January, 2009 | Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

New Mayo Clinic Blog Launches Tomorrow

In 22 hours we will be launching a major new blog for Mayo Clinic. I’ll be publishing a post about it here tomorrow (and showing it during my presentation at BlogWell in Chicago), but if you would like to preview the blog for purposes of your own blogging or tweeting (or good old-fashioned news reporting), send me a message in Facebook or a direct message in Twitter.

I’d be happy to send you a preview link and some background info, with the understanding that you wait until 7 a.m. EST tomorrow to publish anything about it. After that I would be delighted, of course, if you chose to help spread the word.

Blogging 122: Being a WordPress Blog Contributor

This post is a companion to Blogging 119: Managing Multiple Contributors, and is written from the perspective of someone with Contributor-level access to a WordPress or WordPress.com blog.

After your blog administrator has added you as a contributor, you should have a link sent to you where you can sign in.

For WordPress blogs, you can access the dashboard from the front page of the blog by adding /wp-admin/ to the end of the URL. So for SMUG, the dashboard is at:

https://www.social-media-university-global.org/wp-admin

Alternatively, you may see a link in the sidebar that looks like this.

Click the Log in link, and you will see a screen where you can log in. But I’m getting ahead of myself; watch the video and you’ll see step-by-step how you enter and save your posts as a contributor.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWyRzFkK7oY]

For further information about writing a post, see Blogging 116.

Excuses, Excuses

This time I promise it will really be my last weather-related post.

I had planned to do some SMUG curriculum work this weekend, but when I woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning to play basketball, I discovered that our kitchen had a big pool of water, and that it had leaked through the floor to soak our basement carpet.

It seems that when the temperature hits -22 degrees Fahrenheit, and when your dishwasher is on an outside wall, its motor can freeze. Frozen water expands and wrecks motors. Then when it thaws, the motor can no longer hold its water.

After I turned off the water to all of Old Main, we spent a good part of Saturday with the Shop Vac pulling water out of the basement carpet and pad.

And of course, we then needed to position fans to help the floor coverings continue drying.

Besides that unexpected pleasure, I’ve been exceptionally busy in my day job, as we’re about to launch a major new blog this week. When you see it, you’ll know why my SMUG postings have been a bit less frequent.

I’m really looking forward to you all being able to see the new blog on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the SMUG activity is going to be increasing, starting tomorrow morning.

Speaking at BlogWell

Next Thursday I’ll be in Chicago for BlogWell, an event sponsored by the Blog Council (of which Mayo Clinic is a member.) Here’s the agenda.

It should be a great event. I understand it’s sold out, but you can click here to get on the waiting list if tickets become available.

I’m sure there will be a whole lotta Tweetin’ going on.

When It’s This Cold (Part II)

Here’s my last weather-related post for a while. I couldn’t resist the update though, especially when we hit -22 Fahrenheit yesterday morning. Here was the Old Main thermostat reading:

As before, the setting on the right is the target temperature (69), while the big number is the actual indoor temperature. It’s a little warmer upstairs, but still awfully cold. There’s no way for the furnace to keep up in a big old house like ours. Yesterday’s high was -11, and we’re not talking wind chill.

So here’s a fun little video to illustrate the benefits of our SMUG North Annex (also known as the Lewis J. and LaVonne A. Aase Motor Fleet and Retreat Center.) When it’s this cold, I’m not spending much time in the attic, but I’m glad our vehicles have a slightly warmer place to be. It’s kind of amazing to watch the car thermometer reading drop after I backed out of the garage.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6sNad4S8IU]

And as I started to say (before my Flip batteries gave out), I really appreciate having a nice warm bus (with wifi) to ride instead of having to drive.

The good news: today we topped out at 2 degrees above zero, and tomorrow should be in the 20s.

This has been a hectic week, as I’ve been working on the launch of a major new work-related blog. I’m looking forward to telling you all about it later on next week.

Meanwhile, I expect now to be able to resume some of the regular SMUG curriculum development over the weekend.