Archive for the 'Top Tips' Category

My colleague Angie and I have been working with the Friends of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London on pro-bono basis to develop a multi-media online arts magazine, Dulwich OnView, which is launching this week. The process and objectives make a useful case study for anyone looking to set up an online community project on a limited budget.

Beginnings

The Friends is a volunteer group that supports the work of the Dulwich Picture Gallery by raising funds through events like summer parties, talks, films and other charitable fund-raising activities. Ingrid Beazley, their energetic and dynamic Chair, has been keen to use social media to promote the Friends and engage more with the local South East London community for some time now. We first talked about developing an interactive online presence in mid-2006 but what was needed was a strong volunteer team to help us run the project and for awhile, this key ingredient seemed elusive.

A great volunteer team

Then during last year, along came Catherine Fraher, who has a background in marketing and has worked with eBay. Taking time out following her new baby, Catherine has been thrown into the Friends e-world, first setting up a Friends photo group on Flickr and now taking on the role of co-editor for the new online magazine. At around the same time, a number of very talented and lively people began to offer help and suddenly, we had a great volunteer team - writers Anna Sayburn, Angela Corrias, Sally-Ann Johnson and Patrick Fraher; IT specialist Stephen Hendon and photographer Rebecca Portsmouth as well as my colleague at ZenGuide, web-content writer Angie Macdonald. The volunteer team is the real key to the magazine’s success - we have to work together well, approach the project in a professional way even though it’s just something we are doing for fun in our spare time, deliver our contributions on time and give each other the help and back-up that is needed in such a big project. And we really are doing all that with such ease and enthusiasm - it’s really fantastic!

A blog-based central hub

Given that this is a community project, my brief was to use free or low-cost applications that are freely available on the web. As the central hub of the multimedia magazine, we needed a platform that would fit well aesthetically with a world class art museum. I chose Wordpress.com for its ease of use and wide range of functions. Also the platform’s own branding is minimised - unlike Blogger which makes it clear you are on a blogspot.com site with its masthead across each blog. A survey has also reported that a large proportion of Blogger sites are spam blogs.

Blogging technology is easy to use and just the right platform for an online magazine. The free service does not allow you to re-design the layout in any sophisticated way but for our purposes the basic reverse date order presentation works well enough so that the latest articles appear at the top of the front page. The volunteer team will be able to upload their own articles with some basic training. Easy intergration with the photosharing site on Flickr.com means that the magazine can be quickly brightened with a lot of great images.

Other free / low-cost applications

For audio podcasting, I chose Gabcast.com which gives you a local UK telephone number to dial into from an ordinary phone. You record your podcast by leaving a voicemail message and press 1 to publish it. It automatically uploads the mp3 file and publishes a post on the magazine. It is free up to 200 MB and then there is a small monthly fee. There’s no messing around with sound editing equipment and FTP transfer software. But you can’t edit or add music tracks/ sound effects and you have to record your podcast in one continuous take - which can be a bit nerve-wracking!

We will be adding videos via our on Dulwich OnView YouTube channel in due course, which is a free application. In the meantime, we have collected videos about or filmed at Dulwich Picture Gallery using VodPod.com, which is another freebie - you can see the collection in the sidebar on the magazine site.

The Flickr pool is free - it collects together photos submitted to the pool by any user. However, Catherine has set up a Pro account for the photos that the team themselves want to upload for the magazine and that is a premium account at around £12 a year (US $25).

Some caution

Before you rush out and sign up to any old free application for your community project, a word of caution. You need to check out each applications functions and design options. The old adage is true that you get what you pay for. There are numerous free applications but some are easier to use than others - or have more suitable functionality to your project, or have fewer ads, or have a better look for your brand, or integrate better with other applications etc etc.

Also if you are likely to be particular about look, layout and the details of design, going for something free may not be the right way forward. And if you have high demands for functionality and specific things you want your multi-media to do, the free stuff is bound to limit and restrict your vision.

Knowing how to work around some of the limitations and restrictions of free applications can help. There is obviously only so much you can do with clever work-arounds but it can contribute to a quality user experience for your visitors.

Please do come and check out the magazine at www.dulwichonview.org.uk.

Did you know that you can stream your blog feed so that it shows up on your Facebook profile automatically?

