How to Say No to Social Media: Tips from @ESPN_ProdGirl at #BrandsConf

“We need to get a profile for Foursquare.”
“How about Yelp? Do we have an account set up for Yelp?”
“Are we measuring our Twitter usage correctly?”
“What are our fellow leaders in our industry doing with mobile?”
“Have we created our Google Plus business page yet?”

Perhaps you can relate to the high tides of demands as you try to stand your ground and navigate through the ferocious pace of all the moving parts in today’s digital, social and mobile worlds. With all of the demands circling towards you for solutions and answers, how can you answer intelligently with poise and purpose? @ESPN_ProdGirl has some insight on how to be that go-to-social pro within a large company and her secret to success just may surprise you. 

Meet Katie Richman, also known as @ESPN_ProdGirl. Social and sweet on the outside, fearless and wise from within. Her twitter profile says: Social for ESPN. Best. Job. Ever.

During her presentation at the Brands Conference in New York City last week she shared sage advice to those who share the role as social media professionals within large companies like ESPN. With the rapid changes happening in the new world of social media, there are many demands, directions and devices that can derail productivity and our overall success as social media experts. Just how does this ESPN Girl ride the tides with ease? She smiles and says, “It sounds counterintuitive, but the biggest lesson learned in the past few years of social at a big company… is learning to say NO to something social.”

The tips she shares on how to cope with the new social media noise can apply to any professional who finds today’s technology, media and marketing worlds somewhat overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. Her tips are enlightingly simple yet worthy of mentioning:

1. Take a reset day.

Retreat and remove yourself from the overwhelming requests. Schedule a day to re-boot and reset your mind. Go off-site if need be. Be intent to not respond to any requests or in pursuit to check off your to-do lists.  

2. Visualize your full plate.

What is the capacity of each day? There are only so many hours in one day. See where the demands are outweighing the realities. Notice where the gaping holes of resources are. Then, go to management with specific requests based on your findings. Be factual, respond with metrics.

3. Create a parking lot.

Put all of the to-do items in park. This isn’t to be considered a morgue per se, just a resting place to reassess all of the great ideas and demands against the goals. Time will tell when a to-do item is ready to shift into drive.

This is Katie Richman’s Parking Lot tool. She claims that it is usually full of parked projects.

Katie closed her presentation with a lasting truth, “You may think that you are giving 110%, but there is no such thing. There is only 100%.” True words of wisdom shared by a professional who has learned the art and reaped the benefits of How to Just Say No and be successful at social. 

If you would found these tips helpful, send her a tweet to tell her thanks >>

To catch Katie’s presentation in its entirety, visit the video recordings of the #BrandsConf 2011 here > http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18407514

Contributed by Andrea Cook, #140Conf Live Event Correspondent. Andrea Cook has brands and buzz on the brain. Since 1999, her Chicago-born consultancy, The Midas Center has provided award-winning marketing and media solutions to law firms, education facilities, non-profits, artists and hyper-local communities. She strives to support the noble game changers and life savers through social media marketing. She is a pioneer, coach, editor, cowork-owner and consultant for hire. Services vary, Live Event Correspondent services preferred. 

Twitter Tips From the True Twitter Makers

The Midas Center would like to share an email we recently received from the co-founders of Twitter. We hope you will find this resourceful as they share a comprehensive list of tips on how to get the most from the Twitterverse.

After you've read the list, feel free to share your thoughts from your twitter account and include @midascenter to your tweet so we can hear your comments too! Tweet on tweeps!

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Our resolution is to help you get the most of out of Twitter this year. To start, we thought we'd send this note with four simple suggestions. Come on by our web site to try these out anytime!

1) Follow your interests.
We've found that the people who enjoy Twitter most tend to follow a variety of accounts: friends, family, people in their profession, local shops and events, and most importantly, people who share their passions.

2) Get specific.
Like sports? Follow your favorite leagues, teams, players, coaches, commentators, writers and fellow fans. Love food? Follow chefs, restaurants, critics, bloggers, specialty shops and respected foodies.

