Engaged Learning

Blogs – Day 3 – Write Your First Post

Nov 11, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

Week 1: Blogs: Day 2

You have learned a lot so far!  Great job.  Now, the rubber hits the road.  Here is where you may be tempted to stop and say “I can’t!”  But nay!  You shall not give in!  Go forth and conquer your fears.   I will walk you step-by-step how to do this.  Take my hand and let’s go…

TO DO – Write your first post (Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate – Time: 15 minutes)

Part 1: Go to the blog you created on the first day and create a new post.  When you do this, you go in the ‘backdoor’ of your blog – to the DASHBOARD.  There are MANY things you can do back there.  But if you follow the simple steps in the video below, it will be easy.

• Write about what you have learned so far.
• Link back to this blog post (also shown in the video).  This is a staple of good blog writing you will need to learn.

Part 2:

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Tags: Blog, social media challenge

Blogs – Day 2 – How Blogs Are Used

Nov 10, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

Week 1: Blogs: Day 2

Photo by ShashiBellamkonda on Flickr

Why would someone create a blog and write posts?  Let’s look at two different areas:  Outside to the world and inside within an organization.

Outside to the world
I have some information I feel is worth sharing.  You are reading this blog and learning.  Look at that.  Purpose #1 complete.

There are other purposes.  Google has a blog that tells everyone what they are up to next.   The White House has a blog so you can keep up to date on governmental issues.  There are blogs about iPhones, one day mega deals, digital photography, how to give good presentations, genealogy, cooking, how to ‘hack’ life, the Oregon coast, a picture a day, and all things memorable if you grew up in the 80s. There are even blogs on how to write better blogs.  Pick any subject and there is someone who is gathering information about it and writing about it.

Pointer:

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Tags: Blog, social media challenge

Blogs – Day 1 – An Introduction

Nov 9, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

Week 1: Blogs: Day 1

Blog is short for ‘Web Log.”  So many people have told me that they think blogs are only good for “verbal vomit.”  Yes, that can be true, but that is not how WE are going to use them.  In fact, anyone who uses it correctly uses it for sharing and learning and conversation.

This is written on my blog.  Blogs are made by creating a series of ‘posts.’  For the next few weeks I will write a post every day on this blog.  Hopefully you won’t see this as “verbal vomit” but instead will use it as a chance to learn, ask questions and get answers.

In these posts I will explain how to use and why we would use these different social media and networking technologies.

BB (Before Blogs)

If we want to get information out to a group, a company, association or even extended family, their are two common methods that come to mind.  The first is a newsletter.  Write articles, print them and mail them.  The second is to email them.  Both of these assumes two things: 1) You have their correct mail or email addresses and 2) they want the information you send to them.  Because of the medium and the ’spam’ factor, typically these types of communications only go out no more than once a month.  And if a reader likes or dislikes what they read or has a comment or more to add to the information, there are very limited ways to share it.  And lastly, to get off the list you have to ‘opt-out.’

Blogs

Blogs have turned this method of communication on its head. 

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Tags: Blog, social media challenge

Convincing others to Blog

Jan 12, 2009 Social Learning SIG

photo credit: dh

Last week I had a meeting with a president of a company and four other directors/managers who had previously committed to blogging on their company’s blog.  They were to take weekly turns posting, only committing themselves to blog once every five weeks – rotating.  This wasn’t happening (obviously, or this would be a really pointless blog post!).

They walked in the meeting with comments that they were going to be in trouble, sent to the principles office, and get their hands slapped – all in fun, but with a touch of seriousness.  The inevitable had come: Time to face the fact that they committed and were not doing it.

In the meeting I reminded them of their commitment, reminded them of why they committed in the first place and left it up to them.  Why were they not doing as they had committed?  One person said he thought blogs were pointless and a huge time waster – a rambling of someone’s thoughts.  He didn’t have time nor the desire to blog.  He was the only one fully against it.

The others knew they should, but just didn’t know what to write about.  So, we started (again) going through different topics they could (and should) write about.  What would the customers be interested in? There is a new version of the software coming out.  Write about that.  There is an update all customers should have.  And that.  There is a contest they are promoting.  And that.  They went to an industry conference and learn some great information.  And that.  As we talked, they realized that up until this time there was not a way to get this kind of information out to the customer.  Not only have they totally missed communicating to their customers in the past, but that they really need to step up and do it now.  They suddenly realized how valuable it would be for their company.

Not that we had not talked about that before, but this time it sunk in deeper.  Let’s hope it sunk in deep enough to keep committments.  And then, from there, it will spread.  “Wow. If I have this information for our customers and it increases the communication with them, I wonder how much it would increase with my employees?!  And maybe even business partners?”

It will take some time (be patient) but it will get there.

For you – start evangelizing within your company now because it just doesn’t magically happen. It takes time.

Tags: Blog, blogging