Natalie's posterous

An hour-by-hour look at media habits across generations. Interesting! Social media strategists can use this to know when to reach certain age groups, and with what method.

Social Media: Where to find resources

By Rob Hopwood

Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 7:12 p.m.

The New York Times

Social Media Monday is a weekly feature that helps businesses and consumers understand how to use social media tools to their best advantage. This week, The San Diego Union-Tribune’s social media specialist Rob Hopwood (@sdutHopwood) share tips on social media for beginners.

Social media used to be dismissed as a fad. No more. Now, more and more professionals realize social media is critical to success.

At a recent workshop, a participant asked where he could go to learn more about social media. The good news for him and others is that San Diego is full of resources.

“San Diego has an incredible social media community,” says Ginger Anderson (@gingeranderson), Web communications specialist at Scripps Health. “And everyone is willing to help.”

She’s right. For this week’s column, I asked people who are part of that community to share some of their tips and resources.

“The best way to learn social media is to try it out,” says Natalie Wardel (@nataliewardel), marketing coordinator for the Metropolitan Transit System (@sdmts). “The more you get out there the more you learn how it works.”

Anderson says those who want to learn how to use Twitter should open an account and listen to the social media conversation. To do this, search for your company and/or keywords, and then read the tweets, or messages, that people post. Use what you learn to develop a social media strategy.

“Remember it’s not all about you, and people are there to find value,” Anderson says. “Find what your fans find valuable and provide them with that type of information.”

Another way to learn is to watch someone who is good at it. See what that person does, then adapt it for yourself, advises Jan Percival (@ScribePR), the president of Scribe Communications. Some people who use Twitter well, according to her, are Caron Golden (@carondg), a local food blogger; Gayle Falkenthal (@PRProSanDiego), the president of the Falcon Valley Group, a local PR firm; and voiceofsandiego.org’s writers and editors.

Events are another way to learn and network. Wardel attends the monthly Social Media Breakfast. Percival has found seminars from the Ad Club and the Public Relations Society of America to be helpful.

Becky Carroll (@bcarroll7), the founder of Petra Consulting Group and social media correspondent for NBC San Diego, says local colleges and universities offer social media classes. She teaches “Marketing via New Media” at the University of California San Diego.

Almost everyone said the blog Mashable was a must-read. They also recommended these blogs and websites: Read Write Web, Un Marketing, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, CISION’s Media Database, Bulldog Reporter, Lifehacker, media.twitter.com, and facebook.com/media.

Carroll also says people should study social media case studies, like those found at GasPedal.com.

Dorrine Mendoza (@AssignmentDesk1), an online content producer for the North County Times, recommends SmartBrief, which provides industry news by topic. And Grant Barrett (@GrantBarrett), engagement editor of voiceofsandiego.org, suggests the Twitter list @sreenet/socmedia-editors.

One of my suggestions is to go to your local bookstore, and browse the business and computer aisles. Look for books with Twitter, Facebook, Social Media, YouTube, LinkedIn or Blog in their titles. Some good books include “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith; “Six Pixels of Separation” by Mitch Joel; and “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web” by Tamar Weinberg.

Join the conversation: Are you a social media professional in San Diego County? We’re looking for tips and advice. Contact Money Editor Diana McCabe on Twitter @mcdiana or the U-T’s social media specialist Rob Hopwood @sdutHopwood.

Exciting to be featured in the Union Tribune today speaking about resources for social media.

By Guest Blogger, Natalie Wardell from the Metropolitan Transit System*

I think it’s safe to assume that no one likes to be stuck in traffic. I also think it’s safe to assume that not very many of us like change- especially when it comes to our morning commute.

When leaders from the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) decided to launch the $620 million “Trolley Renewal Project” to revive the 30 year-old rails from San Ysidro to Old Town, they knew strong communication was key to their success.

We knew that clear and succinct messaging about how the renovation was going to benefit commuters and what changes they could expect to their commute wasn’t just a critical component. It was the only way to gain a favorable perception among riders and tax payers. They also knew that the messaging needed to reach nearly 20,000 commuters of all ages.

There were two main messages. First, the renovation will introduce new features to commuters, some of which included, low-floor trolleys, station amenities, closed circuit television and enhanced lighting. The second, and probably most important, is the temporary change to hours of operation of trolley stations during construction.

The objective was clear. Communicate ongoing, and sometimes daily, changes to tens of thousands of weekend commuters who are less likely to be regular riders, and also to the weekday riders who are dependent on MTS to arrive to work on time.

To achieve this, we devised an integrated marketing plan to include not only traditional marketing tools (outreach to community groups, direct mail to schools and churches, public relations, advertising, etc.) but newer platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s how it went:

Two months before construction started, MTS made presentations to more than two dozen community organizations. A month before closures, signs were displayed at stations, and the information was available online. To spread the word even more, MTS and SANDAG hosted a news conference which garnered almost 30 mentions over five days from media including KGTV and the San Diego Union-Tribune. To support the education component we posted real time reminders and updates on Facebook and Twitter  to remind people of station closures.

