Category Archives: Professional Development

Global perspectives on social media

Posted on February 10, 2012 at 1:11 pm UK

smw2012

A week-long feast of knowledge opportunity awaits you next week in over 20 cities around the world when Social Media Week kicks off on February 13.

This bi-annual professional development event offers you a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. The organizers say it attracts more than 60,000 attendees across thousands of individually organized events, with half a million connecting to the conference online and through mobile.

smwlondonbadgeOne of the cities involved is London where over 150 events are taking place during the week, most of them free to attend (thanks to sponsors).

I’m participating as a speaker and presenter in three of those 150+ events, all of which look as though they’ll be fully booked any minute now – if you’d like to be there, this is the moment to check availability and sign up:

Wednesday February 15

  1. 08:30 to 12:30: Social Business Immersive by Like Minds
    One of seven presenting; my topic: “Brand communications in a social world: the rise of open and transparent dialogue to manage your reputation and drive opportunities publicly to do business.”
  2. 15:00 to 17:00: “The Future of Social Business” panel discussion with JP Rangaswami, Euan Semple, Jon Ingham, Neville Hobson and Delphine Remy-Boutang. This will be a moderated open discussion and debate on social business current trends, best practices and how social media is driving change in the way organisations will do business in the future.

Thursday February 16

  1. 08:30 to 17:00: Making Social Part Of Your DNA by Klaxon Marketing
    Presentation (at 11:50) jointly with Kerry Bridge of Dell UK titled “The long haul; top tips learnt over the years on how to really make social work for your business.” Especially useful if you’re a small or medium-size business.
  • Location: 6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB.
  • Details and Register: http://www.socialmediadna.co.uk/agenda/ (This is a not-for-profit event so your full ticket price goes directly to the event’s charity partners CRY and Mind.)

These are but three of the London events you can experience. Among the many others available, these five – one from each day – look like standout sessions:

And if you can’t physically get to any event, you can enjoy many of them via live video streams by Livestream (who will be streaming events from other SMW cities as well).

There are also hashtags for each city – London’s is #smwldn – so you can join the conversations on Twitter.

Enjoy your week of perspectives!

Free webinar on GaggleAmp set for January 31

Posted on January 10, 2012 at 7:14 am UK

gaggleamplogoAt FIR, we’ve been talking about GaggleAMP since last autumn. Since we started using GaggleAMP, over 100 of our listeners have joined our Gaggle and, with their help, we have achieved a message reach of over 2.25 million. Based on the statistics we get from our MP3 host, LibSyn, we’ve seen a jump in the number of downloads that matches the amplification of our message. Some of our listeners, including Chris Abraham, have also started using GaggleAMP to their benefit.

Now it’s time to unveil the curtain. Join FIR co-host Shel Holtz and GaggleAMP President Glenn Gaudet as they give you an insider’s view of how FIR has used GaggleAMP and has been able to achieve its results in such a short period of time. This webinar will allow you to see what we at FIR see on the manager side and give you insight into how social media amplification can work for your organization.

This webinar is limited to 100 people so register now!

System Requirements

  • PC-based attendees:
    Required: Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
  • Macintosh-based attendees:
    Required: Mac OS X 10.5 or newer

Reserve your Webinar seat here.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)

All set for the huddle on November 3

Posted on October 31, 2011 at 8:46 pm UK

Planning is complete and things are all set for the Dell B2B Social Media Huddle that takes place in London on November 3.

For this fourth B2B social media networking event that Kerry Bridge and I have organized, we’re expecting a full house at Google’s London headquarters, the venue for our get-together. All 90 free tickets sold out long ago and there’s a waiting list. (If you have a ticket but now can’t make it on the day, please let us know so we can make a wait-lister happy.)

