Social Media, Networking and Mobile Technology Summit

This has definitely been a do-it-all week!

I had a teleconference with  TEC Edmonton about building a smartphone app which would give you the UV Index, temperature, etc for your location (within 10 km) and sun safety tips based on your skin type that you plug in along with other information during set-up.

Had another teleconference with pharma company about sponsorhing a public education campaign, which for the first time would include pre-planned social media elements (YouTube, Twitter, & Facebook).

Then headed off to Toronto for the Social Media, Networking and Mobile Technology Summit hosted by the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE). The speakers, Andy Steggles and Angelika Lipkin, covered a lot of material but still had some much that we're going to be having a webinar in about 6 weeks to address the extra content and allow for questions about things that may/may not be working.

The summit was great because it focused on social media and social networking for not-for-profits which incidentally is where I find myself. Part of the registration fee for the summit was Andy Steggles book "Social Networking for Nonprofits: Increasing Engagement in a Mobile and Web 2.0 World". Apparently the book is a great resource that many people find helpful. So much so that it was out of print at the time of the meeting but CSAE has said they will be mailing them out and I find that I'm actually anxious to get my hands on a copy.

During the meeting Andy and Angelika, from HigherLogic.com asked that we tweet about the session using the hashtag #CSAE11. People were tweeting during the sessions and Andy even tweeted a video from the karaoke night following the first day's session. Those Ontario Real Estate Association girls sure enjoyed the spotlight ahaha!

Allowing for the dialogue

(I'm going to rant, I'm a bit frustrated.)

I think I mentioned in a previous post that the organization I work for has jumped on the band wagon and created a Facebook fan page. As the administrator of this page I'm running into some difficulties with some executive members of our Association who don't want to see the page opened up to the public for commenting.

I have a problem with this because the whole reason for social media is to engage with people, to start those dialogues and foster a spirit of trust and credibility in the organization. But we (the royal one) can't do that if people can't make comments to post content. It's how you respond to those comments (positive or negative) that people will appreciate and how quickly you can put out any fires should they happen. Why is it that some people are so fearful of change?? I'm just starting to get my feet wet when it comes to social media but even I understand the necessity for dialogue and feedback.

In any event, I'm going to continue to plead my case in hopes that the executives see "the light" as it were and move forward with me, knowing that strategies are in place to deal with any tricky situations before they happen. (I've found that having a communications crisis strategy in place before a crisis occurs to be super handy. Not only for the "what to do" aspect but also in making change happen.)

Rant over. Again sorry.

March.....really??

I don't know how March showed up so quickly but it's here which means...

• Mum's birthday is Thursday (51 years young)
• Media efforts ramp up at work to address the upcoming conference
• And my workload is about it get ridiculous as all our programs seem to run during the same three month window.

Between our conference and two public education initiatives I'm busy enough but now we're starting to consider how we can use social media to help. We've now got a Twitter (@CdnDermatology) account which has a few followers but we're really just getting going and a Facebook fan page where we're going to be posting a lot of stuff (like videos, pictures, handouts) about our Sun Awareness Campaign and FREE skin cancer screenings. (Search "Canadian Dermatology Association" on facebook.)

We're also discussing a massive redesign of our website (www.dermatology.ca) which is going to be an insane amount of work.
                      SIDEBAR: If anyone knows of any good web design
                      companies in Ottawa, I welcome any and all suggestions.
But hopefully, they will give me a reasonable timeline to have the redesign done and can roll it out in phases rather than as one giant lump sum.

Hmm, I'm noticing that my blog posts of late aren't really all that tied to social media and have taken on more of a form of ranting diatribes. I suppose it was bound to happen at some point. My apologies.

FAMILY DAY LONG WEEKEND!!

Hurrah! A long weekend in February an extra day to help me survive the long cold winter in Ottawa!!

Going into the long weekend I didn't have any plans much more than to relax, catch up on some reading, maybe watch a movie and do some much needed laundry. But that all changed at 3:45pm on Friday.

Friday afternoon I get a text from a friend asking if I want to go see "Unknown" which of course I do because I have a great love for Liam Neeson. Great flick by the way, very good plot twists. Anyway, after the movie I tweeted my love for it and all things Liam Neeson. From which sprouted a random tweet-convo with a friend who lives/works in Los Angeles. He works in television and is writing a screenplay for a movie he and his friends hope to get made - a pipe dream really. @scott_towler, @barbarian_days)

Back to my story, a radio personality in Ottawa picks up on our little conversation and asks if I wanted to write a review of the movie for their website - do I!?!?! - and then asks if I'd be willing to see another couple movies and review them. Kind of a what to do during Family Day.

So Saturday I head out with the same friend, we see two more movies, eat wwwaaayyyy tooooo much popcorn and I write a couple of reviews. (The reviews haven't been posted yet but I'll look for the link, if I remember that is.) Then I nap.....ZzzZzzZzz....too much sitting and popcorn can make you pretty sleepy.

So the evening rolls around and I'm wide awake because of the lovely midday nap.  Post to facebook that I'm looking for things to do and end up playing a game of Where in the world is Katie (a take on Where in the world is Carmen San Diego) trying to meet up with friends via facebook and text.

I cave sign up for foursquare and see where they "checked in". A night of hilarity ensues following a mishap with some beer, a disco song and a drag queen.

Now Sunday afternoon rolls around, I crawl out of bed and make it all the way to the couch with a big bowl of cheerios. Watch re-runs of Will & Grace and veg. Immerging form the vegetative state to write a blog post, thankful that I still have Monday to do some reading, laundry and relaxing.

Love long weekends!

My friend's band covered Justin Bieber's Somebody to Love and in an attempt to help their video go viral, I designed the email newsletter below. The newsletter was distributed to the fanlist and each section linked to a different form of social media: the band's blog, twitter, facebook group, myspace, email, etc.

The image is currently linked to the video, in case anyone is interested I know they'd love more fans.

Until recently this was the most experience I'd had with social media, although graphic design is a big part of what I do. Ulitimately, I love it if I could spend most of my time designing and finding a away to tie in social media.