Posts Tagged ‘social media’

CMS vs. Web 2.0 vs. Social Media – Do You Know the Difference?

Aug 18, 2009 Uncategorized

On the SLQOTD on Twitter today, I am asking “What is the difference between a Web 1.0, CMS, Web 2.0 and Social Media.” Here is my take:

Web 1.0 is a push from one ‘person’ to many people. To make a change or add, it often has to go through a process if internal to an organization or the person needs to know HTML (I am making some generalizations here, but go with me…) There is one person who owns the content and who is the authority. It is focused on the information or document and the user cannot customize what they want to see.

A CMS (Content Management System) has more of a hub and spoke model. One person puts the information (usually in the form of a document) into the repository. Others can go get it. I call it a 1:portal:1 model. Can it be collaborative? With some pains, yes. It isn’t quite real time, but can approach it. One person owns the document, even though many may have some input. The focus, of course, is on the document and the user usually cannot customize what they want to see.

Web 2.0 is many:many and allows information to freely be inputed and distributed instantly. The authority… is there one? And the focus is on content – that everyone can create and add to the existing base. And, in most cases, the user can customize what they want to receive.

Social Media is very similar to Web 2.0. In fact, in the compared characteristics, the only thing that is different is that it focuses on people, rather than content. The focus is on building the community.

YouTube.com by itself is Web 2.0 in nature and not a social media site. Add in ‘channels’ and it starts to have a social media mentality. Yesterday I saw tweets about the DOD’s new ‘social media’ site. I did not sign up, but from what I can tell, it is mostly Web 1.0, with a little bit of interaction, or Web 2.0. I don’t see anything out of the gate relating to social media. The focus of it is to push information out from a main source to you. They throw in asking a few questions of the audience, but that is about it.

Now, to be fair, that is all they probably wanted to do. They didn’t need a social media site. And if they don’t need it and they don’t do it, then good for them! Too many companies put in social media solutions when all they REALLY need is a web 1.0 solution. But we, as the consumers, should not call this DoD site social media.

I am finding that many people do not know the difference between the above categories and we, as professionals, need to be able to articulte this so that they will understand the benefits of each and when and when not to use each.

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Who am I? Where am I going? A Self Reflection

May 29, 2009 Social Learning SIG, collaboration

Having a ‘real’ job helps you to define yourself.  You might be a graphic designer, a chemical engineer, a nurse or gardner.  But when you are a consultant, the question “Who are you” is largely up to you to define.  This is the challenging (yet exciting!) situation I have placed myself in. Doing this for one main, steady company and doing other projects on the side (which is what I have been doing for years) is MUCH different than all contracting and consulting.  What a fun time it has been so far!

When I talk to either one person or a large hall of people about what I do, I get so excited!  The possibilities for them are HUGE!  Most people, because they don’t understand all this, do not realize the impact and savings of time, money and other resources that they would see.  And when they finally take the plunge it is wonderful to see their eyes light up and get just as excited as I am.  It is even better when they experience, first hand, the effects and become a hero in their organizations.  Maybe that is what I do – I create heros.  Hmmm.  I need to think about that more!

Selling myself, however, has never been my strongest attribute.  I just want to get in, do a great job and show them how to make some real gains.  My ‘proof in the pudding’ is my work, not a hyped up sense of self.  BUT, I do realize that to be able to be a part of those projects I have to so some selling.  So I have taken a stab at defining myself in a more generic way.  I have decided to do it as a post instead of in a doc that I horde myself.  Feel free to make any comments.

Where is my focus?

Primary focus: Using social media and social networking for performance improvement and customer communication.

Secondary Focus: Using social media for marketing; creating performance improvement solutions including learning environments and curriculum; creating and delivering the training (standup, eLearning, etc.).

What does the Primary Focus look like?

  • Education on how social media / networking can drastically increase performance improvement and customer communications through keynotes, conference sessions, workshops, webinars, trainings, writings
  • Setting strategy – Working with key stakeholders to identify
    • Goals / objectives
    • Resources
    • Culture which will help or hinder project
    • Roles & responsibilities
    • Skills and abilities of employees
    • Current vs. future processes / procedures
    • Timelines, milestones, tasks and measurements of success
  • Implementation
    • Managing the project
    • Creating the environment culturally
    • Creating the environment technically
    • Educating all involved on all levels
    • Marketing (internally & externally)
  • Ongoing management and support

How have businesses benefited from this?

