Bare Feet Blog » Gossip 2.0

Welcome Pacific Business News Readers!

Roxanne Darling — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:05:40 +0000

We are graciously featured in several articles in today’s PBN as we call it locally. Social Media is really getting a lot of coverage these days and deservedly so. I want to thank them for all the interviews and quotes and I want to welcome YOU to our Bare Feet Blog! Lots of their content is for subscribers however you can get started with these:
Hiring Managers Buck Trends When it Comes to Klout, Pacific Business News, August 19, 2011
Businesses dive into social media then learn to swim, Pacific Business News, August 19, 2011
Yacht broker sails into social media waters, Pacific Business News, August 19, 2011

I’ve made a short video (less than 3 minutes), for you, to point out a few things not to be missed while you’re here and to give you as personal a welcome as possible. Please keep reading below the video for several links and shortcuts that I don’t think you’ll want to miss!

STEP ONE
Look around our site! There are over six years’ worth of howto articles, case studies, and testimonials for you to check out. Click the link to your right called “Explore Our Topics” to see the full list, or use the Search box, or click on any of the tag links in each article to find more of the same. You can also explore by year – just click on “Explore the Archives” to your right and see what we were doing back in 2005, 2006… Here are some of the hottest topics right now:
Social Media
Strategy
Howto

STEP TWO
Be sure to join our free email list here for KnowHow Cafe. The signup form is in the right sidebar of every page here on our website. You’ll be sent a link for a free eBook once you sign up; it is guaranteed to give you information you don’t have about classic social media case studies and the all-important tips for creating and managing your “profile” on various social networks. KnowHow Cafe is our educational division. We offer live classes in Honolulu and on Maui and will be launching our online learning community one of these days. Use coupon code “rox” if you like – but everyone gets the same free ebook! The codes simply help us find out how people learned about us.

STEP THREE
Please visit our Hawaii Chapter of the Social Media Club. SMC is a global nonprofit educational association dedicated to developing and sharing best practices in social media. Our Hawaii chapter started in 2008 (courtesy of yours truly) and we welcome you to attend our free events. The next one is in October. Be sure to join our free SMCHI email list to hear all about local events. While you are there, please meet the local Professional Members – they and their websites and Twitter links are all listed in the right column of the SMCHI website. Contact any of them for assistance in developing your social media skills and strategies!

Please do use the Share links immediately below and/or leave a comment about what topics you would like me to cover in our next series of KnowHow Cafe classes!

Aloha,

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A Social Media Tutorial with LinkedIn

Roxanne Darling — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:36:17 +0000

Sometimes the synchronicities are too much to ignore, so today’s post is about recurring instances of a brand name. That is the spiritual undertone for how the internet follows memes of words and vibrations too. Here are the three learning points:

SocMed 101: What can you share that will enable others to talk about you?
SocMed 202: Good manners have a dual payoff online.

SocMed 303: Take time to make this benefit you.

My LinkedIn Back Story for Today:
A week ago I gave a private keynote address to the annual management conference for Servco Pacific Inc., one of the largest, most successful, and innovative companies here in Hawaii. They bravely let me address them “from the future” while intentionally opening a can of worms. (Worms, I told them, that make black gold compost!)

Servco also met me there in the future, and in fact instead of the usual (often boring) speaker’s bio (which anyone can read online if interested) they put up a screenshot of my LinkedIn profile on the big screen, and introduced me by sharing stats on my social network influence. Very clever. I was impressed!

Then this morning, I had an email from Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, in my Inbox. I have attached it here for you to read. I’ll go in to the details below, however this email combined with this post and a little more convo on Twitter neatly illustrate my three SocMed points above.

SocMed 101: What can you share that will enable others to talk about you?
In this case, Reid shared several very useful things. First, he shared the success of his company: LinkedIn has reached 100 Million members. That is a huge success, especially since he figured out early on how to have free and paid premium services for a web-based platform. Take a moment to think about how many companies have not been able to do that yet. (Note: I am a paying member.)

