Social media for professionals: Five common mistakes to avoid

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Posted by lauranicholas in Career, corporate communications, Personal branding, Social media

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branding, image, media, personal, professionals, social, tips

In the digital connected world, we are responsible for our professional images not just within the parameters of our real life interactions but online. This is more important now than ever as studies indicate recruiters and employers routinely screen job candidates online. Your colleagues and prospects are probably doing the same.

As part of my job, I help individuals learn how to use social media to define and manage their online professional reputations. Most people know what they need to do, but have not invested the time and ongoing effort to establish and nurture a good online image. I’ve found there are common mistakes being made that with a little extra effort and focus are easy to overcome. Here are five I see frequently that can detract from a professional image, along with ways to address them.

Not searching your name on a regular basis. How can you control your image if you don’t know what people see when they Google you? Google your name on a regular basis, start with once a month.
A poorly written bio. Take the time, or ask a good writer, to write a succinct, summary biography, aka personal branding statement. There are countless books and online resources to help you. I found this article nets it out well – 3 Steps to an Outstanding Personal Branding Statement.
An unprofessional photo. Aim for a good headshot that looks like you now, not 10 years ago. You should look professional and approachable.
Inconsistency. Strive for consistency across all of your web properties (Twitter, Blog, LinkedIn, company website, etc.). Use the same bio / summary paragraph and photo.
Setting up a Twitter account or blog and not posting to it. This is hard work. If you are not inclined to create content and engage with people through blogging or microblogging, then don’t do it.

The corporate intranet – Are you featuring your people enough?

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, corporate communications, Organizational communications, Uncategorized

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corporate communications, employee, intranet, organization

‘…because we’re primates with endlessly deep interest in each other…’ writes Lionel Tiger.

We have an innate interest in our fellow human beings. This is why Facebook is now a daily behavior for so many of us and has made Mark Zuckerberg the world’s richest primatologist, according to Lionel Tiger in a recent WSJ article.

The corporate intranet is still the mainstay for large organizational communications, albeit shrinking due to the advent of enterprise social media. Featuring real people and their individual stories and views is a great way to liven up the intranet storyline and generate goodwill across the organization, especially those with many virtual workers.

We recently launched two series that star employees which have taken off better than expected. The first, titled “Get to know” features an individual each week through a Q&A format where they respond to questions including “What was your first day at IBM like? and “Do you have any hidden talents?”. The other called “Perspectives” features a person who shares a unique work experience and what they learned.

These are easy to produce using a set interview template. Here’s the two we use for our series. You can modify them to suit the culture and message strategy for your organization.

Template-Get to know

Template-Perspectives

Our employees look forward to seeing their colleagues in the limelight. What other tactics have you used to weave the employee story into your communications strategy?

Powerful public speaking – How you say it is as important as what you say

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, corporate communications, Organizational communications, Presentation tips, Speaking tips

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corporate communications, preparation, presentation, speaking, speech, tips

February 3, 2012

“Pay attention to what I’m saying not how I’m saying it”, said Margaret Thatcher to one of her detractors after he accused her of being shrill and emotional. But style is as important as substance.

Margaret Thatcher

I saw The Iron Lady last night and was truly amazed by Meryl Streep’s performance as Margaret Thatcher and particularly inspired by the scenes where Streep was reenacting Thatcher’s speeches. The movie shows how Thatcher’s speaking style was carefully practiced to maximize the impact of her words. In particular, she was coached to lower the pitch of her voice and fine tune her physical presence. It’s an understatement to say Thatcher did turn out to be one of the most powerful woman speakers, and leaders, of our times.

What can we learn from this? We learn that carefully chosen words, spoken clearly and with conviction can inform, inspire and move people to action. We learn that we should spend as much time honing our delivery as creating our content. We do this by practicing in front of a friend, colleague or spouse and being open to suggestions. We should also pay careful attention to speakers who inspire us to get ideas how to take our skills to the next level.

Here are a few pointers I’ve picked up that have helped me along the way. I hope they help you too.

Stand up tall
Be calm
Use the ‘presidential pause’ for effect
Control the emotion in your voice
Control the cadence of your speech, not too fast or slow, but lively enough to hold attention

How do you prepare to make sure you perform your best?

