Collaborpedia

Outlook Social Connector Brings Your Networks to the Enterprise

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The trend of enhancing the user experience from inside his/her inbox continues as Microsoft has announced the BETA release of the Outlook Social Connector. The timing of its release comes at a perfect time for the software giant, as the tech industry is buzzing over the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain this week.

For a corporation that many viewed as ‘behind-the-times’ in comparison with rival Apple, the recent announcements have many wondering with enthusiasm how the combination of Windows Phone 7, Outlook Social Connector, and the enhancements of the 2010 Suite of Office Applications will shake up the marketplace.

OSC connects the user to the social experience via a provider that connect the social and business networks that you utilize. The surprise in this initial offering is that it has partnered with LinkedIn amongst the other networks introduced which are: Facebook, MySpace.

Impact on Productivity
How will information workers be impacted by the increase in “social media noise” within their respective inboxes? Many organizations have completely blocked social media within corporate settings and have been either reluctant or dismissive about creating a solid Social Media policy that addresses the upcoming changes in the workplace. Is there a business reason for employees to use Facebook or MySpace? Time will reveal these answers as decisions will need to be made.

Particularly (but not only) in the German speaking world (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) Xing is much more popular than LinkedIn for professional social networking. Any chance to get a connector for Xing? And what about Facebook? I have over 200 friends there, at least half of them I know professionally…

Microsoft announced the Outlook Social Connector as early as Nov 2009 but additional testing has lead to the integration of Facebook amongst additional new features.

Features Include:

• The People Pane - This includes a profile appearance of your friends/colleagues when you receive a message from them.
• Rich history - Instant access to a history of recent message traffic and attachments from each incoming/outgoing message.
• Activities Real-time updates from social networks
• SharePoint 2010 Integrate your Social networks right into the revamped MySite. I believe that Windows Phone 7, SharePoint 2010, and Outlook 2010 will be a killer trio. Joel Oleson put together a great post on Win Phone 7 and SharePoint 2010 capabilities
• Extend A The OSC Software Development Kit will enable developers to integrate a variety of social networks. The possibilities to build a true Social Media Center are becoming apparent.

From the Microsoft Outlook site regarding compatibility:

“NOTE: The Outlook Social Connector included in the Office 2010 Beta is not compatible with the beta providers currently available online. Office 2010 Beta users must install the Outlook Social Connector 32-bit Beta in order to successfully use the social network providers currently available. Also, you cannot install the 32-bit OSC Beta on Outlook 2010 Beta 64-bit.”

Download the 32 bit connector here.

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The Philadelphia Area SharePoint User Group will be unveiling SharePoint 2010 at their next meeting scheduled for October 28th starting at 5:30pm.

The meeting location will be the Microsoft Greater PA District office located in Malvern, PA.

Meeting Overview

We will discuss the business momentum and investment areas in the new release including demonstrations of new functionality that makes SharePoint the premier choice for a business collaboration platform. We will drill into the new functionality in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and the benefits it provides to end users, IT professionals, and developers.

Areas such as SharePoint Communities, Insights, and Sites will be discussed and demonstrated to show the value that the new Microsoft SharePoint 2010 can bring to enterprises of all sizes.

Explore the Business Connectivity Services (BCS) and the remarkable changes to the Business Data Catalog (BDC).

5:30 - 5:45 Registration, Food and Beverages, Networking and News

Discussion of events and news in the local SharePoint community.

5:45 - 6:00 Topic: SharePoint Tips and Tricks

Audience: All
Technical Level:  100 - 200

6:00 – 7:00 Topic: SharePoint 2010 Unveiling

Audience: All
Technical Level: 200

7:00 – 7:45 Topic: SharePoint 2010 Composites

Audience: All
Technical Level: 200

7:45 - 8:00 Round Table Q and A, Raffles and Giveaways

Round table discussions will be held on specific challenges facing the members. If you have an issue that you would like to have addressed by the group submit your questions to phillysharepoint@rjbtech.com

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

The Federal Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, has announced that the Federal Govt will officially begin the usage of cloud computing.

