I just found a great new blog, louisgray.com with an amazing post - 40 Key Elements to Getting Started In Social Media. If you are getting started with social media, or thinking about it, start here! This post is not just a great introduction to social media, it's a very well developed game plan for effective and efficient social networking. The tips are simple and straightfoward - Stay consistent, Don't use Twitter for spamming, Promote others, Never fly blind...
Here's the intro:
Getting started with social media,
whether for personal or professional use, requires learning the basic
fundamentals. Social media is more than just creating a blog or Twitter
account. The tools are great and give us big advantages, but they are
simply extensions of how we engage and participate in social media,
they are not the answers. The social in social media is all about the
human element. This post touches upon 40 key elements to aid your
success.
By Louis Columbus CRM Buyer Part of the ECT News Network
It's not a question of whether social networking will influence your company, customers, employees, suppliers and others, it's a matter of when. If you haven't committed to learn more about this area, it's time.
Deciding if social networking is going to be an asset or liability is dependent on how your company chooses to approach it.
Companies who look first to their communications objectives and selectively choose which aspects of social networking can accentuate their messaging are the most successful.
Those that choose to look on social networking as a means to blanketing the connected world with their messaging fail.
Whether social networking is going to be an asset or liability depends on your decisions of how to use it. Starting With Web 2.0
The idea of the Internet being more responsive and participatory is one of the aspects of Web 2.0, a concept defined by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly Media.
One of the best books written about the adoption of Web 2.0 and the rapid growth and popularity of social networking sites is Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, from Forrester Research.
Josh Bernoff writes the Groundswell blog as well.
Subscribing to it gives an excellent education on how social networking is changing how companies are adopting these technologies.
After reading their book, I put together a short table to explain the different aspects of social networking, and it is presented here.
Blogs Comprised of short articles or comments posted via blog writing applications; typically supports integration of text, photo, video and audio (podcasts). Strengths of this application are the depth of analysis and opinion you can deliver; the development of more complex ideas and use of graphics and video to explain ideas. Mashups A mashup brings together multiple sources of data and creates a single application, often created as a Web service. Awards are in fact given for the best mashups.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) An approach to syndicating content from Web sites, blogs and social networking sites that relies on a feed-based technology that allows content to be read in RSS readers. This is a must-have for any company Web site or blog as it allows people to track current news via their RSS Feeds.
Social Media This is a very broad area that has as its catalyst the fruition of Web 2.0 concepts into products. It includes Web sites for sharing video such as YouTube Latest News about YouTube, sharing photos (Flickr) and also blogs, Wikis and podcasts.
Social Networking This is the most rapidly expanding area of the Web today and includes sites that enable users to create their own online communities. LinkedIn is one of the most well-known business sites and is often used by recruiters looking for new hires. Facebook Latest News about Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has grown from 24 million users on May 24 to 70 million in late July, stated at a recent developer's conference. Also included in this group is Twitter, FriendFeed and others. Twitter has initiated the debate of what microblogging is or isn't, so be sure to stay tuned into that site specifically. Be sure to visit Compete and check out the traffic of the sites listed in this section, you can get a sense of how rapidly social networking is growing.
Tagging Simplistic technology that gives users the flexibility of bookmarking the specific pages and sites of interest; basis of the approaches used by Digg and del.icio.us for reporting popularity of specific blog posts and Web pages.
Wikis A collection of Web pages that allow anyone to add or edit content. IBM (NYSE: IBM) Latest News about IBM, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Free Trial. Security Software As A Service From Webroot. Latest News about Microsoft and others have extensive internal Wikis that act as their content management Learn how you can enhance your email marketing program today. Free Trial - Click Here. Latest News about content management systems. Wikis are useful for also nurturing collaboration of specific projects.
Companies getting the best results have a very clear idea of what their communications objectives are before ever attempting anything with social networking. Getting those goals defined first makes participating and contributing all the more productive and valuable. Far from complete, here are lessons learned so far from working to understand how social networking can be an asset for a company:
* Realize that social networking is changing how your customers want to communicate with you. This point is very well made on one of my favorite blogs, Church of the Customer. The post How companies connect using Twitter, is must-reading as you get going with a social networking plan. Maybe your customers DON'T want to get a telephone call or direct mail; maybe they want to communicate over Twitter, FriendFeed or any other number of social networking sites. It's time to realize that customers are drastically changing how they want to communicate. It is also up to every company to stay up with this change.
