On Friday, September 2, 2011, I’ll be presenting a “Lunch and Learn Workshop” organized by the EMC West Coast Women’s Leadership Forum.
What, Where and When
Title: How to Build a Personal Brand and Advance Your Career with Social Media
Date: September 2, 2011
Time: 11:30AM – 1:30PM PT
Location: EMC, 2831 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA, The San Francisco Conference Room
Session Abstract
Facebook is not about friends. Or at least it doesn’t have to be. In this session, Dennis Shiao provides strategies, tips and tactics for using social media to build a personal brand and advance your career. Whether you want to build a following online or gain a promotion at work, Dennis’ presentation will cover ways social media can help you, both personally and professionally.
Dennis will first cover some strategies for taking advantage of social networks, including the important activities of listening, connecting and participating. Next, he’ll draw upon his own experiences and cover specific tips from blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SlideShare and Quora, to name a few. You’ll leave this session with tips and ideas that you can apply right away to your own social networks and your own brand.
Presentation Slides
For those interested, you can view the slides from my workshop below.
As of August 31, 2011, I’m reading part one, which provides a fascinating look at the psychology behind games (i.e. the neurological factors behind why gamers engage in game play).
I’m continually finding great quotes in the book, so I thought I’d use this blog posting to keep a running collection of my favorites. Feel free to check back from time to time, as I add to the list!
Favorite Quotes
Added: 10/03/2011
“Life is hard, and games make it better.” (page 349)
Added: 09/29/2011
“We need to play games that stretch our collective commitment months, years or even decades ahead. We need to start playing with the future.” (page 295)
Added: 09/27/2011
“Collaboration isn’t just about achieving a goal or joining forces; it’s about creating something together that would be impossible to create alone.” (page 268)
Added: 09/10/2011
“Based on Clay Shirky’s estimate that all of Wikipedia took 100 million hours to create, the WoW community alone could conceivably create a new Wikipedia every three and a half days.” (page 231)
Added: 09/05/2011
“Games are showing us exactly what we want out of life: more satisfying work, better hope of success, stronger social connectivity, and the chance to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.” (page 114)
“Compared with games, reality is hard to get into. Games motivate us to participate more fully in whatever we’re doing.” (page 124)
Added: 09/04/2011
“The single best way to add meaning to our lives is to connect our daily actions to something bigger than ourselves – and the bigger, the better.” (page 97)
Added: 08/31/2011
“To develop foresight, you need to practice hindsight.” (page 5)
“As for the future, your task is not to see it, but to enable it.” (page 13, attributed to Antoine de Saint Exupery)
“Games, in the twenty-first century, will be a primary platform for enabling the future.” (page 13)
“Computers were made to work for us, but video games have come to demand that we work for them.” (page 55)
The quote (above) is attributed to Nick Yee, “a leading researcher of MMOs and the first person to receive a PhD for studying WoW.”
Leave a Comment
Have you read the book? If so, let me know your take via the comments section below.
Velvet Chainsaw Consulting and Tagoras have partnered on a research study. Together, they’re collecting data about industry and professional speakers at conferences with 500 or more attendees. The basis for their research study will be a “2011 Professional and Industry Speaker Survey.”
Survey Details
The purpose of the survey is “to better understand how organizations in the United States and internationally use professional and industry speakers at their meetings (e.g., conferences and other events).” The survey will take 10-12 minutes to complete.
When you’ve completed the survey, “you may register, if you wish, to receive a synopsis of key data from this survey when it is completed. By registering, you will also automatically be entered into a drawing for a $50 Visa gift card that we will give away to five randomly selected survey participants.”
Responses are due by September 9, 2011.
Dave Lutz (@VelChain) from Velvet Chainsaw Consulting notes, “Thank you in advance for taking time to help improve conference education and learning. Please share this with other association professionals that plan meetings with 500 or more attendees and secure both professional and industry speakers. The more high quality responses we have, the better!”
On 12Most.com, I wrote an article titled “12 Most Compelling Reasons to Consider Hybrid Events.” In the introduction, I wrote, “Increasingly, event planners are adding a ‘digital extension’ to their physical events. The digital extension expands the event’s audience reach across the entire web.”
The 12 Reasons to Consider Hybrid Events
My 12 reasons are:
The digital event provides a marketing tool for the physical event.
Extends your audience reach.
Creates events that never end.
Does not cannibalize physical events.
Use virtual booths to follow up with leads from your physical booth.
None of us would be where we are today without learning, whether it was in the form of instruction, reading, observing or doing. Thanks to the web, conventional learning models are shifting. In fact, they’re being turned upside down.
We’re discovering that knowledge and instruction can be embedded in web apps, empowering students to learn and experience at their own pace. In addition, we know that everyone is passionate about something. And just as blogging transformed individuals into publishers, the web is allowing all of us to become professional instructors. If we want to be.
