May 05
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Five Actions to Take on your Facebook Business Page Right Now

By Communications
  1. Grab your vanity URL by going to www.facebook.com/username (you must have 25+ fans to qualify) so your URL will look something like this: http://www.facebook.com/JaggersCommunications
  2. Go to Edit Page and Manage Permissions — at the bottom, choose Strong if you don’t want any profanity on your page, medium if you don’t mind a little, or none if you’re a member of the George Carlin club (link NSFW if you read it out loud).
  3. Go to Edit Page (again) and click on Featured. Manage the links to page you like that show up in the sidebar on YOUR page. (Consider featuring clients, partners, top customers, etc.)
  4. On the same section as #3, select a featured page owner or owners. This helps people see who the humans are behind your business to know with whom they’re interacting on the page.

  5. This is the badge for CHOAirport

    Back on Edit Page under Marketing, select create a badge and then, well, create a badge and put that on your website.

Stay tuned for future posts featuring more smart ideas for your Facebook Business page.

May 04
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The Difference One Can Make in Social Media: the Abolish Cancer Story

By Communications

In 2009, My friend Darah Bonham had a nugget of an idea — how could a platform like Twitter be used to connect people and make a difference? Could Twitter somehow be used to abolish cancer?

That idea took off with a feed began and updated by Darah in October of that year. www.twitter.com/abolishcancer is the first Twitter feed solely founded to generate donations to cancer-battling charities. It works by engaging sponsors who pledge to donate $1 for each new Twitter follower for the @abolishcancer feed on a given day. Celebrities and consumer brands have gotten into the act, re-tweeting to help generate followers (thus bumping up the pledge).

Darah recently announced his resignation from his day job to focus on Abolish Cancer as a full-time venture. He’ll be working to share the story of the organization, to continue to generate interest in the cause, sponsors and donations to help fight the battle against cancer.

I’m eager to see Darah succeed and hope you’ll lend your support by following and re-tweeting @abolishcancer

Visit http://www.abolishcancer.com/ to see more than 100 celebrities supporting the cause and to find out more about the organization.

 

May 03
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10 Reasons I Like Working at OpenSpace, A Collaborative Work Space

By Communications

Photo credit: Todd Wickersty

I am a huge fan of OpenSpace, the collaborative workspace that opened in downtown Charlottesville a couple of years ago. You can find me there pretty often and when I host workshops or large client meetings, it is my location of choice.

Here are 10 reasons I like it, and I think you will too:

  1. I get to be around other smart people like John Feminella or Cathy Pales; people who give off energy and creativity like sparks and who are just pleasant to be with, in the same room. It is certainly nice to network with people in person once in awhile rather than solely online.
  2. OpenSpace is clean, well-lit and consistently maintained, which is more than I can say for my home office.
  3. There are always drinks and snacks, in case I’m in hard-core deadline mode and can barely stop long enough for a decent break.

    I took this with my phone!

  4. It’s perfectly situated and set up for the many workshops I deliver to small (20 or fewer participants) groups; the conference rooms I use are always comfortable, set up perfectly and ready to provide a professional backdrop to my content.
  5. The chairs are green, super cool and comfortable to sit in for hours at a time.
  6. OpenSpace is a stone’s throw from the downtown mall, making it a convenient landing space for me to work in between meetings.
  7. It’s not my house! For someone who works independently from home, it is a relief to be able to get out among other working people in a focused environment where there are no a) dogs b) kids c) Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door.

  8. Photo credit: www.cramerphoto.com

    It’s not a coffee shop! Don’t get me wrong — I love coffee and the places where I buy it, but those places are not always ideal environments for getting serious work done. Often, there’s a lack of seating, outlets or space to spread out. You never have that at OpenSpace.

  9. OpenSpace is right next to the gym. Excuses just fly out the window!
  10. The culture fostered by working in a collaborative environment is interesting, friendly and kinda (dare I use this word) intellectual. I love looking at the faces of my “coworkers” deep in concentration or at the moment they find a solution. And because I don’t actually work with any of them, it’s the first zero-politics work environment I’ve ever had.

Try OpenSpace for free, and tell them I sent you!

If you are not in Charlottesville, and the idea of a collaborative workspace appeals to you, keep talking about it; every market should have a space like this one — if you’re in Charlottesville and have only heard of the space, check it out.

Apr 29
Love0

Taking the Online, Off Line: BlogVille

By Social Media

I am a big believer and promoter in the practice of taking online relationships off line and in person. I believe that the virtual relationship is cemented in that voice-to-voice conversation or in-person encounter. Sure, long-term and solid relationships can begin and even thrive online, but if you have the chance to meet in real life, why not take it. That is one of the many features of events like BlogVille and other social media or blogger gatherings. People who have interacted in one way or another finally come face to face and magic happens. I was so energized by the conversations around collaboration happening all around me at BlogVille and by watching faces light up when recognition happened for those who only knew one another by a Twitter handle.

When’s the last time you took an online relationship off line?