* Define your company by solving customer dilemmas and listening, not just selling. This is the biggest philosophical leap many companies need to make. Social networking is more about offering up knowledge and insight that solves problems and helps customers first. It's not about starting a sales cycle, it's about building a brand that is respected for stepping up to solve customers' unmet needs and problems first. Get a Twitter account and check out Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) Latest News about Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) -- at last count they have over 800 updates. This is a real commitment to transforming how they interact with their customers. Also check out Marriott (@Marriott) and the start of Delta Airlines' efforts (@DeltaAir).
* Definitely check out how your company is viewed online. There are a multitude of services to do this and many Web sites as well. Just to get an early sense of how your company is being talked about on Twitter go to TweetScan for example. There are also RSS Feeds you can put into place to track your company being mentioned on each social networking site as well. Companies including Cymfony can track your company's mentions and provide you with analytics as well.
* Be real, warts and all. I am far from an expert, yet what is immediately clear is that for any company, or individual for that matter, to be taken seriously in any social networking context they have to be real, warts and all. If your company has a problem and someone on a social networking site finds it, it's best to own up and deal with it. This is a medium that brings the essence of marketing to it; it is immediate, clear and blunt. Just as a learning observer, this point comes out loud and clear.
Bottom line: Start getting an education in social networking by signing on to these sites and observe what is going on and then take a hard look at your communications goals and see how your company can contribute to solving problems and meeting needs first. Get an account going on Facebook and Twitter and explore their features, as each is a powerful tool for first getting a great education on these new technologies, and second, how to better connect with and serve your customers.
Time Magazine and others are making comparisons between Obama and Roosevelt. I think the comparisons are genuine, but I think he has the opportunity to communicate as well as Roosevelt did.
I found this article about Obama and his continued use of new media on CBS News. I think new media could be the new fireside chat. If Obama uses these new technologies to his advantage he could keep his brand evangelists and "community organizers". Obama has a fantastic opportunity right now!
"The Internet has changed the game dramatically," says Andrew Rasiej,
founder of TechPresident.com. "It's as if, in 2004, the Internet was
allowed into the conference room of politics; in 2006, it was allowed
to sit at the table; but in 2008, it's sitting at the head of the
table, holding the agenda."
Mr. Obama has said he'd like to appoint a chief technology officer,
perhaps at the cabinet level, and he's made it clear he will embrace
new technologies in office -- technologies such as Skype, a video tool
Sieberg used to get this quote from John Tedesco, a Virginia Tech
political communications professor: "(Mr.) Obama recognized that young
voters are using social networking sites and social networking
software, and he brought his campaign to the young voters online."
A friend just gave me this article from DramaBiz. It's actually from earlier this year, but I think it's a great examination of the how and why of social media for theatres.
From Blogging to YouTube, your theatre needs to harness the online muscle of social networking to lure new audiences and build a grass roots buzz By Lauren Palazzo
There once was a time when a man dressed in short pants and carrying a scroll simply stood on the theatre steps and announced in his best baritone voice - “Hear ye, hear ye, William Shakespeare will be presenting his latest play this afternoon at one o’clock.” Advertising was simple, direct, effective and cheap. In the many years that have followed, theatre owners have struggled to develop an advertising method that was as personal and profitable. With the advent of the internet, it is quite possible that sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Podcasts, Flickr, Friendster, Broadcaster, Twitter, and RSS feeds are the new-age version of the original town crier.
Social networking adds a new twist to the basic marketing format by getting potential patrons to “tell a friend.”
I'm a huge fan of Rohit Bhargava and his blog Influential Marketing. Check out this very useful post on blogging. Check out his book *Personality Not Included. It's great!
How
To Launch A Successful Blog In The First 90 Days
Starting
a blog is not for everyone. There are lots of reasons not to blog, including
having the time to keep a blog up to date, having something to say, and the
fact that blogging is becoming an increasingly crowded space making it far
tougher to stand out than it may have been in the past. Why would I start a
post about successful blogging with all these cautions against blogging? Mostly
to make sure that if you are going to start a blog, you are getting into it
without a false expectation that it can solve all your problems or how much
work it will be.
Assuming
you have the right idea in mind, the question I get asked most often is how you
can make your blog as successful as possible. Here are some tips for new
bloggers on what you may want to focus on in your first 90 days of blogging:
DAYS 1 TO 15:
1. Find a good niche. Think
hard about what you want to write about. It has to be something you are
passionate about and interested in, otherwise it won't work. The more specific
you can get, the better. You can also broaden it later, but in the beginning
you need to find a subject that you can own.
