Content management can be daunting, particularly if you have quite a bit of content to manage. The challenge that we face in the workplace of social media strategy is transforming that content into conversation.

Brian Solis compiled a list of  10 Steps Toward New Relevance  that I promptly sent to my colleagues as a reference point to my actions that are planned in the coming year.

It is difficult to get to know what people want to talk about without listening (a lot) and jumping in to start a conversation. The full experience of a full service arts organization like the one where I work, comes with a superabundance of material. Content includes the performances, the education, the community involvement, the lives of the artists, the work of the staff, the generosity of the volunteers, the brilliance of the management, etc.  All fine stories, but what do the people want to talk about?

We invest on the value of the content, it is now time to fully embrace the responsibility of innovative engagement. Bring value, acknowledging the experience.

When something is awesome, funny or horrible, people talk about it with their friends now on a viral scale.

• Are you a social media strategist? How do you engage authentic experiences?
• Do you use social media tools to tell your circle of influence about things? What calls you to action the most?

 Quick 3  posts saved on the Evernote not to miss:

-YouTube Redesigns Its Web Site to Promote Personalized Video Channels
-Facebook to Start Placing Ads in User News Feeds in January
-The New, New Twitter and What It Means to You and Your Business

photo credit

From The Female Farmer of Madison Creek Farms

No matter the platform of choice, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumbler, Vimeo etc etc etc., the focus on building audience and shaping conversation is solidly in the lap of one thing:  Content.

If you have great content, original or curated, you must be generating dialog that creates the action you are hoping for, right?  Maybe not so much.

I’ve been helping my clients understand that Content is vital. But in a great strategy, it is also about Context.  It’s pretty fun to decide what you want your conversation to be about and to lead people into that conversation. But if the people you have invited to the conversation find your content interesting, but not relevant to them.  They will bolt.

There are way too many other interesting shiny objects with other great content that they are being invited to check out. There is way too little time to spend on something that simply doesn’t matter. Or that your audience perceives, doesn’t matter.

It’s time to get subterranean with our communication strategies.  It’s not just the grass, it’s the grass roots we are looking for. The community you wish to engage is there, let’s be sure that our content is in context with what they are looking for to enhance their lives.

How are you keeping your content relevant and in context with your audience?

When I first started reading Charlene Li’s book; Open Leadership I was sure that I would discover some helpful tools for my clients.  I use a five step process to help small business and nonprofits learn how to formulate simple short term strategies that can help propel them forward with their communication goals. This process is simply enhanced by businesses and organizations that already have an open policy amongst themselves.  It is very hard to find the necessary  transparency level for outside communications if your own business structure is closed and tortured with micro-management.

I will be giving a workshop in Nashville on May 19th at the Bridge to Excellence Conference from the Center for Nonprofit Management. If you are near Nashville, I encourage you to attend.  By attending the workshop, you will be entered to win a copy of Charlene’s book!  And, by just attending, I’ll give you a coupon code to get this book that I helped write with the folks at Cool People Care .  Sweet deals.

A video invitation preview of the workshop on Open Leadership and Transparency using key tools from Altimeter Group’s Charlene Li’s book on the subject.

Can’t see the video? Please Click Here

Have you read this book yet? How have you learned to lead openly and transparently?

On the first Thursday and last Thursday of the month I will be posting some helpful ‘bits of tid’  that I used to post on the soon to be redone Cool People Care Blog.  All of my posts from 2010 are now found in the category cloud to the right of this post.   You can  click  the Social Media tab on the menu bar for a good sampling at anytime.  —–> Go ahead and explore.

I’ll be taking common questions from Cool People Care Partners and Carpe Diem Management clients about Blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, Branding, Mobile Tech and Creative Marketing and share what we learn along the way.  I’ll also have guest posts and share good reads that we find.

Where you land does matter

Lately I have been helping quite a few organizations with Facebook Landing Tabs.  You can get quite elaborate and do some extremely cool things.

Here are 2 good posts about it that use numbers in the title:

• 8 Powerful Ways to Use Facebook Landing Tabs

• 5 Stagering Ways to Create Custom Facebook Landing Tabs

We like to keep it simple at Carpe Diem Management. We use the FBML Ap provided already by Facebook. We help the client create an image, store it on the webiste or blog,  drop the code in and  BAM .. great landing tab!

You do have to really think about the content, the purpose, the audience and the action you are trying to solicit.  Actually, that is the important part.  We’ll talk about that in a couple of weeks.

Here are some sample Facebook Pages where our clients are using  brand new landing tabs:

Cultural CAFE LOVE THE CAFE

AEC Southern Lit Conference WELCOME

Bristol Rhythm CONCERT SERIES

The Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee 3 WAYS TO HELP

Public Art Kingsport CHOCOLATE CONTEST

Do you have a landing tab on your Facebook Page? Do you have more than one custom tab?

photo by F18E777 all rights reserved.

I recently heard a sermon over at my  favorite online, but also location based, church RevolutionNYC.  It served as an excellent reminder for me to  reflect on how my story of 2010 would read.   I’ve since discovered a cloud website devoted to these Six Word Stories as well as a Twitter feed.

A  video was created and posted on Facebook by one of  the RevolutionNYC attendees with audio from the Sunday sermon.

In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.

For sale: baby shoes, never used.

When I work with nonprofits and small businesses I always begin by asking them to describe their audience and then  help them their story to each of those audiences.  It can be difficult to  create a condensed version of a larger thing.  To create a story that requires the listener to ask the personal questions, to involve themselves in the narrative, can be a powerful thing. These six words can become company tag-lines, mission statements and branding tools.  Most of all, they cause the story teller to reduce the very large into the small.  It requires thoughtful reflection and a motivation to start the conversation and not just shout from the bull-horn.

My six word story for 2010:

Received help. Gave time. Life changed.

As we start 2011, what is your six word story for yourself, your business or nonprofit?