Just stumbled on the coolest thing EVER: Wordle. Wordle is "a toy for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide." It gives you a graphical representation of whatever text you provide: you can enter text or specify the url for a blog or particular post. It's like the interpretive dance version of your blog!
I'm lamely struggling to do a screen capture so I can display the Mizz Information wordle in this post; in the meantime, here's the link so you can enjoy the splendor that is Mizz Information as expressed in a "word cloud."
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Association Social Media Roadshow Reflections Part 1: Twitter
*Disclaimer: I work for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); however, this is my personal blog in which I express my own thoughts and opinions.*
*When I sat down to write this post I intended it to be a wrap up of all my thoughts about our social media explorations at ASHA's Annual Convention. Once I started I realized that there is so much to tell about I'll have to break it up into more than one post; stay tuned for the next installment about Facebook*
Last week was ASHA's Annual Convention--my first. It was great to be able to meet some of the members--12,500 of whom were there--and to see their enthusiasm for their professions in action.
I work in ASHA's web department, and we had a booth at Convention, as did most of the other departments. We used the experience of being among so many members as an opportunity to get some feedback about their level of interest in social media.
Prior to Convention we announced in several places (newsletters, tweets, convention information page on website) that we'd be using Twitter at convention, and encouraged members to sign up so they could follow our updates. For the most part, our members aren't really there yet as far as Twitter, but we do have a handful of dedicated followers. Using Twitter this time around was more of an experiment than anything; we didn't have any real expectation that many would follow.
Prior to convention we tracked a fair number of tweets about it, both from exhibitors who were using Twitter to promote their booths and from members enthusiastic about the upcoming event. Some examples of tweets were:
Plus plenty more. Not too bad for an association whose members are predominantly in the 35-55 year group.
That said, this was a surprising tweet:
This from a member of 34 years doing a session on academic leadership! I DMd him asking about his presentation and he later came looking for me and we had a great conversation about social media. He spent about 15 minutes telling me his thoughts about using social media to engage students and showed me his slides and even his MySpace page. He was very cool!
Twitter turned out to be a great tool for interacting with members and exhibitors in several ways:
All in all, Twitter turned out to be much more of a success than we'd anticipated.
Stay tuned for part 2: Facebook.
*When I sat down to write this post I intended it to be a wrap up of all my thoughts about our social media explorations at ASHA's Annual Convention. Once I started I realized that there is so much to tell about I'll have to break it up into more than one post; stay tuned for the next installment about Facebook*
Last week was ASHA's Annual Convention--my first. It was great to be able to meet some of the members--12,500 of whom were there--and to see their enthusiasm for their professions in action.
I work in ASHA's web department, and we had a booth at Convention, as did most of the other departments. We used the experience of being among so many members as an opportunity to get some feedback about their level of interest in social media.
Prior to Convention we announced in several places (newsletters, tweets, convention information page on website) that we'd be using Twitter at convention, and encouraged members to sign up so they could follow our updates. For the most part, our members aren't really there yet as far as Twitter, but we do have a handful of dedicated followers. Using Twitter this time around was more of an experiment than anything; we didn't have any real expectation that many would follow.
Prior to convention we tracked a fair number of tweets about it, both from exhibitors who were using Twitter to promote their booths and from members enthusiastic about the upcoming event. Some examples of tweets were:
- "If you're in Chicago for the ASHA conference, please stop by our booth - #1906"
- "First session attended at #ASHA08 was presented by my grad school advisor, great to see her again! Fun start to ASHA Convention 2008."
- "Getting ready for 2 more days solo at the hospital. Becoming very sad that I don't get to go to ASHA convention. I want to go!"
- "2008 ASHA convention in Boston hosted 13,000 speech-language pathologists & audiologists..what is your prediction for attendance in Chicago"
- "Have you signed up for a job interview at the ASHA convention?"
Plus plenty more. Not too bad for an association whose members are predominantly in the 35-55 year group.
