with Gabe Zichermann

Game Design Thinking can improve engagement, loyalty and strengthen communities. Gabe Zichermann delivers innovative strategies derived from multiple leaders in the field of Gamification in his “Gamification Master Class video collection. The “Implementation, Agile Processes & Gaming the System” section is worth the total cost of the complete video collection. This segment about “Engagement Loops” and “Gaming the System” will help you think differently about the “User Experience. The strategy outlined within these two topics can save people and organizations a tremendous about of time and money. Investing less than $100 dollars on this collection of Gamification Strategy videos can help you and your team improve the odds of achieving the desired goals from your systems and services.

How can game mechanics and game design help you deliver an engaging, sticky and viral experience to your customers?   Gamification expert Gabe Zichermann [@gzicherm] uses this collections of videos to show you how to take advantage of gamification—the secret ingredient that’s fueled the success of Foursquare, Nike, Groupon, and many other websites.  These videos demonstrate the design strategy and tactics you need for integrating game mechanics into any kind of consumer-facing website or app, whether new or existing.  Learn more here, “Gamification Master Class Videos”.

Gamification Promotional Video

Gamification Master Class Collection

The content in this collection is professionally presented in the following sections:

1. Introduction to Gamification: Gamfiication is radically changing businesses both large and small, in industries as diverse as healthcare, education, software and travel. In this introduction, well lay out some thought exercises and overarching structure to help us tackle this design process. Well also define gamification for the purposes of our work together.
2. Foundation & Basics: How do we leverage gamification and its key elements? In this section, well explain what the basics of gamification are – and arent – and what kinds of problems can be solved with these exciting techniques. Well also look at why gamification is receiving such attention today, how to measure engagement, and how others have leveraged it in their business.
3. Player Motivation: Because gamification is at the intersection of motivational design, game design and human psychology, its critical to understand what drives people to play and engage with complex systems. That understanding underlies everything we design and build. Why do players choose to dedicate so many hours and dollars to the pursuit of challenges? Well pull together relevant theory and practice here to shed light on what drives all of us.
4. Player Types: In his famous taxonomy of players, Richard Bartle outlines a series of player motivations and types (Achiever, Explorer, Socializer, Killer) that help us understand the canonical players and what kinds of behavior to expect. This also helps us start to shape our reward and incentive design. Well also complete exercises designed to help us think about our target players and how to motivate them.
5. Progression to Mastery: One theory of user engagement with complex systems is that they seek mastery – the sense of fulfillment and achievement from getting control over the world around them (or their internal state). In Progression to Mastery, well explore the stages of mastery and how to apply these to your product, service or idea.
6. Be the Sherpa: If you want to build gamified systems that scale and create long-term engagement, you need to align yourself with your users progression to mastery, design a system they can follow, and be their sherpa throughout the process. In this section, well tackle that idea and how you can build design the feels natural and challenging at the same time.
7. Point Systems: In the first of our game mechanics sections, well look at point systems – the most important of all. They are present in almost all gamified designs – even if they arent always presented to the user. Well look at five different kinds of point systems and how they can be leveraged to create engagement, and work on one of the core exercises that frame a gamified project – point assignment.
8. Levels: How we mark progress is critical – and levels are one of the most commonly used techniques. They take many forms in gamified systems, but in this section well explore the most common designs for levels and work through a model for designing levels that drive user behavior in your system.
9. Leaderboards: Controversial but powerful, leaderboards are used in most systems with an element of competition. When are they appropriate in your design, and what are the latest/greatest techniques for turning the leaderboards of old into the motivational powerhouses of the social era? Find out in this section.
10. Badges & Customization: Badges may be loved and hated – but they are elemental techniques that exist in the world outside of games and have for centuries. While theyve taken center stage in most gamified designs, theyre typically not enough for most interactions. Find out how to make the most of badges by looking at great and weak patterns to develop your own badging system. Well also take a look at customization and some of the challenges in desinging for it.
11. Onboarding: You may not know it, but the first minute of your users experience with your product, service or brand is critical. Games have developed highly refined ways of turning that first minute into powerful training and reinforcement tools that can create long term engagement and loyalty out of the gate. Find out how these exciting techniques can be used in your business in this section that explores onboarding from the inside out.
12. Challenges & Engagement Loops: Most products, services and ideas benefit from virality. Gamified designs take virality and embed it intrinsically into the design of the system. In this section, well explore the classic viral loop and how to apply it to your environment. Well also look at challenges and how successful games leverage them to drive and reinforce user behavior.
13. Implementation, Agile Processes & Gaming the System: One of the most common concerns about gamification is that users will game the system to gain unfair advantage or rewards. While we have reason to be concerned, this section shares a simple rubric that can be used to clarify the approach to systemic protection that maximizes consumer engagement. Well also look at implementation concepts, including how to meld agile with gamification design.
14. Technical Consideration & Next Steps: Finally, well concern ourselves with a few key technical considerations, including vendor analysis and recommendations for how best to proceed.

