Elaine's Posterous

Heads up Champlain College Students and Alumni!

A must see event: Laura Fitton (you may know her as @pistachio on Twitter) is coming to Champlain College on Thursday, March 22nd.  She'll be speaking from experience at 7:00 p.m., sharing her experiences as an entrepreneur, writer, and social media expert (she wrote the book...no really...she wrote "Twitter for Dummies") and runs her own consulting gig. But...not only is she speaking for us all, she's got to be able to eat!

It'll be a great meal. Wouldn't you like to join us?

If you are a current student or an alum here's your chance.  We have FIVE seats up for grabs.  Sounds like the perfect time for a TWITTER CONTEST!

Top five tweets WIN dinner with @pistachio (and a few other awesome people).  Here's the details (naturally failure to follow the instructions means you won't win).

The contest begins NOW, March 15th and runs until Sunday, March 18th. The hashtag for the contest is #eatwithpistachio.  The mission: in less than 140 characters (gotta count that hashtag) is to TWEET why you want to have dinner with @pistachio. Simple enough don't you think?

Bob Bloch and I will judge the tweets based on originality, creativity, and fun and will announce the winners via the contest hashtag on Monday, March 19th.

I know, I know...I'm turning in my homework late. And as a College Prof who is all about "turn your work in on time or you will lose points" this is bad. Really, really bad. No excuses. Just super busy with turning in the midterm grades last weekend and launching my MBA Marketing course. Yep, no spring break for me!

Now on to what I learned this week.

Seriously you HAVE to check out this SlideShare from Leslie Bradshaw of @Jess3. It's all about content marketing and the ways in which we as social media marketers should be thinking about content as a VISUAL medium. It's really not just about infographics, although the content grid infographic @Jess3 developed really gets to the heart of this discussion.

It really got me thinking about social media and content planning. Honestly I've been resistant to creating a stand alone course in social media marketing because I've felt that it really needs to be integrated into EVERY marketing class. It is not easy to do however, and often causes much distress for students who aren't very excited about this space.  However, a course in visual design that incorporates content planning and social media releases of the content could be very very interesting....

Next up Week 4.  Oh, yes I know this was short...but why spoil it all for you when you can go check out Leslie's presentation and see it all for yourself.

Quick update to this post (2:00 p.m). Just noticed that Perrywinkle's Fine Jewelry runs ads on WVMT-AM620 and thought I'd share this screenshot from the radio's website:

There are national sponsors and there are local sponsors. Personally I don't see myself EVER getting jewelry from a business that does business with a radio station that broadcasts Rush Limbaugh and his anti-woman rhetoric. They have a facebook page as well: https://www.facebook.com/perrywinklesjewelry.  Let Perrywinkle's know how you feel about their support of this radio station. There are many fine advertising venues here in #btv. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many thanks to Melinda Moulton with Main Street Landing here in #btv for posting on her Facebook about our Vermont Radio Stations who carry the Rush Limbaugh Show. I'm so upset by what this man does on a daily basis, but his calling Sandra Fluke a "slut" for testifying about contraception at an UNOFFICIAL hearing held by minority leader Pelosi (recall, the official hearing only included only men) and that the only reason why she wants the government to pay for her contraception is because she is having so much sex she can't afford it, was misogynistic, disrespectful of women, and while no surprise given the speaker, has GOT. TO. STOP.  Read more here at the Washington Post

Barre WSNO-AM 1450 M-F 12p-3p

Burlington WVMT-AM 620 M-Fr 12p3p

Rutland WSYB-AM 1380 M-F 12p3p

Sponsors are starting to drop the show. Here's a Facebook Page that has started that has a list of advertisers (click on "about" to find the list) Now let's get radio stations to do the same thing!

Awesome does not begin to explain the key points made this week by speaker Matt Dickman (@mattdickman) from Webber Shandwick. 

Since the homework this week is getting into specific detail about where we are and aren't in our organizations, I'm going to move to just posting up my notes -- those things I thought were particularly noteable.

Happy reading -- happy learning.  It's good stuff for sure!

My own personal notes from the presentation.

• Leaderships alignment is PRIORITY #1 before any other efforts begin!

• It will FAIL if the head of the company/org and leadership are not in alignment that social is a priority for the business going forward.

• Must have a GOAL.
  • Success = CEO says this is a priority
  • Direct reports know it is a priority and they work together.

