A LinkedIn groupie

Ok, I admit it. I’m a LinkedIn groupie. As of this writing, I belong to 44 groups on the social network for professionals. Come to think of it, I may add six more and hit the maximum of 50 after hitting the “Publish” button on this post.

Why am I such a groupie?

Because LinkedIn groups help me connect with strategic audiences — communities  interested in topics of high importance to me, such as: Public Relations, Social Media, Government, Cincinnati and Cancer Survivorship.

This year, I’ve learned  a lot about LinkedIn groups while serving as social media chair for the Cincinnati chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Chris Kemper, the chapter’s 2010 president, challenged us to offer more value to members. He envisioned the Cincinnati PRSA LinkedIn Group as “the place” for local PR pros.

Our Social Media Strategic Plan revolves around getting chapter members (and non-members, for that matter) more involved in the group. We want members to share links to news items, start discussions and post job openings — and, on the other end, read and comment on news items and discussion topics.

We’re counting on members of the chapter’s Leadership Team to get things started. We’re challenging people to add at least one news item or discussion topic a month.

I’ve promoted involvement in the agency’s newsletter, at leadership team meetings… whenever I get the chance.

Things are building slowly, but surely. Right now, we’ve got six discussions going — each with two or three comments. Seven or eight people are posting news items and job openings.

 It’s not as lively as I’d like, but at least it’s a start — a big jump from the days when the group pretty much consisted of people promoting their upcoming events or media coverage they’d gotten for a client.

Outside of PRSA, I have had good success drawing readers to this blog by posting links to relevant topics on group discussion boards. For example, I put last week’s post about my wife’s cancer survivor blog on groups such as Komen Foundation, LiveStrong and American Cancer Society. I posted my writeup about Cincinnati PRSA Media Day on various public relations blogs, drawing record numbers of visitors.

There are many uses for LinkedIn groups. Most importantly, they give me a clear channel to professionals interested in areas of strategic importance to me.

For those who want to learn more about LinkedIn, I’d recommend Neal Schaffer’s excellent book. Here’s my review.

Well, time to search out some more groups. I’m definitely a LinkedIn groupie.

A miracle blog

Tami Boehmer: Blogging to help others, and herself

In September 2009, my wife Tami launched a blog called Miracle Survivors: Information and Inspiration for Cancer Thrivers.

Tami wanted to build a platform for a book she’s writing called From Incurable to Incredible. The book, scheduled for publication this spring, will feature 25 cancer survivors who were given a terminal diagnosis and shocked everyone by thriving years beyond their prognoses.

Tami shares parts of their stories on her blog, as well as snippets from her own cancer journey. She’s been battling a breast cancer recurrence for almost two years. She’s got Stage IV metastatic cancer, with tumors in three areas, including her liver.

Thankfully, a new treatment she started in late November has the tumors shrinking or stable. She’s also doing a lot with nutrition, excercise, spirituality… to support the medical stuff.She attended an alternative/integrative treatment conference in Florida several weeks ago.  She’s headed to another next month. (She gives updates on the blog.)

Back to the blog…

The blog (created by Jason Bayer or JManStudios, using WordPress)  is a social media success story, in my humble opinion. Our Google Analytics report shows that it has been visited by 2,602 people from 53 countries and 48 states. (Must not have Internet access in Wyoming or North Dakota!)

People in Canada, the United Kingdom, Romania, India, Australia, Belgium, Mexico, Malaysia and many other countries have read the blog. Most visits come from Ohio, Kentucky, California, Texas, New York and Louisiana.

On Dec. 22, the blog got 133 visits — mainly because one of the people featured in the book shared a link with family and friends. It probably gets about 25-50 visits a day.

Most visitors come directly to the blog, although a number arrive via Facebook, Google, our family blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, the Cincinnati Women Bloggers blog and the Nickles-N-Dimes blog. Some various nice folks associated with groups such as Cincinnati Women Bloggers and New Media Cincinnati have done a great job telling those affected by cancer about the blog.

Tami (and I) have made countless connections with people who have inspired us and lifted our spirits during the ups and downs of her cancer journey. Hopefully, we have returned the favor.