What corporate communicators can learn from Presidential campaign messages

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications, Writing tips

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branding, communication, employee, messages, organization

Believe in America. Rebuild the America we love. The courage to fight for America. These are taglines for a few 2012 Presidential hopefuls.

What can we learn from these? They are emotional not intellectual pleas. We communicators know that to get buy in on any idea, you’ve got to speak to the heart not just mind. And we know a positive, actionable message motivates more deeply than a negative one.

This is vitally important in employee branding – messaging that encapsulates the organizational culture and what it means to work there. It serves to both retain and attract like-minded talent.

Screen grabs - Intuit, Bain and IBM

Here’s few companies that have powerful employee brand messages. Like candidates vying for votes, these brands know how to generate a positive emotional reaction and translate that into potential employees.

Bain – People. Passion. Results.
Google – Let’s work together.
IBM Global Business Services – Be part of something special.
REI – People really (really) like working at REI.
Intuit – Innovate. Connect. Grow.

Online blackouts protest US legislation to regulate Internet

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Posted by lauranicholas in Communications planning, Marketing, Public policy, Social media

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blackout, internet, legislation, pipa, regulation, sopa, us

Google blackout 18Jan2012

Major websites including Wikipedia, Google, Wired and Flickr are taking a stand today against anti-piracy legislation on the table in the US Senate- PROTECT IP Act (PIPA); and US House – Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

In short, the original intent of SOPA and PIPA is to stop people from illegally downloading TV shows and movies, (primarily from foreign web sites) but the language in the legislation is so broad, it could impact sites like this WordPress blog and many others including Wikipedia, Tumblr, Blogger, Flickr and Google.

I support this protest and believe that if made into law this legislation would disrupt free and open sharing of content. It puts power into the hands of the US Attorney General to police and shutdown sites.

Wikipedia blackout 18Jan2012

I do support current US law, which will not shut down sites but require them to remove copyright-infringing content upon the request of copyright holders.

Measures by governments and big media to regulate the Internet need to be carefully crafted so that they do not damage free and open conversations and restrict online freedoms.

To learn more see - Sopa and Pipa anti-piracy bills controversy explained (BBC Online) and Protest on web uses shutdown to take on two piracy bills (NY Times).

Social media tools for business – Functional categorization

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Posted by lauranicholas in Communications planning, Marketing, Social media

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business, categories, functions, media, social, tools

I recently went through an exercise with a team of digital media colleagues to describe social media tools a professional may encounter on the job. This is a part of a broader project to define what skills workers need to stay competitive in the digitally enabled workplace.

We categorized them based on what the tool is used for because with any social media effort, you first have to define goals, map out which activities will help you achieve those goals and select tools accordingly.

We came up with 14 categories coupled with examples of some of the most widely used tools in each category. Many tools cross over multiple categories so we did our best to slot it into its ‘main’ function.

We know social technologies are advancing rapidly along with new business applications. At this point in time, what do you think of our list? What would you add?

Social networking (Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Ning)

Private social networking/ enterprise social platforms (Microsoft Sharepoint, Yammer, IBM Lotus Connections, Adobe Connect, Basecamp, Jive, SocialCast)

Blogging (Blogger, Typepad, WordPress)

Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr)

Media sharing:
Video (YouTube, Vimeo)
Audio (Soundcloud, Audioboo, iTunes)
Photos (Flicker, Instragram, DeviantART, Posterous)
Documents (Google docs, SlideShare, Issu)
Multimedia (Tumblr, Posterous)

News/ Bookmarking/ Content Aggregators/ RSS Feeds (Delicious, Digg, Stumbleupon, Quora, Reddit, Slashdot, Feedburner, Technorati, Google Alerts, Google Reader)

Social media productivity tools (Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Evernote)

Social Q&A/ Customer reviews/ Forums/ Surveys (Answers.com, Yahoo Answers, Quora, Zaga, Yelp, Angies List, Survey Monkey, Doodle)

Geo Location (FourSquare, Oink)
Social living/ E Commerce (Living Social, Groupon, Meetup.com, EBay, Etsy, Virb, Cafepress)

Livecasting/ Online conferencing (WebMeeting, GoToMeeting, Skype, UStream.tv, QIK.com, Livestream.com)

Email campaigns/ Marketing (MailChimp, Constant Contact, Vertical Response)
Social media monitoring/Analytics (Radian6, Google Analytics, Klout, Grader.com)

