Mia, aka WebbieGirl

I attended my first unconference March 27 and 28, 2009 at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC. I learned about the ‘unconference’ on Twitter from @cheeky_geeky. He’s Dr. Mark Drapeau, biological scientist, government consultant, speaker, writer, and very busy guy.

The conference, Gov 2.0 Camp brings together the leading thinkers from government, academia and industry to share Government 2.0 initiatives that are already in process and collaborate about how to leverage social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies. This vision for the club is to be similar in structure and spirit to Social Media Club -  an invaluable organization created by Chris Heuer, Kristie Wells and thousands of social media practitioners around the world.

An unconference is a collaborative learning event organized and created for its participants, by its participants.

Skylar invited me to speak to her Digital Media class this week. I put together a brief slideshare presentation.

I  enjoyed reading Twitter Power by Joel Comm. The underlying points are to understand that Twitter can:

- build relationships
- be a communication tool
- allow you to make friends and help people
- grow your network of resources to create more fulfilling connections

I’ve been tweeting since September, 2008. I want to also disclose that like Facebook, I may have checked it out earlier than that, but it wasn’t until I gave it a second try that I actually started using it.  I used the website myfirsttweet.com to find my first tweet:

Using Twitter has helped me appreciate real-life relationships even more – by realizing the potential and power of sharing, listening and contributing.

If there’s one thing Joel’s book wants you to remember, it’s that ‘Tweeting is a process.’

The book opens with the explanation of how the low-cost of publishing content online means that we’re not being talked to by professional writers and publishers as much anymore, but we’re talking to each other. Joel explains the social media concept and why it’s so important by people who use it.  We’re not just creating conversation, we’re creating communities.

The first several chapters are helpful for beginner tweeters, and offer many tips for personal as well as corporate tweeting. But my interest perked up beginning with chapter 8, Using Twitter to Help Build Your Brand. This is a hot topic for local tweeps I am following. Joel mentions how companies that ‘don’t get it’ can have a negative impact on their brand.

“Firms that don’t get social media look like interlopers, uninvited guests who have gatecrashed the cool people’s party.”

Joel gives examples of many companies that get it right, and some that just don’t get it. It’s important to know that people and Twitter followers prefer to know that there is a person behind the company. While it’s important to remember a company’s tweets should appear human, they’re also representing the company. For corporate branding there needs to be a balance or at least understanding to ‘mix it up’ when it comes to types of tweets.

I did enjoy this book; it was an easy read and I appreciate the references to Twitter strategies, as well as links to the many sites and Tweeters both personal and corporate, of which I value their advice and am now following.