Everyone is looking forward to the book, which we plan to self-publish thanks to a financial contribution from a close friend of Tami’s. The cover is being designed, and a book editor is going through the copy. Tami is wrapping up the final six or seven stories.

Meanwhile, she’ll continue to blog away — inspiring and informing others walking the same path — the trek toward Miracle Survivorship.

Live chats: Helping those in need

With the economic situation driving record numbers of people through the doors (and to the phone lines) of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services, we have experimented with innovative ways to help people in need.

In mid-2008, we started offering live online chats — with a goal of helping people better understand our programs and services. We have conducted more than 40 as of this writing.

The chats mostly take place 10-11 a.m. on a Wednesday. An expert in an area such as employment services, child support, Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized child care or cash assistance sits next to me at my PC… and we give prompt answers to questions.

We answer some inquiries privately, especially if they involve confidential case information.

Mostly, we share publicly, so everyone can learn from the running Q/A.

We use a software tool called Bold Chat, which costs about $39 a month, for the chatting. And I cut and paste questions and responses into an HTML page on www.hcjfs.org for the running chat transcript viewable by the public.

People access Bold Chat and the HTML page (the running transcript of the chat, later an archived Q/A) through a link on the Web site’s home page.

We average about 10 participants, 15 questions and 80 views (which grows to 300 or more over time). Some chats draw 30 participants; others, none. If a chat is slow, I interview the expert — and we still get people viewing the running transcript.

In the second half of 2009, participation dropped a but, so we backed off on frequency.

But the first two chats of this year — about Child Care and Employment Services — were very busy. So we’re planning to schedule chats at least every other week in 2010.

Bold Chat has other uses, too. In March 2009, we began offering private chats with Child Support customers about their cases. Technicians field questions 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Friday, on the Child Support page under Services on www.hcjfs.org. An invitation to chat pops up after somebody is on the page for a minute. Customers love the quick response–the fact that they don’t have to sit on hold on a phone for a long time.

We’re considering offering chats with clients from other program areas such as Medicaid and food stamps.

All of these practices will help us help those in need of assistance — many of whom haven’t accessed our services before, and don’t understand the system or its complexities.

Hope you find this interesting. I’m planning to continuing sharing my experiences in these public relaitons practices with you as the year unfolds.

Eating up that social networking thing

Imagine eating a salad, chicken breast with roasted potatoes and steamed veggies, and cookie with coffee — while tweeting away with a laptop balanced on one leg. (White cloth napkin on the other.)

I got that experience this week at the Cincinnati PRSA monthly luncheon! I tweeted highlights from PRSA national president Gary McCormick’s talk on the @CincinnatiPRSA account. It was part of the chapter’s efforts to take full advantage of its social media tools.

In between bites and tweets, I snapped photos on my BlackBerry and shared them on Twitter and Facebook using Twitpic and my @MikeBoehmer57 account.

Others in the audience retweeted my posts, and tweeted updates of their own. We connected our efforts using the #CincyPRSA hashtag. It was neat to see people who couldn’t attend in person following from their PC’s, laptops and smartphones.

This is just the beginning. Members of the first Cincinnati PRSA Social Media committee — Lauren Doyle, Elliot Campbell and Jeremy Fischer — had a lot of great ideas in our first planning meeting the day before McCormick’s talk. I’ll share some with you as time goes along. We have developed a plan to give PRSA members more value for their membership dollars by beefing up the chapter’s LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter offerings. Hopefully, you can learn from our experiments.

Before McCormick’s excellent talk, I got the opportunity to join a handful of Cincinnati PRSA Leadership Team members for an informal hour with the national leader. He shared a lot of interesting stories about the power of networking with people in your profession. He spoke often about building equity — helping people by giving them job leads or media contacts, serving on committees with them… and then having them return the favor years down the road. He talked about having mentors and mentoring people. He explained how he strategized to get his job at HGTV and win election as PRSA president. (He had a written plan with lists of people he needed to “touch.”)

It reminded me that social media is just a tool (method, tactic), something that enables us to build and nurture relationships cemented by in-person contact. It’s about more than munching on food and pecking away at a keyboard. Those talks I had with the PR pros at my table beforehand were vital, too.

