SMUG | Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

30 Ideas in 30 Minutes: My Ragan Panel Contributions

I’m serving on a panel to close the Ragan conference hosted by SAS in Cary, NC. The goal is to give participants a list of actions they can immediately implement as practical steps when they return home to work.

I was asked to provide six suggestions, and the other four panelists also are responsible for a similar number. We get a minute to describe each idea, so I’m writing this post to provide links to mine. I’ll likely add links with some of the other panelists’ suggestions after I hear them.

I’ve also included more than six ideas because I don’t know what the others will be offering, and if we have duplicates I don’t want to be left without something valuable to recommend. Besides, I can’t limit myself to just a half dozen.

1. Get a Flip video camera. This is the only recommendation of my main six that costs anything. You can get a Flip today at Wal-Mart or Best Buy or some Target stores. The Flip provides miniDV quality video and is completely portable. You copy files to your computer via the built-in USB instead of having to digitize tapes. And you can have video uploaded to YouTube within minutes, as I did with the David Pogue musical parodies. The cost of buying a Flip is less than a quarter of the cost of hiring a professional videographer for a single day, and you can use the video you shoot to pitch stories to journalists. Even better, you can make the video available directly to consumers.

2. Become a SMUGgle. In the Harry Potter books, a muggle is an ordinary mortal without magical powers. A SMUGgle is also an ordinary mortal, but one who wants to accomplish really amazing feats using social media tools. You become a SMUGgle by enrolling in SMUG. This will be a gateway to your learning about lots of other social media tools you can apply to your work.

3. Try Yammer. Yammer is Twitter for the enterprise. It offers a way to take advantage of the functionality of Twitter, but to limit the participants to employees of your company. The big value is trying before buying, so you can see whether you get user adoption before you sink a lot of money into a tool that people may not use. It seems to have potential for powerful collaboration, allowing coworkers to opt-in for e-mails about subjects they find interesting, and also can serve as a massive General Reference database of facts, links and other information employees have found helpful. I did a Yammer 101 course and expect to be doing more on SMUG.

4. Start a WordPress.com blog. It’s free and you can do it in 5 minutes or less, as my Dad did. If you’re a coward, you can make it a private blog invisible to anyone except users you invite. Then just invite your communications colleagues to have access. Getting this hands-on experience will show you how easy it is to publish content to the world. You also could use WordPress.com to publish your Web site, having it serve as your content management system. The SMUG blogging curriculum will help you learn.

5. Create your own free personal podcast. The SMUG Podcasting curriculum takes you from the very basics to having a podcast listed in iTunes. When you’re familiar with the process, you will have complete confidence to recommend doing podcasts for your organization with higher production values, better microphones, etc. The mystery will be eliminated.

6. Join a Social Network such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Or both. It’s essential for professional communicators to understand how social networking sites work.

Bonus Items

Build your own on-line newsroom. See our Mayo Clinic News Blog for an example.
Get a YouTube account. If you’ve only watched YouTube videos, you haven’t understood full potential. And if you work for a nonprofit, starting a branded YouTube channel is a no-brainer – it’s free. A Flip camera makes it easy for you to produce and upload videos
Get an iPhone. This is another one that’s not free, but professional communicators need to understand potential of phones and applications.
Try Dropbox. Its main purpose to sync files across multiple computers, letting you store your precious documents and files “in the cloud” so you have safe backup. The neat feature, though, is that it is a way for you to have the equivalent of an FTP site without the annoying hassle of log ins and passwords. You get two GB of storage free, and the paid option is something like $50 a year for 50 GB.
Read a good book. Here are three must-read books that will change the way you work and live, and you could perhaps read one by the end of the weekend.

Rules to Break and Laws to Follow – Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. I haven’t reviewed this yet, but plan to do so soon. I have been listening to it through Audible.com. It’s an excellent book about how a focus on short-term results can’t be the only measure of business success, because you may be draining or harvesting customer equity, and therefore actually reducing the value of your business.