• Social Media Governance/Operational Guide
  • Need a common framework
  • Each core function needs to be present/engaged
  • Give each team “guides”
    • Who is responsible for response,
    • Who is responsible for which channels?
  • There is a ROLE FOR EVERYONE!! Marketing/Legal/etc....

• Who should own Social Media? THE ORGANIZATION!!!!

• We are there...now what?
  • Build a platform and then enforce it...
  • Forget talking about each channel. (Twitter, FB, etc.)
    • You need an ENGAGEMENT strategy.
    • Leave the platforms out of it.
    • Understaffed, under trained is a big issue
    • It takes a minimum of two hours per day
  • Business Priorities Focus. Start there. Then set:
    • Social Media Objectives
    • Strategies
    • Measuremen (if you have goals, you an measure them!)
  • Platform Strategies
    • Know the ROLE of the platform!
      • FB: Customer Engagement
      • Twitter: Engagement
      • LinkedIn: Networking/Recruiting
        
    • Measurement:
      • Broad: Share of Voice, Mentions, Tone (Radian6, etc -- total conversation around a topic)
      • Behavioral: Engaged to Dis-engaged/Inactive - creator (this is different culturally/internationally)
      • Actionable: Sales, Coupons, Referrals, RTs, Mentions, Clickthrough
      • Influence/Brand/Reputation: Likelihood, Message pullthrough, specific campaigns
         
• Employees must be TRAINED. There must be a social media policy! Look to FTC guidelines.

 

Dr. Elaine Young

Marketing Professor, Champlain College

Consultant in Residence, Champlain College Graduate Studies

@ejyoung67

1. What are your social media marketing goals?  Be as general or specific as you like as you write the answer to this question. We'll ask you to revisit these goals during the boot camp.

1. Goal 1: Stay Current. As a College Professor it is a challenge to stay current in the evolving Social Media Marketing space. My number 1 priority is that I am current in this field so I can bring it back into my classrooms.
2. Goal 2: Apply what I’m Learning. I’m in a unique position right now as “Consultant in Residence” at Champlain College where I’m working exclusively with our Graduate Studies Program to help them better understand how to utilize social to engage current students and alumni while also seeing how it can improve acquisition rates. It is my hope this course will provide me with opportunities to practice what I’m learning.
3. Goal 3: Become attuned to what others are doing. What is best practice? What are others doing with Social Media that is illustrating the power? What challenges are others facing and how are they overcoming those challenges?
4. Goal 4: Meet interesting people, network and start great conversations!
   

2. Review Michael Brito’s presentation: "The Rise of the Social Customer and Their Impact on Business" in the Archives. List 5 to 10 ideas you got from the presentation on how to create relevant and meaningful content.

1. Create actionable posts that call participants to some type of action.
   1. Polls
   2. Questions
   3. Encourage sharing
2. Post our content in all of our social channels but write it differently. Avoiding feeds and the same content everywhere.
   1. Utilize Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn better.
3. Organizations have to change in order to cope with the social customer. My biggest ideas came from this:
   1. New structure to address social channels (starting to play with this already)
   2. Clarify roles/responsibilities
   3. Create an internal communication plan for the college that communicates what is happening on social and where/how they can participate.
4. Train individuals on how to humanize their voice on social channels -- it’s ok to be “on message” with the branding, but not ok to be so corporate you don’t show personality.
5. Listen to what people are writing and know who should take action. Create a social media action plan to help individuals know what to do when needed.
   

3.  Are your customers social customers? Are they brand advocates for you?
Document your current answers to these questions, and revisit them throughout the boot camp

1. How much do you already know about the social media behavior of your current customers?  Your target customers?

   1. Not enough. We have many researchers and participators but very few advocates. However we haven’t been tracking them enough to know.

2. What sites do they visit?  What platforms do they use?  How engaged are they on those platforms?

   1. Different majors behave online differently -- this we do know. Depending on the platform they will interact more or less. A group is on Facebook, while others are on topic-specific forums.

3. Is this data mostly anecdotal, or do you use analytics and listening tools to look at results?

   1. We are just wrapping our heads around data gathering in a more specific way. No social listening right now, more analytics. Social listening will be utilized more.
      

