Presentations

Another #BTVSMB (or, for the newcomer, Burlington Vermont Social Media Breakfast), another great set of speakers (“Community Managers” Sara Steele Rogers of Boloco and Anthony Quintano of NBC News), and another mindmap.  Just your average rainy April Tuesday morning in Burlington.  I love that this is my first post after finishing up my Green MBA - nothing like a #BTVSMB to give me the prompt I need to get posting again after taking some time to work on the crazy last semester buildup.  On to the event! These events are always interesting and thought provoking (and fun, usually), and today was no exception.  Sara and Anthony were both on point, and shared helpful tips for those that are considering either becoming a community manager, hiring one, or developing one internally.  Nothing outrageous or

I haven't posted much lately - and there is good reason for it! I am in the home stretch - finishing my MBA in Organizational and Environmental Sustainability  (or, if you like shorter terminology, my Green MBA) at Antioch University New England. I am wrapping up my practicum project, which was learning to design and deliver effective presentations.  As I have a presentation to give to share my learning with the public, I am feeling a bit of pressure to actually have a great presentation!  Good times. At any rate, just wanted to share that I am finishing up, and look forward to having more time to post after this weekend.  There are a ton of things I want to share with you guys.  I have been keeping notes so I remember what I want to post afterwards. I'll also share my learning about designing and giving great presentations.  I am looking

10 Hidden Rules of Social Media.  I am giving a presentation on this tonight at the Burlington, VT gathering of Antioch University of New England alumni.  It was a relatively challenging group to plan a talk on social media for, as it's a pretty diverse group.  I decided to focus on "Hidden Rules" because it may resonate with the sociologically minded alumni, and can be helpful for people with a wide range of understanding of social media tools. First, Focus Inward. The absolute first step that you must take, as a business, or as an individual that is looking to begin using social media professionally, is to shore up your primary internal communications issues.  That should be easy, right?!  Focusing inward and cleaning up your own backyard before heading out into the world would be a wise choice.  It clearly takes work, but I think that’s where you need to

I attended the "BTVSMB"  (otherwise known as the Burlington Vermont Social Media Breakfast) this morning.  (Check out the BTVSMB Facebook Page for pics, and more info on the group!) Morgan Johnston from Jetblue (@morganjohnston) and Bill Gerth from Comcast (@comcastbill) visited Burlington to talk about their work.  The theme of the discussion (actually, it was more of a lecture than a discussion, as there was time for only a handful of questions from the crowd) was "Social Media and Customer Service." Most of the information shared was basic customer service "golden rule" stuff, but one thing that Bill shared really resonated with me. Comcast is using video to provide tech support (actually, they are using Apple's FaceTime). For example, they will connect on FaceTime and have customers show the back of their routers and the cords that they are trying to

Ok, so you have your Pecha Kucha slides completed - you have designed and created a presentation that is beautiful, compelling, and effective using my helpful tips.  Now you are all set, just show up and give the presentation, and you are good to go! That certainly would be one way to approach your Pecha Kucha presentation.  If that’s what you do, you are most certainly going to have a spectacularly awful time talking in front of the Pecha Kucha audience!  It is incredibly challenging to stay on point for each of your 20 second slides. Going up in front of the audience without practicing this flow will show - that’s the cold, hard truth.  You will miss your cues, get flustered, get behind, and experience what I call "The Pecha Kucha Quicksand" - the more you struggle to catch up (and get out of the quicksand), the