A major family milestone. The photo was taken by my friend, Jessica Blaha, while my son ate cake on his firth birthday. After she shared it, I shared it too. You can use apps like PicFrame to make collage-style images.

A Company Conference. One of my favorite parts of the Salesforce Customer Company Tour in San Francisco was seeing my coworker, Jeff Cohen, speaking with Ron Vinson, Director of Media of the City and County of San Francisco. They talked social media and I snapped this picture for Instagram. I also live blogged, using this image in the post.

Vacation. Traveling to Vegas with my family was a blast and we found this vintage horse-racing game. I mentioned my brother in the Instagram post since he’s a huge fan of games like these. It made for great conversation online and off.

A Business Trip. Attending SXSW was amazing and one of the great finds was the Samsung Blogger Lounge, where I could charge up, talk to other bloggers and watch short interviews with celebs like Shaq. I included “#bloggerlounge,” “@shaq” and “#sxsw” to make the photo more sharable.

Instagram Takeaways

Here are some ways to effectively use Instagram no matter where you are in your career or life.

• Make your photos sharable. Connect your Instagram account with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to spread it to other channels as well. Use hashtags and mention other users in your posts. It starts conversation, adds to sharing and makes for a more social experience.
• Be creative. There are many ways to get creative with your photo after you’ve snapped it. Try the Instagram filters, collage apps, and photo editing apps such as Laminar,
• Have a mix of work and personal photos. Your Instagram profile is a window into your world. It displays all your recent photos and your followers can get a sense of who you are. By mixing work pictures and personal ones, you’re giving a well-rounded view of yourself. Plus, oftentimes your followers are a blend of friends and colleagues. This mix will appeal to everyone.
• Get to know the culture. There is an Instagram culture where hashtags like #dogsofinstagram and #nofilter rule and your Instagram filter choice says more about you than you think. As you use the platform, you’ll get a sense of who to follow and how to use it, but be open and aware of the Instagram trends. It will help you gain followers, make your photos more sharable and create conversation.

How do you use Instagram? Share your thoughts here and I’ll add them to the takeaways.

What to Use for Good Advice:

Tweets. Social-savvy brands and individuals will respond to your questions, so Tweet at them directly.

Forums. There are forums for anything and everything. And if your question isn’t there, you can join as a member and ask!

Messaging. Whether it’s an old friend on Facebook or a new connection on LinkedIn, reach out to them directly for questions and advice using messaging.

Videos. No matter how specific your topic, there’s a video on how to do to it. And if you can’t find it, make it!

Blogs. There are plenty of self-proclaimed experts blogging on topics that interest you. Comment on their blog if you have questions.

What to Avoid:

RSS. By signing up for RSS feeds of your favorite blogs and sites, you’ll get a constant stream of content directly related to your topic of interest. While Google Reader is going away, Feedly does a good job at this too. However, it’s a lot of content and getting a specific question answered will require a digging.

Facebook Pages. These are great for brands to share information and engage with fans, but you may not break through if you ask questions here, since there’s a lot of conversation happening.

Twitter Feeds. Depending on how many users you follow, your Twitter stream can become unmanageable. Contacting the users directly, as mentioned earlier, is the best way to seek information and advice.

Forums. These are a double-edge sword. On one hand, you can search the info you need, but on the other, it’s not always a place for top-notch advice. Ensure the advice you’re getting is legit and consult multiple sources before you move forward. That goes for any social platform.

What other tactics do you use to get the information you need on social media? And what do you purposely avoid?

So here is my experience in pictures. And while it doesn’t cover everything (I missed the picture of Superman on a pedicab and the replica Mutt Cutts truck from Dumb and Dumber), it gives you a good sense of what recently went down in Austin, TX.

Sessions were packed. I enjoyed being in rooms with like-minded, excited attendees as we took notes on our various devices. Plus, networking between sessions was a no brainer.

Ballroom G at the Austin Convention Center. Here we listened to Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

Seeing the salesforce.com Cloud Lounge in person made all the prep time worth it. The spot stood out and was a great meeting ground throughout the show.

salesforce.com Cloud Lounge on 5th and Brazos

One of my favorite spots was the Samsung Blogger Lounge at the Austin Convention Center. Between sessions I could plug in, meet other bloggers and watch great interviews. Here are a few of them.

