LIVE BLOG AND TWITTER

Not able to attend the workshop?  No problem. 

Check in, right here, for LIVE blog and twitter coverage of the speakers, the discussions, and the details.

 

Workshop Tweets

    Workshop Blog

     Megan Cole: What is Social Networking?

    In the evolution of communication, social networking is the most complicated ever developed.  Blogs are where you'll find the best information on a subject of interest.

    We're going to try to find a way to integrate social networking into your workday, with such limited time.  It's all about getting the skills honed to the point where SN doesn't require extra effort.

    A discussion now... on "our groups" or "groups," is beginning.  Should CBC create social networks and invite users, or should CBC enter into the social networking groups that exist out there?  This is all about reputation and credibility, and protecting your brand.  It can be tempting to point people to "your" group, but that may not be the right starting point.  Start small.  Share links.  Start going to the groups that already exist.  And when you get there, don't stand up and start shouting.  Observe first, participate second.  When CBC signs in to contribute, to participate, that's seen as cool! 

    People love to SN because it's fun and immediate. And for journaslists... it's FIRST! Don't be overwhelmed by the flood of information that you'll come across out there.  There's a techique to develop to ignore what's not important... and focus on what is.  Let the data flow over you, and start noticing the trends, and what's repeated, and you'll start to the "beauty of the matrix." You're panning for gold out there on SN sites.

    RSS is your friend.  You can use RSS to get the bullet points from all kinds of social networking sites.  You only get what's new. And only from the spaces you choose.

    We're moving from a web of pages... to a web of streams. We're going to set things up so you get all these streams flowing to you, using facebook.

     

    Kris Krug - Facebook

    Reaching out to people on facebook can be a tricky proposition.  Is it allowed? Will it offend? And how do you prevent responders from learning all of your own personal details?

    The key is; if you're reaching out on facebook, make sure you're a legitimate facebook user yourself.  And check out the "limited profile links" that appear on your personal profile page.  They can allow you to set EXACTLY what different vistors to your profile will see.  This way, you can have one profile, containing as much personal information as you like -- then keep your personal details out of the hands of the people you're networking with professionally. 

    Facebook is reaching critical mass.  It's becoming the single most popular destination for social networking.  This has both good and bad effects.  It has become a powerful tool to reach a lot of people with particular interests.  But it's becoming a destination for spam, and many of the cyber-worlds most literate users are already moving away from Facebook.  This simply means, it's still a great idea to get on board, but don't forget to keep surfing, and learn about other sites, because who knows when they will very suddenly supplant Facebook as the new standard.

     

    John Paolozzi - Twitter

    After the tutorial video about Twitter, John signed us up for an account.  Checking out a couple of pages, we discovered the three different ways to view tweets on line. 

    Joan asked if it was better to set up a corporate twitter account or a personal twitter account. John showed us Spark's twitter page, where they've branded it as a show.  Kris said it's better to follow a person.  It's a matter of debate, for which there was no answer.  But there was one common thread -- even if you're tweeting on behalf of a "brand," it's important to keep the tone personal.

    We moved on to the big question of the day --  what does it mean to "tag your tweets?"

    It simply means, that when you ask people to tweet on a subject of their choice, they need to incude a unique code word in their tweet, of your choice, so that all tweets on this subject can be easily complied.  For example, if you're topic is "kick a ginger day," ask people to tag their tweets cbcginger.  We can then simply search for tweets including cbcginger, and presto.

    To tag a tweet you don't have to use the # anymore.  Just come up with a unique word that will stand out in the twitter universe.  Again, search that word using the twitter search engine, and you'll have all the tweets tagged with your special word, even though they don't use the #.

     

    John Paolozzi - Flikr

    Who doesn't use photography to help tell a story?  Even the folks in radio know that photos help build relationships with their audience.

    Create a group, and watch your fans submit thier photography to you... for everybody else to enjoy as well.  Suddenly, you've become the focal point for "imaginative, collaborative work."

    The powerful search engine that's part of the flikr site allows you find images you're looking for easily.  To make the engine work best for you, be sure to tag photos you upload with as many key words as possible that could be associated with the photo. 

     

    Kris Krug - Flyover

    Kris spent a few minutes showing us a few of the SN applications that we're not focusing on today.  Doppler, YouTube,  Delicious, Google Reader.

    Kris says to pick 3 people who are on Delicious, that you feel may be thought-leaders you respect, and follow thier bookmark stream for a while.

     

    Alfred Hermida - Best Practices and Future Potential

    When using Twitter on election night, Alfred noticed a few things he'd do differently.  When quoting tweets on the air, credit them to the actual sender, not to "twitter."  And if we're not ready to put the tweets on the CBC website, we need to rethink why. 

    3 principles to think about using social networking as journalists:

    1: Lose the corporate voice, be human. You need to be conversational, personal.  Chat. There are real human people at the CBC, we don't need to be institutional in our tone on SN's.

    2: Be honest. You can't be fake. Don't promote. Be transparent.  Share how program decisions are made, for example. 

    3: Be involved. Don't just report on blogs.  Ask the blogger to post to our own website.  This is the toughest challenge.  There's often no time to engage online publishers.  And that leads to surfers thinking we don't care about them.

     

    Roz Allen - Building a Beat Online

    When you strike out to do your first social networking, choose your SN wisely, as it can be time consuming.  The Internet is all about individualization.  People online want to talk about the things that matter to THEM.  Engage them.  Build an online audience by commenting on the stuff that turns up on your SN.