Everyone likes to communicate, right? If you are planning an event for a group, a non-profit, or even something like a birthday party, there are several channels you can use to help get the people that you want at your event.

Social media to the rescue…

There are a ton of tools out there to help you reach your targeted audience and today I will discuss two.

Evite – Invitations sent via email to your event might sound a little old school, but truthfully, there is practically no other method to target a specific group of people then a personalized invitation that lands directly in their inbox.

The only thing you need to do ahead of time to make this work is have a robust email contact list that contains your loyal group of followers. There are many ways to develop this list through services such as Aweber, Constant Contact, Icontact, etc.

Check out evite.

Twitter – Face it…all the cook kids have finally migrated over to twitter. Young adults these days seem to be much more into twitter than facebook. To use twitter effectively, you need to have the information posted elsewhere on the web and include a link back to your page. You only have 140 characters…so use them wisely.

My takeaway

If you aren’t using various forms of social media to promote your events, you are working too hard and inefficiently. Remember with twitter to tweet often, and change the content of your tweets. You don’t want to bore your audience so use various messages, but always link back to your homepage.

I’d love to hear how you promote your events comments.

Since childhood, we have all wanted to know how popular we are, right? Whether or not you want to admit it, we know….oh we know!

What about me?

There are various tools out there that will help you measure your influence on the interwebz. Many people use the services of Klout. This is a fantastic service, but I see only one real drawback to the service…you must sign up.

But I am sooo sick of signing up for services!

Me too! It seems like every site that you visit these days makes you sign up for a free account. You fill out the form and then what happens? Give a password.

I’m sick of stupid hackers!

What invariably happens is that you use the same password over and over for all of these different sites.

Then the hackers come after you.

I’ve had my gmail account and yahoo account hacked three times lately and I’m really sick of it. I am almost ready to go back to the pen and paper to communicated.

Tweet Grader is different!

I highly suggest that you check out Tweet Grader if you have never seen it. Once you arrive on the very simplistic and minimalistic homepage, you will be asked to enter the twitter username and sit back and you will receive a score out of 100.

Give it a try and see how your tweets are influencing others today.

Oooh…the age old question, is the customer always right?

Yes…if you want to stay in business

Recently I have been having a lot of trouble with my AT&T U-Verse services. For over a year, I have loved their service. It is more expensive than other local cable companies, but the service has been outstanding and the product very good.

But things change

One of the power cords on a DVR no longer functions. I know that it is just the power cord, because I used one from another unit and it turns on completely fine.

I contacted AT&T Uverse over the weekend and asked them to send me a new power cord. Simple, right? Wrong!

First, for some reason they can’t just replace the cord. They need to replace the entire DVR box. Economically, I don’t really understand the point of replacing the entire box, but what do I know?

So great. They can UPS a new box to me and it will only take two days. Fantastic!

Waiting…waiting…waiting

Box never arrives. Wait another day. No dice. I did an online chat with AT&T and had to speak to two different people before I was told that my box hadn’t shipped yet. Fantastic. Did they let me know not to expect it anytime soon? Nope!

At the end of this article, I will copy and past the transcript of my last chat session where I was told I may incur a $55 charge for a service call to correct issues that are occurring with the wiring.

My takeaway…

The customer is always correct if you would like to stay in business. Although little ol’ me isn’t going to put a huge conglomerate like AT&T out of business, this is a lesson for anyone in business.

More than likely, you small business thrives on the recommendations of others…which is free advertising people! Treat the consumers of your services like a king, and sit back and wait for their friends to sign up with you.

Treat them like crap at your own peril. I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments section.

Thanks,

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

That is correct, thank you for confirming the security of the account.

Is it really already December 22? That seems wild to me. As I have yet to start my shopping, Ive been doing a little bit of thinking on the subject.

Procrastination 101

Ill begin this post with a little admission…..I procrastinate on virtually everything that I do. In college I found that it helped me to do so. I always worked better under the gun and produced a much higher-quality work feeling all of that pressure. So it may as come to no surprise that I always buy all of my gifts on December 24 AND I never file income taxes until April 15. It’s stressful but fun to me.

Two quick tips to buying late and getting something yourself in return

I am a big believer in gift cards. Unless I know exactly what my loved one wants. then I tend to stay clear of the choices on my own. Buying for a 33 year old woman and 20 year old college student, I realized long ago that I don’t have what it takes.

1. If you want to not only cop out and get the card (which I will be going), there are many advantages to buying store gift cards. But be careful where you buy them! If you purchase from any major grocery store, you are likely to earn points that are good toward gasoline purchases. With the price of gas…thats a win, win if I every saw one.
2. If you are a part of a workplace union, investigate what special deals they have negotiated for their members with large companies. You can often save a ton of money when purchasing threw them. Whoever said that the union gave you nothing in return for those high dues?
3. Check giftcards.com. able to purchase giftcards from this site and redeem them for a plethora of restaurnts. But the best part is this…you buy these cards at less than face value!

