Social Media Techniques You Can Begin Using Tonight Cindy Royal, Ph.D Assistant Professor Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication cindytech.wordpress.com twitter.com/cindyroyal facebook.com/cindyroyal

Have Passion Care about something Be sincere; authentic Have a point of view You can't fake true passion Once you find your true passion, use social media to express yourself; develop personal brand

Start a Blog Blogging allows you to explore your passion, improve writing skills, communicate with others who share your interest Explore the topic and become current, eventually an authority Blogger is simple; Wordpress allows you to add pages that make it more like a Website Free; but pay for a custom domain Allows you to have a Web site without knowing how to make one Can customize via templates or CSS if you know it You can add photos, video, links, other social features Tag posts with appropriate key terms to help others find your content Include a page with your resume

LinkedIn LinkedIn is the professional social network Your LinkedIn profile can connect you to thousands of professionals Search for connections at companies of interest Create a LinkedIn profile that reflects your interests and background much like a resume Include your Website on your LinkedIn profile

Facebook Facebook is a fun place to share with friends But remember, any friend can be a potential career contact Friend faculty and professional contacts, as long as you keep your Facebook activities professional and above board. Use privacy settings and friends lists carefully. Get a custom url for your Facebook profile - facebook.com/username Start a Facebook Group or Page for your interest. This allows you to communicate with others who share the same interest. A Facebook Group is a listing of friends on a separate page, provides its own Wall, discussion, profile, ability to A Facebook Page allows users to become Fans. People will want to associate their interests with you Any time you have new content for your blog, post to Facebook

Twitter Start a Twitter account; free & simple Follow interesting people. Some suggestions at the end of the presentation Don't worry about “What are you doing?” It's not as much about who follows you as who you follow Sometimes, it's not about the tweet, it's about the link Use RSS feeds and widgets to repurpose Twitter to your Web site or blog. New content all the time. Respond to questions Retweet interesting items

Twitter Use a hashtag for conferences or conversations (#)‏ Use a url shortener (bit.ly, tinurl.com) for links Any time you have new content for your blog, Tweet it Realtime search – ability to see what people are saying about any topic right now Trending – ability to see the most popular things people are talking about right now. Gary Vaynerchuk - “Twitter is perhaps the most powerful brand-building tool in your toolbox” Use Twitter clients like TweetDeck, HootSuite, Seesmic or Tweetie to help organize tweets on your desktop

Photos Join a photo sharing site like Flickr or Picasa Learn how to upload photos and create a slideshow Use the embed code from the slideshow or follow your blogs rules to embed it on your blog. Use HTML tab in blog form. Learn how to optimize photos for the Web via Photoshop or via a Web-based solution like webresizer.com Provide interesting captions to your photos that tell the story

YouTube Get an inexpensive camcorder or camera with video capabilities Learn to use simple editing software like iMovie or Windows MovieMaker Interview people, have a talk show, do a video blog with commentary, make short films, be creative Embed the video on your blog. Embed code is readily available to the right of your videos on YouTube Your username becomes a channel Tag videos with appropriate key terms to help others find your content Other sites, like Vimeo, Viddler

UStream.tv Push the envelope with live streaming video With a laptop and a Web cam (or camcorder connected to laptop), you can easily broadcast live from an event Easy to embed in your blog Show pages allow for audience to chat and comment on an episode

Go Mobile Get a smart phone and find apps that will allow you to expand your social media activities News apps help you stay in touch Twitter apps – Tweetie, Twitterific, Twitterfon, UberTwitter, TwitterBerry – allows you to Tweet when you are on the go. Qik.com – live stream video from phone Make your own iPhone app. Companies like iLike provide formats for musicians. Other options

The rest Analytics – use Google Analytics or those associated with your blog platform to get information about users, locations, link referrals, etc. Delicious – social bookmarks. Tag interesting articles, put in categories, share with others FriendFeed – recently purchased by Facebook. Stay tuned as to how they integrate that in their offering Slideshare.net – use to upload presentations and pdf's that you can embed on your site Use Google Sites to create own Web site; get some html skills and you can host your site anywhere, much more flexible Ning or KickApps – start your own social network

Building your community Comment on others blogs, tweets. Become part of the conversation. Others will respond. Be positive. A super positive version of yourself. People respond to enthusiasm and will gravitate toward you more readily if you are positive, honest, transparent. Focus on building community. Later you may be able to generate revenue from your blog but your focus should be the online presence at this point. Include all your social media activities on your business card – domain, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook custom url Later – advertising, speaking engagements, sell things, write articles, consulting, paying jobs...

Passion None of these strategies will work if you don't have passion, a sincere interest in what you are doing. You can't just sign up for one of these accounts and sit back and wait. You must put in time and effort. Follow trends in your interest area as well as social and online media. Be aware of changes, new technologies. Be open-minded. Be creative Become an active member of the community Help others with their social presence Have fun!

Some Twitter follow recommendations TX State faculty twitter.com/cindyroyal twitter.com/dquack twitter.com/jonzmikly twitter.com/mairalg twitter.com/txst - that's the official txstate twitter Professional Media twitter.com/nytimes twitter.com/wired twitter.com/smashingmag twitter.com/techcrunch twitter.com/statesman twitter.com/universitystar Other people/organizations twitter.com/jeffjarvis twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu twitter.com/aejmc twitter.com/ojr twitter.com/sxswi twitter.com/scobleizer twitter.com/thepeoplesmedia