That said, this was a surprising tweet:
"Refining my ASHA presentation for Saturday 8-10 session 2501. I will talk about twitter and the future"
This from a member of 34 years doing a session on academic leadership! I DMd him asking about his presentation and he later came looking for me and we had a great conversation about social media. He spent about 15 minutes telling me his thoughts about using social media to engage students and showed me his slides and even his MySpace page. He was very cool!
Twitter turned out to be a great tool for interacting with members and exhibitors in several ways:
- A member tweeted asking if anyone had tickets to a sold-out function; I tweeted her back that I was able to find some for her. It was a great opportunity to offer one-on-one customer service to a member--something she undoubtedly would not have otherwise been able to get at such a large meeting
- When exhibitors tweeted about convention, I DMd them telling them to stop by and say hi. They did, and several expressed interest in ASHA's social networks--this generated one solid lead for our advertising department, as well as a few others who said they wanted to explore future opportunities with us. One major exhibitor even videotaped an interview with me and my web coworker for their blog!
- I was able to make a few announcements that otherwise wouldn't have been possible, since we didn't have a message center and the convention daily had been pre-printed
- A member DMd ASHA saying she'd lost her wallet and asking if we could help find it. Again, it was nice that she thought of using Twitter to connect with ASHA staff.
All in all, Twitter turned out to be much more of a success than we'd anticipated.
Stay tuned for part 2: Facebook.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
5 Fun Facts
Susan Murphy aka SuzeMuse, an awesome Canadian blogger, somehow found me worthy of being memed. The concept of being memed--or tagged--is you tell 5 things about yourself, then tag (e.g. link) to 5 other people asking them to do the same. You get to shock the world with your shameful secrets and spread some link love. Even if you couldn't care less about my 5 fun facts, scroll down and check out the people I tag because you might discover some cool new blogs.
Ok--let me see if I can scrape together 5 fun things about myself.
1) I bought my wedding dress for $9.99 on eBay. We were eloping in Vegas, so nobody was going to see it anyway, but I wanted to at least look "bridey" in the pictures. I combed eBay and found some girl selling her prom dress, took a chance and ordered it and it was perfect. We got married at the Wynn (in our suite--how cool is that?) and when we walked around the hotel for the photos a million people all told me how gorgeous the dress was. (Yes, that is a photo of us.)
In fact, the whole outfit--dress, veil, tiara (I was determined to wear a tiara even though I was almost 40), shoes--cost under $50. Ok, well I already had the shoes, but still.
2) I once wore the same pair of socks for an entire semester without washing them.I got to college and promptly took up with the hippies--something nobody who knew me would have ever called. Don't ask me why, but I just decided to see how long I could wear the same pair of ragg wool socks (worn, of course, with Birkenstocks) without washing them. It was also, coincidentally, the semester I had a 1.54 GPA and almost got kicked out.
3) I had a radio show in college. You'd never know it now, but once upon a time I was a cool DJ. I even had Dave Wakeling, by that point of General Public fame, as a guest. He dubbed me "Ranking Maggie" and gave me a tambourine signed by him and Ranking Roger.
4) I was one of the original PayPal users. This fact is probably not fun to anyone but me, but I remember when PayPal started they offered $5 to open an account and $5 for each person you got to sign up. Talk about a brilliant exercise in social media--guess it panned out for PayPal pretty well. That was also back when I used to sell stuff on eBay all the time and friends told me I should start a business selling other people's stuff on eBay. If I had taken that advice I'd probably be a millionaire by now.
5) I was a guest on the Oprah Show. This is my fun fact trump card. I was one of the "real life desperate housewives" on the episode featuring the cast of the then-new show, Desperate Housewives. An Oprah producer and a camera crew came to my house, followed me around and filmed me for 9 hours, all to make the 2 minute clip they featured on the show. They totally scripted me too--told me what to do, how to look, what to say, etc. I figured, whatever, I just want to meet Oprah and who's going to see it anyway--everyone's at work at 4 pm on a weekday, right?
