How to Build Social Community Measure The Impact With Shonali Burke

How to Build Social Community Measure The Impact With Shonali Burke Marketers spend a lot of time, energy, and money building their social networks to connect with, engage, and share information with followers. How much should you invest in a platform and measure what you’re getting out of it? Today, my guest is Shonali Burke, founder and leading instructor of Social PR Virtuosa and president and CEO of Shonali Burke Consulting. She encourages marketers to think about their social networks as a social community and shares how to connect with your social community to add value and meaning to your network, product, or service. Plan, Paine, and MySpace: Community being generated through social space Is traditional public relations (PR) dead? Perception and transformation of PR Putting people back into public relations; getting to the heart of who somebody is and what’s important to them Trend of natural marriage between social media and PR; companies taking initiative and making changes to company culture Purpose and Mission: How to use and leverage social media to grow authentic communities and make people’s lives better, easier, and more fun Two places to find stories: Customers and Company First step to building and activating audience; what you’re asking them to do, why How to measure ROI; depends on goals and data Most common mistake made by PR professionals and strategists Links: Shonali Burke Consulting Inc. Social PR Virtuoso Social Media Day at Minnesota State University Moorhead Katie Delahaye Paine Putting the Public Back in Public Relations by Deirdre Breakenridge and Brian Solis Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Jon Ferrara (founder of Nimble) Andy Crestodina Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne Write a review on iTunes and send a screenshot of it to receive a cool swag bag! If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Shonali Burke: â€Å"The perception of public relations, unfortunately, has not changed, which is that it is primarily media relations, it is publicity, it is spin, and it’s flack, and that pisses me off!† â€Å"I think the clients who work with me drink that Kool-Aid. It’s going to be measurable.† â€Å"Companies are seeing it as a trend. I don’t think it’s really going to change, unless a company culture changes, and that is truly where change needs to begin.† â€Å"Ultimately, every product or service that succeeds makes people’s lives better.†

How to Select a Science Fair Project Topic

How to Select a Science Fair Project Topic Great science fair projects dont need to be expensive or difficult. Even so, science fair projects can be very stressful and frustrating for students, parents, and teachers! Here are some tips for coming up with science fair project ideas, deciding how to turn an idea into a clever project, performing the science fair project, writing a meaningful report about it, and presenting a great-looking, sturdy display. The key to getting the most out of your science fair project is to start working on it as soon as possible! If you wait until the last minute you will feel rushed, which leads to feelings of frustration and anxiety, which makes good science harder than it needs to be. These steps for developing a science project work, even if you procrastinate until the last possible minute, but your experience wont be as much fun! Science Fair Project Ideas Some people are brimming with great science project ideas. If you are one of those lucky students, feel free to skip to the next section. If, on the other hand, the brainstorming part of the project is your first hurdle, read on! Coming up with ideas isnt a matter of brilliance. Its a matter of practice! Dont try to come up with only one idea and make it work. Come up with lots of ideas. First: think about what interests you. If your science project is restricted to a subject, then think about your interests within those limits. This is a chemistry site, so Ill use chemistry as an example. Chemistry is a huge, broad category. Are you interested in foods? properties of materials? toxins? drugs? chemical reactions? salt? tasting colas? Go through everything you can think of that relates to your broad topic and write down anything that sounds interesting to you. Dont be timid. Give yourself a brainstorming time limit (like 15 minutes), enlist the help of friends, and dont stop thinking or writing until the time is up. If you cant think of anything that interests you about your subject (hey, some classes are required, but not everyones cup of tea, right?), then force yourself to think up and write down every topic under that subject until your time is up. Write down broad topics, write down specific topics. Write anything that comes to mind - have fun! See, there are LOTS of ideas! If you were desperate, you had to resort to ideas on websites or in your textbook, but you should have some ideas for projects. Now, you need to narrow them down and refine your idea into a workable project. Science is based on the scientific method, which means you need to come up with a testable hypothesis for a good project. Basically, you need to find a question about your topic that you can test to find an answer. Look over your idea list (dont be afraid to add to it at any time or cross off items that you dont like... its your list, after all) and write down questions that you can ask and can test. There are some questions you cant answer because you dont have the time or the materials or the permission to test. With respect to time, think of a question that can be tested over a fairly short time span. Avoid panic and dont try to answer questions that take most of the time you have for the entire project. An example of a question that can be answered quickly: Can cats be right or left pawed? Its a simple yes or no question. You can get preliminary data (assuming you have a cat and a toy or treats) in a matter of seconds, and then determine how you will construct a more formal experiment. (My data indicates yes, a cat can have a paw preference. My cat is left-pawed, just in case you are wondering.) This example illustrates a couple of points. First, yes/no, positive/negative, more/less/same, quantitative questions are easier to test/answer than value, judgement, or qualitative questions. Second, a simple test is better than a complicated test. If you can, plan to test one simple question. If you combine variables (Like determining whether paw use varies between males and females or according to age), you will make your project infinitely more difficult. Heres a first chemistry question: What concentration of salt (NaCl) needs to be in water before you can taste it? If you have a calculator, measuring utensils, water, salt, tongue, pen, and paper, youre set! Then you can proceed to the next section on experimental design. Still stumped? Take a break and go back to the brainstorming section later. If you are having a mental block, you need to relax in order to overcome it. Do something that relaxes you, whatever that may be. Play a game, take a bath, go shopping, exercise, meditate, do housework... as long as you get your mind off of the subject for a bit. Come back to it later. Enlist help from family and friends. Repeat as necessary and then continue to the next step.