London ecademy meeting 21-5-09 The Grosvenor, Victoria – Speaker Mathew Fraser, featuring his book “Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom.”

The Event in 47 “tweets”

PLUS 3 Audio Boo’s – click 1 – click 2 – click 3 -

srahatkazmi Rahat Kazmi – Business Networking on #ecademy http://bit.ly/108m4l

keiranhenderson At the #ecademy event in London – last minute arrival again. Got a seat near the front though. I wonder if I did the hash tag right?

SaifSiddiqui Looks like the event might actually be starting proper now #ecademy #grosvenor If ur here come & say hi

WilliamBuist #Ecademy at the Ecademy event in Victoria hearing about 1 £ challenge. Text pound to 84424 texts cost £1.50 £1 goes to challenge. #mf

nicktadd #ecademy #mf penny power introducing mathew fraser wow 1 third of the room is new to ecademy meetings

nicktadd #ecademy #mf mathews book – “throwing sheep in the boardroom” all about social media

nicktadd #ecademy #mf social media and social networking has a common word “social” – it all starts with a social activity

nicktadd RT @WilliamBuist: #Ecademy at the event in Victoria hearing about 1 £ challenge. Text pound to 84424 texts cost £1.50 £1 goes to challenge.

nicktadd Nick #ecademy #mf just starting the ecademy meeting – main speaker mathew fraser. http://ff.im/37mJj

SaifSiddiqui #ecademy #london #grosvenor – been going for 11 years now… Instead fellow giving main talk…

WilliamBuist #mf what we do online is not about us it’s about them. @pennypower. #Ecademy

nicktadd #ecademy #mf we have to be careful with our selves on-line, don’t “not” want to know someone coz you are selective – remember it is social

nicktadd #ecademy #mf mathew fraser “throwing sheet in the boardroom” – all about social media – tonights event

SaifSiddiqui #ecademy is a social. Remember to think about how u can help others not how they will help u – penny power #mf

nicktadd #ecademy #mf he is getting poked, super poked, licked, nudged on facebook

nicktadd #ecademy #mf lick mathew fraser on facebook

SaifSiddiqui #ecademy #mf keynote by Matthew Fraser author of throwing sheep in the boardroom.

nicktadd #ecademy #mf a good symbol for the real world is the “boardroom”

nicktadd #ecademy #mf he tands to speak to senior members of big orgaisations

SaifSiddiqui @TalkingToolbox #ecademy good to see u IRL. Congrats on the book

nicktadd #ecademy #mf social media allows us to compete on the same pitch as the “big guys” – the world is flat

nicktadd #ecademy #mf “web 2.0 business battles won on the playing feilds of … even”

SaifSiddiqui #ecademy #mf pushing power to the edges / users levels the playing field. Web 2.0 is horizontal. Open,networked,uninhibited, engaged.

nicktadd #ecademy #mf web 1.0 was a push medium web 2.0 is a “networked” platform – horizontal

nicktadd #ecademy #mf create a good platform then flip it to AOL for a fortune he he

nicktadd #ecademy #mf more people signing up to linkedin since the economic decline – basic need to socialise

SaifSiddiqui #ecademy #mf ’strength of weak ties’ – reality is we get thru life with reliance on ppl with whom we have limited ties

nicktadd #ecademy #mf most people find jobs through links from people which you have very weak ties

colinnewlyn Listening to Matthew Fraser at #ecademy event. Interesting views on social networking. Moving from a vertical to horizontal world.

nicktadd #ecademy #mf the cellphone took 14 years to sell 150m units it took ipod 7 years and facebook 5 years

SaifSiddiqui Velocity of change and uptake in web 2.0 is phenomenal #ecademy #mf things r happening really fast these days…

nicktadd #ecademy #mf http://twitpic.com/5n4hq

nicktadd #ecademy #mf you have to be careful what you put up on your sites if you work for a corporation

nicktadd #ecademy #mf your CV I’d not as important than what google says

nicktadd #ecademy #mf Mathew Fraser http://twitpic.com/5n4pl

nicktadd #ecademy #mf ME Marketing and Engaging

nicktadd #ecademy #mf web 2.0 leverages viral effects of horizontal networks (facebook, you tube, twitter)

nicktadd #ecademy #mf web 2.0 low cost marketing – no big marketing buys

nicktadd #ecademy #mf blendtec viral marketing campaign on you tube http://twitpic.com/5n579

nicktadd #ecademy #mf sales of blendtec blender went up by 400percent after the you tube vids !!

nicktadd #ecademy #mf nutella is the third biggest fanclub on facebook but then americans don,t know about The Stig

nicktadd #ecademy #mf your best marketing campaign does not have to come from you

nicktadd #ecademy #mf zappos staff all twitter with their customers up to the CEO

nicktadd #ecademy #mf on a social platform the dynamic is to not sell in the traditional sense – it is a social site so be social

nicktadd #ecademy #mf remember it is a transparent world out there so be careful how you interact

nicktadd #ecademy #mf mathew has finished speaking applause – book title “throwing sheep in the boardroom” great book great speaker

keiranhenderson Speaker at #ecademy event was Matthew Fraser of Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom fame. How social media can help small business compete.

Click here to join.