Second, he told me how I played a role in this success – giving me a piece of the credit. I loved that! My partner Shane and I were talking about it before we got out of bed this morning! (He got one too of course.) As a very early adopter, I stayed with LinkedIn even when it was out of favor and struggling to cross the free-to-paid chasm. I do talk about LinkedIn constantly in my social media talks and training/coaching workshops, listing LinkedIn as one of the top five social networks that every business person should be using.

Naturally, now that I was part of the winning team, I wanted to share that with my network as well. Keep reading!

SocMed 202: Good manners have a dual payoff online.
In my world the “thank you” means a lot. It was a perfect thank you – which we all know from decades of The One Minute Manager – means to make it personal and make it specific and make it timely. He addressed me by name and he gave me my actual signup number. I was the 49,201st member of what is now a 100 million member community! So of course I felt good about that – most of us love being acknowledged for our participation.

Secondly though, this data had value to me as well, in terms of building my influence and reputation online. Word-of-mouth is the SOLE way we get work here at Bare Feet Studios. We have never advertised; we stand by and on the excellent services we deliver to our clients. So I posted this accomplishment of mine and LinkedIn’s to my Twitter feed. With all the “social media wannabees” making noise online, it is nice to have some solid data points that clearly establish me as an experienced pro. Click on the thumbnail image to see the actual tweet. You will see I also credited my first connection – Trevor Loy – who introduced me to LinkedIn. LinkedIn and Reid Hoffman got very public acknowledgement for their thank you note to me.

SocMed 303: Take time to make this benefit you.
In addition to the Twitter post, I am taking time to write this blog post. My main goal is to help others be internet literate. Social Media is easy to get into, but not that easy to use effectively. The people in my classes and talks love it when we take the theory and turn it into practical, real life examples.

The beauty of all this is that done consciously, there are always numerous benefits and numerous beneficiaries. This just keeps the good vibes in motion and that means some of it points back to you. Take a scan of the numerous people and companies mentioned here (and linked to!) free of charge, so to speak.

It is not the same energy as a quid pro quo transaction – those IMO are often laden with unmet (and unstated!) expectations that turn the energy sour. Social media is effective and it is fun, and smart business people know how to ride those waves together! It fails when you try to make it one-way, all about you, or only transactional for the sale. Some people do all these things naturally and gracefully, Like Rosa Say; others of us benefit from the step-by-step how to.

In the end, all three of these learning points actually roll into one – you cannot isolate the good news from itself. I’d love to hear your examples of keeping the good vibes in motion using social media too! Share the love.

Aloha,

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Cam Conversation: Business Travel to Hawaii, NextLevelHI, Facebook Privacy

Roxanne Darling — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:59:59 +0000

Here is the next installment in my web cam conversations with you. I am experimenting with the new uStream Producer “desktop application.” It allows me to record and live stream at the same time, while mixing in graphics, etc. You’ll see a small attempt at that at the end. Over time you will see many different forms and iterations of these web cam chats as I am using them to explore both my interactions with you, the visitor, but also the technology available to us. I am not seeing my voice in sync with my lips – do you see that glitch too?

More links and questions…
The big question for you: How much lead time does it take for you to be comfortable planning a business trip to Hawaii? Please leave me a comment. We’d love to host more conferences here and it’s vital we know what it takes on your side of the pond to get here!

Links Mentioned:
Aliza Sherman – “Social Media Talent Exchange” (I love that idea!)
Connie Reece
Hawai Convention Center
Kelly Mitchell
NextLevel Hawaii
Facebook Chat not so private – It’s ugly but these problems are not going away any time soon. (IMO)

Aloha,

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Pledge Your Weight Loss, Feed Others

Roxanne Darling — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:02:07 +0000

Polly Kauahi, Development Director of the Hawaii Food Bank, has been a regular at our free Social Media Club Hawaii meetings for the past several months. She has taken social media by the horns! Polly created a community fundraising event that all of us can support with very little effort while generating a high return – in fact less than two (2!) minutes of your time. Go to www.pfpchallenge.com and pledge your weight loss goals. For every pound you pledge, General Mills and other partners will donate 14¢. I love this idea – lose weight while helping to feed others; there is a perfect balance in this equation.