Reviews

“good value for some outside the box brain food” – John Brady

“Gabe does a very good job at explaining Gamification with real live examples and exercises after each lesson” – Yousuf

“Gamification Master Class is a top-notch, three-hour introduction to an exciting movement in software design and marketing” – Aaron Sumner

Bonus

The purchase of “Gamification Master Class Videos” includes bonus material and a mini-workbook that help you achieve meaningful engagement.

A Social Media Strategy Story

A few weeks ago, I met with some people from a local organization to discuss how to use the web and social media to share some of their stories.  The goal of phase 1 was to connect with others and obtain good placement in search engine results from Google, Bing, and Yahoo.  Here is the situation:

• Little Time
• No Money
• Minimal Tech Skills

A quick analysis of the situation lead us to Google Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, and the creation of Children of Humble School Africa Blog.  Most of the people in the organization were already familiar with these Social Networking Services.  These Social Media tools are free and can be activated in minutes.  These tools don’t require a Computer Science degree to use, in fact they are simple enough to be used by a child, grandparent, or anyone in-between.

Social Media Gets Results

Using Social Media to share stories and connect with others has a positive effect in top search engines.  Here are the results after 14 days.

Google: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was top four results out of 13.2 Million.

Google: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was the top result out of 29.2 Million.

Bing: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was two of the top four results out of 4.2 Million.

Yahoo: Search Engine results for our site after 14 days was two of the top four results out of 4.3 Million.

Social Media for Small Businesses & Non-Profits

The Social Business of Web 2.0

Once upon a time, the power to reach out and connect with others beyond your local community was reserved an exclusive group of people.  Social Media extends this ability to all people and bursts open the door of new opportunities.

Google Blogger

I was not as familiar with Google Blogger compared to other types of Social Media tools, but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get started.  The ability to integrate other social media is also very simple.

Blogger is a web-based tool that helps you publish to the web instantly – whenever the urge strikes. It’s the leading tool in the rapidly growing area of web publishing known as weblogs, or “blogs.”  Google Blogger gives you a way to automate (and greatly accelerate) the blog publishing process without writing any code or worrying about installing any sort of server software or scripts. And yet, it still gives you total control over the look and location of your blog.  Details on how to get started are available in this video.

Web Gadgets, Widgets, & Apps

There are countless gadgets, widgets, and apps to support social media integration.  Some of these for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other Social Networks can be found in these collections, “25 Great Blogger Widgets“, “Google Gadgets Directory, Collection of Google Blogger Plugins, and people can easily create their custom social gadgets with the Google Blogger API.

Mobile Device Support

The ability to support displaying your content in “app-like” format on multiple mobile devices at the flip of a switch is one of the main strengths of this free service.

Photo Walls

You can also add interactive photo walls to your blog, created with pictures from Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, and RSS.  You can share these photo walls on web sites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, and more.  You can create and share amazing photo walls for your web sites and blogs using Cooliris.

Social Media Engagement

The Children of Humble School Africa Blog with Social Media integration is just a tiny example of the real possibilities.  There are many great people that share helpful tips about how small businesses and non-profits can leverage the power of social media. Some of these very talented people include:

goodlaura

scedmonds

JessicaNorthey

Philanthropy

kanter

rosettathurman

briansolis

2morrowknight

chrisbrogan

The technology available to us today is amazing!  See how Social Media, web and mobile could tell the story of the Nativity.  This video shows the Christmas story told through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, Foursquare, Amazon, …

Merry Christmas & Techy New Year!

