6 Steps to Launch your Digital Identity
This course will lay out from the start what is required to be successful in your own right using 'new tools' (social networking and social media) to fulfill your own goals. This course is about helping students to achieve what they are looking for from social networking and media. The course will be held at BCIT's Burnaby campus just east of Vancouver. See the course outline here. If you have any questions about the course contact me directly by email here.
This course will not be exclusively focused on business, personal or professional. The purpose is to lay out the benefits and uses of the tools and let students pursue their own goals with ongoing support and education. Within the class we will be creating a microcosm of what happens on social networks among the larger population and encouraging students to pursue that larger network from the start.
This course has come about as a result of my work in the Social Media realm dating back to 2008. I have been avidly reading everything I can get my hands on including more than a dozen books on the subject and it's related trends. Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody is a great general look at 'the movement' and what it can achieve, for a more Twitter focused book pick up Shel Israel's Twitterville.
When deciding on a single book to use as a supplement to the course I wanted to find something that taught me things and made the path to achieve a strong presence in the new social media realm easy for anyone. For those reasons I have chosen Chris Brogan and Julien Smith's 'guidebook' Trust Agents.The book speaks to the business or professional user but it's lessons and tasks will help anyone looking to establish their digital identity.
A few weeks back I was speaking with a collegue who wanted to start building their professional presence online and these were the first 6 steps I gave him. These steps can be used or substituted for things you have already completed.
6 Steps to launch your digital identity
- Choose a name for your new digital identity. For the most success in a professional or business sense use your real name if possible (See Glenn Hilton). If you wish to remain anonymous use a nickname that describes in some way what you are trying to achieve (See Atomic Poet).
- Register for a Gmail account with "YourDigitalIdentity@gmail.com" if available. This will be the email you will use to sign up for everything else.
- Go to Twitter and sign up with the username "YourDigitalIdentity".
- Go to LinkedIn and start your LinkedIn Account. Use your real name. (See mine)
- Go to Go Daddy or any other low cost domain registrar and register the domain www.YourDigitalIdentity.com
- Go to Blogger or Wordpress and setup a blog. Make a few simple posts or even just titles. No one will find your blog until you want them to.
It's not a mountain if you climb it one step at a time. -Kemp Edmonds
How social media provides access to traditional media
No matter how fast we are going, writing matters more than ever. And editing matters more than writing.Last week I attended a "Real Estate Technology Meetup" in Vancouver hosted by Stephen Jagger and Ubertor. Normally this event is more focused on Real Estate but this time the event went in another direction, which greatly pleased me and brought me out to Ceili's in downtown Vancouver on a rainy Monday night. Despite a leaky roof,which can be seen as rain drops on Stephen's head in the video below, the room was packed and the information was valuable and relevant.
-Kirk Lapointe, Managing Editor, Vancouver Sun.
The guest speakers were Kirk Lapointe and Gillian Shaw, Technology Writer for the Sun. Their insights into how the media landscape is changing AND how to use it to your advantage were essential for those working in marketing, PR and communications. Kirk opened speaking about how the age of long term job security is on it's way out. The new world for most of the people in the room is now about contracts, projects, personal brand, individual jobs and entrepreneurship. This theme is something that everyone looking for a job or career these days should be paying attention to.The new personal journalism [for every individual] is search.
-Kirk Lapointe.
If you are hosting an event consider the meaning and context. They are the key to ensuring sustainability and meaning to your audience. The meaning is what you have to sell now.
-Kirk Lapointe.Gillian followed up Kirk's talk with great advice about the importance and value of new communities and networking. It's about meeting people 'where they are'. Consider where your audience is and move from there. For the media Twitter is another, more efficient way of email and phone conversations. These days with so much information flying around less is often more effective in communication.
Follow the reporters on Twitter to know what they are writing about and get in there. Timeliness is everything as stories often go from the working stage to print quickly. -Gillian ShawYou can watch the entire discussion below thanks to Ubertor. The questions at the end are very good.
The Vancouver iPhone Forum Opening
Today thanks to organizers and sponsors Bell Canada, CBC, New Media BC, BCIT and many more; experts from all over North America have gathered in Vancouver to share their knowledge and experience with the Vancouver iPhone community. Not only that but thanks to Genius Factor Games Vancouver's first iPhone forum will be attempting a Guinness world record.