This is a great way to share your blog posts on Facebook without any extra effort.

In your Facebook page:

1. Go to the Applications section on the left margin
2. In the list of Applications, click on Notes
3. You will be taken to the Notes page. On the right margin of the Notes page, you will see the option to Import an external Blog - click on that.
4. On the Import a Blog page, insert the URL of your blog.

• If you have a domain name that points to an underlying blog eg “www.mysite.com” that points to “www.mysite.wordpress.com”, you should insert the URL for the underlying blog ie “www.mysite.wordpress.com”

• This only works if you have a “real” blog ie one that has an RSS feed

• If you are not sure what your blog URL is (eg if your blog is part of a larger business website), open another browser window, go to your blog page and copy the address in the URL address bar at the top of the screen.

5. Click Import

It should now import posts from your blog.

For an example, visit my Facebook profile and you should see my imported notes in my mini-feed.

The IABC UK SpeedExperience session last Tuesday evening offered up five round table discussions to members and their guests, including Change Management, Brand Engagement and Social Media. Each discussion lasted 20 minutes and then everyone got a chance to swap groups and go to 2 other discussions of 20 minutes each.

I was invited to host the Social Media discussion, “To Blog or Not To Blog?” and we had three very meaty and engaging discussions. The visitors to my group brought up a range of key issues that I think is worth discussing more widely here as the issues are relevant to both businesses and communicators. So, in no particular order, here’s what came up:

# Many comments boiled down to: corporates and big business find the word “blog” very unnerving. It conjures up images of unsavoury types that “we shouldn’t be associated with” and it’s all self-indulgent personal outpourings of no interest to anyone but the author. I offered a counter view that blogging technology is just a tool that enables you to have an easily updatable online site that you can use as a communication tool. If calling it a blog doesn’t help, you can call it an online magazine, journal, resource, discussion space etc. For a more detailed discussion of this, see my post A Blog by Any Other Name

# “There aren’t any good blogs out there. What value can our organisation gain by having a blog?” . I agree that there’s a lot of rubbish out there - out of millions of blogs, it’s unlikely that all of them are great! Equally, it’s unlikely that ALL of them are rubbish. If your company has a blog, its value lies in what you make of it, how you use it, who you use it to engage with. There are leading thinkers, public figures and business people who blog. There are also those who are experts in their field but who may not be famous who blog to share knowledge and engage in discussion. I’ll be posting links to some great blogs in the next few days - and maybe you’ll be inspired!

# “There’s nothing worse than a blog that’s not been updated for ages - people who blog for their business need to commit the time and energy to maintaining its output.” I wholeheartedly agree. There are ways to manage that commitment - it’s better to write something once a week regulary than over-commit and give up after a few days. If you are going to update just once a week, then say so clearly on the blog and keep to that commitment eg “I will blog every Wednesday”

# “Who is going to read our CEO’s blog? What’s he going to say that’s going to be of interest?” My view is that a commitment to your blog is a commitment to your readers. If your readers are you customers, then it is a direct commitment from the CEO to your customers. If your are thinking of an intranet blog and your readers are the staff, then it is a direct commitment from the CEO to your staff. How valuable is that to the company? Start with identifying you want to engage with and the what will come. Put yourself in your readers shoes and ask yourself what do they want to hear about.

# “My CEO wants a blog but doesn’t have time and wants someone to write it for him. I don’t think ghostblogging works. And it’s not authentic.” I agree. If the CEO is not committed to real communication and merely delegates someone to write something for him/her in his/her name - as if this was just like speechwriting, it’s going to be a failure. However, I believe there is a model where you can facilitate a CEO whose strength may not be in words or storytelling to convey his opinions and vision effectively on a blog. It takes a lot more time and work than the speechwriting model and it’s important to be upfront about the facilitation involved. But it means that someone who may not have the gift of the gab but who has a worthwhile message to convey can participate in this medium.