One month into the Trolley Renewal project, construction is running smoothly and MTS hasn’t received any known complaints. Passengers have communicated their appreciation for the renovation and the lengths the two agencies have gone to keep them informed of changes in order to minimize inconveniences.

It’s become apparent to us that using more than one marketing tool to reach different audiences is important, and real time information is key when it comes to customer service and satisfaction. This is just one example of how a service which is used by so many San Diegans has integrated these tools into a cohesive plan.

Have you been impacted by the Trolley Renewal Project? How well do you think MTS and SANDAG are communicating? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

*Natalie Wardel is the marketing coordinator for the Metropolitan Transit System, San Diego’s public transit provider. She is also a good friend of Bailey Gardiner and an active participant of our Twitterverse.

I guest posted on Bailey Gardiner's Don't Drink the Koolaid blog about our integrated marketing approach at MTS for the Trolley Renewal project. It has been a lot of work & strategy to reach everyone, but so far, we've had no reported complaints!

That's why they call it spin! Love it.

Two articles from the Harvard Business Review caught my attention because they were back to back in my RSS feed: What the U.S. Can Learn From Europe About Gender Equality in the Workplace, and also Can She Lead? In both cases, they are mostly positive articles, or rather, they aim for positive outcomes for women, but it also shows one frame for the challenge.

New data from the Center for Work-Life Policy demonstrate that while 47% of college-educated entry-level corporate professionals are female, women comprise a mere 21% of senior executives, 17% of Congress (PDF link) and 15% of board directors.

But in my recent effort to learn what women want, I found that not all women want to lead. Let me be really clear: some do, and we should be very clear and helpful in making sure that women have the chance/choice to lead, when they are qualified and capable (quick side note: lots of male leaders are neither qualified nor capable, so maybe that’s not even a consideration we should have).

We should, however, accept that maybe there are other ways that women are contributing to the business landscape, both inside of corporations (Thank you Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Carol Bartz, et al), but also outside ( Pam Slim, Tara Hunt, Becky McCray). Meaning, let’s be really clear that maybe those numbers point to a need for improvement, but maybe they point to the fact that it’s not always the position some women seek to attain.

I could interview 100 women and I’d get 70-80 different answers on one’s career aspirations. This is a beautiful thing. Again, after reading Maddy Dychtwald’s book, I think we’re at a renaissance point of opening up women to the choice to have more leadership opportunities. And yet, it should always be a choice.

I don’t know. What’s your take? For you, not the stats. And men, what do you see around you as this environment supposedly shifts?

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Unorganized thoughts from Chris Brogan's recent post. It is a good discussion and I wanted to save the links.

Need to read the studies more deeply... but I'm always amazed at how many "women in the workplace" studies they are and "what women want" queries they are.

There needn't be thought-based roles just because of gender. Women surveyed may not want to all lead -- but I think many men would say the same thing. So instead of it being a gender issue... what about saying "not everyone wants to lead."

Improving flexibility in the workplace could change these desires, most definitely.

Also. So many women I know are self-employed, CEOs and creators of their own companies. While not in corporations, they are leaders and creators.

Why are we panicking about Facebook all the time? Does it make us feel more techie to turn against something we love? I’ve already felt myself doing that with the iPhone. Perhaps it feels good to feel above something. A little bit of “I don’t need that” action.

But. We’re forgetting that all info on your profile was likely posted by someone. That person was more than likely you.

Just like I regretted lying to my friend once in 7th grade -- and then she found out and raised a big stink about it (deserved) -- if you aren't always aware of what's going on, life can catch you.

Facebook will catch up to you a lot faster. Some people may not like that.

If you’re nervous about who’s posting on your wall, use the privacy settings to your advantage. Or go in and delete wall posts when they happen. Or take your wall out altogether. Don’t post your children’s names if you don’t want people to know them. Don't have rediculously public conversations on a wall-to-wall.

And if you don’t like teensy tiny sidebar ads targeted to you, turn on the TV and watch commercials that are targeted to the demographic that is watching that show. All ads are targeted. I like to laugh at all the facebook fails. I mean, I really don’t need “free baby products.”

I still say, Facebook isn’t the problem, it is what we’re posting that comes back to bite us that we don’t like.

For more background, I’m liking

Facebook, Radical Transparency and Privacy: It's Not Just the Techies Who Are Mad: http://www.blogher.com/facebook-and-radical-transparency-rant

and
Peter Shankman’s Five reasons I’m NOT quitting Facebook: http://shankman.com/five-reasons-im-not-quitting-facebook/

- Signed a girl from the “privacy is what I don’t say out loud or to the Internet” crowd. Doesn’t mean I’ve never gone “gulp” after I friended someone and realized what they could see. But I never post anything on Facebook or on my blog that I wouldn’t talk about with someone in real life. Good thing too, because the lines cross so often they get blurry.

This was a dentist's use of creative, simple marketing. Would you bite? Sorry, couldn't resist.

It is memorable, probably took more minutes to make than pennies, and will leave you with a warm impression.

I've never called off a street sign -- but maybe for this I would make an exception.