Tag: Social Media

Social Media Conferences, Panels and Tweetups

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be traveling for several conferences and presentations relating to social media. Some of these are open for additional registrations; if you can attend, I’d love to meet you. Otherwise, if you see I’m going to be in your area and would like to Tweetup, you know how to reach me.

  • On Monday, April 27, I will be in Philadelphia for a presentation on integrating social media with mass media at the annual meeting of the National Cancer Institute Public Affairs and Marketing Network.
  • Then I head to New York for some meetings on the 28th and for BlogWell on the 29th – (Registration is still open, and if you use the discount code “friendofmayo” when you register, you’ll get a $25 discount.) I got to present at BlogWell in Chicago in January, so I look forward to hearing these case studies. The Blog Council member meeting and unconference is on the 30th, also in New York City.
  • On May 7, I’ll be part of a panel at the National Press Club with Ceci Connolly of the Washington Post, George Strait of the FDA, Robin Foster of HealthDay and Bridget DeSimone of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Right after that, I’ll be heading to Chicago for an afternoon presentation/workshop on social networking, and then on May 8 I will be presenting at the Ragan Corporate Communicators Conference.
  • On May 12, I’ll be in San Francisco to present at the Community 2.0 Conference.

I’ll be tweeting and blogging from all of these, and would love to get to meet SMUGgles (or even just casual readers) either at one of these events or via impromtu Tweetup. (Although I guess it’s not really “impromptu” if I’m giving you more than a week’s notice, is it?)

At any rate, I look forward to these events and the connections I’ll be making.

Chancellor’s Choice Award: Flip Video Camera

This award will be no surprise to long-term SMUGgles (especially those who have completed Blogging 130), but the Chancellor’s Choice award for low-cost video cameras goes to: The Flip.

Among its Advantages:

Strong video quality, particularly in relatively low-light conditions. 

Speed. Using a camera with miniDV or other tape, you have to play the tape to feed into your computer for digitizing, which takes just as long as the original shoot did. The Flip, by contrast, creates a digital file directly and saves to its memory card, and with the built-in USB connector that flips out (hence the name), you can transfer the video file to your computer for editing and/or upload to YouTube, Facebook or another video sharing service within seconds after shooting. 

Simplicity. It’s literally a point and shoot device, with a single red button to start and stop recording. So easy, even a caveman… (er…uh…sorry guys)

Savings. Ranging from about $70 for 30 minute standard definition to $230 or so for an hour of HD, these cameras are quite affordable. (More details on that below.) I’ve purchased miniDV cameras previously for $400 or so, and for many uses the Flip quality is just as good.

Situational (OK…that’s stretching the alliteration too far.) There’s an old saying in video that you can’t edit what you don’t shoot. Because the Flip fits easily in your pocket, purse or laptop bag, you can have it with you in virtually any situation. This enables you to catch those moments you’d miss if you had to remember to bring your video camera bag. I carry my Flip almost everywhere I go.
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My BlogWell Presentation on Mayo Clinic Social Media

The Blog Council today posted video, audio and slides from my January 22 presentation at BlogWell. I’ve embedded the video and slides below.

BlogWell Chicago Social Media Case Study: Mayo Clinic, presented by Lee Aase  

View more presentations from GasPedal.

One interesting point that’s changed since my presentation is that the Facebook pages have again been redesigned, and I think they have become much more useful. We had 4,300 fans of our Mayo Clinic Facebook page in late January, and now we’re at 6,100.

Here’s the link to our Sharing Mayo Clinic blog, mentioned in the presentation, and here is the prototype patient post I mentioned.

I hope to be at BlogWell in New York later this month, listening to and learning from organizations like Coca-Cola, GE, Turner broadcasting and Microsoft. I hope you can join us.

Blog Council Names Dell’s Bob Pearson President

I received a note from Andy Sernovitz yesterday, about an exciting new development with the Blog Council, an organization of large business organizations (and not-for-profits like Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente) that are engaged in social media.

Bob Pearson — former vice president of Communities and Conversations at Dell — is joining us as President of the Blog Council.  Bob’s experience as one of the first executives to build a full social media function in a global enterprise will add a new level of knowledge and credibility to the team and our industry.   

With more than 25 years at three Fortune 500 companies and as one of the pioneers of corporate social media, Bob brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to GasPedal and the Blog Council — and he’s as excited as we are to make our communities a better experience for all of our members. 

I think this move is an important signal that social media is going mainstream. Under the duress of Jeff Jarvis’ “Dell Hell,” Bob helped Dell transform itself from a company with a “look, but don’t touch” approach to bloggers to one that actively listens to customers and solicits their ideas. Dell is a different company today because of that experience.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m still a Mac guy. But Dell made important strides under Bob’s leadership, and I believe he’ll champion that same approach in his new role with the Blog Council.

We’re moving beyond the experimental phase in social media. In the near future, a company without a social media strategy will seem seriously antiquated. I’m excited to be part of a group that’s working hard to make sure we do it right, and that we help keep social media in the enterprise from sinking to the level we saw with the email spammers half a generation ago. With Bob’s leadership we’ll continue working to realize the promise of social media, stressing ethics and transparency and proving the benefits of social media done right.

We’re going to have our first Blog Council member call with Bob in his new role on Thursday, and I look forward to what he and Andy have to say about the future direction of the organization, and what that will mean for accelerating adoption of social media in the business world.

Update: The Blog Council’s blog has a post with this announcement and further details.

Announcing the Chancellor’s Choice Awards

One of my basic approaches to social media is to maximize what can be done for free. I do this partly to prove a point; to eliminate excuses by showing how much you can do without spending a penny (and without requiring the support of IT).

And of course the other reason is: I’m cheap.

Having seen a recent article by Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal with a list of his favorite iPhone apps, and having just spent money on an iPhone application for the first time last weekend, I thought it would be good to create the Chancellor’s Choice Awards.

Chancellor’s Choice recipients are social media tools that have caused me to pry out the wallet and flip over the debit card to get the security code…to actually spend money on social media. These aren’t annual awards; I’ll present them whenever I buy something in social media and find it worth the cost. And they’re not subject to vote: they’re just my personal opinion (not that of my employer or the SMUG student body.) I welcome your nominations or contrary opinions, however. Leave them in the comments.

The Chancellor’s Choice award also carries no cash value, and there’s no lovely statuette or red carpet media gathering. If the recipients would care to offer tear-filled speeches in response, they can send me a link to their uploaded video, and I’ll update the award post to embed it.

The first Chancellor’s Choice award will be presented tonight. If you have non-free social media tool nominees to suggest, share them in the comments below.