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Anatomy of 20 Minutes on Twitter

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There are a couple of things I’d like to share about this post. For starters, it’s too good not to use as an example of inspiration from Twitter. In 20 minutes, I posed a question, and Neicole Crepeau (with whom I had never tweeted) chimed in. In the flick of a wrist, we had:

  • Debated the definition of “guru” in social media
  • Shared data on latecomers to the party
  • Established our respective credibility
  • Agreed on our consensus
  • Became inspired by the chat to ask others to join us
  • RT’ed a bunch of times to show appreciation and respect
  • Retained the tweet stream to repurpose into a blog post WITH permission from both parties.

The true purpose of this stream is to debate the definition of “guru.” That’s not happening today, but it will happen tomorrow in part two of this post.  Ever the educator, I feel the need to share this powerful chat to showcase Twitter’s hidden gifts. And, if you don’t get this type of engagement on Twitter every so often, you’re not engaged! Simple.

Twitter Chat with Jayme Soulati and Neicole Crepeau:

@Soulati How would you define a #SM guru? Someone just said “it’s too early to define a true guru.”

@neicolec Good question! RT @Soulati: How would you define a #SM guru? Someone just said “it’s too early to define a true guru.”

@neicolec: Guru implies a long time doing something. It implies, to me, that you have developed solid, repeatable processes.

@Soualti: RT @neicolec Guru implies a long time doing something. It implies, to me, that you have developed solid, repeatable processes.

@neicolec: Social networks have only become mainstream (in terms of volume and user demographics) in the last couple of years. #SM

@Soulati: I’ve been presenting 5 times this year on #SM; fascinating to see YouTube born 2005. Not a long time!

@Neicolec: To date, most social media marketing has been experimental. Tried and true best practices (beyond basic use) aren’t there. #SM

@Soulati: I find #PR measurement easier with #SM. Best practices come with dedicated companies open to change, flexibiilty.

@Neicolec: While there have been successes in social media and there are big names, I don’t think that equals a guru. #SM

@Neicolec: A guru should be able to teach others those best practices so they can repeat them. Not seeing that much, yet. #SM

@Soulati: There are always leaders. In the case of #SM, perhaps good to delineate “leader” “mentor” “guru.” Good convo; let’s do blog post.

@Soulati: Hope you’re following Neicole and me right now. She’s got some good insight on how we define guru in #SM. We’re not there yet.

@Neicolec: I agree with you re: best practices. A post the other day said social media is now moving from revolution to evolution stage. #SM

@Soulati: Did you catch that nuance — to “evolution?” Hoping it becomes part of the channel, and slow adopters get on board.

@Neicolec: I agree with that. Best practices will be built during this stage. I also agree that there are leaders in social. Not gurus.

@Soulati: OK, you’re on. This is definitely a blog post; I will capture our discussion from this afternoon. OK to include your tweets?

@Neicolec: If you do a blog post, please DM me with the link. I’d love to see your thoughts on the topic.

@Neicolec: Did you see the latest stats on marketing spend. https://ow.ly/2wPFm I think those late adopters are coming on board.

@Neicolec: Absolutely! Enjoyed the tweet talk. A great example of the joys of social media!

@Soulati: Fully agree; thanks Neicole!

When Are You You?

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Was combing Google Reader last night for content to help me with today’s topic. I really had nothing to write about, or so I thought.I zeroed in on Charlene Li, co-author of the best-selling Groundswell, and her free webinar series on open leadership.You can register for number three happening TODAY at 10 a.m. PDT on Finding and Supporting Your Open Leaders.

But, that’s not what I want to write about…

I noticed Charlene had launched a new personal Web site that is home to her blogs, calendar of travels, book info and more. While she did not leave Altimeter Group, she said her company is her work. She wanted a chance to speak about her children  without compromising her work content or professionalism. I can vouch for that.

Also tonight, I had a discussion with a colleague about Twitter IDs and whether to keep it professional or personal. When I tweet now, I think twice before posting about whether the content is professional enough. There are too many opportunities to be regarded offensive with an off-hand remark.

Does your professional life control your social media identity? Are you finding it challenging to always be “on” and to carefully and thoughtfuly craft the message? Yes, yes, yes.

Social media, social networking and SEM have made the world open. Just like Charlene suggests – open leadership requires transparency. It’s a push-me/pull-you sort of thing. If you want to play ball in the majors, we all need to let go of a little privacy and adopt a bit of celebrity.

So, when are you you?

 
 

How Does PR Happen?

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Excellence is defined by the ability to deliver one’s craft with leading-edge knowledge. It’s the ability to strategize a program quickly based on current events. Problem solving is part of the equation; as a strategist one needs to know the steps to make things right, improved, and fail-safe (in a perfect world). High-quality public relations is knowledge gleaned and tapped that adds to credibility and reliability as a counselor.

