by Daria Steigman on April 27, 2009
I had the pleasure of speaking about social media to two PR classes at the University of Maryland last week. They’re smart students, and they’re just starting to explore social media. Almost all of them had Facebook pages, a few were on LinkedIn, a couple on MySpace, and a smattering had started to explore the Twitterverse.
I started our conversation by asking them one simple question: When was the last time you Googled your name?
It caught their attention (and apparently what they discovered really startled at least a couple of them). Plus it proved a good entry point for a discussion about why companies and individuals need to be monitoring their online reputations and engaging with their stakeholders.
If you haven’t Googled your name lately, go ahead. Then come back and tell me what the Web spiders have learned about you.
Tagged as:
Google,
LinkedIn,
Social Media,
Twitter,
University of Maryland,
Web spiders
by Daria Steigman on April 20, 2009
Why is everyone’s first instinct to think that Twitter is silly and self-indulgent? Admit it, you probably felt that way once–or still do.
I’ve been pondering the Twitter start-up barrier the last few days as I pull thoughts together for a conversation I’m having on Thursday with University of Maryland PR students. And, since I’m on Twitter, I’ve been chatting with a few people on the topic.
I got a lot of clarity from this brief back-and-forth with Mary Deming Barber:
@dariasteigman Thanks for the rec. I am really enjoying the conversation on Twitter since I started connecting w good folks. #followfriday
[from @mdbarber] 12:24 PM Apr 17th from Nambu in reply to dariasteigman
@mdbarber I think that’s why it’s hard for newbies to get started. You have to figure out who to interact with, build up your community.
[from @dariasteigman] 12:27 PM Apr 17th from TweetDeck in reply to mdbarber
@dariasteigman I agree. People look at the public timeline which makes no sense. Our job now is to show them how to build the community.
[from @mdbarber] 12:33 PM Apr 17th from Nambu in reply to dariasteigman
Eureka! We all start by looking at someone else’s timeline, filled with strangers having conversations that are disengaged from us. Obviously, we can’t build a “demo” community every time we need to explain Twitter to someone — but we need to be aware of the disconnect and take steps to demonstrate why our timelines work for us.
That’s my challenge for Thursday, and for every time I talk to a student, client, prospect, or friend who gives me a blank look or rolls their eyes at the mention of a tweet.
Any ideas? What steps do you take to decode the Twitterstream?
Tagged as:
Social Media,
Tweets,
Twitter,
Twitterstream,
University of Maryland
by Daria Steigman on April 14, 2009
When you run a business, it’s hard to give yourself a day off. But every once in a while you just need to come up with a good reason. This was mine.
Tagged as:
baseball,
Nationals Park,
Sports
by Daria Steigman on April 10, 2009
WHY should I join your network?
I’ve seen a number of so-called discussion questions on LinkedIn Groups lately that are are on the theme of “Open Networker — please link to me” and “I’m building out my network — please invite me to connect.” In none of these cases does the person tell me either what value they bring or what the rest of us might do to help them.
Whether you are looking for your next job or your next customer or client, please don’t be the person who hits on everyone indiscriminantly. It’s not a valued trait. Rather, understand what you bring to the table and why I might want to have a conversation with you. If you’re interesting to me, the connection will follow.
Tagged as:
Business,
Business Development,
LinkedIn
