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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
