Category: social media

choices, health, social media, technology

My Year of Hopefulness – Mayo Clinic & Social Media

Christa Avampato

Incorporating the world of social media into an existing business can be challenging. And scary. You want to get involved and building community, but where do you start? How do you start? Which tools and materials are the most relevant for a specific business? The number of choices is overwhelming and growing all the time.

If you have a start-up, it’s easier to bake social media plans right into the initial marketing and communications strategy. Established businesses have a tougher time — they’ve made significant investments in brand building and customer loyalty that didn’t involve social media. A few efforts in social media that lack authenticity and the business will be hung out to dry by every power that exists in social media land.

I was tooling around on slideshare recently and found a presentation by Mayo Clinic that described their journey into the uncertain world of social media. With a brand this powerful and with so much debate swirling about patient privacy, Mayo Clinic took a risk by testing social media’s potential to increase their impact and reach. A few of the key points touched upon in the presentation are key for any business interested in a similar pursuit and they’re good reminders for all of us whenever we take on a large project in unfamiliar territory:

1.) Start small. Mayo Clinic could have came into the world of social media guns a-blazin’, hopping on to every social media service available. They didn’t. They first assembled a space on their website that tracked all of the stories about them showing up in traditional media, and gave people a way to respond to those stories through comments on their own site. The branded this site ‘Medical Edge’. Smart – they got a lot of great feedback and leveraged written material that already existed.

2.) Use what’s free and available from others first rather than building your own platform from scratch. Mayo Clinic took advantage of the iTune platform to first create radio mp3s. Then it graduated to podcasts, more and longer podcasts, and then eventually built its own platform at podcasts.mayoclinic.org. Rather than jumping right in and building their own platform, they wanted to see if there was even any interest in this type of material and they experimented with length and topics. Might as well learn on someone else’s platform before you build your own.

3.) Use what works. For some organizations, a blog and a Twitter account are the best vehicles for building community. Others find that Facebook Groups work really well for them. For Mayo Clinic, it’s videos. That shared experience by real people who are a part of the Mayo Clinic global community provided the most bang for the buck. And with a Flip video camera, the interviews became very easy to record, edit, and post – first to YouTube and then to their own sharing platform at sharing.mayoclinic.org.

These small tips added up to big impact for Mayo Clinic, an established brand that found a way to make social media work for them by taking small steps forward. They are flourishing in the world of social media and can be found participating in multiple outlets. They went slowly, and took the time to discover which path suited them best. It’s a wonderful framework to consider. Find it at http://www.slideshare.net/LeeAase/mayo-clinic-best-of-blogwell09

books, business, social media, technology, Twitter

The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein

Christa Avampato

When I read, appropriately enough on Twitter, that Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein had written The Twitter Book, I couldn’t wait to scoop up a copy. Literally. So I sent a message to the book’s Twitter account and asked if I could get an early copy to review. The book is so clear and concise, so necessary to the social media world, that I wondered why on Earth it has taken so long for this kind of book to be written. Tim and Sarah are the perfect people to publish this type of work, both experts in the tool itself and in the art of communication. We’re lucky to have them.

The Twitter Book is appropriate for people who’ve never heard of Twitter, who don’t understand it, who like the concept though aren’t sure how to use it, and for Twitter addicts like me. Whether you’re an individual looking to build your own personal brand on-line, someone who is considering starting a business, or part of a large company, the book is chock full of ideas, resources, and helpful advice.

I recommend getting a copy of this book and using it as a constant reference the same way you’d use any top-rate how-to guide. I also found that it was incredibly helpful to have my computer in front of me so I could actually experiment with the different tips and resources that Tim and Sarah suggest. Within the pages of the book I also found a few other great people to follow on Twitter.

From a personal brand building stand-point, I found dozens of great ideas in The Twitter Book. (For those interested in how The Twitter Book helps business brand building, please see my Business Strategies column on Examiner.com.) Here are three of my favorite ideas to give you a flavor of what awaits you in this book:

1.) Twitter gives you the opportunity have superhuman powers you’ve always wanted: you can read people’s minds and overhear conversations as if you’re a fly on the wall.

2.) The art of brevity and timing is priceless. Highest traffic days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, business hours in EST. That’s when the most links, ideas, and thoughts get replies (direct messages – dms – or @ messages) and passed around (“re-tweeted”). People need to see your message (“tweet”) within 5 minutes of you posting it or they likely won’t see it at all. And make it concise and interesting because you’ve only got 140 characters to get your point across.