# “We send out an email every couple of weeks to staff internally. The directors want a blog but we did a survey and the staff want the email and don’t want a blog.” If an email model works, there may be no need to change it. However, bear in mind that emails can get lost under “the crease” after a day or so. It’s also difficult to remember they are there and unread or find them again if you want to refer back to something. You could set up a blog fairly cheaply where the same email message is made into a blog post, with the RSS feed set to deliver email notifications to staff when the blog is updated every couple of weeks. The advantage is that all messages will then be one central, searchable, archivable place. Different departments could post to the same space with categories like “HR”, “Marketing”, “IT” etc, each using different feeds to send out the email to different recipients. This would also be a way to preserve the company’s memory/ knowledge.

Also, be aware that if you ask people if they want something they already have or something they don’t know much about, they will invariably choose the thing they know. If the directors are keen to have a blog, it may be an idea to trial it for a few months and then gauge the feedback. To ensure maximum return on the trial, you’d need to make sure you have a proper business case and project management structure in place - and get advice from someone who knows how to run a blog from a communications perspective, not your tech guy.

# “I’m starting out building my freelance business. Can a blog help me?” Most definitely. It can help you showcase your expertise and engage in discussions about the hot topics in your field without relying on begging the traditional media to publish your article or interview you. Traditional media is still important but having a direct way to communicate with your clients and potential clients has a lot of value. It’s also a great way to network globally and let’s face it, networking is a very important way to get new business and keep existing relationships going.

Getting proper social media advice

My final impression is that some companies and businesses seem to be interested and excited about engaging in social media but they are being advised by communicators who do not know enough to give them all the rounded advice they need - and communicators are keen to find out more about what’s out there. Some who are looking to engage online don’t read blogs and don’t blog themselves - you need to start reading blogs at the very least if you want to take your first steps in social media. If you’re not sure where to start, you can try my Beginner’s Guide.

Whether you are a business or a communicator advising a business considering engaging in social media, you need to know what the technology can do but you don’t necessarily need an IT/ tech expert. In fact, I would go so far as to say your online communications policy should not be led by your IT department. You need someone who understands communications and how to take advantage of social media online to best engage with your customers, staff or other stakeholders. Social media is not going to replace traditional communications but will complement it and is definitely here to stay - so you need a rounded communications team with both advisors who understand the real world media and those who specialise in online media.

Pic: thanks to estudioquimbaya from flickr.com

spdex

by Angie Macdonald

Last week I attended a two-day Social Media Masterclass given by two renowned gurus in the field: Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson and organised by Ragan Communications and Simply Communicate.

There was a lot to take in, but a few points struck me as being vital to the future progress and understanding of using social media or web 2.0 in the work place.

The Power has Shifted
What web 2.0 technology has enabled is a shift of power from large corporations and governments to individuals and communities online. It is so much easier now to reach people online to join your protest group, or to sign a e-petition at the 10 Downing Street site. And because millions of people around the globe have easy access to these things, the voice of the individual has grown in strength and really can matter and make a difference.

Web 2.0 is a Constantly Evolving Toolkit
Different events or messages call for different tools. It is up to you to choose the tools that suit the task or the message, whether it be a wiki, a blog or a podcast. The thing to do is to try them out and see which ones you like and which ones best fit what you are trying to communicate. For that is what they are essentially: communication tools.

Choose the Most Effective Method to Communicate your Message
Web 2.0 doesn’t mean that the old tried and tested methods of communicating are over. Brochure websites, print media and press releases still have their place. The point is to choose those methods and tools which will best serve your message. Each time you communicate, it may be in a slightly different way, but you now have the option to choose from a wide variety of methods to appeal to as many different audiences as possible. Combine traditional methods with the appropriate social media tools for the most effective results.

Ignore Bloggers at your Peril
Many so-called “A-list bloggers” have millions of readers all around the world and their words carry a lot of clout. They have the ability to influence people because they are seen as gurus or experts. There have been several occasions where companies have been brought to their knees by bloggers.

Monitor what Bloggers are Saying about You
That way you can engage from the very beginning and manage the crisis before it gets out of control.

Don’t Try and Pull the Wool over Bloggers’ Eyes
If there’s one thing bloggers hate it’s being smoozed by companies in the hope that the blogger will recommend their product. If you want them to do that, be upfront and disclose your intentions from the start.

It’s all about Trust
In this day and age, when consumers don’t trust company-speak, and trust governments even less, building trust is a difficult process. Don’t do anything to break that trust once it is established. When it comes to trust, we tend to trust people like ourselves.

