Monthly Archives: February 2009

RSS

Leave a reply

What Is RSS?

Often represented by the orange icon below, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a popular format for delivering regularly changing web content, such as blogs or news sites. (For the record, Atom is another syndication format that functions very similarly to RSS.)

How Can I Use RSS Feeds?

You should first choose an RSS reader (sometimes called a feed reader or aggregator). RSS readers regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space. Think of it as your own digital newspaper, customized to your interests. Take a look around at the different feed readers available and decide which one you like best. Some popular ones:

These are just a few of the web-based RSS readers available. There are also feed readers that can be downloaded to your computer or cell phone. Mashable offers a very comprehensive list of all feed readers.

Once you have chosen a feed reader, you will able to find sites that offer syndicated content and add their RSS feed to your list of feeds. Look for the RSS icon or a text link that says something along the lines of “Subscribe” or “RSS” or “Atom.” After subscribing to a few feeds, when you visit your feed reader, you will be able to view the newest content for the sites you have subscribed to.

For example, here is an example of what my Google Reader looks like:

Kristen's Google Reader

Still Confused?

Watch RSS in Plain English.

Generating Buzz

Leave a reply

What is Buzz?

  • Word of mouth
  • Tell a friend
  • Viral marketing

The source has to be reliable and authoritative, and the message must be authentic.

Proven fact: blog posts with lots of comments get more comments. Digg submissions with a high Digg count (combined with a catchy headline and summary) get Dugg before the content is viewed (even if the content is never viewed).

The Cost of Creating Buzz

  • Tools are cheap, but the return on investment requires significant time because of the need to build trust and relationships. An hour per day for at least six months of cultivation is required.
  • Heartfelt and sincere appeals can work just as effectively as the wildly popular humorous ones.
  • Begin by building relationships first before asking or appealing for anything.
  • Be a good member of your community by promoting the work of others as much as you do your own. You don’t want to appear as a spammer who only talks about his/her latest posts or site content.
  • Just like around the water cooler, memes or themes will develop in online communities.

Remember: Being awesome is the best way to SEEM awesome. The cool factor cannot be underestimated when building buzz.

Tools

  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • FriendFeed

Things to Consider

  • Why are you using it?
  • Who will use it?
  • How will you know you are succeeding?

Set up your accounts to reflect the answers to these questions.

Twitter

Meet people – Have conversations – Make it easy
Listening is a big part of creating buzz.

Twitter Tools

TwitterFeed
Tweetscan
TweetStats

StumbleUpon

Watch me, watch what I like, and recommend new content for me.
Rate your favorite pages, StumbleUpon will recommend similar content it thinks you will like.
Make friends, be consistent, generosity rules.

Digg

News aggregator, much bigger community than StumbleUpon.

Workshop Day 2

Leave a reply

Strategy Map

  • Make videos more humorous, shareable, useful
  • Facilitate the content for them — mobile phones FLIP cameras, extranaires (volunteer by your phone service), mobileactive.org
  • Continued listening offers value:
    • Internal value
    • relationship building
    • indentifies influencers
    • incremental campaign improvements

Social Media Strategy: First Draft

2 Replies
  • Form an action group of those on campus (staff, faculty, students!) interested in Twitter and other social media
  • Hold a Twitter sandbox
    • Show how easy it is; how little time it takes
    • Showcase tools to make it even easier: TweetDeck, twhirl, Firefox extensions
  • Ask folks who are active on Yammer to consider posting on Twitter
  • Encourage these new Twitterers to tweet about work projects but also their personal interests — these Twitter accounts need personality and a face behind them
  • Emphasize the need to follow others: find counterparts at other higher ed institutions, people with similar personal interests, anyone you find interesting
  • Stress importance of having conversations on Twitter
    • If someone has a question about obtaining a visa, and you are qualified to answer — go for it! Link them to the video you made or the blog post you wrote!
    • Your conversations don’t directly have to benefit MIIS; they can establish your credibility and help craft your digital personality/identity.
  • Listen to Twitter chatter: assign people specific listening areas/terms that are relevant to them and have them monitor conversations regarding these topics
  • Use Google Alerts/Twitter Search
    • Possible search terms: MBA, Monterey, policy, MIIS, Monterey Institute, translation, interpretation, translate, interpret, language, language teaching, language education, localization management, TESOL, grad school, financial aid, visas
  • By summer, brainstorm goals and tactical approaches
  • Determine which tool(s) best suit what we want to accomplish
  • Develop standard operating procedure for the Twitter team
  • Audience: 2010 enrollment targets(?)

