Monthly Archives: October 2008

Using Social Media To Enhance The Business Strategies You Already Have

Net.Finance EastOn Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be at Net.Finance East in New York. In addition to my presentation, Do Well By Doing Good, I’ve been asked to host one of their iMIX Roundtable discussions called Using Social Media To Enhance The Business Strategies You Already Have.

In it I want to explore something with the conference attendees I’ve been thinking about more and more: Do companies, let alone FIs, really need a social media strategy?

I’ve gone from working with my team on an Online Strategy and a Social Media strategy to wondering if we’re just adding to the clutter. Will people read more strategies in your company? Doesn’t a separate strategy frame these valuable vehicles for business transformation and advancement in the wrong way, as separate from your core business?

So now I’m thinking about weaving social media and online planning into our core business strategies. This would involve engaging people from around the company in creating a common understanding of the purpose of social media to move our business strategies forward.

So in my session, I want to examine how we can best embed social media into our regular work, adding it as another tool in our toolbox.

If you’ll be at Net.Finance East, I look forward to discussing this with you.

PS: Ron Shevlin, if you’re reading this, I assume you’ll agree.

The new MacBook is really very nice.

MacBookI’ve been waiting for the MacBook refresh for a few months now, so I was paying close attention when they were released on Tuesday. I bought one on Friday, and am very happy to be writing this post on my new machine.

About a year ago I bought the new iMac when that line was refreshed. A few months later I bought a eyeTV hybrid so I could use our 24″ iMac as our TV and PVR. But I never hooked it up because we didn’t have an extra computer to use.

Until now.

So I moved my iMac upstairs and pulled down our circa ’94 television and set up my iMac in its place. Took about five minutes and it was up and running. So easy. Now we truly have an integrated entertainment centre, with our TV, music, Internet, photos and homemade movies all on one system. I can use our spare firewire drive for both our Time Machine, as well as our PVR to record our favourite shows (we have still been using a VCR, so we’re slightly behind the times).

Now we have our iMac in our home office and bought a cheap extra monitor to get a little more screen space (my only gripe is that the new Mini DisplayPort adaptor for external monitors wasn’t released to Apple Stores at the same time, so I have to wait before I can hook up the monitor). Bought a wireless Apple keyboard and mouse for the iMac just to round things off.

It’s a big upgrade, but it all seems to be running extremely well. I’m not much of an early adopter and have never had a Mac laptop before, nor more than one computer at a time. Hard to justify the expense, but we’re pleased with the outcome.

I can already tell that my son Ivan will grow up with an entirely different sense of TV and movies than my wife or I did. YouTube, television, DVDs, our home movies… what’s the difference anymore – it all comes through the same box. He doesn’t understand why television can’t play on his timeframe, but on its own schedule. True enough.

Four down, one to go.

William at BarCampBankBCI honestly have no idea what I was thinking a few months back when I agreed to speak at five conferences in two months. Today I finished my penultimate engagement, and I’m starting to feel relieved.

It was been an extraordinary honour to be able to address such a diverse set of audiences.

  • From the Internet Marketing Conference here in Vancouver focusing on general online marketing techniques and tactics
  • Organizing and promoting BarCampBankBC, which was a truly amazing, inspiring and rewarding experience
  • Traveling to Indiana for the 2008 Partnership Symposium which was an event I had been looking forward to for almost a year and was a fantastic chance to see many of my favourite CU people from across North America
  • And today I spoke here in Vancouver at the IABC Communicating Social Responsibility Conference where I got to address a room full of people dedicated to bringing integrity and values to their business models.

I have one last one to get to. Net.Finance East will take place October 28-29th in New York and will be focusing on banking innovations. I always enjoy Net.Finance conferences, as I learn so much and get to meet some amazing peers.

After Net.Finance East, I have nothing until January when I go back to New York for The Finance 2.0 Summit.

Next year, I need to be a whole lot more selective, I just can’t afford to be away from the office and my family this much.

It feels a little like the end of an era for me. I have learned a ton, met some amazing people, sparked some incredible dialogue and really found my place in the industry. If you’re reading this, it may well be because we met at one of these events. If so, shoot me a comment and say hello.

(photo credit by Brent Dixon)