Category listings for Web/Tech

Four Voices from SXSW

	Posted by Bert Decker \| April 2nd, 2009 \| 10 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | April 2nd, 2009 | 10 Comments | Tweet This

Speaking and Twitter dominance

The experience of South by South West (SXSW) in Austin is like the
Wild West – it's the frontier of Social Media converging with traditional conference,
dominated by Twitter. After experiencing it, I've modified my opinions since my last Twitter post here, and more will be coming on that (for a very good post on this subject today see Mark Ivey's blog.)

First, four important (read 'Rock Star') voices from SXSW on the question "Is Twitter distracting, additive or what?" I recorded our conversations spontaneously on my iPhone – here are highlights:

@Armano - (Listen to iPhone recording here)

Good thing, not a bad thing
Speaker can broadcast his/her message
When I tweet in conference, use it as notes
Tweeting causes disconnect but you store up info and come back to it

@GuyKawasaki – (iPhone recording here)

Very good for speakers, can reach thousands through tweets
I like big numbers!
Tweeters disconnect – It's like taking notes
Not too distracting for me as a speaker. But embarrassing when I'm speaking and someones sees a live tweet from one of my surrogates…

@Pistachio – (iPhone recording here)

Tweeters can take over a conference – last SXSW
Great as back channel, speakers can see what audience wants
Opens up ways to broadcast our content world wide in seconds
Tradeoffs – can distract speaker, be rude, discount audience
Can connect with individuals in room and conference
One more things for corporations to assimilate, change "laptops down" policy

@ChrisBrogan – (iPhone recording here)

Important to be able to free flow and multi-task well
Many conversations can take place at the same time, all can express themselves
Note taking useful for in house audience
Real audience is the thousands outside the conference room
Twitter is like hamburger helper for the conversation – makes a little go a long way
We'll learn to speak in 'twitter bites' (as Chris Brogan does!)

There's a unanimity of opinion by those who are in the Twitter elite of course, and I share their enthusiasm for the possibilities. But there's another side to the story in the traditional and more bureaucratic business world – which is perhaps 80% (or more) of the business population. They still think Twitter is the answer to the now irrelevant question, "What are you doing?" (The other day I asked the CEO of a billion dollar investment banking firm how he used Twitter and he said "What's Twitter?")

More to come on this important communication experience, and Twitter tips for the mainstream business population…

@BertDecker

Categories: Meetings, Public Speaking, Short Bits, Twitter and Social Media, Web/Tech
Tags: @Armano, @ChrisBrogan, @GuyKawasaki, @Pistachio, Chris Brogan, David Armano, Guy Kawasaki, Laura Fitton, SXSW, Twitter, Twitter at conferences, Twitter at speeches

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10 Steps to Make Your Meetings Better

	Posted by Bert Decker \| March 20th, 2009 \| 3 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | March 20th, 2009 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

Meetings – We all have 'em, can't live with 'em, and can't live without 'em.

BNET did a video interview with me on some key points to communicate more effectively through meetings.

Here are some additional tips we give to our clients at Decker Communications, Inc., where we train people to communicate effectively – I call them the 10 Steps to Better Meetings:

1. Cut the meetings you have in half. Cut the time of the meetings that remain in half.

This assumes you are the leader of the meetings. Unproductive talk and time will fill the space of long meetings – The Peter Principle in action.

2. Have an agenda.

Bullets
only, direction driven, not "update" driven. It also helps to
distribute in advance by email if you have time and access.

3. Be on time.

Start
on time. Model your time at the beginning so people know you respect
their time. Don't wait for stragglers, and don't catch up items for
late comers (unless it happens to be the boss.)

4. Be controversial.

Not outlandish, but stimulate robust dialogue.
The reason most meetings are boring is because most meetings are
boring. As the meeting leader, it's up to you to make it interesting.

5. Have a focus, a Point Of View.

Meetings should not be primarily for updates and information exchange, but for action, discussion and direction.

6. Use intentional eye communication.

As
a leader, look at everyone or they won't feel included. And when you
want someone to speak up more, glance at them. Skillful eye
communication can direct and influence without words.

7. Be energetic – voice, gestures.

The
Shadow of the Leader. Your enthusiasm will drive others. And if you're
not the leader, the more energy and interest you show the more likely
you will become one.

