back to Social Media Club Corpus Christi

 

June 2009: Online Personalities and Personal Branding

Our June meeting featured guest speaker DAN SCHAWBEL- Expert & Author on Online Personalities and Personal Branding. Thank you to Pocket Wireless for sponsoring this meeting at Aria, and thanks to Concrete/Brewster St. for the give-aways!!!

 

 

Featured Speaker:

 

 

DAN SCHAWBEL is the leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He is the author of the bestselling career book, “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 2009).” With over 100,000 results for his name in Google, Fast Company calls Dan a “personal branding force of nature.” He is the founder of the Personal Branding Blog®,which was the #1 job blog by Careerbuilder in 2008, is an AdAge top 50 marketing blog and is syndicated by Reuters, Forbes, Fox Business and other major networks.  Dan is also the publisher of Personal Branding Magazine®, head judge for the Personal Brand Awards® and director of Personal Branding TV®.

 

Key Points:

 

IN ORDER TO MARKET YOURSELF TO OTHERS, FIRST YOU NEED TO:

- Discover your brand

- Create your brand

- Communicate your brand

- Maintain your brand

 

*Personal branding is more important to people who don't know who you are.

 

CONTROLLING YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE:

- Chose a unique name for your brand

         *If you have a common name for you or your brand, there are a few ways you can boost your online presence:

          - Use your middle initial

          - Attach your name to an unusual topic that you can be an expert at

          - Create your own niche

- Deliver on content you know about

- Contribute to other sources

- Publish yourself on your site and on other sites

- Use your full name on across all forms of Social Media

- Use the same picture across all forms of Social Media

 

SUCCEEDING AS A BLOGGER:

- Align your passion with your expertise

- Establish a support system

- Get endorsements from reputable sources

- Promote one another

- Build a plan, have realistic goals

- Do link exchanges

- Comment on other blogs

- Write for other sources

 

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO FIND JOBS:

- Networking is King!

- Network outside your company and your circle of professionals

- If you give value based on your expertise, people will give back by helping you

- Name top 3-5 companies to work for

     - Twittersearch people who work there

     - Get to know them     

- Fill out your Social Media profile information completely

- Focus your job search!

 

 

Jennifer:

Twitter asks the basic question, “What are you doing?”

 

Whether it’s having coffee, working with clients or helping organize a non-profit, all you need to do is answer that one, basic question. It’s about having the power to be able to share what you are doing at any given time. It’s a great sharing tool. You will find your community by participating in Twitter, whether it’s for hobby, interest or business.

 

May 2009: Twitter 101

 

Our May meeting featured guest speakers JENNIFER NAVARRETE and LUIS SANDOVAL, JR., co-founders of Social Media Club San Antonio on

Twitter 101. Thank you to Richline Technical Services for sponsoring this meeting at Aria.  

 

 

Featured Speakers:

 

 

JENNIFER NAVARRETE has been a tech entrepreneur since 2001 and is active in a number of social media communities. She is the lead organizer of PodCamp, Startup Weekend and BarCamp in San Antonio, and is the co-host of the popular Morning BrewCast Internet radio/podcast show. An early adopter, Navarrete has been podcasting since 2005.

 

Navarrete teaches entrepreneurs, groups, organizations and non-profits how they can utilize the online tools to augment their existing marketing campaigns. From one-on-one training, webinars, camp sessions, workshops and conferences her extensive knowledge of Web 2.0 tools and technologies keep her schedule jam-packed. She is the owner of MyLabelNet.com, an online business-to-business printing service. Navarrete was inspired by Connie Reece of Social Media Club Austin to start a San Antonio Chapter.

 

 

LUIS SANDOVAL, JR is a communications professional with a small creative firm in San Antonio, TX. His interest has always been the merging of human communication with technology. Sandoval is continually expanding his knowledge on social media and its community building possibilities for businesses.

 

When Navarrete put out the call for folks interested in helping to bring Social Media Club to the AlamoCity, Sandoval was the first person to respond. He is a prolific blogger and his daily interaction within the Social Media arena makes him uniquely qualified to be part of the Founding Group for Social Media Club San Antonio.

 

Panel Q&A Session:

 

Holly:

WHAT IS TWITTER?

 

Jennifer:

Twitter asks the basic question, “What are you doing?”

 

Whether it’s having coffee, working with clients or helping organize a non-profit, all you need to do is answer that one, basic question. It’s about having the power to be able to share what you are doing at any given time. It’s a great sharing tool. You will find your community by participating in Twitter, whether it’s for hobby, interest or business.

 

Luis:

If you can eavesdrop on any conversation in the world, Twitter is that. As a business, it’s a great way to tap in. A hammer by itself doesn’t build a house, but you can put tools together and building something significant.

