It has been slowly 2 years since I started those virtual events. From chat – which was at the time the best forum for this group discussion – we have moved to Google+ Hangouts and today we have our notes for you…on YouTube. Our kind friend, Michael Tucker has spent his evening last night (11 AM GMT) recording our session for us and live-streaming it too and this evening we have it uploaded to YouTube too – for you reference.

Next time we will use Bambuser, just to see if we can improve on the image quality, though I think considering the fact that Google+ does not allow direct upload to YouTube this is a great achievement! Enjoy – it’s longish but it has some really good case studies there for social good and tech.

 

..was a very nice evening, thank you to everyone who made it so!. I have learned that building community is a long term process and we need to take small steps but we do need to keep moving. I have been dragging organising of this particular event for quite a while now and I am happy that we have finally met! I have asked everyone for the feedback, so I should probably start. What worked?

1. We had a lot of new people – which is great! One of the core ideas behind the GGD events is promoting the notion of women in tech and trust me: we had amazing guests this week!

2. We had quite a few gentlemen – I personally like the idea of mixed group and the fact that it is not an event exclusively for women. We promote openness, so we should remain open!

3. Networking and presentation – I like the balance of the two. I hope we can build on that in the future.

What needs more work:

1. Communication – keeping in touch with everyone interested. Let’s hope that the mailing list helps!

2. More presentations – at the moment I am working a little bit in the dark, I would prefer to know what topics others are interested in and see other ladies presenting too – glad to see Kate and Wendy involved and others proposing new ideas.

3. Dinner itself – we need more food. Pizza at least!

So now over to you – what would you like to see at an event like this one? Let me know!

As I am heading towards my next Birthday I decided to extend my period of evaluation of 2011 and I would like to thank few people who have inspired me last year. I want you to know them too, because they are worth following on Twitter and talking to! Some of those people were my clients, others I have met at events. Some of them I have been in touch over e-mail, social media. Others I have met in person. All of them have shaped me into a better person. So, here is my thank you list though I am sure this is just a small chunk of all great relationships I got to benefit from in 2011!

Louise Odquier from ActionAid UK

I have worked with Louise on a pretty complex project in January and I have learned that in some cases you need to be patient with your expectations. Thank you for that, Louise!

Gabriela Ehrlich from the IEC

I have worked with Gabriela a lot in 2011 and I have to say that she has been a great inspiration to me. I have learned, sharpened my balance between work and life, seriousness and smile. Thank you, Gabriela! 

Richard Turner from Solar Aid

I have worked with Richard but we have also met in few events in 2011. He was always extremely engaging and energising. He was very open to new ideas and always took notes when new ideas were on the table! Thank you, Richard!

Howard Lake 

Howard has been great in sharing all the new tools and ideas with me in 2011. In terms of social media, he was always there to discuss the new developments! Thank you, Howard!

Kedar Iyer 

After few presentations at Barcamp UAE over Skype and various conversations in social media this summer I have finally met Kedar in London! It’s a great feeling to meet someone “again”, sit down and have a beer while discussing current trends in social media and sustainability. Thank you, Kedar!

Deepak Goel from Drizzlin

We have worked together a while ago, so it was really good to see Deepak back in London in 2011. We had a good meetup-crawl and series of really inspiring conversations about the future of social media consultancy. Thank you for that, Deepak!

Claire Thompson

I have been really happy to meet Claire in London and quite recently in a very relaxing small tweetup in our area too – we both seem to be busy, but we finally had an opportunity to sit down and chat a bit. Claire has thought me to take time, though she probably does not realise it;) Thank you, Claire!

Lucy Gower

Lucy has tought me balance and inspired me to experiment with new ideas! Thank you for that, Lucy!

Amy Oberholzer

Amy has been a great networker and such a kind person to me in 2011! She has that thing that makes people listen! Thank you, Lucy!

Renata Avila from CC and Global Voices

I love Ranata for her enthusiasm and amazing smile! She is so supportive! She completely astonished me in summer when I looked for “a Spanish Catalan and/or Swedish” speaker introducing me to a great person who speaks both languages! All this within a day! Thank you for all your kindness, Renata!

Catherine Woodhead from Prince’s Foundation

We have collaborated on a pretty huge project and I have learned that the real change needs consistent approach and a smile! Thank you, Catherine!

Euan Semple

Euan has been a great mentor to me in 2011. His book published in December has thought me…gosh, not sure where to start…I will blog about it separately…it has made me more confident in truths about tech I believe in and opened my eyes to new ideas that I was yet unable to define. Thank you, Euan!

David Dixon

David Dixon was really, really supportive and thought me few basic truths about fundraising. I am really, really grateful for that! Thank you, David.

Nick Watts

Nick has thought me to be positive! Sounds easy, but 2011 was sometimes a bit challenging to me and I think I could have coped with some changes better. Nick reminded me that we create our own happiness every minute! Thank you, Nick!

There are two very close friends – Agnieszka and Krysia. I would like to thank them simply for being there.

But most warm thank you goes to the geek who makes my every single day happy – @zerolab. I have no words how much his friendship means to me, so let me just say simple thank you!

Yet again today I was faced with confusion around the notion of calling your blog posts “blogs”. I have been thinking about the need to write it up in a blog entry myself for quite a while now because increasingly I seem to suffer from genuine series of misunderstandings when training, mentoring or simply chatting to people about blogging. I have also noticed that many fundraisers in the UK moving into digital tend to use the term “blog” incorrectly. That is if we assume that we should not call our blog entries “blogs”.

