Archive for April, 2009
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 30th, 2009
I missed last month’s reasons to be cheerful, not because there was nothing fun or innovative to share but simply because I forgot (woops). So to make it up, this months reasons to be cheerful includes more links to valuable websites, tools and social media innovations for you to enjoy.
Wowzio – is a tool that allows you to customise and create your own widgets online. They are also developing an interesting tool called Pulse which will “bubble up topics and posts that users are engaging with across the blogosphere”.
ClipCanvas provides professional stock footage and video clips.
Yelp – found a great restaurant or love your dentist? Then share your recommendations with your community or use your network to find reliable services.
New Twitter tools are proliferating, there seems to be a new one every day. Favs include: Twibes – lets you follow Twitter groups and create your own, and TweetTree - lets you view your Twitter posts and replies in context (thanks to Chakravibe for that one). I’ve also been using Power Twitter to amp up my Twitter experience with Firefox.
Need 4 Design – if you need a log or website design why not crowdsource this and run a design competition with Need 4 Design. You submit your requirement and designers compete for your business.
Add your company to LinkedIn.
Eventbrite – online event registration tools.
Backtype – find, follow and share comments on the web.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 23rd, 2009
Its been a year since our last podcast with Todd Sieling of Corvus Consulting. Back then I was new to this podcasting lark and collected almost 2 hours of material complete with lots of groovy background noise thanks to a certain coffee shop ( it took me almost a week to edit down!).
This time our podcast is much more easy on your ears and it even has some humor (its geeky but its humor nonetheless). Todd talks about what he’s been up to since last spring, the demise of Magnolia, SXSW and why he hates the term “social media”. Enjoy.
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast24.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 20th, 2009
Last week was a big week for Twitter and for social networking in general. There was the big race to reach one million followers between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN and then Oprah (@oprah) decided to get in the the act and she started Twittering too.
With these developments, its safe to say that Twitter has gone mainstream and as an exponent on social networks, the Twitter tipping point comes as good news. However, I was rather cynical about it all: Ashton proclaimed his race against CNN to be a race of “we – the people” against “the establishment”. And proclaimed “victory is ours” when he reached his goal. Sorry Ashton but you can hardly be considered “the people” being a product of the old establishment yourself. And whats more, if you want to be considered as “the people” then perhaps you should consider following more of “the people” rather than simply looking for them to follow you. Ashton has over 1.2 million followers but only follows 74 people himself – rather exclusive for a power of the people kind of guy.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect the fact that we are entitled to use Twitter however we see fit but if someone is going to set themselves up as people against establishment, they should think about the optics a little more.
After her first day on Twitter Oprah got a bit of a ribbing for Twittering: “good nite tweets. first big day in twitterland. gotta get some shut eye and use the weekend for rebooting”, from Tweeps who commented that “Twitter never sleeps”. Oprah’s use of the tool is definitely under the microscope having amassed almost 400,000 followers in 4 days but why is she really on there and what are her goals? Is she planning to use Twitter in an old establishment kind of way by broadcasting out to the masses or will she get social with more people? Only time will tell I suppose, and in the mean time we can enjoy social networking’s moment in the spotlight.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 17th, 2009
Out-Smarts is on LinkedIn thanks to this very valuable blog post by Jose Uzcategui:
If you joined LinkedIn back in 2004 but havent been active it in the last couple of years, you might not know of some of the features added to this powerful social network.
Some of the people Ive talked to lately were very surprised to hear you could search company profiles on LinkedIn, even though these people have been a part of the social network for a few years.
Yes, with LinkedIn you have the ability to browse and post company profiles. For a couple of good examples, check out the BC Cancer Agency or Microsoft:
What are these company profiles good for?
Target your networking.
If anyone within your immediate or extended network works in a company youre interested in, let them know youre interested and if they can give you a heads up with any job posting being circulated internally. Basically, work your magic.
Show your organizations talent.*
Company profiles show “New Hiresâ€, “Promotionsâ€, “Most Popular Profiles†and other information that automatically builds your organizations credibility and exposure.
*Remember, your online marketing efforts should have a clear strategy. Before creating a profile for your company, browse and find out about your competitors. See how your companys profile would fit in the established market. Do your employees have LinkedIn profiles? Is your company about to have major restructuring?
*Also, make sure you have time to update the profile if you decide to go for it. An outdated profile is more damaging than no profile at all.
…and more exposure.
If you participate, ask interesting questions, answer others concerns, participate in groups, etc, your company will be the first thing people see when they check your profile. Go out there, start answering questions and become an authority. You will look good – and so will your company.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 16th, 2009
Earth weekend is almost upon us and the good folks over at the Vancouver Aquarium are partnering up with our friends from Fresh Start Recycling as part of their Earth Weekend celebrations on April 25th and 26th. The fun includes earth themed activities, face painting, as well as the salmon fry release. Fresh Start will be collecting e Waste at the event so bring along any old electronics for recycling.
This is slightly off topic but Thomas Goodall contacted me as part of a blogger outreach campaign to promote the event so how could I resist an opportunity to help use social media to spread the good word about reducing, re-using and recycling.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 14th, 2009
Local online marketing marketing company 6s Marketing recently conducted a survey of social media use in Canada. On Friday I talked to 6s Marketing’s co-founder Chris Breikss about the survey, the results and their implications for business. Even I was surprised at some of the findings. Chris is a busy guy and an absolute pleasure to podcast with so listen and enjoy.
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast23.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 07th, 2009
I’ve been getting a lot of calls lately from people responding to the buzz about social media. In the last week I have been asked:
I am on Twitter now what do I post about?
