“Birds of a feather….”
Connie and I do realize that when you spend a lot of time around the feathered tribe of tech-savvy folks (thereby miraculously becoming two of Austin’s Social Media Mavens) it can be easy to forget that not everyone’s world revolves around LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blogging, aka “the tech-o chamber.”
As my teen would say, “Duh.”
We know that lots of people find social media to be one big confusing alphabet soup of applications, jargon and insider jokes.
That’s why we run classes and workshops; to demystify the gobbledygook, and that’s why we love speaking engagements with great organizations like Austin’s venerable Metropolitan Breakfast Club.
From the MBC Web site:
“The Metropolitan Breakfast Club is a 20-year Austin tradition that’s anything but traditional. Every Wednesday morning our members are informed and entertained by a variety of local and internationally recognized experts in business, politics and education. Our speakers share stories of Austin’s past, our current challenges, and future opportunities in and around Central Texas.”
Since 1984, the Club has been renowned for its extraordinarily eclectic speakers - everyone from the city Police Chief to historians to company CEOs to astronauts to the person who organizes the local rodeo.
Connie and I are thrilled to be included in the distinguished lineup on this coming Wednesday morning, March 11 - you can RSVP here if you happen to be in Austin.
We will do our best to rock the house with a combination of two of our favorite presentations:
- Email is for old people - Connie gets laughs and lots of attention with this one because, just like me, she IS one of those “old people.” More mature and particularly more skeptical audiences tend to listen to someone who does not appear to be 22 or live in her Mom’s basement, especially when she cheerfully blows up preconceived notions about social media for businesses and nonprofits.Â
- Follow the bouncing blog post - I use a series of tabbed Web pages to show audiences how the information in a single blog post moves through the Web on other blogs, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon and even (how retro!) email. Newcomers to social media say that it gives them a clear visual demonstration of the power of Web communications.
We’ll then open the floor for lots of questions and answers.
If you’re in town, we hope to see you bright and early Wednesday morning!
March 11th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Sheila - you and Connie didn’t just rock the house, you rocked the whole stadium! (For out-of-towners, MBC is held at the UT Club, which is inside the humungous Texas stadium.) It rained in Austin this morning (yes, folks, R-A-I-N!), the temperature fell 40 degrees in 30 minutes, and yet still the crowds turned out to see these two ace it. Who would believe you could boil 3 days worth of seminars into 20 minutes? Well, they did it. Awesome.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Awww, thanks, Julie; we really had a blast with such a curious and enjoyable audience. Thank you so much for inviting us to speak; we’ll be back!