Using Twitter in FE
The concept of Twitter sounds ridiculous. Millions of people, businesses and organisations who choose to document their daily lives through short messages of 140 characters or less. To many, it looks like another social networking fad similar to MySpace – and let’s be honest, keeping on top of your e-mails is bad enough, right?
Wrong. This particular social networking site has exploded in the last few years, revolutionising the way millions of people discuss, organise and market themselves. If you’re a college, Sixth Form or any other kind of FE professional, now is the perfect time to jump in and take advantage of the service. Or, if you’re already an active user, it’s always worth picking up a few extra tips to see where you could improve.
Twitter is a great way to boost the influence of your marketing strategy. The messages you ‘tweet’ are immediate and have the potential to reach more than 200 million people at any one time. It provides an opportunity for other users to give you instant feedback on what they think of your ideas, projects and offers. With such a small character limit it’s a quick and simple tool to keep on top of, attracting the prying eyes of potential readers with a single scan. No long press releases, no group e-mails and no long-winded phone calls to worry about.
Creating an online debate has never been easier thanks to Twitter. Are you considering whether or not to scrap a particular subject? Or do you want to know what everyone else thinks of the latest fee policy? A quick tweet and you could have a large selection of people telling you what they think. With the right use of hash-tags, it’s the perfect way to take a quick reading of public opinion, or even join in with the latest discussions trending worldwide.
It’s also personal. Anyone can ‘mention’ you with a quick question or comment, allowing instant communication and rapport with your audience. For students and professionals alike, it breaks down the first wall of contact to make conversations quick and simple. Networking with important figures and organisations has never been easier.
Best of all, it’s free. The only resource it uses is time – and even that, I’d argue, is a small price to pay considering the business and public service opportunities that it offers.
Download your copy of the FE Week Twitter Supplement from here (1.4mb): http://www.feweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Twitter-supplement-hi-RES.pdf
Watch a twitter video tutorial created by FE Week: http://youtu.be/iFn4Q61OsJk
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Paul Champion
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WORKPLACE SOCIAL MEDIA
WORKPLACE SOCIAL MEDIA
Maria Ogneva is the head of community at Yammer, where she is in charge of social media, community programs, internal education and engagement. You can follow her on Twitter, her blog, and via Yammer’s Twitter account and company blog.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably witnessed (or maybe even been a part of) office communication mishaps that have ranged from mildly embarrassing to career-ending. Early in my career, I witnessed a rogue email chain which spoke of a client in offensive terms. The email accidentally got forwarded to said client. Oops!
No matter how sophisticated our use of social media, we must always be aware of its breadth. It’s easy to feel anxiety over saying the wrong thing, but if you know how to use it well, social media in the office can and should benefit your career.
Therefore, adapt the golden rule to the digital era: Think before you post, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To make sure you are putting your best digital foot forward, follow these easy steps.
1. Understand Company Policy, Best Practices and Culture
If your office hosts an internal social network or digital collaboration space, understand what types of interactions are considered valuable (helping a coworker, for example), vs. actions that would be frowned upon (posting pictures of LOLcats all day). And always stay away from violations of your company policy (like harassment). Make sure you understand not only the written policy, but also the company culture – each company has its own stated and unspoken rules of conduct.
Global consultancy firm Capgemini talks about its use of Yammer, my company’s social network. “Yammer is shared with colleagues in the company — not just your close colleagues — but potentially EVERYONE, from your manager all the way up to the CEO…Our company values are: Honesty, Freedom, Trust, Boldness, Team Spirit, Modesty, and FUN.”
2. Company Communities Evolve Best Practices and Policies
Policy and culture aren’t static — they grow and develop organically, through a community-wide effort. Kate Dobbertin, community manager of one global company’s Yammer network, notes, “I look to the community to foster an open, caring community together. It’s not something I can control alone — the entire community must set the standards for what is or isn’t acceptable.”
In global companies, the definitions of etiquette are tougher to pin down. Ed Krebs, IT architect for Ford Motor Company, shared, “By allowing the community to define, and continually redefine how to communicate, those global differences that were barriers now become points to reshape together. The community gently informs each other about the nuances of language and the alternate interpretation of slang. We needed no new policy, respect is a key ingredient in our corporate code of conduct.”