Monitoring Social Media Channels for real-time conversations by topic and location is an important part in the overall strategy of any business.  The evolution in human behavior shows us people share information faster and more feely than ever before.  A large contributer to this trend is lower barriers in communication and collaboration.  The explosive growth of Social Networks and the mobile market continue to fuel this trend, giving people the freedom to express themselves whenever and where ever they are.  These new sources of information gives us the ability to tap into the Collective Intelligence that is created when crowds of people are sharing information about a common topic within a targeted location.

Let’s take a look at a simple example.  Shelly Jones is opening a Pizza shop in the Washington, DC area and she wants to use her social media skills to connect with new customers in the area.  She has a facebook account and a fan page for her business.  Her friend suggested she should also create a Twitter account and is willing to help her create a simple web site for her business.  Shelly gladly accepts the suggestions and help because she does not have much money and knows nothing about HTML, CSS, or any of that other geek stuff.  Shelly and her friend discovered how to use Google Maps and Twitter to find potential customers in the area.

How to Use Google Maps to Get Lat and Long of a Location

Google Maps provides a very simple method of getting Latitude and Longitude of a location.

1. Search for location by name at http://maps.google.com
2. Right click in map to display the context menu and select “What’s here?”

A green arrow will appear on the map, which will display the current area’s lat & long when you pass your mouse over.

The lat & long (geocode) is now also displayed in the Google Map Search Box.

1. Copy the lat & long from the Google Maps search box.

How to Use Twitter to Find People by Topic and Location

Twitter is a large Social Network that also provides amazing tools to help you connect with people in your area.  One of these tools is Twitter’s Advanced Search http://search.twitter.com/advanced You can use the Advanced Search tool at Twitter to discover many interesting people and conversations.

1. Go to Twitter’s Advanced Search http://search.twitter.com/advanced
2. Enter your key words

Copy your Geocode from Google Maps into “Near this place” and press “Search”.

Note: Geocodes instead of location names seems to get better results.

Twitter Results Matching Topic and Location Criteria

You can page through these Topic/Location Twitter Results using the navigation toward the bottom of the Twitter Advanced Search page.

Shelly could also expand her search to include “pizza or pasta or sub”.

Shelly could see most of these people were attending college at a nearby campus and others were were working in offices close to her business.  She connected with a few students and wished them luck on their final exams.  She also started some conversations with people working down the street.  Some people were plesently surprised to discover that her pizza shop was just a few doors down and came in for lunch.  Shelly also did a quick analysis of this information, identified a handful of influential people and invited them to have some free pizza if they were willing to listen to a business proposition.  Later that week Shelly had pizza with a half dozen people that were willing to help her promote her business.  The students told their friends on Facebook and Twitter how good the pizza was and also took some of the pizza shop flyers to post around campus.  One of Shelly’s new friends works at a hotel two blocks away and he arranged to have a pizza shop flyer palced in every room.  Shelly enjoys staying connected with her community by using Social Networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Happy Fav Five Friday!

Beyond Social Network/Media Listening

Organizations should have an engagement strategy that aligns with their business objectives.  Fortunately there are plenty of tools and resources to help you with your Social Media efforts.  Here are a few, but please feel free to share your favorites.

Fav Five Places

Radian6

Listening is just the beginning. Businesses need to measure, analyze, and report on their social media efforts. They need to engage. They also need the tools to engage with their communities online. Radian6 provides the ability to do it all, and to incorporate all the areas that social media ought to touch: customer service, sales, public relations, marketing, and management. Learn more here.

10 Social Media Monitoring Tools to Monitor Your Brand’s Performance And Results

Social Media Revolution has more to do with the change in the online behavior rather than the emergence of twitter and facebook. Today, people are more open to expressing their opinions online and debating over it. People are more open to sharing news, information and every other aspects of their lives. As a result, social media has become a great platform for market research and trend watch. Learn more here.

The Sharpest B2B Social Media Monitoring Tools in the Shed – Part II

Tools for an Effective Social Media Strategy.  Learn more here.

