Edmonton social media discussion
Edmonton’s latest Social Web Meetup was quite an interesting one. We met at NAIT again, but this time the style was a little different. We had a smaller group this time. I think people didn’t want to brave the cold, and it was a touch nippy out!
With a smaller group and a few new faces to the group, we engaged in a discussion about the social media people are using, the tools they use to augment their social media experience and some of the issues surrounding social media. The discussion this time was led by Mastermaq.
Of course Twitter was the main topic of discussion, as it usually is. Everyone at the Social Web Meetup was on Twitter. Normally I’d be tweeting about the discussion, but because it was such an active discussion, I wanted to make sure I caught all of it. Do you prefer to actively tweet what you’re hearing or to listen, reflect and respond or tweet?
Peoplebrowsr was recommended as a good tool to be able to track multiple Twitter streams.
How do you use Facebook?
I thought one of the more interesting discussions was about Facebook and how people use it. Some people have a real issue with having an open profile, with worries of identity theft or at the very least doing some data mining. Having pictures of relatives, particularly children, was an issue with one of the meeting attendees. Do you keep your profile open and add everyone?
My profile is limited to friends and family, but I do have some business contacts on there. One of the meeting’s more active Facebook users said he had thousands of friends on there!
Some of the other social media tools we talked about: LinkedIn, ping.fm and friendfeed. Randy Troppmann from runningmap.com was there and talked a bit more about his site.
Free versus paid social media tools: how much would you pay?
One question I brought up was: At what dollar amount are you willing to go beyond the free account and into a paid account?
Most people said it really depends. I was thinking of my recent purchase of a pro account on Flickr, which is $25. One other person said $25 as well. Would you be willing to pay $25 per year for Twitter? I’d be willing to pay more, but I know a lot of people wouldn’t be willing to pay anything.
It’s actually quite an important question because the majority of social media tools out there are free and many people stick to the free ones. As the economic downturn continues, more and more companies are likely to ask themselves that same question about how much the market will bear in terms of subscription fees or ads. Their will likely depend on finding that balance.
Our next Social Web Meetup is February 2 at NAIT. There’s plenty of room, but make sure to join the group and RSVP. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with social media. The point of the group is to share. I am a fairly experienced social media user and I learned a lot at this Meetup. I’m looking forward to the next one and hope to see you there too.
Alain Saffel
One million pictures of one million food bank donations
Help us help food banks around the world. Post your picture of your food bank donation.
Edmonton has thrown down the gauntlet! fusedlogic has kicked-off the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge.
The goal is 1 million pictures of 1 million food bank donations in 1 year. It’s a busy time of year for food banks and we met with Marjorie Bencz of Edmonton’s Food Bank to get started.
Christmas is such an important time for every food bank. I was surprised to learn that much of Edmonton’s Food Bank’s fundraising supports the food bank well into the new year. Cash and canned food donations are an important contribution.
Food bank needs don’t stop at Christmas. It seems obvious to say it, but people aren’t thinking about it much in the middle of the summer. At fusedlogic, we’re hoping that this joint effort with Edmonton’s Food Bank will get people thinking about helping people throughout the year.
Please join our groups on Facebook and Flickr. Take a picture of you, your family, your coworkers and your friends making a food bank donation. Our goal is to get one million pictures by the end of 2009, but with your help we think we can do it much sooner.
Walter was on SomethingTV yesterday talking about the food bank challenge.
Challenging other cities: Milwaukee. Anyone else?
The goal is to have one million pictures by the end of 2009.
“We” (Edmonton) believe that we can put up more pictures of individual donations to Edmonton’s Food Bank than Milwaukee can. Now certainly this challenge isn’t limited to Edmonton vs. Milwaukee, here in the Edmonton region, well over a million strong ourselves, we’re formidable people. We’ll take on anybody.
I’m sure Edmonton’s southern neighbour, Calgary, may be up to the challenge. Canada’s other major cities like Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Saskatoon and Winnipeg should be able to find a few people to add photos too. Sorry if we’ve missed your city, but you can join in as well! 
Our press release on the food bank challenge went out this morning and the Edmonton Journal has already interviewed us. Now we’ll see if the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is also up to the challenge. I call upon Tannette Johnson Elie (despite being on holidays) to rise to the challenge and get the word out in Milwaukee about the fact that the great City of Milwaukee has been challenged, in a friendly Canadian manner of course.
Because this is almost entirely designed as a social media event, we anticipate that early on it will be the Edmonton tech community that will rise to the challenge. Organizations such as Techvibes may want to blog about it.
Anyone from Techvibes or TechCrunch want to take on the challenge? Alberta bloggers such as Ken Chapman, Dave Cournoyer, Mack Male, Chris LaBossiere, Brad Grier, Dean Owen and many others have also been a big help in talking about this and helping us promote such a great cause.
If you’re in a position to help, please do! No donation is too small. They are all important. Help set a great example for your family, friends and coworkers. We know it’s a busy time of year and it’s easy to forget that there are many who are much less fortunate than we are.
Thank you and Merry Christmas! : )
Your personal social media strategy
As much as companies need a social media strategy, you could use a personal social media strategy. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? It’s not really, but it could save you some heartache down the line.
I read an article on CNN about the Dos and Don’ts of Social Networking. I thought I might critique the article and throw in a few more suggestions.
22 per cent of employers check social media sites
If you’re in job search mode, the article suggests that you don’t advertise that fact if you are already employed. That’s pretty much common sense, isn’t it? There must be a few people out there who didn’t think word would get back to their boss.