3. Mixing Personal and Professional
When communicating over your company’s digital channels, your focus should be on getting your work done and helping your colleagues get their work done. On the other hand, mixing a bit of your own “flavor” is always a good thing – humans want to connect with other humans. But remember that you can easily cross the line from approachable to overly personal to the point of discomfort. Ask yourself, “Could this make someone feel uncomfortable?”
4. Public vs. Private Spaces
GOSSIP
Take a few minutes to understand the boundary between public and private spaces. Having a clear goal will help you select the right medium and audience. Are you sharing something brilliant that can help others in general, or starting a discussion that will specifically benefit your company? Is it a message that should be public, but benefits a niche audience? Post it to a group. If it’s an action you want just a few people to take, send a private message or an email. Remember the key difference: Emails and IMs are disruptive, while streams provide “ambient awareness.” Don’t be that guy who CCs 20 colleagues with something irrelevant.
5. Be Mindful in Private
A quick word of caution: Just because you post to a private space or send a note to someone’s inbox, doesn’t mean it won’t find its way into the hands of someone else later. If you trash someone in an email, there’s always a chance that this person may see it – whether accidentally or on purpose. It’s always best to protect your reputation by abstaining whenever possible.
6. The New York Times Test
Before writing anything to anyone — publicly or privately — ask yourself if you’d mind seeing it on the front page of the New York Times. That’s exactly what Erin Grotts, director of internal communications at Supervalu tells her colleagues. “We tell people not to post anything that would embarrass you or the company…Would you be comfortable if it ran on the front page of the New York Times?”
Beldner encourages her colleagues to ask, “Would I say this to my company’s president and deputy general counsel in front of 1,000+ other employees?”
7. Become an Expert
If you want to be perceived as an expert, you need to contribute to the conversation. When someone asks a question that you can answer — go for it! Proactively share things that are interesting and ask thought-provoking questions. Remember, though, that quantity doesn’t mean quality.
Maximize your exposure by allowing others to find you. When posting to a public space, anyone can see your message, but there’s always a chance that the right people won’t. To maximize your visibility, post to the right groups and use the right taxonomy, such as hashtags, topics, and public @mentions.
8. Respect Privacy
PRIVACY
Just because someone told you something in another channel, doesn’t give you the license to repost it automatically, unless it was posted in a public space like Twitter, which is indexable by Google. If you’d like to repost something, make sure that the original author has approved. Exercise the same caution when adding new participants to an existing email thread or a private group – make sure that existing participants feel comfortable that this new person will be able to see what’s already been written.
9. Remember the Golden Rule
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Treat your colleagues the way you’d want to be treated at work. Ask yourself, “Would I want to do a project with myself? What about grab lunch?” Don’t be the employee who publicly shames a co-worker to coerce him into action. Don’t go directly to someone’s boss instead of addressing that employee first. Never write something out of anger, spite or personal vendetta. Basically, don’t overstep your boundaries.
A great reminder from the folks at Capgemini: “In the same way that we moderate our conversations in the office, so we should apply similar moderation to our posts in Yammer…Be polite; try to be constructive; don’t be offensive.”
Back to you, reader! How do you observe etiquette at work, while still retaining your uniqueness? What kinds of guidelines does your company have for work-related social networks?
Paul Champion
www.changethewayyouthink.co.uk
www.apprenticeshipblog.com
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Lucy aims to give a little back with new scheme by Iain Laing, The JournalJan 23 2012
A FORMER apprentice from County Durham is going back to her roots to help others in the North East as she was once helped herself.
With youth unemployment rising to fresh highs, particularly in the North East, Lucy Marshall has set up a new apprenticeship service, I Love Apprenticeships. The service aims to help young people on the road to successful careers.
Marshall herself entered an apprenticeship scheme at the start of her career and the help and support she received at this time provided her with the platform to gain valuable work experience and qualifications.
She has decided to set up the new service so that others can also benefit from the same level of support.
She said: “I have really benefited from engaging with the apprenticeship scheme and really believe in the benefits that it can have for young people of all abilities.
