Twacebookgram+

That's right. I coined it. Twacebookgram+! Ok, so it's not been focus-tested, and honestly it's just too many syllables to be viable, but

you know what I mean, and that's the most important thing! And this is not a blog post, it's more of a rant about how I'm sick of trying to remember who does and doesn't overlap in which social networks and wish they would all just merge....but then again that may cause the company who owns this behemoth to consume the internet....but anyway, I'm rambling now. We'll see what I think of this post when I look back at it in 5 years! 

Why I've been breaking the biggest blogging rule

Today I stumbled upon Robin Kilroy's blog http://reallyclearwriting.com, and read her post titled: "Why I'm breaking the biggest blogging rule". While reading it, I realized that I'm doing the same thing with this blog! I don't write for a particular audience, I mostly write on this blog as a form of public notepad. 

Not only am I breaking the blogging rule of not writing for any particular target audience, the focus of this blog changes as my work or the positions I hold change. This is probably why I chose the blog URL to simply be my last name -- since if the title of the blog no longer reflects its focus, I could just change it without affecting the URL or my search engine ranked pages.

Those of you who've been blogging for a while, do you blog for a specific audience/topic? Or do you just blog about whatever intrigues you? Let's discuss.... and come to think of it, the discussion seems to happen on other social media and not in the comments of this blog...but I digress...

How I use Social Media Tools for Managing my Unique on Google Name & Personal Brand

I've recently had a few people ask me about the social media-related tools I use that help me increase the effectiveness and efficiency of managing my own online presence or "digital footprint". Also, a friend of mine has asked for help reviewing her CV and improving her chances of getting a better job, so I'm writing this blog post in preparation for this meetup.

So here goes...

I've been actively managing my online footprint for the past 8 years, and this is why, although my name is unique on Google (and likely the earth), you will not find any photos of me in a risqué or intoxicated state (read: drunk in a barely-there dress). 


First thing's first, here's a list the channels I currently use for professional purposes:

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/lissansky
• Linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/lissansky
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/ana.lissansky
• Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/108125077480654805661/
• Blog: http://lissansky.blogspot.com
• Instagram: http://instagr.am/Lissansky
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/Lissansky
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LissanskyAna
• Foursquare: https://foursquare.com/lissansky‎
• Klout: http://klout.com/#/Lissansky

Important note: All of the channels above are for professional discussions only. I therefore use my real name, and my professional email account, which is my Gmail one. My personal Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest accounts, as well as my Mommy Blog, are all attached to my personal email addresses (there are many), and use a nickname. Therefore, when a potential employer or HR manager searches for my name, he/she will only find my professional accounts and only see photos I've shared on my professional accounts. ****This is particularly important for me as my name is 100% Unique on Google, i.e. there is no other "Ana Lissansky" in the whole online universe with this exact name and spelling of name combination (Date of search: May 10, 2013). This is why it is more important for me to manage my online footprint, compared to let's say "John Smith".

Tools for accessing, managing, optimizing your social media

If you work, or intend to work in media, communications, marketing, PR, tech, graphic design/web design (off the top of my head, but here are many other industries for which this is crucial) or even if you're a small husband and wife business like Vegancuts, who ships monthly boxes of vegan snacks to it's list of subscribers, you may benefit from using these advanced social media management tools:

http://Hootsuite.com

• Use it to manage my Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin
• Schedule posts: avoid inundating your followers with too many posts even though you discovered many interesting articles at around the same time

http://Topsy.com

• Research Twitter hashtags. Wondering if there's a Topsy for Instagram? I'm going to try http://nitrogr.am for that, as it is the only on I've found so far.

http://ManageFlitter.com

• Use it to manage who I follow on Twitter
• Allows you to mass-unfollow accounts that haven't tweeted in a long time, or mostly "plug" themselves frequently, as well as other criteria
• This is the best tool I've found for this purpose, I've tried at least three other tools

http://Statigr.am

• Recently started using this tool to get detailed Instagram statistics
• Very helpful if you're attempting to use Instagram for lead generation or goal conversion (sales)
• Shows you who shares your stuff, who are the top influencers for particular hashtags, and even when is the best time to share new content!

Mobile Apps for Social Media

• Twitter: Use both Twitter's app and the Hootsuite App - different interfaces, sometimes one is better than the other, depending what I'm doing/looking for
• Facebook and Linkedin I use the Hootsuite App
• Instagram I use the Instagram App
• Pinterest - I use the Pinterest App
• Personal Facebook is used from the Facebook App. Personal Instagram is tricky as I need to log out of the professional account and log in to the personal one. Instagram on Hootsuite is not that great yet.

Current Mobile Devices

• iPhone (32GB): because my phone mixes personal and professional worlds, it sometimes gets tricky as I need to log out of personal accts on certain apps and the log into professional accounts.
• Tablet: ASUS Nexus 7 (wifi, 16GB): used for note taking during meetings on Google docs (professional use) or Evernote (personal use). This tablet is paired with a Logitech portable keyboard with tablet stand. The good thing about the tablet stand is that it can accomodate any size tablet, and my iPhone too! #win
• ASUS ultrabook laptop: since I never take it out of the house, I'm not sure it can be called "mobile"!

I'm interested to hear about how others manage their personal brand. Which tools have you come across that you think would be helpful in some of the areas I discussed above?

Musings on the Future of Media & Communications

I fondly remember how in 2008 I was urging companies and departments to start using social media as another "touch point" with their target audiences. I recall thinking that very soon, all companies will have Twitter and Facebook accounts (at least) and that, shortly thereafter, we would start seeing ads with companies asking viewers to Like their page or follow them on Twitter. And low and behold, just 6 months later, it started happening on a larger scale in the private sector, but took about two years to catch on in the government. 

