Archive for the 'newparadigmtech' Category

5 steps for hosting a successful online event

Published by
Michaela
at August 18, 2009 in Education, Non-profit, Social-networking, Technology, Web 2.0, newparadigmtech and nptech. 0 Comments

Last week my colleague Colleen and I supported  a groundbreaking, education summit in New Mexico: “Unleashing Knowledge and Innovation for the Next Generation of Learning”, convened by the Stupski Foundation, West Wind Education Policy, and the Knowledge Alliance.  Besides making silly videos in our off-time, I had a bit of time to reflect about what makes an online component to a conference successful.  I came up with the following 5 steps, which I elaborated on over at Forum One’s “Influence” blog. I’d love to know what you think makes online events successful. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

1. Know your audience
This seems like a no-brainer, but oftentimes people omit this step and move straight to the technology.  Knowing your audience: what they want to get out of the online portion of the event, what you hope they do online during the event, and what their relative technical expertise is are critical pieces to this puzzle and all should ultimately inform your event web strategy.

2. Use media to your advantage
There are lots of great social media tools that can enhance an in-person event, but you don’t have to do everything! (And you shouldn’t try to!) Pick a few tools and use them well.

3. Be creative AND flexible
Don’t be afraid to try something different - there is no set recipe for success. Plan ahead and try out new techniques for online engagement, but don’t be afraid to switch direction mid-stream. You never know what you’ll find on-the-ground at a conference site and you may need to change your strategy depending on people’s access to the Internet, their comfort with the tools, etc.

4. Empower people, let them own the technology and the messages
You can’t do it all yourself, and you shouldn’t! Part of the fun of using online tools during an event is the way in which technology decentralizes communication and conversation across participants and presenters.

5. Have fun!
Just because an event is a professional activity doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Using online tools to explore the conference culture, the side conversations, the jokes, and the social experience is a great way to break up more dense content.

Tweeting and Flickring, the non profit way

Published by
Michaela
at June 13, 2008 in Non-profit, Social-networking, Technology, Web 2.0, newparadigmtech and nptech. 1 Comment

This past week was one full of lots of social media goodness. Monday I was interviewed by Kami Griffiths of TechSoup, for a non profit webinar on Twitter and Flickr. The recording of the event is located here, in case you weren’t able to attend, and there is a nice round-up here (thanks Philanthropy Potluck!).

On Tuesday, TechSoup followed up the event with an online forum discussing Twitter, which I co-hosted with Marshall Kirkpatrick.

To top it all off, I held my first office hours for NTEN, which incidentally will re-occur every Tuesday from 3-4 pm EST here, if you’re interested in stopping by! In case you have other questions I might not cover, definitely check out the office hours schedule, there are some great folks volunteering their time!

Big thanks to everyone who participated in some or all of these events this week. It was great to have some friendly faces stop by, and awesome to make some new connections with folks dedicated to using social media for good. I am particularly amazed and inspired by organizations who are using both Twitter and Flickr for so many diverse things. I’ve even found my own self reevaluating my thoughts and strategies for these tools based on some of the great topics that were discussed.

In case you missed the Twitter forum, where the bulk of discussion took place, we chatted about:

Continue reading ‘Tweeting and Flickring, the non profit way’

Girls with Macs conference wrap-up: what have the past few weeks taught?

Published by
Michaela
at April 4, 2008 in 08NTC, Non-profit, SXSW, Technology, WWT, Web 2.0, newparadigmtech and nptech. 1 Comment

After attending all of these big tech conferences lately - SXSW, NTC, and Women Who Tech - the trend I’ve taken closest to heart has nothing to do with technology at all. It actually involves doing the opposite of what this fast-paced industry has been pushing for years: slowing down.

OK, we’ve all equally enjoyed puttering around on Facebook, uploading images to Flickr and seeing how many comments we’d get, putting together photo books on Blurb, and building our own social networks in Ning, but now the initial “woah” has worn off (or there’s just too much damn stuff to keep track of) and it’s a good reminder to return to the business practices communications folks have been practicing for years: planning, frameworks, and process.

Web 2.0 applications don’t happen in a vacuum. They’re fun, definitely addictive, and continuously challenge us to look at what we do in new ways, but there is one thing they also consume of us - our time. We all know in the back of our heads that using these pieces of technology *should* have a purpose. Granted, I’m sure we’ve all thrown together a blog because the boss said so, or set up a Facebook presence because the folks at *that* campaign did it. The point is, getting the basics together upfront will pay off dearly in spades later on.

Continue reading ‘Girls with Macs conference wrap-up: what have the past few weeks taught?’

NTC ‘08 big takeaways [for me]

Published by
Michaela
at March 25, 2008 in 08NTC, Non-profit, Technology, newparadigmtech and nptech. 0 Comments

Michaela in New Orleans

On the trolley with Rose, Amy, and Laura

I’m still behind on my personal wrap-up of NTC ‘08, but work keeps getting in the way and I’m trying to make sure I don’t forget the big lessons I learned with all you awesome folks down in NOLA. The personal impressions and friendships aren’t going to fade anytime soon, and will be waiting when I have a breath of fresh air.

The following is a summary of my favorite takeaways. The list may seem long, and some items may seem more elementary than others, but I think all have significant value in the success of an organization’s online strategy.

Google Analytics, Know your website, one hour a day

  • Never let your data be lonely. Pair up your data with other data.
  • Industry benchmarks - when you choose to share your data with the rest of the world, you get to see their data too.
  • Goal Conversion tab - segmentation. How well does direct traffic do with “goals” we’ve set.
  • Bounce isn’t always bad. If you’re a blog, they read 10 posts and leave. If bounce rate is 100%, you have to take it in context.
  • Setup Google Analytics filters to follow the analytics of paths you want your users to take.

For more summaries of Google Adwords, SEO, the new paradigm of marketing, and the joy of CMS, please keep reading :).

Continue reading ‘NTC ‘08 big takeaways [for me]‘

Harnessing the unpredictability of youth (or wishing you could) Part I

Published by
Michaela
at September 20, 2007 in Blogging, Education, Non-profit, Technology, Web 2.0 and newparadigmtech. 0 Comments

In the spirit of Beth’s recap of Amy’s strategy, here’s a go at combining work notes with blogging (and breaking it into pieces that are manageable)…

So it’s been a little over two weeks into our study abroad blogging pilot, and in my opinion, the experience so far has been a success, if not also a great learning opportunity. All students are finally on-board with blogging accounts, and almost everyone has written at least one post, with several writing more than that. I’m particularly encouraged about the potential of this technology, as several of the students physically signed up for blogging accounts when they already were situated in their host countries [testing the limitations of the local technology].

The posts are engaging and interesting, and definitely provide some great fodder showing future students what their experience might be like. It’s been a lot of fun re-living the study abroad experience through our students, while also learning more about the structure of our programs (since I am new to the organization). I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed that the Flickr component hasn’t really caught on yet, but I’m waiting for students to feel completely comfortable with Typepad before I send out another email reminding them that we have it, and encouraging its use.
Continue reading ‘Harnessing the unpredictability of youth (or wishing you could) Part I’