The Basics of Twitter #3 – Further twitter concepts

If you’ve been following this series on Twitter basics, then by now you’ve understood what twitter’s about, you’ve set up your account, and you’ve started tweeting. So today we’ll be looking at a few more twitter concepts:  retweets, hashtags, links, ‘ping’, ‘via’, spam and twitter clients. Ready? Let’s go!

Retweets (also known as an RT)

If the power of twitter lies in conversations, then think of a retweet as a conversation starter. In real life, when you’re talking with someone, you might say, “Hey, did you hear that…” – a retweet is exactly that. When you retweet someone else’s tweets, then you are sending this message to all your followers, saying, “Hey! Did you hear about this yet?” Retweets are powerful. If your tweets are retweeted by others, then the people you reach with that tweet are going to be followers of your followers… and so on, for as many times as your tweet is retweeted.

I use retweets in my @BloxhamMkting account in two ways. Firstly, each retweet is an indirect compliment to the person I’m following. It says, “Hey, thanks for the information; it’s worth sharing with my followers.” Secondly, it’s a way to tell my followers that this information is worth knowing about; it’s worth reading. Generally, I’ll retweet information that will help them with their digital marketing, however I’ll also retweet tech news, education news, and – from time to time – quotes I find inspiring, things I have found funny, and so on.

Another advantage of the RT is that I can use my own timeline as a content curation tool!

Hashtags (#)

Adding a hashtag to your tweet places it with everyone else’s tweets that carry that same hashtag. Hashtags are searchable, meaning that a search on a particular hashtag will retrieve all tweets, in reverse chronological order, containing that hashtag. This is particularly useful when it comes to breaking news, as you can keep up-to-date with whatever is happening with that particular story, by reading everybody’s tweets on the topic. Often topics may have multiple hashtags; choose which one/s are right for you in that particular situation.

Generally hashtags are added at the end of a tweet. Sometimes you may use a hashtag, or two, in the main text of your tweet, however filling your tweet with multiple hashtags isn’t rated too highly when it comes to twitter ‘best practice’. Don’t do it.

Links

To add a link to a tweet, copy the URL of what you want to link to, and paste it into your tweet. Some URL’s are long, so make things easier for yourself by ‘shrinking’ the link, using a shortener. Most twitter clients (see below) have inbuilt shorteners, and twitter.com also states that your link will appear shortened. “ Any length of URL will be altered to 19 characters.Your character count will reflect this.”  If you don’t shorten your links, the chances of your followers retweeting your tweet are smaller. I’ve sometimes gone to retweet someone’s tweet, only to find that the length of their original tweet makes retweeting it difficult. And if it’s too difficult, requiring too much editing, than I don’t bother.

‘Ping’

When you send a tweet to your followers, but want to make sure that one or more of your followers notices the tweet, you can ‘ping’ them. To do this, simply write ‘Ping’ then their twitter handle (s) at the end of your tweet. That way, the tweet will end up in their @mention stream – but it’s not directed only to them, but to all of your followers. Useful, hey!

‘via’

This is similar to ‘RT’, in that you’re acknowledging who your source of information was. Like a ping, the ‘via’ bit goes at the end of your tweet. Use either your source’s name or @handle.

Spam

Twitter spam happens. It’s annoying, but easy to deal with. If you suspect that a tweet in your @mention stream is spam, click on the person’s @handle, and you’ll see their synopsis. A quick check of their timeline will show you if they’ve sent identical tweets to multiple people. They probably have also 1) joined twitter fairly recently; 2) are following hundreds but have only a handful of followers themselves; and 3) have sent a very large number of tweets, considering the length of time they’ve been on twitter. Some may also boast photos that would be appropriate on a less-than-reputable dating site.

Once you’ve identified that the person is indeed a spammer (or maybe even a bot!) then you have two possible courses of action – blocking them, or reporting them. I choose the ‘Report Spammer’ option, as this blocks them as well. More information about twitter spam, phishing, what you can do if your account gets hijacked, etc etc etc is on this excellent blog post.

