We’ve all been there. That Trade Show, team meeting or company meeting where someone drones on giving another boring powerpoint presentation.

Well, thankfully at last week’s Social Media Breakfast #18 (hosted by Bob Collins and Communispace- thank you!) we were treated to three clever presentations by Robert Davis of PJA, Pawan Deshpande of HiveFire, Inc. and Andrew Davis of Tippingpoint Labs.

My favorite presentation was by Andrew Davis.  He took a subject as simple, likeable, and “relate-able” like meatloaf (?!) and gave us a crash course in “Content Creation in the New Age of Search and Engagement”.

Don’t take my word for it- take a look at his presentation below (click on arrow) and tell us what you think. If you want to bring it to life, click on the a quick one-minute video (he gets the crowd roaring at around 20 seconds) to get a feel for it…

Food for Thought
So, while we’re talking about meatloaf or “Meat Loaf”, here’s what I’m taking away from his presentation…

- Don’t just use Powerpoint. His presentation was put together by Prezi, a new platform I’ll probably use for my  next talk at the Apple Store. It’s interactive, fun, and is designed in a way to give the audience context and a framework for whatever subject you’re talking about. Think about it, without even being in the room, you get a pretty good feel about what he said and how he said it.

- Poke fun at yourself. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? You’ll notice the Jim Henson/Muppets reference early in the presentation. He does a terrific Grover impression which loosened up the audience. (NOTE: if you’re not good at impressions, don’t even thinking about trying to pull off what he did)

- Tell a story. This is the cardinal rule of giving presentations, but many people STILL forget to do this. Choose a topic or concept (who can’t relate to meatloaf?!) that your audience understands

Any other thoughts? how do YOU Jazz up your Presentation?

Think your company is too big, bureaucratic, and important to dabble in social media? That increased accessibility from customers poses too much of a risk to justify the potential rewards?

Think again.

The US government is using social media to improve operations and provide greater transparency. In fact, according to BizReport, 66% of US Government agencies are using social networking tools.

Last year, Mark Drapeau (Director of Innovative Social Engagement at Microsoft U.S. Public Sector) started an ongoing column at Mashable talking about the federal government and social media. In outlining a theory of social media use for the federal government,  he explained the ultimate goal should be to make it easier for agencies within the government to communicate.

This internal use of social media is exactly what your big, bureaucratic, and reactive business should consider as well.

We spend a lot of time talking about social media as a marketing, branding, and advertising tool but often don’t acknowledge the benefits of using social media platforms to improve internal operations. That’s because today, social media is hard enough sell when you’re talking about visible increases to the bottom line in the form of sales; its harder to specifically quantify the benefits to an organization thanks to internal social media tools.

Amy Mengel at Mengel Musings wrote about a recent event in Albany where the New York State Senate’s CIO office explained how it is using social media to “pull the state government out of the DOS-ages”. (Love that description!) They focused on external uses of social media, which are also very important in the public sector: transparency, participation, and collaboration. New York State, like the White House itself, is even using open-source software so, as Mengal said, citizens can access information about their government whatever way works best for them.

But consider the example highlighted in a Harvard Business Review article last week of using social media internally. In one example, a company used it to revise a classroom training program more efficiently and effectively. The article mentioned micoblogging specifically, but the tips it contained, and those generated by the comments, are useful in the adoption of any social media tool:

• Have specific goals,
• Lead by example (ie, get the top executives involved),
• Provide training.

Bottom line here:  If the Department of Defense can handle social media, so can your business.  So, get educated on what tools are available, develop a plan, and start small.

No, it’s not a cousin of the ipad, and it’s pronounced  ”eye- paaaydio”, not “i -patio”.

It’s a terrific new technology that I love, and talked about a few weeks ago here. But I thought I’d dive a bit deeper and learn more. Earlier this morning, I interviewed the CEO of ipadio, Mark Smith. (good friend Aaron Strout also did a nice review of ipadio here as well)

Have a listen below. (if anything, us Yankees will love his English accent)

We talk about:

• The resurgence of audio use with mobile phones. How businesses and individuals can gather  and share real-time content using ipadio. (think news and sports reporting- you instantly produce and share interviews and updates. ESPN, CNN, NYTimes, take notice
• Quite simply, audiocasting, or as they call it, “phlogging”, is a easier, and much more efficient and and inexpensive alternative to video.
• Geo-location and ipadio.  The topic du jour. You’ll notice that this podcast originated in the UK.
• Everyone has a smartphone, why not use the smartphone for what it is optimized for?
• And take a peek at Mark’s favorite pastime- how does he fit into this car?!!!

