So I use Google Analytics.  Many of us do.  But how often to we care about real time information?  I spent a few moments this afternoon reviewing Google’s Real Time feature of Google Analytics to contemplate just such a question.

Google Real Time from C Gilstrap on Vimeo.

Great Fun!  I’ll be back soon to investigate how Google Analytics can really ramp up intelligence with regard to social engagement.

As I mentioned in my previous post, WordPress.com can be used as a simple content-management system.

You should also think of it as a social network.

But, wait — isn’t WordPress.com just for blogs?

Yes, WordPress.com does make it easy to fire up a blog in just a few minutes. But those who see blogs as a one-way medium for their thoughts/opinions/rants are missing their true potential and value. Blogs have always been about developing a community for your content; remember the blogrolls on the old HTML blogs? You hope to connect with people who are interested in your interests and can serve as a sounding board for your ideas and creations.

WordPress.com has added features over the years to make this community development easier. It has taken cues from Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to expand its platform from a traditional blog with comments to a connected social network with added forms of interaction and sharing.

Following bloggers

WordPress.com has made it easier for people to follow your blog, much as you follow people on Twitter or Tumblr. It has added a top navigation bar to allow you to interact with WordPress.com content more easily.

Once users click on the follow button, you will appear in their regular news feed on the front of their WordPress.com page.

The Read Blogs tab makes it easier to scroll through your hand-selected content at WordPress.com. Think of it as your stream on Twitter or Tumblr: You get to see the latest content of those you follow in chronological order, with the most recent post at the top.

Like/Reblog functions

If you have a Facebook account, you are no doubt familiar with the Like button. It’s a way of acknowledging content without having to come up with some brilliant comment or observation. (Some people also use the Favorites function on Twitter this way, although that interpretation doesn’t apply to all users.) WordPress has added this interaction beyond its usual robust commenting system.

There’s also the Reblog function that allows you to republish content you like while giving credit and links to the original source. This function is what makes Tumblr such a powerful viral tool. A good photo or funny video can spread through Tumblr quickly because of its simple interface and stream.

Freshly Pressed

WordPress.com has been around for years and has an established blogger community. As you enter to update your own blog, you’ll happen upon the Freshly Pressed page, which is a selection of the best of WordPress.com content. Think of this as a virtual billboard; a link from here will provide you a generous spike in traffic.

Perhaps a hosted WordPress installation is best for you in the long run. But WordPress.com might provide a simpler, less time-consuming option for those wanting to minimize technological headaches.

Indeed, such social-media experts as Heather Mansfield of Nonprofit Tech 2.0 have built a strong following using the WordPress.com platform.

As people dip their toes in the social-media waters, the advice seems logical: Start with a simple blogging platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com and then graduate to a hosted WordPress installation, like the one we use to manage this site.

A hosted installation allows greater control and customization than a basic WordPress.com site, which limits coding options in the interests of reliability. But for users wanting a simple Web presence, an installation may be overkill, especially since it puts the onus of maintenance, backup, and security on the site creator.

And with the latest upgrades to the service, WordPress.com has provided features that make it a viable option as a content management system as well as a growing social network in its own right.

WordPress.com as a CMS

But, wait — isn’t WordPress.com just for blogs?

No. With the right design and theme, you can adapt your site to your professional and creative needs (I use it for my community news site, SGFNews.org). WordPress.com also offers professional upgrades and VIP systems. Among the clients: TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal‘s AllThingsD site.

If you’re trying to make your site less bloglike, here are a few tips:

• Select a distinctive theme. Although the default themes such as Twenty Eleven are customizable, there is a sameness to sites created with these default options. Many users just don’t take the time to delve into the themes and end up with a WordPress site that looks like lots of other WordPress sites. But WordPress.com offers some search functions to make it easier to find unusual (and often free) themes that allow you to create distinctive looks.

• Choose a theme with a customizable header. Not every theme lets you upload your own image as the header. By creating your own image and logo using an image editor such as Fireworks or Photoshop, you can develop a distinctive image on the Web.  If you don’t have strong graphic-design skills, look at some exemplars such as Allyson’s Setlist, and remember the adage: Less is more. Don’t gum up your design with lots of colors and font mayhem.
• To determine how big your canvas should be, go the Appearance menu — where you customize the look of your WordPress themes — and click on Header.
• It will outline the size of your image. Make sure to turn off the display text as well so your header stands alone.

