There’s a lot more to social media than just blogging. To be active, we must be out there listening, commenting, contributing, communicating in other ways, and reaching the people who matter to us. One one side, that’s where I’ve spent a lot of my time this morning. And I’ve been doing other things, too.
Inspired a bit by Andy Quayle’s What Did You Do Today post, here’s a bit of what’s on my plate (not counting family life):
CrossTech Media
I’ve been doing lots of stuff for CrossTech Media in anticipation of our upcoming ITEC Houston technology event, I’ve been working with Radian6 on a webinar/video series that we’re producing for a CrossTech webinar. I’m also trying to build interest and awareness of our new The Next Data Center executive briefing event, which I’m really happy about. I’m also building out events for later in the year (something about the future of work, and one about communications, and another about social software). I’m building speaking engagements now for New Marketing Summit, my event in Boston this fall. So, that’s a lot.
PodCamp
PodCamp Boston3 is coming up this summer. I’m in charge of helping raise sponsorship money to cover the venue, the wifi, the other stuff that makes a PodCamp happen. Christopher Penn and Whitney Hoffman and others do all the heavy lifting, but fundraising takes some efforts, too.
Book
I’m co-authoring a book soon with Julien Smith. We’re in the proposal stage, so I won’t say more. Book is the new “rock band” thing we say. “Oh yeah, I’m writing a book, too.” But it’s something that matters to me, so I’m putting what I can into it.
Social Media Stuff
Here’s a pretty busy bucket that I’ve run out of time to cover. But there’s where I spend a lot of time, too. What comes of this part is always interesting, quirky, sometimes business-actionable, and filled to the brim with humans. THIS is where the above stuff starts. Social media are the fields I tend, where I plant seeds, weed out things that don’t work, grow new varieties of relationships, and develop ideas that might or might not lead to business or a further sense of being helpful.
Later, I’ll cover what goes into all this, but start here. Think here. Start here. Think about how this is what social media does for individuals. Do you know that’s why my bosses hired me in and gave me a big role in changing their company? Do you know that my bosses (and I say that half joking, because I think of us as business partners with different percentages) talk to me about Twitter and Facebook and things like that every day?
If you’re passionate about social media, real business happens here, real connections and value happen here. Education happens here. It’s what you want to make of it, and it’s a powerful force for STARTING and MAINTAINING good things. It’s up to use to close what you do with it. But if you use the tools, at least you can start.
What are you doing today? How are you using social media to move the ball forward in your life? What are your challenges?