One of the top social media communities around

Are you a public relations professional? Do you live in Greater Cincinnati? (Note: Even if you aren’t or don’t, this post will direct you to some great resources.)

You can join one of the most valuable PR social media communities in the country!

• If you haven’t already, join the PRSA – Cincinnati chapter group on LinkedIn.
• Become a part of the Cincinnati PRSA group on Facebook.
• Follow @CincinnatiPRSA on Twitter

And, here’s the important part….

• Share links to PR news items — and comment on those posted by others.
• Start discussions about PR-related topics — and comment on those offered by others.
• Tweet tidbits of useful information from talks given by PR experts.

Together, we’ll create a social media community that will allow us to connect at a deeper level.

Just think. When you see  someone at a luncheon or happy hour event, you’ll already know more about them from their LinkedIn profile. Perhaps, you’ll have discussed a PR topic. Maybe, you’ll have shared a link to a blog post or news article of value to them — or vice versa….

You’ll just know each other better. It could help break the ice, and perhaps help you overcome some shyness and give you something to talk about with someone you just met or don’t know very well.

Maybe you’ll learn something that can really help a lot back on the job — or you’ll share something that really helped someone else. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even end up working together down the road. Or you’ll refer business, or get a referral, as time transpires.

After all, you’ll be a part of one of the best PR social media communities in the country!

What are you waiting for? Get involved.

How can I use social media to…?

It’s a conversation I’m having more and more lately: Someone says, “Sell me on this social media thing…prove to me why I should embrace it. I don’t really understand it, but tell me how my organization could use it.”

I love to talk about social media as much as Reds baseball, Grateful Dead music or Rice Lake fishing. Social media has helped me connect with dozens of great people in areas such as public relations and cancer research. It has allowed my employer to better assist hundreds of good folks struggling in a sluggish economy. It has enabled my church to strengthen ties and generate awareness.

But it’s not for everyone. It’s not the be-all and end-all.

It’s simply a tool — albeit a powerful one — that can help individuals and organizations achieve strategic goals.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions:

(1) Complete your profile on LinkedIn — and aggressively connect with as many of your professional contacts as possible. Use the Groups search tool and join groups related to your goal.

(2) Set up Twitter accounts for yourself and your organizations. Follow people in your industry or area(s) of strategic interest.

(3) Consider starting a WordPress blog. Post 1-5 times per week.

(4) Invest in a BlackBerry or iPhone. Get a laptop with a wireless connection.

(5) Subscribe to RSS feeds on five to 10 blogs that you find of value.

(6) Reprioritize, so you can incorporate social media maintenance into your daily routine.

(7) Comment on blog posts. Share links from RSS feeds on Twitter (using bit.ly). Comment on Facebook status updates.

(8) Complete your Facebook profile, adding info you’ve shared on LinkedIn. Connect with personal and professional friends/associates. Set up groups and use privacy settings to control who sees what on your profile. Set up a Page for your organization and start inviting friends/associates.

(9) Get out there and connect. Attend meeting of groups such as (in our city) Cincinnati Social Media, New Media Cincinnati, New Media Cincinnati, Cincinnati PRSA, Cincinnati AMA…

Then, we’ll probably be out of time. And I’ll suggest that you follow this blog — and share your experiences in the comments section!

An excellent LinkedIn resource

Got a question about LinkedIn? Wonder how you could better tap its power to achieve professional and/or organizational goals? Confused about its many features? Looking for ideas for incorporating it into your social media strategy?

Then, I’d highly recommend that you read The WindMill Networking Approach to Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn by Neal Schaffer.

Schaffer devotes 362 pages to explaining the vast potential of LinkedIn. He does a great job detailing the many features in the social network for professionals. He explains the various settings, applications and tools available for free (or a charge, if you choose the advanced version).

I particularly like his “pay-it-forward” philosophy toward networking — the idea that you network to see what you can give to your contacts, not what you can get from them. It falls in line with my belief in social networking karma.

Schaffer spends a lot of time espousing his WindMill Approach to Networking. This partially involves networking with people who you haven’t met face-to-face, but could end up being powerful allies… an interesting approach that has allowed him to network with thousands of people around the world.

