While searching for lectures/information sessions 2 weeks ago, i saw that the city of Sydney library run a series of courses about technology subjects, i picked Social media 101
Introducing Jeffery Cruz and an introduction to social media 101
What i learnt from this session was how to use social media in a positive, less time consuming way
Many businesses and individuals are using social media to:
- Reach new customers
- Engage existing customers
- With the key performance indicators (KPI’s) this effort on social media can be measured on the return
- 64% of people in Sydney are on Facebook
While Facebook is the current preferred social media of the masses, it’s worth noteing, this might not be the case in the future
What does that mean? Well all signs seem to indicate that Social media isn’t the waste of time other’s make it out to be, the difference being you need to have a strategy before you start participating
Which is another interesting point, the city of Sydney posts content based on a calendar.
Monday might be lifestyle, Wednesday events in the library, Friday might be a weekend festival and so on…
The point is it isn’t randomly created by someone that’s bored with dealing with customers or needs a break from checking in Harry Potter books, to the city of Sydney posting on Facebook, Twitter and the rest is a science an art and it works, Jeffery explained how he controlled content, had tools like Hootsuite to enable them to do just this.
Introducing David
I learned about a librarian futurist called David Lee King, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was all made up, gone are the days where a library was just a library, they are so much more and offer a huge range of services with enthusiastic people who are really switched on to social trends. And they want you too, if that’s your choise
So, i’m now following David and he has some interesting things to say too
The most notable difference after this talk later was my behaviour, i was very excited!
When i was telling some friends about the ideas i learnt, i experienced quite a bit of rolling of the eyes, the playful glance of eyes, like i had lost my marbles and maybe i did?
My mind was being flooded with ideas, new possibilities for moving forward and of course as a professional software tester, stepping up my game and being able to demonstrate just what i am capable of doing, by demonstrating what i have done.
In the presentation Jeffery gave some examples of Facebook pages that had won awards, on of which was a small dog training company from Ireland that took booking’s though their page and others
Introducing Craig Rispin
I was listening to a talk by a futurist called Craig Rispin last week (and he’s coming to Sydney soon too, before Santa Clause too) and he was saying that in the future all jobs will be Freelance, a lot of them currently are if you have been folowing globalisation outsourcing trends
Craig says you need to ask yourself:
* Where do I ultimately want to be in my life?
* How should I do it?
* How does this fit with my life values and goals?
* What could be my next step?
* How can I prepare for the next change as I do my current work?
It’s becoming clearer to me that to have a professional presence on social media is crucial, like it or hate it, this is the way of the future. You are marketing a product, the product it you, if you don’t decide your future someone else will do it for you, thank you someone else, i think I’ll decide my own future
A man ahead of his time on his Nokia?
What’s interesting is, when i think of all of this is that social media technology, iPhone technology is nothing new, what’s new are the ideas, even the ideas are not that new. Not if you spent your youth watching Star Treck that is
If you have the idea you can pretty much do anything, crowd sourcing is an idea for getting the labor, crowd funding is another idea to supply the $$ for the idea
Before the social media presentation i didn’t have any ideas for social media, except maybe it was something to be avoided, all in all, a bad idea and many people are of that opinion.
But not so, the facts speak for themselves.
Jeffery explained:
Incorporate your organisation’s goals to your Social Media Plan:
1. What is your online organisation?
a. What is your unique voice online?
b. What is your story and how is it compelling, authentic, personal?
c. What will make your organisation appealing to SM users?
2. What is your online product?
a. What makes your product different?
b. What makes your product appealing online (photos, videos, stories, interactions)?
c. In addition to your product, what value-added information/entertainment can you provide?
3. Who are your online customers?
a. Demographics (location, gender, age)
b. Interests
c. Spending habits
4. What are your online goals?
a. Build your brand?
b. Drive online traffic? In-person traffic? Immediate sales?
c. Build connections/engage customers?
So, as a software tester, a soon to be freelance software tester, i never thought of this option before, i will now be aligning myself (i am the product) in this light.
The funny thing was, before going to see this Social media talk, i checked out a book downstairs in the library called ‘Accordion crimes‘ by Annie Proulx, a friend said it was the best book he has ever read, i was looking forward to reading it too.
In an Agile world, this book would be on my backlog
After the talk, i brought it back and told the librarian that i just had too much work to do to read Accordion crimes, but it’s on my list, i can order it online and go to my local library and pick it up, just about the only thing i cant do at the library is get coffee, i have to go next door for that and i do.
Everything has its correct use, a machine always has the exact number of functions, nuts and blots, any craftsman will tell you this and a bad craftsman will always blame his tools.
Social media is a great tool i learned and when you know how to use it to your advantage it can make the world of a difference
Kieran O' Callaghan 
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