Podcasting on the way home

I spend about an hour each way to and from work. So I got to thinking, why not use this time a bit more constructively.

Thus the first carpod (I meant to say carcast in my speal but future efforts to rerecord didn't turn out so well.)

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I tried to keep it short (under 3 minutes) and it's a lot of nothing right now. I was more interested in how it sounded and how well I could speak while also driving - kids don't try this at home - though it is hands free.

I'll keep playing around, but any feedback is appreciated,

Thanks for reading (and listening),
Bob

P.S. - It needs some work but it's time hopefully better spent than listening to the same 5 songs on the radio.

Bob on Acronym

I try to be social but not too markety, but I've been on a good role this week so why not for this post.

Last week I was recognized and posted on the Acronym Blog as a relatively new blogger (sorry I didn't comment Lisa, though I appreciate the link love). Just the fact I was linked on acronym is a great honor.

But outside of simply patting myself on the back, this is just shows what great opportunities there are for young association professionals, or any professional in that matter, to use web2.0 to become a part of the conversation.

As I've mentioned before, and will continue to do so, if you are a yap and want to try your hand at blogging, I'd welcome you to post on this blog. Not only can you join the conversation and become a blip on a screen, but you can see exactly what goes into blogging, just incase you're trying to get your members to blog. Email me at rawolfejr@yahoo.com if you're interested in joining.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

Members on Facebook

To continue on yesterday's post, I've been reaching out to some of my own members on facebook as I have time now that I've had Sr. Staff buy into Web2.0 thanks to Wikis and other experimental social groups. I've recieved a good response so far, some only signed up and used it once, some feel that linkedin or other more professional group is appropriate and there are people who "believe this would be a new and exciting tool for networking"

So far I've reached out to about 20 members and so far I've made 9 new friends and recieved a better idea of how our members are using it and how we can play off of this.

And if you're a young association professional, this could be a good time to introduce your board and executives to the concept of social networking and get them onboard - that is if they aren't already online.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

P.S. Thanks to the posts by Maddie on twitter, I've joined the next great phase of web2.0. I'll give my feedback in future posts.

Finding Members on Facebook

Intitially I believe there are 3 people who can benefit from social networking:

• Those already online
• Those who are participating in a conversation
• Those who need technology to participate

Today, I'm going to help you find members online because it's much easier to empower members who are already participating then trying to get newby's online.

So here are the quick tricks that I've learned for finding members online using facebook:

• Export a member list into a CSV file (no larger than about 1000).
• Use facebook's friend finder (must sign into to facebook to use).

Some tips for using friend finder:

• Once you select your list and upload into the friend finder it will begin searching - there is no activate button
• Members on facebook will appear from the email list automatically checked off. You can't send a note to them from this page nor can you track who a friend request was sent to, so it'd be a good idea to save this list and send out an email before or directly after you invite members to be friends
• After you select friends it will bring up emails not in facebook. I would seriously consider not inviting them to join facebook for two reasons: it will look like Spam which means they'll delete it, and second - think organic.

Upon successful uploading, you may have found more members online than you thought. Ask them to be your friend and reach out and see why they're online. If they're already talking, let them continue the conversation, maybe even help it continue to flow. Members already using the technologies may just be the WOM you need to get the later adopters online.

You can also search facebook groups, you never know, your organization or event could already have a group. What you do with the group is completely up to you - but it might at least be worth checking out to see what's being said. Organic growth will happen in one form or another.

Thanks for reading,

Bob

Wikis to the Rescue

Typically I've found that any projects with a committee have had the following chain of events:

• Committee reviews document
• Committee submits comments to me
• I format comments and send to contractor
• Contractor makes appropriate changes
• Changes are sent back to me
• I sent revised document to committee
• Committee reviews document

And so goes the circle of colloboration. Now this process typically takes a couple of days (with one day lost from the time I compile comments to send to the contractor to the time they are actually reviewed.)

But I shouldn't be such a major player in the process - I hate middlemen - yet here I am working as one (notice how many of the steps I'm directly involved with). Well in an attempt to allow members to work with each other as opposed to through me, I've been using a wiki on my most recent project for the past couple months.

I've found the following 3 benefits of the wiki so far:

• Members can build off of each others comments
• Contractors can view comments as they're submitted
• I'm a smaller part of the equation

Members can build off of each others comments
No more repeat comments. Wikis allow members of the committee to see what has already been reviewed as well as the feedback on those sections. This allow members to build off of the comments and/or focus their time on areas that may not have been as thoroughly reviewed.

Contractors can view comments as they're submitted
Long story short, I recieved a revised lesson from a contractor with the following comment:
"I pulled the comments from the Wiki, so it is good to go."

I'm a smaller part of the equation
Outstanding! Now some people may freak about this, but not me! I'm not a Subject Matter Expert when it comes to Solid Waste, my area of expertise is helping groups work together and thanks to the wiki I've done that. Because in the end it's not my association, it's the members, I just happen to be lucky enough to be along for the ride!

Thanks for reading,
Bob

P.S. If anyone from my organization stumbles on this - just because I'm a smaller part of this equation doesn't mean I'm not busy :)

Link Love - All 4 Blog Favs Respond

Thanks Ben, Lisa, Tony and Maddie - not only have you helped me in developing my skillz, but all posted comments to my post about them! Special thanks to Ben for posting my comment on his blog - this is the equivalent of having an essay in a national magazine. I can rarely get a return call from friends and family within 24 hours - imagine how cool it was to have my four fave bloggers read and post in that time span! Amazing.

This is just an excellent example of great bloggers doing what they do. And it shows that participating in social media as a young professional is a great opportunity to network and get on the radar of the industry. I may be just a blip (is there something smaller than a blip?) on the screen, but hey, I'm ahead of where I'd be if I didn't join the conversation.