You can’t Control it
So you might as well join in and enjoy it. If you join in the conversation about your company you have a chance to influence the way the conversation flows. Staying out of it could be dangerous.

By the end of the second day, the message was loud and clear - ignore social media at your peril! Love it or loathe it, you can’t afford to ignore it. Social media is here to stay.

Photo: Thanks to eshm on Flickr

by Angie Macdonald

My friend Andrea * asked my advice recently. She is in the process of setting up a new business offering personal development workshops and wanted my input on her website design. As she explained her vision for the business and showed me the mock-ups of the website, I could see some common pitfalls that would detract from her great business idea, if left untreated.

Focus on one idea
The first problem was that Andrea was trying to do too much. She had so many ideas for the new business, including selling beauty products and a range of organic health drinks, but they didn’t all fit with the main purpose of the business, i.e. the workshops. She needed to focus. If those other business ideas were going to be developed further they needed their own websites, separate from that of the core business.

Think in the box
People find it very difficult to deal with more than one idea at a time. Think about Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke and musician Nick Cave who have both published critically acclaimed novels. Do you ever see them referred to as writers? No, because we already know them as an actor and a musician and their secondary careers confuse us. As humans we like to categorise things, put people into boxes, and this is what people are going to be doing when they visit your business website. Don’t confuse your visitors by offering too many different things.

Don’t litter
Secondly, Andrea had too many navigation buttons littering her home page. Some of these could be reduced and others deleted. For example instead of having a separate navigation button for the history of the business and another for the staff photos and biographies, a single About Us button could link to both. A perfect example of this is the Innocent Drinks site, one of my favourite business websites.

Keep things on a need to know basis
In her enthusiasm to put as much information as possible about the new business online, Andrea had blurred the boundary between information that is important to a website visitor and the internal information for her team working in the business. Think carefully before you include things like your Mission Statement or your company’s goals. Your business website should always be focused on your target audience and their needs.

Mind your language
And finally, the most crucial piece of advice I gave Andrea was to watch her language. People come to a website because they are looking for information. And they find that information by READING!

Keep the language simple and user-friendly. Put the thesaurus aside and leave out the jargon. Language like that is distancing and can be annoying. Speak directly to your visitors and view your site through their eyes. That means plain English, a friendly conversational tone and a chance to engage with your potential clients or customers.

What visitors read on your site is the most important part of the whole experience. If the words on the site draw them in, speak to them, and help them find what they’re looking for easily, then they’re going to reward you by coming back for more.

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*Name and details changed for privacy

Photo: Thanks to Mash Down Babylon from Flickr.com

The world wide web. Social networks. Links. Making connections. Creating communities. The internet.

All these words and phrases evoke images of a spider’s web, a network of connections, chains, groups of people, fishing nets - so many things that bind us all together.

One of the powerful currencies of social media is links - because links help you move up the searchability ranks and also up the rank of authority. It comes from the early origins of the internet which began in the world of academia. Academic texts that are referred to by other academic writers gain the reputation of being authorities on that particular subject. The more a particular text is cited, the greater the authority. So, for example, in the world of psychology, textbooks invariably cite Freud - but they are not so likely to cite an unknown student’s dissertation. Freud is an authority - and is likely to stay one - while that unknown student is not unless he/ she gets their dissertation noticed and cited by other academics. And cited a lot.

So with blogs and websites and other online content: the more other sites link to your blog, the greater your blog is considered an authority. Technorati is a website that calculates your blog’s ranking in the world of blogs so you can see how you compare with the top blogs like Endgadget (No. 1) and Boing Boing (No. 2) - they are the blogs that are linked to the most.

There’s a delightful application called TouchGraph that helps you visualise the network of communities and connections that you are in. Here is a screen shot of the connectivity for my arts and writing blog, Fusion View (No. 69,776* on Technorati).

(Click on the picture for a more detailed view)

To check out how connected you are, go to TouchGraph and type in your blog’s URL and it will generate a swirling, moving net of all the other blogs and websites you are linked with. It’s wonderfully hypnotic, reminding me of the adage that no-one is more than six people away from anyone else (”the six degrees of separation”).

And if you haven’t already done so, sign up at Technorati and “claim your blog”.

