Social Networking - BCIT

Final Day :(

noreply@blogger.com (Kemp Edmonds) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:37:00 +0000

Thank you so much for being a part of "Intro to Social Networking" at BCIT. I hope you enjoyed your experience and learned a lot. I want to thank you for your understanding as it can be challenging to teach social media and digital communications to a diverse group such as ours.

As professionalism and attendance played a large role and everyone was present for almost every class and has completed each assignment and most of the final assignment I can conclude that everyone has passed this course!

I have created a survey for you on your way out and I would really appreciate it if your could take the time to fill it out and consider your answers. This survey is what I use to improve this class and deliver even more valuable learnings to the next group so your honesty is greatly appreciated. Oh yeah, it's anonymous if you want it to be. Thanks!

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Monitoring Tools

I hate to introduce something new on the last class, but I see that I have yet to fulfill my course promise to "create a listening station from free tools to monitor online chatter about anything." Netvibes is one of the best free tools to do that with. So let's check it out before we close out the class with some applicable case studies and the top queries from the midway survey.

Publishing and distributing content

Publishing and distributing content is a simple and complex process. Publishing the content is the easy part. It's ensuring that the content is of interest and value to your target audience. Most of all ensuring thorough distribution will ensure success.

If you don't know who your target audience is yet that's ok, but you should have a number of ideas and ways to find them that you didn't have before this course. It all depends on what kinds of people you seek to 'serve' with your content.

Evergreen content and a focus on it will help your content to stay fresh when possible.

Finding ideas for content is as easy as a few Google searches. Or answer a customer question or review an industry book or interview a thought leader in your industry or repeated questions in emails. These are all great ways for you to find new blog ideas. You can also look back at previous posts where there some more great links to posts about finding ideas for content.

Here are my 8 steps to publish and distribute your content:

Establish and build social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn + Flickr & YouTube).
Write and develop your content. See above for ideas (have it checked by trusted peers).
Stagger distribution of content across social networks.
Search for related Nings, LinkedIn Answers and blogs to share your content and discuss
See if there are other sites that will post your content - Guest Blog
Search for offline publishing media to publish your content - Newsletters, local papers...
Use your content on an ongoing basis to answer questions and provide insight
Repeat from the top and build your base bigger!

Here is a business perspective: 10 steps to success with content marketing and SEO.

Content marketing is the key phrase around the publishing and promotion of content online. Getting the content out to as many interested parties as possible is what makes the difference. This can be done a few ways. One way is to create content related to things that are in demand. To find out what's in demand ask around and look around and poke around and use keyword search numbers from Google.

Making business connections

The key to making business connections through social networks is positive networking:

"Positive Networking is not all about you. It’s discovering what you can do for someone else. While there is a place for transactional networking, the majority of networking opportunities are not about closing a sale but opening a relationship. “People do business with people they know and trust.”

-From Work The Pond: The power of positive networking.

Looking at your networking and connecting as how you can help, aid or benefit others is the key to creating a strong and enduring business or professional network. Making business connections online is all about avoiding what is traditionally called the selling process. Some people refer to this as relationship marketing. In Keith Ferrazzi's book "Never Eat Alone" he talks about how a business plan should also contain a relationship plan. Who are you going to need to connect with in the future as your business grows.

6 ways to make better business connections

A few strong connections is often better than dozens of loose ones
Don't meet for the first time with a selling motive
Get your first meeting for advice, to exchange ideas or to learn more over coffee or skype
You need people to Know --> Like --> Trust --> Buy you. Note: Buy comes last.
Read books to enhance your soft skills and networking abilities (Never eat alone)
Don't get stuck talking to a few people or people you know when networking

Analytics and metric analysis

The image below is the framework I use for measurement. For more complex and ROI focused metrics and analysis please refer to the Social Marketing Analytics presentation below the image. To see a presentation of the techniques I use refer to the bottom presentation. I generally like to start with the use of shortened and trackable links (j.mp, bit.ly or ow.ly) in my posts to analyze their effectiveness. If no one is clicking your links it's time to build your base by connecting and assisting others.

This is a framework for tracking metrics throughout your internet properties

Social Marketing Analytics

View more presentations from Jeremiah Owyang.

Monitoring and measuring

View more presentations from Kemp Edmonds.

If you have anymore questions about metrics and analysis please contact me or get your Google on!