Twitter Clients (and services and applications)

HootSuite. TweetDeck. Buffer. Seesmic. Echofon. You may have heard of some of these, but not known that they were twitter clients. These five are the ones I have used / experimented with, at various points in time. There are many others out there, some great, some pretty dodgy. A good twitter client will allow you to set up your personal dashboard for multiple accounts across multiple tools (not just twitter, but Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, WordPress, FourSquare, etc etc). It will give you the capability to write updates on each, and schedule these in advance. It will have in-built analytics as well – and good support if you need it!

My Twitter Client of choice is HootSuite. In fact, the image on this post is a screenshot of my dashboard, showing the Facebook Pages timelines (Wall Posts, Page Feeds) of three of my clients. I used TweetDeck for some months, but  it got buggy on my mobile devices, and a few times, after updating, it lost all my account settings and I needed to re-input them all. Very annoying. I liked Buffer, however an upgraded account (which is what I would need, for the multiple client accounts I manage) is more expensive than the upgraded HootSuite account I have, and does less overall. Their analytics were more user-friendly (although less thorough) than HootSuite though. Seismic and Echofon were also pretty good, but weren’t in the same league as the others.

There is a lot more to twitter than what I have covered in this series on Twitter Basics. That being said however, I hope that these posts have helped you to understand enough that you can start out on twitter for yourself. Happy tweeting – and I’d love to hear from you!

The Basics of Twitter #2 – Setting up your account… and using it!

Okay, so now you understand theoretically how it’s going to work, so let’s dive right in. You need to create your account. Choose a handle, send a tweet or two, follow some people, etc etc. Here’s my tips:

Select your twitter handle.

Think about your handle carefully. Ensure that it reflects EXACTLY what you want it to say, then tweet according to the followers you see yourself having. My experiences in this area are below:

1. My first foray in twitter was under the handle “@GoodOldTalk” (for the goodoldtalk.com website that I’d just launched). And I used it for both “GoodOldTalk” tweets AND “personal” tweets. In hindsight, this was a bit of a mistake! I needed to get my audience clear in my head, and write ‘GoodOldTalk’ tweets ONLY.
2. Once I started my Masters degree, I was strongly encouraged to enter the twitterverse ‘properly’. So I set up my own personal account, with the name “CeridwynatUni” – and seeing as I was at Uni, this made sense to me at the time. Later however, I decided that I didn’t want to define myself by being a student. And having a difficult name to pronounce, I decided to make things easier for my tweeps and change my handle to a phonetic pronunciation. Thus my personal account is now @KRidwyn, and I use it to send non-work-related tweets. I do NOT recommend changing handles – in case you absolutely have to. It can create confusion in your followers, and that’s something you want to avoid.
3. I also run @BloxhamMkting, my business account. I use this account for work-related tweets only, and have quite a different following here than I have on my @KRidwyn account. I was also fortunate enough that this handle was available.
4. The other twitter accounts I manage are my clients’ ones. @Chancellor_Park, @CCCQLD, @St_James_LC and @StPaulsLPS –all of these twitter handles reflect the names of the organisations, meaning that they will not need to change at a future date.

Fill in your profile.

Add your photo. If you’re tweeting for your business, add your logo or your main branding photo. But do NOT leave it with just the twitter default image – the egg, the bird, or whatever they’ve given you. Not if you want people to follow you. Then fill in some more details, your bio, etc. If you like, set up your page as well – get it to look the way you want it to. There are twitter-provided backgrounds, or you can customize your own.

Send a tweet or two.

Try it. It takes some people a while to get the hang of condensing their thoughts into the 140-character limit. And don’t worry too much about typos. We all make them!

Follow some people.

Find people in your field of interest and follow them. I’d suggest ten to a dozen in each area. You’ll quickly decide who is worth following and who isn’t, who broadcasts and who’s inactive. Unfollow those who you don’t want to follow anymore, add those who you think are worth following. And do this (cull some, follow others) regularly! When you’ve been following for a while, you’ll get some idea of what sort of people they are. Cull those you wouldn’t really like associating with, and cultivate relationships with those you want to network with. How do you do this? Read on!

Start a conversation.