Wikis (PBWorks, MediaWiki, Wikispaces, SocialText, WetPaint)

Snow, power outages, Facebook and Twitter: Utilities go social to reassure customers

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Posted by lauranicholas in Customer service, Social media

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2011, customer, media, october, public, safety, service, snowstorm, social

“Thank God for my i-phone, it was the only contact with the outside world” said one of my siblings still in the dark after the Northeast snowstorm last weekend. With power and phone lines still laying twisted in the ruins of snow covered trees all over Massachusetts and Connecticut, utilities are using Facebook posts and tweets to keep their customers informed and safe.

Beyond customer service

Besides good customer service, social media helped ensure public safety during the height of the storm, warning people not to go near downed trees with potentially live wires hidden beneath the deep snow and to receive and respond to reports of outages.

Westfield Gas and Electric is posting repair activity information on their Facebook page, providing up to the minute detail on which streets they are working on and responding quickly to the inquires of frustrated customers.

Connecticut Light and Power is doing the same with their Twitter feed.

Social media and public safety

Social media is widely used for customer service but is in its nascent stages in public safety. I think we will see more and more utilities, organizations, law enforcement agencies and local governments begin to use this channel to serve and protect their citizenry.

The Connecticut and Massachusetts utilities’ social media efforts in the wake of this early snowstorm are a nice example of serving customers well and looking out for their well being.

Making your point with profanity – Does it really work?

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Marketing, Organizational communications, Social media, Writing tips

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business, effective, language, profanity, writing

Colorful language in the workplace is nothing new but business books titled with profanity? A product of increasingly casual in-the-moment communication styles possible with mobile and social technologies? Or the urge to be ‘distinguished’ in a crowded market?

I’ve been getting bombarded with ads for the new social media how to: No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media .

Profanity in the spoken word can sometimes be effective when used judiciously by a respected person — with the right audience – to make a point. But the written word? I think it’s a lazy cop-out for weak language skills and when used to title a professional book, diminishes the credibility of the author and message therein.

Is this the best way to sell ideas to highly educated, professional market? But then the title did get my attention. What do you think?

Hurricane Irene – Lessons for communicators

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Posted by lauranicholas in Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications, Social media, Writing tips

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communications, irene, trust

Hurricane Irene aftermath, Pennsylvania

There was a sizable disconnect between what the media was reporting about Hurricane Irene and what the official national hurricane center forecast was (who all along predicted the storm would weaken). Did the weather channel the worse offender lose any credibility? Will people believe what they hear from them the next time? Will they go someplace else to get better information?

In this era of building community around communications, trust is paramount. Are we compromising it in the quest to grab readers, viewers, likes, shares and retweets? I’ve seen one too many headlines that overpromise and underdeliver. There’s got to be a better balance between reality and creativity so that we do what we are supposed to as professional communicators.

Writer’s block? Create a blogging bank so you never run out of ideas

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Posted by lauranicholas in Communications planning, Social media, Writing tips

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bank, blog, blogging, calendar, editorial, ideas, tips, writer's block

Is it ok to go dark every once in a while online? We all need a break and disconnecting can be a form of much needed renewal. So after my 2 month blogging break, I’m now inspired and resolved to follow Tom Pick’s Seven tips to a healthy blog. Of course, the first, and yes most important, is to Post Regularly. Ha, easier said than done.

Saving for your (blog’s) future

I’ve found my blogging shortfall is capturing and organizing ideas. I have an editorial calendar, but find it too constraining. I needed a way to add discipline to the creative process while sticking to my main themes. So I created a Blogging Bank. I don’t know who coined the term (no pun intended) but it’s a great idea.

A Blogging Bank is a place where you spontaneously dump your fabulous creative ideas as they happen. You then periodically survey this random list of thoughts and look for common threads and ideas that can be built out into an interesting piece. You can even organize them into an editorial calendar.

This is an incredibly simple task, but you need to get into the habit of making regular deposits. Here’s how I created my bank account:

I set up a folder on my desktop
I stuck an MS Word file there. It has a table with 3 columns– Main Idea, Theme, Stuff. The Stuff column contains urls, images, quotes, and in some cases rudimentary writing or an intro.
I also dump images, presentation decks and other inspiring raw materials into this folder.