This week I thought we'd look at some case studies or examples of things that have worked in social media and networking to date for both individuals and businesses. Before I walk you through the examples that I've collected it would be great to take a few minutes and use your knowledge, Google or Mashable or any other resource to find one example of great social media use and one example of bad social media use. Please try to find new ones other than those already presented in class.

Case Studies & Examples

The Mashable Collection

150+ Social Media Policy Examples A MUST SEE DATABASE
All great social media is based on practical policy like Canada Posts:

Social Media Employee Policy

While we encourage you all to get involved, we also want to make sure that Canada Post is consistently represented across all platforms. The social media employee policy and the related practices outline some of the key concepts for using social media.

The employee policy sets out the foundation for how all Canada Post employees interact in social media. Keep these 10 principles in mind whether you are using social media for personal or for business reasons (more information can be found in the Employee Code of Conduct).

GUIDELINES FOR RESPONSIBLE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

The guidelines contained within the Social Media Policy spell out employees’ responsibilities when using social media for professional purposes (including participation in discussion groups such as Life@work) and when participating in social media for personal use. They are consistent with best practices used across the Internet and reflect Canada Post’s values.

1. Be responsible.

You are personally responsible for the content you publish online through social media, and can be held liable for any commentary deemed to be defamatory, obscene, proprietary or libelous. Be aware that the content you publish is visible to the entire world and will remain public for a very long time. Protect your privacy.

2. Follow the rules.

Be aware of, and respect, the rules of participation governing the discussion groups and social networks within which you chose to participate. Remember that laws and company policies that apply in the “real” world also apply online.

3. Be transparent.

If you post material or discuss topics related to your work or to Canada Post, identify your relationship to Canada Post. Even if you take part in an anonymous discussion or use a nickname, disclose your connection to the topic at hand. Never pretend to be someone you are not.

4. Take ownership.

Clearly state that you are not speaking on behalf of Canada Post, unless you are expressly authorized to do so. Consider using a disclaimer such as: “This is my personal opinion, and does not necessarily represent the views of Canada Post.” (Although good practice, this does not exempt you from being held accountable for what you write.)

5. Respect your audience and colleagues.

Don’t engage in any conduct or use any language that would not be acceptable in the workplace. Protect the privacy of others and respect their opinions.

6. Add value.

When you express yourself in social media on issues related to, or about Canada Post, you contribute to the public perception of the Canada Post brand. Write about what you know, from your own perspective. Include links to relevant canadapost.ca pages or, in the case of internal posts, Intrapost pages.

7. Protect the brand.

If you identify yourself as a Canada Post employee in an online social network, ensure your profile and related content is consistent with how you wish to present yourself with colleagues and clients.

8. Be accurate.

If you publish information about Canada Post, ensure the information is accurate and the source is clearly indicated. Be the first to correct your own mistakes, and do not alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.

9. Do not reveal secrets.

Do not disclose confidential or proprietary information about the company, its clients, stakeholders or suppliers. Respect copyrights and ask permission before you cite a colleague, client, stakeholder or supplier. If you are not sure whether some information is OK to publish, ask your Manager/Team Leader.

10. Do not forget your day job.

You are encouraged to use social media during your leisure time. Make sure your online activities do not interfere with your job or commitments to customers. Check with your Manager/Team Leader if you are not sure about the appropriateness of publishing during work hours.
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One last dose of HootSuite is in order for the end of this class. Let's go through and try a few things out:

Shorten a link and share it
Schedule a post to Twitter
Schedule a post to LinkedIn
Schedule a post to Facebook
Schedule a post with a photo to Facebook & Twitter
Create a Twitter search for a competitor (imagined or otherwise)
Create a Facebook search for something that interests you
Create a LinkedIn search for keywords around the job you want

OR we can look at Google Plus...

Job Finding & Getting Hired

Thanks again for your participation and enthusiasm! Don't forget my 3 steps to turn your blogger blog into a website!

Class Five: The Networked Business

noreply@blogger.com (Kemp Edmonds) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:24:00 +0000

Today we are going to start off by going back; back to last class to talk about Facebook and Twitter for business! I want to explore some use cases and discuss how you might use these social networks to further your own purposes. We are going to explore Facebook Ads first and foremost. I have published a number of stories about Facebook advertising in the past:

Have a read of the above links while I collect everyone's blog address for our next session.