As I wrote above, when you’ve been following for a while, you’ll get some idea of what sort of people they are.  And if the opportunity presents itself, start a conversation with them, using an @mention (where you type their twitter handle) at the beginning of your tweet. This will, of necessity, make the tweet fewer characters. Type accordingly, and try to not use text-talk. If they reply, their @mention to you will appear in your ‘interactions’ stream. Check it regularly. And reply to them! If someone has spent the time writing to you, it’s good netiquette to reply. Still a little hesitant? Write a tweet to@KRidwyn or @BloxhamMkting – I’ll reply!

If you follow someone, and they’ve followed you back, then it is possible to send them a Direct Message, also called DM. These are private messages, which use a ‘d’ or ‘DM’ at the beginning of the tweet, together with their twitter handle. Again, of necessity, your tweet will be shorter.  Use these when the message you want to send is for their eyes only. Don’t use DM’s if it’s just a generalised message, where it doesn’t really matter if others read it. That just makes you look silly, and you will probably annoy the person you’re DM-ing. Alternatively, if the message contains private, or sensitive information, use a DM rather than an @mention. Otherwise you run the risk of offending the person you’re conversing with!

So by now you’ve understood the basic theory, and applied it in the creating of your own twitter account. The last post in this series covers a few more twitter concepts: retweets, hashtags, links, spam and twitter clients. Stay tuned!

CC image courtesy  Slava Baranskyi at http://www.flickr.com/photos/woofer_kyyiv/3581392721/

The Basics of Twitter #1 – What is it? Why use it?

So you’re thinking about jumping on the ‘Twitter bandwagon’. Great! Congratulations! Personally, I love twitter. I find it far better than facebook for networking with the people that I *want* to network with. But, assuming that you know very little about what twitter is, this series on ‘Twitter Basics’ will hopefully teach you how to use the service – so that you can enjoy using it as much as I do!

Firstly, what is twitter? At its most basic, twitter is a way of informing others. Your message is limited to 140 characters. When you post it, your message is called a ‘Tweet’. It is then sent to all of your followers (sometimes called ‘tweeps’) and forms part of their tweetstream. Tweeting is useful if you want to get your message out quickly – and if you have a large number of people following you, then your tweets will generally reach a wide audience.

‘Broadcasting’ your tweets is a good way to inform your audience of up-to-date information. But it is by no means all that twitter should be used for. In fact, if all you do is broadcast tweets, you will probably find that people will stop following you, as they don’t want to be talked at, they want to be spoken with. And that’s where the power of twitter lies.

Twitter is an online community. For that community to function, its members need to speak with each other. This is done in one of two ways: through mentions (which can be viewed by the general public) and Direct Messages (which are private, viewable only by the parties involved).

Mentions and Direct Messages are where the conversations are. This is where you want to be, conversing with those you follow, and those who follow you, as this will build your networks. Personally, very few of my friends IRL are on twitter. And so I find that my twitter networks are professional ones. I interact with people who inspire me, who I’d like to aspire to be like in some area of my life. I learn – a lot! – from their tweets, and am kept currently aware of developments in the fields which I am interested in. Twitter is my own personalised link to Professional Development – whenever, and wherever, I want it. And for that, it is absolutely invaluable!

CC Image courtesy Rosaura Ochoa at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosauraochoa/3419823308/

The “Headache-Free” Yearbook – Step Six

I’m a huge fan of DropBox. I love how it doesn’t matter if you’re on a Mac, PC or mobile device. I love how it’s in the cloud and accessible from anywhere with just a click. And I love its capacity for sharing.

But I made the mistake of relying on it too much for a yearbook I created last year. And well over a dozen pages had to be manually resent due to errors in the sharing process. Due to circumstances outside of my control, I was at publishing deadline – and the tool I had selected for the transfer process to the publisher wasn’t cutting it. NOT the best situation to find yourself in! Which is why Step Six in creating a “Headache-Free Yearbook” is –

Don’t rely on the tools. Manage your risks wisely!

No, don’t rely on the tools. Not exclusively, and not when there are other options. And I’m NOT just talking about DropBox here! You should plan ahead for any tool you use, from emailing tools to scheduling tools, to cameras and access to computers, software, online programs, and the Internet. Decide what you’re going to do if, or when, each breaks down or doesn’t perform as expected. Be wise!

