How do conferences use social media?

One of my pet hates is when conference organisers set up social media sites - specifically Facebook and Twitter - for a conference and then don't follow through on the commitment during the conference. A library conference a few years ago did this, had 'Follow us on Facebook' and 'Follow us on Twitter' plastered all over the conference home page but when it came to the conference itself, absolute silence. As someone who couldn't attend that conference I was more than just a tad annoyed as I expected the conference organisers to take that commitment seriously and maintain the ongoing flow of communication. Not so.
Back in February this year I attended VALA in Melbourne and was struck by how well the social media, specifically the tweeting, was managed by conference organisers. Not only were organisers observed to be actively tweeting during sessions (from the conference identity) but responses to questions were prompt and agenda updates provided regularly. They showed how it could be done.
Just the other week I followed the ALIA Biennial 2012 conference from afar and was again impressed by the way conference organisers ensured that the conversations flourished on Twitter and Facebook throughout the conference. Not only was there direct engagement but they also made obvious use of scheduling tools like Hootsuite to manage programming details, share session papers, and so on.
This week I'm following another library conference and so far I've been quite disappointed by the lack of engagement from conference organisers on Twitter and Facebook. There appear to be a few photos going up on Facebook today (one lopsided) but next to no action on Twitter itself since yesterday and then only a handful of comments came through (indeed most of the tweeting seems to have occurred primarily pre-conference). The bulk of the tweeting is coming from participants at the conference and even that is reasonably sporadic, obviously the proportion of tweeters is significantly lower at this conference than at either VALA or ALIA2012. Which is a shame as I'd really like to know what's going on and if I can't discover that from the tweet stream than the whole thing becomes of little use to me and all I come away with is a sense of dissatisfaction and feeling that it could all be done so much better.
The moral of the story?  If you are going to promote social media streams at a conference then you must also accept the responsibility for ensuring that you maintain an ongoing outgoing and engaging dialogue with others via those streams.  If that means utilising a roster so that various staff can share the load, then do that.  If that means using other tools like Hootsuite to schedule tweets and/or posts than do that. Don't expect the social media stream to maintain itself, that's your job.

sigh, rant over...

Information Online 2013

Well the call for proposals has gone out for ALIA Information Online 2013, a call with a difference.  The theme of this conference is "be different, do different".  With this in mind, organisers are asking not for papers but for proposals, for ideas for how sessions could be presented - be it a presentation, a panel, a workshop, a conversation.  Proposals should explore the themes of "think different, be different, do different" whilst also blending into one of the streams of Service Design, Emerging Technologies, Measuring Our Services, Digital Literacies, Publishing, Smart Cities & Sustainability, Our Staffing Profile, Client Focus, What Does It mean To Be A Transformational Organisation, and Mobile.  So there's lots of scope and lots of room for lots of ideas - I'm excited already!   Check out the Information Online website for more.

Sometimes it can take a while for the penny to drop...

Today is my rdo, I'm at work though because I want to use today's rdo next month to take my son back to school and revel in a line-up of parent/teacher interviews at the same time. I am also as sick as the proverbial dog ( and I really must find where that saying comes from because surely the proverbial dog is to blame for a lot of ill health lately) - simply put, I have the flu. Oh, and I am sharing it with everyone (whilst also being very health conscious washing my hands often, coughing away from people, throwing the gazzilion tissues I've gone through straight in the bin, etc). :)
Anyway, back to theme of this post. Yep, you'd think by now I'd just know these things. Apparently not. Apparently I still need to have those belated ah-ha moments for myself. 
So, I've been using Google+ for a little while now, not actively just flicking to it most weekends, sending stuff to it on occasion (mostly photos from my phone), and generally just keeping an eye on it for interesting things popping up in my feeds. I like it, it's kind of cool the way you can create circles of contacts / friends / family / etc. However today I had my ah-ha moment and I have to admit I actually feel a bit silly about it now.
This morning I read my #blogjune post over at the love2read2012 blog (and yes, I think the little android is kinda cute) and for something entirely different I used the option at the bottom of the post and I Google+'d it. A short while later I went to my #blogjune post from yesterday over at the #ALIA2012 blog and also Google+'d it. 
My ah-ha moment? Well, how easy was that? Yep, that was it. Silly isn't it?
I re-tweet posts, I share posts on Facebook, I'll write blog posts about other blog posts, I'll email people with links to blog posts. But a simple little re-post to Google+ has simply slipped past my consciousness ... and now I see how truly simple it is. 
So that is my #discovery for today - even though I am already fully aware of Google+ and already think it's a great thing I have suddenly come to realise that there exists a quick, smart, and easy way for me to make better use of it and to benefit the traffic within my Google+ circles.
And yes, I still feel a little silly that something so simple and ordinary has been an ah-ha moment for me today. 

xtranormal

@ellenforsyth recently pointed me towards xtranormal as a useful storytelling tool for creating video content for those shy retiring Librarian types who have something to say but are somewhat camera shy...
I've messed around a little bit with Blabberize but am keen to explore the options available in xtranormal for exploring the #ALIA2012 themes of ...
D - Digital Assets and Rights Management
I   - Interesting Things (which are bold, new, & different)
S - Spaces (physical, virtual, mind, outer)
C - Connecting People with Content
O - Opportunities
V - Valuing our Services
E - Emerging Technologies
R - Redesigning, Rediscovering, Rethinking, Rebooting
Y - Year of Reading


It should prove an interesting discovery of its own.

Wintery scarves

I love scarves. I have an absolute weakness for them, so when I started messing around with different ways/ideas of identifying the social media team at #ALIA2012 I just had to explore a scarf option (the conference is, after all, being held during July). My exploration led me to scarfmaker.com and to designing some very simple scarves for myself.
You can see the end result for yourself - all the way from Estonia (across the bay from Finland & right next door to Russia).


I know one thing for sure - I'm going to be warm!

more RedBubble discoveries

Today I learned how to promote my RedBubble creations using a blog widget - this may seem like a fairly small fry achievement but I have to admit, my sense of accomplishment is high. :)