Inviting you to a Social Media Spring Clean

You conceive the workshop, plan the workshop, secure a venue including connectivity for remote access, your settle on dates then its time to get the word out. The fear is always... and I mean always... What if no one comes? The reason these kinds of workshops get planned is that the word on the street, everyone you meet  seems to confirm that if you ran a workshop about this [insert conversation topic where pearls of wisdom although obvious to you really light up the face to the recipient] it would be well-received coz everyone want this knowledge.  From experience, this is not as easy as it seems when in the heat of that revelation of an idea for a workshop when mid conversation!  

Reviving the High Street - @philcampbell - Sittingbourne - Nov 2014

There is much talk about independent high streets and the behemoth multi national superstores invading the gentility of shopping. Don't know why, but wicker baskets with cotton covers and visits to the butchers comes to mind. Pats of butter being wrapped in grease proof paper and dusty loose leaf tea in boxes. I am not that old (42), but often we are nostalgic far beyond our years!

Bringing social, breathing life into the modern retail environment of shopping is a huge challenge. And I think Phil Campbell has an affordable, digital-social, retail compatible solution which he talked about when invited to talk about ThePiStreet in Sittingbourne last November at 21st Century High St & Town Centre's half day seminar hosted by Kent Design.

I always enjoy Phil's delivery he is always knowledgeable and like me often rambles. But unlike me he is very good at staying on topic. This is a 15 min video edited down from 25 mins. It's a good overview of what PiStreet is and what it's been up to. Phil is currently developing the ideas and lessons learnt from the pilot installations in Nottingham and Derby as he continues to explore social technologies and representing big data in a meaningful way for audiences and the general public at large. 

Social Media and the Stagemanager - GO #smaconf

At 2.30 pm (the time this post is set to publish) I'm delivering a talk and extended Q&A as a first step towards developing a programme of personal development workshops for stagemanagers working in the theatre industry to take advantage of the social media tools emerging and evolving.

Here are the slided. If you are a Stagemanager please complete the survey and help with my research. Add your comments using the #smaconf hashtag in Twitter.

Social Media and the Stage Manager

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"Standing By" for the very first Stage Management Association conference.

I became a member of the SMA in 1995 it's 'Blue List' led to many offers of work during my time as a stagemanager. I also served on the board for a couple of years. 'Paying it forward' to acknowledge influence and 'paying it back' to nourish the future have always been important to me. It's one of the reason's why I blog. When I received an email announcing the idea of holding the first conference for stagemanagers I immediately contacted Barbara, SMA's executive director to offer a social media focused session with the stage manager at its core. With all the web platforms, tools and services I have discovered since my final stagemanagement job I wanted an opportunity to share my finding.

I was delighted to be invited to present at this very first UK and possibly the World's first conference for Stage managers. It's an opportunity to create a programme of digital web skills workshops conceived from the opinions and feedback from the unprecedented coming together of some of the best live event organisers this country has.

Stagemanagers are super high functioning organisers. If there is a more efficient way to perform a task or set of tasks a stagemanager will find it. Social Media for Stagemanagers is not about efficiency or time saving although that can be a consequence, its about distribution and more effective collaboration. Social Media provides channels of communication previously unimagined. But they take time to makes and they take time to implement. That is the hurdle.

I know what I want to share. I have been asking around amongst working stagemanagers in my network and reaching out across Twitter, how social media is impacting the industry and especially how it is impacting their jobs directly in the production arena in all areas. The results of the survey I have running, the conversations I'm having and the talk with extended Q&A I'll be delivering at the conference are to inform the development of a series of workshops, seminars or training classes to provide professional development opportunities to working stagemanagers and most importantly SMA members.

I'd like to thank Grahame Reid @parcanboy, Sharon Calcutt @shadaca, Paul Green @paulgreenld and all the anonymous participants in the PCM Stage Management survey - You and Social Media

The hashtag for following the conversation in Twitter is #smaconf. Not yet on Twitter? you can watch the conversation on Tweetizen.

Conference programme for February 12th 2012. 

Why crowdsourcing is rubbish - Is it not about context?

"Recently, Brent Council launched an online survey seeking opinions on its ‘waste messages’ – slogans and designs intended to raise awareness of the importance of recycling." via www.abccopywriting.com

Thought you might find this interesting. Its always important to weigh up the successes and failures of any new concept. It brings in to the equation the willingness of the crowd.

I think this blog article demonstrates why there is opposition and cynicism regarding crowd-sourcing. The mindset behind the collective crowd and the motivation to participate is as important as the campaign itself, in order to source from 'The Crowd', you have to know the crowd.