Wrong. Every single person I've ever known happened to be watching Oprah that day. Friends from high school, friends from college, neighbors, friend's moms, teachers at my kids' school, coworkers...everyone. Oh well, the adventure was well worth the stigma of forever being known as "Maggie from Oprah" and being shunned by most of the moms in my community.
Ok--now it's someone elses' turn:
1) My sister, Cassie of Cute and Evil fame.
2) Lindy Dreyer, association social media blogger/starlet and her counterpart
3) Maddie Grant. They just launched a new company, SocialFish, to help associations dive into social media. Sorry ladies--I'm sure you've been memed before but you're the first two people who came to mind!
4) Penelope Trunk. I'm going to pull a Tim Ferriss and go out on a limb here. Penelope Trunk is a superstar and doesn't know me from Adam, but hey, she's big on sharing fun facts about herself.
Ok, poor Patrick is going to kill me if I don't sign off now, so I'm going to have to sleep on who to pick for #5.
Ok--let me see if I can scrape together 5 fun things about myself.
1) I bought my wedding dress for $9.99 on eBay. We were eloping in Vegas, so nobody was going to see it anyway, but I wanted to at least look "bridey" in the pictures. I combed eBay and found some girl selling her prom dress, took a chance and ordered it and it was perfect. We got married at the Wynn (in our suite--how cool is that?) and when we walked around the hotel for the photos a million people all told me how gorgeous the dress was. (Yes, that is a photo of us.)
In fact, the whole outfit--dress, veil, tiara (I was determined to wear a tiara even though I was almost 40), shoes--cost under $50. Ok, well I already had the shoes, but still.
2) I once wore the same pair of socks for an entire semester without washing them.I got to college and promptly took up with the hippies--something nobody who knew me would have ever called. Don't ask me why, but I just decided to see how long I could wear the same pair of ragg wool socks (worn, of course, with Birkenstocks) without washing them. It was also, coincidentally, the semester I had a 1.54 GPA and almost got kicked out.
3) I had a radio show in college. You'd never know it now, but once upon a time I was a cool DJ. I even had Dave Wakeling, by that point of General Public fame, as a guest. He dubbed me "Ranking Maggie" and gave me a tambourine signed by him and Ranking Roger.
4) I was one of the original PayPal users. This fact is probably not fun to anyone but me, but I remember when PayPal started they offered $5 to open an account and $5 for each person you got to sign up. Talk about a brilliant exercise in social media--guess it panned out for PayPal pretty well. That was also back when I used to sell stuff on eBay all the time and friends told me I should start a business selling other people's stuff on eBay. If I had taken that advice I'd probably be a millionaire by now.
5) I was a guest on the Oprah Show. This is my fun fact trump card. I was one of the "real life desperate housewives" on the episode featuring the cast of the then-new show, Desperate Housewives. An Oprah producer and a camera crew came to my house, followed me around and filmed me for 9 hours, all to make the 2 minute clip they featured on the show. They totally scripted me too--told me what to do, how to look, what to say, etc. I figured, whatever, I just want to meet Oprah and who's going to see it anyway--everyone's at work at 4 pm on a weekday, right?
Wrong. Every single person I've ever known happened to be watching Oprah that day. Friends from high school, friends from college, neighbors, friend's moms, teachers at my kids' school, coworkers...everyone. Oh well, the adventure was well worth the stigma of forever being known as "Maggie from Oprah" and being shunned by most of the moms in my community.
Ok--now it's someone elses' turn:
1) My sister, Cassie of Cute and Evil fame.
2) Lindy Dreyer, association social media blogger/starlet and her counterpart
3) Maddie Grant. They just launched a new company, SocialFish, to help associations dive into social media. Sorry ladies--I'm sure you've been memed before but you're the first two people who came to mind!
4) Penelope Trunk. I'm going to pull a Tim Ferriss and go out on a limb here. Penelope Trunk is a superstar and doesn't know me from Adam, but hey, she's big on sharing fun facts about herself.