Workshop Day 1

Leave a reply

What Is Social Media?

Wordle of WeAreMedia participant burning questions:


Using the Internet to collaborate, share information, and have a conversation about ideas and causes we care about. The conversation is not controlled, not organized, and not on message.

The use of social media is growing, but not everyone is a social media user.

Right now, social media might be considered disruptive technology. Social media won’t be disruptive technology for long because disruptive technology is constantly evolving (PCs were once considered disruptive technology!).

New term

Online social graph: the map being constructed by social networking sites of every person on the Internet and how they are connected.

What’s the Benefit?


Spreading awareness, creating a community, creating a presence, getting other people involved, virality, empowering an audience, learning about your audience, telling your story

The Limitations?

While it is useful, social media is not a life raft. Our main website also needs to be a strong, carefully crafted presence.

However, the main website also needs to play well with social media sites. That means not just the platform but the process and people for updating it. In the era of social media an effective website must be dynamic and “carefully crafted” must not imply static or slow moving. Embedding media, cross-promoting MIIS social media sites, and aggregating news from MIIS blogs must be part of the DNA of miis.edu in order to achieve the maximum benefit from our social media efforts.

Our online presence is an untapped arena of community, participation, and functionality that can better serve the MIIS community. We should use online media to represent ourselves to the world and share the stories of the Institute.

Types of bogs
-institutional blog
-aggregates content
-specialized content
-personality

Flipping the Funnel by Seth Godin

We Need Strategy!

Fears About Social Media

  • Loss of control over branding and messages
  • Negative comments
  • Addressing personality versus organizational voice
  • Fear of failure
  • Perception of wasted time and resources
  • Suffering from information overload already, this will cause more

We need to turn these concerns around. Education and demonstration helps.

Measurement

American Red Cross method

  • pick a project that won’t take much time
  • write down successes
  • write down challenges
  • determine what worked and what didn’t
  • watch other nonprofits and copy & remix for your next project

Tactical Approaches and Tools

Listen

Who is already blogging in our area of interest? What are they saying? Know what is being said online about your organization and your field. Listening leads to participation.
Corresponding tools: RSS feeds, Google Alerts, Technorati, Twitter, Radian6

Participate

Share content: Share your story and allow the rest of our community to share their stories as well. Who will respond and in what circumstances? How will we address negative comments? What is the GOAL of our participation? How are we engaging people and encouraging content creation?
Corresponding tools: Backtype, Twitter

Generate Buzz

Community building & social networking: How can we connect the members of our community?
Corresponding tools: de.li.cious, digg, StumbleUpon, friendfeed, utterli, Twitter

Community Building & Social Networking

How will MIIS represent itself on social networks?

Introducing New Media to Key Decision-Makers

Leave a reply

Assigned Reading

Definition of Social Media by Liz Strauss
A Primer on Social Media by Jocelyn Harmon
Is Web 2.0 Software You Purchase from Microsoft and other Stupid Questions You Might Be Afraid to Ask by Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog

Reflection

The concept of social media may be relatively new to key decision-makers at MIIS. Rob and I must consider how we will introduce Twitter and explain why becoming part of the Twitterverse is so important.

Explaining Twitter to those unacquainted with the service is no easy task. Since microblogging is still relatively new, it is often misunderstood by those who are tech-savvy. I would compare Twitter to a blog, but also stress the fact that each “entry” is limited to 140 characters. These Twitter updates (or “tweets”) are much shorter than a normal blog entry; therefore, it will take much less time to prepare and update Twitter than to maintain a normal blog.

I would begin by showing examples of how other higher ed institutions are using Twitter:

Twitter can be used in many different ways, so we should have an audience/focus in mind before we present our idea to the key decision-makers. Because the Monterey Institute is so small, I think it would be wise to begin with only one Twitter account (as opposed to some schools who have a separate Twitter name for admissions, athletics, etc.).

Finally, we must show the decision-makers how easy it will be to implement. We will have to decide who will have access to the MIIS Twitter account (probably more than one person) and how often they will be responsible for posting. For those unfamiliar with Twitter, we can provide examples of appropriate tweets. Each tweet should serve a purpose (such as promoting an event, announcing a deadline change, introducing a new MIIS employee, and so on).

In order to be successful on Twitter, we will also need to keep track of who is tweeting about MIIS and follow up with them if needed (I especially believe this after reading Ten 10 Reasons to Monitor Twitter as a University or College). “Following” people who follow MIIS on Twitter will also increase our credibility and help expand our Twitter network.