We had a great podcast, during which we touched on themes of implementation of social media in a bureaucracy, the push for transparent government, the push back from outdated systems, how the President-elect may be hampered by existing rules and how he might effect real change and cause a trickle down effect. We also touched on privacy issues, who and what government people and entities are active in the social media space around the world, and ways the public could help install transparency, as well as realistic expectations of the roll out of government 2.0 as a reality. Please listen to the entire podcast for the full effect - my guest panelists Leslie Bradshaw, Triston McIntyre, Justin Herman, Andrea Baker, and Alan Silberberg were fantastic! I have included the file here, and have put the unedited links from the chat room and podcast below the embedded audio for you to check out.
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Obama was elected as our next President by one of the largest margins in recent election history, ushering in a new administration under what I think can safely be called a mandate. Already he is being touted as the Technology President, and geeks everywhere are in spasms of ecstasy over the potential for technology, new media and social media. Many are even going so far as to say that he was elected by social media, though I disagree. It is my stance that he was elected by us after using his firm grasp of social media and technology to show the nation how to network on a global digital scale.

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The show was a lively one. The panelists were fantastic, and we opened up the phone lines at the end for broader discussion as well. Each person on the call gave a take-away for the listeners before we signed off for the night, something they could do to bring politics into their lives using online tools and social media.

Tonight’s Topics on Fire will be a lively one, as the topic is Politics and Social Media / Technology. Catch it live at 11 PM Eastern on TalkShoe.

Leslie Bradshaw from New Media Strategies and JESS3 will be joining us on the panel. Leslie is a frequent panelist here at Topics on Fire and was on the episode that generated the Strong Women in Tech initiative.

Sadly, Leslie Bradshaw is ill. Taking her place will be Andrew Feinberg of Capitol Valley and Technosailor.

New panelists this week are Justin Herman, creator of the Voter Registration Night with the Nationals and the Mets and former Hill staffer and Amy Greenlaw of PortalVideo.

Tune in on TalkShoe at 11PM Eastern and participate in chat. If you follow the call on TalkShoe you also get notified when each new episode is coming up.

One of the questions I get asked most often is how I find the time to manage so many social media profiles for myself and still have time to write and help my clients. The answer is in my tool set, and a bit of time management and planning.

I have an arsenal of tools I use, such as Ping.fm and Evernote, to help me keep pace with all of the places in the social media world that I am connected with. I also focus the bulk of my attention on a few core social media sites, like Twitter, that I have determined to have the most value for me.

By focusing on a few sites, having an arsenal of tools that I know inside and out to help me manage these sites and others, and by planning my time wisely, I am able to keep up with the fast paced world of social media and still get my work done each day.

If you would like to hear what my tools are and how I use them, as well as get some concrete advice on how to create your own tool set, stop by The Grog in Newburyport next Thursday (10/23) at 7PM. I’ll be presenting a short talk on Managing Work Flow in Social Media to the North Shore Web Geeks at their monthly meeting. All are welcome.

One of my favorite people that I’ve had the pleasure of working with is Jim Keenan from Cre8Buzz. Jim, his wife, and their business partners had the dream of creating a social network that was driven by user generated content. In a way, they succeeded. Over time time their labor resulted in the birth of Cre8Buzz, now sporting a community of over 4000 enthusiastic, generous and supportive members.

Jim and his Cre8Buzz family started Cre8Buzz on a shoestring two years ago, as so many social networks are born these days. They ran into behind the scenes problems, and started looking to their members for help. The BuzzBoard was born a few months ago, and I ‘met’ Jim and the crew for the first time after being a user since the early days of the Buzz.

I watched them struggle through each growing pain, knowing that part of their problem was not having the cash flow you need to ramp up development quickly in this rapid paced social networking climate. I started to help them learn to use media like Seesmic and Twitter to get the word out about Cre8Buzz and get people excited about it in its second year of existence.