Ok, poor Patrick is going to kill me if I don't sign off now, so I'm going to have to sleep on who to pick for #5.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Social Media Perfect Storm: A Cautionary Tale
Ok, I've kept my mouth shut long enough--I was not going to blog about this because it would probably mean I'd never see my free cloud computer, but at this rate it doesn't look like that's going to happen anyway. I'm sacrificing my potential blogging mother lode--free computer in exchange for promoting it via social media--to prove a point about the power of social media.
Beware: this is going to be a long post because I've kept this pent up for so long and think it's kind of fascinating.
Back in June I happened on a post on Craigslist looking for "Brand Angels" to promote a new "green" computer. They were looking for people who knew how to generate buzz in the blogosphere and were well-versed in social media. I loved the concept--and wanted not only the free computer but a chance to get in on the ground floor should this product turn out to be the next big thing. I sent them an email telling them why I'd be a great Brand Angel and, to my surprise, they apparently agreed and accepted me.
They were great about generating excitement and buy-in. There was a lead "Brand Manager" who was excellent about keeping everyone informed every step of the way: applications were coming in in droves, they were reviewing the applications, they were getting ready to announce the lucky "Brand Angels"--the whole thing was very exciting and I was all fired up to start blasting the blogosphere, Twittersphere and everything in between with tales of cloud computing. And it wasn't just me--the other 100 Brand Angels were also super excited about being chosen and couldn't wait to get started evangelizing their new "green" computer. This was in mid-July; we were told the computers were due to ship "in a few weeks."
The Brand Manger set up a group on Ning and the atmosphere there was akin to a locker room before the Superbowl--people were PSYCHED and eager as hell to get their hands on their computers and start spreading the word (and their product codes; we were to had made $10 for each sale we referred). People set up really upscale, professional blogs, complete with links to the company's website, resources about cloud computing, etc. It really seemed like a brilliant concept: get this pack of smart, well-connected people to spread the word about their product--for free. It was great for them and also great for us as bloggers--not only is it rare to reap any kind of tangible reward for blogging (e.g. free computer) but it also held the promise of tons of new traffic and connections.
So they hand-picked a bunch of buzz-experts, set up a social network for them so they could easily communicate with each other....then vanished. Well, didn't exactly vanish at first--the Brand Manager continued to provide frequent updates about the product--there had been some kind of glitch resulting in a delay in shipping, but no worries--we'd have the computers by the middle of August. Ok, actually, the end of August. End of August came and went and not only no computer but suddenly no Brand Manager either--she went from being in close touch with all of us to--poof!--gone and never to be heard from again. We were all hanging out on Ning, waiting for the next crumb of information to be fed to us, and there was nothing.
And I mean nothing--I'm talking crickets chirping. Nobody wanted to complain and come off as ungrateful because we all wanted our cool, free cloud computers. Inevitably the discussions started popping up, though: "Anyone heard anything from [company name omitted because I don't want to get sued or knifed in an alley]?" First it was like a bunch of polite school kids "Oh, I'm sure they're going to tell us something soon" and "I'm just excited to get mine!" Discussions about how we intended to spread the buzz--what we were going to write about, what social networking tools we were going to be using, how we were going to try to generate as many sales as possible so we'd all end up rich. All the while, absolutely no word from anyone at the company--the Brand Manager had never been heard from again and there had never been any kind of announcement about her leaving, anyone taking her place--nothing.
September came and went. At some point a very formal-sounding rep from the company logged on and posted on the discussion forum that there had been some delays but that they'd been cleared up and that the computers were going to ship soon. No actual date but soon. People started asking questions and she posted what sounded like a press release from the CEO, informing us that there had been delays...blah, blah, blah...totally different attitude and communication style than we'd been started off with. Then, of course, the silence again.
