In the last edition of Channels we learned about communication tools that spanned the gamut. From electronic newsletter services to blogging and file organization, we looked at a good sampling of communication essentials. In this follow up edition, we’ll look at resources for live streaming, media editing and project management.

As mentioned in part one, this is merely a sampling of tried and tested tools you can use to keep up to speed with today’s technology. As churches and non-profits, I know we’re looking for tools that are affordable and if we can find them–free.

I’d love to hear about what you’re using. Send me a message or share a link online–let’s help one another out in swimming through this sea of information!

You blog. You’re on facebook. You even tweet. How do you make all of these channels work together to communicate a strong brand? This section will address the why and how of promoting your blog once you’ve set it up and are ready to share your post[s].

Why promote the blog?

Though some folks are pretty good at shameless self promotion, that’s not what the majority of social media users are about. We’ve heard it before: it’s about content and it’s about conversation and authenticity. So, why promote a blog? Here are a few reasons:

1. Get (and stay) connected. Yes, it’s about relationships. Web 2.0 [or whatever iteration we’re on now] is fabulous for reaching out and networking with folks we may not have otherwise ‘met.’ Some folks have called channels like twitter, a cocktail party#. You meet folks, exchange info and you’re friends/followers. Promoting your blog allows you to sustain those connections with good content. You may even get a guest blogger out of this. Win win.
2. Gain new users and build audiences. If we’re in the business of spreading the digital media gospel, we have to be about evangelizing folks. We have good content going for the FTM blog, but it’s no good if we’re an echo chamber. Our relationships or word of mouth may drive them here, but content will keep them as audiences.
3. Conversation. It’s not a one way street. We should expect conversation and comments from our posts. That probably means that we’re also asking questions–whether it’s when we share the link to the post or in the post itself. Promoting the blog isn’t just to get folks to visit the site. It’s about keeping them there long enough to talk back.

I’ve published a post. Now what?

Unfortunately, people don’t just find posts–riveting as they are–on their own. We can’t solely rely on luck. We have to drive people here. Assuming your blog has “share this” buttons or a ShareThis WP plugin, readers can choose to share the post a number of ways directly from the blog entry. Outside of that, here are a few ways for us to think about promoting:

• Twitter: Pretty standard for promoting anything, these days. In fact, make this one of your default options.
  • Set up auto tweets via WP. Keep in mind that the blog titles should be short and catchy so they re-post/tweet well#.
  • Create schedule/rotation for faculty/staff, board to RT posts [that make sense, given their research interests/areas] so that reach is broadened.
  • Folks on FTM team help RT on their personal pages, tagging @uwmcdm or @flipthemedia and the author.

• Facebook: There’s always a risk of posts being noise, so be sure that what you post is relevant enough to your followers. This goes for any communication channel. As always, Provide some context to your link and tag MCDM when you can.
  • FTM contributers/staff share a link when a new post is up.
  • Create a FTM fb page as an aggregator of posts/related conversations
  • Also consider posting/reposting more than once during the day/week so it moves to the top of people’s news feeds.  According to mashable:
    • the biggest usage spikes happen on weekdays at 8am, Noon and 5pm PST.
    • Morning posts are most effective
    • Wednesday noontime posts are consistently the busiest.
    • Don’t bother posting much on Sundays.

**Note**: Use a third-party tool like TweetDeck that allows you to post via Facebook , LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, MySpace and Buzz, or hootsuite [same as TweetDeck plus PingFm, WordPress, mixi, Ning]  at the same time.

• Ping it: A “ping” is simply a way of letting specific search engines and other websites know that you’ve updated your blog. This doesn’t cause a noticeable difference right off the bat, but it will attract search engine spiders to your website and will help get your new blog post quickly indexed. It takes less than a minute and has great returns#.
  • Ping-o-matic!
  • Pingoat

• Aggregated email: Allow  readers to subscribe via RSS so they can receive posts in batches. KUOW does this, as does Mashable. Because information comes at us at such a rapid pace, we can help our readers figure out what they missed.
  • feedburner

• Away message w/ link. Seems pretty simple, but it’s another easy way to get the word out. If you use some IM service or gChat, throw the link up with a quick line about the post.

• Shareaholic: Download it for your browser. It will show you:
  • bit.ly: share it via twitter/bit.ly, how many have clicked on it, what conversations people have had about it
  • delicious, reddit, digg (how many have saved it as a bookmark, etc)

• Digg.com and Reddit.com [use it, don’t abuse it]

• Guest bloggers
  • Invite guests to blog. This guarantees wider reach and builds brand reputation. Digital media is an interdisciplinary field, so don’t limit ‘experts’ to social media gurus and tech geeks.

Bottom line

There are plenty of ways to promote a blog online. It takes coordination and consistency, but using third party tools like TweetDeck or hootsuite makes the work a whole lot easier. Do it often and do it well.

And check out these WP plugins from Socialmediatoday.