In accordance with this announcement, Kundra has revealed a new government site Apps.gov. This site is the location where you can find pre-approved cloud computing applications that are to be used by agencies, departments, components, and sections.

Applications are broken down into 4 categories:

Business Applications which contains 33 sub-topics

Productivity Applications which contains 7 sub-topics

Cloud IT Services which contains 4 sub-topics

Social Media Applications which contains 9 sub-topics

The government is making a big push with the adoption of approved social media applications.

FriendFeed, YouTube,  MySpace, TwitVid (video app for Twitter), and photo sharing application Flickr are all subsequent to open enrollment.

Implications

Cloud computing will greatly reduce IT costs within the federal government. There will be issues to be ironed out with security issues and policies will have to established in Phase 1 of this new approach to computing within the federal sector.

EventWatch:
Linked In is quite possibly the most effective social networking site due to its usage of Reputation as a key metric towards being a prominent profile on the site. Outside of my personal triumphs which include consulting gigs, speaking opportunities, and sponsorship arrangements, I’ve seen colleagues land new employment opportunities and at a minimal level join groups on Linked In that keep them in-the-know within their particular industry.

Jeremy Steinberg of Mid-Atlantic based Entrequest will be hosting a webinar entitled “Getting the Most out of LinkedIn” It will be interesting to learn his views and practices on LinkedIn as I’ve attended sessions with gurus such as Christopher S. Penn, who showed the audience strategies leveraging LinkedIn to complete tasks I normally wouldn’t have considered using it for.

When: Wed 7/29/2009 - 1:00pm - 1:29pm

Overview: Why should you be on LinkedIn? What should you do with your profile? How do you grow your network? Take 29 minutes to learn about the above and much more!

About the Organizer:

EntreQuest was founded in 2000 by Jason Pappas and Joe Mechlinski.  Specializing in sales expertise, EntreQuest grows organizations across the country through hiring for sales positions, training salespeople, and consulting corporate leaders and sales teams.

Having worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of salespeople, EntreQuest has found unique opportunities in the relationships that exist between hiring, consulting and training.  As a result, EntreQuest’s solutions build more effective sales teams, more efficient sales strategies, more successful sales skills and, well, more sales in general!

EntreQuest is headquartered in Baltimore with an office in Washington DC.

Why should you be on LinkedIn? What should you do with your profile? How do you grow your network? Take 29 minutes to learn about the above and much more!

After 200+ people RSVP’ed to the first few events we will be doing an encore presentation of “29 Tips in 29 Minutes Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn”

Written by: Shadeed Eleazer

Pennsylvania based RJB Technical Consulting has announced a seminar to be held next Wednesday. The topic will be leveraging social media within the SharePoint platform in the hopes of improving your organization, expanding corporate reach, and lowering costs in a down economy.

The Benefits of Social Media and How it Can Lower Your Organization’s Costs.
July 8th, 2009 (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)

This seminar will focus on the benefits of social media within SharePoint and how it can help lower your organization’s costs.
Join RJB Technical Consulting and take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to improve your organization by lowering costs while expanding your reach.

Speaker - Russ Basiura

Recommended Audiences:
Technology Executives, IT Managers, Business Executives, Vice Presidents, CEO, CIO, COO, CTO, CFO, IT Directors, Business Managers, Business Owner, Business Professionals, Controller, Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Makers

Click Here to Reserve Your Spot

Agenda
8:30 AM Breakfast and Registration
9:00 AM Introduction of Social Media
9:30 AM The Benefits of Social Media & How it Can Lower Your Costs
11:00 AM MySites and Social Media Within SharePoint
11:30 AM Panel Discussion, Q & A, and Raffle
12:00 PM Lunch

Registration is FREE, but space is limited. Register now to reserve your seat

Location:
45 Liberty Blvd.
Great Valley Corporate Ctr, Suite 210
Malvern, PA 19355

