Kicking off the Spring semester of the LSU CE Social Media Specialist Certificate Program. As always, social media changes rapidly. Here are new strategic items since last semester:

• Google+ communities – This new area of G+ provides great new ground for connecting
• Twitter and the Vine app – At the minimum this app is a fun way for brands to express themselves
• Facebook Social Graph Search- Brand pages can’t use this feature yet, but it still provides powerful insight by location, destination or interest
• LinkedIn’s new interest match feature – An easy way for like minded professionals to meet

This semester, we’ve added another non-profit for the students to work with. Welcome Braveheart to the #LSUCESMCert family.

Image Credit – Tech Cocktail

The 2013 New Media Expo was a blast. The largest collection of bloggers, podcasters, and web TV pros. One big highlight for me was spending time with the Overblog team. Overblog was an exhibitor and sponsor of #NMX in Las Vegas. I participated in several events with Overblog. I was already pleased with their technology and after meeting their team in person, I was impressed with their energy and fun personalities. There is much to tell but I’ll list two of the events I participated in with Overblog here.

Speed Dating

I had the opportunity to sit with Fred Montagnon, founder of Overblog and Liva Judic, Overblog’s top business developer for the U.S. expansion, during the NMX Speed Dating session. Entrepreneurs ranging from solopreneurs to larger company representatives visited our table for 8 minutes each. It was a great chance to learn about their objectives and see how Overblog can truly meet their needs. For most visitors, there were strategic opportunities for them to use the Overblog platform in addition to their existing online presence or as the start of a new more targeted presence. Some companies were pitching their services as well. I always enjoy listening to innovative ideas.

Most of the strategic discussion surrounded the idea of using Overblog to bring together unique content and content from other social channels for a more complete and targeted picture of your brand for your audience.

NMX Panel: Walk the Talk: Learn to Write for a Global Audience

Another highlight was the “Walk the Talk” panel on writing for a global audience. It was great to have the perspectives of Chris Heuer and Amy Vernon who have worked with global companies. Fred Montagnon offered the perspective of a European based company going global including expansion to the East and to the Americas. The audience found the discussion interesting and they asked great questions.

Tips from the panel on writing globally:

• Respect for other cultures is key
• Colloquialisms won’t be understood by a global audience
• Find the universalities for your global audience
• Understand the language and the culture
• If you don’t read local content, you won’t be able to understand the culture
• You cannot do everything from one country. You need to have partners in other places
• It’s all about the relationship you create with your audience, no matter what the language

Fred also mentioned a study of over 5,000 influencers from around the world highlighting key differences between European bloggers and American bloggers.

NMX was three jam packed days filled with meeting people, exchanging ideas and having a great time. There is so much more to write about but I’ll save the rest for another day.

More links:

Visit my Overblog

Visit the #NMX 2013 Page on Overblog

Learn more about Overblog

Top Image: Fred Montagnon, Founder of Overblog with David Gamble of Next Century Music and Victor Canada of NXT Media. Next Century Music represents Dylan Taylor who performed for New Media Expo attendees at the after party. 

One of the fun things about human behavior and trend watching is seeing things come, go and come again. In almost every field of endeavor there are practices which are best, then worst, then best again.

For many years I watched the medical community talk about coffee consumption as terrible for your health on even years. On odd years coffee studies would show that it’s good for you.

During the early social media craze, some marketers thought email marketing was dead. I still remember the day Chris Brogan was participating in #Blogchat and stressed the importance of email marketing. There was a virtual gasp on Twitter.

Last few years we’ve watched the growing visual trend in social media. Today, video is increasingly important for social strategy. Some would say that audio only or podcasts are dead. Don’t send your sympathy cards just yet…

Podcasters should start smiling. Professionals are saying that it’s easier today than ever to consume audio content. Most professionals say that it’s difficult to devote attention to video. They prefer to listen to audio content while driving or multitasking.