I am posting Pollyʻs entire email to me, as she has generously provided several ways you can share this information with your social networks. Iʻve already pledged – will you? – Rox

About Hunger in Hawaii
The Hawaii Portion of Hunger in America was released last month. There has been a 39% increase in the number of people needing help to feed themselves and their families, right here in the islands.

Although analysts tell us the worst has happened, we know that’s not true in the islands. Just this week, every staffer at The Honolulu Advertiser received their pink slips. Most family budgets cannot survive the loss of a paycheck for very long. It was only a matter of weeks before we saw some former donors to Hawaii Foodbank standing in food lines when Aloha Airlines closed their doors.

The Pound for Pound Challenge lets anyone help feed Hawaii’s hungry. It only takes an online pledge and less than two minutes of your time.

We are competing to get into one of the top 10 spots and get a bonus $10,000! Currently we are in 80th place with 724 Pledges and 19,000 pounds pledged. The leading ten cities have between 2200 and 4100 pledges.

I know we can do this in the same manner Hawaii got the 50,000 books last year and Social Media is the way to get it done.

Below and the first attachment are templates with draft copy for tweets, blogs and facebook. I hope Foodbank supporters will use the copy or customize the copy to encourage others to pledge at pfpchallenge.com.

I appreciate your help and support!

Facebook – Option #1
Aloha!

First, we’d like you to know we’re not asking you for a donation. But right now, in the next 10 minutes, there is an easy and quick way you can help Hawaii Foodbank, a member of the Feeding America network, assist individuals, families and children struggling with hunger right here in the islands.

We are joining Feeding America’s Pound for Pound Challenge – a proven, effective program supported by NBC’s The Biggest Loser, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and Walgreens – in its second year of helping America “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally.” The program helps people gain support in their effort to lose weight as they, in turn, help local food banks like ours raise funds to provide food assistance to those in need.

All weʻre asking is that you visit www.pfpchallenge.com and join us in the Challenge. Your online pledge is all it takes to help feed island families in need.

How do I sign up to take the Challenge?
It’s easy. And the more people who sign up or pledge in our area, the more we can help fight hunger in our community. Now through June 30, 2010, simply sign up and pledge your weight loss goals. For every pound you pledge, General Mills and other partners will donate 14 cents to Feeding America with much of that donation coming directly to NIFB!!

Visit www.pfpchallenge.com.
Click on “Pledge Now”.
Enter your birth date.
Enter your zip code (choose Food Bank if more than one serves your community).
Enter your weight loss pledge.
Enter your registration information (name & email).

It’s that easy! We hope you’ll join us in show America that Hawaii is up to the Challenge!

Please email, tweet and Facebook everyone you know. By helping us get in the top 10 Food Banks, you are helping us get an extra $10,000!

Thank you and good luck with your personal goals!

Facebook – Option #2

I am joining Hawaii Foodbank, a member of the Feeding America network, and the Pound for Pound Challenge, in partnership with NBC’s The Biggest Loser and General Mills, to “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally”. The program helps people gain support in their effort to shed pounds as they, in turn, help local food banks like ours raise funds to assist individuals, families, and children struggling with hunger in our area. All I’m asking is that you visit www.pfpchallenge.com and team with me by signing up and becoming a Challenge participant.

Twitter

Go to www.pfpchallenge.compledge your pounds in the Pound for Pound Challenge! For every pound you pledge to lose, General Mills will donate 14¢ to the Hawaii Foodbank!

Your Blog

Hawaii Foodbank Is Stepping Up To The Challenge!

Like every food bank across the country, Hawaii Foodbank, a member of the Feeding America network, is working harder every day to assist individuals and their families right here in the islands in these tough economic times. It’s a daily challenge, and we are always looking for new ways to meet it head on.

A proven fundraising program has partnered with NBCʻs The Biggest Loser, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and Walgreens to encourage people to “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally”. And the Foodbank needs your support to make our involvement a success!

Participating is easy and your impact can be huge.

