So how many times have you tried to convince your friends and colleagues that they should be on Twitter or LinkedIn? Are you the person making the rounds in your office showing everyone Second Life and trying to convince them of the benefits of virtual worlds. I know I am one of those people shouting the benefits of Web 2.0 from the rooftops. And I share in everyone’s frustration because even though people seem to understand and “get it,” they never make that final step to actually join.
One day, I showed a vendor some social media tools, and he seemed very interested in using them. But I sensed some hesitation, so I asked, “If everyone understands these tools and is interested in using them, why don’t they?” And his response was, “I just don’t know how.”
That simple response said a lot. So I changed my plan of attack from demonstrating the tools to establishing a road map of how to get started. The result of that was this document: Your Social Media Journey Begins Here. I am releasing it in Beta form since I am sure there are still some mistakes in it, and I am sure it could use some tweaking. So if you want, take it, give it to your friends, test it out. Let me know how it goes. I probably should mention that it is targeted at people working in government, engineering, and public works.
Thanks for this, Pam. My first suggestion though is that you have a table of contents. I stopped going through it after the first four pages (which included too many slow to download full page pictures) because there was no road map to what the 80 some pages included. Some people know about how to get a gmail account and will want to skip that section and head for a subject they don’t know. Just a thought. Thanks for sharing your beta version.
I think that you are right. Had considered doing one but left it out in the end. I think I will put one in & re-upload it. Appreciate the suggestion and look forward to any more you might have.
This is great, and exhaustive! Thanks very much for taking the time to do this. I’ve been charged with developing the social software strategy at our agency (NGA), and what you’re doing will be quite useful when trying to bridge the cultural gap!
Thanks Heather. Applications like yours is exactly what I am hoping it will help with. If you see anything that could use improving or something that should be added, don’t hesitate to let me know!
Pam, I just created a group on govloop, Federal Connections, which will include a number of people who belonged to Federal Workers for Change (a group active during the election campaign). When you’ve got your document in a state that you are comfortable with, let me know and I’ll alert that group.