A lot of my aha moments are when I’m away from the keyboard, so I use my voice notes recorder on my SmartPhone to capture for later depositing. Social bookmarking is also valuable, I use StumbleUpon.

If you are blogging for your company, read Jeremy Victor’s 18 Hot topics for B2B blogs first, and create separate ‘accounts’ for each Topic.

How to you keep track of and harness your creativity?

Four reasons why it’s worth your time to comment on blogs

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Posted by lauranicholas in Career, Social media, Uncategorized, Writing tips

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best practices, blog, blogs, comments, getting, started, writing

Want to blog but don’t know where to start? Get over the learning curve by first commenting on others’ blog posts. This is a good use of your time and not only to sharpen your writing skills. Taking the time to write comments to blog posts is worth the effort. When you post a comment under your name, you create a proofpoint for your personal brand which demonstrates and validates:

1. your knowledge

2. your ability to think critically

3. your skill at crafting a convincing viewpoint

4. your willingness to share and add value

Here’s a step by step to launch this activity:

1. Subscribe to a few blogs written by reputable leaders and thinkers in your field and read them on a regular basis.

2. Keep in mind what you are working on or content that you have recently wrote that can be used to craft a blog comment.

3. Commit to posting a comment as least once / week or more if you read something you can add valuable insight to.

To manage and control comments under your name, think about using a blog commenting system. I use Disgus Profile. It’s worth doing because it allows you to authenticate yourself when commenting thereby enabling you to ‘lay claim’ to anything you took the time to write. You can also manage comments (search, edit, delete etc) at any time.

Any comments?

Three digital marketing resolutions you must make for the new year

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Posted by lauranicholas in Communications planning, Marketing, SEO and web analytics, Social media, Uncategorized, Writing tips

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brand, communications, digital, integrate, marketing, media, seo, social, writing

You’ve got compelling content, a blog, a few Twitter handles and a Facebook fan page. Done. Well, not so fast.

Are you sure your content is optimized for search? Have you empowered your own employees with social media? Have you integrated a social element in all of your marketing and PR activities?

To get more power and reach out of your digital marketing activities, make a commitment to integrate and further institutionalize social media across all external communications programs. Begin with these three resolutions:

1. Create a social culture

Make employees brand ambassadors. Get better at syndicating content across all of your social properties and empower employees to link, share and start the dialogue. Have leaders lead by example and hold brand and marketing managers accountable for driving the socialization of content.

2. Optimize for search

Do your writers and editors understand SEO? Do they know how to craft a headline, write, and organize content so that it ranks well in search. Require all writers and editors, including contract ones, to complete writing for SEO and search engine marketing training.

3. Repurpose

You don’t have to write a blog entry from scratch every time. Slice up the big study your company just published and create an engaging series. Summarize and link to bylines authored by employees, events, media mentions and create short posts to publicize speaking engagements, linking to photos, audio and video.

Don’t stop here – read Pam Moore’s 2011 predictions why businesses will fail at social media and get to work.

Three important reasons why your company’s leaders should be using social media

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Posted by lauranicholas in Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications, Social media

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branding, corporate communications, leadership, marketing, social media

It’s not good enough for the leadership team to be visible simply inside the company anymore. They need to be known beyond company walls and the employee intranet. They do not need to become Twitter or blog celebrities but should be actively engaged on appropriate social channels that reinforce their professional reputation and that of the company. Here’s why:

1. Branding – Leaders support and cultivate the corporate culture. They represent why the company is a great place to work.

2. Employee engagement – Today’s workplace extends well beyond office boundaries. Social networks enable human interactions essential for a successful global workforce. If employees are more connected to what their leaders are saying, they will be more committed.

3. Attracting business and talent – Social media enables leaders to expand their reach. A larger sphere of influence enables them to tap into and attract a wider talent pool, uncover new sales opportunities and forge additional business partnerships.

The easiest way to start is to build a good LinkedIn presence. From here, leaders can guest post on a company blog, participate in LinkedIn Group discussions, share their thoughts by commenting on blogs in their field and even consider setting up their own Twitter account or blog.

Leaders can’t sit back anymore. They should not only listen to what is being said about their company online, but need to be seeding and participating in the discussion themselves.