Now let's take a few minutes to check out each other's blog posts and comment on them. EXERCISE: Please leave a short comment on each of your classmate's the sites. Make the comment somewhat insightful. Please try to provide some constructive feedback about the blog or the post or the topic discussed. A lot of the insights that are presented by different students are of great value to others:

The networked business or business professional today relies on more tools than ever before. Smartphones, online communications, web promotions and offline events are powerful ways to build your brand or business. Even with these tools there are important ways to continue events and utilize smartphones.

Online multimedia content will continue to grow in importance as a tool to enhance product and business experiences. Are you or your company currently leveraging the opportunities presented by video and photos? Flickr is the new "take my picture". Now you get more from that value add with the web.

Today we are going to explore publishing video, audio and pictures to the web as this is an important element of dynamic and well made content. In fact many of the web's foremost experts on content are calling video the future of the web.

Gawker Media Founder Nick Denton says, "People don't really want to read text. They want videos, they want images, bigger, more lavish." In other words, consumers are looking for online media products that more closely resemble TV and magazines.

Denton cited Gizmodo's notorious leak of the iPhone 4 as an example, which quadrupled traffic for the blog that week. "There is a huge kind of hunger for that image, for the video we produced," he said. "The core of that story was the image of the phone."

Text, he contended, is more useful for providing context and explanation for more visual kinds of media, rather than serving as the primary medium itself. Since video is generally expensive to produce, Gawker staff will concentrate on finding and curating available video to embed on the site. However, Denton noted it was considerably less expensive to produce video that captured gameplay or software run-throughs.

-Source Mashable.

When publishing photos for a client or yourself Flickr is the best option and one of the largest online database of photography available for use for free and/or with credit. Today I am going to describe Creative Commons in more detail. reative Commons is a way to license your photos or content online so that others may benefit from the use or derivative work based on inspiring content. If you work in a visual environment or your clients are in a visual industry Flickr is THE photo site to use.

Flickr (through our Cut & Paste coding method) can allow you to embed great photos (as below) or slideshows (as above) on your blog or website. Be sure to understand Creative Commons and the license used with photos to decide whether you can or can't use them for profit.

Let's check out my Flickr account to get an idea of the metrics that Flickr PRO provides. Next as an exercise I want you to head over to Flick.com and use the search box to look for photos to publish on your blog. Here is an example of searching for "awesome vancouver" regularly and looking for only Creative Commons shots. Sadly you'll notice that the amount of 'awesome' photos decreases drastically.

The advantage of Creative Commons it that you can use those photos for non-commercial purposes with attribution. Input your search information and then click 'advanced search' then at the bottom of the page click Creative Commons(CC). Now you will searching only in photos that are licensed by their creators under CC. I will walkthrough an example using Blogger. If you are using wordpress.com please follow the instructions of the presentation below to do the exercise.

Photos are great especially when showing a product online but THE MOST IMPORTANT part of using both YouTube/Vimeo and Flickr is adding Titles, Descriptions and Tags that make your content easy to find online. Here are examples of great details, good details and bad details a Flickr photo. Your embedded photo, if it's a creative commons image should include two things in the description below the photo: a credit as requested by the photo's author (Usually found on their profile) and a link to the type of creative commons license they used on it. I will go through how those items are found now. EXERCISE: Please embed a flickr image into your blog and properly site both the photographer and the creative commons license as below.

photo by: Travis Nicholson. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Next let's transition over to YouTube, the second largest search engine in the world. Here are examples of great details (It's also a video on YouTube SEO marketing tips :), good details and bad details on a YouTube Video. BONUS: SEO for Flickr Video (it's slow moving but comprehensive).

The beauty of web video is that almost all of it is designed to be embedded or 'republished' anywhere online. The only faux pas is claiming someone else's video as your own. I love embedding TED Talks as this content benefits and educates others. This is a TED Talk from one of my personal 'heros' Clay Shirky. Clay describes how Social Technologies can make history.

Video is the future of web content and when looking to explain something quickly and keep people's attention video is the best way to do so. Although the topic of your content must be visual to be used that way. The next exercise is to embed a YouTube video in your blog. So get searching and let's have a look at what you find. Remember these blog posts are not for marks and can be deleted after you've embedded a video and a flickr photo in them.