 

Holly:

WHY DO TWITTER IF FACEBOOK ALREADY DOES THIS?

 

Jennifer:

Facebook can be complicated because so much is going on, but Twitter is simple. It’s easy to take with you, easy to update and you can do trending, job searches or hobby searches by going to search.twitter.com. You can find anyone talking about that subject.

 

Social networks are now used like Google. If you’re looking for jobs, type the hash tag, plus the word jobs (# + jobs)…You might just find your next job.

 

Luis:

It’s the idea of building your brand online by spreading yourself out and utilizing every platform for what their strengths are. For me, Facebook is like going to a gathering or a club and sharing pics, etc. Twitter is a quick conversation tool, and Twitter has amazing tools. It has analytical tools, so you can see the investment on Twitter or trends. Establish your brand on multiple fronts. Twitter is great for tracking.

 

Holly:

HOW DID TWITTER BECOME POPULAR AS A CONFERENCE TOOL, AND HOW BECOME POPULAR TODAY?

 

Jennifer:

I was first introduced to Twitter at Austin’s SXSW. I didn’t want to miss out on anything, so I started following people from the event on Twitter. Afterwards, when I went home, it was like taking all the people home with me. It’s a great way to discover new folks.

 

Luis:

Twitter is very applicable for the kind of career I’ve been moving towards. It’s gaining significance for connections. Blogs can be constantly lengthy at two-to-three hundred words a post, but because Twitter only allows you 140 characters, it allows you to share your emotions and interests quickly.

 

Twitter has a lot of perks to share instant information, but at the same time…it’s not how many followers you have, but the quality of the content. There’s a voice for you as opposed to just being an echo chamber.

 

Holly:

WHAT SHOULD I TWEET?

 

Jennifer:

Anything in the Twittersphere has its own URL, so if you tweet something that you want no one else to know, don’t. It will become searchable, so even if you delete it, it’s still out there.

 

Luis:

You should not constantly link. Treat Twitter like a face-to-face conversation. A face-to-face conversation needs to be translated online. Be honest and truthful to yourself.

 

Holly:

WHERE CAN NEWBIES START?

 

Jennifer:

Start with the people sitting around you; the people closest to you, and when they’re talking to others, learn about them and ask. Do a small background check first.

 

You can go to Twitter Local. Put in your zip, and it will tell you who’s tweeting in your area.

 

Audience Q&A Session:

 

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS (APPS)?

A: Jennifer:

     For web version of Twitter: TweetDeck. You can watch entire streams integrated with Facebook by categories.

     

     For iPhone: Twittelator Pro. It’s a paid app, but you can manage all your accounts from your iPhone. You can also manage all your accounts from HootScoot.

 

     Luis:

     Tweetie (paid app), Twitter Local, Twitterholic (lists by ranking who to follow), Twhirl (desktop client) and Twittergrader (people ranked high in specific cities).

      

     Budurl.com: shrink long URLs, will track stats for you (show you who and when they click), free.

 

Q: HOW'S TWITTER COMPETING WITH SEARCH ENGINES AND THE WAY PEOPLE SEARCH ONLINE?

A: When you enter a hash tag (#) and a plus sign and a word, you are able to search by a topic. For example, if I put in a hash tag plus the words “Swine Flu” (# + Swine Flu), I can read what real people are saying about the Swine Flu. I would find out that the scientists at the CDC were tweeting, and I would be able to interact with them – something Google can’t do. 

-        Search Twitter

-        Google: Go to Show Options. This is a tool the site has implemented in the last two weeks to compete with Twitter’s dynamic search ability.

-        Twoogle: Split screen, so you can search Twitter and Google simultaneously.

 

Q: WITHOUT KNOWING SOMEONE'S TWITTER NAME, HOW CAN I FIND THEM?

 A: Local Tweeps, Search Twitter, Google Search, Twello, Twittergrader, Wefollow, Nearby Tweets - You can also type in a hash tag, plus cctweets or smcc to find people who Twitter in Corpus Christi or are in the Social Media Club.

 

Q: IF I USE TWITTER ON MY PHONE, WILL I BE CHARGED?

 A: Yes, your standard text messaging rates apply.

 

Q: WHAT NAME SHOULD I USE ON TWITTER?

 A: For personal branding, the subject of our next meeting, you should use your full name if it’s still available. If not, you should use the same name for every social media tool that you use. To reserve your name across all social media applications at the same time, go to Knowem.

 

Do you have a Twitter question that wasn’t covered at the meeting? Email your questions to:smccorpus(at)gmail(dot)com.