Interest is growing, and the user base continues to use the site as a great resource for user generated content, but Jim and the Cre8Buzz family no longer have the resources to continue trying to get their baby past this hump and into the next level of existence. What to do?

They have agonized over solutions to the problem, not wanting to just walk away from something they worked so hard on and that was continuing to grow in spite of its rocky start. The people who made Cre8Buzz just don’t want to abandon it like some unwanted child, and they don’t really want to sell it to someone who doesn’t understand what they have built. Then they hit upon an innovative idea.

Why not use Cre8Buzz and it’s user base as a head start to help a young coder?

I fell in love with Jim’s idea instantly, and offered to help him get the word out. Here is what is on the table:

One two year old network built on Rails. A healthy user base of 4000+ members who are very enthusiastic about the site and who have high hope for its future. A site framework that is about 90% complete as is, or that can be tweaked by the right developer. A healthy number of topic-based channels (Moms, Seniors, Dads, Television buffs, Writers, Sports, Music, etc) under the umbrella of which users put up original content. All of the tools used by the users: blogs, forums, profiles, photos, videos, music, podcasts, and more.

What Cre8Buzz wants in return for giving you this site: a percentage of the profit if you make it work. Nothing if you don’t.

This is an unprecedented chance at a working social network. If you know a Rails developer who would like the chance to make it their own and make it grow, please contact Cre8Buzz CEO Jim Keenan via Twitter, or contact me here in the comments and I’ll make sure he gets the message. Please feel free to forward this to developers you may know.

Can social media and social advertising help us find a way out of this economic turbulence? I think they can. I wrote about my opinion on social advertising and the new definition of ROI on Mashable today.

Last night was Part Two of the Gender Gap and Technology/New Media Episode on my podcast Topics on Fire. Panelists for the show were myself, Leslie Bradshaw, Jen Nedeau, Meg Fowler and Shireen Mitchell. On the first episode, we had Chris Brogan, Aaron Brazell and Micah Baldwin offering the male perspective as we hammered out what the issues were, but for this episode, we were an all-woman solution generating dynamo.

We took a look at the issues from the previous episode in a “big picture” perspective with the intent to come up with as many concrete, real world solutions as possible. The issues covered were how the gender gap intersects with education, opportunity, confidence, communication, perception and objectification. All of the panelists did a great job staying on topic and making valuable contributions to the goals we reached. I can’t thank them all enough for sharing their knowledge and passion and bringing attainable ideas to the table.

What concrete ideas did we come up with? Perhaps the biggest were the Strong Women in Tech campaign and grassroots mentoring in education, as well as a concerted effort to change how we promote our fellow women in tech. The Strong Women in Tech campaign is an idea that has the lofty, but attainable, goal of bringing some of the strong female names in technology to girls in school to act as role models and inspiration.

The idea is that these women, all beacons in various aspects of technology, engineering, social media, gaming, software and more, would embark on a national campaign to inspire today’s girls to pursue careers in any of the various aspects of technology and new media. Using the tools available to us to jump start the campaign, I created a Ning group called Strong Women in Tech, which you can find at http://strongtechwomen.ning.com/. The idea behind the group is to have a place to plan this nationwide campaign using the most powerful weapon in our arsenal - our networks. Please join us, and help find women to stand as role models and help get this campaign off the ground in earnest.

The Ning group is also a hub for some of our other ideas, which we all thought fit well under the umbrella concept of Strong Women in Tech. One of these ideas was to generate a grassroots movement in social media to bring education and inspiration to the teachers who are out there in the trenches. We want to empower them with an understanding of technology and new media and how it can help them. To that end, we hope to embark on an effort to have every strong woman in tech start to either mentor local teachers in how to use these tools or create a network of local mentors to do so.

We all thought it is much easier to inspire and encourage girls to stay on a technology and new media path if there is understanding. By creating a network of resources for teachers we can help them find ways to relay a love of learning in these fields to the girls (and boys) in their classrooms, which will have lasting benefits for the work force and for fostering innovative ideas. Keep in mind that while the conversation was centered around women, all of us think that part of empowering women is to learn to teach to each individual instead of to gender stereotypes. We feel that the powerful people in our social media and offline networks can make that happen through reaching out and mentoring. We also hope that some of the teachers from our education in technology episode will also sign up and help us start to pool resources into one place for teachers.

