Archive for social media lunchbox
Social Media Lunchbox #5: All About LiveBlogging – We’re Liveblogging it!
Posted by: | CommentsToday, we are having our 5th Social Media Lunchbox on LiveBlogging.
In the interest of practicing what we preach, yes, we are liveblogging this unmeeting. We’re liveblogging by talking about our talk on liveblogging. After that quasi-palindromic sentence, I’ll have to pause, to give some of our readers a moment to pick up the pieces of your blown mind.
So, if you are reading this in real time, keep in mind, it is being written in real time, so bear with us through and typos, or lack of linearity, as we type and click away, to get you the most up-to-the-minute information from out lunchbox.
Without further ado, let’s get to the meat of the matter.
- Why LiveBlog?
- Posting Preparedness
- Physical Considerations
- Live by the Microchip, Die by the Microchip
Why LiveBlog?
The “Value Add”: Liveblogging give your readers access to the exclusive conference or event you’re going to. It provides them with content.
Why not just blog later? Because the most authoritative reporter is the one who breaks the story. We care about immediacy. We want the inside scoop, as fast as possible. In the case of conferences and events, if you can’t be there, following it in real-time is the next best thing. Remember, this is a form of citizen journalism.
Promotion: Anyone can blog about an event. But liveblogging is your way to stand out among the pack. Not to mention, it gets the attention with the conference organizers and presenters.
Posting Preparedness
Do the event organizers know you will be liveblogging the event? Send a quick e-mail to let the event’s organizers know. Be courteous, but more importantly, be convincing. This will not be difficult: It’s more exposure for them.
Will you be posting in advance to announce that you will be liveblogging said event? You can post this announcement on the blog, you can announce it via Twitter, you can make the announcement via mass e-mail.. Do so at your own discretion! What happens if your technology fails (More on this later)? What if you miss part of the event? It is better to announce and not liveblog? Or to not liveblog at all?
Draft your post beforehand. Put together a draft frame for the article. Include the event’s (and/or organization sponsoring the event) website. Does the organization or the event have a blog? A Twitter handle? A LinkedIn or Facebook page? Include them all. Post links, and check them. Then check them again. Include any images that you already have. Are there specific sessions that you will be attending? Put in all the necessary headings. A good rule of thumb for your draft post is to include all information that you already have and will be planning to post. Also, remember to include in your post title that you are liveblogging “X” event.
Use blog drafting software. We recommend ScribeFire. ScribeFire is a Firefox plugin that saves your drafts locally, freeing you from your blog’s server, so if your internet connection fails, you don’t lose your unsaved changes.
Physical Considerations
Pick a logistically optimal spot in the event. If you plan on taking pictures, or recording videos, make sure to sit somewhere so you can see all the speakers and any projector screens.
Live by the Microblog, Die by the Microchip
Prepare in advance for Murphy’s Law!
Don’t rely on the internet connection provided. If any is provided at all. Have a backup plan handy.
Prepare all your computer’s hardware and software. The last thing you want to do is to arrive and realize that your computer doesn’t have the right driver for your air card–and the event has no WiFi. Check all your hardware and software in advance. Provide yourself with a hardware checklist: Laptop? Charger? Extension cord? Air card? Camera (see below)? Check the list again. Then once more.
Pack extra camera supplies. If you plan on taking pictures/video, make sure your camera is prepared, and with backups. Make sure to bring extra batteries. Have a spare memory card on hand. If your laptop doesn’t have one built in, bring a card reader or USB cable. Set up a folder on your computer where you’ll be uploading the software. Have your photo-editing software ready (and tested) to resize any pictures down to the appropriate size (and have an extra folder where you’ll put these optimized images, so there’s no need to fish for them when you’re uploading).
Some Final Considerations:
If you plan on taking video, it’s always a good idea to post video after the event the is over, because this process always takes a much longer time. At your own discretion, you can indicate that you will posting video.
Always allow for ample time post-event. You need 20-30 minutes to finish the pieces, tie up loose ends, and get the post out. If anything went wrong during the event, you’ll obviously need more time than that.
Most importantly: Don’t panic! Keep your cool, and take pride in being the journalist with the inside scoop. Be good to your readers, and give them what they came to see.
Good luck, and give us some great live posts!
Update (6/10/09 1:30pm): I used ScribeFire for liveblogging. I had followed my own advice and prepared draft posts in advance, and was publishing as I went. Lo and behold, ScribeFire gave out! (OK, in its defense, I probably hit the “Clear Content” button myself on accident.)