Mid-October we got an email from the company "Urgent [company]Brand Angel Update"--turns out that their major source of funding had pulled out and left them high and dry but that they had found a new investor and NOW they were PROMISING that the computers would ship on November 4. Oh, and by the way, if we knew anyone interested in investing, by all means have them contact the CEO.
We were like kids starved for affection and attention--just this one email seemed to renew everyone's excitement and enthusiasm--once again the boards were buzzing with positive comments. A little apprehension as November 4 approached with no further updates, but since they had PROMISED--actually "guaranteed" was the word they used--that the computers would be shipping on November 4, no ifs, ands or buts.
Shocker--November 4 came and went and not only no computers but no word whatsoever from the company. People have repeatedly posted comments on the discussion boards "Can anyone give us an update?" and even called, emailed and written the company--all to no avail. I was wondering how long it was going to take until the group turned from warm and fuzzy to cold and prickly--and finally it's happened. The past few days there had been several "What's going on?" posts, all with a decidedly negative tone--then someone came out with what I'd been thinking about all along: essentially, the company had taken great care to pick us for our ability to spread buzz--now they are basically leaving us no other option other than to start the buzz...about a company with deplorable customer relations, a problem-ridden product, and in search of investors. After all, who would want to buy a cloud computer and have all their information and files "processed and stored on the web in a highly secure environment"--hosted, of course, by this here today/gone tomorrow company?
Like I said, I'm not going to name any names now, but I can assure you that it's only a matter of time until the word starts leaking out about a company claiming to be all about fairness and community offering this cutting-edge eco-wonder of a computer, then leaving its "Angels" high and dry. If this is how they treat and communicate with the people who are essentially their advertisers and sales reps, how are they going to treat customers?
Moral of the story: Social networks are not something to be taken lightly. The social media world is just like the real world--people form real relationships, have real clout with investors and customers, and have bought into the idea of community and open communication. If you're a company thinking about using social media to generate buzz about your product or service, rest assured that it will work. Just make sure you're prepared to follow through and keep up your end of the bargain. I'm not talking jump through hoops and constantly coddle your evangelists; I'm talking about simple courtesy--returning emails, maintaining a presence on your social networks, making it known that you recognize and appreciate their following.
A group of loyal followers can just as easily become a swarm of angry individuals bent on spreading the word about their discontent with your company or product.
Beware: this is going to be a long post because I've kept this pent up for so long and think it's kind of fascinating.
Back in June I happened on a post on Craigslist looking for "Brand Angels" to promote a new "green" computer. They were looking for people who knew how to generate buzz in the blogosphere and were well-versed in social media. I loved the concept--and wanted not only the free computer but a chance to get in on the ground floor should this product turn out to be the next big thing. I sent them an email telling them why I'd be a great Brand Angel and, to my surprise, they apparently agreed and accepted me.
They were great about generating excitement and buy-in. There was a lead "Brand Manager" who was excellent about keeping everyone informed every step of the way: applications were coming in in droves, they were reviewing the applications, they were getting ready to announce the lucky "Brand Angels"--the whole thing was very exciting and I was all fired up to start blasting the blogosphere, Twittersphere and everything in between with tales of cloud computing. And it wasn't just me--the other 100 Brand Angels were also super excited about being chosen and couldn't wait to get started evangelizing their new "green" computer. This was in mid-July; we were told the computers were due to ship "in a few weeks."
The Brand Manger set up a group on Ning and the atmosphere there was akin to a locker room before the Superbowl--people were PSYCHED and eager as hell to get their hands on their computers and start spreading the word (and their product codes; we were to had made $10 for each sale we referred). People set up really upscale, professional blogs, complete with links to the company's website, resources about cloud computing, etc. It really seemed like a brilliant concept: get this pack of smart, well-connected people to spread the word about their product--for free. It was great for them and also great for us as bloggers--not only is it rare to reap any kind of tangible reward for blogging (e.g. free computer) but it also held the promise of tons of new traffic and connections.