My other prediction from 2009 was that online advertising spending was going to grow dramatically. At the time I had just begun working in government advertising, and it was just below 9% of total media buys. Right now it's closer to 25%, and still not in line with either what the private sector portions are, nor with the percentage of time spent by Canadians on digital...but that's a whole other blog post :).

So I may be able to argue that I am mildly capable of predicting the future in my industry by about 6 months to a year in advance of the "tidal wave" of change. But my predictions in this post are of a more lofty nature, as some of them will fully "hit" up to a 10-15 years from now, once the current major consumer generation is almost fully replaced by the younger, digital generation. As an example, my son's generation - the one that's never watched TV on TV or listened to anything but streamed online radio and read their morning news on a mobile device.

And so, here are my media predictions (or the predictions of many others, which I agree with):

1. Death of Newspapers/Magazines - dying, dying, dead. (And sooner than most people are expecting)
2. Death of Traditional Radio/TV - traditional formats won't die as quickly as the papers, but soon. It's already begun, with the pressure to "unbundle" advertising, and with advertising dollars moving to digital ads, and giving people what they want: a la carte tv instead of paying for hundreds of channels few want to watch. Furthermore, there are already successful shows on Netflix that have never been aired on TV, and this is only going to grow. With respect to radio, it's easier to produce high quality programming for digital streaming radio online and on mobile, so traditional radio will die off even faster than TV.
3. Death of Mobile Apps - once HTML5 evolves and is adopted across the web, it will allow the web to responsively (see Responsive Web Design) look like a native mobile app on mobile devices, then why would people take the extra steps of downloading and installing apps?
4. Death of the Desktop/Laptop/Mouse - as people move to lighter more and more powerful portable tablets with touch screen technology (and an portable keyboard if you so desire!), clunky desktops, laptops and mice will become a thing of the past.
5. Facebook or Google Consumes the Web - not quite sure which will win the "war for online time spend" but it's between these two. Facebook is taking the "walled garden" approach, while google seems to like things a bit more open so that it can index them all in its search engine. But with Facebook's social graph, which will become the bigger, or most valuable search engine?
6. Advertising goes even more social - yes, ads you see online are already becoming very targeted, but this will increase to the point where every single user can see their own individualized ad at the exact time when they have expressed interest in a product either by their social media activity or their online search activity. Right now this can be "escaped" by clearing one's cookies from one's browser, but this will become less and less possible to do easily. Unless you want to get into using proxies, but again, once the user becomes advanced enough to use this, the advertisers will find another way of making you "opt in" if you want to view the valuable content they offer, there is no escape!

That's all for today folks, but do let me know which of my predictions you agree with, and more importantly, how soon do you think these things will happen? A decade for some, a few years for others? If these things had a Facebook Timeline, what would it look like? :)

What I'm thinking about in Marketing Communications this year

I read Marketing Magazine, AdAge and many other marketing related blogs and sites on a daily basis. So it got me thinking, what are the top ideas floating around in my head as a result, and how can I offer this up as guidance to my clients in the work that I do? Here, in a nutshell, is what I'm focusing on right now:

• To continue to shift from “pushing” their messages out to audiences to “pulling” them in with relevant, engaging content.
• To avoid doing exhibits, publications and websites simply because "it's what we did last year"
• To focus on research and metrics/evaluation of past marketing efforts as a basis for re-aligning and improving future efforts
• To resist spending on "one-off" marketing activities and instead focus on developing a marketing plan as early as possible in the program/product life cycle and shift resources to the best tactics to reach marketing objectives
• To stay current on developments in social media, mobile marketing and web analytics in order to be able to provide informed advice to clients in these areas
• In a time of fiscal restraint, to develop relevant partnerships and collaborations with industry, media and other stakeholders to maximize unpaid distribution channels

It's always good to have objectives in your head, but writing them down certainly helps with your follow-through.

Social Media keeps me "plugged in" while on mat leave

I'd like to take this moment to thank Social Media (namely Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook) for keeping me "plugged in" to the work world (while on maternity leave) by allowing me to keep up with co worker's discussions online. It's great, and I can even weigh in when I get a minute away from my newborn (although that doesn't happen often!).

Not to say that I don't love being with the little munchkin, but taking care of baby 24/7 can sometimes feel monotonous and make me feel like I'm out of touch with what's going on out there in the world. SoMe not only lets me keep up with news (work related and global), but also lets get some of the gossip - who moved to what job, which department has new social media accounts, twitterwalls at events I'm unable to make it out to (*sigh*). I can't help but wonder what my maternity leave would have been like without social media! It definitely keeps me sane.

Oh, and thanks to all my wonderful colleagues for filling me in on all the gossip (you know who you are :)

Having a baby got me thinking about social media accounts

I'm expecting my first child at the end of the month. I was thinking about whether to start reserving social media accounts for him, as I can see that unlike my name (Unique in all the world according to Google: http://bit.ly/a7Q5Ol) there are at least 4 other Leo or Leonardo Alas' out there (according to Facebook http://www.facebook.com/directory/people/B110603-3756477-3756480). And that's fine on Facebook, but on Twitter/YouTube/Blogspot and other sites that do not allow for username duplicates, it would make sense to reserve now, right? Wrong. I started thinking that 13 years from now (several lifetimes in the Internet world), when little Leo is old enough to start using some of these accounts, there is a good chance that the "Social Media Landscape" will be completely different and perhaps the tools will no longer exist as they do today... and, the race to reserve your name would probably repeat itself. Or, perhaps there will be some other sign-on method that I can't think of/imagine yet.

Well, for now I've only reserved @babyLissansky so I can refer to him on Twitter :)