It has been a while since I posted about Oxford Girl Geek Dinners but today I would like to invite you to our January event (tickets here). I have been working on a lot of parallel projects in 2011 and this event was most of the time delayed, put aside, some even forgotten – and I feel terrible about it! So as one of my few 2012 resolutions I have decided to focus on it a little bit more. Saying that I would like to be careful what I say – there is something int he term “new years resolution” that implies short term nature of the subject:) I am spending a lot of time off-line nowadays using holidays, Christmas, visits of friends and time with family to meditate, re-think last year, summarize and re-set priorities. I know that Oxford Girl Geek Dinners is high up on their list now so stay tuned and if you can, do join us on the day!

For more info about Oxford Girl Geek Dinners please go to the main event website and blog here.

The Rules of Google+ Hangout

1st Rule: You join, contribute to and talk about Google+ Hangout.

2nd Rule: You do not talk badly about Google+.

3rd Rule: If others are talking when you are joining in you do not disturb, you introduce yourself in the chat window.

4th Rule: Only short hallo or goodbye

5th Rule: One topic at a time. Other topics, questions and URLs in the chat window.

6th Rule: No background noise (mute yourself), no muting of people who are talking.

7th Rule: Google+ Hangouts go on as long as they want to – join in or leave any time.

8th Rule: If this is your first time at a Google+ Hangout you have to have audio and video to show who you are.

by myself as parodied from The Rules of Fight Club.

Few points on the above-mentioned Rules of Google+ Hangout:

For the last few days, I had the privilege to experience some wonderful Google+ hangouts and their atmosphere. As a strong advocate of Google+ I find this experience really inspiring and I hope that shortly general public will start using them too (even though it might generate new challenges for Google+) or at least stop disliking them at least. Now, I have seen two great posts about Google+ hangout etiquette, so the rules above are based on what I have heard, experienced, learned in live events combined with written up materials and my personal feelings about G+. 

Originally I wanted to post about G+ hangouts ethics (modern ethics mind you, so this might change the moment I press “publish”!) in the context of Voice Social Media Breakfasts, however, I think I would start from a completely wrong angle. I will post on more structured hangouts separately. Let me just quickly explain each rule in more detail:

1st Rule: You join, contribute to and talk about Google+ Hangout.

Google+ Hangouts community WANTS you to join in, so make the most of it! We are waiting for you out there! Go to gphangouts.com, hangoutcanopy.com or simply start your own hangout and let others join in! Once you’re in do contribute and show yourself – it’s nice to have input from everyone. Of course some of us want to listen first, some hangouts are designed around a theme and might expect you to be a more passive audience but generally, your active audio and video participation is seen as a nice gesture. Oh and yes – do talk about hangouts!

2nd Rule: You do not talk badly about Google+.

Tools come and go. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn change. Some Google tools stay, others go. We do not know what is going to happen but we have this great technology allowing us to connect in the most intimate way with an amazing community, so I think we could skip slagging off Google+. Take this discourse elsewhere – obviously, if we are here, on G+, it means something to us;)

3rd Rule: If others are talking when you are joining in you do not disturb, you introduce yourself in the chat window.

Joining in might be tricky but you will get used to it. Come in and say hi, but do not hijack the main topic of discussion. Like anywhere else online or off-line give yourself time to catch up with the course of discussion and give others time to finish. Trust me, you will be asked to introduce yourself. In the meantime, you can say hi and type few words about yourself in the chat window.

4th Rule: Only short hello or goodbye.

Do not explain joining or leaving too much – it takes time and disturbs the conversation flow. “I need to go. Bye”+*wave* or a note in the chat window does the job. For more sophisticated goodbye version look up this collection;).

5th Rule: One topic at a time. Other topics, questions and URLs in the chat window.

Conversations in a larger group on G+ hangout are spontaneous but they only work if you do not cut in, manage the change of topic or simply take it out of the chat window. It’s OK to talk @ someone there and discuss another topic while few people converse on video. It’s more than OK to share URLs in the chat window for reference.

6th Rule: No background noise (mute yourself), no muting of people who are talking.

Make sure you have a cam and mic before you join a hangout. If you are joining in from a loud place, on a mobile or for any other reason have background noise – mute yourself and explain it in the chat window. If people in your room start a chat with you, we do not need to hear it. Oh, and if you need to put your pyjamas on, there is also a video mute option – use it, please. You will see that occasionally you will be muted by others – only if you do not realise that you are causing noise. Muting people just because you do not agree with their points is not funny and might result in blocking you out.

