Conferences

WordPress is extremely extensible due to the wide variety of plugins available

A few useful plugins:

• Feed WordPress allows you to incorporate other articles into your own blog using RSS
• WPTouch transforms your existing WordPress theme into a web-application experience when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch or Android touch mobile device.
• Daggone Sitemap Generator
• Simple Tags
• FAQ-Tastic
• Theme Test Drive allows you to test out new themes without activating it and showing it to all of your blog visitors

Cultural Expectations and Experiences

Participants/facilitators bring to the process of digital storytelling their cultural expectations of authority and ownership.

• Individual and collectivist approaches during production (and other cultural complexities)
• Student voice and identity (as both an individual and a representative of their family/culture)
• Being aware of issues in cross-cultural collaborations in story circles and peer review/feedback process

Imagined Audiences

Storytellers often imagine diverse audiences an anticipate responses to their stories involving diverse languages and cultures.

• Multiple audiences and diverse purposes & use of languages
• Participants as ambassadors for culture
• Participants as individuals moving between two cultures and in borderlands
• Cultural composition and readings of visual elements and soundscapes

Expectations of Power

Students’ and teachers’ educational expectations of curricular goals and student/teacher roles do not usually include sharing power.

• Who controls the elements of the content and the process? What should be learned and who should be teaching?
• Student-centeredness, creative production and the collaborative processes of storytelling in traditional classroom with various cultural expectations
• Assessing and evaluating DS work (evaluating completion of process but not always the product’s content, evaluating 7 elements, using audience response)
• How to structure in advance or decide in the moment when facilitators step in and drive

Stories Shown During Presentation

• ESOL Intercultural Communication Classes
• Somali Bantu Refugees’ Project Voice
• The Charlestown Project
• To view stories shown during the presentation, visit www.umbc.edu/stories

@steverubel, SVP/Director of Insight, Edelman Digital

Sites with no social interactivity component will soon be at a disadvantage.

Who should Twitter buy? Possible suggestions: FriendFeed, TweetDeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite/CoTweet, 37 Signals, Payment Solution, Bit.ly, Twittercounter. There is also the possibility of partnerships with NGOs, government, and social networks.

Twitter can/may make money on premium apps

There is NO threat to Twitter except

1. Facebook (maybe) and
2. Scaleability (probably not)

The only possible Twitter acquirers are Google and Microsoft. No one else.

Another important conclusion: Twitter as a sentiment engine.

Resource: awesome future of Twitter mindmap.

@anamitra, Project Management, Twitter

“The more commonplace it is to make a living from Twitter, the better it is for the platform.”

Engineering staff has been working through the night every weekend to fix stuff.
Dedicated to supporting the app community.

Twitter may soon have a paid version for businesses — accounts for individuals will still be free.

Twitter is like an onion: the more you peel, the more you find.

Speakers

• Richard Brewer-Hay, Chief Blogger, eBay (@ESBAle)
• Jeanette Gibson, Director of New Media, Cisco (@JeanetteG)
• Brian Solis, Principal, FutureWorks (@briansolis)

Do you need a corporate Twitter policy/strategy manual? YES. This manual should help people gain a sense of how to interact with the Twitter community that you create. Outline when a question or issue should be directed to another department. Discuss best practices as far as what to tweet, when to tweet, engaging your followers, etc.

Right now, when it comes to social media, there’s more action and jumping right in than strategy.

Compare Twitter/social media to bartending: the trick is to get workers to be enthusiastic and stay unique.

@shelisrael, author of Twitterville

Twitterville is about the marketing efficiency of social media.

@Armon & Danielle
Crowded home
Asked ‘hood for help
Raised $6500 in just a few days
Used a formula developed by Beth Kanter
Establishes a sense of urgency

@StaceyMonk & Mama Lucy
Tanzania
Guest blog
Tweetsgiving

@CasperODJ China Quake
Skype folks
Szechwan
1st Wstrn rprt

@jkrums & Flight 1549
Just wants to get to NJ
iPhone, TwitPic and tweet
MSNBC in 20 mins
Braided journalism

Speakers

• Beth Mansfield, PR Manager, Carl’s Jr. (@bethmansfield)
• Mike Prasad, Brand/New Media Director, Kogi BBQ (@mikeprasad)
• Stefanie Nelson, Marketing, Dell Outlet (@DellOutlet)

Measuring ROI

Tracking URLs (bit.ly) to track clickthroughs
Tracking RTs
If you talk about it, chances are other people will talk about it, too

Speakers

• MC Hammer (@mchammer)
• Stefanie Michaels, Adventure Girl (@adventuregirl)

Name recognition is a key factor (hence why Tweeps follow celebrities)
Sometimes, ghost writers may not be the most effective way to manage your Twitter account
MC Hammer on ghosting in Twitter: “If I’m suddenly accessible on Twitter, and it’s not me, that defeats the purpose.”