Back to basics, part 1: Rock-star presentations

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications, Presentation tips

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attract, communicating, effective, powerpoint, presentations, results, tips, writing

Courtesy of guzer.com

The Back to Basics series provides proven advice for powerful business communications.

How many meetings have you been to where speaker after speaker parades across the stage, happily clicking through slides with 8pt text, complex graphs and dumb quotes? Or even worse, reciting every word on the slide.

If you are in the business of public speaking or preparing content, some up front planning and what I call ‘graphics restraint’ will go a long way. It doesn’t matter if your audience is or 5 or 5,000. The same rules apply.

First, ask yourself, what is the one thing I want them to remember. You know, the ‘take-away’. From there, decide what three points you need to make to get them to remember this. Then, and only then, begin to build your story on the slides, following these four rules:

1. One idea per slide

People read ahead. Don’t spill the beans all at once. Build your story one idea at a time so you keep your audience engaged and message clear.

2. Simple graphics and pictures

You don’t want brain energy focused on figuring out what that weird line chart with 45 arrows pointing up, down, across and diagionally means. Better, use a large photo or simple chart, or some high impact text, in a large interesting font that conveys the idea.

3. Put speaker notes in their place

Do NOT put what you are going to say on the slide. The slide reinforces what you will say, not the other way around. Write down your notes separately and have them on hand to refer to.

4. Seamless from end to end

End, as you began, by re-stating the key idea.

A must read is Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick . This book will teach you how to craft and communicate ideas that are not only memorable but inspire the action you want.

What other tips would you add to the mix?

Back to basics, part 2: Amazing business writing in four easy steps

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications, Uncategorized, Writing tips

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better, business, effective, organizational, tips, writing

In this era of rapid fire, anyplace, anytime communications, creating engaging and easy-to-digest copy is imperative. This is within every business writer’s reach if you follow this 3-C mantra:

Concise — Clear — Compelling

You don’t have to be a famous author or blogger to achieve this. Just keep these points in mind and you’ll be amazed what you can create. And your readers will appreciate it too.

1. Write less. Use short, to the point sentences. If a phrase or word doesn’t contribute to the meaning, scratch it. Don’t qualify or explore every contingency. Make the point and move on.

2. Be active. Say it with conviction by using active voice — your subject is doing the action, eg. The shark bit off the surfer’s foot. Not – The surfer’s foot was bitten off by the shark.

3. Hear it. Read what you wrote aloud as the final test. If it sounds stiff or impersonal, rewrite. Use contractions, spell out acronyms and eliminate jargon and pretentious words to humanize your message. Remember you want to talk to not at your reader.

4. Make it scan-able. Use bulleted lists, bold text, call-outs and meaningful images to make key ideas jump OUT at your readers.

This is just a start. If you want a complete 30 day workout – check out Matthew Stibbes’ Better business Writing in 30 Days.

Is Twitter a big fat waste of time?

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Marketing, Organizational communications, Social media

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media, social, time, twitter, waste

Twitter doesn’t make you credible, or smarter. Some of the most popular and respected intellectual voices (and best selling authors) of our time are not active tweeters.

Malcom Gladwell (Outliers, Blink, etc) has 10 tweets and 15,000 followers. http://twitter.com/Malcgladwell
Seth Godin (Tribes, Linchpin, The Dip, etc) doesn’t really tweet, he uses Twitter as a push to his blog (and this is very smart). http://twitter.com/ThisIsSethsBlog
The Heath brothers (Made to Stick, Switch) have 13 tweets and 1,700 followers. http://twitter.com/heathbrothers

I like millions, tweeted over to the Twitter party a year ago (that’s how a lot of people describe it, ‘hey it’s like a cocktail party with all these cool conversations going on’). But shockingly, I found little value. So two weeks ago I decided to leave the party. (Well I did leave my handle there with a pointer to my blog and LinkedIn). Guess what? I’m still getting followers. And I’m even more informed and connected to the people and things I care about. Why? It’s called focus. I’m blocking out the noise, and focusing my brain capital on activities where I find value.

I’m still informed. I’m still learning. But I’m selective and don’t need an endless Twitter stream to keep me in the know. Sure there is a place for Twitter and I think the corporate accounts function well as newsfeeds. But for individuals (you know, real people), ask yourself, is this a good use of my time? What do I hope to get out of this? Should I be applying my talent and intellectual energy in other places?

