Category Archives: social media

When worlds collide – tagging in meat space

David Cohen's real world tags - photo by Jeff Pulver

Only Jeff Pulver would fly around the world hosting “Social Media Breakfasts” and thank goodness!   This was a great event, lots of fun.   I don’t know if the concept is Jeff’s originally, but he has been going  from city to city on a mission to bring social computing techniques to real-world networking.   Using the web 2.0 metaphor of tagging and Facebook “Walls” you have a great icebreaker for starting conversations  and learning more about the person you just shook hands with.  The photo above is my personal tag cloud from about halfway through the event.

You need to be on Facebook to rsvp, but if Jeff brings one of these events to your town, definitely check it out.   If not, host your own and send me an invite!

Also posted in commentary, facebook, friends, Live event | Tagged , , | Comments closed

A seven-point tune-up for your personal brand

My friend Mike just sent me a link to a nice article on personal branding: Maintaining your Personal Brand Online by Jonathan Snook.  First of all, I happen to think it is one of the more attractively and readably designed blogs that I’ve seen lately, but I’m recommending the article for different reasons. Seven reasons to be exact.  Actually seven very practical tips for stepping up your engagement in your personal brand, that Mr. Snook has thoughtfully provided.   I won’t spoil his thunder, but I will say that I think these are good, easy to do steps that will help raise your recognizability online. And as you know that is the first of the three Rs of branding.

Visit: Maintaining your Personal Brand Online

Also posted in Branding Thoughts, commentary, networking, personal branding | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

You Can't Swim on Dry Land

Scuba Bunny

Have you ever tried to walk across the bottom of the deep end of a swimming pool? It may have been fun bouncing along under the surface, but you certainly didn’t get anywhere very fast. What works very efficiently on dry land is almost completely ineffectual under the water.

Now imagine trying to swim down a sidewalk. Sounds painful doesn’t it? Without the buoyancy you would just grind in place. Change your medium and what was once an asset can become a liability, a successful tactic might just be limiting your progress or bringing it to a grinding halt.

I’m a big believer in paying attention to context, what works in print may not work in radio. What works on the radio, might not work for TV. The big new swimming pool is social media. Not every marketing tactic is going to work the same in the social web. Some old standbys may not work at all. Trying too hard to control the message and interrupting people will leave you bouncing in one place running out of air. Sharing, educating, listening and participating seem to be the better strokes in these new waters.

Also posted in Branding Thoughts, commentary, context, mad scribblings, Thought for the day | Tagged , , | Comments closed

One down – many to go

Well it was a great morning – we had a full house for the kick-off meeting of TAG‘s newest society, Enterprise 2.0.  Our society chair and vision leader, Sherry Heyl, did a great job acting as emcee and blog-journalist.  Check out her blow-by-blow report written live during the event.  And our featured speaker, Puneet Gupta, CEO of Connectbeam, gave a great summary and product demonstration, which I think helped to open our audience’s eyes to the advantages of well-managed social bookmarking in a corporate context.

The point I keep coming back to when it comes to Enterprise 2.0 is the idea that the trend toward adoption of social computing tools is already widespread – the people in your corporation are already using these tools and operating on different paradigms of communication.  The younger the employee the more likely they are to be “infected” with a web 2.0/social media mindset.  These are the people being hired by companies big and small every day.  Whether you choose to put an Enterprise 2.0 strategy in place for your organization, there is already a strong contingent of users who know from direct experience that there are other choices for communication and collaboration than those that may be already blessed by your IT department.  Progressive companies will recognize this and do what is necessary to keep apace of this wave of innovation and cultural change.  They’ll do it because they know that the young upstarts – the ones with no baggage are already there – and they are moving nimbly forward, unfettered by old-school command and control driven approaches.  The people know the tools, and like ’em and knowing the taste of transparent collaboration it is hard to go back to restricted access and cumbersome methods.  Today policies of restriction and banned IP addresses may be met with grumbling compliance – tomorrow the response might be rebellion and defection.

The Connectbeam offering was a great focal point for our first session because the concept of bookmarking is so well understood by virtually anyone who has used a browser in the last decade or so.  Shared bookmarking doesn’t require learning new and complicated skills, but through relevance algorithms and intelligent use of meta-data the social bookmarker gains advantages over the older tool.   Data becomes more meaningful and portable.  Communities of shared interest grow organically from the clustering of bookmarks and knowledge centers are exposed throughout the organization.  Now who wouldn’t want that power working for their corporation?

Also posted in change, commentary, Live event, TAG, tools | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

New TAG Society – Enterprise 2.0

If you live in Georgia you probably know that TAG stands for the Technology Association of Georgia. TAG does a fantastic job of building communities around all the many facets of technology, culture and business. Its main vehicle for doing so is through the support of subgroups called societies.

I’m proud to say that I am on the steering committee for one of TAG’s newest societies: Enterprise 2.0. Our mission is to provide a forum for education and dialog around the topic of social computing for the enterprise. We are coming up fast on our first meeting to be held on March 5th, 2008, 7:30am – 9:30am at the Ashford Club in Atlanta. We are very pleased to have Puneet Gupta, CEO of Connectbeam, as our featured speaker for this kick-off session. Puneet’s talk entitled “Connecting People and Ideas: Using Social Software to Turbo Charge Innovation” will discuss how knowledge management and social bookmarking can help corporations to innovate and rapidly assimilate new ideas. Registration is still open, but the room is filling up fast. I hope to see you there.

Also posted in Live event, networking, Other Interests, TAG | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

So Fun, SoCon

Just a quick note to say I had an absolutely great time at at SoCon08!  The turnout was impressive and the attendees were enthusiastic, intelligent and interested in getting some serious conversations on.   I had the distinct pleasure of leading a discussion group on personal branding, which was a blast for me, and hopefully enjoyable and though-provoking for those who participated.  I’m a little exhausted now, but I’ll try to jot down some thoughts on the event soon.  Meanwhile I’ll just say kudos and thanks to Leonard, Jeff, Sherry, Josh, Chris, Kennesaw State, and all the attendees that made it a terrific weekend!

Also posted in Live event, personal branding, socon, thanks | Tagged | Comments closed
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