8. Avoid Blackberry Abuse.

(See Bonus #1 below.) If you are not encouraging Twitter in your meeting, you must be
interesting. If the meeting and you are interesting, people won't go to
Twitter on their own, or their IM's and emails on their iPhones and Blackberrys. Set your ground rules for what you want to accomplish, and then accomplish it by relevance, vitality, energy and interest.

9. Drive to action steps.

Meetings should create actions, not informational data dumps. Be intentional.

10. End with a bang, not a whimper.

Most meetings peter out. Not only end with an action step(s) , close it off with an upbeat quote, story or video clip. Be creative – and your meetings will be too.

Bonus #1:
Decide whether or not you want to encourage people to Twitter during the meeting or not. (See Speakers – Be Aware Twitter Is Coming) It can be an interesting and engaging tool, or it can be a total disruption. Be intentional. Be smart.

Bonus #2: Get a Flip Video and record your meetings on video or DVD – put one up in the back of the
room to see how you and others interact and behave. Observed behavior
changes.

Bonus #2: Buy and read "Death By Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni,
a great speaker and consultant. There is a plethora of good advice and
concepts in his book that will change the way you run your meetings.

Categories: Leadership and Communications, Meetings, Video - Use It, Web/Tech
Tags: better meetings, blackberry abuse, Twitter

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Speakers – Be Aware, Twitter is Coming

	Posted by Bert Decker \| March 2nd, 2009 \| 22 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | March 2nd, 2009 | 22 Comments | Tweet This

Business speakers (and leaders, keynoters, politicians, Pastors and, well, everyone…) need to be aware that like it or not, Twitter is coming to their speaking experience.

Be Aware, and Beware!

There's been a lot of buzz – and new insight – into what to do about people twittering while you are speaking. Olivia Mitchell did an outstanding guest blog on Laura Fitton's Pistachio site, and the next day on Chris Spagnuolo's Edgehopper, wrapping up a busy week with her own summary post. All great food for thought – but let's not get carried away. The "back channel" will only be useful in a small number of communicating environments – at least for the next year or so. Here's why:

The great majority of Twitterers, and bloggers for that matter, are early adopters, and tech/social media savvy. They probably would be lost without their computers/PDA's/phones (I know I would.) However the majority of the business world uses the tools, but don't lose themselves in the process. And I'm afraid that the thrust of the current Twitter buzz advocating twittering during speeches will cause an expectation of good communication that will not be met – and will lead the majority of people (like most of our clients) down the wrong path.

Now there ARE great new possibilities, particularly with high tech audiences like at SXSW, and others. So there’s the good, the bad and the ugly.

Let’s start with the ugly:

• Until there was Twitter, there was only ‘Blackberry Abuse,’ which we blogged on awhile back. Here it was rude for people to go to their Blackberrys (or PDA's/iPhones) during a meeting or speech to IM or check email – but they did it anyway. Because they were bored!
• The solution to Blackberry Abuse was to be INTERESTING as a speaker. Engage and excite your audience and they will be compelled to listen, and watch!
• That’s still the solution to the almost 90% of speaking situations where Twittering would not be appropriate (see below). But we're beginning to see an expectation that people SHOULD Twitter, it’s OK, it will be constructive, and it’s not really because they’re bored. But the majority of Twitterers WILL be twittering because they are bored, because the majority of speakers are unfortunately boring. And so now we have a valid excuse to put our heads down, get our minds on the tweet and not the message, and be rude to the unsuspecting speaker.
• Confusion will reign.

Now for the bad:

• In probably 80-90% of most business and conference settings speakers have a message to give – at keynote speeches and large company events – the large audience venues. It is not a groupthink or collaboration (see below for “the good.”)
• You can't read and listen effectively at the same time. This has been well documented by Edward Tufte and others, and I'll personally confirm that with my past 30 years experience in the communication and speaking business. It is cognitive dissonance in action.
• Think of the problem with PowerPoint presentations filled with text, (also well documented in this blog and Presentation Zen and others.) We’ve all had the sad but common experience of reading ahead, as the speaker says, “Now stay with me.” And of course we don’t, and since we can’t read and listen at the same time we have cognitive dissonance.
• And it’s even worse with Tweeting. If you think you can’t read and listen at the same time, it’s even worse to try to text and listen (and read) at the same time. If you have a group listening to a speaker (supposedly) and tweeting about the speaker’s 140 character sound bites (supposedly) and looking at the text and PowerPoints, and reading other Tweeter’s tweets, and looking up urls – chaos reigns in the mind. The speaker has lost control, and there is not only NOT better communication – it is far worse and more fragmented.
• In this large conference/event/speech setting where the speaker has a point-of-view and a message to deliver, the speaker is responsible for the experience. You can’t command “No Blackberrys. No Twitter!” – because people will do what they want to do. But there are other ways – the speaker cannot abdicate his or her responsibility. He or she should be should be interesting, engaging and powerful, using arresting stories, visuals and Black Slides!