We have a great programme for everyone that includes formal keynote presentations:

  • Lee Bryant, co-founder and Director, Headshift, on social business
  • Cairbre Sugrue, Managing Director Technology, Edelman UK, on trust
  • Azeem Azhar, founder and CEO of PeerIndex, on influence marketing and measurement

And, there is the popular unconference aspect, with sessions run by anyone who would like to talk on a topic they believe will be of distinct interest and value to a B2B audience. So far, we have the following sessions confirmed:

  • Benjamin Ellis, Redcatco: From off-line to on-line – QR Codes, geo-location and what comes next
  • Jas Dhaliwal, AVG.com: Tactics and strategies for connecting with communities
  • Rob Shimmin, Shimmin Brand Protection: Social Media – Letting your corporate guard down?
  • Andrew Grill, PeopleBrowser: How social is impacting TV and all forms of traditional media, from production to consumption

If you have an idea for an unconference session you’d like to run, let us know. There will be an opportunity to do that on the day.

Everyone who’s got a ticket will have received an email from Kerry today with details of the agenda, venue, timings, etc. So we look forward to seeing you in London on November 3!

If you can’t physically attend but want to participate remotely or follow the event virtually, there are a variety of ways you can connect and join the conversation:

Catch the keynotes and other sessions after the event as FIR podcasts. We’ll also upload presentations to Dell’s Slideshare page.

[The Conversation Prism graphic in the image above used under CC license from Brian Solis.]

The richness of being social

Posted on October 23, 2011 at 7:44 am UK

jeremiahlunch

Getting together for a chat over lunch – the epitome of being social whether for business or pleasure.

That’s what the photo above suggests to me, a picture of a group who did just that a few days ago at the delightful Petersham Hotel in Richmond, Surrey; people who know each other primarily though online social networks and common interests and thinking, most of whom don’t physically get together too frequently.

The occasion was Jeremiah Owyang’s UK visit following his keynote speech at the Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Summit in London on October 19. Jeremiah is partner and principal analyst at Altimeter Group in Silicon Valley.

My podcasting partner Shel Holtz and I interviewed Jeremiah last month in which we discussed social business readiness, the subject of an in-depth study led by Jeremiah that examined what it takes for an organization to be prepared for social business, what the benefits of readiness are as well as the consequences of unpreparedness and the steps most organizations still need to take, even those ranked as “advanced.”

So when a get-together like the one I mentioned does happen, it adds genuine richness to the moment as well as to the relationships between all of the people. Pictured, from left to right: Jeremiah Owyang, Neville Hobson (that’s me), Philip Sheldrake, Abigail Harrison, Kerry Bridge, Julius Duncan, Jas Dhaliwal, and Benjamin Ellis. Missing from the photo because she had to leave earlier than the rest of us did (we all lingered): Sophie Brendel.

As they say, nothing beats face to face.

[Photo attributed to Benjamin Ellis - and published here under Creative Commons license - but taken with Benjamin's camera by our table waiter at the Petersham Hotel. Not a bad snapper!]

A good time for IABC accreditation

Posted on October 10, 2011 at 8:11 am UK

abcmonthIf you’re an IABC member and you’re thinking about becoming accredited – adding those letters ‘ABC‘ to your professional title – why not take advantage of Accreditation Month 2011, on from October 1 until mid November?

Accreditation is IABCs globally-recognized professional credential program. Anyone who applies during Accreditation Month will receive a certificate to use in the IABC Knowledge Centre and be entered in a drawing for special prizes selected to enhance the path to accreditation.

The Accreditation website offers rich resources to help you from applying right through to the process itself including eligibility requirements, sample exams and a readiness quiz.

  • Accreditation tweetchat: ask your questions in real time on Wednesday October 12 in the one-hour tweetchat starting at 5pm UK time. Connect with the hashtag #IABCaccreditation.

Listen to a 25-minute interview I did with Jennifer Wah, chair of IABC’s Accreditation Committee, published yesterday. Jennifer talks at length about accreditation, the benefits and what help members can count on to successfully become an Accredited Business Communicator.

(Disclosure: I’m a long-standing IABC member, and co-host and produce the Cafe2Go podcast as unpaid volunteerism activity.)