One more video for today's class: Simon Sinek's TED Talk: How great leaders inspire action:

Final Class Next Week!

For our final class I will also be presenting a number of case studies about people who have utilized social media to get jobs, create business and connect for good.

Your final project due for next week is three social networking profiles that are as complete as possible. Feel free to create 'faux' profiles if you don't want to create one for your identity, but be sure to fill it out completely. The social networking sites that you can create profiles on for this project are:

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Flickr
YouTube
Blogger
Wordpress

What do you want to learn more about? Choose a presentation that Kemp has delivered and the one with the most votes by tweets containing #MDIA1045 will be presented next week during our final class.

EXTRAS:
Learn more about HootSuite basics
3 steps to turn your blogger blog into a website

Class Four: Let's Turn it up a Notch!

noreply@blogger.com (Kemp Edmonds) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Hopefully you've spent some time with Twitter and a some more time with LinkedIn. Hopefully you've blogged a bit and sent out your posts to some of your trusted network (family and friends) for their opinion. These are all things that are necessary to building your own confidence to continue to pursue Social Networking on an ongoing basis for your own purposes.

HootSuite
Let's get started today by taking a tour of the HootSuite dashboard...

Time for some coding!
target="blank"- will force websites to open links you post on a 'new page' ensuring that visitors don't leave your blog to quickly.

NEXT Let's discuss and demonstrate how to make a proper hyperlink or link on your blog/website. Let's look at an example:

You don't want it to appear like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink

You want it to appear like this: a hyperlink as defined by Wikipedia.

Now that I've shown you how to create a proper hyperlink let's try it. Go to your blog that you setup for this class and create 3 hyperlinks with context. Take your time and ask me any questions that arise while doing this. Now let's get to the Facebook.

Want to learn more code? Check out W3Schools.com and Codecademy.com

Presentation time!
Today we are going to start off with a presentation that I give to groups on a regular basis. Time for a little presentation...

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Now it's your turn :)
Today we are going to talk about how social media and networks are complimentary to businesses and the goals they are trying to achieve. I want to do a little in-class group project. Please get into a group of 2 or 3 and we will do this little group project. As a group using Google Docs - Presentation mode I'd like you to put together a social media plan for an imaginary (or real) small business of your choosing. You will have 10 minutes to present your plan to the class and receive questions and feedback.

A few tips:

Keep your plan simple.
You don't need to use every social network.
Remember this is a small business so it has to be easy.
Think about what matters to the audience.
Have a rollout timeline. Incremental steps.
Start with your business goals in mind.
Maximum 10 slides.

Uses of social technologies in business

Using Social Media for your Small Business: Roadmap 2.0
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Facebook for Business

The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.

Facebook is a powerful tool for gathering and enabling your personal or business connections. Sometimes a page is best (are you a business or organization?), sometimes groups are best (are you a group or club? Do you need to send messages directly to your group members?), sometimes a personal profile is best (politicians aren't always 'liked' but people want to know what they are up to).

Twitter for Business

Twitter can be used for business important that when using Twitter or Facebook for business that you understand how people want to interact with businesses and brands in these spaces is much different than their normal interactions (buy & inquire). Those things should happen on your website, a custom FB tab or in store. The focus of Facebook and Twitter is to build relationships with prospective customers. The job of your website, email, phone and shop is to facilitate the transaction.

There are so many Twitter Tools out there as an EXERCISE today let's explore some of those tools. I also want you to find one Twitter tool and tell the class about it.

Here are my top tools:

Crowdbooster - Learn about what's working and when for your account
Buffer App or Time.ly - Auto-schedule cool links you find
Twitalyzer.com - Analyze your Tweeting
TweetSheep.com - Learn more about how you Tweet or how others do
TheTwitCleaner.com - manage a large following
Twellow - The Twitter Yellow Pages
WeFollow - Who are the topic influencers based on topic or geography?

These Assignments are DUE on October 17th:

Get Blogging: Write TWO 500 word blog posts with at least 3 links in them
Attend a Networking event and Report. One full page in size 11 font.