Phone:
610.834.3900

The next meeting of the Philadelphia Area Sharepoint User Group will be on Wednesday, June 24th at 5:30 PM. The topics for the evening will include; Creating a Custom Wiki Template, All About MySites, and Search Engine Optimization for SharePoint Sites. The meeting will be held at the Microsoft Great Valley Corporate Center, PA District Office in Malvern, PA

Creating a Custom Wiki Template
A SharePoint Specialist from RJB Technical Consulting will show how to develop and utilize a custom Wiki template within SharePoint. A custom template is not available out-of-the-box with SharePoint, but with a little bit of code it is indeed possible. There are various ways to customize not only the entry screen, but the final Wiki page itself.
Highly recommended for anyone thinking of implementing a Wiki solution.

All About MySites
See highly customized MySites live and in action. One of the SharePoint Specialists from RJB Technical Consulting will demonstrate the integration between MySites and Outlook 2007 and show how Outlook Today can be configured to your users MySite. He will also discuss “Personalization Sites” and show how you can provide role-based MySites for your users that include dashboard functionality. See how workflow, KPIs, Excel Services and SSAS cubes can be integrated to provide a rich, highly functional work environment that increases end user efficiency. Russ will end the evening by showing how one company utilized the social media functionality of their users MySites to improve communication in a global enterprise.

A tip sheet for getting started with Microsoft SharePoint MySites will be distributed.

Search Engine Optimization for SharePoint Sites
Internet facing SharePoint Sites require special handling if you want them to be ranked on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. In this session, we will breakdown SEO techniques that apply to all websites and those that are specific to optimizing SharePoint.

Join us for an interactive discussion led by one of RJB Technical Consulting’s SharePoint Specialists for useful advice on increasing SharePoint Site visibility on major search engines.

Meeting Agenda
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 5:30 PM

5:45 - 6:00
Topic: Tips and Tricks - Custom Wiki Template
Audience: Developers and Administrators
Technical Level: 200

6:00 - 6:45
Topic: All About MySites
Audience: Anyone
Technical Level: 200

7:00 - 7:45
Topic: Search Engine Optimization for SharePoint Sites
Audience: Site Administrators
Technical Level: 100

7:45 -8:00
Round Table Q and A, Raffles and Giveaways

Round table discussions will be held on specific challenges facing the members. If you have an issue that you would like to have addressed by the group submit your questions to phillysharepoint@rjbtech.com.

Saturday Mar 14th, 2009 kicks off SharePoint Saturday Boston to be held at the Microsoft Office on Jones Rd in Waltham, Mass.
Expect multiple sessions on various tracks ranging from developer, administrator, end user, project management and more from respected SharePoint professionals and MVPs.

Topics Include (but certaintly not limited to)
Best Practices for Configuring your SharePoint – Site Hierarchy and Features, Security and Configurations, and Performance Guidance

Administration - SharePoint Administration with PowerShell 2.0

Dazzling SharePoint with Silverlight

Mapping Mashups with SharePoint Designer

Building the Perfect SharePoint Farm - A Walkthrough of Best Practices from the Field

Speakers Include:
Michael Cummings
Dan Usher
Eric Kraus
Geoff Varosky
John Stover
Becky Isserman
Joel Oleson
Michael Lotter
Sean Bordner
David McWee
Tom Resing

The pressures of the world take hold of our mind and spirit and various ways for each individual.
With the constant worry of judgemental friends, family, and co-workers who may not be able to handle to handle the truth.

Enter Secrettweet.com, which is a service which allows anyone to anonymously Tweet their soul to the world that displays on SecretTweet’s Twitter feed.

The Twitter world is quickly gravatating to the new service which initially ran ads within the Tweetstream as well as on its companion site www.secrettweet.com, but is now moving on to a different model.

Some of the confessions can be humorous, others are last ditch attempts for help, lamenting abuse, adultery, and many other issues that haunt the minds of Twitter participants.

