Summary of our conversation:

Daughter: Mom, I am SO excited because I just got accepted into a collab

Me: A WHAT?

Daughter: A collab on YouTube – you know, where different people submit videos to one channel each week around a specific topic for that week.

Me: OH! You mean collab as in collaboration? So what are the rules? Where can I read them?

Daughter: (Blank stare) What do you mean, read them? They are in a video, duh?

Me: Oh. Silly (old) me. So how did you get accepted?

Daughter: I had to audition with a video response on her YouTube channel.

Me: So you had to make a video in order to audition – that’s pretty neat. What is the topic?

Daughter: All about Guinea Pigs. It works like this. One week it will be how to build different cages, the next week it will be guinea pig nutrition, the following week it will be tips and tricks to make cage cleaning easy, etc. I have Wednesdays, so each Wednesday I have to submit my video on the topic of the week. This way, we can find out new ideas and ways to take care of our guinea pigs by having different people contribute different videos on the same topic. I also learn about different ways to make my own videos by watching these as well.

Me: (to myself) Sigh. I have so much to learn.

…

Is it just me or is this really brilliant?

YouTube collabs are not a new idea – but  through her eyes, I see all kinds of possibilities.

This is content creation and mass collaboration by 12 year-olds – they are creating a really valuable content-filled channel through collaborating with like-minded individuals, around common topics. Needless to say, the wheels are now turning in my head. Could this approach support any current strategic objectives in my organization? Could we use this to solve a problem in our community? Can schools/classrooms use it to learn about new ideas and concepts? Could it be an alternative way to report on news topics? Create music?

It seems that all that’s really needed is a clear topic/idea, along with some simple guidelines (deadlines, content, etc) as well as clarity around  approach (how do videos get accepted, etc) and a core community of interest to get started – unless I am missing anything?

I did some poking around and found YouTube’s “Life in a Day” project which is probably the most popular and successful example of something like this. Please share other examples if you find them – I am really interested to learn how people are using this concept and let me know what you think.

My questions about these things in general – Is what they are offering valuable (or fun) enough for me to use? Is it so cool or so valuable that I will be ok with sharing my personal info via Facebook connection?

Here is what I came up with:

Target
Click print go – print your Facebook photos directly to a local store. If you store your photos on Facebook – Target is offering a seamless app where you can print your photos and pick them up at a local store – without ever leaving site. CVS does this too, I just happen to heart Target.

Starbucks
Manage your card balance or gift Starbucks to your Facebook friends. Starbucks allows you to gift Starbucks to others on Facebook and manage your gift card balance without even leaving the site. This is all done through a well-developed, self-contained Facebook App. In essence, they are making it really easy for folks to give them money without ever leaving Facebook.

Walt Disney World
Create a memory book online with your Facebook photos, get answers about your upcoming trip, make a Disney stick figure family to post and share with friends.
I am not a huge Disney fan, but their Facebook gadgets are pretty cool – and diverse. There are several different widgets built onto different sections. It’s worth spending some time there – I can see how Disney fans would love this.

American Red Cross
The American Red Cross Facebook page is pretty comprehensive, providing up-to-date info on the latest disasters and an app to help you locate your nearest chapter.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie page
I couldn’t wrap-up this post without mentioning something geeky, and being that I am a dedicated Harry Potter fan this seemed appropriate. They have provided a section where you can download wallpapers and icons, listen to the entire soundtrack, view the movie trailer and more. July 15th can’t come soon enough!

No matter how hard I try to remain cool – driving a minivan just compromises my ability to do so. I know it – even though I call mine a “high performance minivan” I just can’t hide the fact that it is still a minivan. The fact that we take a lot of road trips and that I actually like driving it means nothing. I have just given in to the fact that by driving this vehicle, all coolness as left the building. When Toyota came out with the Sienna family in the “Swagger Wagon” video, I did begin to feel just a little better:

Now there is a whole series about Swagger Wagon families on their own YouTube video channel. Does this make minivans cool? Maybe not. But it does foster appreciation for Toyota and recognizes how much coolness we give up by driving them.

Mayhem – Allstate

Enter Mayhem. He he’s got personality and he’s trouble no matter where he goes. Mayhem is a tad creepy and entertaining at the same time. This memorable video series is on TV as well as on YouTube. My personal favorite – the outdated GPS (because it hits close to home):

Check out the entire Mayhem TV channel (there are several funny videos here).

Old Spice Guy (yes, I had to mention this too).

Not going to go into too much detail – between the random nature of this plus the male hotness involved – this sells a mens product to a female audience like no other. I never get tired of these. “The Oyster is Now Diamonds…”

It may sound simple, but for me it will help to frame many social media presentations to come, particularly to those who are used to looking at demographics in a more traditional way.

Check it out.

Blakley is the deputy director at the Norman Lear Center, a nonpartisan research and public policy center that studies the political, social, cultural and economic impact of entertainment on the world, presented this speech at the TEDWomen conference in Washington, D.C.

Read the full article from The Atlantic Social media and the end of age, race and gender

Like I said, super-simple. There is so much ‘noise’ out there, sometimes I just like to go back to basics.

This is a problem on many levels. Although I am constantly scanning everything from email communications, blog posts, voice mail’s, videos and more to gather more information and to be ‘on top of things’, I am actually losing effectiveness with my daily work.