“I want young people to know they can carry out an apprenticeship and then continue on to university if they wish, just like me.
“It’s fair to say that I wouldn’t have been able to have had such a rewarding career without it and I’m really looking forward to helping others achieve the same.”
Paul Cox, retail manager for Milbry Hill said he was impressed by the service Marshall provided to his business.
“We had never thought about employing an apprentice until we met Lucy,” he said. “We will be looking to recruit more apprentices in the future after realising the enormous benefits an apprentice makes to a company.”
Marshall said she believed it was important that young people made the correct decisions from the outset of their careers.
“I place a big emphasis on the advice and guidance aspect of my service,” she said.
“If people can make the right choices now, their future career paths can be a lot easier.
“Having been through the apprenticeship scheme myself I can really relate to the young people I work with and give them support that is needed.
“With the experience of working in the apprenticeship industry that I now have, I am able to offer a high level of practical advice.”
Paul Champion
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Infographic “Tablet adoption in business”
Paul Champion
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Infographic “Choosing a Career”
Paul Champion
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Northern Lights (Taken with instagram)
OnLive Desktop brings Windows 7, Office apps to your iPad Posted Jan 9th 2012 6:15PM by Victor Agreda, Jr.
WOW!!!
If you haven’t heard of OnLive before, get ready to hear a lot more about them in 2012. The streaming company has been around for a few years, but is just now making some major inroads into streaming all sorts of services to your iPad.
I was anxious to see what OnLive Desktop had to offer. Basically, it’s like having a full computer experience on your iPad. Specifically, OnLive Desktop will drop you straight into Windows 7, and from there you can tap to launch the ubiquitous Office products. Similar to the existing CloudOn or Desktone systems but supercharged with OnLive’s streaming tech, the intention is to give you a remote computing ‘thin client’ with the full power of the desktop productivity apps.
Check out a video of OnLive over at Engadget. For now, know that OnLive will be offering this service in tiers, starting with a free service that comes with 2 GB of cloud storage and access to a limited suite of office apps. Later there will be a Pro version, starting at $9.99 a month, with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority server access, more apps and accelerated browsing. And then there’s an Enterprise offering that’ll allow the kind of control and customization you’d expect if deploying this to dozens or hundreds of client iPads.
OnLive is one of the tech companies I have been watching for a while, and I’m terribly excited by what they are doing. Unfortunately, the company hasn’t done a great job of explaing and marketing their product, which means (for now) it’s something you have to try it before you believe. Still, at free, and launching on January 12, pretty soon you’ll be able to try out OnLive Desktop for yourself. Check out the press release below if you dare.
Full Windows® Apps, Including Microsoft® Office, Delivered Instantly from the Cloud
Palo Alto, CA – January 9, 2012 – OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of instant-action cloud computing, announced that it is bringing the first no-compromise Windows desktop to iPad® through its free OnLive™ Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes® App Store. OnLive Desktop provides instant access to full-featured, media-rich Windows 7 applications, including Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® software, remotely hosted on powerful PC servers in the cloud.
Based upon OnLive’s instant-action cloud gaming technology, OnLive Desktop delivers a seamless Windows desktop experience, with instant-response multi-touch gestures, together with a full on-screen Windows keyboard and handwriting recognition, enabling complete and convenient viewing and editing of even the most complex documents. Rich media, such as video, animation, slide transitions and even PC games, never before practical via remote desktop delivery, run fluidly and dynamically with instant-action interactivity. OnLive Desktop makes remote feel local.
“OnLive Desktop is the first app to deliver a no-compromise, media-rich Windows desktop experience to iPad, opening up powerful new possibilities for consumers and businesses,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. “iPad users will now be able to simply and securely view and edit cloud-hosted documents with full-featured Windows desktop applications like Microsoft Office, just as if they were using a local high-performance PC. Multi-touch gestures respond instantly and smoothly, while HD videos, animations and PC video games-never before usable on a remote desktop-play seamlessly.”
