The World of Twitter - some tips learned in 72 hours.

Just putting the word Twitter into the title of this post will ensure that at least five new people will auto-follow me - strange? You bet.

So if you have not heard of Twitter, you can move on now and get back to your regular life. If you are new to Twitter then you may want to read on as I have some things that I have found that will either make your life wonderful, or have you pulling out your hair by the fistful.

I don't want to do a newbie guide to Twitter, there are a ton of them around, think of this as an advanced beginner roadmap to some of the places I have found along the way in the past 72 hours. Telling you about them may help you on your Twitter journey.

IPhone Apps

I worked with Twitterific from the time I got my Twitter account until this weekend when I loaded up Twitterverse. Hands down a 1000% improvement. If you have the iPhone, you need this.

Web-based Apps

I have a Twitter gadget installed on my iGoogle page, but it requires that I have that page open, and I don't want to be SO obsessive as to be refreshing that page over and over and over. So, I got a clue from @moehlert about finding good Twitter clients (what you call anything that lets you Tweet that is not at Twitter.com). If you look at a tweet and pay attention to the line at the bottom that says:

Mark Sylvester about 5h ago via twhirl

If you click on the last word it will take you to the web page of that client and you can go from there. So, I started paying attention to the people I follow to see which clients they use. I thought that if @timoreilly was using a specific client that would be a great start. He is. When he is not posting from the web, he uses an AIR application called twhirl. I love it. I can leave it open on my desktop and it is nice and unobtrusive, in fact, you can set transparency on it, so it fades back even better. Try it.

Twitter Chat and Groups

Ok, this is where it starts to get really scary (I mean interesting). Remember chat rooms? Sure you do, but you may or may not admit being in them. This is the same idea but on steroids. There is something called a hashtag in Twitter that lets others search on a word easily. There are tons of search tools, both built in to the clients and at Twitter itself. But both of these are childs play if you really want to seriously drink from a firehose.

People are starting to set up Groups (more on that later) and organize times when they all get online and chat. Each tweet has a #hashtag in it so that it will show up in the various search tools that people use. It is a mad free-for-all during the online chat, with archives posted for those that miss the melee. For example. I checked on the #journchat this week and wow it was amazing. I only had an hour for each, and just watching the activity was inspiring. You can join in a Chat at this site but you have to know the #hashtag. (Try typing anything in the search box).

These are serious and fun at the same time - professionals taking an hour out of their week to discuss their profession or avocation or general interests. There are 100's of them (who knew?). You can find these groups here. But I didn't even know this site existed until today. I found that several of the people I follow had the #journchat tag in their posts on Monday evenings, so I checked it out. Really interesting.

Great thing here is that you can jump in, or not, and learn a lot, which is what Twitter is so good at, right?

I am sure that there are more sites devoted to Chat and Groups

Tweet Grid

Ok, so let's say that you stop everything, join a bunch of groups, start following a ton of people, embed #hashtags in your tweets and generally give up the majority of your day doing so, then what. Well, you can then sign up to get the NORAD display of all this activity and put it on your biggest monitor and completely give in. NORAD display? Have you seen the wall to wall monitors in the command centers in the news, movies or TV? Well, there is a site that you can go to and put in all of these #hashtags and have a realtime update on all of them at the same time. Go to TweetGrid and click on example grid on the far left, that will give you an idea of what you can do. So, imagine tracking everything you are interested in all at once.

I asked @marciamarcia last night how she did it, as I have noticed her tweets are cogent, inspired, thoughtful and fast. She said that she is an accomplished multitasker and says that this is the best source of lateral thinking she knows of. Well said Marcia.

Summary

So, this is just in the past 72 hours that I have updated my phone, my desktop, my #hashtags, my Twitter Groups and Chat and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed but in a good way. I feel like I am more connected than ever before and coincidentally I run a networking company, so have not ever had a feeling like I was not connected.

Finding Your Hidden TED Talk

Courtesy rom's photostream - View of the TED Stage from the Loge

Note: Having just returned from the TED Conference and had a bit of a chance to decompress I am struck by how much I wanted to write all week, yet relegated myself to short tweets when I had a moment or two. TED is the very definition of an immerse experience, so it is only now that I can start to put down some of the things that have been swirling around in my head. I am going to seriously apply myself towards writing a lot in the next week or so, I took some notes specifically for that purpose. There are many recaps of TED, tons of tweets (#ted) some great images (Flickr ted2009) if you want to vicariously experience one the most amazing experiences on the planet.

Finding Your Hidden TED Talk.

At TED we experience more than one hundred presentations on the main stage and at TED University. They are 3, 6, 9 or 18 minutes long. You can see them at TED.com and get a sense of the caliber of these talks by watching just a few. I suggest you pick a topic and watch 2 or 3 in a row. You will be hooked.