• Consider a static page as your home, and design a landing page. A landing page allows you to create a brand image and lets you focus on one or two specific calls to action for newcomers to your site. The disadvantage to this feature is it requires you to update the individual page when you want to freshen up your home page. To choose this feature, click on Settings and then choose Reading.
• At the top of the Reading menu, you’ll find the options for choosing your home page (or what it calls your “front page”). The default selection is your latest posts. To change to a static page, select the page from ones you’ve created for your home page. Be sure to designate another page as your posts page, so your readers can find your latest posts.

Just these simple tweaks can turn your “blog” into a full-fledged Web presence. (Be sure to check out the follow-up post, in which we discuss the benefits of WordPress.com’s new social-networking features.)

According to recent studies and multiple predictions by medical and technology experts, 2012 may be the year that social media and healthcare IT finally integrate.

Social networking figures prominently in the lists of healthcare IT predictions formulated by a variety of sources.

• Tech Crunch
• Information Week
• Science Roll
• Read Write Web
• Practice Fusion

The global push for EHR adoption combined with the explosion of cloud computing and healthcare related mobile and tablet apps appears to be opening the door for social networking to enter the healthcare space.   While this convergence may present many exciting opportunities  organizations will face unique challenges regarding balancing patient care, privacy (HIPAA) and the demands of their stakeholders.

Dr. Bart Collins, Drury social media certificate faculty member and healthcare IT researcher, discusses some of the hurdles providers may face when considering the adoption of social media as a channel for data exchange.

Drury University is proud to be  recognized by Kiplinger’s report identifying the best private university values in America.

Click the image below to read the report and learn how and why Kiplinger updated their selection methodology for this year’s list.

Drury University’s Graduate Certificate in Social Media program accepts students from around the globe.  Program applicants should hold the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree or be close to obtaining a bachelor’s degree (90+ hours completed) prior to enrollment.

The cost of the online program is $2,000 and may be paid in installments.  Course fees are much lower than Drury’s competitors providing greater educational value.  The curriculum and program are also backed by a well respected graduate college.

Lectures and labs are carried out on scheduled evenings in a live web meeting environment with instructor Deltina Hay.  She also offers supplemental tutorials and reference materials that may be accessed at anytime.

Online program information (scroll down the page for links to registration information/schedule and agenda)

The next 8 week class starts 3/6/2012.

• 8 week program participants (begins March 6, 2012) meet Tuesday of each week from 7 to 8:30 pm CST with an interactive lab on Thursday from 6:30 to 8 pm CST.
• 4 week program participants (next delivery TBD) meet Tuesday and Wednesday of each week from 7 to 8:30 pm CST with an interactive lab on Thursday from 6:30 to 9 pm CST.

Drury’s Social Media Certificate Program At a Glance:

• General information about the certificate program
• Faculty profiles
• Participant testimonials
• Internet Marketing Standards Board accreditation information

Drury University’s Accreditation and National Rankings:

• Drury’s accreditation information
• US News ranking
• HerCampus.com Social Media Savvy ranking
• Kiplinger’s list of Best Value Private Universities

For specific questions about the program and/or additional information please use the contact form below.

Courtesy of Search Engine Journal. Click the image below to view the full size version.

Drury University’s Online Social Media program has attracted professionals representing a wide range of  industries from across the United States and around the world.

Past participants have backgrounds in higher education teaching and administration, publishing, journalism, marketing, media management, healthcare IT, business administration, nonprofit administration, public relations, and international finance.

In Spring 2011 the program welcomed its first participant from Asia and in the Fall of 2011 its first participants from Europe and Africa.  Members of the SMC faculty have also been in contact with prospective students from Hawaii, Australia, India, South America, Canada, and Russia.

Dr. Curt Gilstrap, director of the SMC, added the online version to complement Drury’s seated offering after receiving multiple requests  for a more accessible program.  Dr. Gilstrap invited Social Media educator, consultant, and author of the program’s primary textbook,  Deltina Hay to join the faculty and teach the online course using an interactive webinar interface.

As Social Media and Web 2.0 have grown in popularity Drury has increased the availability of the online version to four deliveries each calendar year (two 4 week and two 8 week sessions) .  ”Social media is now an integral part of marketing, networking, and promotion for any organization. This only increases the demand for social media marketing skills. I anticipate enrollment to reflect these trends,” Deltina Hay.