How do you deal with Twitter squatters?

Speakers

• Jeremy Pepper, PR Manager, Boingo Wireless (@jspepper)
• Ed Terpening, VP of Social Media Marketing, Wells Fargo (@EdTerpening)
• Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care, Comcast (@comcastcares)

People don’t go to Twitter for customer service. Customer service goes to them via Twitter.

40% of twitterers say the way a brand utilizes twitter affects perception of brand.

Best tools for customer service on Twitter:

• PeopleBrowsr
• Radian6

@CoTweet
Giving out free invites for anyone who signs up for the beta version today. Excited to try this out for the @miis account!

@operationsmile
Non-profit running the campaign #140smiles as a case study for fundraising using Twitter. Check out 140smiles.com. Tweet that you are involved in the campaign and encourage your followers to become involved.

@Peoplebrowsr
Web-based Twitter client designed for community and brand managers and Twitter power users. The fundamental difference between PeopleBrowsr and other Twitter clients is that what you see on the screen is only the tip of the iceberg. You can search only people you are following, or only DMs, or only tweets from your followers.

@hootsuite
Web-based tabbed Twitter client that allows you to create groups. Supports RSS integration, builtin URL shortening, and rich stats.

@jobaba
On demand local business directory accessible via tweeting.

@tweetfunnel
A web-based app that lets multiple people (contributors & publishers) post from a single Twitter account.

Speakers

• Porter Gale, VP of Marketing, Virgin American (@VirginAmerica)
• Seth Greenburg, director, Online Advertising & Internet Media, Intuit (@turbotax)
• Jeramie McPeek, VP of Interactive Services, Phoenix Suns (@PhoenixSuns)
• Vicky Harres Akers, Director of Audience Development, PR Newswire (@prnewswire)

Use Twitter to put a face on a brand
Brands are on Twitter because their audience is already there
Consider where to find YOUR audience: are they on Facebook? Twitter?
Virgin America now has WiFi onboard, so you can tweet from 35,000 feet!
Cool use of Twitter: Virgin America passenger didn’t get meal, tweeted about it. Virgin saw it, messaged pilot, passenger served.
Guest service expectations are changing because Twitter is real-time (=fast!)
Channels are changing in order to manage these expectations

A Day in the Cloud Challenge

• Virgin America will team up with Google to run an interactive scavenger hunt
• June 24
• For people who want to see how technology is changing their life
• Can win air travel
• #dayinthecloud

Takeaways

• It’s easy to launch a blog or jump on other social media efforts — but WHY are you doing it?
• Word of mouth marketing is the best kind of marketing you can get; Twitter IS word of mouth marketing>
• Be authentic and active
• Find your customers and fish where the fish are; find people interested in your brand and follow them

@guykawasaki (Co-founder, Alltop)

• “Not having a business model is the new business model.”
• Spam is considered a delicacy in Hawaii
• If you’re following someone on Twitter, it’s not spam if you decide you don’t like their tweets
• Name 1 business and 1 non-profit with a breakthrough strategy on Twitter: Comcast (@comcastcares) and Mayo Clinic (@mayoclinic)
• Will Facebook status updates or Google Wave pose competition to Twitter?

Planning & Strategy

Understand the baseline
Undertand objectives, assets, and user needs

Organization: What is your mission?
Website: How will you use your website? What are your organizational objectives? What will you do online to support those objectives?
Audience: What do your audiences want? How will you support their needs using your website?