3.) Jargon explained. I hate to be in acronym city. I think a lot of people use acronyms and catch-phrases to make themselves seem better informed than anyone else around. It annoys me. Twitter is no exception. A lot of people scratch their heads when they hear words like “tweet”, “tweeple”, and “tweetup”. I don’t blame them. I did the same thing and for a long while the jargon scared me off. I belonged to Twitter for a year and was mostly inactive before I figured out why it mattered and how it could be useful to me. The most valuable reason to pick up The Twitter Book is to have experts Tim and Sarah explain the jargon in very straight-forward terms, and then show you how the tool can be a very powerful part of your overall brand-building toolkit.

Before Tim and Sarah even get the discussion going in the book, they ask for suggestions to improve and enhance the content. The book has given me a lot of great ideas and I want to return the favor to them with a few ideas to consider for the next edition.

1.) For people brand new to Twitter, a glossary of terms would be very helpful.
2.) A set of easy to reference lists in the appendix would be handy. Common mistakes to avoid on Twitter, top companies using Twitter effectively, etc.
3.) An expanded section on how non-profits can use Twitter. It is briefly touched on in the book and I’d love to learn more from Tim and Sarah on new ideas that are particular to nonprofits that would help organizations increase awareness through Twitter.
4.) A resource directory, divided up into sections, in the appendix would be handy. For example, a list of third party programs, resources to help trim messages that are over 140 characters, etc.

An easy and endlessly helpful resource, The Twitter Book will accelerate the growth and power of Twitter. Generous and honest, Tim and Sarah skillfully help their readers take part in the conversation. The Twitter Book will be available in hard copy on May 26, 2009.
It is available in e-book format now at: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596802813/

health, healthcare, social media

My Year of Hopefulness – YouTube for Medicine

Christa Avampato

My mom told me yesterday that one of her knees has gotten so bad that it looks like she will need a total knee replacement. My mom, by nature, is an incredibly upbeat, positive person. The tough part about her is that she tends to grossly underplay any serious news when it comes to her health. I know that this type of surgery is very invasive and serious so when my mom said she’d likely be back at work two weeks after the surgery I almost fell off my couch.

I immediately called my friend, Ken, who works in physical therapy and is one of the dearest people in my life. he has an incredible bedside manner and is a wonderfully caring therapist who is also honest and straight-forward. “No way, now how is she going back to work after two weeks.” We talked some more about the procedure so I would know what to ask the surgeon when I go with my mother to get a second opinion (and we are getting a second opinion, and a third and a fourth is necessary.) “Oh, and one more thing,” Ken said. “Go to YouTube and type in ‘total knee replacement’ so you understand the procedure. Just don’t tell your mom to do that or she’ll never get it done.”

I followed Ken’s advice, of course, and went to YouTube. 729 hits for “total knee replacement”. I was able to understand the process in both long and short formats, understand the immediate post-op and recovery process, and have a list of questions to ask the surgeon when my mom and I met him or her. Ten of thousands of people are viewing the health videos I checked.

YouTube is a treasure trove of medical information. “Cancer” yeilded 123,000 videos on YouTube. “Heart attack” – 39,300. “Diabetes” – 20,700. “First aid” – 36,900. I am by no means suggesting that we begin to use YouTube to self-diagnose or diagnose others. When it comes to collecting information about our health, I ere on the side of wanting more than my fair share of information and data. Social media sources like YouTube are changing the way we view our bodies, our health, and our healthcare system. This is serious cause for hope and thanks.

The above image and video on total knee replacement surgery can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aoo_nFpDd4

friendship, social change, social media

My Year of Hopefulness – The Power of Passion

Christa Avampato

By nature, I am a passionate person. I get excited about charitable causes and I enjoy sharing my excitement about them. I often write about them on this blog and on my Examiner.com column. On occasion, I wonder if anyone’s listening or if anyone reading shares my interest and excitement. I guess that insecurity is normal for writers though I’ve never been able to be comfortable with it, particularly when I’m writing about something that I care about deeply.

Today, I received an email from a friend of mine that eased my sense of insecurity and re-energized me. Recently, I put together a post about a cause that I’d like to support. I’m not sure how to support the cause as it’s not one that is talked about frequently, at least not in the circles I travel in. My passion for the idea and my desire to make a difference in this area prompted me to put the idea out there into the world, hoping that I’d attract people to it who are as interested in it as I am. For a while, the airwaves have been silent but today, all of that changed with my friend’s email.

As it turns out, he and a friend of his are also very interested in this cause. They’ve been in the process of creating some content to support the cause and have been searching for someone to do the business framing around the idea. Perfect! I’ve got the business framing in mind and have been searching for content.