Watching Hannah Hart from My Drunk Kitchen at the Samsung Blogger Lounge

The cast from Burning Love at the Samsung Blogger Lounge

The one and only Shaq at the Samsung Blogger Lounge (he bench pressed the woman to the left)

In addition to the sessions, lounges and people, there’s technology. Some of the latest startups reside at SXSW letting anyone try out the tech. Here I experienced Leap Motion, a gesture-based controller that lets you interact with your computer in a whole new way (goodbye mouse).

Experiencing Leap Motion

Back to sessions. I opted for many marketing and social media-focused topics, such as one from author Jason Lankow on infographics. And after feverishly Tweeting throughout the session, Jason Lankow and I took the conversation online shortly afterward.

I also tried some non-marketing sessions to relax the brain of work-related topics and learn new things. I opted for a session on science and comedy, where the concept of humor was broken down into a Ven Diagram.

Ven Diagram of the science of comedy

Food is another reason why I’m so glad SXSW is housed in Austin. You can’t experience the conference without some street meat and back-of-the-bar burgers. And yes, it is all amazing.

My coworker, Jeff Cohen, picking up our burgers at the back of Casino el Camino, a bar on 6th Street

My friend, Dan Weingrod and I shared BBQ fusion-covered fries from the Chi’lantro food truck in downtown Austin

Known as one of the best BBQ joints in Texas, Dan Weingrod, Joe Ciarello and I had to try The Salt Lick (it was amazing)

While conferences are busy and time-consuming, I always try to make time for other things. My coworker, Jeff Cohen and I had a…weird experience.

A trip to Museum of the Weird

Only in Austin can I get caught in a giant King Kong (at Museum of the Weird)

SXSW is all about the people. I deepened relationships with those I see often, met the folks I only knew online and created new relationships with many amazing, talented marketers.

Hanging out at the Samsung Blogger Lounge with Joselin Mane, author and organizer of Boston Tweetup.

After years of Tweeting, I finally met Jason Konopinski at the salesforce.com Cloud Lounge

Me and my coworker Ben Pruden (far left) having fun at the photo booth at the Cloud Lounge

Me and Jason Boies (left) reuniting with our Twitter buddy, Eric Tung (right)

Me and coworker, Jeff Cohen

Our content team including Jason Boies (left) and Andrew Gothelf (right)

No matter how much online and social media marketing and networking you do, be sure to get out there and experience some real life, in person events. Conferences like SXSW are invaluable. So get your cowboy boots on, pack those business cards and get out there. And have some fun. That helps too.

For more pics, check out my Instagram.

Reach Out to Your Community

Let your social media connections know that you’ll be at SXSW weeks before you head out. This can be specific @mentions on Twitter, a broad status update on Facebook, even pictures of your badge on Instagram. Use your social channels for sharing this information. This is an exciting opportunity to meet your online connections in real life, which can deepen relationships, enable you to meet their friends and put your mind at ease knowing there are friends at the conference waiting for you to say hello.

Sign Up for Sessions and Parties

SXSW is all about the sessions and parties. It’s a huge networking opportunity, educational playground and content-creation experience. To get into these events, you should register ahead of time or many of them won’t be available. Luckily, there are plenty of platforms for finding and signing up for these events including these websites and free apps:

• SXSW website
• Free SXSW mobile app
• Free SXSW party app
• Eventbrite SXSW

Know How to Spend Your Time

There are tons of sessions and many happening at the exact same time. How do you pick the best sessions and parties to make the most of your short time in Austin? While I haven’t figured that out yet, I can tell you that based on the advice of SXSW veterans and my love for content marketing, it’s all about content and networking. What sessions can result in great content for you and even the company you work for? Content can be blog posts, Instagram pictures, Vine videos or even ebooks and webinars. What parties can you go to that will enable you to meet the people you admire on Twitter? Be goal-oriented and you’ll choose the best path.

What other advice and ideas can you share for me? Have you attended SXSW and used some of these ideas? Let’s start the conversation before we step foot in Austin.

The view of my back deck.

Connecticut residents have been faced with hurricanes, floods, freak snow storms and now blizzards. Blizzard Charlotte (or Winter Storm Nemo) has once again claimed the power, lives, even bread and milk of those of us in the Nutmeg State. But this series of unfortunate events has not stopped us from creating great content with social media. And if there’s a silver lining to any cloud or any rainbow after a thunderstorm, I’d say content delivers just that. Here are some examples.

