JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

What I thought was most interesting – was how much I learned. Both about Tequila and Mexican Cuisine!
For example – did you know that the agave, from which tequila is made is from the lilly family? If you’d have asked me last week I’d have been convinced it was some type of cacti. Also, like fine french wines there are specific regions in which tequila comes from. Who knew? I think the best thing I learned was how versatile it is. Previously I’d thought of tequila as a 1 trick pony – fantastic in margaritas, but little else. Chef Marcela was able to show how to incorporate both gold and silver tequilas into fabulous cocktails and delectable Mexican cuisine.

Here’s a little video about things you never knew about tequila but should…

Sauza Tequila – Tequila 101 from Jackie Cuyvers on Vimeo.

While Chef Marcela, did share some amazing tequila cocktails with us- my favorite part was how she incorporated the tequila into her fresh authentic Mexican cuisine – in particular her Thanksgiving turkey. She infused the turkey with butter and tequila and marinated it with apricot jam and California chile.

How Tequila Turkey from Jackie Cuyvers on Vimeo.

To read more about Chef Marcela and Sauza Teuqila’s Ladies Night in, visit What’s Cooking Chicago’s fabulous blog post.

Would this video make you feel more favorable about attending BlogWorld or a conference in general or do you prefer a more fact based informative video?

Join myself and other women entrepreneurs online very Wednesday evening. Just do the following:

1. RSVP by Tuesday here. RSVP NOW
2. Right before the event, check back where you RSVPed and “follow” all of the tweeters listed on the RSVP.
3. Go to Twitter and follow @hashtags.
4. Go to http://search.twitter.com and enter #wechat in the search field. This will bring up a page that allows you to keep track of just the conversations from those participating in wechat (Women Entrepreneur’s Chat).
5. Start tweeting at 6 p.m. (pacific), 7 p.m. (mountain), 8 p.m. (central), and 9 p.m. (eastern).
6. Enter #wechat in all of your tweets.

Each week will have a topic or theme – for Wed Sept 9 – it will be the ever elusive holy grail of “Work Life Balance.”

If you don’t yet have a twitter account, please register for your free account here: http://www.twitter.com

 photo credit: Robert Sanzalone

Wikipedia defines wiki’s as 

“A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYGtext editor, within the browser.^[1][2] Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, and for note taking. The collaborative encyclopediaWikipedia is one of the best-known wikis.^[2] Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.”^[3]

“Wiki” (English pronunciation: /wiːkiː/) is a Hawaiian word for “fast”.^[4] ”Wiki” can be expanded as “What I Know Is,” but this is a backronym.”

A recent study of “Why Businesses Don’t Collaborate” by Stewart Mader and Scott Abel highlights the fact that employees rely heavily on email to communicate and collaborate and most feel inundated and overwhelmed with the sheer volume of messages and attachments. Frequently those attachments are less than 2 pages long and could be easily added to a wiki – adding value to the overall group collaboration and shared knowledge-base. As it is, 82% of those polled received dozens of emails a day and found that due to the volume important information was often lost or overlooked, adding it to a wiki would solve not just for the reduction of emails sent but key information being skipped over or deleted.

Has your business moved away from emails to a collaborative wiki for knowledge management? How smooth was the transition?

If you’re ready to get started with a wiki, there is a great open source option called Twiki. You can check Twiki out here at their website twiki.org .

Of the paid solutions one of the most popular seems to be Basecamp by 37 signals. While I enjoy this product – there are so many other free solutions available they definitely need to be considered when evaluating a collaboration tool or platform that’s right for your project or business.

To keep the conversation flowing two great tools are Yammer and the WordPress P2 Theme. Think of Yammer as a hosted solution and WordPress P2 Theme as your own white label, self hosted solution.

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’

As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced.

Anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. The privacy of each network is ensured by limiting access to those with a valid company email address. Information is never shared with third parties.

The advantages are that the basic Yammer service is free and it’s a hosted solution so updates and upkeep is performed by Yammer. The disadvantage is that to become an administrator or have control over the group or information companies need to pay to claim and administer their networks.

The WordPress P2 Theme would be installed on your own site. Access can be controlled by modifying your privacy and user settings. The advantages are that as it’s on your system you’re in total control and can truly customize this installation. The disadvantages would be that you need to purchase or own your url and pay for hosting fees.

 PS Theme is a ”group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Featuring: Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments. Live tag suggestion based on previously used tags. A show/hide feature for comments, to keep things tidy. Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. Super-handy keyboard shortcuts. Helvetica Neue for you modern font lovers. And more to come…”

Together these two both offer a great solution to keeping the conversation flowing when working together. How do you keep in touch with your work team?

The devaluation of this term has been discussed in other blogs, most notably on the article in Open Wire called “You’re NOT a Social Media Expert, you idiot” where the author Joel Mackey sets new definition criteria for determining what truly makes one a Social Media Expert.

