Emily’s Engagement

Emily Breder

We were unable to hook up (technical hitch) with Emily Breder at the last thupr. This is what she had to say….

I’m from the East Coast, but I work in the Silicon Valley of the MidWest now – Columbus, Ohio. We have a ton of developers for web and mobile here because people flock here from all over the world to go to the Ohio State University. It’s actually a much more diverse place than Washington DC, which is about a half hour from where I grew up.

Because of the diversity of culture and interests here, a lot of amazing innovations have come out of this area, in the last five years especially, and among them is the app I work with, eEvent.com. I was brought on board to help them streamline their message and communications early last year, and over that period of time I had noticed some patterns within the new developments of communication, via social media and email and the rest.

There are the spammers – people who try to generate engagement posting static messages, or direct messages to people who didn’t ask for them. This is for social media or email mostly, but it’s the same behavior we saw in previous years from people who are what I call “serial networkers” – shake as many hands as possible, hand as many business cards out as possible, and hope something sticks. Some are better at this than others, but the end result is the same: shallow connections, and what relationships are built are tenuous at best. Even with people who are successful at this, they tend to be very protective of their connections and resources, which is not sustainable in the new social age. They have to continually re-invent themselves, which is exhausting and draining work.

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Facebook Week at Waves: Pages for Nonprofits

I cam across this great little guide to Facebook pages for non-profits, and having had a flick through, a lot of the really practical advice applies to non-profits as well.

I’d add this to recommended reading!

Guide to Facebook Pages for Nonprofits

Claire Thompson, freelance PR consultant, Waves PR

Facebook Week at Waves: Altimeter Report

The Altimeter report on Facebook success gives some insight into what makes a Facebook page successful.

It’s a good resource,. if a little theoretical: I’m not sure that any user wants to be faced with a barrage of community expectations when they join a page, for example: These are internal rather than community issues, and although having a link to a statement helps clarify, it can itself become a point of contention for the eagle eyed. (How many people read Ts and Cs?)

And, being pedantic, ‘live authenticity’ is a real social media-ism: I agree with the principle, but it’s so wrapped up in jargon that it’s destined to fail: no-one is completely authentic. I really don’t, for example, want anyone to catch me first thing in the morning before my first cup of tea and a shower, even though that’s another facet to my ‘authenticity’. There is absolutely nothing authentic about Old Spice Man, except of course that Old Spice are very transparent about this being a fun campaign to engage us all with Old Spice and sell some more.

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