social media

What I’ve been doing all month

October has been a busy month so far. It seems like the calendar just melts away once we get to September, doesn’t it?

I’ve been up to plenty this month. I spent the first weekend of the month in San Jose, having a great time with friends and family. Since then, I’ve been writing up a storm.

I published my first piece for CUInsight.com, a website that looks at everything important to credit unions. This includes marketing, obviously, and my piece touched about how important blogging is for financial organizations (and every business, really):

Think about it: if all you’re doing is tweeting your Instagram photos and Facebooking your Pinterest boards, you’re not really getting anywhere. Think of a blog like a central hub; social media serves as the planes, trains, and automobiles that get readers to your building. If you only send members to content in other places, no one has a reason to visit you.

brass Magazine’s Winter 2013 issue is out, and I wrote about how important social media is to the job hunt, including strategies on how to use certain channels to help you when you’re looking for a new place to work :

We’ve all seen the social media fails resulting in fired employees. Obviously, cussing out the boss or posting pictures that would make grandma blush is a bad idea. But if you use it correctly, social media can be your stepping stone to a new (or better) job.

And while I’m on the topic of social media and financial organizations, brass Media’s third webinar is next week! Kayla Byers and I will be talking about how important Twitter can be for financial institutions, and different ways to use it.

I’ve also been taking a free online course from Google on how to use Analytics. Sign up and take it at your own leisure if you’re looking for some in-depth information on using Google Analytics. Also, if you’d really like a special certificate when you pass! I got mine today!

I Left My Heart in Silicon Valley

I was lucky to attend a social media strategy workshop for American Muslim professionals on Monday. The Amplify Online project, sponsored by the New American Foundation, held a training at Google’s Mountain View campus that brought about 25 of my amazing colleagues together to talk strategy and perception.

The morning had a fantastic presentation from Anser Hussain and Javed Ali of Illume Magazine, with excellent tips on social strategy and content generation. Then Alex Cole from Hattaway Communications provided a sobering look at perceptions our fellow Americans have of American Muslims. Hattaway has a great PDF available on their site that includes much of the information.

The afternoon was chock-full of great presentations from social media channels, including an informative presentation from Alex Hillis on Google+. Since I’m starting to get into G+, hearing tips on how to make your Google Hangout live-stream to your YouTube channel were incredibly helpful. Many thanks to Alex, Erica Anderson from Twitter, and the fabulous Facebook ladies Krista Kobeski and Melissa Oppenheim for their time and insights.

And thank you to Ben Blink from Google and the Mountain View campus for hosting us! The Google campus was as amazing as you’d think. Even though everyone raves about their bikes, snacks, and ping-pong tables, what really impressed me was their sense of hygiene: all toilets came equipped with heated seats and programmable bidets! Meeting and connecting with inspiring American Muslims and learning about digital strategies were definitely my cake, but those toilets were the icing.

To top off a wonderful day, I spent the evening with some old and new friends at San Francisco’s Woodhouse Fish Co., and finally got the chance to meet Ethar El-Katatney in person. Ethar was MMW’s first Egyptian writer a few years after I founded the site, and it was such a pleasure to finally meet her!

Many thanks to everyone who helped make my Bay trip as wonderful as it was short. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to connect with all the fantastic people I know in the area, so I’ll definitely be back soon!