Tag: SMUG

My Third Anniversary

Today I celebrate three years of blogging. It was on this date in 2006 that I wrote this brief post about being one of 50 million blogs tracked by Technorati. A year later, when I did my first anniversary post, I had just been getting into Facebook. That led to some opportunities to do training sessions on using Facebook, including the Facebook 101 presentation that became the inspiration for rebranding this blog as SMUG. And so a year ago today I looked back on another fascinating year, as I had “found my voice” in helping people learn how to use social media, and particularly how to develop business applications.

The year since that point has been amazing. It’s really telling to look back on some of my previous posts and to see how my thinking has changed over time. And in my work I’ve been involved in some significant new projects, most notably the launch of our Sharing Mayo Clinic blog.

Our Tweetcamps have also been fun and interesting, and it’s been gratifying to have so many people from outside of Mayo participating. Aside from Sharing Mayo Clinic, I think for me the biggest development of the last several months has been getting much more engaged with Twitter, and I appreciate all the people I’ve met through the #hcsm and (to some extent) #hcmktg chats. Having this video go viral after embedding in our Sharing Mayo Clinic blog was a delightful experience, especially getting to meet Mr. and Mrs. Cowan and their daughter, DeDe, when they went to appear on Good Morning America. That whole experience was really special.

It seems odd to think that the next year could be as interesting and exciting as the last one has been, but all signs point toward a continuing adventure. Next week, for instance, I’m going to be doing a Webcast with Ragan Communications about our Mayo Clinic experience, and I’m hearing that we have 1,500 people registered to participate. And in October we’re hosting and cosponsoring a Health Care Social Media Summit with Ragan at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. It’s unlikely we have another viral video in the works, but then again we didn’t see the last one coming either.

Thanks to everyone for reading, participating and Tweeting, and I look forward to another interesting year.

Are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter Really Free?

Some Tweeters have taken issue with a slide I typically include in most of my presentations. It says:

Total cost for Mayo Clinic YouTube, Facebook and Twitter:

$0.00

They protest that it’s inaccurate, maybe even misleading to say “total cost” and that it should instead say “Barrier to Entry” or “Cost to Start.” “What about the staff needed to run these sites?” they ask.

I will grant that these platforms don’t automatically maintain themselves, but I’m not changing the wording or conceding the point. I believe that in the way most people would have understood the phrase for at least the last century, these tools are FREE.

And this little video explains why:

  • YouTube is a FREE television station that lets you broadcast to the world.
  • A Facebook “fan” page is (at least) a FREE multimedia “white pages” listing for your business.
  • Twitter is a FREE incoming/outgoing communication channel, like the toll-free phone service discussed above.

But unlike the fictional AT&T and Pitney Bowes examples I described in the video, these are 100 percent real, bona fide offers. They are better ways for your existing staff to communicate, with each other or with your customers or other key constituents.

So ask not how you’re going to afford to hire staff to use these tools. Ask how these powerful tools can make your staff more productive!

For answers, look in the advanced courses in the Facebook, Twitter and Blogging curriculum listings.

Introducing the SMUG Bookstore

Over the last couple of years I have done several book reviews on this site, and have typically included a link to the book featured on Amazon.com, so SMUGgles interested in reading for themselves could conveniently order it and get what is likely the lowest price available.

But on Saturday I got the idea of creating a virtual bookstore to go with our ethereal campus through the Amazon Associates program. It was really easy to do; the application process took just a couple of minutes, and within a couple of hours I had gotten my confirmation email that I had been accepted.

So from now on, if you click any of the links to Amazon on this site and go on to purchase those books, SMUG will get a referral bonus of 4 to 8 percent of your purchase price.

For example, if you click the link below and purchase a used copy of David Allen’s Getting Things Done for $7.20, Amazon will deposit the princely sum of 29 cents in the linked account. It doesn’t add anything to what you pay for your product; Amazon considers it part of its marketing expense.
 

So you’ll note there are now links in the top and side navigation to a page called “Bookstore.” That page and its sub-navigation will likely undergo some renovation over the next week or so as I organize and add links to the reviews I’ve previously done.

SMUG isn’t going to become a non-stop book review site; I’ll use this as a show-and-tell learning opportunity, though, creating a course series in the blogging curriculum on implementing the Amazon Associates program in your self-hosted WordPress blog.

Meanwhile, feel free to browse the virtual Bookstore. While we don’t offer comfortable couches or serve Starbucks coffee like a Barnes & Noble, we at least provide free Internet connectivity. 😉