HIMSS SIC SIG EDUCATION CALLSOCIAL NETWORKING

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Education Committee Chair:

Janet Smith

janet@jlfsmithassociates.com

Presenters:

• Jodi Bloom

• Aja Hardy

• Justin Wilcox

• Lloyd Tribley

Social Networking Agenda

•Overview - why social networking is worth your time

•MySpace/Facebook - Jodi Bloom, Aja Hardy

•LinkedIn - Aja Hardy

•Twitter - Justin Wilcox

•Blogging - Justin Wilcox

•Skype - Lloyd Tribley

MySpace – Aja Hardy

• Started in 2003 by Internet marketing outfit eUniverse

• Has become a social media site for musicians, artists, actors and comedians

• 73 million users in the U.S. and 117 million globally (June 2008)

• No. 1 social network in the U.S. according to Nielsen

Is MySpace for you? Aja Hardy

• Depends on your target audience and business

• 120 million unique users worldwide

• 44% of all mothers in the U.S. are on MySpace

• 45% of al users are over the age of 35

• Depends on your marketing budget and avenues you want to utilize

• 12% of all Internet minutes are spent on MySpace

• Click –throughs increased by 50% for Google who placed ads on MySpace

• Depends on your risk appetite

• News Corp. bought the company in 2005, since then profits have fell 10%

• International business unit is less than three years old

• 2007 saw a number of lawsuits due to phony and hijacked accounts for spam usage

• 2008 case against a woman who cyber bullied a young girl to commit suicide

• Not intended to be a business networking medium, more informative uses

MySpace Mail - Jodi Bloom• www.myspace.com then create your

own username and profile

• “Friends” are those you accept and their icons/pictures appear in your friend’s list. Easy to find them, contact and write messages

• Uses for consultants might include sending out broadcast messages for speaking engagements, articles, etc. Reaches a broad audience. Can post your schedule and make it easy for people to find you.

• Not very easy to find users unless you know them or have common “friends”

• Music functionality built in, myspace has built in purchase software.

Myspace – Jodi Bloom Sample Profile

Facebook-Jodi Bloom Sample Profile

Facebook-Jodi Bloom

• www.facebook.com

• I found facebook really easy to use, the sign up procedure quick and simple

• I can find people easily through past associations, email address, or just knowing their names

• Cons:

• The first week one person wrote something I didn’t like. I don’t know how to control that yet. On myspace, it’s easy to keep people from posting on your page

• Sometimes it felt like I was hanging out at a social club and “anything goes”, including the time

• Pros: easy to find people with whom you might have lost contact

What is LinkedIn? - Aja Hardy www.linkedin.com

• LinkedIn a network of professionals that represent 170 industries and 200 countries.

• Developed for business collaboration, it has quickly increased to one of the most popular networking sites on the web.

• Free to join, LinkedIn has over 35 million members. There is a new member every second, and about half of the members are outside the U.S.

• All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and no one appears in the LinkedIn Network without knowledge and explicit consent.

• There are executives from all Fortune 500 companies on LInkedIn.

Linked In- Aja Hardy

Linked In- Example Profile

Catch your kids, your boss, your coworkers for a quick question, or have an ongoing conversation while you’re doing other tasks. You can also do video and voice chat on some of them. In my experience, skype has the best video and voice connectivity, including free conference calls, very cheap phone service, though you have to use your computer audio/headphones

Trillian www.trillianmessenging.com is a desktop application you install which merges msn, yahoo, AIM, ICQ, and IRC and makes it easy to access all IM services at once. The Pro version includes video chat.

Instant Messaging - Jodi Bloom

msn messenger www.msn.com (integrates with your msn id)

yahoo messenger www.yahoo.com aol instant messenger (aka AIM)

www.aim.com (careful not to install and sign up for aol internet and browser services unless you want to)

skype instant messenger www.skype.com (using their search tools gives you way too many ‘contacts’)

These all have various levels of intrusiveness. MSN, for instance, resets to load with most Windows updates. AOL wants you to use their browser and suddenly they are tracking your system with all kinds of spyware).

Sign up for any of these on their site, then use their tools, or use one of these to merge the tools. These tools allow you to use the IM services but they aren’t so intrusive nor such memory hogs.

Pidgin www.pidgin.im similarly to trillian with a few more instant messenging options

http://Twitter.com/Justin_WilcoxPeople

“following” me

People I “follow”

Tweet

Tweeter

Other Tweeters

Re-tweet

Twitter - Justin Wilcox

• URL: www.Twitter.com

• What is it?/Description

- Video overview - http://tinyurl.com/4myqhq

- Turns people into ListServs or Distribution lists

• You “follow” (subscribe to) people & people follow you

- Your followers get messages you send, vice-versa

- Messages are short (under 140 characters)

Twitter – Continued…

• Why is it valuable?