I have a LinkedIn profile what should I put on there?
What is business Facebook?
I am getting the sense that lots of people are jumping on the social media band wagon because its the hot thing to do right now especially given the economic environment.
Don’t get me wrong, its great that social media is becoming mainstream but I am concerned that rather than taking a step back and considering what their goals are from using these tools, who they are trying to reach and what resources they can commit to doing so, people are blindly setting up profiles all over the place without really understanding how to use these profiles to benefit their business at a strategic level. They risk wasting time and effort not to mention putting their credibility on the line.
Consider this:
There are hundreds of social networks, millions of blogs and even more users worldwide. What you post stays there forever. These technologies are not toys, they are tools and like any other tools you need to understand what you want to do with them and what you are trying to achieve.
What people should be asking is: “what is our social media strategy?”. Take a step back, think about your corporate goals and who you are trying to reach. Do some competitive intelligence to see how others in your industry are using these tools. Think about where online you are most likely to find your target audience and then consider your internal resources. Sounds familiar? It should if you have ever put together a marketing plan.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 02nd, 2009
With the current social media tsunami, it is extremely important to get your website social media ready. Christine from Bluelime Media tells you how to do this for WordPress in her recent blog post:
As social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn become more and more popular, these days, I find myself being asked to make adjustments to several WordPress websites by adding social bookmarking links and icons to the sidebar. After 2 such web updates this week, I was asked by a friend to send me the code so that they could add it to their site. So instead of doing the work and sending it to him, I thought I would share it with you all.
The following examples are just code snippets that you can add to your sidebar.php template file. These snippets will not work if your website uses sidebar widgets. (Thats not exactly true, but its a bit more complicated.)
The first example is very simple and can be seen live on the kitsilano.ca website.
First youll need to edit your sidebar.php template and add the following lines of code:
<h2>Follow Us</h2>
<ul>
<li class="rss"><a href="[insert your rss link here]“>Get our Feed</a></li>
<li class=â€twitterâ€><a href=â€[insert your twitter link here]“>On Twitter</a></li>
</ul>
Next you can adjust the styling by adding this piece of code to your style.css
#sidebar li.rss {background:url(images/rss.gif) 0 50% no-repeat;}
#sidebar li.twitter {background:url(images/twitter.gif) 0 50% no-repeat;}
#sidebar li.rss a, #sidebar li.twitter a {padding-left:20px;}
The icons will also have to be uploaded in your templates images folder. You can use your own icons or grab the ones that Ive used by downloading the zip file.
The second example may look a bit more complex, but is just as easy and can be seen on the mudcreative.com sidebar.
First insert these lines of code in your sidebar.php:
<div id="social_media">
<h2>Follow Us</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="[insert your link to linked in here]“><img src=â€<?php bloginfo(template_directory); ?>/images/linkedin.png†alt=â€View our linked in profile†width=â€32″ height=â€32″ border=â€0″ /></a></li>
<li><a href=â€[insert your link to twitter here]“><img src=â€<?php bloginfo(template_directory); ?>/images/twitter.png†alt=â€On Twitter†width=â€32″ height=â€32″ border=â€0″></a></li>
<li><a href=â€[insert your link to rss feed here]“><img src=â€<?php bloginfo(template_directory); ?>/images/rss.png†alt=â€Via our RSS feed†width=â€32″ height=â€32″ border=â€0″ /></a></li>
<li><a href=â€[insert your link to facebook here]“><img src=â€<?php bloginfo(template_directory); ?>/images/facebook.png†alt=â€On Facebook†width=â€32″ height=â€32″ border=â€0″></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Next, add the following to your style.css
#social_media {
width:200px;
background:#F2F7F7;
border:1px solid #ACD0D1;
padding: 0 0 5px 0; margin-bottom:10px;
}
#social_media ul {list-style-type:none; margin:0 0 0 6px; padding:0;}
#social_media ul li {display:inline; padding: 0 6px 0 0;}
Depending on what your stylesheet already contains, you may need to make a few tweaks, but it should be pretty straightforward.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 01st, 2009
Practically every second email I get these days mentions the importance of networking both online and in person. Who am I to argue: without networking, its hard to make the connections you need to build your business or get the word out.
One aspect of networking that is often overlooked is the value of cross pollenation between online and in person networks. Social networks offer a great tool to allow you to maintain your networks and keep in touch with people you meet at all those networking events you attend or to connect with people in advance of real world events.
One of the best ways to build your social networking presence (especially when you are just getting started) is by looking for the low hanging fruit, and by that I mean the people you’ve already met or have a relationship with. Search for colleagues, friends and business partners in these forums, add them and watch your social networks grow. When you attend presentations, search for the presenter in these online forums and make contact with them as well as people you meet at the event.
When I started my career in sales and marketing before the advent of social networks, it was drummed into me how important it was to keep a record of all of the contacts I had made and to regularly call them or email them to maintain the relationship, and this remains true today. Initially, this was easy as I only had a handful of contacts but as this grew, maintaining my contacts became a time consuming, boring, dreaded chore. These days, thanks to social networks, I am in constant contact with my circles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Biznik. The tedious task of maintaining my network has become fun and doesn’t take up much time at all.
Today, the rolodex (or the Fillofax – do you remember those?) which was vital to good business networking as recently as a decade or so ago has gone the way of the typewriter or the dodo and thank goodness for that. When I see one of these, it becomes an object to reminisce over and to rejoice at its passing. I am glad they are gone: maintaining my contacts through the appropriate social networks is much more effective thanks very much.