So, how does this happen…the attainment of public relations excellence?

The Public Relations Society of America has a rigorous certification course that puts a nice little acronym after your name – the APR designation (accredited in public relations). If I dug deeply, I’d be able to find the number of folks who’ve elected to join the group locally and nationally, apply for and be accepted into the course, pay, study and receive the deserved commendation.

As for me, PR happens because I have a thirst for knowledge about everything. The periodicals that arrive at my house are as varied as my college education (anthropology to zoology). I receive Scientific American, Legal Technology News, B to B, Advertising Age, Bloomberg Businessweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Vegetarian Times, Body & Soul, More, Health, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Fresh Home, and (no wonder I supply second-hand zines to every school, waiting room and salon in town!).

Beyond reading (including the blogosphere I attempt to get to 3x/week in my Google Reader and fail), I also self-educate. When I first began hearing “PR is dead” from bloggers, I knew I wasn’t. By then, I had already enrolled in several Dreamweaver (Web design) classes, a Photoshop course, and one on HTML.

More than a year ago, I began to tweet. Twitter was the best thing that ever happened to me. Beyond meeting some of the most fab people I now can ring at any time for counsel or to say hello, my learning rate increased five-fold. I am serious when I say this. There’s no way to immerse in social media faster than on Twitter.

You learn early on whose links to click, and when a learning pot of gold greets you at the other end, every minute of time is worth it.

I also buy access to communities like Marketing Sherpa, and I’ve joined Social Media Today on which my blog gets posted, too. I listen, I engage, I learn.

My favorite learning environment right now is Lynda.com. It is a wealth of tutorials on the illusive knowledge we in public relations do not have – it’s tech and software oriented to the Internet. If you never spend a dime on your education, I recommend you stop the bleeding and rush to Lynda.com.  I’m not even an affiliate! I just value what I’m learning off this site so much, everyone else in integrated marketing should know about it, too.

How does public relations happen for you? What rich resource am I missing to enhance my intelligence quotient?

Twitter’s Hidden Gifts

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I’ve been tweeting for a year. During that time, say about nine months when I got around the what-the-heck-is-this thing, I’ve encountered Twitter’s many hidden gifts. I’d like to share and ask whether you have others to add.

Obviously, you need to be a treasure hunter (especially now with more bots, spam and direct selling). Twitter is much like the racks at T.J. Maxx — it’s a hunt-and-peck gold pot deal. But the rainbow does bare fruit.

On Twitter, I promise, you can find:

  • Amazing network of intelligent peeps with whom to banter and exchange commentary.
  • Sense of community and a feeling you belong to a higher group (are we a clique?) who get it.
  • Treasure of information (caveat emptor!) behind the numerous links everyone tweets.
  • Quick way to garner immediate knowledge about any topic imaginable and ability to be at the front end of unfolding crises i.e. earthquakes, elections and the like.
  • Lists of people with your like interests within your profession or elsewhere from whom you can get opinions and fodder.
  • People like Gregg Morris. I’ve mentioned Gregg more than once in my few posts on this new blog, and there’s a reason why. He became my knight who rescued me from blogger IT hell and smoothed out my experience so these posts can come alive.  (I have far to go, and I know Gregg is a click away.)

My intention was to gift Gregg with an interview and help him promote his venture as a storyteller. We spoke for several hours, and the outcome was an exchange so rich with backward and forward insights, high intelligence, and an appreciation for the synergies of the past, present and future.  As a result, I plan a series of posts relating to and about Gregg; he gifted me with so much, he deserves more in return.

There’s no doubt your Twitter stream can be rich with hidden people gifts ala Gregg. As I develop more food for thought, look within your stream for exactly that. It’s not happenstance, you know; you need to give to get. And, when it does occur, the whole meaning of tweepship is defined anew.

Twitter & the Hash Tag

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As I toil to design this deal, I will attempt to delight with awesome lingo. Twitter will provide an array of topics. Tonight’s is about the awesome use of the # (hash tag). I’m following these several days #LMA10 — the Legal Marketing Association annual meeting in Denver.

For those not in the know, when you tweet, add that hash tag to each tweet, and it’s captured along with other tweets throughout the conference.

Today I gathered all the negatives about the event — WiFi non-existent, SRO, no break-out rooms listed, no photography, etc.

In addition, I got some great points relating to social media, alternative fee arrangements, branding, and public relations in law firms.

The most interesting, yet troubling, point came from a public relations session where folks were told that social media is a fad. Legal marketers need to look for the next place to hang their hats.

Really?

Well, I’ve been tweeting an entire year, and this “fad” shows no sign of slowing down. Coming from an industry traditional slow to adopt, I’m not sure where that statement originated.

Fad or not, social media is here to stay — very alive and well. If you’ve got any thoughts direct from the legal marketer perspective, please share!