A new perspective – the good that will come out of this:

• The growing dialogue and power of Twitter is opening up new ways to communicate, and we are just on the forefront. This is what this recent buzz is leading to, and take the time to read all of the ideas and comments in those blog links below – you’ll get some idea of where it is going.
• Workshops, social media sessions, Jelly!, BarCamps, et al are far different than the traditional more formal speeches mentioned above. Although they won’t replace them anytime soon, they are offering new collaborative possibilities, and it is these where Twitter and the ‘back channel’ will flourish. Likely ALL the sessions at SXSW 2009 Austin in two weeks will be Twitter enhanced, providing a high level laboratory – much should come out of that.
• On webinars and teleconferences there is much more potential for using Twitter, and this back channel becomes very useful where you don't have the speaker present, and need more visual engagement.
• The thousands of smaller meetings and business conferences going on everyday should be living laboratories for experimenting and trying out some of these new ideas of Twitter that have already shown promise.

See Olivia, Pistachio and Edgehopper for dozens of examples of the benefits of Twitter in today's growingly diverse communications experiences. But don’t lose sight of the fact that in most speeches today, Twittering during a speech won’t be of use – but abuse.

Categories: Communication Skills, Meetings, Public Speaking, Web/Tech
Tags: @Pistachio, black slides, Olivia Mitchell, powerpoint abuse, Twitter

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Cisco’s Telepresence: A huge hit, but there’s a big miss

	Posted by Kelly Decker \| February 26th, 2009 \| 1 Comment \| Tweet This

Posted by Kelly Decker | February 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

My favorite guest blogger is back, and I don’t say that just because she’s our Executive VP and my daughter-in-law, but because she is brilliant in developing programs for our clients. If you’re not doing so already, follow her on Twitter @kellydecker. – Bert Decker

I was first wowed by Cisco’s Telepresence – a fantastic virtual meeting solution – when I spent some time in NY coaching a group of Cisco’s leaders in 2007. But this week I got to experience it for myself, thanks to Ian Griffin, who set up a demo for local NSAers.

Cisco touts this experience as the next best thing to an in-person meeting. Clearly,
Chambers and team understand that regardless of the technology that shrinks the globe around us, it’s the face-to-face, in-person interactions that business continues to yearn for. And, it delivers. The experience is “you” in high-def, which, as our host Rick quipped, has it’s downfalls especially for any unwanted complexion issues. There’s nothing grainy or choppy about it. And though I hate to admit it (especially in front of my husband), once you go high-def, you just don’t go back (so, yes, I really do believe in paying extra for HD at home – there, I said it).

Check out some pictures on Ian Griffin’s blog.

To sum up the pros:

The video and audio is seamless – it feels like you’re in the same room.
It absolutely saves businesses travel time and money, and the ROI can be quick, depending on your need for travel. For companies who have put a halt on all travel even for salespeople – if you do not provide a way for them to connect in-person, you’ve just made it that much more difficult to sell in already tough times. There is nothing more effective to communicate to influence than in-person meetings – this provides a great way to do it.
It’s accessible to the public – you don’t need your own private Telepresence equipment to do this. Public rooms are available from $299 per hour per location. You do the math.

Now for the cons:

Cisco has done a great job with the technology (as we expect as they are one of the most innovative companies around – even into holography.) But they haven’t focused on training the user to maximize the experience (hmmm…sounds just a little like PPT!):
- I was in a larger Telepresence suite, communicating with another smaller room. I observed for a while to figure out what was happening with eye communication – because it sure didn’t look like people were looking at the person who was talking (even though they were). Knowing how critical eye communication and behavioral skills are to the overall experience, I asked about how they prepare clients behaviorally to use the technology effectively. Imagine my disappointment when the answer was, “there’s a brief description in the documentation” and “a printed set of Etiquette Guides in each room.” Yikes!
- Eye Communication is the #1 behavioral skill – if you don’t have it, you lose that connection and involvement with your listener. These might sound like subtle things, but communications is largely unconscious – how will that new client react to you when you appear to be talking to someone else in the room?
- There’s also a lack of training in how to effectively present when you have an audience in the room with you, and an audience in cyberland virtually appearing at a table across from you. Even the Telepresence host overwhelmingly directed his presentation to the people in his room, only occasionally acknowledging the audience on the other side.
It is solely for seated meetings, so not a great solution for energetic collaboration, brainstorming, or facilitation. You need to stand and change the dynamics in the room to do this really well.