2. Choose a name and URL.
This is a tough thing, but just as many companies these days do, you should let
available URLs drive how you name your blog. If you can't get the URL, don't
use the name. And make sure you plan to put your blog on a specific URL,
whether you are using Typepad or Blogspot or any other service. Trust me on
this, you'll eventually wish you built your blog on your own URL, whether you
think so today or not. 3. Grab a template and launch quickly.
The biggest paralysis new bloggers have is wanting to get their new blog just
right. In the first few weeks of your blog, the most important thing is to find
your voice - so forget about design just launch it with a ready made template.
Chances are remote that search engines will list it that quickly, and you'll
have a few weeks to get it right.
4. Add Google Analytics.
Google has a free tool called Google Analytics which gives you some great
metrics on your blog all for free. It requires you to do a bit of tricky
cutting and pasting to add certain code to your blog, but it is totally worth
it to do it early so you'll have metrics from the first days of your blog to
compare to and see how far you have come. 5. Create an editorial calendar. Some
football coaches head into games scripting out their first 10 plays as part of
their gameplan. You should do the same. Figure out the topics for your first
ten posts, and then write them steadily. Not only does this get you thinking
ahead, it also gives you a sense of how many posts per week you can
realistically write.
Powerful article
in The Stranger from last week. I think the writer has some really, really good
points, a couple of not great points, but an interesting conversation starter.
And what a
conversation starter. I love the comments. Lizz Leiser commented:
And do you know what YOU can do, Seattle Stranger? LIST SHOWS. List auditions. Encourage your
theatre community to use your paper as a resource.
In
Chicago the independent theatre community is some of the best in the country
because the Chicago
Reader- the free paper-lists and supports all the every last performance.
When I lived in Portland it was an uphill
struggle to get the Mercury to list our shows. When the Mercury listed us-
people came and supported us, and gave us money to make more shows. When they didn't
list us, or only listed us a few weeks- nothing.
If you ran a
"Top 5 Plays to See" pick to every week- those theatre would
flourish.
Without media support there can be no "Fringe" scene- the small theatres who take the chances don't have the PR budget- they count on the local papers for free listings to get house.
Since you care
enough to write this true & excellent article, one I plan on passing
around the theatre community here in NYC- you can take a look at how you as a
paper promote your independent theatre community.
Ten Things
Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves In No Particular Order
by BRENDAN KILEY
1. Enough with
the goddamned Shakespeare already. The greatest playwright in history has
become your enabler and your crutch, the man you call when you're timid and out
of ideas. It's time for a five-year moratorium—no more high schoolers pecking
at Romeo and Juliet, no more NEA funding for Shakespeare in the heartland, and
no more fringe companies trying to ennoble themselves with Hamlet. (Or with
anything. Fringe theater shouldn't be in the game of ennobling, it should be in
the game of debasement.) Stretch yourself. Live a little. Find new, good, weird
plays nobody has heard of. Teach your audiences to want surprises, not
pacifiers.
2. Tell us
something we don't know. Every play in your season should be a premiere—a world
premiere, an American premiere, or at least a regional premiere. Everybody has
to help. Directors: Find a new play to help develop in the next 12 months.
Actors: Ditto. Playwrights: Quit developing your plays into the ground with
workshop after workshop after workshop—get them out there. Critics: Reward
theaters that risk new work by making a special effort to review them. Unions,
especially Actors' Equity: You are a problem. Fringe theaters are the
research-and-development wing of the theater world, the place where new work
happens—but most of them can't afford to go union, so union actors are stuck in
the regional theaters, which are skittish about new work and early-career
playwrights. You must break this deadlock by giving a pass to union actors to
work in nonunion houses, if they are working on new plays.
3. Produce
dirty, fast, and often. Fringe theaters: Recall that 20 years ago, in 1988, a
fringe company called Annex produced 27 plays, 16 of them world premieres—and
hang your heads in shame. This season, Annex will produce 10 plays, 4 of them
world premieres, which is still pretty good. Washington Ensemble Theatre will
only produce three plays, one of them a world premiere. (An adaptation of... Shakespeare!)What else happened in 1988? Nirvana began recording Bleach—and played a concert at Annex Theatre. By the next year, Nirvana was on their first world tour. The
lesson: Produce enough new plays and Kurt Cobain will come back from the grave
and play your theater.
4. Get them
young. Seattle
playwright Paul Mullin said it best in an e-mail last week: "Bring in
people under 60. Do whatever it takes. If you have to break your theater to get
young butts in seats, then do it. Because if you don't, your theater's already
broke—the snapping sound just hasn't reached your ears yet."