Joel defines 5 categories of true Social Media Experts:

1. Authority Experts – Those who are able to transition their thought leadership from another arena to Social Media. His examples include : @joelcomm, @guykawasaki, @jimmyfallon, @aplusk 
2. The Power User Expert – Someone whose gotten to the top of one social media platform and sets their sites on another. Usually are early adopters: @zaibatsu, @mrbabyman @LouieBaur  @stejules
3. Content Creation Social Media Experts:  Those who report on trends and current themes are are able to disseminate that information effectively across the internet and social media platforms.  @murnahan, @mayhemstudios, @jessenewhart, @szetela, @fantomaster
4. Natural Social Media Experts: Social People who are great connectors online : @AlohaArleen, @BuzzEdition, @MariSmith
5. Social Media Salesmen: Internet Marketers putting out a one way content stream: (you can visit the original article for his examples)

Just like being canonized as a saint, elected class president, or named People Magazine’s sexiest man of the year – I don’t think Social Media Expert is actually a label one can apply to themselves. Rather it’s a label that’s applied given or more rightly earned by sharing your passion for social media, showing innovation and thought leadership. Being creative with your social media usage and in the most social sense – open and sharing with your information, insights and ultimately results. 

Results not in the sense of pay-per-click marketing of click-through rates, impressions and user views. But rather, measured in the quality of the 2 way communication, comments, replies and overall engagement of both the expert and the audience.

It’s the user community that grows around these individuals – those of us who read their blogs, subscribe to the feeds, link to them and generally subscribe to their thought stream and appreciate their viewpoint.

In Sept 2008 (which feels like eons ago in internet time/space) ReadWriteWeb identified these 7 Social Media Consultants that Deliver Tangible Value – I think these serve as an excellent example of who some of the true experts or thought leaders are.

• Chris Brogan
• Jeremiah Owyang
• Charlene Li
• Dawn Foster
• Dosh Dosh
• Gary Vaynerchuck
• Nancy White

I guess the next question is – what should we call them? Since we collectively are the ones who are responsible for the number of Twitter Followers, Technorati Authority and Google Page Rank – we should come up with a title to bestow upon these social media luminaries of the moment. If the title “Social Media Expert” has been worn out by the hordes of them suddenly around – do we come up with a new name, or put them in categories that define exactly what type of expert. So let’s hear it – what do you think true social media experts should be called?

Commonly, a Social Entrepreneur is defined in the following manner:

Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.

Increasingly I think this term has been flipped around – instead focusing on Entrepreneurs who are social – and now Social Media experts who are entrepreneurs. With every new technological, business or entrepreneurial development, the experts and early adopters are sure to appear shortly thereafter. Social media is no exception. As the technologies and other available networks and tools continue to spring up all over, social entrepreneurs are out there testing the waters, finding out what works and what doesn’t. While the world of social media may seem impossibly complicated or involved, watching the actions of these social entrepreneurs, whether successful or not, can impart valuable lessons to anyone interested in jumping in to social media or perhaps becoming a social entrepreneur himself. While the lessons to be gained from analyzing the actions of social entrepreneurs are many, following are a few basic principles that all social entrepreneurs follow. These actions can be applied to social entrepreneurs in both the traditional and modern sense-

Take Risks: Social media is new, and social entrepreneurs are applying limited knowledge to their ventures. No matter how successful one is in the offline world, the social media explosion has put everyone back to square one when it comes to strategies ad techniques. Because of this, social entrepreneurs are essentially trying untested and unproven strategies and hoping for positive results. With no case histories to go on, everything a social entrepreneur tries is essentially a risk. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t, but risks are necessary in mastering new media tools like social media networks.

Take Advantage: If there is anything social entrepreneurs know how to do, it is how to take advantage of the tools available. Not only do they push social media networks to their limit with new techniques and marketing strategies, but they also make use of the networks and contacts they have made. Whether asking for opinions or information, forming partnerships on projects or ventures, or any number of other applications, social entrepreneurs know how use all the tools at their disposal. Not only do social entrepreneurs create massive networks, they know how to use them.

Take Care: No news travels more quickly than bad news, and when it comes to social networks, you can double the speed of the spread. Social entrepreneurs know how important it is to carefully evaluate what they say as well as how they present themselves in the social media arena. While recovered from a misstep is possible, it is easier to be careful and have nothing to apologize for. Social entrepreneurs are successful because along with all the risk taking and socializing, they are careful to manage their words and messages.

 

Click here to learn more about America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs 

Click here to learn more about 10 Social Media people you should follow on Twitter

 

Have you seen an social entrepreneurs taking advantage of the social media tools available? Have you seen any social media entrepreneurs branching out into charitable or social entrepreneurial endeavors? I’d love to see some examples of crossover here.

That’s not to say you can’t bring this job in-house. In fact no one will speak as passionately or informatively about your business as you or your team will. Starting a new company is a hectic time, with many details to be attended to. Advertising, publicity and news release are not the least of these details, and often require the most finesse. So not only does the new business owner have to handle the publicity, but, if they have decided to get involved with social media, they must also educate themselves on the nuances and techniques of social media as well. Hiring a social media marketing expert in these situations is often a lifesaver.

A social media marketing expert can sit down with the company owners and employees, getting a good feel for the vibe and message of the company, allowing the creation of a solid image to be presented on various social media networks. A social media marketing expert can also help to develop a social media marketing strategy, using experience and proven techniques to provide the most return on investment for a struggling small business. The expertise of a social media marketing professional will not only aid in the creation of a successful social media marketing strategy, but also educate owners and employees on the pros, cons, ins and outs of the various social media networks and how to gain the most value from the networks and contacts created. While your company may not need to employ a social media marketing expert in a permanent capacity at first, consider a consultant practiced and experienced in social media marketing strategies to give your new company a great start right out of the gate – then consider transitioning the job in house to a dedicated staffing position like Community Organizer or Social Media Manager.