Social Media, Digital Transformation & EuroPCom2015 WrapUp (Top3ics, 9 Nov 9)

In this week’s edition, a months’ reading - some 30 posts - on social media, digital transformation, content/system design and EuroPCom2015.

But first some news from me: after around three years focusing on one client I’m spreading my wings, including a return to EurActiv to reinforce the media innovation team and a range of other gigs, large and small.

TL;DR: If you need my advice, you know where to find me.

As always, browse all issues and subscribe.

Tools, techniques, advice for social media

Feeling overwhelmed? Then start with Five ways to calm down and not be overwhelmed by social media change, which asks a very good question:

if you’re spending all your time learning the shiny new thing, are you taking energy and resources away from the stuff that is really impacting your business?

And while we’re on the “why exactly do you think you are on social media anyway?” question, you may wish to:

• consider that social media marketing masters Buffer Lost HALF Its Social Media Traffic This Year (full respect for their total, awesome transparency)
• understand that A Facebook Page IS NOT a Social Media Strategy. Note: if your “social media alchemist” is telling you otherwise, move on to How to tell the difference between a social media maven, ninja and guru
• before you read Social Media isn’t Marketing. What is it then?

Finally, if you’d prefer more philosophical - or even social - answers to that last question, then I’d recommend All Social Media Is Showing Off and Big bad selfie, while glimpses of a post-social-media world can be found in Slaves Of The Feed — This Is Not The Realtime We’ve Been Looking For and The Social Network is Yesterday, The Interest Feed is Tomorrow.

But if you need to ignore existential questions and just want to keep banging the rocks together, I can also recommend:

• Facebook Reactions: everything you need to know
• Pablo 2.0: Create Social Media Images, Perfect for Everywhere
• The Complete Guide to New Twitter Polls
• 44 Powerful Marketing Tools for Facebook Ads, Websites, CRM…

More: 195 resources tagged social media

EuroPCom 2015 Wrap-Up

If I missed a few editions last month it’s probably down to EuroPCom2015, where I moderated a workshop on online communities for public communicators, did a few Hangouts-on-Air with mine and other speakers, spoke at the unConference and organised a meetup.

I ended up writing 7 posts - something of a monthly record for me:

• Online Communities: Slides & Key Take-Aways from EuroPCom15 - everything from and about my workshop …
• which followed two Hangouts on Air held in the runup to the conference: one with three online community experts from Knowledge Hub (presented by Steve Clift at my workshop) to discuss online community management techniques, and another with Anthony Zacharzewski on NHSCitizen, a fascinating participation project presented at my workshop by Michelle Brook
• Porous government: build it yourself, social or dedicated platforms? or how to address the “Why don’t we just build our community on Facebook?” question, after after having spent a month playing with Knowledge Hub (disclosure: they became a client). Also: K-Hub’s approach to blogging within a social collaboration platform almost rocks
• Fast, visual communications: a chat with Ezri and Charlelie - another HangOut-on-Air with two other EuroPCom speakers, focusing on visual communications, taking risks and creating energy in conferences
• Let’s call time on ‘Park & Bark’ conference sessions - some thoughts on extracting maximum value from a conference presentation or workshop for you and your audience.

You may have missed: followup from the EuropCom2014 workshop on Participation Success Factors I co-moderated with Anthony.

Digital transformation is a leadership question

Discovered at EuroPCom, an international research study from Australia with a long title and a simple point looks worth a read:

"organizations overwhelmingly create an ‘architecture of speaking’ with their substantial investments in public communication, designed and used to disseminate their messages. Despite their claims for two-way communication, engagement, and dialogue, they listen sporadically, selectively, and sometimes not at all.”
- Creating an Architecture of Listening in Organizations: The Basis of Engagement, Trust, Healthy Democracy, Business Sustainability, and Social Equity

Other relevant resources recently added:

• Brand exchange & the new citizen conversation: where I riff off a post by Digital Tonto to explore the conversations governments / public bodies are supposed to be having with citizens, and what this implies for the EU.
• Digital Transformation: Becoming a ‘Forgetting Organization’: an interview and podcast with Wharton professor Eric Clemons
• How to respond when executives talk about digital first: Paul Boag on the disappointing results often seen when executive teams throw their support behind digital, and what to do about it.

More: 20 resources tagged digital transformation, at least some of which are also tagged leadership.

You may have missed: Time to integrate Innovation into your Comms strategy

Designing systems and information

But digital transformation is not just about leadership and change management - it’s also about understanding how to design information and services and processes for the digital age, linked seamlessly together.

Cue two more excellent posts from Boag:

• What you know about information architecture, might not be true
• User experience design is not what you think

Plus The 5 Pillars of Interaction Design and the Future Of News Is Not An Article.