Firecat Studio

Facebook Pages for Business - Resources Discussed

Great session at Firecat Studio on Friday on Facebook Pages for Business. I've gathered some links about the topics we discussed. Feel free to add more!

• Facebook's Pages how-to - you can find this by searching for Facebook Pages 
• Business Facebook pages for inspiration.
• Info about the new Facebook Timeline that changes the layout of your own page. 
• NorthSocial is the $20/month service that includes a lot of Facebook on-page apps.

I want to thank Jennifer Navarrete again for sharing her expertise. She'll be back on Friday, March 2, with a whole session on SoLoMo - Social Local Mobile.

Jason Fried on Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work - (TEDxMidwest)

Just found this TEDxMidwest talk by 37Signals founder Jason Fried, where he makes a great case that the typical office isn't the best place to get real work done. He touches on something I find fascinating, the serial, phased nature of dreaming and how it relates to ideation and creativity.

Jason is a fan of coworking as well. If you haven't tried working from someplace different, join us on a First Friday for just a little while, and try it.

The M&Ms

He makes an eloquent case about home having fewer, less damaging distractions than the average workplace. And M&Ms - Managers and Meetings - as the worst involuntary interrupters, are PAID to interrupt.

My favorite quote: "Meetings are terrible, toxic, poisonous things." Expensive to the organization, talking about stuff that should happen, rather than doing actual productive work, too many people attending, and usually scheduled for much too long a period.

His 3 Productivity-Enhancing Suggestions

• No-Talk Thursdays. Just the first Thursday, just in the afternoon. Just silence. An uninterrupted period to allow people to focus. Four hours of quiet time is the best gift you can give.
• Encourage assymmetrical communications. Instead of face-to-face or phone, which interrupt, encourage the use of eMail and collaboration products like Basecamp that allow people to consume information when they're ready for it.
• Cancel one recurring meeting. And find that those meetings you think are indispensable, aren't.

Unique Selling Proposition Workshop, Customer Empathy Map

At last Friday's Firecat coworking and brownbag session, Kate Hayward led a quick but deep excursion into creating a unique selling proposition (USP). Several expert marketers were in attendance, so the insights were flying.

Kate posted her empathy map (below) that she had posted on the writeboard, and shares her own answers to the leading questions in her workshop here in her blog, Eggsactamundo. 

I'm still working on the Firecat Studio USP. Have you made progress on yours?

I also ordered the Business Model book Kate recommended, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers, by Alexander Osterwalder. Let me know if you read it (and what you thought), or other books you find relevant to this work.

Your Audio Invitation to Firecat First Friday, via NaPodPoMo

My dear friend Jennifer Navarrete of Brewing Media is the founder of NaPodPoMo, the National Podcast Posting Month, which is in turn based on NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is, for the month of November, create ONE podcast every day, to get yourself into a routine, convince yourself it isn't that hard, and make enough progress to prove you can do it!

I've always intended to podcast, but kept stopping myself. Here are some of the ways:

• I need a real microphone.
• I'm not dressed for a video today.
• I don't have the right equipment.
• I can't decide which service to use to distribute it.
• I need to make time to plan out a whole series.

Cinchcast took away my barriers - a simple iPhone app, from which I press "Record", talk to it, and then press Post, with the option of posting to Facebook, Twitter, or straight to my blog. It really WAS a cinch.

And Jennifer took away my barriers with the simple suggestion of "Just try it." Thanks for being a great role model and coach for fearless adoption and "fail fast" methodology.

Your Invitation to Firecat First Friday

Because I'm geeked about our upcoming Design Thinking workshop for Firecat First Friday, that's the subject of my first-ever Podcast - your invitation to come out, try coworking, and attend a free, high-value seminar that will get your creativity flowing.

And here's the link to register.

 

Events the Social Media Way

I'd like to thank one more time our excellent presenters Jennifer Ramirez-Jasiczek (@regalaffair) and Jennifer Navarrete (@epodcaster). February's Firecat First Friday Coworking & Brownbag session Event Planning & Promotions Using Social Media Tools was one of the most popular to date.

If you missed February's session, be sure to put First Friday noon on your calendar now. March's topic is "Going Mobile: Smart Phones, Texting, Mobile Browsing and the iPad."

Recap of the February 2010 Firecat Coworking & Brownbag

Jennifer Ramirez-Jasiczek's images of the amazing events she puts on were very inspiring, and it was big news to me that brides are in favor of Tweeting their wedding goings-on. I think of a wedding as a more private, less public affair - but my own wedding predates Twitter, and even eMail, so what do I know? I do hope someday to attend one of the 4-5 event gigs she accepts each year. They look amazing!