Now that we have over 550 members, and have generated some “groundswell”, I would like to officially welcome you all to the Social Media Graffiti club on ecademy and give you a few pointers of how to make the most of your membership and benefit from being part of a community dedicated to social media innovation.  The whole point of social networks, and indeed this club, is to join, participate and benefit from the shared knowledge of the group.

Let’s give a wider context to this:  Business is entering a new era of the “network” or “linked” economy where the more connections added, the more powerful and far-reaching the network and the more it can influence the on-line world. In this new style of economy, small efforts can lead to surprisingly large results as they are amplified through the network, or, in this case, club. Social media allows individuals to harness the power of networks by tapping into shared-interest communities on-line and leveraging business exposure and business expertise of others through these many different connections. Those who ignore valuable information do so to the benefit of their competitors. Networks and clubs encourage and support the successful to be more successful and your business can grow exponentially as a result.  That is why it is beneficial to you to be part of ecademy, and our community!

According to one of the world’s most brilliant marketing minds, Seth Godin:  “Social media, in fact, is a basic human need, revealed digitally online. We all want to be connected, to make a difference, to matter, to be missed. We want to belong, and yes, we want to be led”.

Membership of a club serves all those needs … and more.

It may also be that you are in a transition phase of moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 interaction?  It is my belief that many people are still stuck in Web 1.0 mentality, i.e. downloading, where all they did was go and look at a website.  There was no physical interaction with the computer other than “searching” and “scrolling”.  Web 2.0, as we all know, is about engagement and self-publication.  This means physically that you have to create sites/blogs/profiles/accounts and understand basic web practices such as uploading photos, up-loading video, embedding code, hyperlinking etc.  The subtleties of understanding social media may be lost on you, or overwhelm you if you have not yet grasped how to work a computer.  That is completely understandable, which is why I have put together my Social Media Training Course and Unleash the Blog within Course,  to help you.  Being a member of this club will also assist in making the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 as painless as possible, provided that you engage with the information and start using it in your work-a-day world.  Again, just joining up to a club, and sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, serves no purpose to you whatsoever.  Engagement is where the magic occurs!

It stands to reason that any type of community – on or off-line – only thrives if people consistently contribute to it.  Being a passive member does not serve you or the community.   It holds true to that old saying of “you get out what you put in”.  It’s not enough to just join a club and sit back and expect something to come out of it.  You must engage!

I thought I would therefore share with you how you can engage with the club and benefit yourself, the club, and your business as a result of that participation.

First of all, remember that an on-line community is a place where people get to know each other. It’s no different to an off-line meeting place like a pub, club, or meeting around the coffee machine at work, or around the tribal camp fire.  If you are new to the club, please go on the forum and introduce yourself on the New Members thread, just like you would if you walked into a real room full of people! It makes for good netiquette and gives other members an idea of what you are all about.  It’s also helps to build trust. It’s simply a case of making friends with the locals and learning to speak their language. They will have to make adjustments to you as well, eventually accepting your value proposition, but that will come later, sometime after you have earned your stripes through contributing.   Once you have introduced yourself, then you can start joining in on the forum.

The forum is the place to share knowledge, opinion, and experience and engage in authentic and valuable discussion with other like-minded individuals. Ecademy is a site whose members have made an investment in establishing consistent and reliable profiles, so it’s not a good idea to come onto the forum and immediately spam them!   In fact, spam is potentially damaging to your brand.  Try and contribute value to every post that you engage with.  Please join in the discussions and let the community know your views.  A by-product of this is that people learn to trust your opinion, and then you become known within the community.  This reflects positively on your business as you become a respected member.   As this “contribution currency” grows, you can expect increased business transactions between the members of this club.  As new people join, the value and benefits of being in the club increase exponentially!  You can also post questions if you need help with any aspect of social media in your business.  Ask for assistance, and you will be surprised as the generosity of others who are willing to share their knowledge! 

Use the forum to leverage other people’s time and expertise.  I personally spend hours trawling the internet looking for interesting and relevant content, and you can read the results of all my efforts on the forum.  Consider the posts on the forum as the “cream of the crop” on the subject of social media – a “one stop shop” for everything you need to know about his rapidly evolving phenomenon.

The forum is up-dating daily with new content, so please check back in regularly to see which topics are “hot”. 

It is an official statistic now that more people are communicating via social networks than via email!   In business, everything starts with a conversation. Social media provides the tools and platforms to start those conversations, and then build deeper and meaningful business relationships as a result of that sustained and consistent interaction. Best of all, most of these tools are free to use giving you an infinite return on the investment of little more than your time.  By being a member of this club, you will be kept up to date with the latest tools and methods for leveraging your social media presence.  Why not feed back to the club what has achieved results for you in your business?  Again, you will be adding to the knowledge base and contributing to the value of being a member of the club!

Social media in the U.K. is in its infancy.  You have a tremendous window of opportunity, through this club, to get a head-start on the masses and start implementing social media strategies to increase your business exposure on line.

It is the belief of myself, Thomas Power, and Penny Power that 21st century business is about understanding open, random and supportive business practices and future-proofing your business against the next generation as they move from Social Networking to Social Business Networking.  Your active participation in this club and social media implementation is your passport to a successful business future.

Ecademy has given us the ability to create our own tribe … the tribes are gathering, come and add fuel to the fire.

N