The FREE* OnLive Desktop app comes with 2 GB of secure cloud storage and as-available access to a cloud-based Windows 7 desktop pre-populated with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus several utilities and touch games. Using instant-response touch gestures such as pinch and zoom, flick to scroll, drag, drop and Aero snap, users can quickly and easily navigate files, open, edit and save the ones they need, and store them securely in the cloud for access from any device through a simple Web interface. PC apps have full desktop functionality: Word documents can be created and edited with full redline and commenting capability, using a full Windows touch-screen keyboard, handwriting recognition or Bluetooth keyboard. PowerPoint presentations can be created with rich graphics, videos and animated slide transitions, and even presented directly from the iPad, either onscreen or via an external monitor. Data can be updated and analyzed instantly in Excel, translated into graphs and transferred into presentation documents. With OnLive Desktop, work is now possible anywhere you have an iPad and Internet connectivity, with the immediacy, functionality and responsiveness of a local PC.
The Free OnLive Desktop app for iPad is just the tip of the iceberg. Android®, smartphones, PC, Mac® and monitor/TV support (via the OnLive MicroConsole™ thin client with Bluetooth keyboard/mouse) are coming soon, with your same OnLive Desktop available by login from any device. Your OnLive Desktop can be accessed anywhere, on any device, at any resolution.
OnLive Desktop Pro is coming soon, with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority access, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing, additional PC apps, and other OnLive-unique features for just $9.99/month.
OnLive Enterprise will be available for businesses and organizations of all sizes, seeking centralized, secure computing resources, as well as Independent Software Vendors seeking to deliver custom applications. With OnLive Enterprise, IT departments have full control of user entitlements/access privileges to both retail and ISV applications, while enabling users to access the same applications through any device. For example, a hospital can entitle different levels of records access to doctors, receptionists and patients, with full privacy, whether data is viewed on a smartphone, computer, on an easily-sterilized tablet in an examining room, or even on a hospital room TV. No user data is left behind on any device, so records remain secure if a device is lost or stolen. (IT professionals and ISVs, please contact OnLive at enterprise@onlive.com for OnLive Enterprise details and pricing.)
OnLive Desktop Pro and Enterprise support exclusive OnLive collaborative services. Building on the same proven technology as the massive spectating Arena of the OnLive Game Service, OnLive securely enables as many as thousands of simultaneous users to view one or many OnLive Desktops from any device, with live spectating and group chat, and multi-user control. Whether using OnLive collaborative services as a shared document reader or virtual whiteboard in a small workgroups, for chatting over home videos among far-flung family members, or for lecturing with Q&A to an audience of thousands of students around the world, OnLive provides instant, media-rich collaboration.
The OnLive Desktop iPad app will be available Thursday to U.S. customers for free in the iTunes App Store, and will be released soon in the UK. Customers are encouraged to sign up early for their free OnLive account, available today at www.desktop.onlive.com. For more information, visit www.desktop.onlive.com.
Tags: desktop, iPad, office, onlive, onlive desktop, OnliveDesktop, streaming, windows 7, Windows7
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— Post From My Amazing Wandering iPhone
Paul Champion
www.changethewayyouthink.co.uk
www.apprenticeshipblog.com
Www.travelwithchampo.co.uk
Mobile: 07540 704920
E-mail: champo@mac.com
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Twitter: ChangeTWYT
iPad at Work: with a Custom App for the UK’s Prime Minister Patrick Jordan
We’ve known for a long time that the UK”s Prime Minister, David Cameron, is an iPad user. Now it looks like he’s set to be getting even more job-related use out of it. TUAW reports today that a custom iPad app is being written for the Prime Minister.
The app, which is being developed in-house by Cabinet Office programmers, will allow the PM to view crime statistics, unemployment figures, NHS waiting list data, and other useful facts and figures for citing at cabinet meetings, Question Time, and wherever else they come in handy.
Always good to see when a world leader is tech-savvy and using technology well to stay informed.
— Post From My Amazing Wandering iPhone
Paul Champion
www.changethewayyouthink.co.uk
www.apprenticeshipblog.com
Www.travelwithchampo.co.uk
Mobile: 07540 704920
E-mail: champo@mac.com
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/champo
Twitter: ChangeTWYT