Getting Things Done – David Allen. I have several related posts about the GTD subject matter.

The Reason for God – Tim Keller

Updated: My fellow panelists are

John Mims, Altyris
Becky Graebe, SAS
Bruce Johnson, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP
Mark Ragan, Ragan Communications. CEO@ragan.com

Here are some of their ideas:

Becky – Embrace individual customization on the intranet. Let employees upload and display their own photos instead of the staff photos.
Bruce – Look for Alliances. AP came from this concept. Use a similar approach to find like-minded sites with which you can share.
John – Have interns start a blog. “Outsiders’ view from the inside.”
Mark – use LInkedIn journalistically. Send out requests for quotes or sources.
Becky – Don’t overlook interns. They understand these technologies naturally and can give you insights. SAS has a student intern site.
Bruce – Anonymity is dead. Make identity work for you on the internet.
Customize your name. There are 266 John Mims in the U.S. The guy to my left uses his middle initial to identify himself. Good thing Lee Aase is relatively rare.
Mark – Sign up for Google Alerts on your name or your company.
Becky – Google your stuff to see if it shows up. If not, use titles and tags to optimize your content.
Bruce – Get blog aggregator/RSS reader.
John says you should have your posts published on days when people are reading. Write on the weekends, but set them to post on the weekdays. Here’s how.
Becky – Use blogs to come together during difficult times. UNC Chapel Hill with student body president being killed. Created a blog to share special memories. Print all the comments and share with the family.
Bruce – Create a wiki approach to document creation. Bruce had a colleague create a wiki certiori petition in the 9th Circuit.
John – Comment on other people’s blogs. Make meaningful comments which will get people to visit your blog.
Mark – Try Blog Jamming. Spend 48 hours in intense blogging about a particular issue. Then have the blog go away.
Becky -Hand over the reins for Web 2.0 video. SAS hands employees Flip cams. Let them duct tape to handlebars during bike to work day.
Mark – Search for Bloggingheads on NY Times.
Use RSS feeds for internal news, just as you do for external.
Mark – Check out everyblock.com. Everything that has happened on your block. It’s in beta now in 6 cities. News at the block level.
Bruce – Beware the privacy trolls that may require encryption through legislation that is being adopted in various states. This will slow down all of your on-line transactions on your Web site. So what can we do about it?
Mark – If you’re an editor, use Bullfighter or mystery matador.

As I count it, that makes for 34 ideas including my two extra books, which means we exceeded our quota by 13.3 percent. And I know I didn’t get all of my fellow panelists’ ideas recorded. I hope you see some things here you can apply immediately in your work.

I’m happy to have participated in this event, and would love to connect with others who are interested in these issues. You can get in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

I’d also welcome any comments you have, or other ideas you’d like to share.

Putting You to Shame

If you are a SMUGgle and haven’t started your own blog yet, that’s the purpose of this post.

If my Dad, who is 77 years old, and my son, who is 9, can start their own blogs using WordPress.com, what exactly is your excuse?

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

I also wanted use this video to introduce you to one of SMUG’s major benefactors, for whom our SMUG North Annex — the Lewis J. and LaVonne A. Aase Motor Fleet and Retreat Center — is named. Here’s a photo of Dad and Mom in front of the facility that bears their name:

Lewis and LaVonne Aase (a.k.a. Dad and Mom) — Lewis and LaVonne Aase

And here’s the “retreat center” portion of the facility:

If you’d like to see more campus photos, check out the SMUG Facebook group.

Dad and his cohort will be taking blogging classes in the Retreat Center next Saturday. As I help them get started, I’ll also use that process as a teaching/learning opportunity for SMUGgles, showing their step-by-step progress.

Meanwhile, you can click here to get started on your own blogging journey.

Tim Keller at Google: The Reason for God

This post doesn’t exactly fit in the course of the basic SMUG curriculum, but I hope you’ll bear with me. And at the end I promise to tie it into social media.