  • Increase in
    • sales
    • time to ‘onboard’ a new employee
    • innovation and idea creation
    • the customer ‘working’ for the company for free
    • finding and exploiting new and untapped markets and industry potential
    • finding necessary information
    • finding the experts in a given subject
    • communication with and between employees
    • communication with customers
    • finding answers to questions
    • brining out and storing the knowledge and wisdom of employees and customers
    • working and more efficient processes
    • focus on direction for employees and customers
    • customers supporting themselves and each other
    • customer feedback
    • effectiveness of training
  • Decrease in
    • customer support instances and time/instance
    • number of meetings and meeting time
    • number of emails
    • redundant tasks (duplication of efforts)

Current Side Projects

I am pretty blessed to work with some pretty smart people.  Those in the industries of social media, search engine optimization and marketing (SEO / SEM), Learning and eLearning  and hardware & software.

So, that is who I am – my self reflection.

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Why Social Media, Twitter, et.al. Have Been Rejected Then Adopted

May 14, 2009 Adoption, social media

Dave Wilkins did a masterful job in explaining “Why Twitter?” in his post The Truth About Twitter.

I created the Spandex Continuum to explain the stages social media is going through today.

But for a more in depth look at why, this video is a pure MUST watch.  You may not get it until the last two minutes, so watch it to the end.  Basically, personal preference is NOT determined what people like or dislike.  Did you catch that?  OK, maybe not never, but keep going with me here.  Instead, people will make a choice based upon what they can explain, even though they may like something completely different.  An odd paradox.  If they aren’t forced to explain it, they often go with what they like.  But if they have to explain it their answer changes.

My mind is still going through the lessons I have learned and trying to explain them right now.  After the video tell me: What lessons did you learn about social media and how others view and use it?

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ROI: Measuring Social Media / Learning

Apr 13, 2009 Social Learning SIG

Last week I had a meeting with a client of mine who asked me if I knew how to do ROI on social media/learning.  My answer was, yes, but there isn’t a magic bullet.

For example, there isn’t a formula that will come up with what you want.  Sure, there are plenty of examples of ROI, but they never tell the full story.  For example, after I created the GTSCommunity Portal we saw 20% of all interaction with the technical support team originate through the portal.  What is the ROI on that stat?  We could calculate out what a phone call costs and how much we have saved by not having the team on the phone.  We would come up with a number that would be very nice.

Yet, what about those times when that information they answered for that one person answered it for another without the second even contacting the team at all?  Or what about those times when a customer searches for other information, finds it, is satisfied?  Or the times when they find another customer with the expertise they would like and they make a connection and benefit from that? Or the time when a prospective customer sees the online support they are receiving and that is just one more reason to purchase the product?

Can we ever capture these?  Not really.  We can see the indirect effects of them right away.  (Yet I don’t want to discount what we CAN measure, which is a lot.  There is a lot of proof there as it is.)

Then I thought about Stephen M.R. Covey’s TRUST video (Can’t find original, but this will do.)  He said that TRUST is measurable.  And he is right – to a degree.  There are a TON of other ways that TRUST can influence things that are not directly measurable.

So we go to the next question.  Do we measure what we can measure, and call it good?  Or add in there some Super Stories that show the value.  Or stick to the numbers? Or is there another way?  My personal way is evolving, but I would love to hear the opinions of others.

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Multi-Tasking & Social Media – Mastering the Balance

Feb 11, 2009 Social Learning SIG

While reading Will Thalheimer’s blog on multitasking, I started playing out situations in my mind.

  • Twitter, email and IM popping up new messages
  • Going through my RSS feed
  • Checking LinkedIn & Facebook
  • Answering the phone
  • Attending to visitors

Yet as we do this we are all learning.  So if it actually is a disturbance to multi-task, where is the line?  What is considered multi-tasking and what is considered fruitful learning & performance?  This is what I have come up with initially…

I see myself in a constant state of learning.  But those non-formal times of learning which are best for me are when they are targeted.  It doesn’t matter if I use 100 different resources or 1.  But if I am focused then I can use all my tools to accomplish a task.

For example, yesterday I was trying to find a way to create a movie in Camtasia, send it to Adobe Premiere and produce the final with a clear picture.  The ones I was doing were decent, but I needed more clarity.  To do this I integrated a google search, help search, Twitter shout-out and email.  I wasn’t multi-tasking.  Instead I was focused on one task even though I was using multiple avenues.