35 Essential Social Media & Tech Resources for Small Businesses

As this year begins to wrap up and businesses start preparing big plans for 2011, we expect social media and technology innovations to be a bigger part of small business digital budgets. To spark a bit of creativity and help get that process rolling, Mashable has gathered 35 of their most useful small business posts from the past few months to make sure businesses are in the digital know.  Learn more here.

Twitter Developers

Create cool applications that integrate with Twitter.  Learn more here.

Fav Five Faces

Who is on your “Fantasy Innovation Team” this week?

Here are amazing people that have connected me to new friends and new ideas this week. You might be familiar with “Fantasy Football Teams” , well this is my “Fantasy Innovation Team” this week. I recommend following these smart, creative people on Twitter.

	Dir of Digital Mktg for @INgageNetworks| Blogger for iMediaConnection.com | Runner | Maker of Super Special Pancakes | All-around Awesome Mom | TMI SMU UTD Grad http://twitter.com/wileyccoyote
	Nucleus is a modular, multipurpose, PCI-certified platform, enabling merchants to provide a personalized experience for their customers with integrated CRM … http://twitter.com/iPayStation
	Passionate marketer & traveler, dabbling in professional translation, copywriting & amateur photography. Firm believer in SEO, wishful thinking & chocolate. http://twitter.com/sdarine
	IT Manager in Education – Interested in the intersection of Technology, Society & Culture http://twitter.com/timekord
	“Seasoned GenX Leader Capable of Leveraging the Technically Savvy GenY Knowledge Worker” Focus: Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Social CRM, and Personal Branding http://twitter.com/RLavigne42

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• Understanding Culture
• Harnessing Technology
• Empowering Others

Trends about our culture today show us people are busy and tolerance for complicated things seems to be getting lower with each passing day.  Twitter tapped this culture trend of time commitment by keeping post limited to 140 characters and with it’s User Friendly / People Focused Design.  The Mobile Market is exploding, more people own mobile devices than computers.  Twitter tapped this trend by integrating a mobile strategy early in their plan.  People like things to fit their needs, this is why Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) should be a critical part of any technology strategy.  Twitter empowers people through it’s API with the ability to share custom information across multiple environments.

Happy Fav Five Friday!

Fav Five Places

I actually have a few more than five favorite places.  I hope you don’t mind.

The Famous Twitter Sketch

You can see the birth of the idea for Twitter in this sketch and you can read Jack Dorsey’s thoughts about this sketch here.  Notice the simplicity of the design and how the idea of sharing across multiple channels was an early thought.  The discovery (“find-em”) part toward the bottom is a very smart piece to include early in the design too.  Sharing ideas (Collaboration) is the main point of Enterprise 2.0.  This sketch reminds us of how a simple idea, shared with others can grow into something beyond your imagination.

Twitter Talk at TED

Evan Williams of Twitter talks about integrating his ideas about SMS with Jack Dorsey’s ideas about Twitter.  Evan goes on to talk about the Fundamentals of Twitter.  He quickly describes how people discover uses of Twitter for Business and in Government.

A great quote here is, “One of the many ways that users shaped the evolution of Twitter”.  I can’t wait to here this in the Enterprise, “One of the many ways that USERS shaped the evolution of Enterprise 2.0″.

Twitter’s design and API make this tool so simple to use, that a common house plant can communicate to the world.   This reminds us of the power of simplicity.  Technology should lower barriers, not create new ones.

“Going far beyond the original idea” is another great quote.  I believe Enterprise 2.0 is designed to support doing this very thing.

There are many things taught about innovation in this video

Twitter CEO Evan Williams speaks to users in Tokyo

“What we learned time and time again from listening…”  is an important quote in this video.  You can also see the chart of all the tweets over the course of the World Cup.  This got me thinking about what would happen to your business if an idea had this much collaboration through Enterprise 2.0 tools.

Biz Stone and Evan Williams on Twitter

In this more recent video we hear Biz and Evan talk about how relationships are important.  Listening to customers can help avoid PR disasters and improve brand loyalty.  A little communication can reverse a customers decision about going to your competitor.  They also share some important thoughts on privacy.

How Twitter Changed My Life

This is an impressive presentation about Twitter and how to harness it’s value.