I can’t believe it is taken so long to include Ann Handley in the 7 Habits Series! When Ann’s not speaking at national events or hosting one of her own, she keeps her reader’s hanging on her every word over at annhandley.com.

Aspiring bloggers or writers, PLEASE read just one of her blog posts-I’ll think you’ll be hooked.   Conventional wisdom says you should keep your content somewhat focused, but she writes about everything, and does it really well. When you’ve come back from reading one of her posts, read below….

About Ann
Lead typist in the steno pool. Also, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs. Meaning, I like words and what they can do, when combined with intention.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Willingness to work hard. (There are no shortcuts.)

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
Mainline caffeine, open email. (Pretty much in one fluid motion.)

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Getting enough sleep. I am useless without 7 hours, at least, and better with 8. Downside: I’m the first to leave a party.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
“The Elements of Style” by EB White. Not a business book, per se, but there’s no better text for understanding the value of clear communication/writing and honing your skills, which directly relates both to your career and to business generally. Plus, it’s a small, thin volume (so it’s easy to digest) and surprisingly funny. I’ve noticed that if you write well, others will forgive many perceived shortcomings and mistakes.

5. 3 things on your desk right now
My iPhone, Twitter, MacBook Pro. Also, a photograph of my kids. Which reminds me not to take the iPhone, Twitter, MacBook Pro quite so seriously.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
My tendency to not walk away. A little breathing room adds a lot of necessary perspective, in any situation.

7. Habit you’d like to form  for 2010
Greater focus on What Matters. For me personally, as well as the company.

Blogging is not for everyone. It takes time, effort, and most importantly passion to talk about your particular area of expertise.Bottom line, if you’re not someone who likes to write a lot, blogging feels more like work, right?

But what if you didn’t have to write? What if you’re constantly on the go, and are at your desk/in front of your laptop for a precious few hours a day? What if you’d rather talk than write?

Well, a good friend in the space, Aaron Strout,(who heard from another friend Bryan Person) just turned me on to a terrific new platform call ipadio, where essentially, you can blog from your phone or broadcast live to the world. Virgin Media uses it to communicate with their staff of 20,000 people, and Oxfam used it while recently in Haiti during earthquake relief efforts.

The concept is very simple: Get the ipadio app- simply fire up your iPhone or Droid, and speak into your phone. You can either record an audio blog/podcast for use at a later date, or simply broadcast to your company, employees or friends. And to get really technical, there are  great data collection, interactive, voting, and transcription services.

I’ve put ipadio to the test, and it works amazingly well. Listen to the podcast below for 3 more reasons why I think this is a great tool for businesses.

P.S. I’ll be using ipadio in the future for brief 2-3 minute updates on Social Media, so stay tuned, or subscribe to the feed. :-)

Bill and I finally met face to face at this year’s SXSW AllHat Party (thanks to Armano and the good people at Dell). Bill is one of those lucky social media/community evangelists that get to call Sonoma, California home. Imagine that. While he’s not managing communities, building social media strategies for clients, and running great conferences, he’s basking in wine country.

So, on to interview #28 in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers Series.

About Bill
He’s JUST about to join the Dell Social Media/Community team down in Austin, TX. (I’ll let him fill you in with more details)

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?

Confronting and working through fear. I found that the scariest option is often the right one. As an example, I remember almost blowing off my interview TechRepublic back in 1999. I was really intimidated by the prospect of working for a startup, and I had no idea what I would be getting myself into. About 10 minutes before the interview, I sat in the parking lot with my car in drive and debating just driving off. If I had blown that interview I would very likely have never “broken in” to tech and certainly wouldn’t have the online community building experience I have today.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?

Coffee first (of course) then I skim email from the last 12 hours to see if there are any fires… then check twitter replies and skim my “a list” sources.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?

Having a weekly to do list.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?

A tie between “Good to Great” by Collins and “The Effective Executive” by Drucker. I am a recovering art student, so I have had to supplement my business and management training :)

A few other books that will always have a place on my office bookshelf include:

Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst / A fantastic productivity guide I describe as GTD “lite”.

Universal Traveler – Koberg and Bagnall / A guide for design and creativity that includes process, tips and techniques.

Community Building on the Web – Amy Jo Kim / The online community bible. Examples are somewhat dated, but concepts are still relevant.

