Last Thursday evening, I had the very enjoyable experience of being invited by Burness LLP to give the inaugural, 'Future Forum' lecture, at the Burness HQ on Lothian Road.
The Future Forum initiative is a ground-breaking series of presentations, initiated by Burness, to help their clients explore emerging opportunities and trends unfolding in modern day business.
My 2 hour lecture/workshop, with Q&A, and of course, some very nice drinks and an exceptionally fine buffet, explored how business can benefit from engaging more actively in Social Media.
The main points covered were i) Personal Online Branding & ii) Corporate use of Social Media. (With particular emphasis on ROI.)
So, based on these subjects, what did I talk about specifically?
Well, myself, a lot, obviously.
But after some frantic: 'move it along to the point' gestures from my chaperone for the evening the ever lovely and patient Christine LIddell of Burness, I got to the meat and tatties of my presentation which were, in approx order of roll-out:
1. When clients hire you, they also hire your network.
2. Why and how 'traditional media' is at best; under pressure, at worst; 'broken'.
3. Social Media usage stats for the UK.
4. 'Is social media a fad?' I showed Erik Qualman's terrific 'Socialnomics' short film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
5. Why ceo's should take social media seriously
6. Why using the web isn't about the web site.
7. Who is responsible for social media in your company? And can you bring in 'hired-hands'?
8. Community Managers, curation, CRM and 'Listening Posts'.
9. Trusted Sources.
10. Why Tom Peter's had it nailed in 1997, with A Brand Called You. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html
11. A bit on Barack Obama's campaign use of social media.
12. Search for yourself on Google. Whaddya see? And how you can change how people see you. http://www.google.com/profiles http://card.ly/, http://hi.im/ (cool domain address, love it.)
13. Twitter, of course. Went into a fair bit of detail. But ultimately cut to chase, suggested signing up, if only for Page One Google benefits.
14. Quick show and tell of 'unexpected seo' of my Moo Business Cards based on Tweets = 3rd party recommendations. http://bit.ly/7TYi67, http://bit.ly/7GIeWk
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15. The power of the ReTweet and 'Networks of networks.'
16. Brands embracing social media: who, how, where, why, what. Comcast to Dell IdeaStorm, to Ikea FaceBook tagging. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE2LSp-hjbQ
17. Bit about LinkedIn & FaceBook, reach, demographics, best practice, social self-discipline. Dell 'Social Media for Small Business.'
18. Wrapped up with 'How your Social Graph can = 'Micro-celebrity.' Is CRM the new Marketing? + Social Media is more than just a 'nice idea' it's now a necessity.
19. Suggested tools and apps. Social Media Starter Kit.
20. Homework! 5 things you can do tonight/tomorrow re social media and Personal Online Branding. 5 things your company can do in the next 3 months.
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21. Best practice. ROI is now ROT. Return on Time.
22. Close with @qualman's equally powerful ROI film on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypmfs3z8esI
23. Final slide: 'The best time to start using Social Media was 4 years ago. The second best time is now.'
24. I closed with my Jeremy Kyle bit: Q&A. Not surprisingly in a room with a fair proportion of lawyers, accountants, brand specialists & HR folk, conversation drifted towards online identity theft and protection, reputation management and damage limitation, plus of course corporate firewalls blocking a lot of social sites. And, 'Is there a place for business on FaceBook, including the potentially embarrassing: What to do if your boss tries to friend you'. ;- Maybe these subjects in themselves are worth Future Forums all of their own.
I'd like to close this blog post with my thanks.
To the audience, which consisted of many of the Capital's rising business stars and smart thinkers from a host of Blue chip companies. And speaking of rising stars, this is probably the right point to thank John Pope of Burness's IP & Tech team who gave me a warm, nay glowing and gracious introduction.
Finally, again, a big shout out to Christine Liddell of Burness for getting the whole show on the road. And looking after me beautifully.
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