Recognizing this some time ago, I have turned off email popups and check my RSS feeds, LinkedIn, Facebook and NING sites on purpose (as apposed to haphazardly).  (Twitter I still have on, but often I let those go until I can check a bunch at a time.)  If I am heavy into the moment I let my phone go to voicemail.  And in desparate times I “pull out the plant.”  This large plant blocks anyone from visiting me.  All these things keep my learning and production focused, avoiding the multi-tasking.

One last thought – I have found there is some benefit to procrastination.  Interruptions don’t always receive immediate brain share.  They are put on the backburner unless they are an emergency (Covey’s “Important vs. Urgent”).  Sometimes they disappear before I get to them.  Often my brain will, in the background, deal with the situation so when I do allow it to occupy my time I can speedily take care of it.  The brain is a beautiful thing.

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Rethinking the Conference Structure – Time to Step it UP

Feb 3, 2009 Social Learning SIG

Mark Oehlert attended TechKnowledge ‘09 and his thoughts were very similarly to mine: Conferences need to be updated.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately (with my spare brain cycles) and would like to expand on a few of his points.

“Social media should be the default and should kick in as soon as I register and continue past the conference.”

Ohhhhhh yes.  Specifically, I should have the contact of everyone else who has signed up – their blogs, their twitter handle, and anything else they want to share with us.  Most importantly, I should have access to the presenters themselves…

“Whether or not I’m a speaker or an attendee, I want input into what will be session outcomes. Asking me to pay, go to a session and then fill out an eval so that NEXT YEAR will be better is a little backward isn’t it?”

Yes, Mark, it is. (But not that it shouldn’t be done.)  This is the reason we should have access to the presenters.  I want to let them know where I am coming from so they understand my situation.  If many of us do this, they can focus their presentations A LOT more on what will be of most use.  Let me give you an example…

A couple years ago I was talking with Josh Bancroft at a cub scout function where our wives were leaders.  He had just attended Gnomdex in Seattle and had mentioned that it was brutal for a particular speaker.  Why?  Paraphrased, “While he was giving his presentation we (the attendees) were on Twitter asking questions of each other, figuring out the basic things.  When he was done and was ready to take questions, all the small things were out of the way and we had the tough questions for him.  Having expected the same easy questions, he was not ready for our targeted, more difficult questions.  It was brutal for him.” (Sorry, Josh, if I butchered that.)  That has always stuck with me.

Taking a lesson from that conversation, why can’t we have access to the presenters BEFORE the conference and help them get through the easy questions to the tough ones, those we REALLY want answered?  Much more targeted, tactile and actionable topics that will allow us not only take the next step when we leave the conference, but leap.

“FIGURE OUT WIRELESS!!!! I don’t give a rat’s *** how you do it, just freaking do it. Do you understand the good will and PR you will reap? Do you? I know this diff between simple and easy – this one might not be easy but it sure is simple – get it done.”

I can’t say this enough.  If you don’t give me access – full and reliable – you have cut yourselves off of free publicity and a MAJOR advantage of a conference in my mind.  I will be MUCH less likely to come to your conference.  A lot of it is being able to social in this way, updating my blog, quickly checking work when I need to, browsing to information as I need it in or out of a session, mashing up my knowledge with the knowledge I am receiving.  No Wireless – No Attendee.

“I’m also going to risk some wrath here and say NO to Vegas as a location. I’d actually rather be in Chicago or New York or San Francisco or Atlanta – if you want to hold a conference somewhere that has tourist appeal, then hold it somewhere with broader tourist appeal.”

I am done with Vegas. Enough said.

There are more thoughts I have about how to increase it the user experience, but I won’t bore you.  They are more of the nitty gritty stuff.  But overall we need an overhaul.  Some conferences are inching there which I love to see.  But we need more – I say take the leap.

MY CHALLENGE TO ALL CONFERENCE PLANNERS:

Who is going to lead the change? Who is going to engage the would-be-attendees BEFORE the conference and get their ideas of what they would like?  How would they like it structured, topics to be covered, modes of learning and interacting, etc.  Who is going to engaged the participants before and during and after the conference and realize that they have the power to bring together a ton of people not only for a few days, but ongoing?

I have been thinking about creating a conference just on Social Learning and adding in all these elements.  Oh, how I would love to do it – If only I didn’t have to sleep!

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