The anonymous nature of Secret Tweet will help draw to its appeal, and the fact that it doesn’t require credentials to post will people who discover it on other social networking platforms to cleanse their souls for the better.

I also predict that the comments section that allows members to leave advice (or ridicule) may prevent someone from going “over the edge” in a few cases.

With the rise in production of Twitter apps and services reminiscent of the 1849 gold rush, I believe that this service will gain traction due to the sheer audacity of some of the posts.
It’s the same principle that makes daytime talk shows popular, people hate to see a car accident but cannot turn away.

I had a requirement to meet using Skype for a business startup, so I have provided a step-by-step installation guide in this post to walk through the install wizard.

What is Skype?

Skype is a service that enables users to make phone calls using the Internet. It uses Voice Over IP protocol in order to do this. It enables the user to set up video teleconferencing and instant messenging as well.

Skype users can make free calls to other users on Skype. In the era of outraegeous cell phone bills that continue to skyrocket, this can be utilized as a cost effective way to communicate with your network.

Select Download Now

Select Run

Select your language and Select Next

The screenshot above will prompt the user to create a new account

Fill in the required fields. The full name field is searchable, so it helps to keep consistent with profiles you may use on other social networking platforms

Installation wizard will provide a status bar at the bottom 3rd of the screen

You can choose to enable the Browser Highlighter. I did not.

Installation is complete. Welcome to Skype!

Add contacts and begin communicating.

For the latest updates on blog posts like the Skype Installation Guide and other news and notes, follow my updates on Twitter.com

Heads up for all attendees of Refresh Baltimore.
The date and location for Refresh Baltimore have been changed to adjust for conflicts with Outlet(http://outletbmore.wordpress.com/)

The new date is February 18th, 2009.
It will be held at:
MICA - Room 110
1300 W Mt Royal Ave
Baltimore, MD 21217

The featured presenter will be Michael Jovel of www.bmoreinteractive.com .
Topic: Adobe AIR

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a cross-platform runtime environment that allows designers and developer to create rich internet applications using Flash, Flex, HTML or Ajax, that can be deployed on the desktop. This presentation will include a brief introduction to AIR and show examples of applications that make use of several of the new capabilities which include windows, menus, clipboard, access to the file system, etc.

The sponsor for this event will be EEI Communications http://www.eeicom.com/training
EEI Training is an Adobe Authorized training provider with training centers in Hunt Valley, Columbia, Silver Spring, and Alexandria, VA. They offer over 140 classroom based training course in topics such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat, HTML, XML, AJAX and much more

What is Refresh Bmore?
Refresh is a growing community of web-developers and designers who meet once a month to share ideas related to our industry. Our goal is to educate each other with new ideas so that we can help refresh the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

Please make sure to RSVP
Follow them on Twitter http://twitter.com/refreshbmore

Tonight marks the first “official” meeting of Outlet Baltimore as snow and ice hampered the efforts of the original group meetup. Despite a good turnout of individuals who braved the conditions, tonight signifies a formal introduction to an event which has the potential to be a mainstay in the greater Baltimore Tech Corridor.

About Outlet Bmore
http://outletbmore.wordpress.com/about/

Where:
Rocket to Venus
3360 Chestnut Ave
(Hampden) Baltimore, MD

When:
6-8pm

Outlet Baltimore is organized by Neal Shaffer of Slant Six Creative and Steve Goodman of the Ohio East India Company.

Jared Goralnick’s presentation centered around A Little Bit of Productivity for a Great Bit of Happiness which fits in perfectly with Collaborpedia’s “Remember the Big Picture” approach to the changes at large within our respective communities. The presentation was quite insightful as were many at Ignite Baltimore’s second event.

Ignite Baltimore is one event where you cannot take the RSVP for granted as it was a waiting list for the standing room only crowd for the second gathering of entrepreneurs, intellectuals, techies, and political figures for a round of 16 speakers sharing their ideas ranging from art changing the world to being more happy and productive.