Simply sign up and pledge your weight loss goals at www.pfpchallenge.com. For every pound you pledge, the Pound for Pound Challenge will donate 14 cents to Hawaii Foodbank. In addition, if you Tweet, Facebook and Blog this to everyone you know, you can propel the Hawaii Foodbank to one of the top 10 Food Banks that will get a $10,000 bonus. That’s 25,000 meals and you can make this happen. Sign-up at pfpchallenge.com and then pass it on, PLEASE!

It’s a great opportunity for our friends to do something good for themselves and do something good for our community.

To learn more about the Pound For Pound Challenge, you can visit the national website at pfpchallenge.com or e-mail megan@hawaiifoodbank.org.

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Beware of Social Media: It Does Create Change, Like It or Not

Roxanne Darling — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:12:23 +0000

The social media flap du jour is about the Nestlé fan page on Facebook being slammed with comments about their use of unsustainable farming in Indonesia for palm oil. It’s perfect timing as I held a webinar training this morning with a new client who shared concerns about the possibility of negative comments and inappropriate photos as a reason her brand is moving slowly with social media. (Otherwise I tend to stay away from flaps du jour!) In her case, it is an awesome brand with very high positives. So let’s deconstruct this a little bit to create some ease and markers on the social media roadway.

If your brand already has high favorable sentiment, you are ahead of the game. The more people love you, the more people (read “other people”) will come to you defense in the increasingly unlikely chance of a firestorm. Social media rewards the well-loved and well-behaved brands powerfully and frequently.

If your brand has questionable behaviors, it is definitely more vulnerable on the social web. You must be ready and willing to hear the negative feedback. That doesn’t mean you have to take it lying down – you can set your own rules for conversation, such as “posts that defame our individual employees, that misappropriate our registered logo, or that use profanity, will be deleted.” Keep in mind the more restrictions you place, the more heat you are likely to receive.

If you are in the midst of an online attack, remember basic communication and parenting skills! Let people vent, respond that you hear them, don’t try to win the argument at this stage of the game. Most importantly IMO, make note of their concerns, collect data, and be willing to present this to your peers/bosses internally. This is what this article is about. When people take their time to tell you how wrong you may be about your business, consider that gold. These are the canaries in your cold mine. It is your duty to take that back to your decision-makers. Nestlé has over 91,000 fans now on their Facebook page. This is a sizable, engaged audience that is hungry for a positive message about this situation. I hope Neslté will be able to deliver, though it may take some time.

Most all controversy gives your brand free attention. What you do with it, is up to you. But if you step back and look at this mechanically, as a bean counter, you can see the advantage. It is your most opportune time to influence opinion, to change internal processes that will make you a better company. In this case, the issues are protection of the orangutan habitat and sustainable farming. There is an undeniable trend that people on planet earth are increasingly in support of these type of issues, whether you are or not. Turns out it is cost-effective marketing too.

This particular issue, corporate social responsibility, influences not just fans but employees. A company’s ethical behavior was cited as an important factor in deciding where to work by 97% of the 7,000 surveyed by Kelly Services. You could say these Nestlé protesters are canaries in all of our cold mines – if you are a business person.

The Takeaway for Today

The truly smart companies are the ones who – regardless of their current brand sentiment – are engaging with social media because someone, somewhere, inside knows that these customer (and public eavesdropper) conversations are truly creating a groundswell in every organization. It is only a matter of time before this reaches your sales office or your recruiting desk. The message of the third millennium is that customers may not always be right but they do have the loudest voice. If you have the guts to show up and listen, then make change as a result, you are one of the diamonds shining from that very same cold mine.

Here’s a very inspiring quote from Nick Jacobs, President and CEO of Windber Medical Center & Winder Research Institute from way back in 2006! Keep in mind this is healthcare, truly a life and death matter.

“Live on the edge, the view is better from there.” That has always been my business sense. When it comes to people’s lives, we don’t take any chances. We are very very conservative, but when it comes to things like complementary medicine, the newest technologies, the best approaches that embrace mind, body and spirit, my personal life’s path has proven to me that we are all different.

Read the full interview with my friend Toby Bloomberg.

Aloha,

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Executive Overview of Social Media for the C’s

Roxanne Darling — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:38:43 +0000

I had an opportunity to speak with the “c”s at a leading Hawaii company today. That’s shorthand for the CEO, the CFO, the CTO, the CLO, etc. As is standard practice, I do not disclose our consulting clients unless the client wishes to do so. They shall remain anonymous for now.

