Finding My Way

Just a few short months ago, I jumped into the blogging arena somewhat reluctantly. I knew blogging was an increasingly popular way to information share, but I pondered exactly what I had, or even wanted to offer. There are thousands of blogs out there covering almost every topic. I had some ideas on the overall theme but I needed to be more specific. Finding a distinct direction was my initial goal. So I did some research and found some great articles on blogging. This one on "how to be interesting" really helped narrow my focus.

I decided that my interest and further exploration in technical communication would be a good start. The constant development of new technologies, combined with their sizeable challenges, would offer limitless topics for a theme. I hoped to offer readers awareness and clarification in the advances that are being made with Web 2.0 capabilities. The new developments in this field are affecting personal and professional communication in countless ways.

So once I decided the theme of my blog, I then had to navigate the technical aspects of setting it up. Blogger made this process pretty simple. Although, adding a banner and customization was more of a challenge (good material for another post).

Then came the actual writing part. This proved to be the most challenging (and still is). For me, providing useful information to readers and using a conversational tone to relate my message has been difficult. Most of my educational communication experience has been the opposite, professional and to the point. I have made some progress in this area but will continue to work on it.

In addition, formulating posts proved to be extremely time-consuming. Some of my first posts required at least six hours of writing and rewriting. I only wanted to publish my best efforts. I also started adding images and links to my make my posts more interesting. Technically, this took practice but I became much more competent at this over time.

My blog has evolved over these past few months but there is still work to be done. My writing has improved but there is always room for growth. I would also like to track readers and encourage followers. I just started using tag labels for my posts which should at least help with others finding my blog. It's a start. One thing I learned through blogging is that you have to start somewhere.

image from istock photo

While Visions of Twittering Danced in My Head...

..along with Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube images...but no sign of sugarplums just yet.

The past few weeks I have not been doing any holiday shopping. I have been rather busy preparing a social media proposal for a communications firm that would like to launch a campaign in the new year. This is a great opportunity for my company, Connected Media, and the first of its kind.

I learned a great deal preparing this proposal and exploring social media. Here are a few noteworthy points that are clarified in my plan.

Social Media is:

-what consumers are responding to
-a tremendous marketing opportunity for every company willing to commit
-a powerful way to engage consumers
-accessible and fairly simple to use
-a way to broaden and target a company's reach
-a transparent way to increase a company's brand awareness

Social Media is not:

-a forum for direct product or service advertising
-a quick way to boost sales
-an instant way to create or repair an image
-a platform for boasting

I presented my proposal in the form of a website instead of a traditional text based design. This was beneficial to my client in several ways; it provided the ability to view several Web 2.0 interactive capabilities and their use in social media, to see first hand the integration of new technology and the effects on marketing, to grasp the concept of its uniqueness, and to realize the numerous mediums available.

I used Google sites and created a detailed strategy for my client to implement social media in 2010. Google sites is a fairly easy and free way to develop a website. There are many templates to choose from and it does not require an HTML code writing ability. Although some knowledge of this is helpful. Especially if you want to change your design beyond the template.

My home page presents an introduction and the left sidebar contains the navigation links that also serve as an outline for the plan. Here is an image of the welcome page.
















The first thing I designed was a logo for my client. It was important to establish a branding element to incorporate into several of the example media outlets I needed to create for the proposal. Both a website and a blog are important aspects of social media, as they are foundations for other channels to funnel through. In addition, an associate used the logo to develop several marketing materials - collaboration at its best. Here is an image of the logo and the business card designed by my associate:





I also provided mock ups of a website and a blog. This was time-consuming but I wanted to offer my client an image, using the logo, as a visual starting point. I used Blogger and Googles sites to produce the mock ups and then took screenshots using Snagit software. Here are the results:






The crux of the proposal explained the strategies and methods of implementing several other social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. I found some interesting videos that described the uses of Facebook that I included in my proposal. Although they were designed by Cyber Homes, the messages are the same for any company using Facebook.



The biggest challenges for this proposal were deciding which information to include and the best way to present it via a website. Social media has numerous platforms but jumping into all of them at once is not a good idea. Therefore, I offered foundational tactics that would enable my client to get started. At their request, I conveyed the proposal through a website which offers its own set of technical intricacies. There were many other issues to consider such as usability, navigation, and interactivity that are not necessary for a text based plan. The final result offers my client a plan in a clear, professional, interactive and user-friendly website.

My conclusions provided ways to leverage social media and measurement tools that can help monitor their efforts along the way. I pointed out that launching a social media campaign is a big commitment. It can also be a beneficial one if it is managed appropriately.

I am somewhat of a newcomer to social media but I am sure my client will not be disappointed with my approach. Although preparing this proposal was an arduous task, I am grateful to have had the opportunity. It was very enlightening. I often see the scope of technological change and progression in every day life. Until now, I did not really examine the role and the impact of social media on businesses. The changing landscape of how businesses can relate to their customers is creating new markets and steadily redefining traditional corporate marketing campaigns.

And that is just a bit more technical food for thought.


View the full proposal and offer your comments.

Collaboration

Do we ever have to leave the home? For me, it doesn't seem like it. I can grocery shop, pay bills, meet with my children's teachers, attend classes, and collaborate on new projects at work, all from my computer. I can even attend business meetings or participate in group ventures online. With the development of various collaborative tools, teamwork has never been more convenient.

I am currently working on an interesting project, a social media proposal. A few of my associates and I have used chat forums, emails, and bookmarking sites to exchange ideas for the drafting of our independent proposals. We all work from our own home base and have never met in person but are working on the same task.

Our first attempts to meet online and share ideas were via a chat room. A few participants, from different regions of the state, logged on to the chat but we had some technical complications. Our input was not transmitted immediately so it was a lengthy process to exchange information. We were still able to discuss initial design ideas of the project and how to package them.

Our second attempts via chat room worked much better and it proved to be more productive. Again, there were only a few participants, but we discussed strategies, missions, and tools that would help us design our proposals.

After our chat sessions, one of my colleagues and I discussed the collaborative process a bit further via email. We decided that we might be able to share pertinent information, expertise and research more effectively through email and/or telephone. We decided that there was an enormous amount of research that needed to be done for this project and that we could allocate the tasks. We divided up the topics and initially sent one another the links that were applicable. We then decided that using a bookmarking site (delicious) was a better option.

We eventually added the convenience of an "old" communication method, the telephone, to brainstorm about possibilities and strategies. We were looking for a way to be more efficient with our limited time and so it made sense to discuss them in a more conventional way. We both contributed a great deal to the idea sessions and it helped me formulate my outline.

We also shared our design skills for the proposal. I created a new corporate logo and my associate designed the marketing materials. Together, we created the branding elements to use within our own projects.

Although I can't speak for my colleague, the collaborative experience was beneficial for me and my efforts. There may have even been more information and skills to exchange had we not had strict time constraints.

In the future, writeboard and co-ment could be new Web 2.0 tools for collaboration purposes on this type of project. I had the chance to explore these just a few days ago for a different assignment. I was easily able to update and modify existing information. Collectively, a new document was designed for communication purposes.

Overall, I firmly believe that a team effort produces better content than that of a single person. Many new Web 2.0 capabilities have been created with this in mind, so that many individuals can work together for a joint purpose.

collaboration image from istock photo