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*It seems that breaking through the top 100,000 Technorati ranking barrier is a big deal on the blogosphere, as testified by some of the blog posts that celebrate that breakthrough. So, I guess I need to do something like throw my mouse in the air and douse my computer with champagne or something…!

by Angie Macdonald

Yang-May : “I’m delighted to say that Angie Macdonald is joining ZenGuide as partner, specialising in web-content writing and blog management/ editing for businesses. She has a background in teaching and drama, freelance journalism and high-performance coaching.

Enjoy!”

Let’s face it, finding ideas for your business blog isn’t always easy. There may be times when you’re overflowing with thoughts and ideas and others when you hit a blank wall, or rather, a blank screen. Nothing. Zilch. Your readers are waiting for their weekly or even daily update, and you have nothing to say. Panic sets in and you haven’t a clue where the next idea is going to come from.

Relax. You’re in good company. Any writer worth their salt will be able to recount tales of when the muse deserted them. But what they may not tell you, is that there are many ways to encourage the muse to return, to free up the brain and get those creative juices flowing again.

History is full of stories of inventors who had their moment of revelation at a time when they weren’t consciously working on a project. Take George de Mestral for example, the inventor of Velcro ™. After a walk with his dog one day, they both returned home covered in burrs, the plant seed-sacs that cling to animal fur and fabric. Mestral immediately studied one of the burrs under a microscope, and saw all the small hooks that enabled the burr to cling to tiny loops in the fabric of his trousers. In that moment he decided to design a two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like burrs and the other side with soft loops like the fabric of his trousers and Velcro™ was born.

Taking a tip from Mestral’s book, my advice for any blogger looking for ideas is clear your head. Go for a walk. Get away from your computer, let your mind wander and see what comes up.

Experiencing something new, whether it be listening to different music, changing radio channels, or exploring an unknown part of your city, can all lead to you having fresh ideas. Just the other day I picked up a copy of Harper’s Bazaar for the first time. At first, flicking through the pages of beautiful people and society gossip, I felt like an alien newly acquainted with the species. Everything was so unlike my usual reading tastes – I have a fondness for .net magazine and Gardens Monthly. I wasn’t necessarily looking for ideas, but before I knew it, I had reached for pen and paper and was writing down idea after idea for blog posts. Posts I never even knew I wanted to write.

How observant are you? It’s so easy to switch off as we go about our day, talking on the mobile or plugged into an iPod. When was the last time you noticed a flower blooming in your garden? Or looked at a plaque or engraving on a building as you pass by on the bus? The more you notice in the world around you, the more you will find to comment on. And ideas for blog posts will arise.

As you go about your day, ask yourself questions about the people you encounter, the situations you take for granted. Why are things the way they are? Who is the person serving you? Curiosity starts with the question, “I wonder why…?”

Remember, the world is full of ideas and creativity. It’s a matter of how receptive you are to the ordinary that can lead to blog posts full of interest and vitality. It only takes a bit of imagination to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel in need of a walk.

Photo: thanks to underconsideration.com

Someone asked me the other day if she needed a blog since she already had a website. It struck me as we chatted that there are probably many people who are not clear about the differences between a website and a blog and what some of the advantages of having a blog are, over and above the benefit of having a website. My friend is a writer but the advice I gave her is also useful and relevant for solo professionals and small businesses so I thought I’d share them with you here:

A website

• A typical brochure-style website gives you several pages with your brochure information on it. This can serve you very well as it gives you clients/ readers/ customers all the factual information they need to know about you and your business/ books/ services

• A website like that is pretty much static. Once people have been once and read whatever is there to read, they don’t really need to come again unless they need to be reminded about something eg your office address when they are coming to visit you

• It can do well with search engines provided your designer has included search engine optimisation within the design

• You can update the website yourself fairly easily once your web designer has shown you a bit of HTML. This can be useful for a “Latest News” page. But you usually have to delete the old text to make room for the new text unless you’ve got the capability to add additional news items and additional pages.

• A website is not interactive - you are stating your message to your audience and they can’t interact in any way although people can usually email you via the Contact page.

A blog

• A blog alongside your website enables you to update content easily - as easily as writing an email using a web-based email account.