Helpful Updates/Tips

My First Selectman, Gregg Schuster and local weather meteorologist, Gil Simmons, are my go-to resource for Facebook and Twitter updates around the latest storms. They’re localizing content down to the street level making it easy for me and fellow residents to know the latest information. It encourages sharing, community and kind words. Plus it’s frequent, easy to access and accurate.

Photos

With three feet of snow, walking to a neighbor’s house isn’t even an option. So when you’re snowed in or without power, your cell phone and social media are the eye to the outside world. Photos make up one third of all content shared on social media according to Media Bistro. There’s no better storm aftermath source.

Video

Perhaps the recent storm was the perfect storm for up-and-coming Vine, the six-second looping video platform from Twitter. It was my go-to tool to showcase the waist-high snow in video format. But I wasn’t alone. My Vine stream was filled with great video snippets of the snowy aftermath.

Consider how some of these content resources can be utilized for businesses as well. Provide helpful tips around the storm or discounted offerings targeted to the people that need it most. Always use the medium your audience prefers. If they’re getting their storm updates on Facebook, Twitter or other social platforms, you better be there.

What other ways have you seen content created and shared on social media during big storms? Share your ideas here, whether you have three feet of snow or not.

The Tweet that started it all.

I loved being a Community Manager and with tomorrow (1/28) being Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD), I had to write about my experience in this career-changing, business-critical role. But oftentimes when I shared my title or talked about my role, my friends, family, etc. didn’t understand it. What is a Community Manager? Why is it important? Hence the birth of this blog post.

What is a Community Manager?

A Community Manager spearheads the creation and growth of an online community for a brand. The community can include customers, prospects, employees, influencers, competitors, and more. These community members live on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, blogs, forums, etc. and they’re talking about brands, industries and/or competition…for better or worse.

What is a Community and how can Community Managers help?

By using social media listening tools, brands will discover the conversations mentioned above and with community managers, brands can foster and grow the relationships of these online voices. Benefits include:

• Turn detractors (those who comment negatively about you) into advocates
• Deepen relationships with customers to keep them coming back
• Turn prospects into customers
• Drive web traffic
• Put a human voice/face on your brand
• Ensure someone is monitoring and responding to your social channels (i.e. your Facebook page, Twitter handle, etc.) around the clock
• Create content such as blog posts, ebooks, and webinars

How did I become a Community Manager?

I was hired as a Community Manager by Radian6 (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud) back in 2011. Prior to that, I worked in agencies as an account executive. I was also a writer and blogger in my spare time. This prior agency experience lent itself perfectly to the Community Manager role. In fact, if you work in a service-provider role in the communications or marketing industry, you are one step closer to becoming a community manager. In addition, my writing skills were ideal for blogging and creating content for the brand. This content kept community members coming back for more and gave a reason to Tweet and share.  Here are some Community Manager traits:

• Strong communication skills
• Organization, i.e. ability to manage multiple conversations/people at once
• Strong writing skills to create content
• Deep understanding of all social networks
• Event planning
• Understand the brand and its products/services to represent it well
• Be energetic, outgoing and responsive

How do I learn more about Community Management?

To learn more about Community Managers, check out this post by Jeremiah Owyang. It may be an older post, but it still rings true. I also printed this infographic and framed it on my office wall. Here are some ongoing resources I use:

• The Community Manager (follow them on Twitter and Facebook too)
• #cmgrchat Tweet chat on Wednesdays at 2pm EST
• Use and follow the #CMAD hashtag

I may not be a Community Manager anymore (now Manager of Content for Salesforce Marketing Cloud), but I still support and love this role. So, cheers to Community Manager Appreciation Day. Make sure to send a note to your fellow Community Managers. They’ll appreciate it! In the spirit of that, here’s a shout out to a few of my favorite Community Managers:

• Melanie Thompson (@melanieathomp)
• Trish Forant (@dayngr)
• Emily Cahill (@yelphartford)
• Julie Meredith (@julie_meredith)
• Nathan Freitas (@natespeak)
• Jason Cassidy (@jasoncassidy23)
• Anna Eschenburg (@aeschenburg)

Community Manager Appreciation Day was created by Jeremiah Owyang in 2010. The  goal is to thank community managers via Tweets, blog posts, and in-person meet ups,  for their hard work creating, building and growing their brands’ social media community.

My brother got me the exact watch I wanted from my Amazon Wish List. Then, I shared the gift on Facebook and Instagram!