And I think we've proven once again that Jennifer Navarrete delivers more juicy, useful info in less time than anyone we know. The suggestions and apps flowed thick and fast, but I've documented here just a few she mentioned:

Social Media Event Promotion Sites

If you want lots of word-of-mouth help driving attendance to a public event, put it in ALL the free listing places. Different people congregate in different social media spaces; her recommendation was to hit them ALL.

• EventBrite (you folks used this to RSVP to the Firecat Coworking session; it supports ticket sales through multiple payment methods, emailing attendees with more info, etc.)
• Upcoming (popular for nonprofit events, particularly, and well sorted by special interest categories)
• eVite (easy to track and share attendee lists and RSVPs)
• LinkedIn Events (for professional seminars, networking, etc.)
• Twtvite (especially helpful when your crowd are Twitterholics)
• Facebook Events (since so many people use Facebook socially, has great reach)
• An Event-specific Blog site using a blog platform such as WordPress

Other Social Media Apps Useful for Events

• UStream.tv for live streaming and after-event archive
• Blip.tv to upload for viral sharing and then embed a player in your blog or webpage
• SlideShare.net to upload and share PowerPoint or Keynote slides, similar to YouTube
• YouTube you all know what this is, right?
• TweetChat to display Tweets using a particular hashtag, updated in real time
• Twitterfall like TweetChat but has a presentation mode and sophisticated filtering

As promised, here is Jennifer's own Event Planning Checklist.

Anatomy of an Event using Social Media

Pre

1. Create hashtag for event.
2. List event on all online event sites (include hashtag).
3. Create audio/video/blog/photo content in advance of your event
4. • Interview Speakers/Vendors
   • Take folks on the journey as your team preps for event
5. Empower your staff/volunteers with tools and training

During

1. Live stream video. Live stream audio. Live stream, period.
2. Use aggregation tools to highlight tweets during event
3. Remind folks to use hashtag
4. Create opportunities to have "staged" interviews with speakers and/or attendees.
5. Allow for serendipity and be prepared to capture those moments
6. Remember existing event is a great opportunity to bring awareness to the next event (can be done during or post)

Post

1. Wrap up content and let attendees (virtual/real) know where they can find aggregated content. (blogs, tweets, audio, video, photos)
2. Direct potential donors/sponsors/clients to all archived content created at this event.

Do it all over again.

Don't forget to put First Fridays at noon on your calendars. Sign up for eMail updates on Firecat Studio's website if you want reminders delivered to your inbox.

See you next month! If I've forgotten anything, or if you have suggestions for future coworking and brownbags, let me know.

Calling San Antonio Guitar Heroes: First Friday July Coworking

July, here we come! Our First Friday Coworking session at Firecat Studio will be a little different - more relaxed, and (even) more informal.

Inspired by the record-breaking temperatures, the proximity of the July Fourth weekend and the kids being out of school, we're having PLAYTIME on Friday, July 3 from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

We're going to hook up Guitar Hero, the Wii, the Wii Fit and other interesting user interface devices, crank up the stereo and have some fun.

Feel free to bring your own game system, favorite controller, or Wii games. We'll have:

• The Wii
• The Wii Fit (balance device)
• Guitar Hero III (Legends) and World Tour with drum kit

We did this last year, and it was a blast! Feel free to bring your children this month, too -- they typically have more mad skills to demonstrate and have proven to be better sports.

About Coworking

Come hang out with other "mobile professionals" - that's anyone who can get some work done using a laptop, cell phone, or just pad and paper - and let accelerated serendipity happen. No charge - just community.

And just to get you in the mood:

• Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (Police) review GH Drums.
• Guitar Hero Inside Joke Cartoon (mildly offensive language).
• Jeff Howe (Crowdsourcing author) covers Why the Music Industry Hates Guitar Hero in Wired Magazine.

Come out to Firecat Studio on Friday, July 3, from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

First Friday Coworking In June: Keeping Time Spent Online Under Control

We've settled on our topic for the June 5 brownbag session: time management in the online world.

If you've made headway building your career or business using the web, sometimes the tail wags the dog. Do you spend more face time with your laptop or monitor than you do with your family?

Let's get real. How much time do you spend engaging in social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or digging through your eMail inbox? Is it too much? Is it time to unplug?

That was the topic at this morning's Social Media Breakfast - San Antonio, where Social Media specialist Luis Sandoval (aka @Pandaran) shared some coping strategies for managing his online day. "You may need to declare bankruptcy," Luis confessed. "Sometimes you're just not going to get to the Zero inbox or read every single one of those posts." There was a lot of interest, but we just began to scratch the surface.

So we're going to continue this fascinating conversation, and take a look together at some of the tools Luis and others at the Breakfast shared.