Back to basics part 3: A communications plan template anyone can use

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications

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channels, communications, define, goals, marketing, organizational, plan

I’m working with a non-profit that needed a marketing communications plan. They’ve got decent visibility, a sound reputation, and a long history. But they were facing competitive and budgetary pressures and needed to expand awareness of their offering and attract more businesses to sponsor their work.

Here’s a snapshot of the 4 step process we went through to define a plan. It lays out in question format, how we defined goals, who we needed to communicate with, what messages we needed to transmit and how we could best distribute those messages.

You can take this and apply it to any communications campaign or activity and use it to develop a work plan, assign responsibilities and allocate budget.

Laying out the plan

1. Define Goals

What are the desired outcomes? Is it to create awareness? Broaden the reach of our message? Spur people to take action?

2. Define Target Audience

Who do we want to reach? Do we know what they care about? Does their age or gender matter? Where are they located?

3. Create Key Messages

What do we need our audience to know? How can we say it so that it is understandable and motivates them to do what we want them to do?

4. Select Channels

Where is the best place to reach our audience? Do we know where they go for information and how they consume it? Are they mobile and tech savvy? Are they on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? Do they read blogs? Do they watch TV or listen to the radio? Do they prefer print? Are there events where we can engage with them?

Learning from and refining the plan

Evaluating what we did will complete the planning cycle. This will help us understand the effectiveness of our campaign and if it did in fact help achieve intended goals. This is an ongoing process so that tactics can be assessed and fine tuned to achieve desired outcomes.

What else would you add to the planning process?

Is your message getting through?

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Posted by lauranicholas in Back to basics, Communications planning, Marketing, Organizational communications, Writing tips

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communications' planning, key messages, tips, writing

You’ve seem them — the Recession 101 billboards. The Outdoor Advertising Association’s inspirational campaign to get people to stop worrying about our dreadful economy.

These snappy messages are attention grabbing. But attention isn’t enough. A good message has to be something your audience can relate to — personally. Bill Gates starting his company in a recession? Come on.

So a quick lesson for communicators in organizations large and small. Make it personal. Don’t talk in abstract terms about millions in market opportunities over the next 10 years or transformative strategies that position the company for future growth.

Know your audience and decide what you want to accomplish. Then say it so it’s meaningful, something they can actually take action on or relate to in their role. That $20 million market opportunity has more meaning to a sales exec when you say they can close 10% more in sales this year.

Digital branding — Marketing can’t do it alone

17 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in Marketing, Social media

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brand, communication, digital, management, marketing, media, social, tips

It’s true in most enterprises that marketing leads social web communications efforts. This doesn’t mean everyone else is off the hook. For digital branding efforts to be truly successful, each person in the enterprise needs to play their part.

Seed, lead and spread

Marketing managers create the digital brand and then seed dissemination of brand messages and digital assets. But they also need to socialize content beyond corporate managed web properties. As digital brand creators and curators, marketing managers need to issue a call-to-action asking leaders, employees and other influencers to link, comment, and promote on the social channels they personally own.

I like to think of three digital brand management roles – creator, leader and evangelist. Yes, overlapping roles, but with some distinct responsibilities:

Marketing managers are digital brand creators

They act as facilitator and curator of digital assets.
They plan, integrate and lead dissemination of digital assets.
They seed the online conversation.

Managers are digital brand leaders

They inspire their teams to use social media.
They issue calls to action on new content.
They lead the online conversation.

Employees are digital brand evangelists

They participate in social media.
They link to, comment on and share content.
They spread the conversation.

How does your organization handle digital brand management? Are you getting people involved outside of marketing?

Explore more about social media marketing at Chris Koch’s B2B Marketing Blog , Forrester’s Interactive Marketing Blog and SEOmoz’s Social Media Markting Guide.

Social media rookies – Find your online voice

10 Monday May 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in Social media

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Social media enables online conversations, in many cases conversations with those you might otherwise never meet. As in any conversation you listen and you talk.