A Collection of Twitter Case Studies

Twitter provides a nice collection of case studies.  These case studies include reports from big businesses, non-profits, and government.

The Power of the API

In the first video Evan mentions there were over 2,000 applications using Twitter’s API.  Their API enables people to share filtered customized data across multiple environments.  The ability to share information across multiple environments increases the opportunities for collaboration.  What if  your Enterprise 2.0 Solution had an API to support sharing data when you need it, where you need it?

Twitter API Mashups and Apps on Programmable Web

You can discover and learn from a huge collection of APIs and developers at Progammable Web.

Twitter API Mashups and Apps on Yahoo Pipes

You can discover some new ways of using Twitter at Yahoo Pipes.

Fav Five Faces

Who is on your “Fantasy Innovation Team” this week?

Here are just a few new friends that have connected me to new people and new ideas this week.  You might be familiar with “Fantasy Football Teams” and such, well this is my “Fantasy Innovation Team” this week.  I recommend following these smart, creative people on Twitter.

	Communication strategist. Digital Something. Connector. Entrepreneur. Anime & SciFi lover. http://twitter.com/db
	VP of Product at Spigit, the SaaS enterprise innovation management platform. And a Dad who misses running marathons. http://twitter.com/bhc3
	IT consultant, managing software development/ integration projects for a living; .Net, CMS, intranet, collaborative workplace, knowledge management, e-learning http://twitter.com/dzhu
	Technology consultant/architect at IBM in Cambridge MA, enterprise search, social computing; piano, a cappella, cyclist, origami, iPhone; my tweets are my own! http://twitter.com/eric_andersen
	social media strategist, technological optimist, blogger, consultant, father, spreker, innovatie, php, wordpress | I collect and tweet interesting links http://twitter.com/rickmans

5 Twitter Success Secrets for Enterprise 2.0

• Listen (people, users, customers, partners, metrics)
• Respond (people, users, customers, partners, metrics)
• Empower Others
• APIs Rock
• Practice “People Centered” Design

How to Become a “LinchPin”

A linchpin, as Seth Godin describes it, is somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced.  You can learn more about how to become a linchpin in Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  Get it from Amazon now and save over 40%.

Grasp your opportunity to change through interaction

Seth Godin shares several quick tips on how to seize opportunities to change in this video about becoming indispensable.

Becoming a Linchpin

Emotional labor in sixty seconds

“Digging deep inside you and producing an idea that scares you.” is just a small part of this video by Seth.

Cupcakes, Linchpins & Lizard Brains

I met a lot of new friends and caught up with some old friends at the  “Cupcakes, Linchpins & Lizard Brains” event hosted by Debbie Weil (@debbieweil ).  This was a very fun and informative event, which Debbie did an outstanding job of organizing.

I had to get my picture with this guy, he looks so much like Seth

Robert, Me, & Jennifer Berk

Everyone’s an Artist

Debbie had several guest speakers and they shared some great tips on how to be indispensable.

Christopher Dorobek | @cdorobek

“Allow for mistakes”

“Try something new”

Jennifer Berk

“Don’t wait”

“Take on new things”

Mike Jolkovski

“Ask WHY more often”

“Be present”

Susan Harris

“Make it fun”

“Be indispensable”

Shashi Bellamkonda

“Strive to Learn”

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” ala JFK

Justin Thorp

“Stay Hungry!”

“Find new passions”

Debbie Weil | @debbieweil

This is my favorite photo.  I think this pictue of Debbie shows the feeling of someone in the center of their passion.  This is the “sweet spot” of being a Linchpin.  I recommend subscribing to her blog http://www.debbieweil.com.  You will also find plenty of priceless advice, tips, & insights, that you can use right now, in her “Corporate Blogging Book“.

Thank you Debbie, for another great gathering!

UPDATE: Presentation Videos are now available at:

Six Linchpins Speak at Midsummer Madness Sweets and Tweets (Hat Tip Seth Godin)

Chris Brogan | @chrisbrogan

A video review of the Linchpin book by Seth Godin.

Seth Godin’s Road Trip

You can learn more about Linchpins and Lizard Brains by attending one of Seth’s events during his 2010 Road Trip.

