All posts by Brian Harrison

I’m Presenting at Ignite Boise | 03

I got word this morning that my speaking proposal has been accepted, and I’ll be on stage at Ignite Boise | 03.

The topic — Weasel Words: How to Keep from Committing to Anything (Without Even Trying).

And now that the initial sensations of shock, fright and terror have somewhat passed, it’s time to get to work on putting together something resembling a mildly-entertaining presentation.

Stay tuned.

In the mean time, for those who would like to attend, Ignite Boise | 03 will be on Thursday, November 12th at 7:00pm.  Tickets (free) are available now, but are going quickly.

An Overview: The Basics of Social Media Program Planning

On The BrandBuilder Blog, Oliver Blanchard gives a great overview of and insight into Best Practices for Social Media: The Basics of Program Planning.

Included in this overview is a description of the four components of any social media program, and briefly covers each.  According to Blanchard, those are Development, integration, management and measurement. This is important to point out because it lays the foundations for structure and the assignment of specific roles within the context of Social Media.

Blanchard goes into more detail about the four roles, and their purpose as building blocks in a well-structured social media program.  It is written mainly for the enterprise space, but the ideas he presents can easily be applied in any number of settings.

Take the time to give it a read.

(Thanks to Tac Anderson for the find, and for posting it via FriendFeed)

It’s 3:00 AM. Do you know where your content is?

There was a time, not too terribly long ago, when you could just put some information on your website, people would visit, find it (usually after sitting through a two-minute Flash intro), and then go on with their browsing.

Boy how times have changed.

These days, if you want your content to be found, not only should your website be optimized for search, but you should make it as easy as possible for people to find and share your content.

How, you might ask?

It could be that you publish news, insights and other information via a blog platform, and allow that content to be syndicated via an RSS feed.  Visitors could then subscribe to that feed, and receive any future updates in a form that is most convenient to them — whether that’s through their feed reader of choice, via BlackBerry or other mobile device, Outlook and more.

It could be that you’ve created a Facebook Page for your business, and share your news and other relevant information there.

Or, it could be that you’ve established a personal, or professional presence on Twitter or other microblogging services, and share updates with your followers throughout the course of conversation over time.

No matter how you choose to do it, the fact is that you can no longer simply expect people to come to your website to find information about you and your company.  There are too many other avenues through which they can find what they’re looking for, and in many cases they can bypass your website entirely to do it.

The communications landscape, particularly online, has changed dramatically in the past few years.  What are you doing to keep up?

The Power of Social Media is NOT What You May Think

For the past few years, and this year in particular, social media has been the darling of the marketing and advertising world. The promise of reaching the customer where they already are online, coupled with meteoric rises in traffic to sites such as Facebook and Twitter have made this realm an incredibly attractive realm for marketers and advertisers.

But the real power of social media does not lie in the tools themselves.  Nor does it lie in the fact that this activity is taking place online.

The internet is an inherently social medium.  Always has been, always will be.  Even in the early days of email, IRC, chat rooms, bulletin board systems and such, the internet provided the medium through which communication could take place online.  It continues to do so to this day.

The communication tools have changed, but the process has not.

So, what is the power of social media?

The power of social media lies in what it allows you to do.  For businesses, that could be how it helps to improve customer service.  Or, how it helps to drive sales, generate demand, or increase brand awareness.

Recently, a group of colleagues and I met for lunch.  During the course of the conversation, the question was asked, “What is the future of social media?”  An off-hand comment was made that “this” is the future of social media — the face-to-face conversation taking place around the table between six people.  In a way, that’s the truest  answer possible.  However, that’s not all.  Social media helps to enable that conversation.  It allows those around the table to stay connected beyond the 60-90 minutes of lunch conversation.  It allows the conversation to extend as long and as far as necessary, through a variety of communication channels.

It helps to remove the limitations of time and space from communication.

Social media in and of itself is a tool — a means to and end — much like a hammer, a car, or Adobe Photoshop.  The real magic happens when the tools are matched with a skilled operator with a specific purpose.  Just as you have a blueprint for the house in place before you start whacking away with a hammer, a good plan and solid strategy should be developed before any social media efforts are implemented.

Otherwise, you may just be driving around in circles.