The Windup Space on W. North Ave was a great host, pizza was served for all, and the attendees were eager to chat, mingle, and make connections offline with many of the greater Baltimore area’s brightest minds.

I think that Ignite is one of the better examples of keeping the “big picture in perspective” alongside entrepreneurial pursuits and the rage that is social media. The networking aspect was a good touch and Ignite kept the “human element” that people are what make a great community in the forefront.

The variety of topics that bounced from each speaker kept the event fresh. The automatically changing slides every 15 seconds maintains the element of surprise.
Collaborpedia was in the building filming in coverage and support of Ignite Baltimore and later on today we will begin to debut the footage from the event.
Proposals are already pouring in for speakers to head up Session #3 which will be held in June.

Outlet Baltimore will be kicking off its first event on the 28th of January at Rocket to Venusin Hampden.

What is Outlet Baltimore
It’s an opportunity for people in and around the Greater Baltimore’s New Media (creative/tech/etc) community to get together, enjoy each other’s company, and put some faces to the names behind Twitter feeds, blogs, websites. It’s about making connections and developing relationships, thereby strengthening the community as a whole.

Event Details HERE

If the weather holds up, Collaborpedia will be in the building for Outlet Baltimore.

Mesh U, Toronto’s annual Web Conference dedicated to the discussion of building projects online for designers, developers, and analysts has announced that Ryan Singer of 37signals and Chris Wanstrath of Githhub.

When:
April 7th and 8th, 2009

Tickets
Tickets are $469 + GST. 30 student tickets will be offered for $50 each + GST; post-secondary student ID must be provided to qualify.

Mesh U 2009 Organizers
• Mark Evans – Director of Community, PlanetEye Inc.
• Mathew Ingram - technology and business writer, Globe & Mail
• Mike McDerment - CEO, FreshBooks Online Invoicing
• Rob Hyndman - business lawyer, Hyndman | Law
• Stuart MacDonald - entrepreneur, marketer, founder Expedia.ca

Register Here

Subscribe to MeshU Blog

Right on time with the swearing in of our country’s 44th president, the White House has a new design and web presence witht the launch of the White House Blog.

Log onto: to receive the latest news and updates from the White House.

There were many questions on whether or not Barack was going to continue to feed and maintain his online presence, which was a key strategy in his winning the election over John McCain.

Blog posts currently on the site include the following offerings:

A National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation

Honoring Dr. King’s Legacy and Serving America

White House.gov caters to the “on-demand” generation as well by providing a full-text of President Obama’s Inaugural Address.

What are your impressions of the blog? If you were the White House’s Chief online strategist, what would be your four year plan for the Obama administration and the White House in general?

Social networking sites can build up a false sense of relevance for those individuals and businesses who invest time and energy building up their profiles through consistent content updates, blogging, and increasing their profile’s community by adding more and more friends.

The question we will examine in this post is: What is a social networking friend?

What do we expect from them?
Is there a way to measure a “return” from our online friends?
What are some ways that a passionate, engaged network can benefit your brand?
How do you determine whether you have empty “friendships” online or a real community?
Super-charging your communities online

Friends Offline vs. Friends Online
True friends (offline in the “real world”) define us as people. They are the individuals who laugh, cry, and help us to learn the great lessons of our lifetime. If you get married, your friends will be your best man or your bride’s maids. When you fall, your friends pick you back up and when you win, your friends are there to celebrate. We need friends and as social creatures, human beings need interaction with others.

Online friends (typically) are people who gravatate to your online profile through either common interest or geographic proximity. In many cases, you may never met this individual face-to-face, and if you did, the interactions tend to be awkward at first because they typically are based on a perception (not necessarily a lie) based online.

Is there a way to measure a “return” from our friends?
The main characteristic of an offline friend is answering the call when needed. As a brand, information provider, charismatic individual, musician, or celeb, why can’t I do request the same from my online community? The key determinant of a “return” from your online community is action. Does your community respond to your requests?

