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The ability to stay “top of mind” with our customers and clients has taken a huge leap with the various social media resources available today (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). There are so many ways to “get your point across” that it is easy wonder where to begin. Those of us in the technology industry have a bit of a head start as these tools were created in our own backyard, but even with this jump on the rest of the world, our traditional means of communications processes can slow down with what, and how, we adopt and implement these technologies.

Process is key to any winning strategy, and is true here as well. Simply jumping “online” with the latest application widget does not necessarily mean we will be front and center. For these tools to be both informative and productive, each business needs to understand how their core customer base communicates, and develop a combination strategy that best fits those needs. I would submit that in order to bridge the gap between business collaboration and social media, each business (and even business units within a company) needs to identify exactly what that gap is (it will be largely different depending on your line of work).

Many application companies have put forth attempts to consolidate the media… making it more collaborative and user friendly. Avaya has developed a very unique tool in the Flare Experience. This software solution is purpose built around the way businesses work, with intuitive touch screen interface, document and data sharing, HD video and voice, and “pooling” contacts from various media (including the usual suspects in social media) into a “contextual” experience. More software and application companies are developing integration tools continually, so it will be interesting to look back to see what solutions actually become the match-makers between social media and true business collaboration.

We have heard this a lot, but we must work “smarter”, and to do this we need to apply technologies that are in sync with our core competencies. If all we do is setup a company Facebook page or Tweet about our last trip to Starbucks, we aren’t fully utilizing the tools that are available. Knowing where our prospects go to find out about or research something they need is the first step toward building a collaboration process that benefits both parties.

- Cary Bush

Do you have a project that you would like to work with in collaboration with a good group of students?  If so, please click here to get started or contact the Tech Council office for more information.

The project team is looking for small projects that can be useful for corporations or non-profit organizations, that can be completed in one or two semesters.

Candidate courses to be used for projectMT include (but are not limited to):

• Discrete Structures
• Advanced Data Structures
• Web Technologies
• Databases
• Artificial Intelligence
• Networks
• Visual Programming
• Software Engineering
• Software Testing
• Data Mining

About the ProjectMT
This endeavor aims to enhance CS teaching and learning experience with real world projects woven into the entire CS curriculum. The process is further enriched with a stable and consistent local industrial connection that brings in innovative computing ideas, technologies, and real world experiences. Bachelor’s-level students will participate in the development of significant, real-world applications, and engage in active learning of project and class topic related materials. The proposed innovation in CS curriculum will prepare each graduate to be ready to work competitively and successfully in the industry from day one.

http://projectmt.cs.mtsu.edu/

poken |pōkən|
verb [trans.]
to touch two poken devices together, exchange data and make, keep and cultivate human connections.

noun (plural same) trademark
1. any poken product: pokenSPARK ™, pokenPULSE™, pokenHUB™; the poken website: www.poken.com
2. the actual company behind the whole thing. when Poken is written with a capital “P”, we’re talking about Poken S.A., all official and whatnot.

Today, it seems like there are new social media tools coming out by the second. The Poken, “your social media business card,” is making business connections even easier. Much like the iPhone’s Bump Application, you can gather your new friend’s contact information with a simple touch.  This information is then stored on a USB drive, and you can view all of your “social business cards” in one place.

The Poken also records the date and time, which you gathered your contact information.  So, if you know you met someone two weeks ago, and want to check out their LinkedIn profile, you can simply scroll back in time to the date you met them.   Your Poken can store up to fifty contacts before transferring the data onto your computer.

Check out the Poken demonstration video below, and get to poken.

Poken Explained from Poken on Vimeo.

[meta]marketer’s Kate O’Neill led the audience through key points to a strategic social media plan last week, as she introduced the group to a number of tools including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  As the workshop began, the audience emphasized their need for understanding Social Media as a business promoter, the safety and privacy of these tools, and the proper etiquette for the use of these tools.

Kate began the workshop by emphasizing the importance of adapting to this form of marketing, and embracing these tools as the “new normal.”  An interesting statistic she pointed out is that Facebook is beginning to encroach Google in quantity of web traffic, and very soon might surpass it completely.  Another interesting point, thanks to @Bazaarvoice, is that 64% of consumers connected to brands on social media made their first purchase from that brand due to a digital experience.  This really laid down the ground rules of the importance of getting to know and understand this type of marketing.

Although it is extremely tempting just to dive in and start using these tools, Kate illustrated the importance of creating a strategy for your marketing efforts.  You should ask yourself:
-Who are you trying to reach?
-Who are the audiences you are trying to connect?
-What channel is appropriate to communicate with your audience?  
-What are the key concepts that you want to get across?
-What are the key terms you would use to describe that concept?  
-Who are your content contributors?

After defining your strategy, it is important to participate, but in the proper way.  So, what is the etiquette for Social Media use?  Kate referred to this as, “Think of it like a cocktail party…. light and interesting.”  She also emphasized the importance of not only talking about what you think is interesting, but make sure it will be interesting to your target audience as well.  In addition, she stated that it is essential to think about everything and make sure it is always back on a strategic level.

If you missed Kate’ presentation, and want to find out more, take a look at her slideshow below:

Now you can spam your LinkedIn profile with a cryptic 140 character messages.  Thanks to a new partnership between Twitter and LinkedIn, you can now sync your updates on both platforms.  For the business users of LinkedIn, get ready for more updates about the kids, day-dreaming, and other stream of conscience thoughts.  It should be interesting.  Before you go ranting and raving too much, you might want to think about everyone who has linked to you in your professional persona!

