St. Louis Bloggers Guild

I’m trying to remember when I WASN’T telling people what I think about – SOMETHING.

When I was 11 years old, I can remember wanting to create my very own talk show. To be able to grab a topic, audience and bestow not only my perspective about what I’ve seen, heard, experienced, but also to collect the viewpoint of others who share or have a different opinion than I do.

While I’ve been an actor and artist since I was a kid, being able to take the artists’ creative talent and turn it into my own stage didn’t really begin until a few years ago. I’ve been blogging about a variety of things since 2004. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to surround myself with a continually growing cast of people that provide perspective on things that are new, exciting and something we want to tell everyone about.

Over the years we’ve been exposed to a variety of tools that make telling people “what we’re talking about” a lot easier and I wanted to make sure to share how we’re using “New Media” – wide array of tools that have been invented to convey information to the largest amount of people possible.

Mike Wilkerson of The 2GuysTalking Podcast Network

Read on below and see how I’m using these great tools to increase the footprint of my own personal presence and that of The 2GuysTalking Podcast Network.

The Blog: I can’t emphasize enough how important having a “blog” has been for me and for The 2GuysTalking Podcast Network. The ability to chronicle what I experience, what my network is doing, and how other people can quickly find out anything you care to share at a glance.  While there’s always benefit in having something “custom”, anyone can set up and start their own blog in less than 5 minutes now. It’s a powerful part of any presence online and truly can act as a “core” of information transfer. A blog in and of itself is a powerful networking tool (especially when you join cool people in The St. Louis Bloggers Guild).

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is not “just for old people” by any stretch.  It provides one of the strongest footholds for professionals of all kinds. While it started as essentially an online resume system that allowed you to link to other professionals, it’s tools have increased exponentially in just the last 6 months. The tools available inside of LinkedIn include the ability to start and FIND groups that have the same interests, skill sets and more.  You can then invite existing and not-yet members to join up with your group. When you think of something as unique and “technically gooney” as Podcasting, LinkedIn is an access to a perpetual bowling alley where it’s not difficult to regularly get a strike.

Twitter: When I provide presentations about New Media, I often start my presentations of Twitter-based information with, “How many of you use Twitter? How many of you know people that you WISH could be limited to statements 140 characters long at a time?” Twitter, a valuable, focused, micro-blogging tool has begun to change the way people, businesses, organizations, charities and more talk to “other people.” It offers you a small enough stage to convey the information that matters, but also enough that with some honing of skill set, you can make your statements contain allure, zeal and keep people wondering what you’re going to say/offer up next. In particular, Twitter has completely changed a custom project that I started a year ago called “The Caption Hunt Project.” The project started as an engaging review and status report of television, DVDs and feature films, and now also has a component called “The Caption Hunt CAPTION CALL” that is specifically Twitter-based. I’ve been able to harness sponsors that want to be one of the pioneer organizations to help collect information via my Twitter-based review sets that compile a robust “buyers guide” for a very focused set of consumers (The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community).  This allows not only quick and regular interaction, but also quick and instant feedback from the organizations that are recognized for NOT having their advertisements closed captioned. It’s solid, it’s quick, and it’s 140 characters at a time. The volume of information data that can be searched via Twitter (what I think is often the true “golden” value of Twitter, btw) is literally limitless. There IS a business model that can be built with Twitter for every organization, company charity and PERSON – it’s just a matter of talking to someone that can help you find it.

Facebook: Just in the last 6 months, Facebook has exploded to become not just a tool but a complete company. Whether it’s my niece in high school, my 66-year-old Father in Milwaukee, or any company, charity or organization on the planet, there is a good chance that they are “on Facebook” and for good reason. The networking power of Facebook allows you to become a “friend” to any of the thousands of people you’ve known in your past. It allows you to become an instant fan of companies, brands or products that have their own presence there. You can convey what you’re working on, doing or going to be doing via Facebook. The gallery features on Facebook allow families like mine that are very remote to connect and “see” what’s going on in a newly-minted 6-year-old’s life. The 2GuysTalking Podcast uses it to provide our fans/listeners with instant access to our podcast hosts, their shows, and a spectacular live news feed that hits ALL of our fans instantly. It’s impossible to convey all of the power of Facebook in a paragraph, but I’ve given you enough to make your mouth water for good reason.

Plaxo: Plaxo was actually the FIRST of it’s kind (very much like LinkedIn), and the first network-based contact venue that I signed up for in the 90’s. Over the years they have continued to grow their presence, mostly via their “Pulse” tool (which I do and don’t like) and have improved features much faster than LinkedIn. The reason I tell people to use Plaxo is because Plaxo was the first outfit to incorporate the ability to “leech” in information from a variety of sources and present it in ONE area. That provides you with a great place to send people, because the collection of material in one place makes you look INCREDIBLY productive.

RSS Feed: RSS Feeds have been MAGICAL for The 2GuysTalking Podcast Network, and the Internet in general. RSS Feeds enable the listener/reader to be instantly notified of updates. They are an essential part of any business, company, organization or charity and should be a “must have” feature for an entity that wants to ensure that it’s activities can be monitored by those interested in what’s going on – instantly. There are a variety of softwares available to create RSS feeds, and I’d be happy to collect the listing of programs for you.

Podcasts: While my opinion is completely biased, one fact remains: Walk around your workplace and see how many of them having earbuds in their ears and are listening – right now – to an MP3 player. In my regular 9-5 workplace, of the almost 100 people in our building a vast majority of them have earbuds in their ears. Wouldn’t that be an outstanding way to deliver the “company newsletter?” Wouldn’t it be great if your/every company had a regular MP3 file that could be sent to customers to listen to at their leisure, anywhere, that talked about the most recent news for your company/sales/events/anything that you want to use as propaganda to promote any message you want? Podcasting offers that and if you’re looking for someone to create a podcast model or the actual podcast for your company, organization, charity and more – let me know – I know a guy.

The listing of tools continues to grow, as do the feature sets of each of the tools listed above. I cannot wait to see what awaits all of us who take part and educate people about New Media.

Do you know of a tool that everyone else should be using, taking notice of, or otherwise include in the process of conveying vital project-based information? Chime in here and let us know what YOU think! It’s always appreciated!