After last weeks UCLAN Centre for Sustainable Development, Social Media launch session I was asked how to ‘manage’ and ‘filter’ what you can learn and share across the world of social media sustainability. It was not too easy to summarise in a few minutes on notepaper, so here is my ‘work flow’ and the five key applications used:
Inwards …
Most of my inflow arrives via twitter or twitter based apps, eg tweetdeck or hootsuite. I have a number of established feeds or filters established which enables me to keep a real time watch on activity relating to the topics I am concerned with, or related to my clients interests.
Blogs and websites I follow are RSS subscriptions into Google Reader
Described as a social magazine, Flipboard is a brilliant feed application that enables me have a one stop ‘viewing’ place. In addition to having twitter searches feeding into Flipboard, I also have Google Reader, linkedin groups I follow, hub feeds such as the Guardian Sustainable Business and 2degreesnetwork. (Feeds also include cycling, outdoor, walking and weather interests.)
Managing …
Instapaper works across many platforms and is my main ‘receptacle’. It is used to collect and tag articles for later reading. Train journeys and waiting times are great Instapaper reading catch up time. From here I retweet, and / or move to Evernote for keeping or further reference.
Rapidly became my everywhere note book. I am drafting this in Evernote! Articles or extracts in Instapaper wanted for reference are exported to Evernote and filed away with tags. These can be for future reference, inspirations for blog posts or, importantly topics on which I can hone, improve or enhance the services I provide for my clients across the built environment.
Outwards …
Tweets can be made either direct from Instapaper or buffered through Buffer which enables some interesting time lapse tweets, or repeated tweets to catch differing time zones. (Care is needed with buffer however to be sure to react to responses!)
From Evernote and within Evernote I can easily then compose and curate articles and for this and other (eg Green Vision) blogs
So there you have it. This has been an established work flow a quite a while now and one that works for me. It would be interesting to know your work flow and what works for you.
Having a strategy or plan to deal with social media is critical to making effective use of your time online. Building on the support provided to organisations to date on similar social media strategies, we can help you hone your social media plans, with one to one face to face sessions, or on online via (eg) skype.
In addition coffee shop based, sustainability related, social media clinics will kick off very soon. Watch his space, subscribed to this blog, follow on twitter or drop me an email
Fairsnape 