Just for example if you check out the website of one the leading UK fundraisers (and from what I have seen over at IoF National Convention a celebrity of this industry) Ken Burnett, you will see that he refers to blog entries as “blogs”. You can click though to his “blogs” (meaning recent blog posts) and you can subscribe to his “blogs” (i.e. blog entries) over e-mail. Please do not get me wrong – I do not intend to criticise Ken Burnett, I actually think his input into the development of UK fundraising is immense. What I am worried about is the vague social media terminology we seem to accept not even realising that it might not be correct. And if trusted people in a particular industry use this terminology incorrectly, we will see more and more young fundraisers using it the same way too.

The real problem here is the fact that digital, tech and social media – or whatever definition you use to describe new social web – bring a lot of new practices, tools and notions that we need to learn to describe in a consistent way. Blogging is not new, but it has been introduced to the mainstream media and many industries in times of Facebook’s and Twitter’s popularity so many new users (even if established voices in other areas of life) do not really understand the basics of blogging. On the top of that you will find that the social media marketing industry is not helping. We, social media practitioners, are focusing on even more complex topics and keep forgetting that we do live in our little geeky box – at least I feel this way. On a daily basis I work and live with people who ask me about various elements of the web for their daily work and passions. The more I do it the more I start to realise that we need to speak the same language instead of developing a new one.

What is the standard and the real meaning of “blog”, you will ask me. I could write a long blog post evangelising (preaching about) the correct meaning of the word “blog” but I am not a guru – I decided to ask some of the most established technology and social media voices in the UK and globally – just a few – to answer this question for me. I am happy to see they all agree with my take on the topic.

Euan Semple responded to my question:

Julius Solaris was also moved by the topic:

 

Ron Paz posted:

Dan Thornton agreed:

Hugh MacLeod summed it up:

 

I had mixed responses from some of my friends and followers who joined social media spaces few years ago, like for example Patrick, though he later corrected himself:

 

Few people mentioned that the right to call a blog entry “blog” should belong to the author of the on-line journal. When I check the on-line versions of Oxford and Cambridge Dictionary I did not find “post” as an additional meaning of the word “blog”. “Blog” is defined as follows:

 

Now as a linguist I know that many words in our languages change with time. They adopt new context and move into new idiomatic expressions, but in case of “blog” vs. “blog post” we need to be really, really careful, because if we get it wrong we cause misunderstandings. The other day someone who does not blog at all told me that he published few blogs – which was really surprising, but only when I have received the links I realised that the person meant blog entries, articles written as guest blog posts. So I was continuing our chat basing my further recommendations on wrong assumption and instead of discussing guest posts I talked about blogging platforms and content aggregation!

I was told today that I am moving into dangerous grounds of yet another theoretical discussion about terminology. It is indeed difficult to decide what terms we should be using and how we should talk about our social media activities. I think however that some basic terms remain clear and obvious. The word “blog” was around for slowly 13 years, so I think it’s time to coin its proper usage. Instead of just taking a new word for granted let’s check how it’s used by the industry leaders – leading bloggers in this case. If bloggers know what a “blog” is, let’s trust them;)

 

 

2011 was a year of some amazing infographics to me so I have decided to pick my personal top 5 ones dedicated to coffee. In case if you are wondering what else was there this year, check out my small collection on Pinterest here. I will not include the most popular one here as I was unable to identify if it was made in 2011, apologies!

1. US Speciality Coffee Consumption Statisttics – it does not contain a lot of data, but I am glad to see the mentioning of Facebook topics there, as well as design, the feel and overall look of this particular infographic. 

2. 50 Ways to Drink Your Java – it’s personal;) I love the look of this one. It reminds me of endless hours in coffee shops of Budapest; of all the quick, warm and terrible coffees I had on the way to my university just to wake up and of that one strong espresso we had with a friend in an amazing place in Vienna, then in Nice, in Verona, in San Sebastian during the best trip of my life once….:) 

3. Fair Trade infographics from GOOD – we have seen quite a few good infographics on this site in 2011, so it would be unfair to me not to mention them here. Especially that they actually posted this one and I think for all Fair Trade fans it’s a good place to start;) 

4. Coffee Travels – this is yet another take on the coffee trade. I really like the design and the feel of this one! 

5. In Caffeine We Trust – I simply love the retro, industrial look and the entire idea of taking an online trend and placing it in our hands to fill out!:) Brilliant! 

These are my favorites from 2011, but I would also like to mention one which did not deserve the title of “coffee infographics” yet I love the appearance coffee makes on it! Besides have you EVER seen more awesome CV?;) 

I think 2011 was in many ways a year of release of data, data trends and trend to love data! We saw it finally presented in a more digestible way. We see it entering the interests of the general public through infographics so why not to make the most of it? In 2012 I would like to collaborate on an infographic project myself – I made that promise to myself. I think it’s important to make data, any data accessible and simple visualisation is one of the many ways it can be done.

I also hope that infographics will begin to move towards video format too! This one is an oldie, but goodie. Let’s hope that in 2012 we will see more of this stuff! If I am not around tomorrow, have a brilliant 2012 all!

 

 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!

 

Recently Google has rolled out a new feature on their fairly new social network Google+ – Google+ branded pages.

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?