Finland gigs

(FIN) Today I'm crossing another country off my list and delivering a couple of gigs at Laurea University, Finland.

I have the honour of presenting a lecture to a several groups of students and their professors on the impact of social media. Then in the afternoon I'll be working with the internal marketing team on thier specific use of social media and the opportunities it affords.

Thank you for delivering us an interesting and inspiring presentation and discussion afternoon on social media. The event was very successful one with about 60 participants varying from students to teachers and other Laurea’s staff. All the feedback I have received afterwards has been highly positive. I can strongly recommend you for any organisation and hopefully we will have a chance to use your services again the
future. All in all, a very thorough and professional day but with a refreshing approach.

Susanna Ba, Project Planner, Laurea University of Applied Sciences

MediaSnackers Consulting and Speaking/Masterclass

The media-snacking green machine

(WORLD) For some time now, we at MediaSnackers have wanted to give back a little of what we’ve been sucking from the planet. We travel a lot as a business and though we already try to travel as efficiently and effectively as we can, we also want to instill a culture of ‘hey lets be considerate here’ into all our activities, future endeavours and operations.

Do we think we’re actually saving the planet here?
Not in the slightest. We know that it takes far more than a little bit of carbon offsetting in an already relatively efficient company to make a big dent in the worlds ozone. We’re doing it for the feel good factor and hopefully spreading a good vibe amongst others to try and do the same where possible.

With this in mind, I have been figuring out a simple way of logging our CO2 tonnage. Native Energy is the company I think looks good, as it is simple and clear and focusses on the travel we frequently use. Cars, buses, rail & planes. Punch in the details and it spews out the numbers. The price at the checkout is what we can spend on good causes. Each employee and freelancer gets access to a Google form to input their CO2 usage, where we can tot the numbers up at the end of the year.

So what will we do exactly?
Donate the funds to good causes: tree replantation, local environmental projects or charitable agencies. Giving the money directly to those that will benefit from it. People can suggest stuff, or we can pick our favourites, but either way, we get to feel good and some nice people get to benefit.

So without further ado:

Read about the MS Carbon Footprint part 1
Old paper image credit goes to http://ofruin-stock.deviantart.com/

MediaSnackers Alumni

(GBR) The MediaSnackers Alumni are a growing number of past clients that could just disappear into the ether if we didn’t catch up with them. We decided to hunt down and grill them to find out what difference their training had made in the way they work professionally and personally.

This months thoughts and insights are from Rosie Wilks from Breeze Leeds:

What’s your role, who you work for, and what sort of things do you do?
I work for Leeds City Council as the Breeze Development and Communications Officer. Breeze is a brand and programme of events designed to engage and communicate with young people in Leeds.

Its been a month or so since you have been drenched in the MediaSnackers ‘way’, what did you learn from the experience?
It has been a couple of months now since Mediasnackers came to Leeds to do some consultation and workshops with my colleagues and I. We had two packed full days learning about social media platforms including, RSS feeds, the importance of blogging, planning events and campaigns using social media, Twitter, Animoto, Capzles and a whole host of other useful platforms.

However from the experience it has basically changed the way I personally think about and plan my work. We were vaguely linked into some of the social spaces but since made more use from Flickr and Animoto to create slightly more engaging content for the Breeze website. Images can tell a far more interesting and just as informative story as a lengthy written ‘news item’. Here is an example of feedback from young people from one of our Breeze On Tour events. During the consultation exercises with DK and Mark we discussed our ‘Follow Alex’ campaign, this has helped shape phase 2, which is just about to kick off, of the Facebook campaign which aims to encourage young peoples participation in cultural activity. Also coming from a suggestion from Mediasnackers I have created online tutorials for colleagues and other professionals who access the Breeze Culture Network, the online database to feed events and activities to the Breeze website.

From a personal viewpoint with impending maternity leave looming, and working out how to ‘write’ handover notes and teach my replacement everything I know, needing to extract 6 years of knowledge on Breeze from my brain and dump it into a format that is easily accessible and understandable, this has been really helpful. I have expanded on the Breeze wiki we started with Mediasnackers, so all my knowledge of how Breeze has grown over the years and how it has developed is in one central resource accessible online. Again I have created online tutorials for procedures to manage the Breeze website including for all the platforms Mediasnackers have introduced us to! These will all be online shortly for my replacement to be able to easily pick up and handle the wealth of information stored in my head.

Other colleagues from the Leeds Young Peoples Film Festival have been avidly blogging and I have noticed they have changed the presentation and content of their website to make it more exciting for visitors. Other colleagues have been applying techniques outside of the council to their own interest and hobbies too!

How have other members of the team/organisation, that didn’t attend the course, received your new techniques?
Of course! As mentioned I will be absent from the Council for a while bringing up my first child therefore it is crucial that others know how to develop what I have learnt from Mediasnackers – hence the online tutorials I am busy setting up. We have a small group who meet every 6 weeks to discuss online techniques, tips, new platforms and projects we are working on etc.

What has been the biggest and easiest change to make in the way that you work?
It is a mindset change! The biggest change is just pushing yourself outside from the usual way of working and thinking about things from a different perspective. Initially it wasn’t easy but ultimately once you have altered your approach the techniques and platforms are really easy to use, it is just a process of making them the norm and not as an exception.

Has there been any difficulty in implementing these new approaches?
Getting other peoples mindsets shifted!! Some people are adaptable but some are very set in their ways and procedures.

