Branding, Featured, Marketing, Social Media

Aug 5, 2009

Everyone wants to be an expert at something, and Alltop is a quick and easy tool to help you build that expertise.

“Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience.” Denis Waitley

Let’s take how I use Alltop for example. I’m a Product Manager by day, Marketing + Branding + Design + Social Media enthusiast by night. I can build out MyAlltop page to incorporate all the topics I like and the best blogs and authors for each topic. From there I have one centralized page that I can view from anywhere to brush up on new social media outlets or updates on applying the Pragmatic Marketing framework.

It is a simple concept, but is so well executed that it seems second nature. Google Reader is another great way to aggregate your favorite topics, but I keep Alltop focused on things that help me build my personal brand…which is what you should be doing too if you aren’t already.

The OMG-WTF Spectrum

Boris at TheNextWeb.com posted an awesome image from @armano. It is pretty self explanatory.

Twitter vs. Facebook: What you know vs. Who you know?

Thomas Crampton at Social Media Today conducted a very interesting study with the following deduction:

I think it is a very interesting concept that I tend to agree with. I follow mostly subject matter experts (SMEs) on Twitter with several of my “real life friends” (for lack of a better word) and mostly friends on Facebook. I don’t focus at all on thought leadership or building expertise on Facebook either which further supports this conclusion.

It is definitely worth reading!

Note: The study’s conclusions are from video links which isn’t entirely representative, but I do agree with the findings.

Social Media Practitioners: Your help is needed!

Help Social Media.

They say social media is dying. They say social media has too much publicity. They say nobody really knows what social media is. Is that what you say?

The Situation

If you haven’t heard, NC State has added a social media course to its MBA Curriculum. For those in the Raleigh area and the many @triangletweetup folks, this is great news! MBA 590 Social Networks and Web 2.0 Media in Marketing will serve as a trendsetting course exploring all things social media, virtual world, and Web 2.0.

The Kicker

I’ve worked with Claudia Kimbrough for years in various Marketing courses at NC State and am fortunate enough to be a Visiting Lecturer for this course. Having dipped my toes in social media, I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything. There are tons of subject matter experts, and even a large number within driving distance to the NCSU campuses. This leads me to my main point.

The Call to Action

With most of us having full-time jobs, massive amounts of responsibility, and priorities involving multiple departments in our organizations, social media has become a great personal branding outlet. You can show your expertise, offer insight, connect to others, and build your network. This is where we need your help.

Social media by nature is a living, breathing creature that is constantly evolving. We want to keep this course fresh, up to date, and balanced. This post is going to serve as a stake in the ground. I’m appealing to you, the social media practitioners to propose what you feel should be included in this course. It could be a number of things:

A core concept
A fundamental tool or product
An up and coming strategy
A social media network
Things to avoid doing or practicing
Tips for successful implementation

You are all smart people. Please help us continue to add value to this course by suggesting what you would like to see included. We may even call on some of you to join us in class for a session and impart your knowledge!

Trust is also important. I can assure you that anything you suggest will be credited to you. Whether it is in a course slideshow, or teaching a concept, we will make it a point to stress who suggested that “module” and help to increase your personal brand.

The fact that the course itself can be a social media outlet by having interactive content and suggestions is exciting. I hope that some of you find this as appealing as I do. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Please help and post your feedback or suggestions below.

Three Ways to Make the Next #TriangleTweetup THAT Much Better

Tweetup v2.5?

On April 30, 2009 I attended my first Tweetup, #TriangleTweetup 2.0 to be exact. I met some great people and had a good discussion with @raleighgrande @thorstenkessler and @WayneSutton as the Tweetup came to a close about Raleigh companies using social media and how that isn’t getting the pub it deserves, and also about the next Tweetup. I had a great time and the good folks behind the scene (and in front) at Triangle Tweetup have some great resources to make the first jump a bit easier. It was a very successful and productive event and being that Raleigh is becoming a hotbed for social media, below are 3 humble suggestions to make the next event even more productive. Note: I consider myself a “rubber meets the road” kind of person and will gladly volunteer to help in any way possible if needed.

1. Create a more open discussion forum

First off, @bronto is an incredible office with incredible people (thanks @covati for the great, informative tour). If you’re searching for a job, start checking their hirings because I know of several folks that would give an arm to work there. The only downside about the setup @bronto was that due to the excellent turnout, not everyone could sit in on the sessions. I carpooled with @raleighgrande @thorstenkessler who was a panelist and is doing some awesome things in the Raleigh area. At the same time, we talked about some of the struggles that come with social media: getting buy-in and support from executive management, building community support, raising awareness, collecting focus, finding the best way to discuss the ROI of social media, etc. The awesome thing about a Tweetup is the massive amount of knowledge in one place. As great as the event was, I feel that if it was in a venue that could seat everyone to create more of a panel discussion it could be even more productive and helpful.

e.g. Imagine 250 Twitter users in a theater @dpac (thanks @boraz) having an open discussion, asking for help, offering help, etc.

2. Brainstorm and Collaborate

Piggybacking on what I said previously, there are a lot of smart people at a Tweetup! I think it would be really cool to have a bit of time to just throw out ideas (similar to the pitches that existed at TT2.0) and even try to find the missing piece to your puzzle. There may be some sweet app that needs a better dev guy and there may be a dev guy looking for a sweet app to work on, bingo. Everyone was extremely approachable and laid back and I think having a Think Tank session could be an awesome thing.

3. Find Ways to Continue Putting Raleigh on the Map

A quick glance at Twitter Grader for the Raleigh area yields some powerful results: @pinkelephantpun, @waynesutton, @andybeal, @lruettimann, @dgtlpapercuts, @kbodnar32, @ginnyskal, @danlondon, @jtobin, @hayespotter, and @cammicam are just a few. NC State even has a graduate level course on social media, MBA 590 Social Media and Management (disclaimer: I am a visiting lecturer for this class for Claudia Kimbrough) and I would love to try to get even more folks involved in that class. There are endless companies using social media in the Triangle as well, from @Bronto, SAS (@davidbthomas), and IBM (@theRab), to slightly smaller scale efforts like @RaleighGrande, @Zencos, @SunTechMed.

Clearly, the Triangle is in safe hands when it comes to social media with the folks behind @TriangleTweetup and everyone who attended, and it is pretty cool to live in an area that I consider “ahead of the curve.” I hope that #TriangleTweetups continue and that they can keep growing and expanding into symposium type knowledge sharing events. Thanks to everyone for their hard work to make things like this happen, all the panelists, and @josh_hofer for the sweet photobooth! If you haven’t been to a Tweetup, make the plunge soon (and @covati, keep pushing forward with Pici.me…I think it can be awesome for Tweetups and other events). :)

More coverage:

Bronto Hosts Triangle Tweetup by @brontocaroline
Photobooth Pictures by @josh_hofer