We covered some heavy ground in just over an hour, including how to use cultural differences to inspire students into careers in technology, new media, sciences and maths. The most interesting point made here was how encouraging other cultures were to students who wanted to learn, and how the often competitive, rote nature of education here in the States can hamper that enthusiasm and desire to stay on the technology or science path in school. That’s another issue we hope our grassroots campaign for mentoring will address, incorporating the cultures of some of our immigrants to make our own eduction system that much better.

Each of us also offered up tools fro our personal arsenal in how we dealt with various degrees of gender issues online. The advice each woman gave on communicating and overcoming communication differences was great, including an interesting discussion on what it means in perception for a woman to “speak with authority” and how to push past the often negative connotations of that. We also addressed the issues of objectification of women in technology and new media, and tendency for looks to over ride worth on the road to success in these fields. The answer to that was to create an effort as part of Strong Women in Tech to change how we market each other.

The greatest asset a woman has is the innate ability to collaborate, communicate and build consensus. We hope to change how we promote each other and thus the face of the stereotypical woman in technology to be more the face of every woman, and not just the face of shallow beauty. We hope to empower women to promote on worth, not on popularity. We understand that popularity will always play a part in success, as will image, however, popularity and image should not rule success. It is up to women to help other women succeed on more than just the “homecoming queen” mentality that can often prevail.

We want all women in tech to find a way to be a strong woman in tech. We want our daughters and grand daughters to live in a world free of gender bias, where it is the individual that counts. We know that Blog Her and other organizations are tackling the network building part of the issue, and now we want to use that network to branch out into the real world. It’s up to us. I think we are powerful enough to do it. If you agree, please come participate in the Ning group. We need your ideas, your connections, your networks and your time. See you on the Strong Women in Tech site!

I highly recommend giving the podcast a listen. It is about an hour and fifteen minutes long, and it captures the details and individual advice far better than I ever could in a simple recap. I’ve embedded it below.

Brief after show recap: This was a great episode where we got some major goals accomplished. I will be writing a full recap tomorrow here. Meanwhile, I encourage you to listen to the podcast and join the resulting Strong Women in Tech campaign network as well.

The final panel for Episode 6 of Topics on Fire has been set and the topic will be Part Two of Gender Gap / Technology/New Media. Myself (Leslie Poston), Shireen Mitchell of Women Wired In, Leslie Bradshaw (recently featured on CSPAN covering the conventions), Meg Fowler of MegFowler.com (currently helping promote SM4SC.com), and Jen Nedeau will be paneling this discussion. Tonight’s podcast will be solution focused, as Part One zeroed in on defining the issues.

“Follow” the show on TalkShoe or stop back here for updates on each episode and notifications that a new episode is coming.

The first podcast on the Gender Gap and Technology was a lively one. As you all know I am always trying to push for real world solutions to the problems we talk about, and we didn’t come up with takeaways in the limited time the panel had to discuss it. Because of that, I’m scheduling a Part 2. I’m hoping that the same panel is willing to come back and take a different approach: instead of rehashing the existing and past issue of gender and technology, as valid as that is, I’d like to start Part 2 by stipulating that the problem exists and acknowledging that strong men and women have done much to pave the way for women in technology. Then I’d like to make the sole goal of Part 2 finding tangible ways to help women feel less disenfranchised in technology, to help women get access to technology for careers and educations and as many other solutions as we can think of in an hour of positive, focused, goal oriented discussion.

Future Topics on Fire Episodes include:

(as panelists confirm I will post them next to the podcast)

10/19 11PM Eastern Episode 7, Politics and Technology (Leslie Bradshaw, remaining panelists yet to be determined)

Many in the online space remember Heather Armstrong, better known as Dooce, and how she was one of the first people to get fired for their blog. That seemed to be in keeping with the corporate climate then and now, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret: that needs to change. Almost every company should be tapping into the resources they already have to reach this new online space, especially in these times of a tight economy.