Click Here to read more.

Is there ever a time when someone can have too much power?   Well the developers at Power.com are working hard to provide a powerful social media tool that allows the user to track all of his/her social media accounts in one place. 

There are other applications out there that are slicker and allow you to track your social media presence, but require the opening of multiple tabs in your browser.  The marketing on this says that it will help consolidate all communications, calendars, and social networks.  It fell short of expectations, but if you are a power user on social networks, you might find some value in logging in once to access all of your sites.  It was a pleasant surprise to find Hi5 included in the social nets as well.

Interested in learning more?  Visit www.power.com

The social media statistics I posted a few weeks ago seemed to strike a chord amongst the digital community, especially in highlighting just how big an issue this particular area of online currently is. So I’m happy to say that I’ve trawled around the internet to bring you some more snippets of useful data and awesome figures.

As before, all this information is likely to be out of date in six months or so, but until then, they’re reasonably recent facts and I feel they demonstrate the meteoric rise and importance of this rapidly evolving area of online.

In no particular order:

• Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites. 
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.
• 80% of companies use, or are planning to use, LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees during the course of this year. The site has just celebrated reaching their 45-millionth membership. 
• Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week. 
• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people.  In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.  
• Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopedia. 
• The most recent figure of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million. The same report into the Blogosphere also revealed that on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period. 
• It’s been suggested that YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year. 
• The top three people on Twitter (Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears) have more combined followers than the entire population of Austria.
• According to Socialnomics, if you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour. 
• The online bookmarking service, Delicious, has more than five million users and over 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.  
• Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.  
• Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.  
• Universal McCann reported that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.

Some Nashville related statistics, according to NashMash.com:

• There are currently 19,991 Twitter users in the Nashville area.
• One of the most influential Twitter users in the Nashville area is Dave Delaney of Griffin Technology.
• This month alone, more than 46,000 tweets have been posted on Twitter. 

For more information and other interesting articles revolving around this topic, visit www.econsultancy.com

The Nashville Technology Council hosted the first session of our Entrepreneurial Series last night with 98 folks in attendance.  Moderator Bryan Huddleston of Microsoft and panelists Kate O’Neill of [meta] marketer and Bill Seaver of MicroExplosion educated the crowd on how to gain a competitive advantage through social media.  Kate and Bill shared social media success strategies they have used and listed some tools that can assist users along the way to be successful. 

Having many followers is good, but attracting the right followers can create a positive image for your online brand.  Latching onto the most successful social media personalities can be very beneficial to your online growth model.  Nashmash.com helps users identify successful tweeters by listing the top tweeter in your area.

Keeping your message fresh and educational is also a large part of social media success.  With the speed of developments on social media sites, information is quicker to become “old news.”  Tweetdeck is a great tool for refreshing your image and message.  Tweetdeck monitors activity and trends on Facebook and Twitter to keep you up-to-date on new trend developments to help keep your message fresh.  

Another interesting fact is that most businesses have multiple objectives to achieve.  As we all know, too much information can cause “overload” on followers.   A strategy to avoid this problem is to invest in multiple accounts on social media sites and utilize hash tags to eliminate tweets from posters that have little or nothing to do with your message.

If you are interested in helpful reading material, a book mentioned last night called “Ground Swell”  is a great read and specifically covers the POST concept – People / Objectives / Strategy / Technology.

Also, if you would like to track the conversation on Twitterfall from last night, you can do so by clicking here.

“The incredible turnout is testament to what a draw “social media” is as a topic, but it’s a challenge, too: almost everyone in the community knows something about it, but as we saw in audience responses last night, the levels of comfort and familiarity are all over the place. We tried to address the disparity by focusing on strategy and overall best practices rather than getting too caught up in the details of implementation and execution, but the success of the event itself seems to have validated a desire for more detailed presentations on these topics. It will be exciting to see this programming evolve.”  Kate O’Neill, [meta] marketer

“I had a great time at the NTC panel last night. I think the size of the group, the level of attention, and the number of questions they asked just showed the kind of momentum around social media in business today. I hope the people who came were encouraged and empowered through the discussion.”  Bill Seaver, MicroExplosion

Twitter has become a popular communication tool for nearly all businesses, young professionals, etc.  However, one organization that is overlooked when talking about social networking is the church.  Yes that’s correct, even your pastor is beginning to rely on Twitter.  

One of the first churches to experiment and tweet about a hosted major event on Twitter was Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday this past April.  While it seems like a great marketing tool for the church to get folks interested, there are also a lot of negatives that have to be addressed.  Besides, most that use social media are young people, so what better way to increase your global marketing presence.

As church staff members twittered on the church’s annual Crucifixion event, thousands from around the globe followed the event via smartphones.  Great visibility and marketing for this denomination, right?  Some of the quotes from those tweeting included “Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”

…so much for that idea.

However, even though Trinity church experienced unexpected feedback on their first run with the social media world, the discussion about further involvement continues.  While Twitter has no bar against crude tweeters, churches and religious leaders all over the world are questioning whether they should incorporate, not only Twitter, but other social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Even though Trinity church had a bad experience, they continue to tweet about their Sunday services and their following continues to grow.  However, religious organizations still have some serious questions to answer.  Should there be limited access? Censoring? Is it appropriate for a clergy member to “friend” a minor?

While these questions continue to surround the merger of religion with social media, church goers only need to ask themselves one question.  WWJD – What would Jesus do?