So they hand-picked a bunch of buzz-experts, set up a social network for them so they could easily communicate with each other....then vanished. Well, didn't exactly vanish at first--the Brand Manager continued to provide frequent updates about the product--there had been some kind of glitch resulting in a delay in shipping, but no worries--we'd have the computers by the middle of August. Ok, actually, the end of August. End of August came and went and not only no computer but suddenly no Brand Manager either--she went from being in close touch with all of us to--poof!--gone and never to be heard from again. We were all hanging out on Ning, waiting for the next crumb of information to be fed to us, and there was nothing.
And I mean nothing--I'm talking crickets chirping. Nobody wanted to complain and come off as ungrateful because we all wanted our cool, free cloud computers. Inevitably the discussions started popping up, though: "Anyone heard anything from [company name omitted because I don't want to get sued or knifed in an alley]?" First it was like a bunch of polite school kids "Oh, I'm sure they're going to tell us something soon" and "I'm just excited to get mine!" Discussions about how we intended to spread the buzz--what we were going to write about, what social networking tools we were going to be using, how we were going to try to generate as many sales as possible so we'd all end up rich. All the while, absolutely no word from anyone at the company--the Brand Manager had never been heard from again and there had never been any kind of announcement about her leaving, anyone taking her place--nothing.
September came and went. At some point a very formal-sounding rep from the company logged on and posted on the discussion forum that there had been some delays but that they'd been cleared up and that the computers were going to ship soon. No actual date but soon. People started asking questions and she posted what sounded like a press release from the CEO, informing us that there had been delays...blah, blah, blah...totally different attitude and communication style than we'd been started off with. Then, of course, the silence again.
Mid-October we got an email from the company "Urgent [company]Brand Angel Update"--turns out that their major source of funding had pulled out and left them high and dry but that they had found a new investor and NOW they were PROMISING that the computers would ship on November 4. Oh, and by the way, if we knew anyone interested in investing, by all means have them contact the CEO.
We were like kids starved for affection and attention--just this one email seemed to renew everyone's excitement and enthusiasm--once again the boards were buzzing with positive comments. A little apprehension as November 4 approached with no further updates, but since they had PROMISED--actually "guaranteed" was the word they used--that the computers would be shipping on November 4, no ifs, ands or buts.
Shocker--November 4 came and went and not only no computers but no word whatsoever from the company. People have repeatedly posted comments on the discussion boards "Can anyone give us an update?" and even called, emailed and written the company--all to no avail. I was wondering how long it was going to take until the group turned from warm and fuzzy to cold and prickly--and finally it's happened. The past few days there had been several "What's going on?" posts, all with a decidedly negative tone--then someone came out with what I'd been thinking about all along: essentially, the company had taken great care to pick us for our ability to spread buzz--now they are basically leaving us no other option other than to start the buzz...about a company with deplorable customer relations, a problem-ridden product, and in search of investors. After all, who would want to buy a cloud computer and have all their information and files "processed and stored on the web in a highly secure environment"--hosted, of course, by this here today/gone tomorrow company?
Like I said, I'm not going to name any names now, but I can assure you that it's only a matter of time until the word starts leaking out about a company claiming to be all about fairness and community offering this cutting-edge eco-wonder of a computer, then leaving its "Angels" high and dry. If this is how they treat and communicate with the people who are essentially their advertisers and sales reps, how are they going to treat customers?
Moral of the story: Social networks are not something to be taken lightly. The social media world is just like the real world--people form real relationships, have real clout with investors and customers, and have bought into the idea of community and open communication. If you're a company thinking about using social media to generate buzz about your product or service, rest assured that it will work. Just make sure you're prepared to follow through and keep up your end of the bargain. I'm not talking jump through hoops and constantly coddle your evangelists; I'm talking about simple courtesy--returning emails, maintaining a presence on your social networks, making it known that you recognize and appreciate their following.
A group of loyal followers can just as easily become a swarm of angry individuals bent on spreading the word about their discontent with your company or product.
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