Sharing generously

On Tuesday we had a guest speaker in our class, Dr. Raul Pacheco, and he talked about how we as students and practitioners of communications on social media could create and maintain our social profiles effectively.

I'm no stranger to social media - I've been blogging since 2008, been on Twitter and LinkedIn since 2009 and picked up other social platforms along the way (Yelp!, Foursquare, Instagram, etc.). I've even collaborated on other blogs with friends and been part of a group wiki. Being social for me personally is like the air that I breathe - something I am naturally inclined to do.

However something Dr. Pacheco said on Tuesday resonated deeply with me - share generously with your networks and don't be afraid to let your personal profiles creep into your professional profiles and vice versa. I remember struggling with that concept when I first started the Twitter feed for my organization (@UofAPublicHlth).

For months and years I had been tweeting from my personal account, building a steady group of followers and solidifying some great relationships. I knew how I wanted to portray myself personally in the online environment but was scared stiff to tweet on behalf of my organization. I won't lie, the first few months were pretty terrible...I had built up a great group of followers but they weren't our internal folks and they weren't the media members I had hoped to engage with.

One day out of desperation I contacted the social media expert at the University of Alberta at the time and asked him for some advice on how I could grow and connect with audiences from our professional account. I remember Andy telling it to me straight and it went something like this, "You have this amazing personal network of followers and those you follow. You have great conversations with these people and you share relevant information. This is what is missing in your company Twitter account. Don't forget that even professional accounts need to show a personality - it helps build credibility."

Once that lightbulb came on for me my organization's Twitter feed skyrocketed and I haven't looked back since. So while I also share generously with retweets, comments and connections on my social media platforms and on those I follow, I also remember to share just a little bit of who I am on the places where I live socially.

How do you measure ROI of relationships?

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to how I use social media personally and for my own workplace. I'll admit I love connecting with people and connecting people with other like-minded individuals. It's been my calling pretty much since birth and with today's social technology I find they are an extension of what I love to do.

At work I have used Linkedin and Twitter to connect with our faculty, staff, students and alumni, and also to facilitate conversations and collaborations with community partners. The best part about being on Twitter is being able to comment on and re-tweet (see "share") information that you think your network would be interested in. Social media is all about the reciprocity, if someone in your network has shared your work with others, say thanks.


Lately I'm a little disillusioned with how reciprocity has been actually working within our larger parent organization. I'm talking everything from being left out of tweets when our researchers are featured with their new discoveries to no acknowledgement when we recognize other researchers. We've been told to follow some basic criteria when posting to social media, and that should ensure pick-up and shares amongst other faculties. It saddens me to say that it isn't quite the truth.


As always I bounced this blog post off of @marynedwards and as we talked it through she said the way people and organizations behave on social media these days is not unlike the group projects that we used to have to do at MRU! There's always that one person that takes the reins, often ignoring the contributions of others on the project (thanks for the insight as always Maryn). 


Instead of letting this phase me I have come to realize that the community where we are physically located in is much smaller than the virtual community that we've been building. For each snub from the folks back at home, we get three new follows and multiple shares from the relationships we've built externally. So where is the value really? The value is everywhere, as long as both sides can see it. I still find value talking about my organization online each and every day, and others must think so too, our engagement is ongoing and ever-growing. I hope that eventually those within our own community might see some value in who we are and what we're doing and invite us to the table instead of ignoring us.

Adventures in blogging

Well I'm about to dive into this "daily blogging" thing (A-M, I look to you for examples of how to do it right). I apologize bloggy friends but for the next three weeks I will be exploring the concept of social networks through my blog.

Part of this is for class credit, but for those of you who have been followers for a long time, you know occasionally I will throw out posts about my job and communications conundrums I've had. Just think of the next three weeks of one big long extension of that (with some legitimate travel and adventures thrown in along the way). Thank you so much in advance and I hope that my next posts might pique your interest.

Earth Day in Edmonton

It's Earth Day today and to celebrate Mother Nature actually cooperated and bestowed the most gorgeous weather on Edmonton. I needed to take a break from spring cleaning and stressing about my second spring intensive for my masters program (upcoming) so I got out for a walk along the North Saskatchewan River and snapped some pics. It was a beautiful day to be alive and out in the sunshine!

The ice is moving off the river and the seagulls were having a heyday!

I can't wait to see the flowers in the Muttart Conservatory this summer.

Nearly one year down....

...and only one more (ish) to go. Wrapping up my final paper for my winter semester class I can't help but think of how crazy this past academic year has been for me. I will be going back into the classroom in three short weeks for another three week intensive. By that point I will have completed six out of 10 required classes.

Bring on the next year ~ it may not be as heavily loaded with classes but I have research to conduct now. A project hopefully to present in August of 2013. All of a sudden I'm starting to feel behind!

Happy Easter friends far and wide, I hope you're spending it with family and friends. (It's been two years since I decided to learn the violin ~ best get practicing again)!

A perfect re"treat"

I was fortunate to spend Saturday south of Edmonton at a cottage on Pigeon Lake with six other amazing women.

The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the big blue sky so we walked, and we talked. We ate and we drank. We played games and we laughed. We built a snowman and at the end of the day I went home feeling completely at ease.

Thank you Lory for opening your home to us yet again. It was exactly what I needed.

Sociable! 2012 Brier

It may have come up in conversation a few times on this blog over the last three years but I happen to love curling. I am a terrible curler when on the ice, but station me in front of the T.V. or at an actual game and I can see the strategy behind the shots being made.

The Brier (Canadian men's curling championships) were in Saskatoon this past week and it had been a while since I'd seen my family, so I drove home to catch some of the semi-final action on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

My mother and I scored some rock star seating for all three games we attended. Friday and Saturday morning we were behind the Sociables (I want to join this band of merry women and men ~ they sure made curling a lot more fun for the fans during the games).

We watched great games between Manitoba and Ontario, Alberta and the Yukon/Northwest Territories and Manitoba and Alberta. We even got to catch up with the fifth for the Y/NWT team, Greg (we grew up together).

Even better was catching up with high school friends, family and friends from Calgary in The Patch after the games. There is one thing that curling culture knows....how to relax and unwind after the game! I had a fabulous weekend and I'm excited for next year ~ the Brier will be in Edmonton. I'll be getting my tickets!