In hindsight, my risk management was nowhere near where it should have been. I had no mitigation strategies in place, and so I just had to wear the consequences when things didn’t work as I had expected them to.

That’s one of the reasons I strongly recommend the timeline approach that I outlined in Step Four. Managing your risks wisely is going to help so much in the long run, even though it might be a bit of a pain to think about, in the beginning. Trust me – it’s worth it!

Now, I leave myself time to snail mail a USB – just in case the digital version gets corrupted again. Short of a mail strike, my publishing deadlines are still met. And I’m not left feeling embarrassed.

What experiences have you had with tools that broke when you least needed them too? What advice can you share from what you learned?

CC Image Courtesy zzpza at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zzpza/3269784239/

The “Headache-Free” Yearbook – Step Five

If you’ve been following this series on the “Headache-Free” Yearbook, hopefully by now you’re going along swimmingly. Those stories and images are rolling in, the pages are being created, the deadline’s still some way off, but you’re not particularly stressed about it because you’re “dating” your yearbook regularly, modifying plans where needed, and communicating these new arrangements to team. Brilliant work!

This step should be pretty easy for you then. In fact, it’s really just a reminder of something that I’m sure you already know:

Don’t rely on your staff, when the buck stops with you.

If you’re the one in charge, be there. Be in charge. Be seen to be in charge. You’ve probably been in a team before where the leadership shown was less-than-desirable. Think about that person – and don’t emulate their mistakes!

You know, from your extensive planning, that creating this yearbook is a huge job. And that this job will be made a whole lot easier if it’s shared amongst a team of people. These are my three recommendations for sharing the load:

1. Get their consent. You know yourself that you don’t like being coerced – and neither does anyone else. So ask politely for help – and convince them, if need be, of the value of their contribution. You’ll get a better result every time.

2. Share your vision, and celebrate the successes. Ensure that your ideas are clearly communicated at each stage of the process. And if the people helping you to create this yearbook only ever see you when you’re allocating them work, then they’ll not be particularly motivated. Be proactive in showing them the value of their contribution, and the chances are higher that they’ll be part of the process again next year.

3. Remember that you’re the one responsible. You need to be the person who is actively checking that each member of your team is meeting the deadlines on that timeline you created in Step Three. Don’t go overboard with checking their progress – but DO make sure that you’re doing it! Otherwise you’ll probably end up the one with the embarrassed look on your face.

Working with others can be hard. If your interactions with your team members are more positive than they are negative, then you’re probably on the right track to retaining your assistance for future yearbooks.

These are the recommendations I follow when working with others. I’d love to hear yours!

CC Image Courtesy Philip McMaster at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonpreneur/3880883712/

The “Headache-free” Yearbook – Step Four

You started your Yearbook process this year with extensive planning and effective communicating, writing articles to deadlines, and taking brilliant images. That’s it, right? That’s all that’s required? If only! As Robert Burns noted in 1786, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley [often go awry]”.The most carefully prepared plans may go wrong. We none of us can predict the future. And often life throws us a curve ball, which means that we change our plans accordingly. Hence Step Four is:

Check, modify and recheck as you go.

Are you ready? Because here are my four tips for keeping on top of it all:

1. Create a timeline

A timeline is a document that details exactly what will be done, and by when. It will include events that need to be covered, and when you expect the story to be written, edited, etc. It will also include when images will be taken, edited, etc. And, (most importantly, I find!) it will detail when each page is to be formatted and completed. Try to balance out your timeline so that the work is spread out evenly, if it’s possible. For times where this is not possible, schedule staff as needed to cover the work.

2. Set timeline ‘dates’

You and your Yearbook are probably pretty close. If you’re the one organizing it all, you’ve probably spent many, many hours with it since its inception. Well, now you need to keep that relationship going with regular dates. And yes, by ‘dates’, I’m meaning ‘appointments’, not ‘days’, and not the fruit of a date palm.

How regularly you ‘date’ your Yearbook will depend on how large it will be, and how close to your deadline you are. A larger yearbook will need to be seen more regularly, and if your deadline is in just a few short weeks, you’d be foolish to not meet on an almost-daily basis.

