We have all experienced water cooler culture. A group of people gossiping about a subject which is then taken back to their respective groups, further discussed and embellished, further disseminated, and before you know it someone on the other side of the world hears and sets off their own jungle drums. The story grows, it moves at speed, it changes shape, and the person at the centre of the story may be the last to know.
I came across an example of this recently on Mashable, and though fairly extreme, it goes to show that the accessibility of social media means announcements may be made that concern you, but by other people. The article is about twins who discovered the death of their brother through Facebook – http://bit.ly/crjgNl
Take ownership of broadcasting your news. Make sure if it is about you, then you are the one telling the story. Do not be taken by surprise by your own news.
We all know that there are a huge amount of social media channels online, and it is easy to be confused and or put off as new ones keep surfacing and others disappear or are reinvented as something else.
When looking at setting sail on the good ship social media you need to have an idea of what you want to achieve through it. “Because everyone else is on it” is sure to steer you towards the nearest iceberg. Set out some measurable goals, whether it is raising media profile, increasing numbers to a subscriber group or driving traffic through to your web content. Align all of your activities with these goals and you will quickly know what sort of impact you are having and what direction, if any, you need to take to improve.
Once you understand what you want to do it will then be easier to select the social media tools you require for the job. More often than not, the most effective strategy is to use two or three in parrallel, each one complementing the other. Another indicator is to look at the channels your audience already uses. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. If they are there in number, you will quickly be able to see if there is any relevance to what you want to do. If so, get involved. Be transparent and be honest about who you are. If your content is engaging to that population, they will subscribe.
Use Twitter to make announcements, or pose questions, though make sure you link to somewhere you can properly interact with your audience. A blog is a good place, as from there you can build up your discussions, push academic thought leadership out and really start to shape the debate. Your blog can take users into you main webpages for further information or directly to specific calls to action. Lift content by using the like of Slideshare to further draw in your audience, or if you have some good video media, open a channel on YouTube and link through to that.
Give people as many routes into your content as possible, give them every opportunity to interact with it, but always keep it focused on your subscriber group, and always use social media to underpin your goals.
We have already touched on embedding videos into your blog, so I want to take it a step further and look at video blogging (or vlogging), what is it and how do you get started. As the name suggests, it is a piece of video or if you want to get fancy, internet tv. It can take the form of a rough piece of footage shot in one take, or something beautifully produced and edited. The most frequented channel for this type of media is YouTube.
I came across a very interesting piece on what is rapidly becoming my first point of call for social media news and development, Mashable. This article introduces the video blog and how to get started….
Just as some academics are getting their heads around blogging and its benefits, people start muddying the waters by talking about micro-blogging and Twitter causing panic, disdain, apathy or all of the above that there is yet another channel (albeit one that has been around a little while now) to distract them from their day to day. Below is a short presentation I put together just to introduce Twitter and what it is. If you have been in a coma for the last couple of years or are just deaf to all things interweb then take a quick look and I defy you not to find something in there that makes you want to get involved.
My last post focused on getting a YouTube video embedded into your post, but what happens if you don’t have a video, but a lot of images? There are a huge amout of slideshow tools out there that all deliver a reasonable result. The one that stands head and shoulders above them (at the moment) has to be Animoto. Not only does it allow you to upload your images from your local drive, it also allows you to browse through their online image library and also retrieve images from other sites (be wary of copyright infringement). You can also add music from their audio bank, or again upload your own, though again be sure you can use it.
The service is free for a 30 second clip, otherwise there is a $30 fee for an ‘all action pass’ which allows unlimited length of show.
So, how do you get started? Firstly, make sure you have a YouTube account, then register with Animoto
Done that? Right, let’s get started.
a 30 second slideshow requires between 12 and 15 images, so make sure you have them to hand. You then need to click the ‘create video’ link in Animoto and it will handhold you through a very simple process.
Firstly you will be asked what video type you want to create. Start off small and go for the 30 second clip.
You will then be asked to get your images. Let us assume they are on your hard drive for now. Click on the ‘upload’ option.
You will then be able to browse to your images and upload them.
Once they are in the system you will see thumbnails of your images that you will be able to re-order by dragging and dropping. There are also other functions you can play with in the toolbar at the bottom of the thumbnail window.