In addition to finding out about this shared interest with my friend, I also learned a critical lesson about social media. It gives us a way to howl and find our pack. It gives us a way to connect and explore new interests in ways that are far-reaching and previously impossible. It gives us a way to unite, collaborate, and innovate in extraordinary, immediate ways.

Seth Godin, social media, volunteer

My Year of Hopefulness – Do Something with Squidoo

Christa Avampato

There is a statistic in the news that has been bothering me so much that I am telling everyone I know about it. In January, the number of suicides committed by the US soldiers was higher than the number of US soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. I can’t get over that fact. It’s haunting me – what could be causing this and why did it have to get to this level to get national attention?

So how does a story like this make me hopeful? I feel hopeful because I feel empowered to do something about it. I was talking to my friend, Richard, about it this week and he helped me to realize that if someone, anyone, can find a way to help in this situation that the implications for our country and for the many people who serve this country would be immense.

If ever I wanted a cause that would have impact this would be it. Consider how much energy, time, and funding goes in to training a soldier what to do in a war-torn region. And now consider how much energy, time, and funding goes in to helping that transition back into normal civilian life. The discrepancy is criminal.

So what can I do? Could I start a movement? Could I reach out and offer my help? And to whom? I started tonight be creating a lens on Squidoo. I’ve followed Seth Godin for a long time – his is one of the blogs I read every day. I have to admit it took me a while to figure how or why to use Squidoo. Now I get it – when you want to provide detail on a specific topic, event, or cause, Squidoo is your tool.

Feeling passionate about wanting to help these US soldiers transition back to civilian life and wanting to get a dialogue going about the topic, I started the lens. To see the lens and offer your ideas and support, visit http://www.squidoo.com/helpUSsoldiers

Photo above taken by Rafiq Maqbool, AP.

business, career, mentor, social media, technology, Twitter

My Year of Hopefulness – Shementor.com

Christa Avampato

The wonders of Twitter – the connections I’ve made on there never cease to amaze me. If you’re not using it, hop to it – the conversation that is happening out there is invigorating and worthwhile. My latest good luck on the site was meeting an incredible woman, Phyllis, who runs a company called Shementor. 


In this economy, I have been feeling badly about my career – its security, my heavy school loan debt, future prospects for new opportunities. It seems that everywhere we look we see doom and gloom. Enter Phyllis – a bright, vibrant personality who is about building women up and giving them hope. We’ve been messaging via Twitter for a few months, following each other’s tweets, and just today I finally took a look at her website. I have been missing out BIG TIME!

Recently named as one of the 101 Women Bloggers to Watch, Fall 2008 WE Magazine, Phyllis’s mission is to build a community through her website to support and strengthen women managers and women who aspire to be managers. Here are some of the great assets available on the site: a free e-course, read her blog posts, executive coaching, and her frequent posts on Twitter.   

This is a call to action for every woman in business out there, employed or not, manager or not, satisfied with their career or not: we all have important things to learn from Shementor that will improve not only our careers but our lives as well. 
blog, blogging, Facebook, social media, writing

Is it quantity or quality?

Christa Avampato

The debate continues about quantity versus quantity in the world of social media. Do you want more Twitter followers or are you more concerned with having followers who are interested in your life, share interesting articles and activities with you, and building dialogue? The same is true of traffic on a website: do you care more about how many people subscribe to your newsletter and blog feed or how many people actually read it rather than tossing it in the recycle bin without even opening it?


The best possible scenario for trying to build web traffic is to have a lot of brand advocates who are passionate about the site. However, if I had to choose between a small group of people who really care about the site and visit it often and a large group of people who stop by once, maybe subscribe to a feed or newsletter, and rarely read my writing, I would absolutely choose the former. It goes back to that time-honored phrase, “take care of your people (in this case, your community members) and they will take care of the brand (in this case, the site).”

Now sites like Facebook are in that rare crossroads of having a lot of followers who are very passionate about the brand. I am one of them – I LOVE Facebook. I’m on there all the time, poking around, updating my status, emailing friends far and near. Most sites will never get that kind of traffic so they usually have to choose: lots of surface conversations or a small group of meaningful conversations?

