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One Way To Avoid Being The Salesman At The Party

Reading the comments for the last couple of posts really got me thinking more about this subject. I feel like the “this is new media and there are new rules” excuse is quickly wearing its usefulness thin, and there is no excuse for people not to know these things anymore. Even if they don’t know, there are tonnes of places on the internet to research, like this one:

Are You Willing To Invest The Time?

It’s taken from Beth’s Blog and the primary focus of the blog post was how much time it takes non-profits to use social media, but I believe it applies pretty much across the board.

A quick note to the people who have been spamming the SMB Facebook Group and other groups? Social Networking comes last. If you’re not willing to spend that 20hrs/week investing in all the steps, then maybe social media isn’t for you.

I commented on this blog last week and said “I guess to some in the social media world all the steps are sometimes done simultaneously, but demonstrating them in increasing commitment levels and in a “linear” format will definitely help people just coming into it to understand it better!”

So take note of this. You start from listening, not plunging head on to creating content and “spreading the word”.

The Photography Analogy

I draw parallel to learning how to understand the technical functions of a DSLR camera for the first time (a situation I’m in). I came across this post from Digital Photography School which says:

ANY friend of mine who comes to me early on in their photography “career” asking for lessons is forbidden from shooting in any mode other than AUTO for at LEAST 3-6 months. In my mind that’s enough time to get your framing style down to the point where it’s just, for lack of a better word, automatic. . . second nature. When that happens, THEN you’re ready to explore other settings.

As someone who bought a Nikon D40x last December and is still shooting in auto and only just beginning to understand terms referring to manual settings like “exposure”, “aperture”, “ISO settings” and the like, I identify with this completely.

Similarly, if the fundamental concepts of conversation, feedback, community, partnership and dialogue are not understood by you or your company, leaping ahead to more complex ideas like blogger outreach or community management or setting up a Twitter account is probably not the best move for you.

In Closing

Take the time to familiarise yourself with the social media scene that is relevant to you, and don’t jump in expecting to yield results. More often than not it will frustrate the people you’re trying to reach out to, and yourself.

Tags: avoid being the salesman at the party, beth's blog, facebook group, how much time does social media take, social media and mastering a dslr, social media breakfast, social networking, the photography analogy to social media

Posted in Tools, community, social media, social media business | 3 Comments »

reQall: Current Productivity Tool Of Choice

As the name suggests, reQall helps you recall the stuff you need to do all day long. Although I’m pretty happy with Remember The Milk as a little add-on to my Gmail and I Want Sandy for meeting reminders and the like, the big advantage that reQall has over them is an iPod Touch application.

reQall becomes most effective when you’re in an environment that is highly connected. For me being in a school where there is wireless everywhere, and a home that’s wifi enabled is more than enough. The Firefox extension allows you to enter “What popped into your head”, and it understands simple context like dates and times, which is exactly what I need. So I’d be surfing or chatting to someone and someone says “oh by the way the assignment is due next Monday”, I can type that immediately right from my Firefox browser.

One other thing I like about the interface of reQall, is that it’s separated into an actual to-do list that is time-sensitive, a shopping list and a notes list. There’s even an option to upload images to trigger your memory, if that works for you. I really like the shopping list and notes function now that I’m living pretty much on my own. Everytime something runs out I just enter it in from my iPod Touch and sync it up and when I head out to the store, it’s all in one place (you don’t need internet access to retrieve data from your iPod Touch).

If you’re like me and was thinking long and hard about updating your iPod Touch software to 2.0, I’d almost say that the reQall app alone would be reason enough for me to pay that $9.99, so consider giving it a try.

Tags: gmail, gtd, i want sandy, ipod touch apps, notes, online productivity apps, productivity, remember the milk, remembering things to do, reqall, shopping lists, to do lists, wifi, wireless coneections

Posted in Tools | No Comments »