Blogger's Carnival

I can hardly believe that the quarter is coming to a close, can you?! I took some time today to read through a few individual's blogs and might I say, wow! What awesome writers and thinkers we have here!

A few posts that stood out to me: 

Mandi's blog post about best practices was great! I love the spot where she discusses how blogs are intended to show off your personality. While the idea might not have been hers originally, I believe that is super important to remember and a great part of becoming a writer, blogger, and genuinely real person online. When people who read your posts feel like they can know a little more about you because you write with personality, then you feel like maybe you've done something truly great. 

Kate did a great job explaining why it is important for organizations to utilize mobile marketing. I think sometimes we forget that is a real area where we have opportunities to grow our businesses and our clientele. The picture she used was also a great resource for people to see and catch their attention.

Matt had an awesome Carnival Blog post. Using a creative picture to help capture the audience and gain interest with the setup of his blog. But his post about being social and why he didn't utilize social media and now he can't figure out why he didn't is awesome. I know I go through days where I want nothing to do with social media and always end up coming back and loving it!

Stacy had a wonderful post explaining how to organize my work and personal life. As someone who is seemingly always running around with a million things to do, I love how she tied all the elements into a thoughtful post explaining how awesome Evernote and some other products like it are. 

Overall, there are so many opportunities to learn from others. The internet only makes that easier. With opportunities to reach out and find new blogs, pins on pinterest, and all kinds of info all over the web, social media is making learning very easy. 

Thanks to all of the other blogs! They were fun to read and gather a wonderful picture of how awesome our social media world really is!

The Way of the Future

Sometimes I get caught up in social media. Whether I’m checking out my Facebook, re-tweeting a funny political comment, instagramming my most recent workout, or checking in to see who has viewed my profile on LinkedIn, I’m always reaching for my phone to check the next thing. I know that social media is here and here to stay, but sometimes I think we forget about the best part of live interaction.

I was at dinner last night with a friend, there were a lot of people waiting and I happened to notice a young couple standing behind our table. They weren’t married, but it was so awkward to watch them stand there. Both of them had cell phones out and were ‘checked out’ of their relationship. I kept looking at them waiting for one of them to put the phone down and have a conversation. It seemed like the girl was ready to have a conversation at several points and the guy was totally wrapped up in his phone.

It made me sad to think that is the world we live in. I certainly don’t want to give up social media, but I also feel it is important to recognize the balance that there are people in our world who deserve attention.

My mom always used to say to me, “Michelle, if the President was here or if so-and-so were here, you wouldn’t even pick up your phone. I’m a real person with you here, talk to ME!” Of course, I’m sure this point rings true for most of us. We often forget that the real people in front of us deserve the attention we aren’t always so readily willing to give. Despite the ease of communication using social media, I believe it is important to remember the most rich form of communication is face to face interaction.

Enjoy social media, but not at the expense of a real person! Happy blogging!

NCAA Webinar

My office hosts a special NCAA Bracket Challenge every year as a way for the Financial Advisors and clients (and, really, anyone) to have a little fun and get away from the 'business' in their relationships. This challenge offers many prizes including the chance to win tickets to the Final Four Challenge in Indianapolis next year!

I recently attended a Webinar that helped me learn how to promote, market, and follow-up with individuals interested in participating in our NCAA Bracket Challenge. I know that many of you may have remembered me mentioning this in my presentation last week.

Some of the items they suggested using were Hearsay Social, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Each advisor is assigned their own website where people can sign up to play the FREE Bracket Challenge. In doing so, it not only promotes the relationship between Northwestern Mutual and NCAA, but allows everyone to see the brand, Northwestern Mutual.

The webinar offered valuable language, ideas for events (including cyber events), and opportunities to utilize the tools provided by Northwestern within the given social media at the top (in order to keep things compliant).

Overall, I felt like I recognized a lot of the format of the presentation in terms of feeling like I know how they were doing it because I had done it several times by then. It was fun to 'attend' because I could relate to what they were saying.

How Private is Your Profile?

A little food for thought: Privacy is a huge issue when using social media. Often times privacy settings can change or more information than you realize is ‘out there’ so to speak. This video shows how much is out there and brings awareness to the fact that we really do live our lives so that anyone and everyone know who we are.

If you haven’t considered before what impact or who can see your information, consider now how you or your organization are being seen. This is an important topic as you look into the future, especially with an organization. Be sure to have releases if you’re using people’s pictures or information on a website. As you can see, a lot of information can be gathered incredibly easily.

Remember, the benefit of social media is everyone can be connected very easily. The downside is that not everyone wants to be so well known. People know where you are and what you’re up to all the time.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P_0s1TYpJU

Best Practices: Keeping People Coming Back For More

Sometimes, I wonder if 50 years ago people considered what the future would hold. Individuals wrote books and articles in magazines, but was it ever a thought that one day anyone (and everyone) could be an author on their own personal page?

Today, that thought is a reality. Anyone and everyone can be their own author posting their ideas, thoughts, and experiences. While there are some excellent blogs, there are also some blogs that are poorly done. So what should a blog be or not be? What are the best practices?