7th Rule: Google+ Hangouts go on as long as they want to – join in or leave anytime.

The very core idea of Google+ hangout is to talk freely, to “hang out”. I am sure we will see more structured hangouts but generally, this particular option on G+ is used to connect so there is no need to plan it too much. You can simply join in anytime and no one will get offended if you leave. Saying that the same applies to you – do not get offended if someone joins in or leaves your hangout;)

8th Rule: If this is your first time at a Google+ Hangout you have to have audio and video to show who you are.

Time to time it’s OK to mute your mic or video if you think the noise will disturb others or if you have technical issues. On many occasions, you might want to listen to the content of a Google+ hangout but please remember that if you do so (unless this is how the hangout is designed) you are taking up a space of someone who might be keen on joining in and contributing. So make the most of your participation. If it’s your first hangout with people in the room do introduce yourself. If it’s your first G+ hangout admit that it is your first time. You will receive a lot of support.

These are my initial impressions about behaviour on hangouts. This goes up on G+ now for public review.

I am still in the process of making Christmas cards (surprisingly this year I have actually planned it well in advance) so I was not prepared to send all my readers holiday wishes just yet. However, this new Twitter campaign from @O2 is fun and I am really impressed how well planned and executed it is. All you need to do is tweet at @O2 your Christmas wishes tagged with #o2santa and wait. A few hours later you will receive a link to a YouTube video with Santa sharing your tweet! Easy and very useful. I love the idea of providing Christmas wishes service in this form! As a social media marketer I am also impressed how well structured it is – initial call to action does not have a high entry barrier (you do not need to be their customer or even follower!), Twitter engagement is fast, responsive and wrapped up in the entire Christmas narrative and the final product – well, it’s nice! It’s smart to add the activity description to each video – for a blogger, it’s a good disclaimer of the brand’s involvement, for viewers explanation of the idea, for the brand – well, a good way to spread the word. So here is mine, though I am sure you will see few more around;)

I wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012!

So far Google+ has received mixed reactions from various types of users. Tech innovators and social media marketers join the network to share new developments, very often also attracted by secure privacy features and ability to download your own data (which also provoked Facebook to introduce this long awaited option on their network too). UK based fundraising voices expressed initial disappointment and await more traction on this network. The general public seems to like this new social network – in first 16 days after launch Google+ hit its first 10 million users and it continues growing (below stats viaGooglePlusBlog).

Initially, Google+ could be created anonymously which meant that some organisations (like WizzKids for example) could create profiles for brands (you can see that those pages will not have a small grey square icon next to their avatar). Later on, terms and conditions of this service have changed and now only personal profiles can be created this way. For brands and organisations, Google provides alternative to well known Facebook fan pages – Google+ branded pages.

We have posted our initial reactions last night, but you can also see other blog posts on the topic. Max Tatton-Brown sums up the meaning of this development pretty well in this post here:

“No matter how much or how little you plan to use your Google+ brand page, it’s a game you’re going to want to be in, in the same way, that you want to be on Google itself. And with the heritage of Google Analytics, you can bet you’ll be able to measure its performance directly and in detail.”

Socialstatistics also provides Google+ stats now, so we hope to see more value in this particular online presence. But social media is not all about stats. The reason why Google+ is so attractive to early adopters is the fact that the network responds to many issues Facebook was not willing to address for years – privacy, contact management, data ownership, clarity. You almost feel like Google took all the best of Facebook combined with response to all the valid criticism and created a network which basically is a good product.

For late adopters the question still remains – should we invest our time and resources in Google+ pages? Considering that Google has a great palette of free, fully functional tools (blogging – Blogger, photo sharing and editing – Picasa, video sharing and editing – YouTube, reading – RSS feed reader, productivity – Google dos and apps, specific tools for nonprofits and many more) as well as good mobile integration and integration with the web (via Google + embeddable button) and starting today really useful for your online visibility search integration (try typing “+” and add your favorite brands to see their Google+ pages) I personally cannot see how this platform will not succeed. So we have two choices as fundraisers. We can wait until Google+ population grows, large brands reach out to huge audiences and then we step in on a safe ground. We can also set up our Google+ pages today and live the process of innovation, risk a little bit of experimentation with additional option Google still needs to add (multiple page admins, tagging pages, smooth shift between personal and branded pages, migration from personal profile to a page) but be actively present there before our competition does.