Treat each ‘date’ like a mechanic treats a car. Check everything is in its right place, and is running exactly as it should be. Then smile, give yourself a pat on the back as you recognize the progress that’s been made, and ensure you’re able to make it to the next date.

3. Modify AS SOON AS you recognize the need

Something’s changed, and your previous plan can no longer apply. Act immediately! Create a new solution to the problem that’s arisen. Don’t just put it off – it’ll still be there when your deadline is looming. And unfortunately, the more time-constraints you have, the harder it will be to ‘fix’ the problem to the same high quality that you’ve set yourself for the rest of the yearbook. So modify those plans, and be prepared to modify them again if you need to.

4. Communicate your new plans

It’s all well and good that you now know where you’re heading, now that you’ve modified your plans to account for that curve ball. But if you’re fortunate, you’ll have a team of others around you, and they’d probably appreciate being on the same page as you. So you’ll need to effectively communicate those plans – especially if you’re relying on them to get you what it is you need.

A word of warning here – your team don’t need to be inundated with emails, texts, phone calls or messages about every little change that’s made. Just the ones that pertain to them will suffice. And you might want to schedule a regular meeting time with your team too – just so that you can plan as a team, get and give regular feedback, and so on. Again – don’t make these meetings so regular that they become meaningless. The last thing you want is a low morale amongst your team. You may need them again next year!

So, my recommendation is, that if you want your Yearbook to be as headache-free as possible, you MUST keep on top of your timeline. Refer regularly to it – set yourself deadlines for ‘timeline checking’ and modify and communicate your plans as soon as they occur. After all, who wants to be in situation where, a week or so out from publishing deadline, you suddenly discover that a large number of your pages aren’t completed due to changed events, and that these could have been fixed weeks – or even months! – earlier!

Well, these were my four hints for dealing with those inevitable curve balls. I’d love to hear yours!

CC Image courtesy ZacVTA at http://www.flickr.com/photos/isaachsieh/2522262234/

The “Headache-free” Yearbook – Step Three

Get those photos happening!

I find this, the photos, the most time-consuming part of Yearbook creation. Which is sad, because I also see it as the most creative – and therefore interesting – part. And the reason why I find it so time-consuming? Simple. The lack of decent images to work with. So below are my 5 tips for making the addition of photos to your yearbook a LOT less frustrating.

And remember – it’s always going to help if others can see where you’re going with an idea. You need to ensure, up front and before you do anything else, that you, and anyone else who takes photos for you, is one the same page. So – my 5 tips…

1. Check the permissions!

In any organization, there are going to be those who do not give permission for their photo (or child’s photo) to appear in marketing / promotional material. Which means that you’re going to need this information on your database, and anyone who takes a photo needs to be aware of who they cannot include in photos. I have, several times now, been asked by my clients to remove images from material I’ve created for them, because they’ve provided me with images containing people who had not given permission for their photos to be published. It’s very unprofessional, so that’s why this is number one. Get your permissions checked, and DON’T take photos of people that you “can’t”!

2. Watch your resolution.

One of my closest friends once took an absolutely gorgeous photo of my then-2 year old. It was far-and-away the best photo I had of her at the time. Unfortunately, the photo was only 40KB. Weird, I know. But it taught me, very early, that there’s nothing you can do to enhance the quality of a photo once it’s been taken. You can always reduce a photo’s size, but you can never add to it. Especially if you’re going to need to crop the photo prior to inserting it onto your Yearbook page. Make sure that they’re at least 1.5MB. Each.

3. Prepare – make aware

Decide ahead of time what shots you’ll need. Then, if you’re relying on others to take these photos, you need to make them aware of these decisions. If you need to create half a page on an event (say, Junior Primary Sports Day) then you’re going to need between 6 – 10 good photos, depending on the sizes you want them. And you’re probably going to want photos showing all aspects of the event, rather than all 6 photos of the under-10 girls 100metre sprint. So plan, ahead of time, what photos you want taken. Then organize who’ll be taking these photos. Then, make sure that they know they’ll be doing this for you! Some guidelines on the exact sort of photos you want might be good here too. Headshots of the runners at the starting line, or of the winners crossing the finish line… A boy going over the bar in High Jump… a girl about to land in the Long Jump pit… and so on. The more that people can see where you’re going with your ideas, the better the odds that you’re going to get the images you need.

4. Shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.

This is often my biggest dilemma. I have the shots, and they’re good ones, but there aren’t quite enough of them for what I had imagined. This again comes back to preparation. If others are taking the photos for you, then my suggestion is to ask them to take double the number of photos that you think you’ll need. Or if you’re taking them, apply the same rule. If you’ve got double the number of photos to work with, then you’re going to end up with a much better page, because you can cull the less-than-perfect ones.

5. Crop. And manipulate where needed.

This should go without saying, but unfortunately I’ve seen Yearbooks where numbers of the images aren’t presented their best. Backgrounds are distracting, and should have been cropped. Photos are too dark or too light, and the exposure should have been adjusted. Or red eyes have been left un-corrected. The list goes on. If you’re creating the pages as the events occur, then fix the images then. This will make much less work for you then if you’re trying to create the pages all in one go, with a publishing deadline fast approaching!

Follow these 5 tips, and adding images to your Yearbook pages should be less ‘the frustrating experience’, and more ‘the creative process that you know it could be, if everything went to plan’. Which is what we all wanted when we first signed up for this job, wasn’t it!

Have I missed any? Do you have other tips that you use to ensure that the ‘images’ part of your Yearbook goes smoothly? I’d love to hear from you!

CC Image courtesy Paul Reynolds at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigtallguy/182641756/

The “Headache-free” Yearbook – Step Two

This is Step Two in my series on How to Create a Headache-free Yearbook. So you’ve planned your content, and you know what’s going where, and by when. Now it’s time to START! Huh? Really? Yes! The more you get written now, the less there will be to do later.

Start writing, Day 1 of Week 1.

I know what you’re thinking. “It’s Day 1 of a brand new year! The events haven’t even happened yet! How am I meant to write about a future event?!!” Well – that’s easy. You can get the bulk of the writing out of the way, because it’s only the ‘facts’ that haven’t yet occurred. And although yes, these facts are important, they’re not the be-all-and-end-all. You probably know enough to at least nut out a rough draft – and this will then help, as you’ll know exactly what ‘facts’ need to be collected later, as the events are happening!

As I write, this is what I keep in the back of my mind:

1. The audience needs to understand the context, and I need to explain this clearly.
2. The audience needs to understand the principal players, and how they ‘fit’ into the context.
3. The audience needs to understand what happened – this is where the ‘facts’ come in. These are the bits you’ll need to fill in during, or immediately after, the event has occurred.

I also watch that I’m writing clearly. Spelling, grammar, punctuation – all of these are important. Again, get them right NOW, as this will save significant time later on.

Do you agree? Do you have any other hints for the writing of Yearbook text?

CC Image Courtesy LucasTheExperience at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucastheexperience/3469305764/

The “Headache-Free” Yearbook – Step One

Well, the year’s begun, and you’ve been delegated the task of coordinating the Yearbook. (Or perhaps you volunteered, because you’ve never done this before, and you’d like the experience?! Or maybe you do one each year, and would like to offer some advice to me and my readers?) So. What do you do first? Where do you start?

Step One – Plan. A lot. And communicate this effectively.

For me, I start with planning. There are five different questions that need answers, and it’s these that will inform the parameters of my completed product. Get the answers to these five questions, and you’ll be well on your way to getting the process right.

 

Question 1. What is the purpose of this Yearbook?

This may seem a silly question, but it’s really not. Unless you know what the Yearbook is going to be used for, you’re going to be working in the dark regarding what content to include, and how to word / angle that content. So, have a clear direction regarding what the intention is behind the Yearbook. What is its point? For some businesses, their Yearbook might be just a marketing tool. You want to use it to promote the best possible aspects of your business to attract new customers. For other businesses, the purpose of a yearbook might be to reflect on the year. In such cases, the contents of this Yearbook will include the highlights of the year, displayed in such a way as to confirm the positive opinions of your current clients. It may also be used to attract potential customers. So find out why you’re creating it – it will make things easier when it comes to content decisions!

 

Question 2. What is your budget?