Bring your favorite time management tricks - whether online or offline. If you're a Getting Things Done (GTD) devotee, share what you know. If you're a Franklin-Covey or Day Planner person, bring it and show it. And if you're just feeling time-strapped and underwater - come on out and get some focus and support.

Instead of tune in, turn on, drop out, it may be time for Turn Off, Shut Down, and Get a Life :)

See you Friday, June 5. Come anytime between 9 am and 5 pm for open (free) coworking -- that means bring your laptop and cell phone and work from our Studio as a change of pace. The Brownbag discussion will start as usual at noon, and we'll provide light sandwich fare.

First Friday Coworking in May: The Ins and Outs of Facebook

It's almost May, and that means a First Friday Coworking session at Firecat Studio. Come hang out with other "mobile professionals" - that's anyone who can get some work done using a laptop, cell phone, or just pad and paper - and let accelerated serendipity happen. It's open house style from 9am - 5 pm. No charge - just community.

As usual, we'll have an interactive brownbag learning lunch from noon to 1:30. This month's topic is the social media giant Facebook. Inquiring minds want to know:

• What's all the fuss?
• My kids' friends are asking to friend me. Isn't that creepy?
• Should my business or organization have a PAGE or a GROUP?
• There are a bazillion Facebook Apps - which ones should I use?
• Should I keep my Facebook profile businessy, or use it as a more social space?
• Someone posted a really embarrassing picture of me in high school, college, christmas partying. How can I take that down?
• Does Facebook own everything I post?
• Why would sane people spend time in Facebook?
• I'd do Facebook, but I'm worried I'll do it wrong, or make a mistake. Can you give me some pointers?
• I'm on Facebook but I don't have any friends.

Several of us are on Facebook, so if that last item is your problem, come get Friended by some of the best-connected social media mavens in San Antonio. And we know a thing or two about the other stuff as well.

And just to get you in the mood for the brownbag:

Alan Weinkrantz (@alanweinkrantz) posted this YouTube on his Facebook page.

Local humor blogger LetterGirl (@lettergirl) offers extremely practical advice to her potential (and rejected) Facebook Friends. Hope to see you Friday! Sign up for Firecat's email updates if you want a reminder in your inbox.

So come on out this month, it'll be a good one!

>> How to get to Firecat Studio
>> More about Coworking

March First Friday: Blogging for Business in WordPress and other Platforms

It's that time again -- this Friday, March 6, 2009, is the first Friday in March, and that means First Friday Coworking and Brownbag Lunch Session at Firecat Studio. This month's brownbag topic, selected by the Coworking community in Twitter, is:

Blogging for Business: WordPress and other Platforms

While it's hard for businesses to invest in technology right now, Firecat Studio and our other colleagues who create and manage business web presences are seeing a surge of interest in WordPress, Movable Type, and other blogging platforms. These inexpensive - even free - solutions offer a way to create and maintain a web presence very inexpensively. WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad/Movable Type were conceived as "blogging" platforms, but they can and are being used to create normal business websites.

Social media consultant and serial entrepreneur Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad Coworking will be on hand to demonstrate how she's using WordPress for the LaunchPad Coworking site. Several other regulars in our coworking orbit are building full business websites using WordPress -- so we'll have lots of examples, ideas, advice and war stories to share. Bring yours!

About Coworking

Once a month on First Fridays, we open up Firecat Studio to mobile professionals and knowledge workers in the San Antonio area. You're a mobile professional/knowledge worker if you can get some work done (any work!) with laptop, wifi and a cell phone. Coworking is a great way to put yourself in the mix of the vibrant business community to network, gather new ideas, and share what you know.

For the Brownbag session, bring a lunch OR feel free to partake of our light sandwich fare.

The Studio is open for coworking from 9 am - 5 pm. We expect 25-30 people here for the brownbag lunch session, but you're welcome to come earlier and stay later.

Hope to see you Friday

>> How to get to Firecat Studio
>> More about Coworking

February First Friday: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Join us at Firecat Studio on Friday, February 6, 2009 for a free day of coworking. The brownbag lunch and discussion topic this month is:

Getting Your Business to Page 1 of Google Search

Web presence management specialist John Ray will join Firecat's CEO and chief web strategist Susan Price to discuss the many factors involved in optimizing a website for specific search terms.

Bring your questions and interesting problems. We'll discuss:

• Strategies for discovering which keywords your customers and other stakeholders use to describe your products or services.
• The difference between "natural" search and paid, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) -- and when it makes sense to pay for clicks.
• Watching your website's traffic reports to see what's working for you.
• Simple coding guidelines to follow that can boost your rankings immediately, and make a better impression on site visitors.

The free brownbag session is part of our normal First Friday Coworking series. Bring your laptop, cell phone, or just a pad and paper.