Here are but a few reasons why your online communities may be filled with “empty profiles”

There was no foundation or ground rules set when the member joined
You haven’t asked your community to take action
Your update schedule is undefined, rare and/or unpredictable
You don’t “qualify” your friends (I’ll discuss this in greater detail)
You haven’t made them feel welcome or set a level of community/expectation when they
joined

What are some ways that a passionate, engaged network can benefit your brand?
An engaged network can provide phenomenal word-of-mouth promotion for an upcoming product or release from your company. Great friends can provide reviews, serve as site administrators, volunteers, and help you reach your goal towards online dominance in your area of interest.
Most importantly, a great online community is in place to strengthen your offline efforts including meetups, gatherings, and events in targeted markets.

Investing in Online Friendships
I expect my offline friends to want me to be involved in their lives, sporting events, and social gatherings. I expect to be invited and badgered to attend and celebrated when I arrive.
Likewise, in my online communities, I want my friends to share links to events, send me e-vites to gatherings that would enrich my life experience, and share photos of their triumphs in their particular field.

Super-charging Your Communities Online

So you’ve gotten to the point where you have “friends” but they are not active.
Provide active content, encourage sharing.
Send out a notice that you will be deleting “inactive profiles” from the site

Note: If you are not consistent in providing content, it is within the same vein of not practicing what you preach. If you want “me” the member of your site to contribute, then you as the site owner should provide a halfway compelling reason.
There are different schools of thought on deleting inactive profiles, but on profile driven sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Collective X etc. , it doesn’t benefit the owner to simply have a large network of people. Action is the key.

Your online friends should grow to become actual friendships that you cherish and enjoy if you provide clarity in your profile’s objective, and qualify your community through action and call-to-response.
Share your thoughts in the comments section about strategies that you utilize to maintain online relationships in your communities.

Mr.Shadeed -

Did you start blogging as a New Year’s resolution only to find yourself short on motivation midway through January? Starting to think blogging was a “mistake” and that you’re too busy, tired, distracted to keep it going? You are not alone. In this blog post today, we’ll get the fire re-lit on your blogging habits and get your blog back up and running strong through 2009.

Look for the Reason, Not the Result

You decided to start this blog for specific reasons. In order to regain that focus and motivation to keep your blog afloat, don’t look too far ahead to the future. Instead, look inward and reconnect with the reasons you wanted to kick off the new year in a blogging fury!

What if I didn’t have any specific goals?

Answer the following questions to uncover your motivation:

What are the reasons I started my blog?

What skills and tips do I have to share with my community?

What areas of expertise do I feel comfortable writing about?

Tips to get you back up and running

“Script Your Posts”

This is a great way for me personally to keep blogging when time is limited or motivation could be higher. Simply enter the title of your potential post and save it as a draft. Once you have the title, you can brainstorm ways to put it together throughout your day.

Keep It Short

Keeping it short refers to literally 1-3 paragraphs (or less) on a topic in order to”stay in touch” with your blog. Provide an intro on the topic and add a few links. The End. What I’ve found consistent amongst the best blogs is that there is no specific word count that equals a great blog post. Providing value for your readers is the best litmus test.

Blogs From Around the Web

Create a blog post consisting of helpful links that you’ve found around the web on other sites. It helps your readers by providing them with resources and may help the sites gain new readers. Everybody wins.

Caption This

Utilize photos in your blogging by incorporating a caption to a picture you come across on the web. Inviting readers to provide captions is a community builder that will help new bloggers remain motivated as well.

Bottom Line

January is a month where many new committments to a better lifestyle and increased productivity are in abundance. You may fall off the wagon but keeping a realistic approach and staying in touch with your blog will help you stay afloat and steadily maintain your blogging efforts in 2009.