‘Tis the season for returns. Amidst the wonderful gifts, meals and family time, it’s inevitable that returns will be part of your new years plans. But with social media, that can be reduced if not avoided all together. Much like the gift list for Santa, social media enables gift givers to know exactly what their friends and families want for the holidays. It just takes a little digging. Here’s how to do it.

Amazon Wish List

Amazon Wish List lets you keep track of anything you want on Amazon or any other website. On Amazon.com, simply click “add to wish list” near the shopping cart. You’re not buying it but rather creating a list of things you may want down the road. To add a product from another site to the wish list, just install the “Add to Wish List” button for your browser and as you shop, you just click the button.

To find wish lists from friends and family, just search for their names or enter their emails onto the Amazon Wish List page. If they keep it public, you’ll have complete access to the products they want, including the links to purchase.

There’s a new feature called “Amazon Friends & Family Gifting” where you can sync up with Facebook to correlate friends’ and families’ birthdays with their Amazon wish lists. Learn more here.

Facebook Check Ins

You see your Facebook friends checking into restaurants, hotels, bars, stores, etc. and that’s typically a hint that they enjoy those places, especially if they’re checking in multiple times to the same place. Get them a gift card to that restaurant or meet them at that bar for a holiday drink. My friend saw that I checked into a local spa and got me a gift card there for the holidays. It was a perfect surprise!

Facebook Likes

This is another way to know what your friends and family enjoy. Millions of business are on Facebook and anyone can like them. When they do, it appears on your news feed. You can also see the list of likes on your friends’ page. From there, you can visit the business page, which often has holiday deals.

Foursquare Check Ins

Much like Facebook check ins, Foursquare enables you to check into your current location and add comments, photos, etc. These check ins can be displayed on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare (so you don’t have to be a Foursquare member to see them). What’s more, Foursquare houses tips and discounts, so you can get an idea of the best gifts to get and if you’re a member, you can take advantage of the deals.

Pinterest Boards

Pinterest is practically the social media platform of Santa’s list. It’s made up of pictures of users’ favorite things, especially what they don’t have. Each board can be organized by topics such as “For the Home”, “For my Baby”, etc. and you can click each item to get to the original website for purchase. Find your friends’ boards to see what they’d love for the holidays and create some boards for yourself!

Instagram Pics

Instagram is an image-based social platform full of photos of food, travel, people, food, dogs, kids, food, etc. (Yes, food pics are very popular here.) Nevertheless, it’s a great place to see what your friends and family enjoy. Maybe they take pictures from the same restaurant or they always take pictures of pets. You know that a gift card to that restaurant or something for Fido is a good bet. You can even have their Instagram pics printed and framed! Check out Printstagram.

As a business, consider how you can easily help your customers share and discuss your product/service. Include social share buttons including Pinterest on your product pages, hold deals on your Facebook page, have a “like us” promotion or partner with a site like Amazon for more exposure.

What other ways do you share your likes and interests with social media? Have you used social to find gift ideas for friends and family? Share your thoughts here and don’t forget to share your favorite gifts!

More Newsjacking attempts

David Meerman Scott coined “newsjacking” or the process of injecting your ideas or angles into breaking news in real-time in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business. I see more and more brands attempting this approach since the PR ROI is massive. Plus the means to find the breaking news is increasingly possible with social media and search tools. There’s even a company called Trendspottr. Succeeding at newsjacking, however, is another story! That’s the challenge.

More Chief Content Officers

With the growing importance of content marketing, a content leader is needed at the C-suite table. A high-level leader with stellar content marketing experience can bring real value to an organization. Check out MarketingProf’s Chief Content Officer, Ann Handley, and Content Marketing Institute’s Content Marketing Magazine.

No More Blogging to Blog

Many brands have corporate blogs. But a shift is happening where brands are now recognizing that their blogs can serve as a lead generation tool and a place for community development. Their blogs have dedicated managers, editorial calendars, strong calls to action and a team of (internal or external) writers.

More Visual Content

With Pinterest, Instagram and other image-based social platforms growing in popularity, so too will visual-based content. That means infographics, videos, and great cover art for ebooks and blog posts are all important pieces of that 2013 content marketing pie. If you need help, there are organizations that will create visual masterpieces for you, such as Jess3 and Visual.ly.

More Short Bursts of Content

Data is showing that shorter form content is winning out in terms of sharability online. Here’s some facts:

• Facebook posts of 80 characters or less receive 27% more engagement, according to a Buddy Media data report
• Popular Slideshare presentations use fewer words (on average, ~24 words/slide) (source)
• In addition to the fact that Twitter requires short posts with their 140 character limit, the use of shorter hashtags are more popular

What content marketing insights do you foresee for 2013? Share your ideas here and Happy New Year!