You don’t need more data

What you might need, though, is a different way of seeing, an immersion in an alternative approach to:

• creating work that matters
• spreading ideas
• interacting with people online
• approaching the digital world with generosity
• realizing that small things have more leverage than ever before
• and being surrounded by others on the same path who will inspire you to do even bigger things.

Learn more and find out how you can get your tickets here.

The Art of Listening and Enabling

Evan Williams @ev, the CEO of Twitter gives a TED Talk about Twitter.  In the birthing room of ODEO, Twitter is born from Jack Dorsey’s @Jack idea of sending status updates.  Evan covers many fundamental keys to success in this video.  Thanks to Dr. Harish Kotadia @HKotadia for bringing this to my attention.

Top 10 Takeaways from @ev’s Twitter #TED Talk

1. Listen to your inner voice (Follow your hunches)
2. Listen to your colleagues
3. Listen to your audience/customers/clients
4. Expect the unexpected
5. Adapt to customer/client needs
6. Create a system that enables others to build upon
7. Application Programming Interface (API) enables creative interactions
8. More Good Things happen when you enable connections & collaboration
9. Never assume what’s Next
10. Understand culture/market Trends

The World Wide Web is connecting people and things faster than ever.  The use Twitter, Blogs, Social Media, Mobile Media has become part of main stream culture.  You can leverage the power of your audience and new media to build exponential value into your existing efforts.

The Three Points of View for an Event

• Audience
• Speakers
• Event Coordinators

Three Thoughts About Events

• How Event Coordinators Can Make Their Job Easier
• How Speakers/Presenters Can Make Their Job Easier
• How The Audience Adds Value

Events 2.0

Events are much more interactive now.  The trend for events is similar to the trend we see in how people use the Internet.  Web 1.0 (Mostly one-way communication) to Web 2.0 (Very interactive with at least two-way communication).  People are working together now, more than ever.  The current economic conditions and busy lifestyles creates a condition that leads us to doing more with less.  People are smart and will spend their time and money where they see the most value.  Adding more value is key to success.

Social Media Tools

Twitter: “Just-In-Time” Communications

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick rich text messages.  Twitter messages are available through mobile devices, web services, and third party applications. http://twitter.com Conversations can be connected by the use of a hash tag.

ParaTweet: Engage audience and speakers

Paratweet Supports Speakers interacting with the audience through live or delayed Q&A and spreads user generated conference info.  This tool supports filtering.  http://www.paratweet.com/The view can be filtered by the event hash tag.

Twitterfall: A tool to help display questions/conversations on stage

Twitterfall is a way of viewing the latest ‘tweets’ of upcoming trends and custom searches on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Updates fall from the top of the page in near-real-time. http://twitterfall.com/ Views can be filtered by hash tags.

Free WordPress Blog: Blogging service for your online journal

You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address. You’ll get your own WordPress.com address (like you.wordpress.com), a selection  of great free and customizable designs for your blog (we call them themes), 3 gigabytes of file storage (that’s about 2,500 pictures!) and many other great features. You can blog as much as you want for free, your blog can be public to the world or private for just your friends, and premium features are completely optional.  http://wordpress.com/ Event related posts can include event hash tag in title & body so others can find the extra content by a simple search.

Google YouTube to share your event and presentation videos

Google YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. http://www.youtube.com Event related videos can include event hash tag in title & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search.

Google YouTube example: Service Oriented Architecture-SOA

Slideshare automatically converts your presentation into sharable content for social media

Upload and share your PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on SlideShare. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to make a webinar.  http://www.slideshare.net Event related presentations can include event hash tag in title & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search.

Slideshare example from #ajaxworld 09 NY

Yahoo Flickr to share photos/videos of people, ideas, and information from your events

Event related photos/videos can include event hash tag in collection title, tag, & description so others can find the extra content by a simple search. http://www.flickr.com

Yahoo Flickr example from #ajaxworld 09 NY

How The Audience Adds Value

People are going to talk about the event and the speakers.  Most of these conversations will take place on the web in the form of social media.  The current trend of using Twitter and mobile devices during an event opens new opportunities.   Giving the audience resources to use in these social media channels will benefit everyone.  A simple resource could be a hash tag (a key word that identifies the event ex:#web30), more on this later.  Additional resources could include content that people could simply copy and paste into their blogs, twitter posts, and other created media that adds value.  Twitter offers the ReTweet function.  Google YouTube, Slideshare, & Yahoo Flickr offer copy/paste code for bloggers.  Most of these tools also have APIs that will support Mashups.