- Demonstrate your expertise & Grow your network (re-tweets)

- Get the latest info on topics

- Learn new things

• Cons/cautions

- The internet is forever: steer clear of personal or partisan topics

- Give credit where it’s due (re-tweets)

• Desktop Tools

- Twhirl – www.Twhirl.org

- TweetDeck – www.TweetDeck.com

Blogging – Justin Wilcox

•What is it?/Description

- “web + log” = Blog

- a collection of online “posts” on your business’s area of expertise

•Sample Blogs

• http://clinicalit.blogspot.com/

• http://www.dc-strategic.com/

Blogging – Justin Wilcox

• What is the value?

- Customers will find you

- Demonstrates expertise

- The more people who link to your site, the better

• Cons/Cautions

- The internet is forever: steer clear of personal or partisan topics

- Update at least once/month

Advantages of your own site include the flexibility to put up your own content, develop a web presence,

Disadvantages include needing a person with skills to maintain or modify your site, and not all tools work on all web hosting. People have to have a reason to find you, or you have to guide them to you.

What you need: Domain. You have to have a unique domain, like www.yourbusinessname.com. You

register it with any one of a number of registering sites, like www.godaddy.com, www.tucows.com, or just about any of the web hosting services will help you register the domain. It will cost anywhere from $5 to $20 per year.

Web hosting service. Assuming you aren’t hosting your own, which is an option however requires a lot more equipment, software, etc. Search for a web hosting and check out their services. You want to find out how much space they give you, how much bandwidth per month for uploads/downloads, and other features. Some have built in web site builders which are simple and adequate if you just want a web presence. Web search for “web hosting” or heck out www.bluehost.com, www.valueweb.com, www.godaddy.com, and http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/.

Web master. This is the person that maintains your site. You can do it yourself, or pay someone to do it. This can be hundreds of dollars but can be worth it. Look at websites you like, borrow the best ideas and add your own.

Site map. Strategize then build your site. What are your web pages, the ones you want listed in the quick menu and well as the pages that can be accessed from your various web pages. You have control over what you want to put on your site, the various tools, blogs, downloads etc. You can use Front Page on most sites, or use various free site builders.

Links, Links Links. This is a big advantage of a website. If you can get other sites to link to yours, and you link to external sites as well, this increased your web ranking and the likelihood that you will get hits on web searches.

Check out search engine optimization, the blogs, links, and newsletters that Jill puts out are very savvy. The information will help you know how to get better website rankings, which means you’ll get http://www.highrankings.com/

Your own website! – Jodi Bloom

Skype is a multifaceted communications tool providing Voice Over IP (VoIP) services using a broadband Internet connection.

There are over 300 million users.

In addition to voice, Skype provides a variety of services and features to support your long-distance communications and business development keeping your costs low.

Skype – Lloyd Tribley

Example of Skype’s localization capabilities for international work: English and Simplified Chinese interfaces

Skype – Lloyd Tribley

Features/Services:•Basic communication features are free computer to computer at no cost.•There are several subscription plans providing various coverage's and services in North America and the World.•Services allow connection with your computer, a WiFi Skype phone, and your cell phone directly to your clients land line or cell phone around the world.•Purchase a telephone number from a different part of the US or World to help your clients defray the cost of their communications. For example Hong Kong/SAR.•Skype to phones and cells is reasonably priced. Approximately $1 US per hour.•Provides:

• SMS services• Text messaging and file transfer• Voice mail• Call forwarding and call transfer, for example to other’s cell phone• Call recording and conference call capabilities• Video capability• Call center

Skype – Lloyd Tribley

Uses:•Search their database of 300 million users for networking, collaboration, and new business opportunities.•Many businesses, government agencies, and individuals worldwide and in emerging countries rely on Skype for their international communications. Skype is the standard and many times their account name is included on their business cards.•Many people and most business clients overseas want to communicate by voice (some with added video) and will not use the new generation Social Networking tools. Takes you to the next step to interactively and virtually conduct business.•Provides many of the features of an expensive collaboration system.•Conduct business with your clients at minimal costs.•Acquiring a phone number in a country you conduct business in can reduce the cost of communications with many of your clients. They will appreciate this.•Work on a report/project, file transfer, speak on the phone, arrange conference calls, video, and text message simultaneously. Work across time zones with offshore contractors.

Skype – Lloyd TribleyValue:

•Broad capabilities at a low cost.•Tailor the plan to meet your needs.•A stable company with millions of users.

Cons/Cautions: •The call quality can vary and sometimes will not connect. Using a Skype phone or your cell to the Skype network provides the best quality.•Secure WiFi networks will not connect Skype phones unless you have access rights. Even then some WiFi systems will still not connect.•There can be security issue for employees using Skype behind the firewall.•Your IT/Networking staff are generally not sure how to configure, therefore

many place the application on their black list.•It can be addictive.

Other tools

•Trillian - http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

•Pidgin - http://pidgin.im/

•MeetUp.com – building networks locally