In January, during New Media Expo 2013 it was clear that there is a renewed interest in podcasting.

If your target audience includes sharp business people consider adding podcasting to your digital strategy. If you’re already engaged in video, consider that some of your viewers may not be viewing and only listening.

Image cred: Song Cast Blog

I am a social media consultant, trainer and speaker who frequently participates in #BlogChat via Twitter on Sunday nights. It’s a vibrant community of smart ambitious people lead by Mack Collier, who is a great guy and one of America’s leading authorities on business blogging. Overblog sponsored #BlogChat during the month of September 2012 and I decided to check it out. I’m really glad I did.

In my first Overblog post, I explained that watching the video on Overblog.com told me that it is more than a typical blogging tool. Overblog offers an interesting approach where the user can produce content and bring in and display selected social feeds all in one place. This approach is a great idea which is supported by important social media trends.

Speak Directly to each Culture and Community

Each social site has its own unique culture. Users have different expectations for content on Twitter than on LinkedIn. Brands are learning that duplicating a message across multiple social sites is not effective and is not desirable to the audience. Some audience members will want to view your content across multiple sites and expect to see a unique message in each feed.

Overblog advantage: Overblog offers a single site where members of your audience who want to see your feed from different social networks can simply view your Overblog site.

The Visual Revolution

Visual content is shared most often and is more effective. Social sites are becoming more and more visual with larger displays of pictures and video.

Overblog Advantage: Overblog is very visual friendly displaying pictures and video in modern larger formats.

Compliance Friendly

Regulated industries are adopting social media tools in large numbers. Some industries, like financial services need to capture and record feeds from each of their sites to comply with regulators.

Overblog Advantage: Having your feeds coming in to one place makes recording and retaining social feeds easier to manage.

Complete Social Branding

For organizations in business development mode, one social site alone may not represent their complete brand. 2013 will bring a new wave of business blogs in a effort to present a more complete brand experience for their audience.

Overblog Advantage: Overblog provides great control while offering a visitor a more complete view of a brand. Overblog filters enable the brand to exclude content allowing more precise audience targeting.

Since trying Overblog, I’ve been pleased with the functionality and timing of update releases. Recent updates have added functionality to the back end, added more feeds and introduced a new mobile app. I’ve found the team at Overblog to be very responsive and friendly. Visitor feedback has been positive.

In 2010, I developed the Social Media Specialist Certificate program for Louisiana State University’s Professional Development Department. To obtain the certificate, students complete four courses and an elective within one or two semesters. The course series includes strategy, implementation, content integration, and measurement. The courses require constant updating and past certificate recipients continue to update their skills.

After evaluating Overblog, I see it as a potential game changer for some organizations. Brands can develop strategies which take advantage of Overblog’s unique platform. Whenever I see a potential game changer I include it in my courses at LSU.

My students are typically successful professionals who are either changing careers or enhancing their existing career. The course study is very interactive and hands-on. The best part is that the students are introduced to two non-profits each semester who volunteer to be examples and case studies. Students apply what they’ve learned for the non-profits with guidance. There is no charge to the non-profit to participate in the classes.

In our Blogging Essentials course this week, our students worked with WordPress, Tumblr and Overblog during the class. Each student said that their Overblog experience was faster and easier to get started and publish.

Overblog is a tool to watch in 2013. For those who prefer action, jump in and try it out. Overblog is a winner.

Notes:
Image from Overblog.com introductory slide show. This was not a sponsored post. 

John Brown former CEO of Stryker Corporation lived by the mantra, “It’s best to be one fad behind”. Never first to market and never last to market. There are many leaders, companies and entire industries who focus on established best practices and are not willing to be the early adopter of new technology.

Before you question the position too much consider the history of Southwest Airlines. They’re operating approach was basically a complete copy of Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). The copying was all done in the open since the pre-deregulation airline industry was restricted by territories. PSA handled intrastate flights in California and Southwest was starting up in Texas.