Let’s be realistic – my blog is never going to be Facebook. And that’s fine – that’s good, actually. I have a small group of readers that I love who read and comment on my writing regularly – some on my blog, some in person when I see them, some in very kind emails that they send me. They are extremely special people to me. I know a little bit, or a lot in some cases, about them and we have a good dialogue and exchange of ideas. If this blog were Facebook, I couldn’t devote the time, care, attention, and honesty I do to the fun part – the writing. I’m one person writing about topics and people I care about. And that is a blessing to be able to do.  
innovation, product development, social media, technology, widget

New York Times Customized Widget

Christa Avampato

The New York Times just released a beta version of “build your own widget”. It’s a bit simplistic in its current stage, though I imagine they wanted to launch it, see what readers and social media users create, and then make modifications. If only all organizations could take that view of building a prototype, testing it in the market, and then making adjustments without beating themselves up and creating drama for product developers: we’d having many more higher-quality innovations in short-order!


Very easy to use and post, you have only two sets of choices: 1) Select the top articles from a certain section of the paper or use a specific keyword. 2) Choose between 3 and 10 headlines to post in the widget. Then just click “Add to site”, choose which social networking platform you’d like to use (currently a very limited selection), enter your log-in info for that page, and it’s posts automatically for you. I created an “Innovation News” widget with the top 10 innovation headlines of the day from the New York Times to post to my blog (you can find it in the sidebar on the right-hand side of this page) and to my iGoogle page.

What I love best about the widget is that it will be helpful for my blog readers and many of them also work in or are interested in innovation. It’s also very useful to me to get a quick daily snapshot of what’s happening in the innovation field. (When I boot up my computer in the morning, iGoogle is my first log-in.)

A few improvements I’d make: 
1) allow for greater customization. For example, I want to pick and choose with more discretion. I always read three NYT columnists: Kristof, Friedman, and Krugman. I’d like to see the top story from the arts, business, health, and world news sections, the innovation article of the day, the Magazine cover story, and a cartoon.
2) make the widget available for more social media platforms. I’d like to post it on my Facebook page and add a link to that widget to the signature of every email I send.

Create your own New York Times widget at http://www.nytimes.com/services/timeswidgets/
blog, blogging, social media, social media creation, social network

Social Media Primer

Christa Avampato

I spend so much time on-line that I have grown into one of those people who thinks everyone on the planet understands and appreciates the power of social media. I’m deluding myself. Many people are not involved and know next to nothing on social media. So if you’re looking to learn a bit more about social media, or know someone who’s interested in learning more, here’s the contents of my Social Media Primer, hot off the presses:

A Social Media Primer
(This list is by no means comprehensive of all the channels of social media, but it’s a good start)
October 31, 2008

Blog Search Engines:
Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com/
A search engine that utilizes the power of the top five internet search engines. Also know as “metasearch”.

Technorati
http://technorati.com/
As the leading blog search engine and most comprehensive source of information on the blogosphere, Technorati indexes more than 1.5 million new blog posts in real time and introduces millions of readers to blog and social media content.

BlogCatalog
http://www.Blogcatalog.com
BlogCatalog is a social community for bloggers and one of the largest blog directories on the internet.

Google Blogsearch
http://blogsearch.google.com
Blog Search is Google’s search technology focused on blogs. Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice. Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger. The blog index is continually updated, so you’ll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results. You can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Swedish, Malay, Polish, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Turkish, Vietnamese and other languages as well.

IceRocket
http://www.icerocket.com

NBCNY
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/
Just released in BETA this week, this site strives to be a one-stop shop for news on a variety of social media platforms.

Blog Publishers that you can search:
Blogger (owned by Google)
http://www.Blogger.com

Typepad
http://www.typepad.com

Moveable Type
http://www.Moveabletype.com

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com
(micro-blogging)

WordPress
http://www.wordpress.com

Wikipedia
http://www.wikipedia.com

YouTube (owned by Google)
http://www.youtube.com
(video blogging)

Hulu (owned by NewsCorp. and NBC – being hailed as the new YouTube)
http://www.hulu.com

Helium
http://www.helium.com/
Every day, this diverse community shares information on everything from politics to parenting advice, to pop culture, to the environment and more. You’ll find Helium rich with quality content, different points-of-view, and expert insight.

DailyMotion
www.dailymotion.com
Dailymotion is about finding new ways to see, share and engage your world through the power of online video. You can find – or upload – videos about your interests and hobbies, eyewitness accounts of recent news and distant places, and everything else from the strange to the spectacular.

Metacafe
www.metacafe.com
Metacafe is one of the world’s largest video sites, attracting more than 25 million unique viewers each month (according to comScore Media Metrix). They specialize in short-form original content – from new, emerging talents, and established Hollywood heavyweights alike.

