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Archive for August, 2009

Social Media in 20 Bite-Sized Pieces

Author: Laura
August 24, 2009
  1. “Winners take imperfect action while others are sitting around perfecting their plans.” –Kevin Nation
  2. Be the voice that is remembered, not just heard.
  3. Don’t take yourself too seriously.  Be willing to put yourself a bit “out there.”
  4. Be human.  Corporate speak is unacceptable.
  5. Don’t be schizophrenic.  Either talk from the perspective of your organization or from a personal standpoint, but not both.
  6. Beta is forever.  Nothing is “finished.”
  7. Add value.  What are *you* giving to the community?  (Nothing?  Then you’re a leech.)
  8. Once you know what value you provide, FOCUS on it.  Don’t attempt to be all to all.
  9. Who’s the winner of the contest?  The one who makes it to the top of the mountain, or the winner who lifted him there?  Give props to others.
  10. Nobody likes a braggart.  Brag when you have something to share that others can use.
  11. Get the lay of the land.  Every community has standards.  Even inadvertently violating them can cause you significant damage.
  12. Have an actual social media plan.  Preferably a good one. Otherwise, you’re just treading water.
  13. You can’t hide from social media.   Hiding hurts situations more than owning up.  Know what to do when you get someone mad.
  14. Social media is the new WOM (word of mouth).  It’s not only electronic, the speed of information is faster.  Much faster.  Be prepared.
  15. Weed your friends and followers just like you would any collection.  Other people are looking at them just like you are and they’re making judgements.
  16. Social media takes TIME.  To build social capital in any signficant way takes MORE time. Know it, schedule it, do it.
  17. Social media is not like the “Field of Dreams” in Kevin Costner’s film:  you build it and nobody may come.  Keep going.
  18. Grab your namespaces, complete the profiles, but don’t set up a complete shop in a million virtual places. Not every social tool is for everyone.  Pick 3 and call it a day.
  19. Tailor your social media work (yes, it’s work!) to each service.  The one-size-fits-all approach=#EPICFAIL
  20. Social media is about building connections to PEOPLE.  If you’re not doing that, you’re wasting time.

_______________________

With acknowledgement to the article by Mari Smith

And another quick read to try

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Why it’s time to kill off Internet Explorer 6

Author: Laura
August 4, 2009

death_to_ie6(Don’t know if you’re using IE6? You can check by opening up IE and going to Help–>About Internet Explorer. If you’re using anything less than 7 (and really, you ought to be on 8 by now), you need to upgrade. You MUST (yes, I’m yelling) upgrade. You can get the latest version of Internet Explorer here .)

“You might be asking yourself two questions right about now: What’s so bad about IE6? And why do so many people still use it? The answer to the first question is relatively simple: Internet Explorer 6 is outdated technology in a rapidly-changing Internet landscape. Imagine trying to use the social web, Microsoft Office, iTunes, IM, your video games, and all of your desktop apps…with a computer from 2001 (20 GB of space, 256 MB of RAM, anyone?). It’s the same thing: a great deal of new web technology is simply incompatible with IE6.”–Ben Parr,  “IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On.”

In other words, if you want to get the most out of the web, you can’t be using 8-year old technology; not when the web changes minute-to-minute.   As Parr points out in his post, not updating your browser is just as bad as not updating your virus software.  The results (especially in the case of IE6) are often about the same; it is much easier to end up with an infected or hijacked PC using old versions of browser software.  Newer versions of IE are geared to protect your computer from more types of viruses and attacks.  Patching security holes is a major reason for upgrading any software, and IE6 famously has holes you can drive an aircraft carrier through.

If that weren’t bad enough, keeping IE6 on your computer means that you’re not ready for the coming Web.  For the past 10 years, the standard for web markup has been CSS/XHTML (Sorry, not HTML 4.)  But HTML 5 is coming, and IE6 is flatly incapable of dealing with it.  Many larger sites have already been cutting back on or eliminating compatibility with IE6 for some time; even Facebook tells you to get another browser if it detects you using IE6.

You might be comfortable with IE6, but 1) it’s not very safe to have installed and 2) you are going to increasingly be unable to use much of the web, especially more of the large scale sites and social applications.  What are you waiting for?

UPDATE:  Talk about timing!  This article about a new movement to kill off IE6 just came out the day after I wrote this post.

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