We live in the greatest country in history, and we are the most benevolent nation ever. We have a responsibility to the rest of the world to be the best we can be. Because…

“You can’t feed hungry people with an empty plate.” -Doug Wead

We must be strong in order to lift up others.  We must be stable in order to provide security to others.  It is out of the abundance of what we have that we are able to give; please let’s not squander our blessings.

Our richness as a nation was built with ingenuity, innovation, and free enterprise.  The more those three are squashed, the more we die as a nation. We must free our people to be creative, to be leaders, to forge new paths, and to build their dreams for their own future, for the future of America, and for the future of the world.

Photo found in a post titled “Soldiers in Afghanistan” at http://afghanistannow.wordpress.com

Whether you love or hate airlines, this is a great example of customer engagement. With over 440,000 followers it would have been easy for American Airlines to simply disregard my tweet. I wasn’t complaining or asking for anything. By engaging me in a clever and friendly way, all their followers see that they are human and willing to talk. American Airlines probably has no trouble getting engagement since it’s clear they want to talk.

Here are some suggestions for increasing engagement with customers:

1. Be friendly. Find and talk to your customers first and reply to customers talking about you.

2. Be human. Mention human things like feelings and opinions. Don’t get fired because of me of course. Check your company communication guidelines. If you can mention how you feel or your opinion it makes your social account more social. If you can sign your post with your first name when appropriate. Your audience will appreciate knowing who is “behind the curtain”.

3. Have fun. Try to play a little. #NoExplanationNeeded

4. Don’t accept the 90, 9, and 1 rule. This rule states that 90% of your audience will lurk, 9% will occasionally show signs of life by liking, favoriting, retweeting, +1 ing, comment or otherwise interact, and only 1% will truly engage. Your engagement may look like this and that’s fine. You only need a few advocates (raving fans) who talk about you and love your company to get great results from social media. However, don’t accept this result. Be engaging and challenge yourself to exceed the 90, 9, 1 rule.

I believe 2013 will usher in greater engagement from consumers than anything we’ve seen so far. As social media matures, engagement will be more and more important. Great engagement also levels the playing field for small and medium sized companies.

Kudos to American Airlines for inspiring this post. If you come across other great examples of companies who engage without being salesy please share them here or otherwise let me know. Much appreciated.

Social Media is still new for many organizations. Early adopters and innovators have proven that social media is effective for community building, brand awareness, customer service, project management, employee engagement, recruiting and marketing. Some of the newer applications for social media that are being studied include business intelligence, voice of the customer and operational workflow optimization.

The updated design for LSU CE’s Social Media Specialist Certificate program enables the attendee to learn four fundamental aspects of any effective social media function.

4 Fundamental Aspects of Effective Social Media

• Strategy – action plan designed to achieve specific goals
• Best Practices – proven techniques
• Integration – using all your assetts seemlessly
• Measurement/ROI – understanding the results of your actions

2 Non-Profits
Starting this year we’ve added a social good component to the course series. Each semester we work with two local non-profits to help them achieve more with their social media effort. The students in the class work together to improve the online presence for these non-profits, at no charge, as an exercise for real world experience. The students optionally may perform additional exercises in between class dates to continue their learning while outside of the classroom. LSU is not involved in selecting the non-profits for the class. I choose the non-profits based on their need and the benefit provided to the students taking the course.

This semester’s non-profits are…

1. The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank  - GBR Food Bank on Facebook  - @brfoodbank on Twitter 
2. Cookie Project Honduras on Facebook

Course Descriptions 

The courses are designed to stand alone. Every course includes each of the four fundamentals to ensure that students have a well rounded understanding of social media strategies, tactics, and tools. However, each course focuses on one of the fundamentals more than the rest.