What future projects do you have planned which utilise social media?
Breeze and Follow Alex will continue to develop and use social media, this has got to be something that continually grows and expands. Our target audience expect nothing less and to keep up with their expectations and maintain engagement and participation with them we must keep up with the world in which they operate and interact in.

Thank you for your time, Rosie Wilks.

See all MS Alumni interviews here

A chance to win

(WORLD) We've been selling our little publication Zen And The Heart Of Social Media for a few months now and thought it was time for a refresh… plus a little giveaway.

It's really simple to enter—in the comments or on Twitter tell us: what's the best social media advice you've been given and why?

On Twitter please hashtag all things ‘Zen And The Heart Of Social Media’ with #zathosm.

We'll then choose the best few to send a copy of our book to.

"What’s new?" is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow.

I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question "what is best?", a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, pg 98

WINNERS

We had such great responses to our question above we thought we'd award everyone who contributed a copy of our book—here are the responses:

The best social media advice? Hmmmm oh yeah "go and play". Words of wisdom from Mr DK and Mr Mapstone! Do I get a freebie now? LOL

Matthew Barnaby

When being guardian of your organisation's social media presences, always write as yourself representing the organisation, not as 'the organisation'. And always respond to comments whether positive or negative. It's too easy to forget to thank people for praise, meaning they won't bother in future.

Steph

"Just leap in and start playing" by Steve Thompson of the Digital Innovation Dept at the Uni of Teeside. Its old advice, but it's the best as it's how humans work and not how people think humans should work. So it's effective and leads to success.

Markus Petz

"Social Media should not be scary enough to alienate you, but it's impact should be scary enough to motivate you."

Rob Williams

"think twice, tweet once" is the best advice (from me, to me)… because you can't easily take it back once it's out there.

Helen Harrop

"Think conversations, not campaigns"

William Linard

"Use Social Media Yourself, First." from @spinnybarHS

Ryan Donahue

best was to stop planning, stop worrying and just start playing with social media. Encouraged my staff to lose their fear.

John Williams

Get to know how they work yourself before diving in as an organisation. If you understand how people use them first, you'll better understand what they expect from organisations on them and be more likely to live up to their expectations.

Megan Price

Best social media advice? "Unplug and move deep into the forest. Read real books. Breathe real air. Sleep." Does that work?

Christian Long

"Assume goodwill" because most of the time, perceived slights are misunderstanding.

Howard Rheingold

If you could all ping us your postal address through our contact form we'll pop a copy in the post for you. Thanks again guys.

Theatre and social media

(WAL) Today we’re delivering a days training to the good people of Arad Goch, a small theatre in Abersytwyth, West Wales.

The aim is simple:

to widen their social and digital media skills. It’s to a small team here but we aim to have fun plus leave a legacy of social media exploration and use.

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A local speaking gig

(WAL) This morning I'm literally down the road from where I live and speaking at the Multiplatform Symposium 2010 event for creative industries in Wales, organised by Cyfle.

My role will be to introduce and explore how social media fits into all this.

Cyfle would like to say a big thanks to DK for being a fantastic speaker at our event. The audience response to the session has been very positive, they certainly learnt a lot of new things and enjoyed the opportunity to network and chat about how social media could be much more than just a hobby. Looking forward to working with MediaSnackers again in future.

Rhian Brewster, Training and Marketing Coordinator

Related gigs : Cyfle Training

MediaSnackers Speaking/Masterclass

Our big sis gets her own blog

(WORLD) Our big sister company Social Media For Suits, which provides personalised mentoring for CEOs and senior executives, has been relaunched as a blog.

Originally we just had a simple one page site. We thought that was enough. It is enough. It's just we've been looking around and no-one is really serving the girls and guys on the top in terms of specific content.

So here it is.

Social Media For Suits is now also a blog for CEO's and senior executives who want to understand and effectively use social media.

We'll be leveraging other social networks and platforms in the coming weeks so keep an eye out for that.

Related posts : Social Media For Suits Launched and Social Media For Suits Interview

Kodak and social media

(WORLD) The MediaSnackers podcast focusses on individuals, organisations or companies who are simply impressing us and which are crying out for more discussion.

Jeffrey Hayzlett is Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Kodak, discussing how they utilise social media in their operations.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

0.00—0.32 intro
0.33—1.03 how does social media fit in with the marketing plans of Kodak
1.04—2.09 shift of approach from traditional to digital
2.10—3.03 benefits of narrowcast vs broadcast
3.04—4.29 social media killed B2B
4.30—6.45 internal use of social media
6.46—8.26 examples of results relating to social media use
8.27—9.03 outsourcing social media
9.04—10.03 future
10.04—10.16 outro

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Want to suggest someone or put your virtual hand-up to be interviewed? Then get in touch here.

Devour our other podcasts.

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What we really sell

(WORLD) We don't deal in social media.

Seriously.

It's not the thing we focus on.

Sure our tagline says "We're the go-to guys for companies and organisations who want to understand & effectively use social media"… pretty snazzy, eh? But here's the big fat dirty truth :

We're in the change business not the social media business.

Social media is the range of tools we use to create benefit and value—to make things cheaper, quicker, better.

Like Bowie said, turn and face the strain guys—because it is a strain. Change is the hardest thing hardest thing to create and to peddle (but it's the only thing that matters).

MediaSnackers Services