Operating Officer for Brand Atlanta, a not-for-profit City-led initiative to develop and promote a singular brand identity for Atlanta.


We also heard many, many, many questions and requests about how to leverage social media for business. As our keynote speaker we are flying in Christopher Carfi, an entrepreneur and is currently the CEO of Cerado, Inc. Cerado was founded in 2002 to provide software and services that enable businesses, organizations and associations to better connect and understand their customer and member communities. His blog, The Social Customer Manifesto, is a "Top 25" marketing blog, and has won numerous other awards including “Top CRM Blog” in 2005 and 2007. He is also an active contributor to the ProjectVRM, based at the Berkman Center at Harvard University, which focuses on improving customer-vendor relationships and is creating tools to equip individuals with tools of both independence and engagement.

Our break-out sessions will be led by various professionals that have made social media work for them.

Using Social Networking for Social Change  will be host by Tessa Horehled who has led social media initiative to raise money and awareness for the Atlanta Food Bank and is a co-founder of http://www.atlantanstogether.org

What It Takes to Be a Winning Technology Entrepreneur will be hosted by Jeff Haynie - CEO of Appcelerator, an open-source software company that develops products and solutions to help enterprises rapidly develop rich Internet applications (RIAs) and SOA-based (service oriented architecture-based) Web services. He was previously the co-founder and CTO of Vocalocity, a software provider in the communications arena. Prior to that he was CTO of eHatchery, a digital incubator and off-shoot of Bill Gross’ idealab

Social Media for B2B will be hosted by John Gatrell, Vice-President of Product Marketing and Strategy at Inovis, a leading provider of solutions that help businesses improve the flow of information across their trading communities. In this role, Jon is responsible for driving product strategy and industry solutions for automotive, retail, manufacturing and logistics verticals and participating in standards development organizations. Jon has launched several key social media initiatives, products and strategies to aid customers’ in problem resolution, drive improved collaboration for their trading communities and strengthen Inovis’ online visibility.

Jon also has a successful track record in product management over the past nine years at Inovis. During that tenure, Jon has also been actively involved in corporate and business development as well as product management. Jon holds leadership roles in numerous organizations, including ASCX12, the Social Media Club, NEECOM, and OAGi.

Social Media 101 with Hands-on Training will be hosted by yours truly (me). We will spend part of the time exploring how social media is different from other communication channels and we will get our hands on the various tools of the trade.

Social Media in Public Relations will be hosted by James Andrews, Vice President, Director at Ketchum Interactive, specializing in the creation of online media strategies, web/application development, and content production. Ketchum Interactive clients include FedEx, Monster.com, Weight Watchers, Geek Squad, Wendy’s and Nokia. Andrews is based in Atlanta and manages a team of developers, designers and strategists based at Ketchum South.

Making and Using Multimedia for Business Communication will be hosted by James Harris and Amani Channel, veterans of SoCon events and stars in the mullti-media production for businesses and media outlets.

Your Privacy and Legal Rights on the Web will be hosted by Paul Arne, co-chair of the Technology Transactions Group at Morris, Manning and Martin.  He is also the founder and chair of the firm's Web 2.0 practice group.  Paul holds a B.S. in Business from UNC and a 1981 law degree from Duke University.  Paul is a member of the Board of Directors of the Enterprise 2.0 society of TAG and is a frequent speaker and writer on Web 2.0 legal topics.

Return on Investment in Social Media will be hosted by Josh Hallet, an internationally recognized thought leader in the convergence of social media and corporate public relations & marketing.

Josh is currently a New Media Strategist at Voce Communications providing social media consulting and development work with brands like Yahoo, Sony Computer Entertainment America, eBay and a number of B2B/B2C firms.

Build Your Own Personal Brand will be hosted by David Cohen, a brand strategist, problem solver, technologist, and “business therapist”. Known for being both a left and right brain thinker, David has spent much of his career exploring the intersection of technology, business and creativity.  His expertise is in defining brand positioning and product vision; skills, which he has applied to software and service companies in a wide range of industries.

David brings an artist's eye and creativity to his work. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Atlanta. He has also led creative teams on co-branded web projects with CompuServe, The Weather Channel, Erols, Bigfoot, USA.net, Polygram, and American Express.