I love doing this type of session – one and half hours of touring the social web and discussing the implications for marketing, customer service, new lines of business, technology, and of course the ever-present legal and HR concerns. Plus I enjoy working with smart people whose questions help me dig into my own background and experience.

I am the personality type that actually gets smarter and energized by interacting with others, so you can see why I am drawn to this type of work. In today’s case, the team member who has been implementing the social web assets was also present, adding very relevant information that I did not have regarding the company’s current status. The only thing I forgot was to take my easy button!

I like to share my presentations; today I created a small Quicktime movie that can be viewed on iPhones and video-enabled devices. I didn’t want to clog the client’s network with a large attachment so I chose to create this post and make the file available for download here, in case any of you readers find it useful. It includes a copy of Eric Qualman’s awesome YouTube video, the Social Media Revolution, which we used to open the meeting.

Download my presentation, Social Media: Hidden Pearls or Time Waster? as a Quicktime movie. (28 MB; slides without audio plus the embedded movie)

FYI the feedback was awesome. If your company or a company you know if would like to have the business message of social media delivered to your executives, please contact me. I have an ability to converse with strategic thinkers who may not be technical but who desire to be innovators in their organizations and industries.

Aloha,

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Social Media Events: New School or Old School?

Roxanne Darling — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:33:40 +0000

Even though we have these amazing, 24/7 ubiquitous connections taking place on the social web, IRL (in real life) conferences are still booming. I think that many of us still long for those face to face connections, even more so now that our networks have blown way past the indications of Dunbar’s number. He he.

This is an opinion piece about things I see happening in the social media space, in short Twitter-sized sound bytes. I am imposing that limit on myself as I am short on time today.

With #podcamphawaii & #socialmediaclub we have open tents, everybody’s welcome. (My preference) Attendance is great. Experiences are powerful. Learning is all over the map.

Other events, when “who is welcome” is changing weekly, when “must request an invite” is the rule? Not so cool. (Especially when no reply is then sent.) Ticket sales are s-l-o-w. Is there a connection?

If you want a private event, by all means have at it. You better have a killer list though and enough personal energy to draw in attendees. The Lobby understands this.

I don’t recommend teasing the public to try to get your buzz on when signups to your private event are not happening. Just open it up and the people will come!

When people are vying for attention and excluding peers, IMO that is so #highschool and #oldschool. We’re due for a major shift in thinking in this arena IMO.

Perfectly reasonable people disagree. That is the good news. When it’s your event, you can do what you want.

I hope these points help you figure out which strategy is more fun and less stress for planning your next event!

Aloha,

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Hawaii Officially Dips Toes in the Waters of Social Media

Roxanne Darling — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:14:48 +0000

Many thanks to the Pacific Business News and the Star Bulletin for covering the recent So Much More Hawaii fam tour with mainland bloggers. I started this writing as a comment on PBN, but I have a rule that when my comments exceed two paragraphs, I move the conversation over to my blog for clarity and for support. (Plus, the Star Bulletin did not allow comments on Ms. Schaefer’s article and PBN does not allow links in their comments – both of which limit the conversation and tend to make me a little grumpy.) As I understand it, this blogger trip is not the first time Hawaii tourism has paid for blogger fam trips – though it is the first official blogger tour and significant campaign of which I am aware. Paying people to come here and write about us has its own issues that I addressed here and here.

Measuring Social Media Campaigns
I agree with Derek (a commenter on PBN) on the point that internet-based marketing campaigns can be far more measurable (and accurate and targeted) than traditional print, radio, and tv-based initiatives. He was responding to this item in the PBN article:

It is difficult to measure the effectiveness of online marketing, but Lu said it may be beyond calculation.

However, just because blog software is free and many bloggers are willing to work free for vacations, does not mean there are no real costs associated with new media/social media campaigns. $15,000 to get Christine and staff working for months to conceive and produce this event, attend it, manage the bloggers, build the blog, the Twitter account and other social web assets, etc? Such a deal! Surely HTA does not expect stats with that – though they could have asked and been willing to pay more to get them.

