Our Man in Shanghai Twitter @ on business card

In the rush to get on twitter, find people on twitter, gain followers on twitter, find customers on twitter and the rest of it, people are forgetting a few of the basics on this one. I attended the Next Step Social Media/SEO event which I have mentioned on twitter but I picked up on one theme: I was (potentially) the only one in the room with my twitter id on my business card. Even joked with Lonnie Hodge about it.

Before we get into a battle on the merits of including one social media tool and not a dozen, it’s fair to say that if you don’t use twitter enough, find your comfort zone and add something unique to your business card. Again, twitter has captured the moment over a lot of the other tools.  My first batch of unique, limited edition cards included both my linkedin and twitter @ for people to reference. What I posted here is my second edition card created by Sekkei Studio. (The sponsors of my blog)

Overall, I think putting your twitter @ on your business card can be useful for a number of reasons. Here is the basic action, objective and strategy laid out in a very simple format:

Action: Print your twitter @ id on your next batch of business cards. If you don’t have a clue about twitter, check out the resources that Laura Fenton has created over at Pistachio

Objective: To Highlight the fact that you are taking twitter seriously as a component of a social media strategy. For a good overview of social media strategy, check out what the good folks over at SparkPlug CEO have to say on Social Media Strategy

Strategy: It makes for a good conversation for people that haven’t heard of twitter yet. Yes, the first half of 2009 is definitely looking good for Twitter. You need to keep up on this stuff!! Here is a great person and resource: A shameless and unsolicited plug for Shel Israel’s upcoming blog and book: Twitterville

So many attempts to define, describe, deconstruct and analyze social media, I thought I would piece together an article speaking to the relationship of social media in our everyday lives. Here is my humble attempt to share my thoughts on social media.

Unique heads /Unique Hair styles

I thought this was a particularly funny and interesting one to start off a discussion about social media and visiting a hair stylist. Everyone has their own unique head. Big heads, little heads, weird shaped heads, Bumps, dents, big foreheads, little foreheads.This means that we can’t all have the same sleek hairstyle of Anderson Cooper. How does this relate to a discussion about social media?

I was a participant at the Ad:Tech Shanghai 2008 social media breakfast sponsored by RazorFish. If you were one of the fortunate few that got up earlier enough, it was unprecedented access to some of the coolest social media campaigns out there. I posed a question to Royce Lee of e-crusade (A Razor Fish Co.) on the issue of the size and scope of a social media campaign as it related to the size of the company. Well, just like a good hairstyle, each customer will be unique and require fine-tuning. Different methods and approaches will need to be considered for small-to-medium sized companies than the global scope of larger companies such as starbucks or ford.

Word of Mouth: The madness of all the chit chatter of a hair stylist.

Just like a good social media campaign. The hair stylist job is to have his/her ear to the ground and listens to their customers. They start the conversation and gain insight from their customer feedback. In most cases, the strength of the hair stylist is that they get instant reactions and feedback from the victim sitting in the stylist chair. Social media advocates strive for meaningful conversations and I think I will point you to Brian Solis and his excellent article on online conversations for further ideas and insights.

As we talked further, my guy was quite insistent on the level of buzz that he was able to get from word of mouth. He is growing his business but he was also aware of the negative impact. Just a like a negative service review on twitter( See: Shel Israel and review of U-Haul) can have a damaging effect on business so to can the people that leave the stylist having finished a negative session and feeling they’re opinions on the style weren’t taken into consideration.

I think social media advocates have all benefited in increased visibility and the co-branding of social media tools. Most recently it has been twitter driving a lot of my word of mouth for “Our Man in Shanghai”, business partners and friends. A retweet is a valuable piece of both word of mouth and part of the social media mix – especially, if you didn’t ask for it. The Word of Mouth Association has a handy Word of Mouth 101

There ya have it! A simple breakdown of my experience at a hair stylist merged with the social media ongoings of “Our Man in Shanghai”.