Class Three: Will set you Free!

noreply@blogger.com (Kemp Edmonds) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:07:00 +0000

~~Blogging~~ Publishing

Blogging is a word that has had it's day. The word originated from it's initial meaning of "web log" which was shortened to "Blog". A blog is more simply put a publishing medium for your ideas, opinions and thoughts. Some people blog about their personal life or interests while others use blogging to discuss ideas in their work and bring together insights gathered from others. A blog is what you make it. The most important thing is to get started with your blog and write some content before you start to promote it to the world. The best thing about a blog is that you can edit and update your post when necessary or when you see an error; as I regularly do on my blog.

A blog is a very important part of your social media profile online. A blog is so vital because Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook don't allow for the kind of publishing necessary to convey your ideas. A blog compliments your other efforts on social networks and can lead to writing work for other publishing mediums whether online or print. Your blog also feeds your other online efforts by backing up your insights and ideas with more concrete examples with links and references to supporting documentation.

Today if we have time or at the beginning of next class you will be required to setup a blog. This blog doesn't have to be tied to your personal identity if you prefer and can be changed to represent you in the future or when your ready. The purpose of the blogging assignment and the use of blogs in class is to get you used to using an online publishing platform and to create some content to get you started. The two top blogging platforms are Wordpress.com and Blogger. I prefer blogger because it allows me to access the HTML of my page and add cool things through HTML. If you are savvy and understand hosting or have a friend who can help use Wordpress.org. For this class you will be required to use Blogger or Wordpress.org. This blog can be deleted at the end of class and doesn't need to contain any personal information unless you want it to.

Social Media Optics: Frequency & Delivery
Optics are a key thing to consider as we move into an age when social media . Social Media Optics is a term I've coined myself (inventing words and concepts is a past time of mine :). SM Optics refers to the way messages appear on social networks and how that information can be interpreted by those who are reading your messages whether it is personal or professional Social Media Optics are key.

Here are some of the top Blogger's tips on getting your blog read:

Seth Godin Marketing Guru's List from 2006 is still bang-on today.
CopyBlogger's post on how to get subscribers will help if that's your goal.
Here are 50 creative tips to get blogging.
SEOmoz has this great post: 21 tactics to increase blog traffic.
ezine articles is great for info. 16 ways to drive traffic to your blog.

Blogging: Beyond the Post - Tips and Tactics

View more from Kemp Edmonds.

Let's Embed a Video in your blog!
To embed a video please:

Go to the video on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Find the "Embed" button. Click it.
Some code should appear. Right click this and Copy it (CTRL+C)
Then open your post and "Edit HTML"
Paste (CTRL+V) the code and voila! Your video will appear.

If you've already embedded a YouTube video in your blog try to embed a Vimeo video and then help out a classmate if you have time.

Embedding
http://commoncraft.com

Facebook is different than other social network because it is more about staying connected to those who we already know in our lives. This isn't true for everyone and lots of people use it to connect with new people. How you choose to use it is up to you, but those who know you are definitely those most willing to read what you write, offer advice and encourage you on your journey whether for business or personal purposes. It is important whether using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Blogging that you seek out friends and allies who will honestly critique your work and help guide you to where you want to be with Social Media and Networking.

It's important that we don't overwhelm our Facebook friends with posts all of the sudden. Just like when we change our behaviour with our phones e.g. I stopped answering my phone every time it rang. At first people were annoyed as they'd come to expect that I would answer immediately. In time they became used to expect me to not answer and they were fine. This change took time and some people may have stopped calling. This is possible with changing the way you use social networks.

Facebook does offer insights and information although not at the same level as Twitter due to the nature of people's use with Facebook. Go to Facebook, Log-in and search for a term or string of terms. Remember your AND, OR, "" and -. Once you've searched click the "Posts by Everyone" button on the bottom left of the screen as below. Let's all try it together and see what we find. Try out a Facebook search of your own.

Hybrid Networking & Personal Branding
The most common definition of hybrid networking refers to digital networks and how they interact. The way I would like you to look at hybrid networking is through both online and offline networking. Most of the same rules apply, but the power of combining these tools whether through learning a but more about someone before you meet them (see: TweetCloud or TwitterSheep).

Personal Branding: My Story and Tips

View more presentations from Kemp Edmonds.

As we move from meeting to phone to email to social networking it is important to maintain that you are human and so are the people you are interacting with. The same rules apply with both online and offline social networking: Be yourself, be generous, provide value, contribute and share.