This is a very important question to determine, as your budget will determine its size and its overall look. At St Paul’s, we moved from a 30 page black-and-white Yearbook to a 70 page full-colour Yearbook in the space of two years. Obviously, the budget for the Yearbook increased, in line with clarifying the Yearbook’s purpose.

 

Question 3. What do you want your content to include?

In this one, you need to plan out approximate pages for your important items. In a school you may want to have specific pages dedicated to sports or the arts. Obviously you’ll also want pages that are specifically for your class photos or your formal photos of musical  / cultural / sporting groups. I start with a Table of Contents, and ensure that I’ve covered all aspects of the business. I then get this checked with the boss, as there’s no point covering items that don’t need it – and equally as time-consuming is forgetting something that needs to be included, and only remembering at the last minute!

 

Question 4. Who is responsible?

By that, I don’t mean you  - the Yearbook coordinator – but I mean the people who will be putting the individual pages together. Unless that person is you, and you’re going to be creating each and every page, you have a team of people who you’ll be relying on to get the work done. If this is the case, then you need to communicate, communicate, communicate!

Something that may work, if you had the time, is to organise a meeting with these people, “get them on board” so to speak, in that as a group, THEY make decisions regarding timelines and content. That will always work better than just telling your team of people what they have to do and in what specific time frame.

 

Question 5. What are your own deadlines?

Schedule your own deadlines. You need to be responsible for your team. You are the person with whom the buck stops, so it is up to you to create interim deadlines for yourself. At each deadline you need to ensure that you’re touching base with each team member, collecting their work, and generally monitoring that they will meet their deadlines. This point is probably the most crucial, if you want to avoid the end of year Yearbook headache.

 

These are the questions I ask myself when planning. I’d love to hear yours!

CC Image Courtesy premasagar at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmasphere/1351111010/

6 lessons The Big Bang Theory can teach us about blogging

Source: ambernightdvd.com via Debra on Pinterest

 

 

I love this show. Not only for its humour, or the fact it seems to be the Friends for the 2010′s, but for the lessons it can teach – even about the seemly unrelated topic of ‘blogging’. “Really?” I hear you ask. Well, read on…

1. Geniuses walk among us.

This is a fact. Regarding our blogs therefore, we should ensure that our posts have high quality content.  That being said however, a genius may never read your blog. Therefore, it is not absolutely imperative that every sentence contain words of more than four syllables.
2. Have a love interest.

There’s Leonard and Penny. Sheldon and Amy. Howard and Bernadette. Even Raj and, um… Siri? The developments in these relationships make us want to watch the show over and over and over again. So, what’s the love interest in your blog? What are the topics or themes that you write about so well, that people keep wanting to return to your blog to read them? Write about your passions, and keep on doing it.

3.  Soften your criticism.

“Penny (arriving): Hi, guys. Hi, honey.

Leonard: Hey.

Howard: Ooh, we’re honey now, are we?

Sheldon: Yes. Since their relationship became carnal, Penny has upgraded his designated term of endearment, thus distinguishing him from those she calls sweetie, usually in an attempt to soften a thinly-veiled insult.

Penny: You’re boring people sweetie.

Sheldon: Although, sometimes, she omits the veil entirely.”

(Series 3, Episode 4 – The Pirate Solution)

Blog nicely. Blog politely. But if you must write critically, soften your message with some meaningless nothings.

4. Don’t be afraid to dream.

Sheldon wants his Nobel prize. Leonard, Howard, and Raj want successful relationships with women. Penny is an aspiring actress. Each main character has a dream that keeps them motivated. What is your dream for your blog? How many readers do you want? What type? Are you writing for yourself? To influence others? To successfully monetize?

5. Don’t worry too much about that ‘check engine’ light.  

Sometimes, warnings and advice don’t apply to us as much as others think that they should. When you blog, you will discover countless pieces of advice about how, why and even when, you should blog. Take this advice with a grain of salt. Yes, even the advice you’re reading right now! Sometimes, these things just don’t really apply to you. Make up your own mind, and stick to it.
6. Comic books and Star Trek can teach us lots of things.

Well, this one is pretty self evident, wouldn’t you say?

So – 6 lessons on blogging, as taught by The Big Bang Theory. Did I miss any?