Your Classroom in Your Neighborhood
Companies in this space include Skillshare (“Learn anything from anyone”) and CommuniTeach (“Teach, learn, connect”). Their services are a mashup of Meetup, eBay and Eventbrite. They turn anyone into an instructor, who can create a class on any topic. The role of their web sites, then, is to publish courses and instructor profiles and enable students to sign up for classes – and then attend them in person.
The beauty of this model is two-fold: it can make anyone an instructor and, it creates a nearly unlimited inventory of course content – well beyond what you could find in your local community college’s adult education catalog. As CommuniTeach writes on their home page, “Can you cook? Paint? Throw a frisbee? Write? Then people want to learn from you!”
Important: Rating & Reputation Systems
There will undoubtedly be a wide variation in instructor expertise and quality, which means a key component of making these systems effective and sustainable is a rating and reputation system for instructors. eBay wouldn’t be where it is today without its detailed seller ratings. Their reputation system allowed for enforcement by the community, which is a model that scales well.
Video: Overview of Skillshare
Your Classroom, Online
The “neighborhood classroom” model involves “face to face” instruction in a physical classroom. Naturally, this model requires instruction to be regionalized (i.e. the current services are being rolled out in specific cities) and synchronized (at a specific day and time). Another emerging model is the online classroom, provided by companies like Udemy and Learnable.
The online model is interesting because it enables a global audience. And, it enables instructors to leverage a combination of self-paced (on-demand) and scheduled (live) instruction. While some of us are inclined to meet local learners (in person), others may be more comfortable teaching via webcam (online).
With Udemy, for example, instructors can make their course content available to learners on-demand and they can also create a Live Virtual Classroom that supports up to 10 video participants, thousands of viewers and interactive tools (e.g. whiteboard, chat and file sharing).
Video: Overview of Udemy
Your Children’s Classroom, Online
The Khan Academy is leading the way with a learning model that may just transform primary and secondary education. This quote on their FAQ page sums it up neatly: “With just a computer and a pen-tablet-mouse, one can educate the world!” The idea behind Khan Academy started when founder Salman Khan provided math instruction to his cousins. He placed his modules on YouTube and discovered that his cousins “preferred me on YouTube than in person.”
The feedback from his cousins provided an interesting insight into the power of self-paced learning – the students could fast-forward and rewind their cousin, learning at their own pace. They could complete exercises until they became proficient, without someone at their side asking, “do you understand it now?”
Teachers who have adopted the Khan Academy model in their classrooms have inverted the model: instruction can now be done at home (via the web and YouTube), while the homework (hands-on exercises) takes place in the classroom, with more time for the teacher to provide quality instruction (one-on-one care, if needed).
With its videos, exercises, knowledge map, instructor dashboards and game mechanics, Khan Academy has built a model that led Bill Gates to say, “it’s amazing, I think you just got a glimpse at the future of education.”
Video: Salman Khan at TED 2011
Note: The quote from Bill Gates occurs at the conclusion of this video.
Conclusion
Blogging enabled any individual to become a publisher. While some individuals blog as a labor of love, others have left their jobs, leveraging blogging as their primary source of income. Teaching is the new blogging. While I don’t expect blogging to go away any time soon, I do believe that a revolution is underway in learning and instruction.
Just as TechCrunch and Huffington Post grew from individual blogs into publishing empires, new instructional brands will emerge, empowered by individuals. The TechCrunch of tomorrow may still have a blog, but they’ll also have a physical and digital classroom to go along with it.
Successful virtual events start with the ability to generate registrations and attendees that meet or exceed your targets. I presented a webinar at AMA’s Virtual Forum on “Achieving Success with Online Events.”
My webinar was titled “How to Generate Registrations and Attendees to Your Virtual Event.” My presentation was divided into two parts: I first covered how to generate virtual event registrations and followed that with how to convert registrants into attendees.
Top 10 Tips for Generating Virtual Event Registrations
To generate virtual event registrations, I provided the following 10 tips:
Leverage speakers
Leverage exhibitors
“Less is more” on your registration form
Use social sharing buttons
Promote via syndication
Start early
Create a LinkedIn Event
Promote on Twitter
Promote on Facebook
Promote via content marketing
Top 5 Tips for Converting Registrants into Attendees
To convert registrants into attendees, I provided 5 tips:
Spruce up the confirmation page
More content marketing
Game mechanics
Automated email messaging
Facilitate pre-event networking
View My Slides
Feel free to view my slides (below). They’re also available for download, if you visit the presentation directly on SlideShare.net.
Conclusion
The AMA virtual forum is available on-demand and you can view all of the archived sessions. You can register for this free event on the AMA web site.