A lot can be measured ex post facto but some of the more critical elements require set-up in advance, not least of which is doing some baseline measurements “in the space” to compare pre and post data. The better social web monitoring services also cost real money, in addition to the time it takes to set them up.

The Hidden Costs of Social Media Campaigns
I am really proud of Christine’s persistence and the state’s willingness to dip their toes in the water. The additional collaborators (hotels, Hawaiian Airlines, Avis & the bloggers) all gave from their pockets to support Hawaii tourism – of which they are a vital part. This was a low-risk venture and hopefully a terrific learning opportunity for people new to social web marketing. This model may not be replicable or scalable though. My concern is that since it was done on the fly (and on the cheap), it may be hard to truly get a sense of what is possible on the social web.

Nonetheless we produced Podcamp Hawaii last year on the fly and on the cheap with outstanding results! (It’s how Christine Lu came to meet Nathan Kam who represents HVCB and David Uchiyama of HTA.) We had over 400 live attendees, thousands more who joined us via live video stream from around the world, and our “tag” – the short label referring to our event (#pch08) – was the #1 trending topic on Twitter for a day (in the world!) and #2 on Flickr (in the world!). We made a huge dent and had people all around the world dreaming about being in Hawaii. We had the support of HVCB, the HCC and many other local businesses. We gave them each a custom landing page on our site – a place to talk directly to our audience – and hundreds of additional blog posts, twitter messages, videos, live stream banner ads, etc.

There is no Podcamp Hawaii 2009 though – despite the hugely positive response. It’s a lot of work for a group of volunteers. I personally logged over 200 hours of my time producing the event – 100% volunteer for this community service. The tools are often free, but the time commitment is substantial with social media.

It is an age old dilemma – people want to try “new” things with very little investment. If it’s successful, it is part luck and part skill. If it’s not, pessimists think they prevail when in fact not enough was invested to make a dent. Remember, blogging has been around for 10 years now; CNN uses the same software Christine used to build the blog; etc. In reality, these are not “new” technologies.

We Are Beginning to Understand the Value of Online Networks
The Harvard Business Review has been covering the social web for years now. I tripped across this article from 2001 (!) today, pointing out the exponential value that is accrued within self-organizing, peer-to-peer online networks. Author David Reed, who called them “GFN’s” for group-forming networks, actually began his research in 1997 and states:

I’ve been studying GFNs for the last four years and have come to realize that they require a whole new way of measuring network value. Indeed, I think companies that can capitalize on the power of GFNs will gain the strongest competitive advantages that the Internet has to offer.

I would encourage companies to realize that the conversational web is here to stay and it can be a very rewarding place to do business. It is a dramatic example of the concept of “the more you give, the more you get.”

Caveat: I know Christine Lu and several of the bloggers personally and have been trying to persuade various tourism entities to learn more about the social web, Here’s just one recent example. The interactive web is not easy to understand from the outside, just like most foreign cultures. In this “place” there are people issues as well as software and technology issues, thus making “understanding” a daunting task to be sure. OTOH (on the other hand) it is a very open, embracing environment though and “newbies” are always welcome!

Want to Learn More?
Our local chapter of the global Social Media Club meets once a month and our meetings are free, open to anyone, and feature informative speakers and excellent networking. Our next event is Friday, June 12th at the ING DIRECT Cafe in Waikiki. Come join us, and learn why the Club’s tagline is, “If you get it, share it.” This month’s topic is “Online Reputation Management.”

Shane and I are also launching KnowHow Café – a place to learn more about the social web, online productivity, audio and video podcasting, blogging, Twitter, and more. Join our email list to be notified of upcoming online and live, in-person classes. Use the promo code “bfs” to help us know where you heard about us. We are mid-way through a six week course called “Getting Started on the Social Web.” I’ll be posting more about that in the coming week, time permitting! Once again, time is a critical resource on the social web.