Ultimately, these are good reminders for all in-person communications. The hard part is to bring your communications to a conscious level, where you are always thinking of the total experience.

Categories: Video - Use It, Web/Tech
Tags: cisco, communications, decker, telepresence, training

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The New SlideShare Ribbon

	Posted by Bert Decker \| December 15th, 2008 \| 3 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | December 15th, 2008 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

SlideShare is a great application most of you know about and use – it allows everyone to share PowerPoint presentations and decks easily and effectively. And among other things they have The World's Best Presentation Contest every year.

Now the SlideShare folks have come up with another new function. They worked with Microsoft on the "SlideShare Ribbon" which lets you use the full functionality of SlideShare from within PowerPoint. I think this is the first time a Web 2.0 property has been embedded so deeply into desktop productivity software.

You can download to SlideShare, upload, search, comment, and bookmark, all from within PowerPoint. And it gives the aspiring social media marketer a nice console for seeing how much reach (views, downloads, favoritings, etc).

Here is an introduction to the SlideShare Ribbon. It's a great tool, but for now it's Windows only – I understand the Mac version will be on the way before long.

So if you use PP and a PC and Windows, here is where you can get and install the SlideShare Ribbon.

PS: Here's a view of our new logo

Categories: Communication Skills, PowerPoint Abuse - Avoid It, Public Speaking, Web/Tech
Tags: PowerPoint, SlideShare, SlideShare Ribbon

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The How and Why of Twitter

	Posted by Bert Decker \| December 8th, 2008 \| 24 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | December 8th, 2008 | 24 Comments | Tweet This

Why Twitter? This post is in three parts:

Why should you do it? (And why am I advocating it here, since many of you are interested in this blog for speaking/personal communications.)
Beginning and Intermediate Twitter. (That's me.)
Advanced Twitter. (I'm not there, but will point you to who is, and ways to get there.)

So if you are already using Twitter, skip to points 2 and 3. But if not, here's why…

1. Why Twitter in the first place. Who cares about "What are you doing now…" chats anyway?

I've been testing Twitter (I think I'll call it "T" for brevity) for the last five weeks for the ROI on time. It is worth it. And forget about the "What are you doing?" question – the Twitter folks should can that phrase. It's for kids chatting – not relationships and business.
T is about giving value and getting value, and thus building valuable relationships.
Through T I've connected with several key influencers that are important to my business, and many new friends who aren't. I've seen $10,000 raised in 48 hours just on T, and have already raised over $1,000 myself for The Salvation Army (my favorite cause.)
I've learned a lot by the references to blogs and other people I wouldn't have known – useful business info and interesting general info.
T (and other social media) is a big part of today's communication
marketplace, and leads to the most powerful communication of all -
face-to-face.
Because of T I tried to work out spending an extra 4 hours for dinner to meet with a new T friend (it didn't work out though, but surprised at the interest generated by T for the face-to-face connection.)
Because of T I connected with and filmed Nancy Duarte and had an interesting post.
Gained exposure on several radio/podcasts/blogs that wouldn't have happened.
Strengthened or renewed connections with friends and family.
I've been entertained. (And my wife has been very patient during the T learning curve.)

