I was recently invited by the Denver Chamber of Commerce to Speak at the Business Excellence Forum. This particular forum was labeled as a Spotlight on Social Media and my presentation was specifically focused on Twitter for business. Listening to the people at the event, it was clear that had the title been something more broad like Social Media 101, I would have had a much larger attendance.
I consider myself a student of social media and as such, believe that there are a number of layers to each social media tool available. I picked Twitter because I believe the opportunities are without limits and jump at the opportunity to talk about the benefits of Twitter and ways in which monitoring tools can dramatically improve the experience. I love to watch a naysayer begin to change their opinion and an advocate walk away with new ideas.
Twitter is a broad topic but perhaps only to those of us who are "students." Not everyone is reading Mashable, monitoring Twitter or updating LinkedIn and Facebook on a regular basis. These terms we throw around and names that we cite, they are from an entirely different world. Perhaps in this day and age, when asked to speak on social media, we leave the presentations at the office. This is social media after all so why should one person preach to others how it is done.
In the room were people from non-profit organizations, commercial architects and even a woman representing Grease Monkey. As usual, I learned so much from the discussion in the group. I quickly realized that presentations "as usual" really limit the potential for what is possible. If we only preach what we know, we are limiting ourselves from the possibilities. I found myself immediately intrigued with the idea of what is possible on a local scale for Grease Monkey and how companies and non-profits can promote social good. This might be the change that is needed to get my presentations to the next level. Perhaps a blank page and a conversation. Perhaps this is my last traditional presentation.
PS> I have removed several of the slides to protect the innocent ;).