This post was written by Sophia Agtarap, Marketing and Communications Specialist for the University of Washington (UW) Graduate School and graduate student in the Master of Communication in Digital Media program at UW. Follow her @sophiakristina or via her blog.

View magazine here.

Technology is the only way for Africa to get rich, Herman Chinery-Hesse was once quoted [p. 185]. I suppose I hadn’t thought much of development in these terms, but it makes sense for Ghana—a country that Chinery-Hesse describes as lacking infrastructure and unable to compete in manufacturing [p. 185]. What he has identified here is the opportunity presented in a knowledge economy. The bright, young, entrepreneurial minds of emerging markets are able to compete “brain for brain” [p. 185] as Chinery-Hesse puts it, with individuals from across the globe, leveling the playfield. This is not to downplay that lack of access to other resources and cycles of poverty still don’t make opportunities to compete the same. But, it’s a new economy that’s being taken seriously.

An emerging partnership model in these economies: cross-sector partnerships. Often times thought of as competing markets, commercial and social are coming together to create common good. Salkowitz has identified markers of Young World entrepreneurship: blending social and commercial objectives; creatively aligning public, private and NGO resources; leveraging communities and collaboration; well-adapted and sustainable in Young World environments; embraces globalization of knowledge workforce; solves systemic problems while meeting market needs [p. 114] that are causing us all to rethink organizational structures, risk-taking, foreign aid and indigenous entrepreneurism.

Schwartz’s article on the Grameen, MTN Uganda and Google initiative is an example of the good that can come out of cross-sector partnerships. Using “trusted intermediaries” to work among communities who lack access to essential information and those who can provide it, the parties worked with local and global partners who were able to help create models that were both sustainable and scalable, while addressing the needs of the most underserved in Uganda. By working with partners who shared interests in gathering and making important information accessible, the poor of Uganda were empowered to participate in creating their futures.

Though I do appreciate Salkowitz’s focus on the distinctives of the Young World and ways to engage with them, I will end with the fact that I was disturbed when he referred to the billions in the Young World under age 20 as “an enormous opportunity to reach young consumers” [p. 220]. It’s a dangerous path we tread when we think of the young people in emerging markets merely as new segment to breed (and sell brands to). What I hope Salkowitz is getting at is that young consumers in emerging markets are tech savvy and know how to tune in and out of conversations with organizations that don’t know how to listen and respond to the needs of this emerging demographic.

_________________________

Works Cited

Salkowitz, R. (2010). Young world rising: How youth, technology and entrepreneurship are changing the world from the bottom up. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Schwartz, M. (2009). Grameen, MTN Uganda, Google empower Ugandan poor with mobile services. Retrieved on October 5, 2010 from http://www.developingtelecoms.com/grameen-mtn-uganda-google-empower- ugandan-poor-with-mobile-services.html

With the emergence of digital media, we have adopted the thinking that technology can solve many of society’s issues. In many people’s minds, technology is equated with progress and success. But that’s a very Western perspective in thinking we can bring technology or some economic model or perspective to a poorer nation and elevate it out of poverty. But Collier asserts that changes in societies at the very bottom must come predominantly from within; we cannot impose it on them (21). It will continue to be a struggle between brave people wanting change and entrenched interests opposing it (21), Collier says.

But, the silver lining is that there is hope in the “bottom billion.” This growing group of people are ready for change. They have had years of economic, cultural and political oppression led by people and agencies who had no knowledge of their interests or their problems (21). For our future world to be livable, the heroes must win their struggle…unless we radically change our approach, Collier notes (29). Low income and low growth doesn’t have to mean hopelessness, as Collier writes (52). Considering how emerging media in the forms of pocket media, twitter via SMS and a myriad of applications being developed to encourage citizen journalism and community organizing are being adopted by those who did not traditionally have a voice, we are seeing and will continue to see a reversal of who has power in these traditional systems. Non-profits and NGOs are looking at ways in which mobile technology can address the healthcare and preventive needs of those with out access to professional care.  The Camera Culture Group out of MIT is developing mobile technology that can assess refractive eye needs, determining prescriptions for eyeglasses and making corrective and preventive eye care much more accessible than a day-long commute to the next big city.  Technology for social change is the future of emerging media among the “bottom billion.”

Lastly, any advances in technology and emerging media for the “bottom billion” must be participatory. It is the only way the tech will survive, and it is the only way it will be owned by the people, for the people, to create what Collier describes as a “unity of purpose (22).

Works Cited

Collier, P. (2010). The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

http://apps.asterisq.com/mentionmap

It’s week 7 of summer quarter. The end is in sight. This evening’s topic in the Psychology of Digital Media? Networks. We’ve moved from “psyching” sites to talking more about the sociological/anthropological aspects of social media and the web. Keywords for this evening: scale, cybernetics, nodes nodes nodes, metapattern, Fritz Heider, structural balance theory, “Pardus” (yes, the game), six degrees of separation, signal.