Piczo
http://www.piczoinc.com/
Piczo empowers teens worldwide to creatively express themselves, build personal communities, and share ideas and experiences with their friends in a safe online environment. Since its launch less than three years ago, Piczo has grown to roughly 10 million monthly unique visitors and over a billion monthly page views solely through the viral efforts of loyal members. Rave reviews from these members claim that Piczo is unmatched in the control, ease-of-use, and flexibility it offers them when building their websites.

Piczo’s customizable content, colorful graphics, glitter text, video, and photo tools spotlight member creativity without requiring technical skills. Members share their life stories with friends by designing their sites with multiple pages featuring photos, graphics, videos, music, comment boards, games, and more. Each site can be linked to other friends’ sites and users can interact with them and their friends, and meet new people online. And, the “first of its kind” Piczo Zone allows members to share their customizable content with the rest of the Piczo Community.

Yahoo!video
http://www.video.Yahoo.com

Google video
http://www.video.google.com

Sharing Technologies
Del.icio.us
http://delicious.com/
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage, and share web pages from a centralized source. With emphasis on the power of the community, Delicious greatly improves how people discover, remember, and share on the Internet.

Digg
http://www.digg.com
Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by the Digg community either directly on the site or by clicking on the Digg icon at the bottom of many news articles. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. There’s also a conversation that happens around the content.

Reddit
http://www.reddit.com

Stumbleupon
http://www.stumbleupon.com
A relative newcomer to the scene of sharing technologies.

Yahoo!Buzz
Http://www.buzz.yahoo.com

Buzzup
http://www.buzzup.com
Caters mostly to the Tech community

Sphere.com
http://www.sphere.com
Provides a way to pull a thread through a variety of different articles and platforms on a specific topic

Mixx
http://www.mixx.com
Allows you to connect to others with interests similar to yours, or to create your own niche network

Newsvine
http://www.newsvine.com

Blogmarks
http://blogmarks.net/
A mashup of a reader, bookmark bank, and a social network. You store URLs, tag them, and then are able to share them with the network

Social Networks
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com

BlogHer
http://www.BlogHer.com
The largest social network of women bloggers

Gather
http://www.Gather.com

Linked In
http://www.linkedin.com

Blogcatalog
http://www.blogcatalog.com
This is a social network for bloggers

Helium
http://www.helium.com/
This is a social network of self-described “experts” and “thought leaders” in a variety of fields. Largely a community of writers.

Bebo
http://www.bebo.com/
Largest social network in Europe

Hi5
http://www.hi5networks.com
The third largest social network in the U.S. behind Facebook and MySpace. Very young company, though growing quickly. Strong emphasis on Spanish-speaking countries and Hispanic US population. Recently featured in Fortune:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/13/technology/hempel_hifive.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008101512

Ning
http://www.Ning.com
This is a network of social networks where you join niche networks (or start one) based on common interests. Recently featured in Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html

Reader / Aggregator:
Readers and aggregators allow you to “bookmark” blogs you want to keep up with by subscribing to those blogs’ RSS feeds. The feeds populate your page in the reader and then you log into the reader to read the new posts on the blog you follow.

Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com

Blinklist
http://www.blinklist.com

Blogmarks.net
http://blogmarks.net/

blogging, charity, customer service, environment, New York City, social media, social network

Make it easy for me to participate

Christa Avampato

See that blog post just below entitled, Root for Your City? I didn’t write it – not a single word of it. A handful of clicks and it was posted for me. American Express ran a program called “Root for Your City”. 8 cities across the country are competing for the largest share of 1 million tress to plant in their cities. By using my Amex cards (I am now up to three of them as of yesterday!) at participating stores and restaurants, I am contributing to the effort in my city.

I went to the site after receiving a customer email (1st click) and clicked on the button “RootforNYC.com” (2nd click). After arriving on the home page for the contest and learning a bit about it I clicked on the button “Spread the Word” (3rd click). There was a tab titled “Post to blog” (4th click). I checked the “Blogger” button (since my blog is hosted by Blogger), entered by username and password, clicked “sign-in”, and then click “post” (5th, 6th, and 7th clicks). That’s it. Done. Posted up to my blog with a link to the contest’s site and a pretty picture. A clean, easy to follow, aesthetically-pleasing process. (It was so easy that I felt like I was visiting a site designed by Apple!) Now that is service.

This tiny event was a big lesson for me. In this day and age of messaging and the need for mass participation, the organizers of events, efforts, and campaigns need to make participation easy. Companies need advocates now more than ever. Give a customer a good experience and they’re with you for life. This is the age of customer service, when finally customers are given their due as valuable, cherished members of a company. And the companies that will come out ahead when it is all said and done are those that not only call their customers kings and queens, but treat them like that as well.