Surveying Users’ Needs

Research your audience and ask them what THEY want on your site:

• stats analysis
• online surveys
• focus groups
• task analysis
• cognitive walkthroughs
• user scenarios
• personas

Visual Design
Create a visual identity, reflect brand, unify the user experience
Organizational structure ≠ ideal information architecture
The step between envisioning your design and creating it: develop a moodboard (a collage of visual elements that evokes a certain mood)

when “good design” goes wrong

Audience segmentation

The audience matrix = easy way to…
Stay focused on your audiences
give consideration to your own organizational needs
start building user-centric information architecture
ultimately create a design that works with your usability needs

Testing & Analytics

• Design decisions made not only on aesthetics, but on the speed at which a user can complete a task
• Focus on making people use their computers more efficiently
• Design decisions are driven by cognitive psychology research and A/B testing
• Design standards are captured in a global style guide which requires usable code

Where should you incorporate user testing into the redesign timeline?
How long does it usually last?
How do you implement new design ideas at that point in the process?

Determine your top entry pages and make incremental adjustments

2 environments:

1. You have an ongoing presence and you want to see what’s working/what’s not
2. Complete site redesign

So process goes like this:

1. Audience research
2. Document audiences, their needs, your needs
3. Develop a sitemap
4. Develop wireframes
5. Now you can design for all of these site elements

Good Online Engagement: What Is It?

Attract prospects, drive traffice & collect email addresses
Engage involved prospects, interact via web and email
Commit supporters, online action (donation/petition)
Retain committed supporters, personalized web content/email contact

Plan to Succeed

• Mission-based communications vision
• Organizational goals
• Departmental goals
  • Strategic
  • Operational
• Plans to achieve goals

Example:

• Strategic goal: provide regular updates to stakeholders
• Operational offline goal: produce quarterly print newsletter
• Operational online goals: weekly website content updates, monthly e-newsletter, action alerts as appropriate
• Include who, why, when how

What is Your Organizational Capacity?

• Database
• Established strategies
• Operations (staff & technology)
• Time
• Money

Reflect

Are your goals in balance with your capacity?
Have we articulated our vision & goals?
Wher do we need to improve our organization’s capacity?
What are short and long term changes we could make to improve?

Effective Web Presence

4 C’s of Effective Websites

Credibility

The public face of your organization

Cultivation

Outreach and building relationships
Are we using inviting, engaging language?
Visitors come to your site to learn, then to act

Clickability

Interactive user experience with clear navigation
No matter what, there is no ONE single type of donor
Need to provide different interactive experiences to appeal to the widest variety of audiences possible

Content

THE most important element — requires regular input
What are you doing to create a stream of content (not just text, but images)?
Don’t use all stock images — this hurts credibility and isn’t as personal as in-house photography/organic content
Websites provide multiple levels of information about your work
Who visits our site? Who do we want to visit our site?
Identify 3 audiences, 3 things you want them to know, and 3 things you want them to DO

Top 9 ways to catch supporters

1. Layout – Outside In not Inside Out
Ask yourself:
can our visitors find what they want on our site?
Ask your visitors:
Can you easily find what you are looking for on our site?
Find out:
Usability testing, focus groups, surveys

2. Bring Content Online
what does your org publish? Who do you serve? What do you do? How do you do it?

When you print reports, flyers, invitations, forms…ask yourself:
How will I put this on the website?
How will it be different (editing, graphics, etc.?
Consider statistics, data, downloadable papers, biographical information

3. Collect Email Addresses
Your New Mantra:
I will collect email addresses — everywhere
I will ask permission to email (volume is not helpful if they don’t wish to subscribe)
I will make regular contact

4. Write for the Web
People barely READ websites word for word
They SCAN web sites
They GLANCE at emails

With this in mind, do not write hyperlinks that say “click here” — use the title of the link &mash; hyperlinks need to be like wildfire!

5 top web writing tips:

1. Highlight keywords
2. Use bulleted lists
3. One idea per paragraph
4. Cut your text in half (then in half again)
5. Offer links

5. Get Content
You are not alone!
You can get free content from:

• Partners, collaborators
  • Jointogether.org
  • Alternet.org
  • Care2.com
  • Enature.com
  • Yahoo
• News feeds
• Your constituents

Tips:
Identify important “revolving” content
Coordinate the team: think about program content and content management tools
Prioritize
Systematize
Develop a schedule
Delegate

6. Ask and Make it Easy to:
Give a donation
Take an Action
Learn about you
Contribute in other ways

How?
Ask for support or to take action
Give compelling reasons to help or give
Provide secure donation page
Tag line & mission statement
Contact information on every page

7. Privacy Policy
Describes how your org handles information
Informs visitors how you will handle:

• name/personal info
• credit card/ donor info
• email addresses
• cookies

8. Interactivity
Clicking is a kinesthetic experience, mimics a conversation
The more your visitor can “talk to you, the closer they will feel to your mission
The closer they feel to your mission, the more they will want ot support you
Don’t be afraid to have fun

9. Web Management
To update content easily, you will need someone on board with web skills
Your options:

• consultant
• train your staff
• invest in a CMS
• all of the above

Reflect

How is this different from our website?
Which of these elements could we try?
What ideas does this generate for me?