2. Beginning and Intermediate Twitter.

For the last 5 weeks I've been intensely Twittering. I have about 500 followers (friends or associates is a better word) and follow about 450. I'm not trying to build up thousands right away like many, but to find people of like minded interest and value. If you build it, they will come. Here's what I've found…
TweetDeck is an indispensable tool. It's a good interface generally, but it is essential to 'Group' your Friends. After a few hundred friends you can't effectively follow all their tweets, so don't try. Go into your Tweet Stream now and then, but group your best friends. I use A, B and C, with A being family and must see, B being interesting and valuable, and C being "Oh, that's a good Tweet, let's see if there are more where that came from."
T has no rules. Too many take advantage of this freedom and just blather too much. They create Tweet Clutter. So be valuable within the freedom of no rules.
Give information. Reference a blog post, or an interesting article, or an Alltop link. Be valuable. I try to have half my tweets as reference of value, and the rest a combination of comments (replies), ReTweets and maybe a quote or proverb. Now and then I'll throw in something interesting I'm doing, but maybe nobody is much interested so I don't do that too often. But within your value you do want to show personality.
I'm amazed at the number of T "Stars" who just blather – or spend too much time talking to their inner circle, or just keep telling us "What they are doing now." Who cares?
But you may not want to "unfollow" someone you know or respect just because they blather. All you have to do is to not put them in a group you regularly check. They can blather, but you don't have to listen.
Another great tool is FriendOrFollow - where you can find out quickly, and alphabetically, (this is very time consuming in the Twitter application), who is or is not following you.
Use Favorites to favorite a Tweet to save it and refer or retweet it later.
I do look at people who follow me, and follow most if they look interesting, have a website, and have pretty equal follows and followers. And I look for new interesting people to follow through links from the people on my A and B lists.
Other good tools that you can look at are Twitpic, Twitwall, SocialToo, TwitStats, and if you want to know how you are doing TwitterCounter. And there are many more you will find once you get started.
If you have an iPhone, (Correction 12/9 Twittelator Pro CAN ReTweet – I just needed to read the instructions (here). So Twittelator Pro goes to the top. I had said) "Tweetie is the best application ($2.99 at the App Store.) Twittelator Pro is good, but you can't automatically ReTweet. Tweetsville is great except it crashes to much for me, and Twitterfon is OK."

3. Advanced Twitter

Since I'm not there, let me point you to some folks who are, and whom you will want to follow, and you can also check out their key posts. Take the best and leave the rest:
Guy Kawasaki – one of the best internet and application gurus, gives useful information and has over 30,000 followers.. Be sure to see his posts Looking for Mr. GoodTweet and Twitter as a Twool.
Jim Connelly is from the UK so you can connect with him at night if you're in the US. He is not only good and friendly, he may have the best bang for the Tweet of them all. Be sure to read his How I Attracted 8,000 followers in 8 Weeks.
Chris Brogan is a guru who is very well liked on Twitter, and has a very good post on If I Started Today.
Perry Belcher has a video that is good on how he attracted 5,000 in 90 days.
John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing is great and has a great post on Twitter for Business
Jay Ehret I met through Twitter only, but we are going to meet in Austin when I visit son Sam (@deckermarketing) over Christmas. I find his blog posts onTwitter very valuable, and he is worth following.
And an interesting post on the Twitter SeeSaw.

Blogs, and Twitter, take time. So I'll stop now. But I hope you proceed to the next level in both.

And I'm at @BertDecker! I'd like to follow you…

Categories: Musings, Web/Tech
Tags: Guy Kawasaki, TweetDeck, Twitter

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Presentation Zen – a best blog

	Posted by Bert Decker \| December 3rd, 2008 \| 5 Comments \| Tweet This

Posted by Bert Decker | December 3rd, 2008 | 5 Comments | Tweet This

If you follow blogs on communicating, you certainly know of Presentation Zen and Garr Reynolds. If not, sign on now, because…

Everytime I try to find a great post of the week in Alltop's speaking category, there rarely is any that beats the depth, interest and visual power of Garr's work.

Here is his new post and recent review of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers – a great new book reviewed countless places. But no review is as interesting as the Presentation Zen offering.

Presentation Zen blog stands head and shoulders above most of the rest because it is:

Thorough. He does his research. Presentation Zen is deep, whether exploring
type fonts or kinetic typography, or a book review, or great speaking, or the subtlety (or
power) of a TED presentation.
Design oriented. Because of this Garr is visual. Almost always he has video demonstrations of his points – a great tool. And he explains in graphic terms.
Personal. You know his perspective and personality. He writes with a direct and personal style. It is interesting. He gives his opinion but doesn't espouse causes that get in the way of his message. He keeps his focus on his one cause – good design.

So Presentation Zen is this week's Alltop top hit. Although I think I'm going to exclude him from weekly picks from now on since he would too often be the pick. Just subscribe to his blog and get him regularly.

Categories: Communication Skills, PowerPoint Abuse - Avoid It, Public Speaking, Video - Use It, Web/Tech

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