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web – Wodtke / The IA bible. I keep bugging Christine to write a new edition that includes design for the social web.

5. 3 things on your desk right now

Iphone

Coffee

Graph paper pad & post its – I’m a paper freak, which I attribute to the recovering art student thing.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2009

Trying to manage projects and tasks in multiple formats. I’ve used paper, a template I developed in Word, OmniFocus, Things and have attempted to adopt GTD methodologies. What *really* works for me? Taking time at the end of the day on Friday, or 30 minutes over the weekend to develop a simple task list that breaks down tasks by project, and has a simple priority assigned to each task.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Becoming a better (and smarter) information consumer, curator and producer. Specifically, this means being more discerning about the content streams I pay attention to, being more systematic about how I save and share “the good stuff” and become more disciplined about producing content (specifically: blogging).

BONUS pictures of Bill’s office!

It’s people like Diane Hessan who make me look forward to opening up my computer, firing up Twitter, and listening to her stream of of consciousness. She’s the best of the best when you think of CEO’s on Twitter. I’m honored to call her a friend, a mentor and one of my favorites in the  ongoing “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” Series. Thanks Diane!

About Diane
I am CEO of Communispace. We help many of the world’s most admired companies listen to, and get insights from, their customers — by building and managing online communities. We have about 100 clients and over 250 employees.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I love to laugh.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I hang out at the coffee machine with employees and find out what they are working on that excites them – because it inspires me.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I have the best executive assistant in Boston. He is patient and super smart, and he anticipates every possible thing that could go wrong with my day.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
First, my 12th grade physics book Concepts like momentum, critical mass, vectors, energy, and force are key to building a growing and profitable company.

Secondly, Customer-Centered Growth, which I co-authored in 1995, because it was an enormous intellectual challenge for an extrovert like me.

Thirdly, In Search of Excellence, written by one of my mentors, Tom Peters, which first raised the notion that some companies are intentionally more amazing than the rest of the pack.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
My blackberry
my laptop,
and my Red Sox Trivia Calendar (The record for the most strikeouts in a single season is Pedro Martinez in 1999).

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
When I start our 8:30 a.m. bimonthly all-staff meetings, I say “Good Morning Everyone!”, which really bothers our employees in Europe and Australia.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010.
I want to pick up the phone at least 3 times a week, call a client, and tell them how much we value their confidence in us. I also need to take more vitamins.

As the Dialogue team ramps up for SXSW (the Super Bowl of Social Media Conferences) we’re still interviewing some great marketers out there. Mike Volpe is our featured Social Marketer today. If you haven’t already, take 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon to watch Mike and Karen Rubin talk Inbound Marketing on their weekly television show/podcast/live-streaming event, Hubspot TV

About Mike
I’m Mike Volpe, and I love Marketing! I work as VP Inbound Marketing at HubSpot, where I get to lead a team of marketers as well as create a lot of content on our blog, for our TV show, and by speaking a lot too.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Passion! You need to find a job that allows you to leverage your passion. I mean it’s late at night right now, but I’m having fun writing about marketing because I love it. Focusing on your passion makes everything else a lot easier.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
Read. I read my email. I read blogs and news in my RSS reader. I read Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. I read my reports in HubSpot analytics. You need to know what is going on before you can do something productive.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Seclusion time. I need at least 1 hour a day where I have zero interruptions and I just crank through all my inboxes and tasks. If not, it starts to back up and the problem gets worse. I tend to really focus in on things, and if I get distracted, I have a lot of trouble refocusing, so I need to comepletely uninterrupted time to be super productive. I actually book this time in my calendar, and if I am in the office, I will go hide someplace so no one can bother me.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. He recently rewrote a lot of it to update it for a new addition. The month that book came out, I sent him and email with the subject line “Our company (HubSpot) was based on your book”. While HubSpot was founded before the book came out, it was a true statement. We had lunch the next week and David and I are friends now, and he’s been a great advisor. I should also mention that “Inbound Marketing” by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (the foreword is by David Meerman Scott) is another take ont he same subject, with probably more “how to” examples.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without

iPhone – Not because I am in love with Apple (I don’t like them much) but because it makes me a lot more productive, I’ll replace it the second something better is available (please Google… help!)