Great example of Charity Water showing donations support on their Facebook Page

This is a holiday of mixed emotions. It’s exciting to light the candles on Hanukkah, spend time with my coworkers at the tree in Rockefeller Center and experience my son’s first Christmas. But at the same time, I feel the need to give more than I ever have before. As a Connecticut resident, the people of my state have been hit hard by tragic events over the past few months. The holidays are a time for charitable giving and there are many ways to participate.

To find ways to help my local community and beyond, I went to social media. The social web packs more information than the elves on Christmas Eve. Here’s how I used social to give during this season and hopefully you’ll be inspired to do the same.

Superstorm Sandy

The American Red Cross has a Digital Operations Center which monitors social media conversations around the clock. They can pinpoint issues before they escalate and provide relief and aid quickly. Moreover, they have useful ways to help including:

Text to donate

Easy online form

Give blood

To give directly to Sandy victims, specify “Disaster Relief” in your donation.

Sandy Hook

There are hundreds of articles on the Sandy Hook tragedy, but if you’re like me, that’s the last thing you want to read. I went to social media for ways to donate and help and there are some great resources.

My Sandy Hook Family Fund – donate to the families

The Stir, Cafe Mom Blog – list of places to donate

Emilie Parker Fund – Facebook group to raise money for the family who lost their daughter in the shooting

Lost Pets

Recently I used Facebook to help a neighbor get their dog back, and there are other great examples of social media helping this effort. Here’s some examples.

LinkedIn Groups - an example of using a LinkedIn Group to get Buckeye the Yorkie back home

Facebook ads – a story of how a coworker got his cat back with Facebook ads

Local Facebook groups – how my fellow dog park members helped a dog come home

Innovative Charities

Many charities have a similar approach: give once and you get an annual reminder or direct mail piece asking you to give again. But some organizations have a new way of doing things. Give up birthday, host an event, see how your specific dollars helped the cause, and the list goes on. Check out these innovative approaches to donations.

Heifer International – Buy a goat, chicken or many other animals for an impoverished community. See the stories of how you’ve helped.

Charity: Water – Fund wells in communities without running water and see the break down of how donations are utilized. They include lots of way to donate including giving up your birthday. I saw their director of digital engagement, Paull Young, speak about their social strategy. For them, it’s about storytelling. Check out these examples.

Whether you’re wearing your business hat or Santa hat as you read this, you can be inspired this season to use social media to give or even create programs of your own.

Why? Social media comes in many formats that all offer easy ways to connect and share information. It’s also amplified communication where many can see the conversation thereby reducing the need for multiple or mass emails. Here’s some examples.

Internal Social Networking

At work, we use Salesforce Chatter, an internal social network. Much like Facebook, you can write on your coworkers’ walls, tag, mention, create groups, private message, share photos and IM. Plus you can attach documents. This is great for reviewing information and discussion. Your Chatter environment can be available only to the employees within your company, so it’s a secure, private and social way to discuss, talk and share. But you can also open it up to customers so posting files, sharing content to review, etc. can be done in a collaborative, open way. No more 8MB emails.

Video Chat

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love how video has connected me to the world, especially since I work from home. Skype and Google Hangout are my main tools. Both have chat features, so if you need to capture something in writing, you have that option. They both work for conference calls as well – I was on a meeting with eight people in a Google Hangout once! (With Skype, video with multiple people requires a paid account). Given my face-to-face communication preference, this is a perfect solution.

Instant Messaging

Everywhere I’ve worked, instant messaging (IM) has been just as popular as email. It’s a quick way to ask a question, say hello, provide a status update, etc. While it’s a one-to-one platform, it still saves you on emails. I’ve used the chat function on Facebook, Chatter and most often, Gchat (Google chat) with AOL plugged in.

Sharing

When I find a link perfect for a friend or coworker, I Tweet it or share it on Facebook. Sure, I could email or IM it, but sharing it publicly creates the opportunity for open conversation where others can join. There’s always another person who can benefit from the link and you might even hear from the original writer. Whenever someone shares the content I create, I thank them and follow them on Twitter and/or connect on LinkedIn to create that new relationship.

What other forms of communication reduce your email output (and intake)? Share your thoughts but not via email.