One of the things I learned from Chris Anderson when we first started working with him in 2003 was that his feeling about the attendees at TED is that everyone who attends could easily be on the stage. Each person has done something amazing in their life and that the beauty of TED is being able to meet and be inspired by each and every attendee, whether they were onstage or not.

Which brings me to the notion of finding your inner TED Talk.

Can you distill your life's work into an 18 minute talk?
Can you be vulnerable?
Can you tell a story you have never told before?
Can you tell and not sell?

In thinking about what makes a TED Talk special, I have come up with a formula that makes sense to me - were I ever to be on the main stage. Like all good formulas, it has three parts.

Visual

A great TED Talk has strong visual elements to it, both imagery, but the words can evoke strong representations that can conjure up images to illustrate the points being made. A powerful part of an effective TED Talk is seeing something you have never seen before or seeing something familiar from a different point of view. When you think about your own story, your own TED Talk - how do you paint a picture with your words?

Easy

Another aspect of a perfectly executed TED Talk is that no matter how complex, obscure, convoluted or arcane the topic, the speaker communicates in such a way as to make the ideas digestible and easily absorbed. I have listened and learned from bioengineers, Nobel Laureates, poets, educators and people much, much smarter than me - and the best ones were able to breakdown the topic so that I could find the takeaway in it. (This doesn't mean that you don't have to stretch your mind to keep up, the burden is not just on the speaker, but on the listener as well)

and finally,

Smart

A great TED Talk is one that when complete has you feeling smarter having heard it. Each of us that are dedicated to lifelong learning appreciate a new nugget, an insight, an unexpected piece of inspiration. When you are considering your own TED Talk, what will be the part that gives people this feeling?

Visual, Easy, Smart.

I am sure that there are many takes on a great TED Talk and having been a part of my wife's TED University talks (as a supporting player), I can tell you that this three part formula really works.

But don't wait for TED to get your talk ready. You never know when you will have your moment to tell a story you have never told before, be vulnerable and possibly inspire others with your ideas that are worth sharing.

(Note after rereading) I guess the obvious first question would be, "Mark, what is your TED Talk about?". I am going to have to ponder that and get back to you.

Yes, We Can - Reflecting Four Days Later

I am reflecting on the emotional roller coaster week I had, starting with all of the Inaugural festivities. The energy, enthusiasm, sense of hope and optimism seeped into every part of me - including work to a large extent. Things are tough right now for everyone and that is an understatement. You don't need me to echo what we are hearing in wall-to-wall coverage on the news.

Yet.

More than five times since Tuesday I found myself saying, Yes, We Can (no exclamation point) in conversation. And saying it with congruence and conviction. I can't remember ever really doing that before. Those who know me understand that I am an optimist by nature and usually resonate a can-do attitude. Yet this is different.

I started thinking about it today because of the reaction I have gotten when I said, Yes, We Can, in conversation. It has been remarkable. People do a double-take, as it seems out of context, but they think for a fraction of a second, pause, then look back at me and say, Yes We Can. Wow. Powerful stuff. Even as I write this I am chilled by the emotion that these three simple words evoke.

Yes.
We.
Can.

I learned from Tony Robbins what an incantation is. He taught us to start each day with a positive message that we can repeat while running, shaving, walking or just getting ready for our day. He has one he loves, I have one I love - and what is unique about repeating the mantra is emphasizing a different word each time you repeat it. This has a powerful effect. It causes you to think and focus on each word individually. I thought I would share it. Repeat this to yourself.

Yes, We Can
Yes, We Can
Yes, We Can

Did you sense the difference? I have been thinking about Yes for sometime now. It seems like we are drowning in a sea of No's. Why not just shout out YES YES YES. (Well, people might stare at you...) What about We? Sometimes we feel all alone in our struggles, especially in tough times, yet in tough times, isn't that when we should be relying on one another to get through each day. And Can. I love that affirmation. Positive, Active, Actionable. Can.

Yes, We Can.




(Note: After posting this I did a Google Search for Images related to Yes, We Can. Over 11 Million hits. Look here)

"Point Break Live!" - too much fun in Hollywood

Last night we traveled down to LA to watch the spoof play, Point Break Live! - this sendup of the 1991 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze film was the perfect way to celebrate our friend Chad Nell's birthday. He and 27 of his friends joined him at this extremely fun and boisterous play.

Full details of the play (you should go if you are in LA) are here.

From TheaterMania: The Off-Broadway spoof Point Break LIVE! has stormed into Los Angeles, attacking its audiences with hilarious commentary on the ridiculous 1991 action-thriller Point Break, which starred Keanu Reeves as an ex-football-playing FBI agent and Patrick Swayze as a surfing thief. The theater experience recreates the entire film, complete with surfing episodes, violent robberies, and atrocious dialogue.