My Takeway…

Get online now and get shopping. Time has not run out. And there are big saving to be had. Best of luck!

Many of us out there are involved with various non-profit groups that work to make the lives better of some sector of society. Personally, I work with a fantastic group called Friends of the Shelter. When you are involved in this type of work, it is imperative that you use every tool available to meet, and hopefully exceed, your fundraising goals.

So what should I do?

Facebook is a great tool to engage your community of supporters. There are two very important points to remember when using this social media platform for your non-profit group.

1. You need to consistently work to grow your fan page. There needs to be a compelling reason for Joe Blow to “like” your page. You might considering offering  a new fan something in exchange for liking your page. This could be additional content, a free ebook download. This is limited only by your imagination.
2. Once you get that person to click the almighty “LIKE” button, you need to keep her/him engaged. It is of the utmost importance that you interact with your community on facebook. Post updates, but even more importantly  RESPOND to comments. Your fans need to know that this is an active page and that someone actually cares what they think. Having 1,000 fans isn’t going to matter if they feel disconnected from you and your group.

Now what?

Once you have gotten your target audience to like the page AND you have gotten them engaged on the facebook page, the next step is to take their hard earned money!

More on that tomorrow. Stay tuned!

It’s been a few days since I promised to bring another set of tools that I suggest you try in your classrooms, so let’s go ahead and get started, shall we?

A quick FYI

There has of late been many stories in the news of school districts that are limiting the use of social interaction between educators and their students by defining the dos and dont’s of their districts.

It is my belief that this is happening because school districts have yet to fully understand the capacity that these new tools being educators to deliver content in a new and exciting fashion that taps into the energy and enthusiasm that our youth have for social media.

So a couple of words of advice…

1. Join committees and work with your school district to craft reasonable policies that allow these powerful content delivery systems to be used in a prudent way to raise the bar for all students.
2. Don’t allow these committees to be formed by people that truly do not understand how these tools can be used inside and outside of the classroom to keep students connected to the curriculum in a much more dynamic fashion.
3. Use your common sense. Just like you would not invite a student to your home, talk to them on the phone, or tell them about your personal problems, keep them out of your private social media accounts. Your personal facebook page is no place to allow your students. If you can’t keep it professional, go to your board of education, no make that run, and surrender your teaching license.

So with all of that being said, time for some new tools.

A few tools to help you deliver content in a new format

Let’s face it. Kids are connected to their cell phones, twitter, and facebook. Why not harness that energy to be used to deliver your content in a new and interesting format?

1. EDU 2.0 - For those of us that have taken courses lately, having recently graduated or for licensure renewal purposes, are likely to be familiar with content management systems like Blackboard. EDU 2.0, released in 2006,  is something similar to that, but dedicated to help educators, students, and parents. It is a platform that helps take the classroom learning into the home. This site can hold lesson plans, documents and worksheets, and students can submit assignments online. There are grade-books, PowerPoints, you name it. Give it a try!
2. Edublogs – If you are reading this article, you are on a blog. Blogs are a great way to foster interest in a topic and gauge the amount of learning that your students are achieving. On Edubogs, you as the teacher could post a question to the class and ask students to respond to the question at home for homework. You might also have them interact with one another in the comments section to further measure what they have learned. This site brings you a safe platform with many safety features that will make you feel comfortable using it in the classroom

My takeaway…

Twitter is still my favorite. It allows so many different functions that could be harnessed in the classroom. I’ll leave you with this article from the New York Times entitled Students Speaking Up In Class, Using Social Media.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. Thanks!

Yes!

Thanks for reading. Ok, a bit of sarcasm.

Old school vs New school

If you haven’t been around this blog very much, or happen to be new to the site, thanks for stopping by! Other than writing about social media and all things interwebz, my “real job” is being an educator in the Columbus, Ohio area.

If you take a look around a typical high school, you will begin to notice a couple of things. Sometimes students look like they are dressed to hit the hottest new club and you would likely also realize that there is a great span in the ages of the faculty.

Do the old foggies hate all of this new technology?

Yes and no. In this imagined high school, you will likely notice that the older teachers sometimes stick to their tried and true methods of delivering content. Am I talking slates with chalk? Nope. Although it does feel like that sometimes. What I am really talking about is teaching from a textbook. Using overhead transparencies as their new technology. And the biggest…

Fighting social media tools in school

Just because we have been doing things a certain way for a long time, does not mean that we cannot evolve. Wake up…time to get over the cell phone battle. We aren’t winning.

Won’t my students just text, tweet, and play on facebook while I am trying to teach?

Yes. But guess what? They already are! Although this is a generalization, younger teachers try to push the limits of antiquated school rules to get students excited and engaged in learning.

Let’s not fight it any longer. Why not embrace this technology? If your students like to tweet, why not tweet them content?

My proposal…

I think a lot about how to harness this interest in constant interaction that our students have and to develop ways to manipulate that interest by tying it to content.