This becomes a downhill spiral as I begin to feel guilty over not being as productive as I can be, which results in my not being very effective – which turns into me questioning whether or not I am actually good at what I do. So I need to JUST STOP IT and regroup.

I have read about many strategies to overcome this – and being that I like to keep things simple – here is what works for me:

1. Keep 90 minutes each day for absolute, no-nonsense, un-distracted focus. This idea is not my own, and is outlined in HBR’s blog post “A 90-Minute Plan for Personal Effectiveness“. This is a smart, sensible strategy where you shut down all opportunities for interruption and focus on a single task each day.
2. At the beginning of each week, decide in advance the top 3-5 things you should accomplish that will make the most impact for your organization, your projects, etc., and make them a priority – and get them done.
3. Continuously reassess how you are spending your time. It’s really important to spend your time wisely – like money. Walk away from low-impact things that suck up your time – even if they might frustrate others. You can always get them done (and apologize) later.
4. Never underestimate the need for “down time”. For me, this means daily 1 hour walks (preferably in the woods) to clear my head and open up some ‘space’ to get the ideas flowing. Not to mention the extra oxygen to the brain really helps!
5. Remind yourself that you can’t do everything – and let it go. Wasted energy means that you won’t be using it on creativity and ideas when you need them.

If you have any unique or special strategies – please do share!

I dug into my arsenal of links and recovered the following three posts about blogging.

These posts provide practical ideas and techniques to come up with ideas for topics and approaches for writing posts:

• How to write a blog post – from Outspoken Media
• 20 Ways to up your blogging fun quota – from Problogger.com
• 100+ SMB Blogging Ideas to Kick Start 20 – from Small Business Trends
  

Share your resources here!

Well, not really…

Think of yourself at a reception at one of your events.  When you are asked to mingle and network with event attendees, we nurture relationships through conversation, make connections and share ideas, which ultimately strengthens customer loyalty and engagement.

This is what social networking is all about.  Social media simply refers to the tools we use to communicate and talk about it.

Successful organizations adopt this social approach as part of their culture – and that is where you want to be.  It is customer service, marketing, sales, member outreach and networking all rolled in to one.  For many of us, it is (or should be) part of what we do every day.

We have a challenge and an opportunity

Our challenge is to step outside of our comfort zone and learn how to use these new tools.  Our opportunity is to take our organizations to the next level using social media and social networks in innovative and creative ways – engaging our members, customers and partners beyond what we currently do.

Whether it’s customer service, communications, marketing, or general outreach – we should all be using these social tools to share information, participate in conversations, answer questions, and communicate information about everything you do.

Here are a few things you can do:

• Participate in conversations and share links in your social networks on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.
• Start reading industry blogs and start leaving comments and engaging in conversations.
• Start using Twitter – search Twitter every day for your organizations name and see what people are saying.
• Share ideas for blog posts and/or podcasts with the appropriate folks in your organization.

Let me know what you are doing to get involved!

You can’t invite folks to dinner without offering them a meal.

And why does everything come back to food, anyway? or shoes – oh yeah, that’s another post.

Back to the topic at-hand. Developing a focused and valuable content strategy requires us to think through a few high-level things first, then apply that to our social media activities.

Here is what I recommend:

Get your smart, innovative creative thinkers in the room. Ask the following questions (can be about a program, product, or around organizational goals):

What are our goals – in one year, what is the story we want to tell?

This is where you clearly articulate the outcome, based on what you want to be saying when you have successfully accomplished it. Then you work backwards from there.

About your core audience(s), ask yourselves the following questions:

• What are their pain points – needs?
• What do they find valuable?
• Who are they and where are they already gathering online?
• How many are current members or participants in any way?
• How many know who we are as an organization?
• What are the possibilities for future engagement/interactions (membership, content creation, speaking, interviews, etc)?
• Beyond the default ‘networking’ answer, what do we have (or what can be created) that would be really valuable to them: Experiences, Content, Knowledge
• What is the best way for us to brainstorm activities, events, content to address the answers to these?
• How do we use the web and social platforms to engage and/or disseminate where appropriate?

Now that you have gathered an arsenal of knowledge, you can build your strategy. Here is what I suggest:

• Develop an content grid/calendar that identifies topics, events/activities & content on a month-by-month basis
• Brainstorm content tactics & identify resources for each
  - consider existing content that can be re-purposed
  - opportunities for new content creation: interviews for podcasts, guest articles and blog posts, white papers, toolkits, etc.

With this information, you can build your social media strategy and easily identify ways to disseminate, communicate, and engage using both traditional and new (social) media.

Make sense? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Mehta cites that sound business strategies are “rooted in developing, maintaining and strengthening relationships with customers.” Social media enables us to do just that – if managed in the right way. Mehta goes on to say that “Social media isn’t a means to further a corporation’s strategy, it’s a means to help determine it.”

Amen to that. Yes, we can use Social media just for the sake of  it – but the real power is in conversation. It’s in nurturing relationships with  customers in new and innovative ways – connecting them with real people, content, and knowledge of interest to them – that makes customers ever-so-loyal to our brand. Then they want to hang out with us no matter what. It’s personal, and it’s business. And that is powerful.

Zappos got this right. In all of their social media outlets, they actually talk to me, not at me. They are funny and personal, and help me with what I need (if they can). That’s why I heart Zappos. Don’t you think that what they did online and with social media helped to determine their future as a company? I think so.

Why did this post about social media end up talking about shoes anyway?