As I write this, I’m not completely sold on the idea of linking in this way. However, I’ll have to admit that I have used Twitter and Facebook in this way with great results. In fact, I got the chance to review Schaffer’s book because he offered it to reviewers through Twitter, so I’ll probably give windmilling a try!!!

Bottom line: There’s been a lot of attention given to blogging, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. LinkedIn seems like their plain, less sexy cousin. Reading this book will give you a better understanding why LinkedIn deserves A-list billing at any social media party.

Social means face-to-face, too!

“Must read for all professionals. Great info on how to network — and why it’s a continuous process, even if you’re happy in your current job. Quick read. Packed with helpful info. Plan to share with friends who have lost their jobs in the economic recession. (Side note: My wife knows the author, so I decided to check this out. It’s been enjoyable and informative, well worth the time.)”

 This is how I describe Julie Bauke’s Stop Peeing on Your Shoes: Avoiding the 7 Mistakes That Screw Up Your Job Search on my LinkedIn page.

 

Even though I’m not in a job search mode, I found the book to be very relevant.

Like many of you, I have devoted a lot of time to social media – many, many hours pecking away at my PC, laptop and BlackBerry.

 

However, from the start, I’ve tried to keep in mind that this is about forming mutually beneficial relationships — especially with people with common interests to mine.

 

And much of that relationship-building takes place in-person — at meetings of social networking groups and professional associations, in 1-on-1 lunch or coffee get-togethers, etc.

 

Bauke gives a lot of great ideas based on her years of experience in career development. You’ll love her fun writing style and real-life examples of what to do and what to avoid.

Do yourself a favor. Pick up this 102-page gem. You won’t regret it!

 

 

  

  

And now…a word from our sponsors

Another free tool for connecting with key audiences

 

 

 

Social media experimentation took me into the world of Internet radio this year. Somewhere along the social media path, I learned about BlogTalkRadio.

 

I’d wanted to expand on simple audio podcasting, but didn’t have much time and money to invest. I think it was Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology who told me about BlogTalkRadio.

 

Anyway, I decided to learn the technical basics by interviewing local social media enthusiasts last spring on the PR Mike in Cincy Show. It was really cool interviewing the founders of Cincinnati Social Media, New Media Cincinnati, LinkedCincinnati and the like. The test shows even got between 15 and 70 downloads each.

 

Feeling confident (sort of), I launched the Hamilton County JFS Show in June. I have mainly interviewed experts in the agency’s programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, cash assistance, child support, child care, employment services, adoption, foster care….

 

The shows are averaging about 50 downloads, with one recently topping 100. They are recorded live. Afterward, people can download (listen at their PC) to an archived show.

 

Granted, the shows aren’t challenging WLW-AM or even WAIF-FM in listenership, but they are allowing us to convey useful information in a cost-effective manner. Setup takes minutes, and the live interview is 15 minutes long. I have a control panel on my PC (a tool in BlogTalkRadio) and the subject calls in from wherever, usually their office.

 

We use the free version, which can have occasional technical glitches. And, if you’ve listened, you can tell that I have limited radio experience.

 

Still, it’s a useful tool — one we plan to continue using in 2010.

 

By the way, I’m thinking about resuming the PR Mike in Cincy Show and interviewing social media enthusiasts. Would you like me to do that? Let me know in the comments.

Aggregation elation

Aggregating social media empowers members of your target audience

It’s a question I hear often: How do you get people to become fans of your organization’s Facebook page, follow its Twitter updates, listen to the BlogTalkRadio show, watch your YouTube channel…

There’s not a simple answer.

For one, you need to develop a strategic social media plan — one based on research, planning, implementation and evaluation. That will help you set goals, develop objectives, select target audiences, create content… and strategize ways to invite followers and fans.

For us (at the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services), this has included putting links on our Web site and in our online newsletter. Doing press releases. Including in PowerPoint presentations. Attending events and networking….

This week, we took another step — aggregating our social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BlogTalkRadio, RSS feeds) together in a Social Media Center. This allows target audience members to quickly view all of our latest posts — and, hopefully, subscribe to them if they haven’t already.

Here’s a link to the Social Media Center.

I’d really appreciate your feedback.

Kudos goes to Randall Reese of LVX Communications. Randall, a graphic artist, developed the page.