So if you want to start blogging - I encourage it - and if you don't think you can support your own and are a young professional, I welcome you to join this one! Email me and maybe you t0o could be a blogger on young association professional! (Actually don't open your own blog, I like having the young association professional blog market cornered - just kidding - I guess :)

And special Shouts to my fellow YAP Garen and Brynn for writing for Acroynm.

What a great way to end the week and with that I'm out. Enjoy and I'll see you on Monday,

Thanks for reading,
Bob

Setting Up Your Online Daily Paper Using RSS - Part 3

So hopefully you've had a chance to download a feed reader. Well now that you have, let's get you some articles for your online daily paper.

The first blog I mentioned in my previous post was Seth Godin. Not only is he a marketing wiz, but you need a feed reader to keep up with him on most days. The posts are incredibly short, but incredibly insightful.

Now here are the following blogs I'd highly recommend:

Ben Martin - Ben is the main page. He posts very frequently and odds are if it's of interest to association professionals Ben's a part of the conversation or has at least heard of it and put it on his blog. Ben in and of himself is the RSS of Associations.

ASAE and The Center's Acronym - The best part about this blog is there are many contributors and if one post comes off as insincere or wrong or ill-informed the commenters are sure to jump in. This is a great industry page and has a lot of great views.

Diary of a Reluctant Blogger - Maddie is a new blogger, but I think she's one to keep an eye on. She covers a variety of topics and does a great job of covering the variety of conversations on the blogoclump, giving meaningful perspectives to the conversation.

Membership Marketing - Tony has a lot of great insights into membership and marketing - and we are in the membership business, whether you're in the membership department.

I think for the most part these blogs are a great starting point for any daily paper. There are a variety of other blogs that focus on a variety of other things, and I think the four blogs above list them all out very well. I've read alot of the blogs in the association sphere and there are definitely some to keep an eye out for, but most tend to be more focused. And if I gave you all the links, what fun would that be?

But remember, whether you use my recommendations or find your own, using RSS helps you to efficiently learn about a variety of topics. And while initially you may need to spend a bit of time finding the initial blogs, once you've set it up, you can allocate some time in the morning or evening and just flip through the feeds of your online daily paper. I've had many ideas, insights and conversations within my own organziation thanks to reading my daily feeds.

So enjoy your feeds and if you find any blogs that are worth focusing in on, by all means let me know,

Thanks for reading,
Bob

Setting Up Your Online Daily Paper Using RSS - Part 2

I could explain what RSS is, but I don't think I can do any better than this video put together by CommonCraft Show:



I think this is one of the most simplistic explanations of RSS. Next step - pick your feedreader.

I'm playing with google reader right now, but there are a ton of different readers including yahoo and others. If you want to set up your feedreader using google go to http://www.google.com/reader and sign up. The great part about this (in my 24 hours of review) is that you can access it anytime you're online. This means:

*No worries if you're harddrive crashes/get a new computer (which I learned the hardway)
*No worries if you set up all your feeds at work but only have time to read them at home

Windows Vista also has a feedreader built in, but again it's on your hard drive so there's limited flexibility.

So set up your google or yahoo or Vista feed. And if you want to start subscribing and more importantly seeing how it works, subscribe to Seth Godin's blog. Not only is he a marketing genius (and everyone markets), but he also posts 2-4 times a day on a typical day. His feed is feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/sethsmainblog

In the next day or so I'll give you the top association blogs you'll want to subscribe to to help you get your online daily paper started.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

P.S. Need more help? Email me at rawolfejr@yahoo.com

Setting Up Your Online Daily Paper Using RSS - Part 1

If you don't have a feed reader yet, you should. Why - because it allows you to subscribe to blogs. And the best thing I've done for my professional development is quite simply setting up my Online Daily Paper (ODP) comprised of various blog feeds.

My ODP is my RSS feed filled with the best of the blogoclump's blog posts (and those outside of the association world). And because it's not in email, you can quickly skim your blogs like you would the daily paper. Read the tips and opinions that interest you, pass on those that don't.

Unfortunately though, I learned the hard way that you do not want to use a feed reader that is saved on your computer. The reason - if you're harddrive crashes or you get a new computer, all your feeds are lost.

Well over this week I am going to set up my ODP again, so join along. I'll walk you through setting up your own ODP (made up of what I think are the Must Read Blogs for Young Associaiton Professionals, or any Association Professional for that matter) as I rebuild my own online daily paper.

So don't worry if you don't know what a feed reader really is or what RSS means, I'm going to walk you through the various steps to set up your daily papers over the next few days and introduce you to the world of RSS.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

It's Not Usable If You can Use It

I read a great article by elearnmag titled "What Do You Mean When You Say 'Usability'?"

While this article focuses on the usability of elearning courses, I think this topic of usability can really translate into how associations should view social media. One header of the article really stuck out: The User Validates Usability

Now this is an interesting notion that may sometimes be lost in the conversation. It doesn't matter that the IT manager, consultant, designer, or even you as an association manager can use the technology. Of course it helps that you can use the technology, but one group HAS TO be able to use the technology: the members you're targeting.

And not only that they can use it, but how long does it take them to reach the experience? Do they complete one step or a series of steps? Does it take a moment or a day to get started or is there a multi-day approval process? Because if it takes a mile to get to that experience or connection, it better be damn good. If its easy to get to on the other hand, than it doesn't have to be so good to start. (Just think McDonald's or other mediocre franchise restaurant that are everywhere vs. that great, one of a kind steak house an hour away).

I think the same thing can be said of value - it's not the consultant, staff, designer, or contractor that determines value - it's the members. More on this tomorrow (I don't want to burn out).

Thanks for reading,
Bob