"This is a special day in the history of mobile social media. We are attempting a Guinness world record by creating a the world's biggest photo mosaic. Go to http://urthestar2009.com and download the iPhone App to be part of a Guinness world record."
- John Horodyski, Genius Factor Games.
Tuesday November 24th may go down as the day that a new Guinness world record was set at BCIT's downtown campus. It may be the day that a very special iPhone app was born, but it will definitely go down in the history of Vancouver's iPhone application development and business community as the day that the community came of age.After forging many iPhone apps that are best sellers around the world including "Color Splash" and iFart the Vancouver iPhone Community is having a coming out party of sorts. These apps are part of the history but, it is not these apps that are the future. The future lies in custom applications like Gary Symons' Poddio which allows reporters on-the-go to create, edit and upload audio and video stories directly from the iPhone. The magic of Gary's app really happens on the backend where the edited and normalized audio or video file is uploaded and distributed throughout a news organization network.
CBC currently holds the top two spots in the App Store in Canada for News Apps with the new Hockey Night in Canada application and the CBC radio app, a personal favourite of mine. The CBC Radio app let's you listen to any CBC station from across the country and CBC Radio 1, 2 or 3. Most impressively you can listen to shows you have missed on CBC Radio."Today is about leveraging the constant connectivity provided by the iPhone. We have brought experts from all over the US and Canada to bring the most cutting edge ideas and concepts to BCIT around the iPhone and constant connectivity."
-Jonathan Carrigan, CBC
The keynote speaker this morning, Bruce Dagge, iPhone Enterprise Accounts, Canada, Apple, came out right away to say that he didn't come today to talk about corporate email and systems. Today Bruce will be talking about things that you do not see in the app store. He went on to show us many examples of integrating the iPhone with corporate environments and security.
It's a revolutionary mobile phone, right? Or is it a mobile computer cleverly disguised as a phone? Why is iPhone in Business? Why are we gaining momentum? JD Power and Associates gave the iphone the highest consumer rating the last two year's in a row. The user interface makes it flexible and usable.In the beginning (DEC/07) Forrester said, "The iPhone is not meant for Enterprises". APR/09 Forrester said, "The iphone is for enterprises". They weren't wrong Apple just changed the product to suit the needs of enterprise. Apple listened to it's customers and worked with them to achieve what they wanted.
"Our people decided they wanted iPhone... it wasn't one of those things IT decided for them."
-Senior VP Global Information Systems, Kraft.
The iPhone is a critical part of the new Kraft. The iPhone changes how people work. The pace of change increases with the tools for collaboration. The iPhone made the office wireless. The need for the conventional desk has dissipated at Kraft as all the tools are mobile. The iFood Assistant makes the consumers life easier. Kraft: Allows personal iPhone use.
6 things enterprises are doing with the iPhone:
- Lookup and Reference
- Field Sales and Service
- Business intelligence
- Business Process
- Collaboration
- Training and Communications
Sunbelt Rentals a construction equipment rental company is using the iPhone for sales and by doing so is gaining efficiencies and an advantage over its competitors. TREK Bicycles is using the iPhone to scale out training and communications with customers and dealers through TREK University.
Any online communication has 3 components, creation, distribution, access. Mobility takes this to the next level by allowing one device to do all three of these things. Before Gary Symons became the CEO of Vericorder Technology he was a reporter in radio and television as the mobile guy. He has created an app that allows mobile reporters to record edit and send stories directly from the iPhone.
*He is now doing a live presentation of the app: reporting* It looks like the creation of a podcast. He created a voice memo. Now he is doing a script or 'wrap' to create a full news story. He used to do most of his stories out of his truck which he lived in some of the time when he was a reporter and now he can do the same from his iPhone.
His amazing app, Poddio ($150), allows reporters on the go to create, edit and publish audio files directly from the device, WOW. The file can be instantly uploaded to a Media Asset system and distributed around the world. The app automatically creates a podcast and publishes the story to predetermined media channels. "I set out as a working guy solving problems for working people." The app is soon to be able to do photo and video editing and slideshows complete with audio all done directly from an iPhone.
"There is an Enterprise Developer Program. You will never see these examples on the iPhone but the enterprise support for development and rollout is out there. There is a GREAT opportunity in custom apps."
-Bruce Dagge, Apple Canada.
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