Social Media Strategies is a two day course focused on all aspects of developing a strategy for social media. The strategy for social media should fold nicely into your corporate, organizational or personal strategy. At the end of this course the student understands the psychology of social media and considerations for strategic choices. Case studies are discussed to demonstrate the value of appropriate strategic choices and the power of social media.

Class Dates: The Fall semester course has passed. Spring dates are February 6-7, 2013 – Registration for Spring semester opens in December.

Best Practices for the Top Social Media Channels is a fast paced, one day, 100% hands-on course which involves practical demonstration and application of best practices for each social media tool. We practice the most effective techniques for tools like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Class Dates: October 10th. Spring date February 28th, 2013 – Registration for Spring semester opens in December.

Integrating Digital Channels for Customer Loyalty is a two day course where we review case studies and learn the best techniques for using various online social sites, integrated with a web site or blog, events, and traditional marketing components. Social sites can be more effective when they compliment each other. This course also discusses distribution models for any size organization from Fortune 100 to the solopreneur.

Class Dates: October 31st and November 1st.

Measuring Social Media Results Workshop brings together all the courses within the context of goals and objectives, metrics, and return on time/money invested. Not all aspects of social media are worth measuring but understanding what data is available and how to interpret that data to get the best results for your organization is critical in today’s competitive environment. This workshop includes monitoring tools for reputation management and consumer or community sentiment.

Class Dates: December 12-13

Elective: Blogging Essentials and WordPress is a one-day comprehensive hands-on workshop for blogging technology, WordPress as a blogging platform and content creation, curation and management. Blogs are an important part of online success for many organizations.

Class Date: November 29th

Other electives may found at LSU CE’s overview site the Social Media Specialist Certificate Program.

Hope this helps you think about your own social media approach and understand LSU’s social media certificate program. If you are looking for some non-profits to support, I hope you’ll join us in supporting the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and the Cookie Project Honduras. If you have questions, feel free to contact me directly or post a comment.

I’m attending the Global Leadership Summit, an annual global conference delivered to host sites simultaneously all over the world.  I am touched and inspired by each of the speakers.  It’s got me thinking about the importance of trust in relationships.

Trust is a powerful word. In training classes and conference talks, I define social media as “a conversation based on trust”.

Life is about relationships.  Love, business, work, and family… all driven by relationships.  How we handle relationships, whether fleeting or lifelong, determines the significance of our life.

Relationships are built or destroyed based on trust.  Everything we communicate, every action, every word, our body language, all contribute to deepen or weaken our relationships.  One reason I’m so passionate about social media is that it amplifies communication.  Social media also adds a dynamic where people “opt in” (ie. friend, follow, connect) to your online accounts, offering you a degree of their trust.

In leadership, in communication, in social media, in all we do, consider that you are building trust and deepening your relationships, or you are breaking trust and weakening relationships.

Building trust is…

• Loving
• Conscientious
• Considerate

Breaking trust is…

• Spam
• Ego-centric
• Self-serving

Enjoy your life.  Make it significant.  Trust and be trustworthy.

The following correspondence was sent from LSU Continuing Education’s Professional Development department on 8/2/2012.

LSU Continuing Education is excited to announce our comprehensive fall professional development schedule, including these new programs:

Successful Grant Writing
Social Media Strategies
Quality Assurance
Train the Trainer Program
Engaging Talent Management
Managing Organizational Change & Culture
Leadership Management 2.0
Ruby on Rails
Safe Supervisor

We are committed to helping you identify and meet workplace challenges.  Our courses provide you with the latest tools to stay ahead in a rapidly changing world.  Courses and programs can also be customized and offered at your site to maximize efficiency and impact your whole team.

For quick reference and easy sharing with colleagues, you may download a pdf of the Fall 2012 Catalog.  Please contact us if you have any questions or want to discuss how LSU can work with your organization.

Kind regards,

Professional Development
LSU Continuing Education
225-578-2500
professionaldevelopment@outreach.lsu.edu
www.outreach.lsu.edu