New bloggers, leave a comment with your name and bloglink so that I may check out your blog and leave feedback on your progress. - Mr. Shadeed

Did your favorite football team make the playoffs this year? Gearing up for the record crowds and hype and hysteria surrounding the inauguration? Is there an annual event that draws tourist traffic from around the world?

What you have with each of these scenarios is the opportunity to build communities around your brand and to associate your business with that particular event. In this blog post, I’ll focus on sports and community and provide some basic tips on what virtually any entity ranging from brick and mortar businesses to a blog authored by an individual can do to position themselves as the official ___________ (brand description here) of your city or town.
The most important thing to remember is that you can easily build brand recognition without buying space on a billboard.

Leveraging Sporting Events to Build Community
Nothing energizes a city more than the hometown team making the playoffs. The playoffs offer a renewed sense of hope that even if the team barely squeaked into the big tournament, everyone involved has a chance to win it all.

Here are a few inexpensive tips.

Tips
1.Giveaways. Partner up with a local sportsbar to do a giveaway of your product or service.
This can also be done in true guerilla fashion by simply handing out material in tailgating areas or in popular downtown districts in your area.

2.Discounts using trivia of renowed sports heroes or discount for wearing jersey in your establishment. Note: For online businesses, a simple promotion using photos of your customers wearing jerseys would do as well.

3.Online Photo Galleries
Time to unleash your inner photographer to help build your brand in your community.
Simply utilize a digital camera to take snapshots of various game-related events, using an online photo sharing service to store photos online. Have fans, viewers vote for the best photo and award a giveaway prize.
Add small watermark with company logo or site URL to the photo.
Submit photos to local newspaper, they might be used as more and more traditional media outlets are accepting a format of user generated content.

Using Web Video - If you are a video blogger, here are some tips to incorporate a hometown feel into your videos.
Film segments using a well-known landmark within your city as a background
Put on a team jersey during your segments
Add the team theme music as your intro song
Use fans as B-Roll for your clips

Why This Works
1. People will be more willing to participate in a cause or idea that supports the local team.
2. Video and photo galleries enable fans to be ‘celebs’ within the local sports community.

What If I Don’t Know Where to Go and Find People??
Turn on the radio for the station that bills itself as “Official Radio Station of your favorite team” and listen for events and make a note to attend.

As a business, brand, blog or enterprise, utilize the events around you to build enhance your business reputation within your community. Slowly but surely, your enterprise will become the official brand utilizing inexpensive tactics to associate yourself with the “big game”.

How do you utilize big events to build your brand recognition???
Leave comments and let’s start the discussion.

The Philly tech scene is showing some signs of great events and wonderful people who attend and contribute to make Philadelphia a tech community on the rise.

January?s Net Tuesday will be about Blogging for Nonprofits.

Whether you?re thinking about starting a blog or want to make your existing blog more effective, we?re planning a program that will :

feature nonprofits that are using blogs successfully to raise awareness, raise funds, find volunteers and achieve their mission — and how they are doing it
share techniques, strategies, tools and resources for effective nonprofit blogging
explore thorny issues , such as how to reconcile the need for a blog to have a personal voice, yet also represent the many voices of an organization

We’ll be using an “open panel” format, featuring some local non-profit bloggers, including:

Andrew Schwalm and the First Person Arts blog and Malcolm X Park Blog
Daniel Pantano and the Academy of Vocal Arts Opera Blog
Judah Ferst and the Buzzing 4 Change blog
Larry Blumenthal and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton blog
Maryann Devine and the smArts and Culture blog

In addition to an informative, interactive discussion about issues confronting new and veteran nonprofit bloggers, we’ll have lots of practical tools and opportunities.

Nate Gasser, of Rock River Star, will demonstrate creating a new blog during the evening with one of the attendees (maybe you?).

We will also introduce an idea to provide ongoing support and encouragement for new and current nonprofit bloggers.

This promises to be another intersting, fun and useful Net Tuesday event.

Source: phillynewmediahub.com

Attendees leave comments on your experience at the event.