Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin - Oh My!

Just like Dorothy, you might feel swept up in a frenzy of marketing strategies. You can't stay up in the air forever. Sooner or later, you'll slam down on some poor unsuspecting client base and they won't know what hit them. The sad thing is that you'll never know how your landing impacted them.

Business marketing has a new paradigm - Social Networking. It's Web 3.0, the neural web, where you always know what your clients and prospects think about your company, its products, its services, and most importantly, its people.

Social Media Best Practices for your Business - It's not just the next wave, it's a Tsunami

Are you ignoring the potential of social networking?


Case Study: A growing litigation finance company sales agent wished to expand her reach into her client base. She was making 100s of calls a week, mailing letters and brochures. She attended conferences. She needed to market with a personal touch.

We started her on the path. Facebook page first, Twitter second. Using Twitterfall (www.twitterfall.com) she started following the people in her universe. In every phone call she made she mentioned she was on twitter and facebook. In three weeks she went from zero to 225 followers, quality followers. She's converted conversations to sales. She's a "New Socialist."

Now, the reality...

Are you or your clients afraid of Social Networking for business? To some it's a security issue. To others, it's a legal minefield. For the IT department, it's a support issue. For the sales manager, it's too personal. But to the salesperson, it's nirvana.

We have to face it. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the rest...you can't stop it. You can try, but this is the new marketing, the new socialism, and you either learn to control it or it your competition will.

Where to start....

1. Admit that your salespeople will text, Tweet, and Post.
2. Determine what's appropriate and what's not.
3. Follow their tweets and posts, coaching and praising.
4. Lead by announcing that your sales team is available via Social Networking.

Cautions:
The legal issues are still not well defined. Is a Tweet where a salesperson makes a statement to a client binding the company to deliver what's in the tweet?

Some ideas:
How about a corporate Twitter and Facebook client/server that runs through the firm's proxy? This way all outbound and incoming, direct messages could be monitored and intercepted if needed.

In Summary:
Don't go blindly into the social network, plan and act carefully.

Is eLearning failing its audience?

Are you faced with demands from managers to "Get my people up to speed ASAP!" Are your timelines and budgets shrinking? Of course they are! If you are like most Instructional Designers, expecting to perform a needs analysis, define your client's Knowledge Skills, and Abilities and respective gaps, and develop a prototype and shake it out over time, you are living in the last century.

As wonderful as PowerPoint is, it has clouded the eLearning vision. Can we all agree that PowerPoint is NOT eLearning? One of my client's managers all screamed for PowerPoint to load on their LMS (Learning Management Systems) but the users begged me not to do it. When I slipped them a Flash simulation, accessible via a public website, that gave them the same information but was branchable and self-directed; they loved how they could find answers quickly and how empowered they felt.

My mantra? eSimulation!

Cheers,

Doug

Big Changes for 2010

1. The challenge of 3D. What does this mean for cable TV and satellite? Is there enough bandwidth? Will this benefit Verizon (FiOS) over copper?
   
2. Microsoft Office 2010. Just when you thought it was safe to use Word, here comes a MAJOR shift in the office suite we all love and hate. Is Google Docs a real threat to Office?
   
3. Adobe Creative Suite CS5. Do away with all those plug ins and think - "They finally got it!" We'll see a lot more user-friendly WOW-factor stuff built right in to Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver.
   
4. e-Learning struggles for true acceptance. With drop-out rates still high across the board, will e-Learning ever win the hearts and minds of the masses? What has to change? Is it Management or Development that doesn't understand the mind of the user?

ESSENTIAL TOOLS for 2010

• Articulate '09
• Snagit
• Camtasia Studio
• Logitech QuickCam® Orbit AF Webcam
• Kodak Z1485 14.85 Megapixel Camera
• Photoshop CS4
• Adobe Captivate

Articulate
Engage

Engage is the package I've been waiting for. It will speed up production of snippets using the Media Tour interaction. I caution ISDs from using Interaction for Interaction's sake. Suggest that you use interaction ONLY when needed, not to act as a break in an otherwise boring show and tell. As you can see in the figure below, Engage offers quite a number of useful interactions.


Articulate Engage



Articulate Quizmaster

If your company or client already has an LMS, we don't see much use for this tool. It's more likely that you will be writing assessment questions on Excel templates which will be easily uploaded to an LMS like Sum Total or Lectora. While Quizmaker has LMS output options (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC), your LMS team would still have to validate the Schema. Most of my clients with an LMS want me to use Excel templates.

Always ask your client first. If using Quizmaker can save your client time and money, do it.


Articulate Engage

Articulate Presenter

Turn PowerPoint into a Flash authoring tool with Articulate Presenter. One of the benefits we see is that now PowerPoint can be a usable storyboarding tool. Remember, just because you CAN add all this functionality doesn't mean that you SHOULD. Always assess the learning you develop based on the needed outcome and your client's budget for money and time.

Articulate Presenter Ribbon in PowerPoint

EZLCMS, a Fully-Featured LCMS at Bargain Prices!

Looking for an affordable SCORM Compliant LCMS? Look no further. We recommend EZLCMS.

This powerhouse of an eLearning application is Software as a Service at its best. EZLCMS lets you develop your lessons using a wide variety of applications and instantly generate a SCORM (1.2 or 2004) compliant course.

Don't believe it? Try it yourself. Get a trial today.

Here's what we've used it for...

1. Storyboarding

2. Asset repository

3. Quick and Dirty eLearning, OK we admit it, we use PowerPoint.

4. Large-scale deployment (up to 2500 simultaneous log ons)

5. Refresher scenarios and quizzes

6. Mastery training

Is Training Rebounding?

Is business getting better for training professionals? Here in South Florida, the buzz is getting louder. "We need ISDs!" We need Technical Writers!" In the past, when companies felt that the upturn was about 6 months away, that's when they:

• scrapped old business practices,
• streamlined with new practices and technology,
• trained their existing staff on the new stuff, and
• built tools to use for new employee training.

So, smart companies are investing in training.

Now is the time to let your clients know about this simple method so that they will have a leg up on the competition when demand picks up.

How to sell training

We examine ouselves to determine if our message is getting across to our prospects.

We so-called training professionals like to think we have an edge over a manager who finds herself (or himself) facing a team of depressed and nervous people. What we have that they don't have is insight and objectivity.

We have the luxury of observing. We have the luxury of listening. We have the opportunity to take what we see and hear and convert it into beneficial action.

If you had seven seconds (14 words) to explain the benefit you offer to your client, what would it sound like? This simple phrase is your mission, it defines why you do what you do.

Now, use no more than four words for a tag line. Ours is "Accelerate success!"

Finally, the next time you are talking with a prospect and they ask you to describe who you are and what you do, just repeat the tag line first and then your mission. Then ask, "What challenges may I help you solve today?"