Participant reviews of the online version have been outstanding resulting in Drury’s Social Media Certificate program gaining national and now international attention.

Please use the contact form below to learn more about Drury’s Social Media Certificate program.

]]> http://socialmediacertificate.net/2011/09/serving-20-states-and-2-hemispheres-drurys-online-social-media-certificate/feed/ 1 http://socialmediacertificate.net/2011/09/social-media-plan-template/ http://socialmediacertificate.net/2011/09/social-media-plan-template/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:31:27 +0000 DHay http://socialmediacertificate.net/?p=2884

SMC Webinar facilitator, Deltina Hay,outlines the steps for creating a thorough social media plan in this three-part series:

1. Social Media Analysis
2. Social Media Strategy
3. Social Media Plan (below)

Four (big) Steps for a Social Media Plan:

1. Outline a phased plan:

• Using recommendations from your social media strategy, outline a phased plan.
• Make your first phase as manageable as possible based on the organization’s resources.
• Subsequent phases should evaluate existing tools and goal fulfillment.

Here is an example of a two-phase plan:

Phase One:

• Optimize existing Website
• Start a blog for the organization
• Optimize or create optimized accounts with some social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Create optimized accounts with and populate media communities such as Flickr and YouTube.
• Integrate all of these accounts using an integration tool like Ping.fm or HootSuite.
• Use an analytics/metrics tool such as PostRank or Radian6 to measure progress and success

Phase Two:

• Evaluate which tools are yielding results. Identify if the problem is the tool or the approach used to reach the target market.
• Eliminate tools that are no longer feasible or alter your approach to using them.
• Depending on resources, add some additional tools to the social media plan such as FourSquare, Delicious, Digg, SlideShare, pr Eventbrite.
• Depending on resources, ramp up the use of existing tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube by joining groups or adding applications
• Add an additional blog or Twitter account if applicable
• Assess your choice of analytics/metrics tool and consider adding more tools

2. Flesh out the plan:

• For each tool in your outline, define specific strategies and tactics to use while implementing the tool.
• Include a general strategy for applying the tool specifically to the organization’s goals and target market.
• Include tactics for managing and optimizing the tool based on the organization’s resources.
• Research effective tactics and strategies for each tool, and investigate how your competitors are leveraging them.
• Plan how you will integrate the tool with the rest of the tools in your social media plan.
• Plan how you will measure the tool’s success within your chosen social media analytics/metrics tool

3. Time line and guidelines:

• A good strategy and plan will take time to implement and establish. Include a realistic time line for achieving the organization’s goals.
• Do not forget the importance of transparency, authenticity, and interaction in this type of market – as well as the fact that anything you post is not going away. As a result, don’t skimp on preparing detailed social media guidelines and policies.

4. Integration and metrics:

• Prepare a social media integration plan and map how your tools will seamlessly work together.
• Prepare an advanced social media analytics and metrics plan.

If you find this post useful, and would like to further your knowledge of social media tools while enhancing your resume, consider taking the online version of Drury University’s graduate level social media certificate course.

This post originally appeared as a Social Media Tip of the Day on Social Media Power.

Twitter evolves more quickly than other social media because of its users.

Rather than relying on programmers to tweak features, users create their own languages, cultures, and uses for the malleable medium.

Witness the advent of MT to signify a retweet that has been slightly modified.

I first noticed the abbreviation earlier this year, and at the time, I hadn’t quite bought into its usage, partly because it seemed unclear and confusing to many users. Initially, it seemed to duplicate the function of via.

As I see it appear more often, though, it does seem to have a distinctive usage of value.

Via indicates a completely new tweet about information discovered through another user. MT is a modified tweet that has some words eliminated in order to meet the 140-character limitation of Twitter.

Here’s how I’ve been using it in practice: I discovered a piece on Rick Perry through @joeruiz, a sharp Texas journalist I follow on Twitter.

I usually like to offer a little bit of editorial comment on links I repost, but doing so here would broach Twitter’s limit. So I resorted to the MT by eliminating the Texas Monthly reference:

Everything else about the tweet is the same. It’s not quite a retweet since I changed it slightly, but via doesn’t fit, either.

MT seems to be appearing with more frequency these days. Consider this a modification of my previous stance: MT might be one to add to your Twitter vocabulary.

What do you think?