Introducing Meetup.com
Meetup.com is a great way to find people in your area that meet in real life to discuss and share around topics that are of interest to you. I recommend that you create an account on this valuable social network. Let's take a look at Meetup.com

NEXT UP: HOOTSUITE!
Next week we will be getting ramped up towards our business lessons and this will include HootSuite as the tool for the most convenient use of social media from one convenient place. If you don't have a HootSuite account it is time to sign up. Feel free to signup for a free account to start.

BLOGGING NOTES:

Basic: Wordpress.com
Intermediate: Blogger.com OR BlogSpot.com
Advanced: Wordpress.org

FRONT END: ____.blogspot.com
BACK END: draft.blogger.com

More Sites:

images.google.com
"google keyword research tool"

Homework
Your homework this week is to start your 2 blog posts which will be marked and assessed when they are due on October 10th. If you would like me to review your post please tweet me a link or email me and I will check it out and get back to with some tips.

This week's offline events locally (FREE unless otherwise stated):

Meetup.com! Explore, join and participate.

Let's find some more events! It's a quiet week, but I know you know of other events that should be on here. Help me find some through Meetup.com, Twitter.com or anything resource you use to find events in the Vancouver area. See you next week! Tweet about the events you find and use the #MDIA1045

Class Two: Feedback, Twitter, LinkedIn & Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Kemp Edmonds) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Well I hope your first week was full of more learning opportunities. First thing today we will be going through a few things that we didn't go through last class including:

Marks? How does it work?
Norms on Twitter - What's your question?
The difference between Old Retweets and New Retweets

COURSE MARKING STRUCTURE:

In-class exercises Assignments x 2 Final Project Participation	20% 35% 35% 10%

In-class exercises are those things that you are asked to do in class. Attempting the exercise and doing your best to complete it will result in satisfactory marks for that part.

These are our two assignments. They are due on October 10th:

Get Blogging: Write TWO 500 word blog posts with at least 3 links and one image in them.
Attend a Networking event and Report. One full page in size 11 font.

Final Project. This is due on the last class, October 24th:

Have a total of FIVE blog posts on your blog. They must be at least 250 words and contain multimedia (images, videos, slidedecks, etc.)
Submit via email links to 2 new completed social media profiles and your blog.

Now is the time to hear your questions before we push on in this course. So today on top of our lessons on Twitter, Goals, Blogs and more I want to hear what questions you want answers to.

You can create a form easily with Google Docs - Forms. Whether you are surveying customers, family, friends, bloggers or associates gathering intelligence on what people want helps us to deliver value that will serve their needs.

In our first exercise I want everyone to take the time to create a Google Form of 1-3 questions and we call all answer each other's questions. Take this opportunity to learn something about your area of concentration from the classroom group. Google Forms can also be embedded in a Facebook page or blog giving you or your client/business instant feedback from visitors, prospects and customers.

Make one, Grab the link, Shorten it, Post it to Twitter.

This week we are going to talk about using Twitter, having goals and introduce LinkedIn and Blogs! Following that we will go over what a completed Twitter profile looks like and why it's important to have a complete profile. Then we will move onto goals. Following that we will discuss LinkedIn. We will then be talking about frequency and delivery. This is an important part of using social media: Understanding the optics of messages on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and how they are different. Lastly, if time allows we will go into setting up your blog.

Head on over to Twitter and login. Does your profile have an image? A bio? A link to a blog, website or LinkedIn profile? These are all elements of a completed Twitter profile. Using Twitter is something that should be done on a daily basis although at first this isn't a necessity. It depends on what your goals are for using the service. If you are using it to listen and receive information then your participation is less important but sharing and engaging will yield more valuable results than sitting back and reading. Think of Twitter as a parallel of

Whether you are a business or an individual having goals when using social media is incredibly important. Today you will be asked to write-up your short-term, medium-term and long-term goals for using social media. Below I have put a sample of my personal goals as a template for you to:

Short-Term - This week, this month

Write 3 blog posts on kempedmonds.com
Connect with a publishing site (IE VanObserver) to see if they are interested in a story
Attempt to connect with 3 people on LinkedIn by proposing the purpose of my connection
Answer 2 questions/week on LinkedIn
Follow 100 new and interesting people on Twitter by searching for keywords and evaluating the people using those keywords.