You can limit profile access to only those on your friends list in Facebook. Make sure you do that to keep prying eyes out, particularly if your friends like to post pictures of your weekend antics and tag you in them.
Another thing to consider is that some of your friends might not be such good friends. You know the old adage about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer? If you think your updates on Twitter, Facebook or other social media are protected, well, they just might be. What’s to stop those select “friends” to look at your Tweets or status updates as an opportunity to send you to the unemployment line?
It’s not all negative. Apparently a quarter of those potential employers liked what they found and that information has convinced them to hire based on what they’ve found.
Update your profile regularly
Provided you have your profiles open for public view, this is good advice. Really, it’s good advice for anyone. If it’s out of date, people wonder how much you care about your presence online. You are your best public relations person, so treat it that way.
An important part of your personal social media strategy should involve keeping things up to date and keeping on top of social media trends.
Make sure your information is accurate, and don’t go badmouthing anyone. No, not even if they deserve it. I suppose there might be good reasons to do it, but think about how future employers might view that. You think a potential employer might not want to hire you because they think you might do the same to them?
Don’t be like many companies that establish a token presence and then forget about it. Pick a few social media sites you’ll do well.
If you are in job hunt mode, LinkedIn is like an online resume. It can also help to advertise your current employer, so it’s good for everyone.
Keep your friends list private
I thought this was one of the most interesting points of the article. And, it’s so obvious!
“Connecting to five people at Company XYZ after a day of vacation is a sure sign you are interviewing.”
I’ve opted to keep my friends lists open. Social media is an important part of my business and my personal social media strategy.
In the interests of openness, why not keep your list open but don’t add a pile of people from companies who may be interviewing you?
Cleaning up the dirt
If you’ve got a closed profile and protected updates, it might not be such a worry. On Google it might be tougher. I would advise against running your updates through any type of RSS feed like Friend Feed if you’re really worried. You could have a closed profile but effectively open it up that way.
If you have negative Google results, there’s probably not much you can do to eliminate them. What might work is to get your name out there as much as possible to drive negative results down as far as possible. Rely on employers to not be thorough and go 10 pages in when searching your name. Blog commenting works well for this.
Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to eliminate past mistakes. The best public relations strategy is to deal with negative news preemptively and directly. If you volunteer a negative item that someone might just run across on their own, they might appreciate the honesty.
Thinking about it another way, do you really want to work for someone who would hold a minor indiscretion against you?
It’s always easier to have a successful personal social media strategy when you’ve minimized any problems or simply avoided them in the first place.
Social networking as a job search tool
If you’re already out of work, social networking sites can be powerful allies. I know from experience that sites like Twitter and Facebook can bring you job opportunities and support. It really depends on how big your network is.
Don’t just look at your social network as a job bank though. It is the kind of thing you only want to use when you have to. Don’t pester your network so much they begin avoiding you like an insurance salesman.
What message are you sending?
While this article and my suggestions are general advice on how to approach your personal social media strategy, it’s really an individual thing.
When I talk to companies about their public relations and Internet marketing, I have to tailor it to their unique attributes. That’s how you should treat your personal social media strategy.
You should ask yourself, what message are you sending? Ask those around you to have a look at your online presence. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t know you and analyze everything.
Is it consistent with the message you’d like to send? Are your Google results acceptable? If not, take the time to start cleaning everything up.
Do I really need a personal social media strategy?
It seems rather mercenary to view your social networking in this way, but potential employers are, so you ought to as well. Just be prepared for the consequences if you’re posting pictures of your weekend escapades or Tweeting that you’re in job search mode.
Developing a basic personal social media strategy might be the best way to land that next job, business opportunity or simply to elevate your profile in your industry. You are always a good investment.
Alain Saffel
Bank of America fails at social media.
I frankly haven’t had the time to express my passion for amateur photography lately. You know, the kind of shots you take early on a weekend morning when the lighting is just right and you have no other place to be at that moment in time.
That said, I was looking at how brands are using Flickr. I came across some interesting groups, one that struck me as orphaned was the Bank of America photostream. When you dig deeper you see that they’ve started a promotion to coincide with the Beijing Olympics called Americascheer.com. It’s clear this is about getting people to sign-up for a high-interest Visa to support the team.
Now at first glance, one could argue that this is maybe a decent idea to many mainstream corporate types. Unfortunately from my perspective this needs to be chalked up as a miss. A clear lack of commitment and understanding, even down to the Flickr profile thumbnail icon being blank.
Here’s where I think they’re going wrong.
- Clear lack of commitment overall – Their photostream is left for weeks at a time…the Olympics are just around the corner are they not? More activity, engagement and discussion is needed as part of a larger strategy online. This still feels like a big bank going “here you go little minions, have fun…” at least to me.
- Who are the Bank of America customers brand evangelists online and are they involved in the campaign? It doesn’t appear so to me.
- Sure people are cheering for the U.S. team, but does anybody really “love” the Bank of America?
This is more about B-o-A pushing as a faceless corporation. The real human aspect of this frankly is the profile of the group’s contact. Photo’s of a happy family, NOT a faceless corporation allowed me to feel positive about something related to this discussion and it had little to do with the bank…that’s the richness that the campaign is lacking in my opinion.
I believe Bank of America could have went further with a more complete overall strategy…that said it’s probably a good thing they didn’t since this small effort is dismal at best. Oh well, another case study to use and teach others with…
Calgary Alberta Real Estate Agent, Facebook Seminar
Jeff, a Calgary Alberta Real Estate agent attended our Disruptor School and was nice enough to send us a video recommendation. Thanks very much Jeff, we were very happy to host you in Edmonton to talk about branding, social media and facebook.