Regardless of the platform — Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blog, online community – this is a human conversation, so you will:

Listen – read the posts of other people
Share – content and links you find valuable
Talk – post original content
React – reply to other’s posts
Connect one-to-one – send an email or direct message

Ice-breakers

You can start and participate in conversations on social networking platforms in many different ways. As in any conversation, the bottomline is to be yourself and find the right tone to engage with people you find interesting. If you are trying to find your online voice, here’s four easy ways to break the ice and join the discussion:

Share information. One of the easiest ways to join the conversation is to share content you find intestreing. You can post a link to an article, news story, blog post, video, or on Twitter, re-tweet another’s post. Always add a personal comment up front to position the information for your readers.
Offer advice. Publish helpful tips, facts and ideas. This can link to a thought leadership piece your company published, or an article by an author you admire.
Ask a question. A natural conversation starter is a question. Craft questions that are engaging and on topic with your followers. When followers reply, reply back.
Answer others’ posts. Another easy way to converse online is to respond to others’ posts. You don’t necessarily need a question to answer. If something inspires you, let the author know. Post comments on blogs, start and join discussions on LinkedIn Groups, and reply to tweets on Twitter.

For more, don’t miss: CIO.com’s LinkedIn- Increase your presence with network updates, Social Media Today’s 12 tips to engage people on Twitter and BlogHers Twitter best practices.

Liven up your personal brand – 3 steps to a powerful LinkedIn

21 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in Career, Social media

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advice, brand, Career, linkedin, personal, powerful, tips

Do you look like a dud, or a star? If your LinkedIn has a long, boring profile, 10 contacts, and no Group activities, then you are missing out on a prime opportunity to showcase your professional self. You could in fact be inflicting damage to your own personal brand.

The foundation of your personal digital brand is LinkedIn. Follow the steps below to establish a powerful LinkedIn presence. To get the most out of LinkedIn spend time every week to update your status, add contacts, recommend colleagues and contribute to Group discussions.

For more about personal branding read Dan Schwabel’s PersonalBranding Blog. For additional LinkedIn tips go to Mashable’s How to get more out of LinkedIn.

1. Make your Profile stand out

- Photo: upload a professional, recent picture of yourself.

- Summary: write a professional bio in first person. Make it conversational, it is you telling someone else about what you do. Keep it short. Include your professional expertise, interests and current position.

- Experience: Add a list of previously held posts with a 1 sentence description. This is NOT a resume, keep it brief.

2. Generate a robust set of Contacts

- Search and find colleagues, friends, former classmates and business associates and invite them.

- Use the advanced Search to find individuals by business, school or location.

- You will see that active business professionals will have 100+ contacts.

3. Join Groups that support your interests and career

- Search and find Groups that match your interests and bio. These could be professional associations, universities attended, former employers, and topical interest groups.

- Monitor and participate in Group Discussions to stay informed, find topics for conversation starters and create visibility and interest in your point of view.

Evolve or become extinct – Survival skills for business communicators

13 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in Career

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

building, business, communications, content, management, profession, skills, writer

Corporate writers and business communicators take note — with the rapid rise of digital communications and social media, your profession has changed forever. Your ability to write compelling prose no longer cuts it. You need to grow and nurture web and social media skills to avoid extinction, or risk turning your job over to a web-twitter-blog-facebook savvy communicator.

Could you compete for this job?
A recent post for a corporate writer position listed these requirements:
- Strong written, verbal, organizational and interpersonal communication skills.
- HTML savvy, excellent web-writing skills, and knowledge of content management systems.
- Knowledge of web usability standards and practices.
- Ability to write SEO optimized web pages.
- Solid understanding of social media tools and techniques.

Get smart
Here’s 3 simple ways to begin honing new skills:
1. Make social media part of your life. Participate on Facebook and LinkedIn. Learn about Twitter and launch an account.
2. Learn SEO. See SEOMOZ blog and Search Engine College.
3. Seek projects where you can learn. Volunteer for the usability test of the new CMS system; propose creative ways to use social media tools internally, and pay attention to how your company is using social media in marketing efforts.

New to Twitter? 6 ways to tame the Twitter beast

12 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in Social media

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

beginners, control, how, manage, schedule, tips, to, twitter

For new Twitter users, the medium can be an overwhelming stream of ideas and news, in addition to the pressure to populate your feed with good content. Keep in mind you do not need to read everything that comes into your Twitter feed. However, to have a credible and valuable presence, you must be engaged on a regular basis. Yes, this means pretty much every day. This means you need to read, reply, tweet and retweet, but not all of these every day.