Let me be the first to admit that I don’t have all of the answers. So why are you reading this? Because I have dabbled with various platforms and try to keep up with the technology.

How can I get started?

Just as quickly as social media tools reinvent themselves for the business world, so too do they in education. Developers across the globe are busy creating newer and better ways that we can engage our kids.

A few tools to get you started

• Twitter – It is not new, but it is in a constant state of improvement. There are many potential uses for twitter, and our youth seems to have fallen in love. You will find more and more students tweeting and time goes on. Some ideas to use the platform:

a.  Use it to tweet homework assignments

b.  Take the classroom discussion out of the classroom and into real life

c.  Disperse interesting articles and other web items related to your content area

d.  Questions and answers, writing stories

•  Social Bookmarking – Diigo is my favorite in this area. It allows users to keep a set of bookmarks, arranged by tags, that can be accessed anywhere that there is an internet connection. One of the really cool features is the ability to share your bookmarks, and to highlight content on a web page so students know what you think is the meat of the content.
• Moodle – As a content management system, Moodle is revolutionizing the way that teachers are able to deliver information to their students. Many of you might be familiar with Blackboard from college courses that you have taken. With Moodle, you are able to post assignements, do online assessments, post videos and lecture notes and powerpoints, have an online gradebook, etc. You can do lots more and I suggest you check it out. Not only is it a great tool, but you will be using a system that they will already be familiar with when they enter their freshman year in college.

My takeaway…

Choose one social media tool and spend time learning it well. Ask colleagues for help that might also use this platform. But you really will learn more by playing…trial and error.

Check back later this week for a few other tools available to educators. Are you using anything like this in your classroom? Please leave a comment and let me know.

We all have days in which we want to throw up our hands and scream SERENITY NOW! But there is one piece of advice I’d like to give you is that

Twitter is not a qualified therapist 

You know that this happens to you all of the time. You read through your twitter feed and see that same person, let’s call  her Betsy, that is complaining about life and you roll your eyes and think, man what a loser.

Sometimes you actually need help!

Think of it in these terms…Is twitter really the place to vent your every gripe about the world?

Talking about your problems in the interwebz is not a problem in and of itself. Sometimes you can pose an answer and get some great feedback.

“Should I wear this skin tight outfit on a first date tonight with this new guy I met?” No, you’re too old and big boned.

“Man my stomach hurts!” Try not inhaling the wholes bag of rolos next time. (That may or may not be related to my current situation).

Sometimes you need the professionals

Listen. We all have problems and social media can be used to give us those pick me ups.

What’s my takeaway?

Sometimes you need to call in the big guns. Take a look at your twitter stream and see what are the topics that you generally touch upon? If its mostly negative, get some help. It’s great to have twitter contacts and they maybe super supportive but a lot of these people don’t actually know you and can’t give you the real tools to find that balance and hapiness for which we all strive.

For disclosure purposes…I havent found that balance either but am working with someone that is helping me get there.

Aren’t we all do-it-yourselfers with the explosion of youtube videos?

What’s the problem?

The bathtub faucet had been a little leaky in the spare bathroom and I had planned on calling a plumber to come check it  out. Well, as luck would have it, on Thanksgiving Day, it got worse. I mean, would you expect anything else? Your bags are packed to leave town and boom…problem.

So what is someone who would rather not be charged triple the normal rate of a plumber on a holiday to do in this situation? RUN to the laptop and get on youtube baby.

What did I learn?

There are a lot of bad videos out there on youtube. But, if you keep up your search, and are patient, you can fix common things at a fraction of the cost of a professional.

What is my takeaway?

Yes, you can do many things around the house yourself, and perhaps you should. If you are diligent and patient, you too can do a great deal of this stuff.

If you happen to have a similar problem this Christmas, can I help you out? Yes. But be prepared to pay me triple the normal rate.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Happy Cyber Monday!

Can I really finish my Christmas shopping without leaving my bed?

Yes, you can! If you missed the Black Friday sales, which really you shouldn’t have…they seemed to start right after dinner on Thanksgiving, then you are just in time for Cyber Monday.

Should I be spending money online?

If you are anything like me, you hate to stand in lines at the big box stores and have to put the guy next to you into some kind of choke hold because he is purchasing two X-Box 360 and now there are none left. I mean, come on, he was being selfish, right? Your kid wants one too!

I am lazy AND a little anti-social

If there is a way for me to avoid a crowd of people that are just a little too happy to be spending hundreds of dollars this holiday season, I’m game. If I can do this all from the comfort of my own bed, even better.

Security

As always, you should be a little weary of using your debit or credit cards online. After all, there is always a chance that the numbers could get stolen. Use your common sense, and make sure that if you are going to shop your little hearts out today, that you do so at stores that have secure sites.

The take away

I’ll be avoiding the stores for the most parts and will partake a little of the online fun. If you find sites that offer free-shipping, than what’s the harm? How about you? Do you prefer the in-store experience or do you prefer getting this all done while still in pajamas?