Leave me a comment below if you attended the session – or, if you have questions or comments on this topic. Thanks!
The online event “will explore how to create online events that will attract your target audience, how to utilize online events to further engage your customers, how to measure the success of your online events and most importantly, convert these efforts into top line revenue.”
Maria Pergolino, Senior Director of Marketing at Marketo
My Session
I’ll be presenting at 11:15AM CT.
The title of my presentation is “How to Generate Registrations and Attendees to Your Virtual Event.” Got a question? Feel free to leave me a comment below. In addition, you can tweet your question to me. Be sure to include the virtual forum’s hash tag, #AMAAdobe.
Conclusion
Hope to “see” you (online) at the virtual forum. Register now:
“Events will change, but they will also thrive because nothing is more satisfying than turning our online relationships into real-life face to face friendships”
Introduction
Jenise Fryatt (@JeniseFryatt, @IconPresentsAV) is Co-Owner and Marketing Director for Icon Presentations, an independent audio visual company that provides sound, video, projection & lighting support for events. Jenise is based in Southern California. Online, however, you can find her everywhere.
Jenise founded the #EIR movement by creating the associated hash tag and promoting Twitter users who “Engage, Inform and Retweet.” She’s a power user and influencer in the #eventprofs community, sharing a constant stream of useful resources that rivals the pace of Jeff Hurt (@JeffHurt).
In addition, Jenise is Community Manager for Engage365, an online community for event professionals that focuses on technology and innovation. She’s also a co-organizer for Event Camp Europe, taking place this Fall in London.
Thoughts on: Event Camp
Event Camp is a collection of events that was formed by the #eventprofs community on Twitter. Its mission is “to bring together like-minded professionals, to share best practices, and learn new strategies, for leveraging social media and technology to create enhanced event experiences.”
Event Camp Twin Cities (#ectc11) is fast approaching and Jenise recommends you attend. “Last year ECTC blew everyone away with its masterful hybrid event presentation,” said Jenise. “I’m happy to say that this year I will be sharing improv concepts and a game or two with the ECTC participants,” continued Jenise.
Event Camp East Coast gives event pros the opportunity to experience a completely attendee-driven event. According to Jenise, “That one changed my life last year starting me on a new career path sharing improv games with non-performers.“
Thoughts on: Hybrid Events
Jenise attended her first hybrid event in 2010 (Event Camp). She was immediately captivated by the power of hybrid events. “I particularly like what people like Emilie Barta (@EmilieBarta) have done to improve the presentation quality by blending platforms and including remote and onsite audiences as participants in one event,” said Jenise.
Thoughts on: Event Evolution
Jenise is excited by the movement in the event industry to “recognize and make use of the collective knowledge of our event participants.” According to Jenise, “I have performed and studied improv for several years and know first-hand that magic happens when you give a group the proper tools for collaborating and just let them go.”
I expect this model of active attendee involvement to accelerate. Millenials, who grew up with the web at their fingertips, are frustrated by passive audience models. Jenise expects to see “creativity in new technology and formats like virtual events, gaming elements in events and participant driven events.”
Thoughts on: Event Evolution for Associations
“One thing to watch is the threat that these new ways of meeting and collaborating so easily and inexpensively pose to the traditional ways associations are run. Associations will have to evolve to remain relevant. Events will change, but they will also thrive because nothing is more satisfying than turning our online relationships into real-life face to face friendships.”
Thoughts on: Social Marketing for Small Business
To market a small business online, Jenise partakes in a steady diet of content creation. She maintains two blogs, Sound n’ Sight and Eventprov. She uses Twitter to promote her blog posts – and at the same time, uses Twitter to share related content that clients may find useful.
Jenise guest blogs whenever asked, moderates Twitter chats for #eventprofs and #Engage365 and regularly posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Like I said earlier, she’s everywhere. It’s hard work, but it pays off for Icon Presentations. According to Jenise, “We now rank #1 for almost all of our key words. And I have had many business opportunities as a result of my online friendships.”
For other small businesses looking to market themselves online, Jenise has this bit of sage advice: “Change your perception about marketing. It’s not about one-way broadcasting anymore. It’s about building relationships with potential clients as well as those who will help to sing your praises.”
Thoughts on: Google+
Jenise has been experimenting with Google+, noting that the most active people are the early-adopter, social media geek types. So far, she likes how Google+ combines some of her favorite attributes of Facebook and Twitter.
She’s excited by Google Hangouts, the group video feature of Google+. “A few of my online friends and I have been meeting for group video chats for more than a year and have struggled with tech difficulties on several platforms we’ve tried. When we tried Hangouts it was easy and all the tech problems were gone.”
Posted by Dennis Shiao 