Susan Gunelius wrote an article listing five tips on writing a blog. Of all my research, I believe her few tips, while brief, are the best tips to apply to any blog whether a corporate blog or a personal blog.

She begins by suggesting an appropriate tone. From my own experience, this will dictate a lot of who comes through to read the blog and who will continue to follow it. Figure out the audience you are attempting to reach and create a tone that will build the blog.

Next she suggest being honest. Honesty is one thing we often times don’t do enough. We attempt to create a picture about ourselves or our organizations to make them appear to be something that might only be somewhat true. This doesn’t mean we should air our dirty laundry, but there is a balance and a reason to be genuine with those who will follow us.

Thirdly, she says, “Don’t Just List Links.” Gunelius explains that, “Blogging is time-consuming, and sometimes it can be very tempting to just list links to other online content for your readers to follow. 

Don’t fall into that trap. Readers don’t want to have to follow a breadcrumb trail to find something interesting to read.” I know for me, I’m not impressed when I have to go to one place to go to another place, what makes us think our readers and followers would want to do that either. Make their life easier by putting in the time and creating a well-thought out blog post.

Next, Gunelius notes that providing attribution is key. Obviously, our goal is to be honest, genuine, and not a stealer or plagiarizer. That being said, offer credit where credit is due. It is easy to do and will lead to more respect. If it wasn’t your idea, offer some attribution to whomever it should go to.

Lastly, Gunelius encourages bloggers to “write in short paragraphs.” I have been to so many blogs where the paragraphs and posts are like reading a novel. It is cumbersome and difficult to get through. I often miss a lot of key elements because there is so much detail. The blogs I love the most are from individuals who share a little snippet here and there about what they’re up to or enjoying or working on as an organization. They throw a few pictures in and keep their post short and sweet.

I believe that if bloggers keep to these guidelines in general, they’ll find they are able to do well and maintain a strong following if they promote their blog well.

Reference:

Gunelius, Susan. 2014. 5 Tips to Write Blog Posts: How to Write Posts that Get Noticed and Keep Readers Interested. March 1, 2014. http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsWriteBlogPosts.htm

Box: Business App for the Highly Compliant

If your work is anything like mine, you know how important keeping information confidential is. Not only is it important to keep client’s information confidential, it is essential because compliance is breathing down our necks making sure we’re keeping our practice in line.

One tool that I have found to be especially convenient in our work is an app called Box. You may or may not be familiar with what Box is or how it works, but this tool is a great resource to help us share information between devices and with clients in a fast, easy, and secure way.

Box is a cloud-based app similar to Dropbox that allows us to share information between each other and between clients within a given timeframe. This tool makes life infinitely easier as last minute appointments pop up or if we forget to include certain elements into our presentations. Best of all, this tool is secure! In the financial industry I work, security is a top priority, so this tool is a wonderful resource all around for us.

While we do not fully use or implement this tool currently, it is a goal and dream of ours to get it working all the time and for all our clients.

One downside to this app are it is an internet based app. If you don’t have access to internet, it is not overly helpful unless it has been previously downloaded.

Intellectual Property: Whose Property Is It Anyway?!

How often have you said, “Oh I heard someone say blah blah blah.” I find myself in this boat all the time. We live in a world where information is constantly being shared and ideas are being thrown around all over the place. And, yet, we often don’t remember to credit the source where the idea originally came from—if we even know that.

Often times, our ideas and sources come from a person who heard someone else say who gathered the idea from another place. The credit and idea get lost in translation. Social media has only exacerbated the issue with people sharing and moving ideas from one place to another. It is difficult to figure out where the idea came from and where it is going.

When we consider Copyright in terms of books, articles, and other materials, it is easy to find when people misuse information or plagiarize the idea or directly quote without giving credit where credit is due. However, the concept of Intellectual Property is far more nebulous. Often times the ideas we have come from things we’ve seen and we don’t realize or remember that it was someone else’s idea.

Wikipedia defines Intellectual Property (IP) as, “a legal concept which refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized.” The article continues by saying, “Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literacy, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.”

In terms of social media, I believe that the difficulty comes because we are so open and out there with our thoughts and ideas. As I mentioned before we take and use ideas, quotes, and thoughts all the time without realizing we are taking that ‘Intellectual Property’.

Many individuals argue that information that is placed in a public forum is public unless otherwise stated. After all, how can we possibly monitor whose idea it was first?

I’d like to echo that concept in a different way. I believe that when we post things—especially from an organizational standpoint—we need to offer credit as often as possible. But, we also need to recognize that when we post ideas, it is public information. Know and understand that the likelihood is that the idea or concept will be used in other contexts without being given credit.

I think understanding what social media is and how it works is important. It is a melting pot of sorts that allows everyone to be someone. It comes with great value and importance in today’s day and age, but also with great responsibility. I suppose in a way it comes back to the golden rule. If you’d like your information to be given credit, credit those around you who deserve the same respect. It may not happen, but that doesn’t change the responsibility we have.

Reference:

“Intellectual Property.” March 2, 2014. En.wikipedia.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property.