One of the first things I tell a new client is that part of the evaluation I make of their office is determining the existing resources they have to create a successful social media presence without undue expenditures on their part. I consider the employees of a company part of a company’s social media resources. I always recommend having me help them set a policy in their employee handbook that handles online presence and covers issues like privacy and basic conduct online, then include their existing staff in my training sessions.

Every employee has down time. Even the most over worked have a few minutes each day to play around online. I think companies who frown on corporate time used for a bit of personal fun are missing the mark. Yes, clear guidelines should be in place to make sure that your employees aren’t posting confidential information, and I do recommend choosing one or two “point people” to become the bulk of the company presence online, but there is no reason why your other employees can’t also disclose that they work for you, talk a bit about what they (and the company) do, and help make your brand more accessible.

The one or two “point people” you choose should be people able to get things done within the company. These people should become your help channel, your news conduit, your marketing source for social media. Think of them as the @comcastcares or @zappos for your brand. Then you should have other employees as minor points of information and news (Zappo is a great example of this in action as they have a number of employees on Twitter and other platforms). Above all else, everyone in the social media space for your company should be personable and make sure to include fun, personal tidbits in with the corporate. It makes your brand seem more likable, more accessible and creates a fan base for your service or product.

It is my opinion that anyone telling you to hire one person to be your company spokesperson online is leading you astray. Yes, you absolutely need social media training, a guide, if you will, to come in and help you and your employees learn the best practices of social media. This includes helping you pick the social media platform (or platforms) you are most comfortable with (not everyone needs Twitter, people) and learning how to use them in an effective and efficient way. It is much more cost effective to pay someone (yes, someone like me or others who do what I do) to come in and teach you how to help yourself online than it is to spend loads of money on an annual salary for one person to “brand you”. You are not a cow. Brand yourself - use existing resources, get some outside training and best practices in place, and let your employees really be part of the process. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the results.

FaceBook recently made news by starting to delete the user accounts of people who had joined solely for the purpose of playing a game called PackRat. Many are giving FaceBook kudos for deleting the accounts because of the spammy nature of the game, while others are condemning FaceBook for trying to dictate not only how people use its service (as evidenced by the recent forced ‘upgrade’ to the new design) but why they join in the first place.

Since FaceBook has given us a way to ignore all requests from any given application and a way to block applications, the first part of the equation doesn’t interest me at all. FaceBook users who think an application is spammy need only click “Ignore” to never see that application again, from anyone (trust me, after getting eleventybajillion Little Green Tree and Werewolf requests, I wanted to kiss FaceBook’s feet when that button came about).

What really grabs me is the second part of the equation. How much a site can and should dictate how new users find it, how they use it, and why they join in the first place has my undivided attention. Do I think PackRat is a spamaliscious application? Absolutely. Do I think there are more spammy application and (shudder) app-vertisements in our future? You know it. Do I think sites like FaceBook should ban people who join to play one of the games like this that could be considered spam by someone who isn’t into it? No, absolutely not.

I know that it isn’t the popular stance to take, but even on sites like Twitter I think that it isn’t why someone signs up that should be penalized. I think in the end the better thing to monitor is contribution. If the person signed on to play a game, and they “friend” other people who like to play the same game - that’s fine. That’s their community. Social media is about building your own community, after all.

Now, if they were trying to friend a ton of people and send them advertisements or other spam, I could see taking action. Twitter has a bit of an issue with spammers who have out of whack follower to following ratios and leave trojan-riddled links and such on their Twitter pages. I don’t want Twitter to block people for me, but when they see these spammers who are so obvious about abusing the system it is nice when they remove them. FaceBook should have similar criteria.

What do you think? Should the users of social network like FaceBook be able to dictate the kind of community they build, or should FaceBook?