There didn't seem to be any issue with taking pictures or video, so I thought you might like to see two sequences - the sky-diving sequence, when Johnny Utah (Reeves) has to jump out of the plane and the closing sequence when Utah finally catches Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) in Australia before surfing the 'big one'. The part of Keanu is played by an audience member who gets selected at the start of the show. The guy that got picked actually was perfect for the part.

Sky Diving Sequence

Surf Sequence - complete with water cannons and wind machine!

"Transforming the way people learn"- SITE Ambassadors Program launches

This quote from the new president of SITE, the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators. Sandy Masters kicked off our conversation this afternoon at the end of the initial meeting of the SITE Connect Ambassador program.

The Ambassador Program was developed to coincide with the launch of their new online Community, SITE Connect, created by introNetworks. Her idea is to enlist the help of enthusiatic volunteers in the organization to manage the ongoing conversations and activities of the community.

This is a great idea and I love the name, Ambassadors. It has a great tone and sets them up for success. It has a cleaner ring than Community manager, the current name for that role.

Sandy is actually volunteering herself as President and is devoting her efforts full time to SITE for her term. She is actually carrying on an initiative set out by her predecessor, Karen Scott, and is very passionate about the power of community to connect the members.

Specifically they have 1000 members in the organization, but only 250 get to the annual meeting, they believe that SITE Connect will engage all of the members, not just the meeting attendees. The Ambassador program is a great strategy to assure success of the community effort. I applaud them of this innovative approach.

Predicting the future is tricky business...

This is the opening line in a post by Mike Prokopeak this evening in an Executive Briefing at Chief Learning Officer Magazine entitled, Direction for Uncertain Times. In this post, Mike goes to two of CLO's columnists, Elliott Masie (industry luminary and an introNetworks customer) and Josh Bersin (Founder of Bersin and Associates) to "gaze into their crystal ball". They state what we are all hearing from all sides it seems, layoffs everywhere, and subsequent massive retrenching with a focus on survival.

Yep. But they offer a ray of hope, and that's the part that got my attention.

They say:

While the ride will be rough, Bersin and Masie pointed to significant opportunities in the coming year for innovation. Both said social learning and social networks will grow more important and organizations will mature in their approaches.

“It won’t be a ‘what is it and how do I do it’ discussion,” Bersin said. “It will be, ‘We’re doing it; we’re trying it. It’s working in this group; it’s not working in that group.’”

So, to my earlier question today about being part of the problem, or part of the solution, I am encouraged that these two folks, who are right in the thick of it, are suggesting that the adoption of social learning and social networking will play an important role right now in the midst of this crisis. This moves the needle towards us being part of the solution.

Josh also said:

"learning organizations will move to a more centralized model that is tightly integrated with talent management. That’s going to be an imperative for everybody at every level to understand: what talent management is and [how it will] play a role in that strategy,” Bersin said.

I have had many discussions with clients about how our smart social network could help them in talent management, even though we don't normally talk about nor position ourselves as a talent management tool - that is a crowded marketplace already. I'm just saying, that the way we have approached the problem, it looks like we might be an innovative solution for that space as well.

(Note: it feels like I have to be online 24/7 these days to take it all in, there is so much change occurring all around, with really smart people weighing in on their specific area of expertise by the minute. I feel like each day is a Master Class, and there is no single Master to look to.)

The Problem or the Solution

Yesterday I passed along a link to a post from Karen at Bersin and Associates entitled, E Learning Takes a Hit. In it, she talks about the reduction in budget and staffing in Learning and Development organizations:

It is true that L&D organizations have modified their training delivery methods - but not toward e-learning. In fact, the proportion of training hours taken online has dropped for the first time ever, partly due to recent budget and staffing cuts. (See the recently published "Corporate Learning Factbook' report for more information.) This is somewhat ironic, since many companies originally turned to online learning to save money from their classroom programs. But companies have found that the investment in learning technology, content, and internal staffing adds up, and so they are switching to coaching, collaborative programs, and other less costly methods.

She then goes on to say:

The proliferation of social networking tools such as communities of practice, wikis, and blogs is helping this trend. Companies are recognizing that group exercises and facilitated communication improve not just the learning experience, but also social connections with the company.

Which got me to thinking, are we (introNetworks and others like us) part of the problem or part of the solution. On interesting quandary. I am talking to CLO's and people in Training and Development every day and talking about the solution that social networking provides, as Josh mentions in the final part of his post:

So if your company is facing budget constraints, try looking at coaching and collaborative approaches. These can be relatively inexpensive - and yet highly effective - methods for learning.

This leads me to believe that my continued focus on how social networking tools can be applied towards coaching and collaboration is indeed a solution for these firms, the problem is that because they are effective there is less of a reliance on old(er) methods of training.

Thanks for the brainteaser Karen.