Online Etiquette: How to Balance Your Personal and Professional Image Online will be hosted by Amber Rhea co-founder of the Georgia Podcast Network, a portal site for Georgia-based podcasts. She co-hosts the award-winning podcast Mostly ITP, which focuses on people and issues in Atlanta (and occasionally elsewhere). Amber is the founder of Sex 2.0 and was the main organizer of PodCamp Atlanta 2007. She also finds time for a day job as a web developer. She has been blogging for almost seven years and doesn't plan to stop anytime soon.

How a Quarter Million Dollars Found Me on the Internet – How to Build Social Capital and Real Capital in the Nonprofit Sector will be hosted by Leonard Witt, the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University and was named an Eminent Scholar by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia in May 2008. His scholarship centers around civic and citizen journalism represented by his First Monday peer-reviewed paper: “Constructing a Framework to Enable an Open Source Reinvention of Journalism.” He conceived Representative Journalism, a new model, enabling communities to hire their own journalists. He received a grant from the Harnisch Foundation to test it in Northfield, MN. Other funded projects include Blog2Learn, helping teachers blog, and the year-long Journalism and the Public: Restoring the Trust project funded by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. In all he has been involved in receiving about $300,000 in grants aimed at teaching new media, advancing social media and building journalism reform. He has organized major academic conferences for the AEJMC, including one at Kennesaw State University and others in Toronto and San Antonio and co-sponsored the Journalism that Matters summit in Washington, D.C. He was a journalist for more than 25 years, including being editor of Sunday Magazine at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Minnesota Monthly magazine. Before entering academia in 2002, he was the executive director of the Minnesota Public Radio Civic Journalism Initiative. He blogs at PJNet.org.

Social Media for Marketing and Generating Leads will be hosted by Debbie Qaqish who has over 30 years of sales and marketing experience in leading multiple B2B companies to sustained revenue growth and profitability.Most recently, Debbie served as VP of Strategy and Marketing for Knowlagent, an award-winning software company that helps clients drive revenue from the call center.

Debbie is a leading authority on applying strategy, technology and process to help B2B organizations drive revenue growth.Her principal areas of expertise include designing results-oriented inside sales and sales organizations that leverage technology and optimal processes to profitably grow revenue. Additionally, Debbie is a revenue-focused marketing strategist.She has consistently designed marketing programs and systems that align sales and marketing around what it takes to get, keep and grow profitable client relationships. As a Principal Partner, Debbie is responsible for developing and managing client relationships. She also spearheads strategic business partnerships and alliances.

How Small Businesses Can Prosper from Social Media will be hosted by Barbara Giamanco. Barb is known for her work helping clients increase sales, hire top talent and develop high performing teams. She consults with companies and trains business professionals to help them attract clients and close sales using social media strategies and tools. Throughout her career, Barb has received numerous awards in the areas of leadership and sales.

A keynote speaker, author and professional with over 25 years of business experience, Barb is the Official Guide for Corporate Training at SelfGrowth.com and a Sales/Marketing Faculty Expert with the Profitability Channel. She earned her coach certificate from The Coaches Training Institute and is an Inscape Certified DiSC® Facilitator.

Planning for Tomorrow --  What’s Next With Social Media with Chad Israel Engauge Digital's Social Media Manager. You can consider him a pioneer in the industry. He started a company with a partner, the first Flash-based RSS-based aggregator. Through this company, they started the first social media department in the country and the first online TV show. His efforts were purely social, grassroots efforts. He worked with the first round internet celebrities, including Perez Hilton and Lisa Nova. Over the last couple of years, Chad has applied his extensive experience to client needs - forging new ideas in the space, and identifying the best opportunities for marketing.

and finally, it seems everyone is jumping on Twitter, but still trying to figure out why.

Best practices with Twitter will be hosted by Grayson Daughters, Grayson Daughters of Atlanta, Georgia is the founder of WaySouth Media, Inc. -- a media consulting company with the tag line: producing and promoting new media. Daughters has been at work in play in traditional and the latest forms of media since launching a professional existence at some point back in the 80's. Twitter is the key device in her master plan to merge work, play, and motherhood into one fully-integrated, seamless existence. Daughters is concerned that this bio is more than 140 characters.

We have brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry. This is not an event to be missed. Register today! http://www.socon09.com