Fortunately, I had a hardcopy available, and our Fearless Social Media Leader, Todd Pitt, stepped in and retyped the post and kept updating as I spoke. So, yes, Murphy’s Law is alive and well. HAVE BACKUPS! Then have backups to your backups.
And thank you, Todd!
Social Media Lunchbox #2 – Recap
Posted by: | CommentsWe had our second biweekly “Social Media Lunchbox” today. The theme this time was twofold: Blogging, and Social Media’s Impact and its Makeup.
Blogging
I recall my first interaction with blogs (those were the days, back when the millennium was but a wee infant). It was all the rage. You weren’t quite cool enough unless you had a giant “Join my Xanga!” at the bottom of your AIM profile. And why wouldn’t we want to follow the exciting life of high school and college age kids, updating us on their life’s minute-by-minute details, like how they accidentally brushed their teeth twice this morning.
But it wasn’t long before this impression wore off. Over time, I realized the value of some blogs, and it hit me: “this whole Social Media thing didn’t die two years ago when I said it would.” I now find myself following several blogs, for politics, tech news, sports, current events, eLearning (both the subject and the activity), design insights/inspiration, entertainment, and yes, even keeping up with my friends’ lives.
 Tech Crunch is one of the web’s leading technology news blogs |
Web Designer Depot is one of the largest and fastest growing design blogs |
So with all the value that blogs can bring into our lives, it’s a natural progression for the corporate to enter the blogosphere.
Corporate blogging
What is corporate blogging? If blogs are a way to provide news, information, entertainment, and (the bottom line) value to its readers, then a corporate blog does just that, while helping the entity reach its organizational goals. Very often, corporate blogs are written by a group of authors rather than only one (you are viewing a prime example in this blog).
Like personal blogs, the assets of a corporate blog include the authors’ opinions, points of view, voices, and personalities. In a corporate setting, however, there are many serious implications one must be aware of. After all, there is more at stake. There is always the matter of confidential information, and content that is sensitive, or just inadvisable to post, due to the potential it may have for negatively impacting the organization, its members, partners, or clients. To combat this, when many bloggers wish to recall an incident, they have taken the path of posting without specificity. They opt instead to give the readers the general gist of what took place, without releasing any sensitive details. It is generally best to refrain from specificity whenever one is dealing with clients, products, security risks, and touchy issues.
Some organizations set up corporate blogging policies to prevent catastrophes. Policies, however, need enforcement. But with internet content, enforcement is nearly impossible. Once material gets out, there is no telling how far it can go, even if the organization removes the sensitive information. It is most effective for organizations to set up blogging guidelines, and to make sure to communicate those guidelines to everyone responsible for posting on the blog. Said communication needs to convey the importance of the guidelines as well.
Social Media’s Impact and its Makeup
Impact
So we all know the power of social media to make the world a smaller place (see “Concepts covered” and video). In this meeting, we continued on that theme and covered a few more topics:
- Before/After Social Media
Before: When you bought software, you are buying into a brand, buying into the company that produced it.
Now: When you buy software (or download it for free, in the case of most open source software), you are buying into a community.
This video from Common Craft illustrates this principle quite well-not to mention, it’s a great intro into what social media is all about:
- Citizen Journalism:
Social media is giving everyone a shot at being a journalist. While people in the social media and Web 2.0 world had been talking about this for quite a while, citizen journalism came to the forefront of national attention when it became the most reliable form of information in breaking the Hudson river plane landing.
- Strength of Weak Ties
It is usually the people we know with three degrees of separation that can add the most potential to our lives. This is independent of social media, but by being cognizant of this rule and applying it to social media, one can reap significant rewards.
To give a good segue from the impact of social media (and Web 2.0) into its makeup, take a look at this video (which in a way covers both) by Dr. Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University:
Makeup of Social Media
How did social come about? It really happened when the old computer model was broken, and a new, more dynamic and interactive model came about. The video above highlights this point pretty well. This video will also show the technological breakthroughs that led to what we call the new media, or social media, or web 2.0.
The last part of our (un)meeting consisted of a demonstration on the components of social media (technology, multimedia, blogs, microblogs, wikis, forums, etc.). Todd Pitt, our Social Media Manager presented an experiential map that broke each down into a description, and examples. It is much more extensive than anything that I can put into one post. Perhaps if you ask him nicely…
