{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} Well, it was a big day yesterday - it was my son's last day at Primary School. We had the "end of year" assembly in the morning, followed by a lunch for parents in the nearby pub and then back to school in the afternoon for all the "goodbyes". And yes, there were some tears as well. Elliot was really pleased to win the prize for "ICT" (computers - to you and me). Indeed, according to his end of year report it appears he is a dab hand at computing, often helping out the teachers...! But some special praise was inside his report for his role as the "School Ambassador"; at just 11-years-old he has spent the past year being the "tour guide" to all visitors to the school and has represented the school at several external events too. It's a role he relished and clearly did well at. But it wasn't just my son who achieved and received praise. Every single one of the 18 in his class were given public praise by the head teacher. And no matter what prize they won, they cherished it. Through the tears of joy and pride in my eyes it was a reminder that everyone responds to positive encouragement better than they ever do to criticism.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: Can social media be automated? Yes indeed, social media CAN be automated. But that's not really the issue; the question we should be asking ourselves is SHOULD it be automated? There is plenty of software which will automatically add blog posts for you, which will post things on Twitter for you and which will update your status on LinkedIn. Fantastic - set it all up and go down the pub. But hang on a minute....when you go down the pub, is your conversation there automated? Do people you are with get an automatic update from you? Or do you personally engage in conversation? You get my drift here - social media is just that; SOCIAL. In other words automating it completely misses the entire point of it - to engage in one-on-one conversations with people. Having said all this there are SOME things you can automate. For instance, when this newsletter is sent out, the email software automatically posts a Tweet about it so that people can read it online if they wish. Similarly, every time I write a blog post, it is automatically added to my Facebook business page "notes" section and also a Tweet is sent out about it. However - here's the big but - when people then comment on the automated Tweet I engage in conversation with them. If they say something good or bad about the blog post the Tweet has announced then I will chat with them via Twitter, for instance. In other words, the automated part of the social media is NOT the social part. Think of it this way - an automated piece of social media is rather like having a Toastmaster announce your arrival at a posh do. People know you are in the room and who you are with - but then it is up to you to engage in conversation. And so it is with automated Tweets, for instance. They announce to the Twittersphere that you have just blogged something, for instance, and that you are now available to chat with. Then it's over to you...! Similarly, you can use something like HootSuite (see: http://ow.ly/3BDE1) to schedule social media posts and updates. That's another useful time-saver - BUT you need to be available to discuss them or enter into conversation about the scheduled items. For example, I schedule Tweets about who to "follow" on Twitter - but when people say "thanks" or others comment, I'm there to have a chat if necessary. So, yes, you can automate social media to a small extent - but remember that automation is essentially only a time-saver allowing you to get on with the proper job of social media - BEING SOCIAL...!
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: Don't be so serious....! I am in the midst of a series of lectures on E-commerce for the University of Buckingham, where I am a Visiting Lecturer. Unlike other universities, Buckingham has four relatively long terms a year, allowing students to complete their degrees in two years instead of the usual three. That means throughout August - including Bank Holiday Monday - I shall be working in the world of academia. This week, however, a student said something which made me consider my lecture differently. The lecture was about the need for strategic planning of infrastructure if your e-business is to succeed - a lecture after my own heart as I'd suffered a server crash recently...! However, in a tutorial later that afternoon one student said he was considering dropping my course because "your lecture this morning scared me"...! Apparently, I'd treated the subject of infrastructure so seriously it made him think e-commerce was dull and lifeless. Whoops..! It was a useful poke in the ribs for me - no matter how serious our business subjects may be, people do prefer it if we convey those topics with some degree of humour or lightness. Even if we have to get serious stuff across, we can do so without being serious ourselves.
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To get my blog delivered to you each week in PDF, Kindle or ePub format simply visit: http://uklik.me/gjweekly
Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web:
grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