To get the beast under control and establish a good Twitter habit, try the framework below. It is not cast in concrete, but does cover how you can effectively use Twitter to share ideas, generate interest in your point of view, and engage other influential people. For business users, the promise is to expand your reach to uncover additional business opportunities and to build your personal brand.

Caution for ultra-beginners, read Twitips – 10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners, and then come back.

Monday: What do you think?
Ask followers a question related to your work, industry or a content you or your company recently published.
Tuesday: Tip of the week
Offer a tip that adds value to the Twitter community.
Wednesday: Retweet
Twitter is not only about broadcasting your content. You add true value when you share valuable insights and ideas from others through retweeting and linking.
Thursday: Engage followers
Select a tweet that resonates with you and post a reply to it.
Friday: FollowFriday
On Fridays, it’s popular to use the #ff or #followfriday hashtag to endorse other Twitter users. Again the idea is to share and spread valuable ideas to your followers.
Saturday and Sunday: It’s the weekend and I have a life
Try a non-business tweet on Saturday or Sunday, something interesting from your travels, a hobby, a favorite restaurant. But, be sure to stay clear of politics.

For new and experienced Twitter users - keep Mashable’s Twitter Guidebook at hand. It is by far the best resource out there.

SEO: Not just for techies, what every good writer should know

26 Friday Feb 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in SEO and web analytics, Writing tips

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

copywriters, copywriting, engine, for, how, optimization, search, seo, tips, to, writers

Are you writing with SEO – Search Engine Optimization – in mind? Or simply said, will readers be able to find your blog post, web page, press release, or article? They will, as long as you prime the search pump so that what you published actually shows up in a web search.

There’s blogs and books and websites dedicated to the science and art of SEO. Never mind, specialized software and plugins you can buy to do on the spot SEO page analysis. As a copy writer you need to know SEO and you can start by understanding what I think are the 3 golden rules. This is only a start to get you in the right mindset. Search algorithms are continuously evolving with the rapid evolution of the social web. Read more below and better yet, take one of the online tutorials.

The 3 golden rules

1. Title

This one’s simple, put keywords in your title and keep it short. Google currently displays 65 characters of the title. So think about what your title will look like in search results and make sure it is compelling enough for people to click. Follow these title tips.

2. Keyword frequency

The number of times a target word is found on a page impacts where your piece shows up in search rankings. Don’t stuff your piece with keywords, but make sure you pepper your writing with them to optimize search ranking.

3. Page links

Search engines pick up whether your page is connecting to related content. After all, that is the purpose of the web. Find trusted content and create well written descriptive anchor links.

Learn, learn, learn ….

Really good tutuorials

Tips and more tips

Tuesday Tips – Don’t get bitten by bad prose

16 Tuesday Feb 2010

Posted by lauranicholas in Writing tips

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

attract, copy, liven, readers, tips, up, writing

You spent precious time crafting your post. Now, how on earth do you get people to actually read it? And better yet, pass it along. Keep in mind it’s all about rewarding the reader who has given you a few minutes of their precious time. With the rapid fire pace of online communications, you’ve got to liven up your style and produce entertaining, useful, and easy-to-digest copy. If your writing needs a complete tune-up read Jason Cohen’s How to create magnetic copy. Or, follow this fast path to quickly polish your prose.

1. Write less – sure your writing is good, but even better when I can understand what you are saying with a quick scan. Use short sentences and follow #2.

2. Get to the point – save your manners and say what you think. Don’t qualify or explore every contingency. Make your point and move on.

3. Use active voice – eliminate weak words and make sure your subject is doing the action. “The surfer’s foot was bitten off by the shark.” Or “The shark bit off the surfer’s foot.” You get the point.

The Corporate Communicator

~ Observations, inspirations and advice

The corporate intranet – Are you featuring your people enough?

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Powerful public speaking – How you say it is as important as what you say

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What corporate communicators can learn from Presidential campaign messages

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Back to basics, part 1: Rock-star presentations

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1. One idea per slide

2. Simple graphics and pictures

3. Put speaker notes in their place

4. Seamless from end to end

Back to basics, part 2: Amazing business writing in four easy steps

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More from Back to basics:

Back to basics part 3: A communications plan template anyone can use