alyssagardina.com - research

Learning to fit your life

agardina — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:26:23 +0000

We're all busy. We have work, family, hobbies, exercise, cooking, networking and, of course, sleep! During that time, social media and technology are constantly evolving. You could stay up from dawn 'til dusk just reading blogs about Internet marketing. What's a busy marketer to do?

Luckily, there are resources, articles and insights almost everywhere you look:

Blogs - I spend hours every day going through blogs. I comb through mine in Googe Reader and on my iPhone using Net News Wire. Because the RSS feeds are aggregated in one place, I don't miss much if I have a busy day. Plus, wih Google Reader's share and like functions, I can find new blogs from my friends' recommendations and skim through blogs that update hundreds of times a day.
Podcasts - Podcasts are like blogs-on-the-go. They provide in depth insight on a variety of topics, and you can listen to them anywhere: in the car, at the gym, while on the train. Podcasts come in two forms: audio and video, so you can choose which media works best for your routine.
Email Subscriptions - monthly, weekly, daily - whenever you get them, email newsletters & subscriptions often offer highlights from some of the web's best blogs and publications. My favorite, CMO, sends me a list every Friday of some of the best social media and marketing stories of the week.
YouTube/Online Video - if you need to know something specific, YouTube has a plethora of interviews and screencasts to help you out and give you advice.
Forums - Forums can be subject specific, location-based, or even as all-encompassing as Twitter and Facebook. Yes, those are most definitely forums to me. Where else can I tweet that I'm having Drupal problems and, minutes later, have offers of help from several developers?
Books in all forms - ebooks, audio books, books made of paper and dead trees. They can provide insight into strategy, trends and best practices. What am I reading right now? The Rule of Three (Affiliate). Next on my list? Trust Agents (I'm behind, I know!) (Affiliate)
Google - when in doubt, Google it. Odds are, you'll find an answer in a wiki article, Q&A site or a blog you've never explored before.

Make sure that learning fits your life. Follow a variety of resources via different media, and don't neglect your personal interests. Do you love wine? Watch Wine Library TV, read Dr. Vino and follow people on Twitter who share similar interests. Being well-rounded will help you in networking, in meetings and in creating content for your own site.

How do you make learning fit your life?

(Thanks to @twistedraisin, @karla_porter, and #teamCJ for their help!)

Research & Relationships with Twitter Lists

agardina — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:27:26 +0000

Twitter Lists. They were introduced (slowly) a few weeks back, and, largely, confusion still reigns. Do I make a list? Whose lists am I on? What exactly are these darned things for? I can't answer all the questions, but I have found out a few things about Twitter Lists that I'd like to share:

They're useful for finding new resources & connections. Example: I was looking to connect with non-profit science education organizations and museums in regards to an upcoming project. Before Twitter Lists, I'd go to websites like We Follow and Twellow, where users put themselves into groups. Due to the opt-in nature of these sites, I was missing out on anyone who just hadn't updated their directory entry. Now, with Twitter lists, users are creating their own groups of the followers they find most valuable. That said...
They add a degree of credibility to an account. Before, you could assume a user was a spammer if they were following, oh, 1200 people and had about 50 followers. Now, you can also glance at how many lists they're on. 20,000 followers and 9 lists, none of which pertain to your interests? Might not be in it for the conversation. And, if you're a selective follower, you can glance through the lists a user is on to see what you have in common.
Application integration will be key. Twitter has spent a lot of time over the past month improving their web interface. Tweets now automatically refresh, and the same goes when you're viewing users within a Twitter List. But, if you're loyal to an application (like me!), integrating Twitter lists into an app like Tweetdeck will make your social media life infinitely easier. Example: I live in Dallas, and want to know what other Dallas Twitter-ers are up to. There are several lists to choose from (a little homework never hurt!), but once I decide, I can import that list into an application and voila! Those updates load like a group or column. (Ideally. Seesmic Desktop currently offers integration, while TweetDeck does not)

Twitter Lists can be used to save you, or your organization, time as well as help enhance the conversations you have. What other uses have you found for Lists?

Setting Your Audience Expectations

agardina — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:24:17 +0000

I'd like to start this post off by saying that I'm constantly impressed by the people I meet. Everyone has different experiences, interests, perspectives - we all have our own passions, pursuits and dreams. That said, even the campaigns that strive for mass appeal can find common ground. They can challenge us to think, learn and explore, and not just strive to entertain or distract. Clutter has caused media outlets and advertisers to speak to us like we're 5 years old, and it's setting a poor example for how other organizations and corporations should communicate.

For example, a recent hour spent listening to NPR yielded these 2 examples:

829 billion
On October 7th, experts released an estimate saying that the Senate Health Care bill could cost $829 billion over the next decade. That's a lot of band aids and cough drops. Thankfully, NPR (audio, not online) breaks the cost down for us in this helpful manner: "That's $83 billion a year!" Why, thank you, NPR, for dividing by ten. Instead of breaking down the cost by taxpayer, family or person, you simply moved a decimal point and rounded.

Taken alone, this is just NPR trying to explain a story with short notice. Then came a story about the Nobel Prize:

Ribosomes
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to 3 scientists for their work with ribosomes. NPR, possibly understanding that many of us haven't heard the word "ribosome" since high school biology, helpfully explains. With the tone of saying "R is for Ribosome", the story explains the role of these structures in cells.

I know I'm being picky, but there's a lesson in here about knowing your audience. Knowing who you're talking to influences not only what you say, but how you say it. If your audience is adults, using facts and tone that treat them as such may get you a better response. If you're an organization on social media, understanding the difference in audience between Facebook, MySpace and Twitter could play a role in whether your campaign succeeds or stagnates.

I'm a huge proponent of audience research, because it forms a foundation for so many of the things organizations do. Without fully understanding attendee motivations, donor wants and needs and the current state of their community, nonprofits may launch programs or communication strategies that are sending completely the wrong message. Doing the research can save a lot of heartache (and headaches) in the long run.

(and yes, I know I'm picking on NPR, they just happenedto be my station of choice yesterday. CN N, MSNBC or Fox would have been just as easy to use as examples)