We all know That Guy.
Sometimes he’s in the lane next to you on the congested freeway, not letting you over.
Other times he’s in front of you on the train, yacking away on his phone.
And almost certainly, he’s lurking at your gym.
Author: adam
Slaying dragons in social media fantasyland
Takeaways from #RaganDisney
The social media industry can be a lot like New Fantasyland at Disney World: there’s a ton of information, flashing lights, advice, experts and characters out there. And like Mickey, we social media managers need to be able to blast through the nightmares and hype, to slay the dragons (e.g. social media pitfalls, haters, crises, stale content) and find our own way to the top of the mountain.
The best route is to set a strategy, jump in the fire and grow from there. After over three years of corporate social media management, I’m always looking for new ideas, fresh perspectives and ways to elevate my craft.
With that goal in mind, I attended the Ragan’s 6th Annual Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference at Walt Disney World to get inspired, network with other social media pros and come up with some new ideas to try out at work.
Here are the key lessons I took away from the conference and I hope they help you slay whatever social media dragons you’re battling.
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Five pillars of a quality meeting (and Twitter chat)
Working as the social media guy for a pretty big company, I spend a good chunk of my day on Twitter, responding to customers, promoting programs, spreading the good corporate word; and also personally for professional development, networking and information gathering (among others).
I see lots of good stuff in my feeds, and some tweets that aren’t so good.
Since meetings (and PowerPoints) are often staples of the business process, I also see a fair share of conference rooms, appointment notifications and recurring gatherings.
And just like tweets, some meetings are useful, and some meetings are – well, you get the idea.
This week I participated in the #pr20chat – a weekly Twitter discussion about PR and social media organized by Justin Goldsborough and Heather Whaling – and found a lot of value from the professional discussion, social media analysis and varied perspectives.
In jotting down my notes from the Twitter chat, the similarities crystallized between a quality Twitter chat and an effective meeting.
Continue reading Five pillars of a quality meeting (and Twitter chat)
Tri for Les: “Triathlon swimming made easy”
Basketball was my thing growing up and despite being short, slow and unable to jump very high (slapping the backboard on lay-ups was pretty much my vertical peak) I learned a lot from my hooping days.
One of the phrases that stuck with me over the years is, “Work smarter, not harder.” My coach used to say it all the time and even though it sounds so simple, it’s much easier said than done.
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Photos: #WHPlookingup
Every Friday, Instagram rolls out a Weekend Hashtag Project to give photographers a theme to shoot for over the weekend.
And despite the lingering bad taste in my mouth after Instagram’s botched Terms of Service update a few weeks ago, I still have fun participating.
This past weekend – just before a chilly morning run around Tempe Town Lake – I posted a couple photos for the Weekend Hashtag Project Looking Up (#WHPlookingup) theme.