Effective email

“Email communications are more important than a website.” mdash; Michael Gilbert, “Gilbert Manifesto”
Exceptions: initial list building/application-focused sites
Combining email and direct mail builds personal relationships
Personal relationships are the heart of fundraising

Four Email Cornerstones

1. Personal
Personalize messages with data (names, amounts, etc.)

2. Targeted
Segment lists and target emails

3. Integrated
Email integrated with web content, direct mail, etc.
Campaigns should be mirrored between website & direct mailings
People who receive a direct mailing may visit the website, will expect to see the same thing

4. Trackable
Seek out and use data about your emails

Six Email Considerations

1. Respect your subscriber
2. Email privacy policy
3. Build the list the right way (one person at a time)
4. Make a compelling “envelope”
5. HTML vs. text
6. Test in different programs, services

Email techniques

• Hypertext links
• Word of mouse marketing (viral)
• Personalized greetings and references
• Incentives
• List segmentation
• Clickthrough tracking

Enewsletter techniques

• Create glance-able, enticing TOC
• Establish the brand
• Content
  • write for readers to scan (subject line/short items/visuals/teasers)
  • create links to longer items on the web
• Establish timing for newsletter
  • keep to regular schedule: quarterly/monthly/weekly
• Provide ability to pass the eNewsletter to a friend

Avoiding the SPAM label

• Ask for and document permission to email online/offline
• Postal address and unsubscribe option in every email
• Accurate subject and from lines – no sensational language
• Establish an email privacy policy
• Ask stakeholders how frequently they want to receive communications

Basics of Driving Traffic

• Distinct and succinct URL
• Your URL everywhere
• Use word of mouth
• Links to partners and content
• Fundraising campaigns and special events
• Email and enewsletters
• Paid key words/Google Grants
• Related newsgroups and listservs

Tracking Metrics

Accurately benchmarks what people really care about
Helps you create and evaluate campaigns

Website Metrics:

• Unique visitors
• Most popular pages/stories…and the least
• Time on site/page
• Document downloads
• Keywords
• Website traffic sources

Email/Enews Metrics

• Open rate
• Clickthrough rate
• Response rate for requested action
• eNewsleter subscribes/unsubscribes

Reflect

How is this different from our strategies for driving traffic?
How do we track metrics? How might we do it differently moving forward?

Background

Podcasts are becoming more mainstream. People could be consuming podcasts without even realizing it. It is perfectly acceptable to ease your way into podcasting and slowly grow; start with simple tools and build from there.

Planning a Podcast

1. Strategize
   • Write down some goals and track your progress
2. Focus on your audience (the constituents you want to attract or who are already involved)
   • Find out what they are already listening to so you can determine themes you may want to embed in your own messages
3. Consider your story
   • Look at what has been successful for other podcasters
4. Consider hardware options (remember: the fancier the hardware, the more complicated it may be to use)
   • USB headset: the cheapest, easiest option
   • Dynamic ($20-30) or condenser mics ($150-500): condenser is powered from external source (mixer or plug), all mics pick up vibrations (use a boom stand!)
   • Pop guard (to prevent popping P’s): make your own out of coat hanger & old pantyhose
   • Soundboard: plugs directly into your computer, allows you to record each individual on a separate track, allows you to back up a podcast to an external device WHILE recording it
   • Mobile devices: perfect for in the field, on the move, or catching events live
   • Video recording: Flip cams
5. Consider software options
   • Audacity
   • Garage Band (Mac)
   • Sony Sound Forge
   • Adobe Audition
   • Levelator
   • Skype
     • Pamela
     • Hot Recorder
     • Audio Hijack Pro
6. Production considerations
   • Editing/clean up: when editing, keep file format as WAV (large, uncompressed); only final output is MP3
   • Bit rate: increase bit rate by using mono, don’t go under 32, >64 for best quality
   • Stereo vs. mono: stereo may be distracting
   • ID3 tags: edit these directly in iTunes
   • Images
   • iTunes tags
   • Show notes: write a description of your overall show as well as descriptions for individual episodes; include resources and URLs referenced
   • Overall length: depends on the topic &mash; usually 10–30 mins for a meaty subject
7. Decide where to host your podcasts
   • Consider bandwidth limits
8. Hit a critical mass of podcasts before publishing (at least 5 episodes)
9. Promote your podcasts on social networks
   • Facebook
   • Twitter
   • Blogs (especially WordPress plugins)
   • Digg
   • Reddit
   • LinkedIn
   • StumbleUpon
   • YouTube
10. Make use of cross-channel promotion: don’t let you podcast become an “island” from your other media — integrate!
    • Website
    • Email
    • Newsletters
    • Press Releases
    • Advertisements
    • Partners
11. Solicit feedback