When you are happy, click ‘done’ to move on to the next step. Time to add some music. You will be asked to upload your own or select from the online collection. For now, click on the collection link.
Select a genre, then listen to the track before you select it.
Once selected you will be able to review some of your slideshow settings then click continue.
Give your slideshow a name, and a description then click ‘create video’.
Go make a cup of tea while it does its magic.
It will take a few minutes to compile your video, but once it does you will be able to view it.
Notice how the animation is in sync with the music.
Once the video has playes click on the blue video toolbox option bottom right, just under the video pane.
This will open up a tool panel with ‘Export’ bottom right. Click this and it will prompt you for you YouTube account details. Once in, it will send it directly to your channel.
Now go to YouTube and copy the video URL and proceed as directed in my last post to embed the video into your page.
Videos are a great way to lift and add another dimension to your blog. Posting avideo to your blog is relatively simple and I would advise you open a YouTube account if you don’t already have one, and use it to store all of your media. That way you will benefit from being viewed on both your blog and your YouTube channel.
Once you have your video up on YouTube, copy the URL. It should look something like this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqXGjCA1fYo
It is the part after the “=” you need – bqXGjCA1fYo
It then needs to go into a line of code that activates the video plugin on your blog – kml_flashembed movie=” http://www.youtube.com/v/
Add the part from your URL to the end of this, not forgetting to put speach marks and “/” at the end
There is no doubt that US academics have been quicker to embrace the blogosphere than their UK counterparts, but does that mean the quality of their content is better because of the medium’s wider acceptance or whether it does have a place within HE in the UK?
The positive aspects of blog posting could be contributing to the reasons why there is a slow takeup this side of the pond. Could the fact that any post is open to scrutiny by the mainstream and not just a particular niche audience cheapen the value of the channel as a place to publish academic thought leadership and research activity, or could it be viewed in term of a broader audience means more rounded views and comments, and the introduction of new avenues of discussion that would not necessarily have been explored?
If the blogs attract comments, of what value is this feedback and what is the overhead in moderating and managing and replying? The flipside is there may be valuable comment and insight. Some subscriber interaction may enrich the content of the blog or may bring a community together that may not necessarily function together via more traditional channels.
Does the ease of publishing to the blogosphere mean you have to publish more and therefore devalue the quality of its content? Or maybe the ease of publishing means that pushing content out can fit easily into normal academic processes and offer the academic an invaluable channel through which to engage an audience?
Could the main reason for reticence be that academics feel themselves exposed on such an accessible medium and feel more at ease revealing themselves within private communities such as those within their own universities?
These reasons for and against are by no means exhaustive, but they do make you think. Young bloggers are leading the charge on the blogosphere, but as quoted from the Times Higher Education, “What will happen as the young bloggers of today become tomorrow’s professors is anyone’s guess.”
I am often asked how frequently a blogger should add new posts. The largely held view has been to post as much and as often as possible. If people see a great slew of content coming out of your blog then it must be worth reading, right?
Wrong!
If this is your overiding thought before entering the blogosphere, then walk on stranger this is no place for you. You need to start with why you want to start blogging in the first place and not with how often.
You will be targeting a niche audience who will visit your blog if you make your posts engaging and relavent to them. Your posts may well spill out into other populations but that is only down to the quality of what you are trying to communicate. If anything, putting yourself under pressure to post multiple times daily or weekly will eventually diminish the quality of your content and may cause your userbase to unsubscribe from your blog.
Do you have the time and enough things to say to keep a regular post schedule, or would it be better to post when you have something to say that will engage you target audience? According to Technorati, only 55% of bloggers post after three months of existence.
In conclusion
Only post when you have something to say that will interest and engage your audience. The comments you get back may keep the post alive and active for months.
Don’t put yourself under pressure by committing to your readership that you will be posting something new every day. The quality of your content will diminish and you will lose subscribers as you struggle to keep up with your self imposed publishing schedule.
Fit your posts into your day to day and enjoy writing them. The minute they start feeling like a chore, your posts will suffer.
You have to be committed to the blog, but don’t let it drive you mad.