I currently have a group of students investigating crowd-sourcing for PCM encompassing the entire spectrum of platforms that have arisen in recent months. Looking forward to receiving their report and presentation.

Hearing a crowdsourcing talk at a 2011 BAFA roadshow and observing the blank uncomprehending faces around me I could see that no matter how awesome the concept they didn't have the social networking capability to realise a project funded in this way.

I wanted to know more about how as a resource I can help companies tap in to the power of the crowd.

I spoke to crowdsource platform developer Nick Wright on my cj.fibreca.mp web show

QR codes - in action. Your turn.

I've recently been including QR codes and their potential use within business to amplify Social Media. To connect offline media with online activity. Thought I'd share this on my blog.

The applications I use and recommend are:

Mobile BarCodes
http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-generator
(for code generation, I use this one)
http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software
(for code generation, I use this also)

Kaywa
http://qrcode.kaywa.com (for generating codes)
http://reader.kaywa.com (for QR code reader)

The code reader I have installed on my phones is UpCode
http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/#upcode

A pause for thought... when creating a QR code think about the value of the destination being accessed on a mobile devise. It should be a location directly relevant and information oriented for the user.  An article, a podcast, a video greeting an event or promotion code. For Creative Nottingham I'd suggest a QR code to the RSS feed http://www.creativenottingham.com/feed/atom or to a mobile optimised version of the Creative Nottingham site using Mippin Mobilizer http://www.mippinmaker.com

I've featured QR code potential in my presentation to BAFA (British Arts Festivals Association), E-business Club's Transitional ICT breakfast briefing around the East Midlands and for Creative Nottingham's social media introduction presentation based on the one day workshops I delivered to the FEU training (Federation of Entertainment Unions).

It's my objective to help business understand and leverage social media of all kinds. QR codes seem to has spiked great interest. For example on my business card I have to linking to a publication on ISSUU, Twitter for Beginners. 

Get a code reader for your phone and try it. 

Let me know what you think? Useful?

23 June 2010 - Update... further pointers
This post was originally triggered by a presentation I delivered to Creative Nottingham and subsequently became a topic for discussion in their huddle network. I've blogged my initial pointers as thought they'd make an informative blog post. I added this to the discussion. Creative Nottingham's Susi O'neill created an optimised version of their web site as a result of the discussion.

"When including a QR on printed material I'd also consider the life span of the material. If it's going to be around for a while you might consider creating a QR code to a specific page you can edit containing links with the Mippin optimised version being top. This then becomes a mobile resource which you can update with out invalidating the QR code on the printed material.That would be solution if you add incentives at a later date as you suggested in your post.

Directing a QR code to the Mippin version would be dynamic of course as it would update when you added a post to the main site."

A year on - social media - Solutions for Business

Transitional ICT - Solutions for Business

It is always my objective with PCM creative to breakdown the huge umbrella term "social media" in to avenues of application rather than focusing on the gadgets, platforms, tools and services themselves.

"Don't add technology to the way you do things, change the way you do thinks when you know what the technology can do"

Over the past 2 years as my business, PCM creative has evolved from web design integrating social spaces, social networks, social platforms, tool and sharing services to an integrating social resources consultancy and media making service I've learnt as much from putting together the presentations, workshops and courses as the delegates I've delivered to.

It has altered the course of my business and provided me with tremendous opportunities and humbling network connections. It has enabled me to investigate the many facets and case studied business benefits social media affords hand on sharing the findings and experience of that journey with my clients as they begin there's.

This time last year I delivered a series of Breakfast Briefing for Business Link introducing the fundamentals of social media for business.

Bl Social Media Breakfast Briefing

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The reception was if I'm honest a little cold. I generated a murmur of interest. I was under scrutiny and encountered a lot of sceptics. Bottom line and ROI, metrics all of which were in their infancy. Not all the responses were negative and closed. I did make connections and started companies and organisations off on their own social media adventure. In most instances it was direction, focus on existing defined USPs and reassurance that the platforms they had stumbled upon, the ones bubbling up in the mainstream could be applied effectively to business. The ongoing dialogue was also important especially discussions on how their online networks were flourishing and sharing progress reports to develop a strategy going forward. More than anything this support ignited the development we later work on to emerge as projects or campaigns.

This time I aimed to expand on this further introducing the advanced such as Geo Locating mobile apps, QR codes and Flowtown. I'm finding curiosity and journeys that have begun and most encouragingly probing questions to get the most from the platforms rather than blind adoption.

The Benefits of Social Media for Business

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Presentations across the East Midlands untill the end of June 2010