4. Review Dave Kerpen’s presentation: "How to Establish a Brand Personality Through Social Media" in the Archives. List 5 to 10 ideas you got from the presentation on how to create a voice for your brand, listen and respond to your audience, and deliver engaging content on social media.

1. We’ll have multiple voices that will be representing different programs -- the big idea here is to train the team in understanding what “voice” even means and how to represent the Champlain College brand, be helpful and informative while at the same time being themselves. It can be intimidating so training and practice here is key.
2. We need to do a better job of listening and responding. As we provide more useful and actionable content we’ll need to do a very good job of coordinating among the different individuals to make sure we know who should respond.
3. How can we do a better job of using multimedia? I loved the video stories and will work with our Grad Studies team to consider how we can play with video to make things better for our students, our alumni and our prospective students.
4. We have a great story to tell -- our students who have been successful and our current students should be given the tools to tell that story in a raw and real way -- not in the polished way most Higher Education organizations approach “testimonials”.
5. We have to do more on “Surprising and Delighting” our audience. It’s too easy to just pass on events and information. What can we do in a Grad Studies arena to surprise our students? To delight our followers?  I don’t know the answer to that yet, but I’m working on it.

5.  What’s your brand personality?  How can you use social media to get it out there? Write down your thoughts on this topic.

1. Define your brand personality in a few sentences.

   1. Champlain College Graduate Studies : Master’s level education that connects you to your job, creates opportunity for you to grow, allows you to apply what you are learning in a meaningful way, and helps you become a part of an engaged and diverse learning community in your field (IT, Business, Law, Mediation, Digital Forensics, Health Care, Early Childhood Education and Creative Media).

2. Do your current social media efforts show your brand personality?  How can you enhance your current plans?

   1. No. Our current social media efforts are anemic -- one of the reasons we are working to change that.

   2. We need to begin by training staff and creating content, which has begun and getting practiced. In other words, we need to get out there in a more intentional and meaningful and CONSISTENT way.

 

Yes, I know I haven't used my Posterous in a very long time...no excuses but it's time to play again!

I'll be facilitating a workshop tomorrow (Monday, August 16th) to the Vermont Human Resources Association.  The focus of the day is "Leveraging Social Media to Maximize Success in HR, Recruitment and Career Development" and it promises to be seriously kick@ss!

The lineup for the day is impressive and I am honored to be in the company of individuals such as Jennifer McClure of Unbridled Talent (@CincyRecruiter), Rich Nadworny of Digalicious (@rnadworny), Gahlord Dewald of Thoughtfaucet (@gahlord), Jennifer Graham of Competitive Computing (@jenniferggraham), Bibi Mukherjee of Curve Trends Marketing (@wookiesam), and Lisa Wood of Performance Web Soultions (@lisawood). There are others on tap as well, including former students @coreygrenier (now with Brandthropology) and @nicholemagoon (now with MyWebGrocer). The day will also feature @pmgnicole, @katmaund, @cresmer and @annzuccardy as well as Brandy Rudolph of Enterprise Services, Jeff Nolan of Dinse, Knapp and McAndrew and Kerin Stackpole of Bergeron, Paradis and Fitzpatrick.  Like I said, a great line up!

My workshop is about Twitter.  And while the title gives the impression that we'll talk about the pros and cons of Twitter (which we will I'm sure), my emphasis will be on using Twitter in HR. It's probably no secret that I believe that Twitter is a great tool that allows you to connect and engage with others -- when used right. I'll talk about what Twitter is, how I see Twitter and HR being a perfect pairing and how the HR professional/department can get started Tweeting.

So here is what my one hour session will cover as this is the post that I will send participants to for resources and information (it will be a paperless session on my part, and also a powerpoint free presentation too!). Just me, a room, a whiteboard, markers and an internet connection -- and maybe some people.

1. Introduction: Who am I to tell you to Tweet?
   
   
2. Sort out levels of Twitter Use
   
   
   1. Tweetless - what’s twitter?,
      
   2. Grasshopper - I have tweeted about breakfast,
   3. Novice - I know the difference between an @ and #,
      
   4. Apprentice - I tweet and it updates my facebook status,
   5. Specialist - I tweet, I use third party aps, I have participated in a Tweetchat,
      
   6. Ninja - I use hashtags as throwing stars, tweet on the go, have live-tweeted a conference and maybe got a job interview or job because of it and I know what peeps are saying about me.
       