Resources on how to use Social Media for Events and Meetings

About Hash Tags

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added in-line to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags

• What Does that Hashtag Mean? New Service Tells You: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_does_that_hashtag_mean_new_service_tells_you.php
• What’s happening right now on twitter: http://www.hashtags.org/
• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags: http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/twitter-hashtags/

Using Hash Tags For Events

• How to use social media services and hash tags for events and conferences by @MariSmith here:  http://whyfacebook.com/2009/05/25/ten-ways-to-tweet-the-social-media-success-summit/
• Twitter and hash tags at conferences: views from organizers and  attendees: http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/2009/04/how-to-use-twitter-at-a-confer.php
• An Example of How to Integrate Twitter, Into an Event: http://www.busyevent.com/blog/?p=91
• 6 Ways To Utilize Twitter At Your Next Conference: http://meetingspodcast.com/?p=101
• 16 Things to Drive Traffic To Your Event: http://www.busyevent.com/blog/?p=110

Additional Social Media Resources Related to Twitter

• Tweetboard is True Twitter Conversation for your website: http://tweetboard.com
• TweetGrid gives bloggers and web site owners the ability to include event related widgets in their pages:  http://tweetgrid.com/
• EventVue provides easy-to-use social networking tools that help your attendees get the most out of their networking experience at your event: http://www.eventvue.com/

Experiments with #hashtags

The hash tag for AJAXWORLD 2009 New York was #ajaxworld.  This event spanned more than one day and had several sessions across multiple tracks.  This event also happens annually.  I would think the annual hash tag would be something like #ajaxworld09.  This event also happens in multiple locations within one year.  I would think the hash tag would now look something like #ajaxworld09NY.

Here is what we have so far:

• #ajaxworld: What
• #ajaxworld09: What When
• #ajaxworld09NY: What When Where

I would think that this type of structure easier and I would still have space within my 140 characters to add value.  That would be difficult if I had to include “#ajaxworld #2009 #NewYork #RIA #SOA #iPhoneDevSummit“.

Now we have “what”, “when”, and “where”, I am thinking about how to identify the tracks and sessions.  Track 04 was dedicated to iPhone Developer Summit.  Seems like the hash tag for that track at this event would be #ajaxworld09NY04.  This hash tag would allow people to monitor the iPhone Developer Summit Track of AJAX WORLD during 2009 in New York. The hash tag could also be used to tag related resources for current or future review.

What about the session part of the event matrix?

I would think that session 05 of the iPhone Track on the second day would look like #ajaxworld09NY040502.  This would identify the “iPhone Development in an Enterprise Environment” session that took place on the second day.

Ideal hash tag structure:

#{What}{When}{Where}{Topic}{Details}{Time} Most hash tag users seem to use a two digit number for the year, which makes me think about also using two digit numbers for Topic, Details, and Time.  This type of structure will support an event with upto 99 Topics through 99 sessions across 99 days.  Events that go beyond these limits would be broken up into multiple events.

Searching on #hashtags (This does not work on all services)

• #ajaxworld: return everything about ajaxworld
• #ajaxworld09: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009
• #ajaxworld09NY: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York
• #ajaxworld09NY04: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York related to the iPhone Dev Track
• #ajaxworld09NY040502: return everything about ajaxworld in 2009 New York related to the iPhone Dev Track on iPhone/E 2.0

The current twitter tools seem to search for the hash tag followed by an empty space.  A search in some services for #ajaxworld does not always return results that contain #ajaxworld09NY.

#Hashtag Thoughts

Using a hash tag for an event is a common practice.  A standard that software developers could understand will help users take full advantage of the power that hash tags provide.  A simple hash tag that identifies the event and its parts should support the ability for user filtering.

What are your thoughts about hash tags and their structure?

What do you think about using twitter and other social media tools during events?