3) Don't panic.
People turn to Twitter during emergencies. Snowstorms, power outages and fires are just a few emergencies where Twitter may be helpful. Search for #hashtags and follow local civic accounts to stay informed.

4) Return to Twitter.
There are about 200 million accounts on Twitter now - that means new interests, new voices, and new ideas every day. We offer services in seven languages, apps for most devices, and SMS worldwide.

Thanks for being part of Twitter,

@Biz, @Ev, & @Jack
Co-founders, Twitter

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P.S. Stay connected to The Midas Center via our Linked In Group, The Midas Center Social Media Club, our Facebook page, or our Twitter account to get more information on the upcoming workshop we will be offering on Twitter. The Midas Center provides monthly workshops on a variety of business development topics. Feel free to stop by The Midas Center, anywhere you can get a connection to our online presence to learn more about the details of our workshops!

Move over secretary, hello igoogle!

If you have not gotten acquainted with the powers of igoogle, you might be in the pre-internet dark ages.

igoogle is a free online tool that provides online calendar management, online document storage and sharing, web sites, blogs, RSS feed management and well, so MUCH more! This online tool is helpful in going paperless and being successful in the online landscape. Anyone want to share how igoogle has impacted their business practice? Please share!

Social Media Tip: The Practice of Learning

Are you in the practice of learning more about the latest best practices?

Because technology is fervently changing and evolving, we encourage you to make business development part of your business practice.

Take the time to develop your skills and learn more about social media by attending a seminar or workshop in your area. If you are interested in attending a networking event hosted by Women Business Owners of Michiana (WBOM), you can join me next Tuesday. Or you may learn more about the event on their web site by visiting www.wbom.org. This particular event they are offering is a luncheon on the topic of social media. Notre Dame's AgencyND's Director Extraordinaire Don Schindler will be speaking about the latest trends in social media. Although he has much to say on the subject of social media by proof on the number of posts he shares on Twitter and his agency's blogs, social media continues to emerge, evolve and shift the way businesses and organizations communicate who they are and what they do. We're looking forward to learning more from Don and his approach to how he leads Notre Dame's social media endeavors in this new frontier.

Learn more about social media and its latest best practices, attend workshops when available. And don't forget to mingle with live people at live events. There is more to business relationships than just retweeting and emailing!

The Midas Center offers workshops and coaching sessions for individuals and groups in-person or virtually. Coaching sessions can be customized to your specific business goals and can include training, guidance, support, strategy or what ever helps you meet your goals.

Clients achieve an improved understanding of social media tools including how to better communicate and meet goals using facebook, twitter, LinkedIN, blogs, google documents and more!

Presentations now available:
• Social Media 101: The New Frontier of Marketing
• Facebook 101: Save Time and Money and More
• Twitter 101: To Tweep or Not to Tweep and More
• iHEARTplymouth 101: Small businesses get online for free
• Blogging 101: Passionate Social Activists Wanted
• Branding 101: It's not Just for Cows

Clients may also request customized presentations based on their specific needs and goals. To learn more about how The Midas Center can help you improve your social media activities and take your business to the next level, contact Andrea Cook today to schedule your first session by phone at (574) 936- 7058 or by email.

Social Media: Help Me Help You

The Midas Center is passionate about helping businesses and organizations succeed. We want to be your Jerry Macguire. Like Jerry, we promote our clients and we use proven, best practices and a variety of creative marketing tools to help clients succeed. We completely relate with Jerry's passion and entusiasm in this clip (see video below). We are just as passionate about helping you to succeed and we are excited about the technologies that are currently and readily and "freely" available to each of us. We talk a lot about social media because there are so many tools that are free to use and have a great impact to helping you reach your marketing goals. So, tell us, help us... how can we help you?

Currently, we are creating opportunities for individuals and businesses to learn-n-grow and lead-n-succeed. Through workshops or coaching sessions, we have a list of social media topics we can offer. We also provide customized workshops, presentations and training to individuals and groups to help clients reach their specific goals through marketing on-line.

We are developing a list of topics we think would be useful. However, if you have a suggestion on a topic you think would be beneficial, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to comment or email Andrea Cook directly with your ideas.

Help us help you!