      
3. Quick Vocabulary lesson
   1. “@” = Twitter name convention: @name
   2. “#” = Hashtag which indicates a specific keyword that others can search on: #vhra or #btv or #campchamp or #hrhappyhour
   3. “RT” = Retweet: when your original tweet is passed on to others either with or without comment. The more retweets the better!
   4. “DM” = Direct Message a private message between you and someone else
   5. “@name” = a message to that person and all the people who follow BOTH of you
   6. "TweetChat" = a chat session that is scheduled weekly or monthly using a specific hashtag. Participants respond to questions from the moderator in a free-for-all session that is archived online via http://www.wthashtag.com

4. Twitter and HR: A perfect pairing
   1. External:
      1. Follow keywords having to do with the company = Listen
      2. Announce job openings = Recruit
      3. Vet applicants = Due Diligence
      4. Team with PR to share the “Good News” of the company = Brand Building

   2. Internal:
      1. Check employee sentiment = Morale
      2. Monitor/Share company news = Internal Communication and Recruitment
         1. Announce new initiatives/trainings/workshops = Internal Communication
         2. Announce benefit information = Internal and External Communication
         3. Share internal job listings = Internal Recruitment
      3. Avoid problem employees = Listen, Monitor and Watch

   3. Personal:
      1. Follow professionals in the HR field = Keep current, learn
      2. Participate in Tweet Chats = Network
      3. Ask questions = Finding answers

5. Getting started on the road to HR Tweeting
   1. Appoint your Twitter “team”

   2. In consultation with Marketing and PR, set up an official company HR account that lists who the team is

   3. Brand the account with your Company branding (logo, colors, contact info

   4. Create a hashtag list (#jobopenings, #companynews etc.)

   5. Decide on the keywords YOU will follow and pay attention to (including the company name)

   6. Select a third party application to utilize to help you “listen” “follow” and monitor your HR Account
      1. Hootsuite
      2. Tweetdeck
      3. Peoplebrowsr

   7. Set up an account with Topify (http://topify.com/) which will help you in following people who follow you.

   8. Follow key HR individuals and influencers in your geographic region:
      1. TweepML and search on “HR” to find a great list of people to follow
      2. Twellowhood and look for businesses and key individuals in your geographic area to follow.

   9. Set measureable goals for success:
      1. X% new recruits through Twitter
      2. # of chats participated in that yielded new networking, exposure or learning opportunities
      3. X% of tweets are retweeted
      4. # of clicks on job postings

   10. Use Tools to help you monitor your goals
       1. Twitalyzer helps you to see your overall growth and influence as well as a host of cool metrics (which may or may not be important to you)
       2. Bit.ly is a URL shortner which will allow you to track clicks and mentions of your links (note if you use HootSuite, it comes with ow.ly)
       3. Have your web analytics team provided reports each  month on how much traffic is coming to the company website due to your efforts on Twitter

   11. Start tweeting! Remember to respond to others and join in conversations.
       1. Participate in #hrhappyhour or #u30pro (use TweetGrid or TweetChat to help you with the chat)
       2. Respond to questions
       3. Ask question
       4. Engage
       5. Have fun!
          
6. Some things NOT TO DO:
   1. Do NOT set up an automatic follow-back. Vet EACH follower using Topify. Autofollows mean you will end up following spammers and pornbots which probably don’t fit your brand
   2. Do NOT set up an automatic DM for each follower. DMs are for when you know one another and need to have a quick private conversation -- do not abuse it.
   3. Do NOT link your Facebook to your Twitter. Facebook allows for more than 140 characters which (normally) doesn’t work in Twitter.  Also you need different messages for different audiences.
   4. Do NOT measure your success by number of followers: that is a FALSE metric
      
7. Resources:
   1. HRHappyHour: http://www.hrhappyhour.net/blog/
   2. Steve Boese: Professor and creator of HRHappyHour: @steveboese and http://steveboese.squarespace.com/
   3. Unbridled Talent: http://unbridledtalent.com/blog/
   4. Jennifer McClure: President of Unbridled Talent (and our Keynote speaker!) @CincyRecruiter
   5. Mashable Twitter Handbook: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

 

And there you have it -- a whirlwind presentation with lots of links and guidelines.  Feel free to pass this on -- I think it works for more than HR. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome and if I missed a great resource, please add it using the comments so others can benefit.