• You never lose the old content from a previous “post”. This is particulary useful if your latest “latest news” item is a follow up item to your previous “latest news” items. eg. Last month your news was “I’ll be appearing at the Hay Literary Festival…”; this month you can write “When I appeared at the Hay Literary Festival, we had a lively discussion about the publishing industry…”

• You can archive your posts according to date or subject eg “Book Events”, “Current Novel”, “Publishing Industry” and eventually build up a body of work

• Search engines LOVE regularly updated pages. They are likely to throw you up near the top more often and you’ll start appearing all over the internet as you write more and more. Your posts that are never deleted from months ago will be found by someone searching on a particular topic and that will introduce them to the rest of your blog. For example, my post on Malt Loaf on my arts blog Fusion View keeps getting picked up by a range of people from France across to South America even though I wrote it around a year ago - and hopefully, that means more and more people are discovering my blog through atypical searches (ie not by a typical searching like “Malaysian/ UK writer”, for example)

• And that is exactly the reason I started blogging as a writer. Almost two years ago, my presence was disappearing off the internet - my books website itself was just not enough to keep me active and live on the web. Traffic to my site was pitiful. Since I started blogging, I’m all over the web and my arts blog Fusion View has over 8,000 unique visitors a month.

• A blog is interactive and you can easily engage with your readers/ customers, building up loyalty and trust

• You can add multi media such as pictures, audio podcasts and videos very easily

• A blog has what is called an RSS feed that sends out notifications (like radio signals) to the rest of the web whenever it is updated so you don’t have to sit and wait for people to come and find you, it automatically tells people about your latest update.

• For solo professionals and small businesses, it may take time to blog but after the initial set up costs and some training, it’s a very cost-effective way to promote your presence online - which is very important if you have a limited budget.

Both

If you don’t already have a website, discuss with your web designer using the blog platform - you can create numerous static pages for the brochure part using the same blogging software: you don’t need to pay for a website plus a blog. Traditionally, some web designers charged you by the number of pages because the old technology meant that they had to hand code and link each new page. If you incorporate your website as part of your blog, once the blog is designed you don’t have to pay extra for the number of additional pages - that’s all part of the package.

My books website www.yangmayooi.co.uk is actually part of the Fusion View blogging platform - when you arrive at www.yangmayooi.co.uk, you’ll see the URL is in fact www.fusionview.co.uk/yang-may-ooi/. The brochure pages - click at the top of this page on the various links to Who We Are and What We Do etc - are all part of the pages facility in this blogging platform for ZenGuide, included at no extra cost.

And finally…

Yes, it’s true that I’m a blog evangelist, especially for smaller enterprises. It’s such a great way to make a big impact on limited resources that in my mind, you’re really missing a trick if you don’t take advantage of this great interactive web tool!

Photo: thanks to serc.carlton.edu

This Saturday is the Live Earth event - 7/7/7. What is it?

“Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.”

As part of this event, you can sign up to their Twitter feed and receive tips via your mobile phone on what you can do to help save the world. Here are some sample messages from their feed:

“Shading windows. It can lower your home’s temperature and reduce your cooling costs by 30%. Answer the Call at liveearth.org.

Cutting down. If 1 million people cut down their trash by 10%, we could reduce our CO2 emissions by 50,000 tons. Learn more at liveearth.org”

All you have to do is sign up to Twitter via www.twitter.com and go to http://twitter.com/LiveEarth070707 to add Live Earth as a friend.

The people behind this campaign are SOS an ” ongoing messaging campaign and larger movement behind Live Earth.” According to their “About” section:

“The SOS campaign is using a powerful multimedia platform - short films, television and radio PSAs, an interactive web experience, books, the Live Earth concerts themselves - to provide a global audience with the tools to tackle the climate crisis.

This multimedia campaign will ensure that the message of Live Earth echoes long after 7/7/07.”

This is an important campaign that will benefit all of us - and future generations - so it’s well worth signing up for.

As an aside, my feeling is that this is what many communications strategies need to look like in the future - whether you are a not-for-profit, big business, small enterprise or solo professional. As we all become multi-media smart, it will become increasingly important to spread the word about your event or product or services across a number of platforms in an integrated way. For small businesses and solo professionals, the interactive multi-media tools of Web 2.0 are cheap - often free - and easy to use. There are great opportunities these days for the enterprising small player to make big waves via the internet without a huge budget - all you need is a readiness to engage with the new technology.