Tim Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, a flourishing congregation in the heart of New York City. I’ve heard him speak (not in person, but via mp3) and have appreciated and enjoyed his presentations, and today I heard both that he has written a book called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, and that he had given a fascinating talk about it at Google’s headquarters, as part of the AtGoogleTalks. Here’s his Google presentation, which I understand had the biggest attendance of any for a visiting author in at least the last couple of years.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxup3OS5ZhQ]

If you want a taste of the argument, check out his answer (starting at about the 20:30 mark in the video and going for about 3 minutes) where he counters the conception that like the blind men each touching a different part of the elephant, all religions have a portion of the truth.

I hope that will whet your appetite, and that you’ll check out his whole presentation. Lots of others have found it worthwhile; the crowd at Google was large, and while the video hasn’t achieved Obama Girl viral status, as of this writing it has been viewed more than 48,000 times on YouTube.

Interestingly, Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan has more than 5,000 members, but it hasn’t grown to that point through the marketing methods of many of the megachurches. Keller’s style is low-key and extremely thoughtful. Here’s what the New York Times has to say about him and Redeemer:

Unlike most suburban megachurches, much of Redeemer is remarkably traditional. What is not traditional is Dr. Keller’s skill in speaking the language of his urbane audience….Observing Dr. Keller’s professorial pose on stage, it is easy to understand his appeal.

So what’s the social media tie?

While Keller is using a Gutenberg-era medium to make his argument in full (I’m about 85 pages into it, and it’s quite good), you’re reading about it and watching this through social media tools (YouTube and blogs) that didn’t exist a decade ago.

Back then you wouldn’t have had an opportunity to hear and see his presentation unless he or his church bought airtime on your local TV station. And if you didn’t happen to tune in at that exact time, you’d miss it. You surely couldn’t skip to the 20:30 mark and hear the answer to the blind men and the elephants.

The ability to see and hear interesting talks when it’s convenient for you (and to easily share with your friends) is an amazing benefit of social media.

And instead of raising large amounts of money to buy airtime, the message can be communicated at no charge…which enables messengers to focus on the content instead of amassing the means to distribute it.

That’s a great thing. And I hope you find Keller as thought-provoking as I have.

Facebook 130: Facebook Events

The blogging has been light for the past few days for two main reasons:

First, we’re in the middle of volleyball season in Minnesota, and my daughter Rebekah’s team had and all-day tournament last Saturday, a five-game victory Monday night (an away game that was 90 minutes from home) and had another road game last night. You can see the exciting 15-13 Game 5 win over Mankato West in the YouTube video below. Rebekah is the middle hitter who got the final kill that led to the celebration.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwX03upilFs]

And speaking of celebrations, the other limiting factor on my blogging time has been the SMUG Campus Renovation project. It has included cafeteria remodeling (a new kitchen) and a new North Porch on Old Main, creation of a cobblestone campus courtyard and construction of the North Annex.

Much of my spare time over the last few weeks, and all day Wednesday, has been devoted to having the campus renovation completed before this weekend.

Because on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 we will be holding a dedication and naming ceremony for the North Annex. That and a big family birthday party for Rebekah and her sister, Ruthie, along with some cousins. And a welcoming to Austin of my new granddaughter, Evelyn Grace.

So as I do with much of my life, I’m using this as a way of showing how social media tools, particularly Facebook, can make organizing — “community” or otherwise — easier. I created a Facebook Event in the SMUG group, and I captured its set-up in the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RmxGiEPGBg]

I was interrupted at the end so I didn’t get to finish the screencast, and I’m not sure why the video at the beginning has some black streaks, but here’s the Annex Dedication event in the SMUG Facebook group.

All SMUGgles are invited to the 3 p.m. CDT dedication and naming ceremony on Sunday. While your attendance is by no means mandatory (particularly for those whose presence would require air travel), you’re certainly welcome. And if you can’t come, you’ll be able to participate virtually as I upload photos and videos to the Facebook event.

Assignment:

Go to the SMUG Annex Dedication event in Facebook and leave your RSVP.