With Aloha,

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@Shane Talks Video with @AndyBumatai

Roxanne Darling — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:08:03 +0000

Andy Bumatai is a well known comedian from here in Hawaii who has upgraded his personal brand to version 2.0. He has taken his http://theandybumataishow.com/, he uses Twitter to announce each episode and to attract guests, as well as keep the connection alive and well during the show.

Bare Feet Studios partner Shane Robinson is a guest today. You can watch the live stream and add your comments in the chat room.

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Resist the Urge to Be Stingy; Sharing is Good for Business

Roxanne Darling — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:08:32 +0000

Yeah, you’ve heard all about sharing on the web, and there is a good chance you have formed an opinion. Rather than talk in platitudes, Shane and I like to give real life examples. It’s the best way we know of to demonstrate web practices that can appear confusing, vague, or even irritating.

Within hours of coming home from the launch meeting of the Hawaii chapter of the Social Media Club, I got an email from Capsun Poe, one of the attendees. He was writing a blog post about it and wanted a copy of my slide deck, aka PowerPoint presentation.

Like many of you, perhaps, I had that initial twinge of, “No! I spent over 10 hours putting the concepts together, gathering the photos, refining the talking points, and integrating it all together to suit my voice. I delivered it in about 15 minutes, even though I usually like an hour for this talk, The Social Web is Changing “Everything.”

Quickly though, my social web brain kicked in, without me having to get kicked out there in public.

I can put the deck on my account at SlideShare, for the whole world to see.
I can set whatever sharing permissions I want to put on it. I chose to let anyone view it, embed it on their web site, add it to their favorites, and even leave comments. The only permission I did not allow was being able to download the original files.
Capsun can then embed the deck in his blog and actually help me spread not only the word, but my expertise and our company brand as well. (We put our logo all over our digital web assets, precisely because we do want others to pass them around.
I actually try to remember to do this with our presentations. Now I am grateful to Mr. Poe for the reminder, instead of being irritated by the request! He has also become a self-appointed evangelist for the Social Media Club – which is exactly what the club’s tag line is all about: “If you get it, share it.”

One of the hallmarks of the social web is sharing. All day every day people are answering questions, posting tutorials, telling friends about their favorite new restaurants, and yes, sometimes sharing files (think music) without paying for them. The old model of intellectual property meant that I own whatever I create and not only can’t you use it without permission, but I won’t share it unless you pay me.

You can see in this example how that mindset would have taken me and my ideas out of circulation immediately. And it would have discouraged Capsun from wanting to interact with me in the future. I would lose his access as well as that of his entire network. Today, it’s not just about the money. If you don’t share, you cut yourself off from growing your bottom line as well as your reputation.

Bonus Points
As it turns out, the people at SlideShare corporate liked my presentation, and featured it on their News and Politics section. This generated extra views and awareness for me. It’s one of those things you can’t buy into, and you can’t count on, but it only happens because I was there. If you don’t participate, you are out of circulation. These days, even if you wanted to buy your way in, on most places of high traffic and influence, you can’t. Not in the editorial pages that is. And isn’t that where you look for stuff of value? I don’t know anyone who looks at the ads on a web page first, or even second or third.

Here is the presentation, in case you are curious. (Or go view it on Capsun’s site and also read his well articulated commentary.) The SlideShare service builds this player automatically, and helps me promote myself, our company, and their services.

The Social Web is Changing "Everything"

View more presentations from Roxanne Darling.

Aloha,

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Bare Feet Blog » Gossip 2.0

Welcome Pacific Business News Readers!

A Social Media Tutorial with LinkedIn

My LinkedIn Back Story for Today:

SocMed 101: What can you share that will enable others to talk about you?

SocMed 202: Good manners have a dual payoff online.

SocMed 303: Take time to make this benefit you.

Cam Conversation: Business Travel to Hawaii, NextLevelHI, Facebook Privacy

Pledge Your Weight Loss, Feed Others

Beware of Social Media: It Does Create Change, Like It or Not

The Takeaway for Today

Executive Overview of Social Media for the C’s

Social Media Events: New School or Old School?

Hawaii Officially Dips Toes in the Waters of Social Media

@Shane Talks Video with @AndyBumatai

Resist the Urge to Be Stingy; Sharing is Good for Business