Tag

Marijean Jaggers

Feb 08
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The 6 Reasons Social Media Immersion is the Right Choice for Executives

By Communications

Photo credit: Liam Dunn

For years, people have offered to pay me for my time to sit and walk them through social media and help them figure out a plan for growing and using their social networks.  Until I began Jaggers Communications I couldn’t devote time to share my expertise on that level, but the demand continued.

In response to that demand, I developed Social Media Immersion for the Executive. Here’s why it works:

  1. Clients at the executive level do not want to attend a workshop, seminar or class to get up to speed in social media; they want one-on-one attention and a focused one-shot time to cover the basics of what they need to know over a few hours’ time.
  2. In the Immersion session, any question, no matter how basic or advanced, can be asked and answered.
  3. Executives come away with a concrete plan of action to continue to work from, continuing on a path to greater understanding and benefits of social media engagement.
  4. Time is a huge factor; a full or half-day session will help make sure all social media engagement is efficient and meaningful.
  5. The Immersion session is confidential; a crash course in social media is not something all executives want shared.
  6. The results are immediate; before the session has ended, the client’s social profile and network will be upgraded, goals will be in place and direction will have clarity and purpose.

Is there a CEO, CFO or other executive you know who could benefit from an Immersion session? Are you interested in learning more?

Feb 02
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Social Media Assignment #5: Find Your Tweeps

By Communications

I let you have a few days off; call them virtual snow days. Now, back to work!

If you’re not on Twitter, go set up an account at www.twitter.com We’ll wait.

If you’ve ignored that last line, still don’t have a Twitter account and yet are still reading this post (tough room), here’s the deal — you want a Twitter account in the name of your choosing yesterday. If you don’t grab your name, or the name you want it will be gone (if it is not already). So even if you’re not quite ready to tweet, grab your name (and make sure you tweet a little or you will lose it.)

/digression.

You have a Twitter account and you’re following a few people; some are friends or bloggers you follow, others found you and you’re simply following them back.

Today’s Social Media Assignment: Find People to Follow on Twitter

Go to http://www.tweepz.com

Conduct a search using query tools, for example:

name: “Marijean Jaggers”

or

loc: Charlottesville, Va.

Use keywords to help you find the people you seek. Realize that, as usual, search is only as good as the information to find, so if people haven’t completed their biographical information, they may be more difficult to find. THIS IS A NUDGE TO GO COMPLETE YOUR BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

Ahem. Subtlety is not my strong suit.

Let’s see who we can follow, shall we?

For fun, I did a search for people with “business” in their bio, entering: bio: business.

Naturally the return was a huge number of users; more than 25,000. The next step when something like this happens is to refine your search by excluding extracted entities. Because I speak English, I start by excluding other languages, then I’ll move to excluding users who don’t follow anyone and so on down the line until I’ve created a more specifically generated list of people I want to follow.

You may be doing this exercise for yourself or for a client — if you’re generating this information for monitoring purposes, you can create an RSS feed to follow the search.

I hope this helps you develop new relationships via Twitter and you find it as beneficial as I have.

Jan 27
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Social Media Assignment #3: I’m Just Not that Into Your Title

By Communications

See this?

It’s what LinkedIn calls my “Professional Headline.”

A professional headline is not your title.

Let me repeat: A professional headline should not be your title.

If, in this space, you’ve proudly put President, Vice President, Manager, Associate or what-have-you, then you’re missing an opportunity. In this space, rather than inserting the general, commonplace label your company has given you, put in key words that describe what it is you do. This helps others in your field, or those looking for someone just like you to find you.

Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of Vice Presidents out there, aren’t there, but there’s only one of you, right?

Today’s Social Media Assignment

My professional headline includes: “Social media strategy consultant, public relations professional, media trainer, public speaker, social media educator,” — list some phrases that describe what you do. If you need to, seek input from others at work. If you’re looking for a job or a new opportunity, think about including words that would help you be found in a search for someone fitting that description. Above all, take the time today to edit this part of your social profile and stop being lumped in with all the other people in the world who share your title, but nothing else.

Thank you to John Heaney who included me in the astute post, Avoiding the Top 5 LinkedIn Mistakes.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Jan 26
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Social Media Assignment #2: Show us Your Face

By Communications

I’ve been pretty adamant on this point because I believe in it so firmly.

It’s really important to show your face in social media. I see a lot of companies using a logo rather than an image of the actual person behind the tweets — I get that in some cases, there are multiple Twitter contributors to a single account. But often that’s not the case. So for single-user Twitter accounts, it is imperative to provide an image that reflects you; who you are right now (not as a four-year-old, as I am depicted to the left).

Here’s why this is important: when you’re meeting with someone for the first time, you are providing them a sense of comfort by allowing them to recognize you at first sight.

It’s not about you; it’s about what you’re doing for others.

If you’re squeamish about your own image, (trust me, I get it; I’m constantly fussing over bad hair or bags under my eyes) think about this: Roger Ebert lost his chin, jaw and, in fact the lower portion of his face due to cancer. He’s never shied away from showing us his face. If he can do it, well, come on!

Now it’s OK to be silly (see left) or seasonal (also left, at Easter) as long as it looks like you. My point here, is you do not need to hire a photographer to capture an image of you to use on social platforms.

However!

If you want to appear professional, if you want to look good, you should absolutely leave it to the experts and hire someone to give you a headshot you’re happy to share. Digital images can be captured in the dozens, giving you the chance to select from several “takes” — choose one you are satisfied with so that you will really use it everywhere you can.

Today’s Social Media Assignment:

Find or make an appointment to get that image of your face you’re happy to show the world. Wear something that doesn’t distract from what you look like; unless you wear a hat all the time (I’m looking at you, John Feminella), don’t wear a hat in the photo. The idea is to make yourself as recognizable as possible; it’s one of the best ways to really be human in your virtual social network.

Special thanks to Angie Brement Photography for professional headshots I’m happy to use!


Jan 18
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4 Reasons I Teach What I Do

By Communications

Photo credit: www.cramerphoto.com

You may have asked yourself, why is it that I teach what I do?

Why do I  give away trade secrets, processes and best practices to marketing directors, potential clients and business owners.

It’s really pretty simple, actually. I’m not crazy; I am making a living doing this, and the reason why is found in the reasons why I teach what I do:

  1. An informed client is a good client. More than 15 years of experience has taught me that a client who understands public relations, social media and communications values the service they’re engaging their firm to provide. A good client who values what you do gets results when they take counsel and pays you on time.
  2. I really like teaching other marketers and entrepreneurs and, based on all the feedback I’ve had over the years, I know I’m really good at it. It gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction.
  3. More often than not, even while workshop participants are learning about tools and tactics, they’re thinking, great: I’d love to hire someone else to manage this for us. I have an idea of who that might be.
  4. I walk the talk as much as I can. When I talk about the element of the culture of social media that is sharing, I really believe in it. I share what I know so others can be successful.

Learn more: register for the Blogging Best Practices Workshop in Charlottesville, Va. on Feb. 24, 2011.