I am personally really happy to see few innovative non-profits entering this arena. Few regional offices of Greenpeace set up their pages yesterday. Save the Children UK was up and running last night and started posting today happily reaching 130 readers already (Update: actually I made a mistake writing it – it is the number of people who liked the page, actual followers reached over 7000 people). Howard Lake has also identified  Marie Curie Cancer Care’s page last night. Like with every new social media tool the initial phase is always based around experimenting, testing and adjusting our internal processes and resources to initial reactions, so I am really happy to see few good innovation leaders there.

How can we make the most of this new tool? It once again depends on the goals of your organisation. It seems to be pretty powerful tool for reaching larger audiences and positioning your brand – the ripple effect works way faster than on Facebook (130/7000 followers in half a day is not a bad result for a charity!). Specific updates can be shared and promote your work too. Specific tools can be used for creative engagement – Halloween photo editor on Google+ for example was really successful in engaging around specific almost global event. Photo collections can be  – and have been already – used for presentations. Google+ Hangouts (multiple user video chats) can save you a lot of money and time spent on presence at and travel to meetings, but it can also drive transparency if you open them to the public. Even the avatar on page profile can be used to creatively (check out our page for example, make sure you click on the avatar few times).

With the speed of its growth, I can honestly say that I expect in one year time our brands will be expected to be present on Google+. So if you want to give it a go but you are not familiar with Google+ I suggest this basic introduction by Mashable. Every personal profile can now create a page too and the process it pretty straight forward, but I am sure that Mashable will update their guide shortly too. So set up your organisation with a Google+ page and try it out. Next step for all of us will be to understand the dynamics of conversations between people and brands so that we do not talk to Google+ users the same way we do it on Facebook and to make our conversations interesting and valuable. But that is a topic for a completely new blog post…

Oh, just in case if you need to convince your management as to the value of Google+ here is a small infographic – these are the most recent stats I could find.

Update: The actual number of Save the Children UK on Google+ is actually 7037, 130 was the number of people who liked the page, which is now 144. Apolgies for the original mistake!

(this blog post was originally written for UKFundraising and posted here. In comments section you will see a note on inconsistent stats in this infographic so please check SocialStatistics.com for the recent stats).

I took part in an extremely inspiring meeting with Euan Semple and one of my clients in London recently. We talked about technology, communications and many other aspects of our work but also a personal approach to technology. At some point, our discussion drifted to the idea of visualisation of global efforts to drive change, improve our lives and strive for goodness as opposed to evil intentions. Do we remember those who are mean, evil, inhumane more often than inventors, scientists, artists or any other individual or cause which brings happiness to our lives? Can we visualise it?

I am sure that today it is pretty impossible to measure human intentions. We had countless discussions with our IT team in my previous work place about monitoring of on-line conversations with specific focus on intentions (to purchase, to get involved, to act as brand ambassador or detractor) and I am sure that there are a lot of wise people out there digging into this area. On the other hand increasingly we see better and better attempts to visualise quite interesting sets of data. We have managed to visualise reactions to World Cup 2010 on Twitter or just in the UK reactions to elections. There is a great study of reactions to iPad launch on Twitter too! (worth checking out also for the points on noise analysis made there). There is a great visualisation of sentiments around economic outlook of the New York Times readers which I think is the closest to what we had in mind.

But can we really measure the real-time sentiment of all human beings living on this planet to see if good or evil is in the lead? Will we ever be able to do so? And if yes, would we want to know?

Our trip to Budapest was really intense  – both emotionally, as well as full of experiences. Images, sounds, words of people I knew back then and who stayed the same or changed drastically – all of this still vibrates in my heart. I can only look at pictures I took and gradually digest it all. Work-wise though I have made few observations. First of all social integration – the Facebook icon is almost on each ad  – used wisely with the full URL (please do not assume that I can find you within this network!;) ) Twitter seems to be less popular. Foursquare exists almost just virtually – as opposed to many places advertising their Facebook location! I have seen Glamour magazine promotion inviting girls to bring their old accessories to a pop-up shop in a shopping mall – those obviously grew in numbers all across the city. QR codes are not a big deal at all, so I was happy to see that general public is not so excited about them anymore. Public transport tickets have their unique QR codes (quite a contrast to the fact that the cashier used manually set up the stamp to mark the date of my weekly ticket!), so do the posters promoting various products. I did not get to talk to my more geeky friends this time, I did find out however about Facebook hostessing service – the idea of running promotions though pretty looking (genuine and offline known) girls with large Facebook fellowship. I would love to learn more about the mechanics of those! As I said, we only had few days to look around and hardly any free time – I did not even have time to grab a local paper, not to mention reading it – but I hope to go back shortly and learn more. Budapest is eclectic as always!