Medium-Term - 1 - 3 months

Connect with 3 local thought leaders for coffee to learn from them and share ideas
Develop a strategy to secure more speaking gigs
Begin implementing the strategy to get more speaking gigs
Work to develop MDIA 1045 into an online course
Attend 3 events/month that I don't normally attend

Long-Term - 3 - 12+ months

Work to expand my online reach beyond Vancouver
Attend 4 large conferences each year and connect with others there
Use Twitter to 'virtually' attend one large scale chat or event each month
Develop new relationships with those in my field via long-term relationship building
Interview 3 new trend-setters for my blog interview series.

Note that goals don't all have to be directly related to social media but all of them are important to my work and the development of my social networks. Think of your own personal goals in the context of what you wish to achieve through your professional efforts over the next month, months or years. These goals will change, some will disappear or be deferred while new goals may appear and things you didn't think of will provide great opportunities. Our world is changing quickly and so should some of your goals.

Next let's go and check out LinkedIn, if you have an account already take the next steps to bring your account up to 100% completion. If you don't yet have a LinkedIn account please sign up here.

LinkedIn is the professional's social network. It is the place online where professionals meet and connect for future collaboration or business. It is a more complex social network than Twitter where connecting with someone is easier than on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a place where you can demonstrate your expertise or view the expertise of other through Answers and Groups.

10 LinkedIn Tips for professionals is a great primer on the best use of LinkedIn.
5 LinkedIn tips for Personal Branding.
LinkedIn Best Practices: 13 Tips & Tricks.
7 Ways to get more out of LinkedIn.
What is Linkedin? A Video Guide.
LinkedIn: What is it good for? What is it not for?

Please read this great article from the Globe and Mail:

Resume as profile: How to social network your way to a new job

This week's offline events locally (FREE unless otherwise stated):

Social Media Week Schedule of Events!

Welcome to MDIA 1045 - Fall 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Kemp Edmonds) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:27:00 +0000

Welcome to our class blog. This is a place to learn from one another and to add to the learning that happens in our course.On the right hand side you will see a number of different items to provide new information daily if you are seeking knowledge constantly. Each of these 'widgets' was created at http://twitter.com/widgets. This is something we will learn about in Week 3/4 but if you are keen follow the link.

Do you have a Google account? If not you will need one for this course. Please sign up now.

The course will be structured into two halves. The first half will focus on personal social networking. The half will focus on the business of social networking and how businesses can utilize and quantify the use of social technologies for business purposes.
The purpose of this format is to demonstrate the many parallels between personal and business use of social networks. This format also helps to show the differences for both personal and business social networking. Each week participants will be directed to local offline networking events.

Today's class will be rather straight forward and involve introductions to the course, one another, Google, social search and social networking. Today we will focus on Google Applications, Twitter, Advanced Search and if time allows RSS.

As an assignment in the future students will be required to attend one event and write a short synopsis of the experience. You first exercise is to give me some information about why you are taking this class by completing the survey below. We will then work on creating a short survey of our own. This survey will then be completed by the other members of the class.

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We will go through the events, the class blog, the class hash tag (#MDIA1045) and get to setting up Twitter accounts for use in the class and optimizing them.

We will be using Twitter to share information before, during and after class so a Twitter account is something you will need. This account can be totally anonymous if you like. You can also change your name later on without reprecusions from Twitter. To take full advantage of what social networking has to offer it is advised that you use an identifiable picture, name and bio. For those looking for some more information to learn the ins and outs of Twitter this free resource is the Twitter "textbook": http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/. I am also available via Twitter, Facebook or email to answer your questions on any topic at anytime.

It is important to understand social networking in both an online and an offline capacity. The real benefits of digital social networking come when that digital connection becomes a face-to-face meeting. As part of this class it is important to attend at least one offline event. One of your assignments will involve you evaluating and analyzing networking and how to best take advantage of the time you spend at offline events.

Let's finish by discussing the listening part of social media including Google Alerts, Google Reader and Netvibes.

What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication):

If you would like to add this blog to your RSS feed please add the URL as: http://mdia1045.blogspot.com/feeds/default?alt=rss

HOMEWORK:
Be sure to read today's class reading as homework for next week. Please tweet about this story and include #mdia1045.

The course marking structure:

In-class exercises Assignments x 2 Final Project Professionalism & Participation	25% 25% 30% 20%

Offline events locally (FREE unless otherwise stated):

Get ready for Social Media Week next week and attend any events you can.