Google Apps - I used Outlook for years, but once I converted and got used to Gmail/Gcal, I am faster and more efficient

DropBox – Having all my important files available anywhere, and collaborating with my team more easily is great

With the combination of these 3 things, I have stopped carrying a laptop and a bag except when I travel on planes. I just walk out of the office. I have a laptop that mostly stays in the office, a desktop in my house, and also a netbook for around the house and sometimes travel.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Checking Twitter too much! It is usually pretty distracting, and can be addictive. And to be honest, most of the super important stuff there ends up getting to me through other channels. But, I do need to make time for it, just in a few 10 minutes chunks during the day (TweetDeck on the iPhone helps a lot with this).

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Inbox Zero. I have been getting better… around 100 messages in my inbox on average the past few months, rather than 300-ish – but I want to really try to keep it under 10-20, and maybe even hit zero. We’ll see… I mean, I just got rid of this message!

To end the week in our “7 Habits Series” , let’s have a chat with Phil Johnson, one of the best creative minds out there. When he’s not jetting around the country with clients, friends and other marketing luminaries he’s at home in his Cambridge office, just steps away from Harvard Square. And if you have the time on a Thursday afternoon, take a moment to listen to his agency’s weekly radio show on Social Media with Mike O’Toole and  Hugh Kennedy – There’s alway something interesting happening over there.

About Phil
I’m the CEO of PJA Advertising + Marketing. We call ourselves an ad agency, but we’re really interested in all the ways that people communicate with each other, and especially how new technologies are changing our experiences and behaviors.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I’m a talent groupie. Nothing gets me excited like meeting someone with a great mind, a wonderful imagination, and better ideas than me. Sometimes I can’t sleep until I recruit them.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
Well at PJA, we all punch a time clock. Just kidding. I don’t know exactly when the workday starts. After I drop my son at school, I start thinking about business. But once I get to the office, I’ve got to check to see if there are any donuts in the kitchen, then put on some music, and play around with Tweet Deck. Next thing I know I’m writing stuff, going to meetings, and talking on the phone. I think that’s work.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
It’s sad, but I’m just not efficient, but I’ve learned a couple of tricks. Every day, I jot down three things I absolutely want to get done. I’m always happy if I do two of them.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I’m not a huge fan of traditional business books, but here are three books that I really like, and they are kind of about business:

Fast Company, How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds – and Always Win, by Jon Bradshaw. These stories reveal tons about entrepreneurship and human nature.

Stumbling On Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. Understanding how we pursue happiness is very helpful if you’re in the business of influencing people.

Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. This book helps explain how all these cool web 2.0 technologies that we love are redefining society.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/ 3 things you can’t live without
Diet Dr Pepper
PJA note pads
My tiny Bose speakers.

Those things, and my MacBook, are all I need.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
I think I’ll start with trans fats and then move on to butter, sugar, excessive amounts of empty carbohydrates, and alcohol.

7. Habit you’d like to form  for 2010
I wish that all of us at PJA would connect to each other on a delicious network and get disciplined about tagging the content that fires up our imaginations. We’ve got a collection of really interesting people, and their collective knowledge is very powerful. I’d like to do a better job of harnessing it.

Back to the continuing “7 Habits” series with Connie Bensen. I first “met” Connie Christmas Day (or thereabouts) about two years ago when testing out Skype. Social Media waits for no-one, right? We struck up a conversation online, and have since stayed connected, (or have tried to!) through Twitter. Without further ado, Ms. Connie Bensen.

About Connie
I’m the Director of Social Media & Community Strategy at Alterian. I work under corporate marketing and have two focus areas: the social media strategy at Alterian & also providing marketing support for SM2 our social media monitoring tool.

1. What one trait or *habit* got you to where you are today?
Investing many hours in learning and giving back to others.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
My first item is to read email because I need to get centered for the day. Now that our parent office is in the UK their day is half over when I start mine, so I frequently start my week on Sunday evening.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I couldn’t live without Evernote. It’s amazing (and free!). It synchs across the cloud & my lists and information is always available no matter what computer I’m working on.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz rates very high.

5. 3 things on your desk right now /3 things you can’t live without
a mouse (I can’t use a laptop without one)
pen & paper
on my desktop I NEED evernote, skype, Thunderbird, Firefox, Digsby

6. Habit you want to kick in 2009
One habit I need to change is working too much. And I’m starting to figure out how to not work on weekends, but it’s really hard (seriously!). I have an upcoming move & look forward to socializing more with friends.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
I plan to get more exercise on a regular basis. Although January is over & I’ve managed to avoid it so far! :)