The moment of truth has arrived. Thanks to everyone for participating in the “Our Man in Shanghai” best or worst lunch story contest. As you know, the winner gets a humble lunch at Pier 39, located in the mind offices building in downtown Shanghai.

There was tought competition from the likes of Gregory Prudhommeaux of Next Step, David Feng, Steve Weathers, John Guise and even a photo submission from the busy author of Twitterville: Shel Israel. As well, when not working on 100 other things, managing his family and business projects in Beijing: Winser Zhao

There were a few other international mentions that should be listed, Robin Green who is an expat in Costa Rica and NYC part-timer traveling all over the world, Julie Schwietert Collazo. Runner ups get Kudos for trying and a website mention in this blog post.

The winner is: Calvin Chin! Founder of the peer to peer lending site Qifang. This is a classic entrepreneurial story of meeting up for lunch and either loosing a mobile phone or in his case: A laptop computer.  As many of you know,  I recently lost my iphone in the mix of project managment so this story appealed to me.

Although not as illustrious as being named a World Economic Forum(WEF) Technology Pioneer, I look forward to hosting him when he gets back to Shanghai next week.

I will still be posting through the holiday season but just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a happy holiday!!!

Craig Kielburger is an accomplished child rights advocate, leadership specialist, New York Times best-selling author and a speaker with a powerful message. He is the founder of Free The Children, the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, and the co-founder of Leaders Today, a world renowned youth leadership organization. He visited Shanghai and spoke on the topic of “Building Great Corporate Citizenship and Global Leadership” on Monday December 8, 2008.

An extraordinary young Canadian with three Nobel Peace Prize nominations, high profile partnerships including the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network. Craig knows how to connect with people and with the issues that matter. He has been part of a team that has changed the lives of more than a million people around the world.

Event Summary

It was great to see such a diverse group of the Shanghai business and education community out for Craig Kielburger and the Free the Children event at Kathleen’s5. Special thanks goes out to Franck, the manager of K5 for his work on the floor that evening.

We heard from Dupont China and their CSR focus, we heard from Next Step about how an individual can make a difference using their social networks plus a final word on how the Canadian Chamber is working with Free the Children. The  Best part of all — We were all privileged to have seen Craig Kielburger in action!!

It has been great to connect, re-connect and meet some new people as a result of this special event. On behalf of the Free the Children China organizing team, we thank you for coming out on December 8th.

Call to Action

Whether you’re young or young at heart, looking for a big commitment or a small first step, Free The Children China has a way for you to get involved. We would love to hear from you and how you think you might be able to assist our organization in the future. Have a look at our school programs, adapt a village programs or alternative income programs at:
http://www.freethechildren.com/whatwedo/international/adoptavillage/china.php

Please contact:

Annie Chang
Communication Director
China Project
Free The Children
www.freethechildren.com
China: 62493925
Cell: 13611747221

Please feel free to leave a comment and or suggestions on things that you would like to see from Free the Children China and we will direct them to the communications team.

It was a beautiful autumn afternoon in downtown Shanghai and I was meeting with David & Elodie to discuss a few things so I figured I would time it for a lunch with the whole gang of Sekkei Studio. After much debate, fierce words and verb threats that would make my mother blush, it was decided that amongst all the choices of Shanghai life, having traveled half way around the world from Canada or France: We would have Mcdonalds delivered to the office!

The great thing about lunch @ Sekkei Studio is the rooftop patio. Along with parking the bikes, smoking and watching the neighboring buildings go up, it means that we catch a few rays plus have an excuse to catch up on the day’s events. It was a matter of dusting off the table, grabbing all available chairs and squeezing in for the best position to munch down all available burgers, chicken nuggets and fries.

These are the moments that bring a team together. The value of a spontaneous lunch is exactly was it is, spontaneous. It was a busy day but a good meal. Keep up the good work guys!

Until Next Time and Remember……..you either like pickles on the burger or ya don’t!