Thoughts about this post

I hope more people will think about putting their content into shareable content objects and leverage the work of others.

Hello, I am really glad to see you here today. I wanted to share something from my heart that has stirred my soul.

Twitter and the rest of the web is buzzing about the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston starting June 22, 2009. A lot of amazing people gathered in Washington DC for the Government 2.0 Summit, Platform For Change. Good people are doing incredible things that are changing the world as we know it. We have embarked on a journey of global transformation.

The Magic of Change

We seem to spend a lot of time talking about adoption rates and ROI when working with organizations and people using Enterprise 2.0 tools. I have found countless sites with fancy charts and graphs along with endless text explaining the value of these technologies in the Enterprise. I have also helped many people in a wide age range with various backgrounds learn about and use Social Media. Enterprise 2.0 is different than Social Media, but people are the same when you relate to them in ways that transcends age and background. I have not met anyone that wants to do things the harder way. Life and work is easier when we have fluid communication and collaboration. Real relationships and understanding current culture will clear the path to transformation.

Today I was reading Peter Kim’s Blog and found this amazing book review presentation he created for “The Blue Sweater” Take a look.

I wanted to share some key points from Peter without the details because I want you to visit his site.

• We all have choices
• Meaningful results take time
• Things change

The Experience

Have you ever found yourself in a check-out line reading those paper and magazine covers?

I try to fight the magnetic attraction of these short phrases, but how can I resist headlines like these:

• 10 days to a BETTER YOU
• A Diet Plan That Works
• Woman gives birth to Alien Baby
• 6 Secrets to improve Your Sex Life
• These Tax Tips put Cash In Your Pocket

I was happy about the person in front of me demanding a “price check” while forcing expired coupons on the frustrated cashier.  The magnetic attraction over powered me and I found myself reading all about the “Alien Baby”.  I also purchased a magazine that included tips on 30 minute meals, Rachael Ray is awesome!  This experience got me thinking.

Why Should I Care About Headlines In My Social Media Posts?

• Connecting to your audience is important
• Headlines are important
• People are busy
• Attention spans are getting shorter

Competition for attention is increasing every day.  People and technology are getting better at filtering data.  Do you want to be filtered?  Connecting with your target audience will help prevent you from being filtered. I know my inbox, RSS reader, Twitter stream, and search results contain lots of important information, but some things get filtered out.

Do any of these social media posts from Twitter stand out?

Which post stood out to you?  I liked “Things To Think About To Create A Successful Social Media Campaign“.  I continued the conversation by reaching out and now I am connected and will continue building a deeper relationship with @mrktgeek. I found a lot of very interesting information about social media in her Twitter Stream and her tweets are very well written, which makes it easy for me to understand what her content is about.  I like easy!

Building Relationships With Effective Communications

Twitter Fans To Twitter Followers

Take a look at this Twitter Stream from a writer that knows how to communicate with his target audience.  Do you see a difference in the writing style?  Do any of these posts stand out?

Which post stood out to you?  All of them stood out to me.  These tweets are from Pete Cashmore (Mashable), he has over 600,000 followers.  These tweets are some of the most retweeted tweets on Twitter.  A “retweet” is the action of other people sharing your tweets on twitter.  I recommend following these tweets at @mashable Do you think you could benefit from having a million or so people helping you with your ideas?

How are these Social Media Posts Different?

• Well formed and to the point
• Magnetic Attraction
• Uses question style well
• Uses announcement style well
• Great use of trigger words

Crafting A Headline For A Social Media Post

I am not a great writer, but I wanted to share some information from a very intelligent person that I believe my target audience would find very interesting.  I carefully chose the right words to create a headline for my target audience and submitted a quick post to Twitter.  The target article received over 90 extra views in the matter of a few minutes.  You can review the article for yourself at http://bit.ly/ukZLt

5 + 2 Tips On How To Improve Your Social Media Post

• Think about your target audience
• Create a strong headline
• Include reader trigger words in headline
• Read your headline out-loud
• Update your headline
• Communicate directly to your reader in your headline
• Create a relationship early in your copy

What is your advice for improving social media posts?

What is your best tip for creating an effective headline?

Please share your tips in the comment section here.