Today, I had the privilege of talking with a group of soon-to-be mediators who are in the Masters of Science in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies at Champlain College.  We talked about a wide range marketing issues and Bob Bloch of our BYOBiz entrepreneurship program talked about getting your business started.

Why would a mediator care about marketing and starting a business?

Because "we want to eat" and "we want to bring this great service far and wide" and we "want to help people solve their conflict in a constructive way. and because "conflict resolution can make your company make more money."

The big challenge as always is to remember that in Marketing it's about knowing your target market, building value, and gaining word of mouth (referrals in the mediation biz).

I showed them one of my favorite tools of the moment, "Posterous" (http://www.posterous.com).

It is the end of the semester and as the Marketing Management class wraps up it's time to announce who has achieved true Ninja Status (for the rubric, please check my earlier post).

It's exciting to have watched the students as they each explored their own personal brand and while there have been ups and downs, this is truly all about learning, having fun and understanding the true implications of the social tools that are infusing the business world. Not everyone can be a Ninja. It takes dedication, passion, interest and willingness to put yourself out there, engage and connect. At the beginning of all of this I wasn't sure who would achieve "Ninja Status" -- I wasn't even sure anyone would.

First a shout out to the up and coming Ninjas -- the Specialists!

I'm excited to announce that out of the full class of students a total of NINE people made SPECIALIST (that's the level just below Ninja). The specialist is the person who you should watch carefully -- they are honing their skills, hitting their stride and with a bit more time will surely become Ninjas. These individuals have created content, begun building their brands and have, above all, continued to explore and learn the tools of the trade.

Our MKT 420 Specialists are:

• Caila: @cailaburke
• Jackie: @jcooper225
• Amanda: @ajjones87 and @designgutter
• Carolyn: @carolyngetsrad
• Candace: @candaceishungry
• Caitlin: @caitlineo
• Kathleen: @kwamser
• Madison: @madisonwhitneyw
• Brooke: @BrookeZam

If you aren't already following them...well you should.

And now, for the Ninjas.

This honor goes to TWO students who have picked very different areas to focus their energy on. Each in their own way has exhibited an understanding of engagement, connection, consistency, relevancy and building a brand. Both are passionate about what they are doing and their personality and passion shines through in different ways. One is helping others and gaining visibility and interest in what they are doing through outside blog posts and in-state business people. The other is connecting content and pointing out the challenges women face in the world. They have done all the right stuff -- and even if there have been some true "learning moments" along the way, both have earned...

It's the end of the semester and it is now time to determine who in the Marketing Management has achieved true Social Media Ninja Status. It's been 14 weeks since the students began their journey by reading CrushIt! by Gary Vaynerchuk and then making their own personal branding plans.  What have they learned along the way?

1. Building a personal brand is hard work.  It takes time and dedication.  This is not unlike working with a brand that is for a product or service. Social media may not cost the same amount of money that an advertising campaign does, but there is an investment.

2. Keeping it relevant takes intentionality. How do you stay relevant and add value? Every day. Day after day. Week after week. If you have an idea of what you want to blog about, how do you know who to link to, what words do you select and how do you leverage your keywords to help grow the visibility of that brand (namely you!)?
   
   
3. Keeping the passion going isn't that easy.  Like a marriage, it takes work. Every day. Several of my students realized that what they initially thought they could be passionate about didn't sustain them, so they had to switch it up.

4. The tools, they keep a'changin! In social media and the digital world, there is one constant and that is change.  Just this semester alone we have seen Facebook institute "communities" and "like" vs. "fan", the release of the iPad and an upcoming new OS for Apple, the growth of FourSquare and Twitter changes. Ning is now charging. Widgets abound. There are new options every day.  How do you keep up and keep your presence fresh and engaging?

The question for this professor, is how do I judge which of the students have been most successful?  Who, in this class of 20+ deserves true "Social Media Ninja Status" and more importantly, how do I arrive at that determination?  With a rubric of course!

So without further ado, here is Dr. Young's Social Media Ninja Rubric. Perhaps this will be helpful to businesses and others who are hiring content and community managers! 

1. URL/Username
   
2. Bio
3. Connections
4. Content
5. Personality

Tomorrow I announce in class who the TRUE SOCIAL MEDIA NINJAs for the class of 2010 are based on the rubric above.  What do you think? Is this helpful?  Have I captured the main points?