Some ideas:

* start a blog and make your presence felt on the internet

* use podcasting to chat more informally. Writers could read extracts from their books. Record a speaking engagement so those who couldn’t be there can hear your speech.

* create presentations to show online. There are tools available to post slideshows eg Zoho

* record a video to show online. Facial expression and tone can convey warmth so much more than just words - what about a short presentation by your Chief Executive reporting on your company’s annual results?

* use Twitter to send out regular short messages. Executive coaches can twitter their clients daily encouragement or actions to boost confidence and productivity.

Photo: thanks to smh.com.au

We had a great discussion at the round table discussions on Social Mediathat I chaired at the IABC European Leadership Institute last week. For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be blogging about some of the issues we talked about and asking for your thoughts on it - whether you came along to the round table discussion or not, I think these issues are relevant for communicators and businesses generally. I hope you’ll add a comment or email me to share your views and experiences.

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Thirty Million Blogs and One Lifetime

How to avoid information overload

One question we grappled with at the Social Media round table discussions was: there are so many blogs out there and busy business people and professionals have only a finite time to spend surfing the web, how can we keep track of them all?

Well, we can’t. It’s impossible to even expect that we can keep up with the estimated thirty million blogs that populate the blogosphere.

But we can keep up with some of the blogs that interest or intrigue or inform or amuse or entertain us. A business leader I know enjoys political blogs so he follows UK Member of Parliament Boris Johnson’s blog and the satirical by “Guy Fawkes’”. I follow the blogs of Malaysian writers (eg Lydia Teh and Sharon Bakar) as well as marketing blogs and new media blogs and a range of others. I don’t read them all every day but have them in my Google Reader blog aggregator and dip into different ones as the fancy takes me.

Some of the benefits of following blogs for me are:

• learning tips and information straight from an expert’s mouth eg how else could I pick up useful gems from Seth Godin, the marketing guru, from the comfort of my own home?For businesses and professionals, it goes without saying that diverse ways to increase your learning, knowledge and skills has long-term business benefits.

• picking up news some time before it is picked up by the traditional press eg I learnt about Twitter long before it hit the news; I was following the Kathy Sierra death threats story at least a week before it came on the news. Having early knowledge of what’s going to hot can help add to one’s competitive edge.

• being entertained and challenged and having my horizons broadened by videos, stories, writings etc that would never make it into the traditional media eg great YouTube videos; Asian community blogs ; “flash fiction” writing. New, fresh ideas beyond what everyone else is receiving can spark creativity and contribute to new ideas within one’s own business.

So, find the blogs that are helpful to you or that you enjoy and follow those.

How to get noticed in the crowd

For those businesses and professionals who have blogs, the question then is how can you get your blog noticed in the melee of so many competing voices?

It is unlikely that you will have the whole world coming to your blog. You don’t necessarily want or need the whole world to come to your blog. Once your accept that, I think the key to drawing an audience and getting noticed in the clamour of thirty million blogs is simple:

* Know your audience.

Who are the people you want to connect with? If your target audience is a global audience of teenagers, you’re going to create different content and have a different marketing strategy from a situation where your target audience is insurance brokers or accountants or lawyers. Think about who you want coming to your site eg Your clients. Your stakeholders. Focus on their needs and interests. If what you offer is relevant to them, they will come back for more.

* Create great content.

Write well. Make a visit to your blog an enjoyable or informative experience. Offer an incentive to come back eg prize draws (”become a subscriber and get the chance to win XXX”), a cliffhanger (”to be continued next week….”), trailers (”next week, I’ll be interviewing Brad Pitt….”). Break up serious content with personal interest or lifestyle stories.

* Pimp your site

Make your blog site visually distinct and a delight to behold. I don’t mean add so many bells and whistles and colours so that it takes ages to load or is really difficult to read because there are so many distractions on it. I mean show that your care about your readers’ visiting experience by making it user-friendly to navigate and a memorable visual experience - just as you would take care to present your brand or logo beautifully or maintain a striking and comfortable office for your clients to visit. I explore all this in more detail in my post “Are You Worth It?”

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Photo: thanks to pacifica-group.com

Note: ZenGuide is updated on Mondays and Thursdays.

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