Resources

• WeAreMedia.org
• NTEN conference website resources
• Podcast communities forums
• podsafe music network
• freesound.org

Branding

(And how does it connect to your website?)

Elements of a strong nonprofit brand:

1. Organizational: vision mission, values, objectives, audiences
2. Conceptual: personality, positioning statement — internal only
3. Visual: logo, colors, fonts, imagery
4. Written: name, tagline, mission statement, key messages, boilerplate
5. Spoken: elevator pitch
6. Experiential: programs spaces, website, social media, print, phones

Determine Your Audience’s Needs

• Google Analytics
• Surveys
• Create user persona(s)
  • write up story about who your users are
  • what’s their age, comfort level with the web, etc.
• User testing
  • sit next to someone and do a website scavenger hunt
  • ex: if you wanted to donate to our org, where would you go?

Case Studies

CrossCultural Solutions

1. Invest in CMS
2. Incorporate years of volunteer survey comments
3. Incorporate staff feedback
4. Develop user personas
5. Design multiple wireframes (>6 by site launch)
6. Relate site to CCS community
7. Planned site map with SEO/SEM
8. Use brand manual and style guides
9. Learned from Google Analytics, HeatMapping!

Lessons Learned

• Keep brand manual, style guide, project brief on hand throughout design and implementation
• Commit to ongoing brand development. Launch, revise, launch, etc. (keep in mind phase 2 and 3 of website!)
• More user testing by stakeholders before launch (allow more than a few days!)

How to Get Started

• Look at your qualitative and quantitative data
• Listen to buzz, and embrace the positive brand love
• Learn from your peers and other key players you feel are in a non-competing position

Answering foundational questions early in the process will:

• Set you on the right path
• Help you sift through technology decisions, especially giant feature lists
• Support you if a crisis arises

Questions to Answer

If you don’t answer these questions sooner, you will answer them later.
An answer is better than no answer
It’s about process, research, analysis, discussion, alignment.

Who?

Clients? Donors? Advocates? Activists? Volunteers?
Who are they in terms of age, gender, profession, social technographics (how they participate online)?
If your potential community members exist on Facebook, but you have something to offer more than Facebook and you don’t want to be locked into that particular tool, it’s perfectly okay

Where?

Where are they online? Offline?
Who will the community NOT serve?

• Age
• Country

It’s about setting expectations. You can still welcome those outside direct service (diversity is good).

Why?

Why are we doing this?

What?

What is our mission, vision, purpose, focus, goals?

What values do we hold? What are your areas of distrust? What does success look like?

How?

How does change happen?

How is our organization limited?

• Budget
• Time
• Development resources
• IT support

How involved do we want/need to be in the community?
How will we sustain the community?
How will we support diversity/dissent?

When?

When do we expect results? When should be expect results?
Don’t expect any results in first 3–6 months.
1 year = hint of results
2 years = solid results

Strategy:

• Start with a purpose in mind
• Slowly build your audience/collaborators
  • the first 10 members set the tone
  • recruit people who set the standards for participation and achievement
• Experiment and get the tool mix right
• Understand and nurture your community
• Segment your community
  • Heavy contributors
  • Intermittent contributors
  • Lurkers

Community management

Empower your super users
Make it easy to find, join, and act: welcome your community members
Engage with your community
Learn from your mistakes

Wrap Up

It’s about people and processes.
Hit as many of the big questions as you can.
Reflect back on your answers while reviewing technology options.
Be flexible — experimentation is okay!
Review your questions and answers and update as necessary.