5.Offer child
care.Sunday school is the most successful guerrilla education program in
American history. Steal it. People with young children should be able to show
up and drop their kids off with some young actors in a rehearsal room for two
hours of theater games. The benefits: First, it will be easier to convince the
nouveau riche (many of whom have young children) to commit to season tickets.
Second, it will satisfy your education mission (and will be more fun, and
therefore more effective, for the kids). Third, it will teach children to go to
the theater regularly. And they'll look forward to the day they graduate to
sitting with the grown-ups. Getting dragged to the theater will shift from
punishment to reward.
6. Fight for
real estate. In 1999, musician Neko Case broke up with Seattle, leaving us for
Chicago. (It still hurts, Neko.) When asked why in an interview, she explained,
"Chicago is a lot friendlier, especially toward its artists. Seattle is
very unfriendly toward artists. There's no artists' housing—they really like to
use the arts community, but they don't like to put anything back into the arts
community." Our failure abides. Push government for cheap artists' housing
and hook up with CODAC, a committee that wants developers on Capitol Hill—and,
eventually, everywhere—to build affordable arts spaces into their new condos.
(CODAC's tools of persuasion: tax, zoning, and business incentives.)
Development smothers artists, who can't afford the rising property values that
they—by turning cheap neighborhoods into trendy arts districts—helped create.
To get involved with CODAC, e-mail frank.video@seattle.gov.
7. Build bars.
Alcohol is the only liquid on earth that functions as both lubricant and
bonding agent. Exploit it. Treat your plays like parties and your audience like
guests. Encourage them to come early, drink lots, and stay late. Even the
meanest fringe company can afford a tub full of ice and beer, and the state of
regional- theater bars is deplorable: long lines, overpriced drinks, and a
famine of comfortable chairs. Theaters try to "build community" with
postplay talkbacks and lectures and other versions of you've spent two hours
watching my play, now look at me some more! You want community? Give people a
place to sit, something to talk about (the play they just saw), and a bottle.
As a gesture of hospitality, offer people who want to quit at intermission a free
drink, so they can wait for their companions who are watching act two. Just
take care of people. They get drinks, you get money, everybody wins. Tax,
zoning, and liquor laws in your way? Change them or ignore them. Do what it
takes.
8. Boors' night
out. You know what else builds community? Audience participation, on the
audience's terms. For one performance of each show, invite the crowd to behave
like an Elizabethan or vaudeville audience: Sell cheap tickets, serve popcorn,
encourage people to boo, heckle, and shout out their favorite lines.
("Stella!") The sucky, facile Rocky Horror Picture Show only survives
because it's the only play people are encouraged to mess with. Steal the
gimmick.
9. Expect
poverty. Theater is a drowning man, and its unions—in their current state—are
anvils disguised as life preservers. Theater might drown without its unions,
but it will certainly drown with them. And actors have to jettison the
living-wage argument. Nobody deserves a living wage for having talent and a
mountain of grad-school debt. Sorry.
10. Drop out of
graduate school. Most of you students in MFA programs don't belong there—your
two or three years would be more profitable, financially and artistically, out
in the world, making theater. Drama departments are staffed by has-beens and
never-weres, artists who might be able to tell you something worthwhile about
the past, but not about the present, and certainly not about the future.
Historians excepted—art historians are great. If things don't turn around, they
may be the only ones left.
Full disclosure: I've never seen a show at Shakespeare Theatre Company. That said, I'm totally obsessed! As you know, if you spend any time at all reading this blog, I think the concept of an all-male R&J is hot. As you may also know, I think Shakespeare Theatre Company does an amazing job with their social media. Really top tier!
Now I find out that an old friend is in the show! Yeah! I'm so bummed that I won't get to see the production, but I love that I can still participate in some small way.
Why is the social media so great? Well, the interviews are great and I love the polls (i.e. Who is the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet?). The trailer is great, but most of all I loved the post that asked "What did you think". Transparency! Some loved it, some hated it, some just didn't get it. The fact that a conversation is happening is amazing! Don't underestimate that power!
Reading or watching Shakespeare can sometimes be confusing. Slang and popularly accepted meanings of words change so quickly that it’s hard to keep up, and anyone who watches a single scene of a Shakespearean play can attest to the language barrier. He may come off sounding stuffy, but Shakespeare actually wrote some pretty risqué things in his day. Here are some of the raciest lines, and their explanations, from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Come see the racy action for yourself at Sidney Harman Hall through October 12th!
Act 1 Scene 1 Sampson: 'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids- I will cut off their heads. Gregory: The heads of the maids? Sampson: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.