Session wiki: http://ntc09-communities.wikispaces.com

Breaking Down Silos

Usually, IT misalingment occurs in one of two models:

business strategy –> business process –> IT process
IT strategy –> IT process –> business process

In this example, there is never any overlap between business strategy and IT strategy. We need to break down these 2 silos. Business teams should come to IT not asking for software or more computers, but actually to solicit solutions for problems at a strategic level (not at a tactical level).

Ideal Process

IT strategy–> business strategy –> business process –> IT process

Once IT and your organization’s mission are aligned, THEN you can think about adding social media and other Web 2.0 elements.

Think of IT as propelling business, not driving.

What the CEO needs to know about technology:

• IT drives business
• IT is here to stay
• caution & cost
• cost ≠ value
• don’t reinvent
• everyone has a better idea
• avoid the bleeding edge
• one size does not fit all
• know your assets
• standardize & unify
• develop a philosophy
• define direction

Changing a Culture

• Aligning IT with the mission
• Relationship Building
• Transparency

The IT Director

• Selection Process
• Role of the IT director
  • alignment focused
  • relationship builder
  • business partner
  • orchestrates people & process
• Commitment to the org’s mission

If your technology group doesn’t have a people person running it and talking to people and creating a strategy, IT alignment won’t happen.

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.

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

• 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(?)

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?

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:

• Google Doc: Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
  The number of interesting ways is always evolving as more educators contribute to the list.

 

• Twitter @ Butler University
  These blog entries were written by Brad J. Ward, former e-communications director at Butler.

 

• Top 10 Higher-Ed Web Design Mistakes in 140
  Stewart Foss of eduStyle recently used Twitter to compile a list of the top 10 higher ed web design mistakes.

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.

Who We Are

We are Kristen and Rob from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.

Kristen Byers
New Media Development Specialist
Kristen leads and collaborates in the development of web and new media content initiatives. She also helps others develop digital media production skills.

Rob Horgan
Enrollment Manager
Rob manages the recruiting office’s presence on both English and foreign language social networking sites, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

MIIS is currently using social media in a variety of ways:

Blogs: MIIS uses a variety of student and staff blogs. One of these blogs, the Monterey Focus, combines the RSS feeds of several blogs to create a more comprehensive resource for students, faculty, and staff.

Delicious: This social bookmarking tool has been used by several staff members to share useful websites with one another. We hope to expand on this idea with the debut of a new student portal; we would like to see a delicious portion where students can begin collecting links to digital resources for portfolio development purposes.

Facebook: The Institute currently manages a Facebook page with over 1,600 fans. The Facebook page is used to promote upcoming events, aggregate MIIS-related RSS feeds, and allow prospective/current students and alumni to network.

Flickr: MIIS has a Flickr account containing a modest 307 public photos. Steps are in place to turn this into a much larger photo repository in the near future.

iTunes U: MIIS recently debuted a public presence on iTunes U. We have also started an initiative called “Global Voices” to help populate our iTunes U site with interesting content.

LinkedIn: The MIIS LinkedIn Group welcomes all current students, faculty, and alumni for professional development networking.

Ning: Bob Cole recently created a Ning to use as a class space for MW 580: Digital Media For Change. We are curious to see how he uses Ning to enhance his series of workshops.

Twitter: The recruiting office recently created a Twitter account and we are currently researching how to tweet effectively.

Yammer: Yammer is the communication tool of choice among many staff members at the Institute. It’s great for sharing ideas and events and encourages collaboration across departments.

YouTube: The MIIS YouTube channel, organized into a variety of playlists, offers a glimpse at the diverse fields of study offered at MIIS.

Personal Experience Using Social Media

Kristen is a blogger of 10 years and has been a member of Facebook since August 2004. She is also an avid Twitter user and maintains an active profile on LinkedIn.

Rob is intrigued by social media, although he is relatively new to some of it. Rob helps manage the MIIS presences on Facebook, mixi (a Japanese social networking site), and YouTube. He is a member of LinkedIn and is also familiar with Second Life. Right now Rob is trying to understand the Twitter phenomenon. Maybe you can help him?

The Future of Social Media @ MIIS

The main MIIS website is currently undergoing an extensive redesign. We would like to make media (including social media) the main focus of the new site. By attending the WeAreMedia workshop, we hope to gain a better understanding of where to place our blogs, videos, and social networks in order to maximize their effectiveness. We are also interested in learning strategies and best practices for microblogging; specifically, we would like to create a successful MIIS presence on Twitter.