Explanation: Sampson is telling Gregory that he will cut the maids’ heads off or take their virginity.
Act 1 Scene 1 Benvolio: A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. Romeo: Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit, And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, From Love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd.
Explanation: In archery, a "fair mark" is one that's easy to hit. Benvolio is suggesting that because the lady is beautiful, she may be easy to win, and that Romeo is also good-looking, so that should help. Romeo replies that the lady cannot be hit "With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit.” "Dian" is Diana, the fierce goddess of chastity, so Romeo is saying that his lady is extremely chaste and won’t give in to his advances.
Act 1 Scene 3 Nurse: …And yet, I warrant, it bad upon it brow A bump as big as a young cock'rel's stone; A perilous knock; and it cried bitterly. 'Yea,' quoth my husband, 'fall'st upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age; Wilt thou not, Jule?' It stinted, and said 'Ay.'
Explanation: When she was a small child, Juliet fell down and had a huge bump on her head, and the nurse’s husband made a dirty joke to her, saying she falls on her face now, but she’ll fall backward (meaning “to have sex”) when she gets older. At the time, Juliet is too young to know that, so when she says "Ay" it's hilarious to the nurse.
Act 2 Scene 1 Mercutio: … I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes. By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us! Benvolio: An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. Mercutio: This cannot anger him. 'Twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle Of some strange nature, letting it there stand Till she had laid it and conjur'd it down. That were some spite; my invocation Is fair and honest: in his mistress' name, I conjure only but to raise up him. Benvolio: Come, he hath hid himself among these trees To be consorted with the humorous night. Blind is his love and best befits the dark. Mercutio: If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he sit under a medlar tree And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit As maids call medlars when they laugh alone. O, Romeo, that she were, O that she were An open et cetera, thou a pop'rin pear!
Explanation: "Demesnes" are estates, or domains, where a lord has the rights to hunt and plow, and such domains were commonly used as metaphors in erotic poetry. “Spirit” was slang for semen or the male genitalia, and "circle," "stand," and "laid" are all related double-entendres. Describing the spirit as "of some strange nature" is Mercutio's way of making the point that Romeo would get angry only if some stranger had sex with Rosaline before he did. A medlar is a small, brown-skinned, and round, but has a cleft like an apricot and a deep cup-shaped depression at the stem end. Also, it's only edible when it's half-rotten and starting to split open. Mercutio is saying that Romeo will sit under a medlar tree and wish that Rosaline would open up like a medlar. A "pop'rin pear" is a Flemish fruit that looks like it would fit nicely in the medlar's cup-shaped depression.
The Social Media Manifesto – Integrating Social Media into Marketing Communications
Click here to read this article in ThinkFree docs.
While I was preparing my presentation for “Starting the Conversation,” a social media workshop hosted by SocialMediaClub, I wound up drafting version one of the manifesto for helping marketers adapt to the rapidly evolving realm of social media.
In the past, I’ve spoken at PR, tech, and communications events about Social Media and how companies can engage in the conversations taking place with or without them. As much as I wanted to look into the future, I was rooted in the present as a means to connect it to the past. There are just too many new things to introduce to people and even more reasons why they should care.
The discussion usually centered on the tools enabling social media instead of analyzing the shift in how information is distributed. From there, the natural progression was to understand who would be responsible for these new strategies and how they would sell it to management.
There has been a fundamental shift in our culture and it has created a new landscape of influencers and an entirely new ecosystem for supporting the socialization of information – thus facilitating new conversations that can start locally, but have a global impact.
If you’re in the nonprofit world and haven’t yet taken advantage of the
online space, then this book is full of great ammunition for you to
take to your executives to persuade them that it’s the right thing to
do.
I'm going to read it ASAP and will let all you performing arts social media advocates know what the deal is. If you have read this book please let me know what you think. I have high hopes!
SHOWW with Arts =[visual+performing+writing+chatting+people-(pretense x fear)+daring+doodling x dreaming - hubris + cool licks -(isolationism/compartmentalization)]^social justice= manifestation + message= existence (+sweeeetness)
Students for How Our World Works with Arts is out to explore and to immerse ourselves in that dynamic intersection between the arts and social activism. Through fostering dialogue between students and performers who come to Memorial Hall to involving the campus in a collaborative art project every year, we are seeking ways to ENGAGE ourselves and our peers using the power of the arts and our passion for the issues.
This year, we are completely psyched to be focusing on The Gender Project, the Carolina Creative Campus program for this year.
For more information, please email: azhang@email.unc.edu
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