Boston Wordcampers get expert advice at the Wordcamp Genius Bar

Put 400 bloggers/social media enthusiasts in one really hip building, add in interesting session topics, excellent food, cool swag, and a few surprises, and you get Wordcamp Boston. The inaugural event took place at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA, on a frosty Saturday in January. Here are my takeaways:

1. Build a persona – In order to write to a target audience, you must create a persona exemplifying said audience. This was the first of many excellent tips offered by Hubspot’s Karen Rubin, during her informative and entertaining session, Rock My Blog. Writing to a persona helps you focus your message, and ensures you stay on target over the long run.

2. Define the look of a webpage – When talking to clients, I often struggle to articulate the look of a web site. Thanks to Jake Goldman’s excellent Themes 101 presentation, I now have ways to describe different webpage styles.

3. Use short codes for more versatility – Wordcamp’s Ignite sessions offered a wealth of information in rapid fire mode. For example, during Michael Susz’ presentation, I learned how embeded short codes in .php files can perform helpful tasks. Great. As if searching for plug-ins and themes weren’t distracting enough. . . .

4. Meta Keywords have no SEO value – This quote direct from SEO expert Cory Eulas during his talk on SEO Analysis. I’ve known this fact for a while, but for some reason, the fallacy that meta-keywords hold the key to Google glory keeps creeping up.

5. Microsoft Nerd Center – Time for full disclosure here, I work for Apple, and have been to the Cupretino mothership twice. It’s a cool campus with great design, but this Microsoft space in Cambridge was the hippest place I’ve seen. The tenth/eleventh floor workspace presentation area offers several industrial design work/meeting areas, random online workspaces, and cozy corners that demand thoughtful creativity. The place is so well designed to foster productivity that I wanted to sit down and start banging out tweets and blogs posts.

Were you there, pressing your word knowledge on the banks of the Charles River? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Kathy talks about her experiences at the inaugural WordCamp Boston.

Last August I attended Podcamp Boston and resolved to start a WordPress Blog. Five short months later, my blog is up and running, has a few subscribers, and is powering a new life direction as a social media consultant.

This weekend I’m attending Wordcamp Boston, the Hub’s inaugural WordPress event. The buzz surrounding this event has been off the charts, with tickets selling out twice in the few short months they were available, rumors of black market ticket channels, and folks aching to attend.

I’ll be attending sessions in both the beginner and applied track, including Rock My Blog,  PHP & CSS, and Themes 101.

My afternoon program includes a session on plugins,  SEO Analysis,  and Media 101.

This conference offers great opportunities to network with other bloggers, and I’ll be in attendance with a client whom I’ve been helping set up her own WordPress website. There are also several other attendees that I have met through various other social media events, including Podcamp New Hampshire and Nashua Tweet-up.

Check back over the next few days for a full report on the activites.

It has happened to us all. We look up from our desk or workspace to see a friend and co-worker exiting the building for the last time. It might be a peer, supervisor, or even someone you considered a mentor. You didn’t expect it, and he didn’t expect it. Your throat drops to your stomach, you wish there was something you could do.

In today’s socially connected world, there is something you can do. If the co-worker has a presence on Linked-In, and you haven’t done so already, you can post a recommendation to your former co-worker’s profile.

Linked-In’s recommendation features is one of social media’s most unique assists. Recommendations provide a separate and long-needed voice, illuminating and sometimes confirming facts presented in the traditional resume.

Many people debated the value of recommendations when Linked-In first became popular, questioning the sincerity of their prose. But as the network matured, recommendations have become part its fabric. There is nothing similar in all of social media.

Of course, you don’t have to wait till someone is out the door to post a recommendation. Linked-In prompts you to proactively seek recommendations, and encourages you to find other friends and co-workers for which you can post a good word. However, the actual recommendation request comes from the friend or co-worker themselves. If they don’t ask for one, send them a message offering your recommendation, and they can reply with a recommendation request.

It may not get your friend a job right off the bat, but it’s a bit more than just wishing luck in a quick e-mail or Facebook comment. I recently did this for a former co-worker in the waning days of 2009. Honestly, it was the best thing I did all year.

The last two follows I’ve received on Twitter, are both businesses. They use logos in their profiles, and have profile links to their company website. They are New Hampshire-based companies, which is cool because I live near the Granite State, and some of my social networking and consulting activities take place there.

Both companies offer services related to what I do. They are either monitoring my feed as competition, or they value, in some way, the thoughts I express through the various channels.

What bugs me though, is that there are no personal faces on these two Twitter profiles. No faces, and no names. This is a bit shocking to me. If someone is passionate enough about their business, brand, or work, to make the effort to build a Twitter following, why wouldn’t they want their name and face associated with the business?

To me, the strength of the Twitter meme is the personal connection; I don’t care if I’m one of 5000 followers, when I read your tweet, I feel like you are talking to me. And because I can see your smiling face when I read your inspirational message, I feel a connection.

The blogosphere is filled with advice on how companies can adapt and use Twitter as a customer listening medium, marketing tool, or conversational channel. Millions of pixels also shout out the branding advantages that Twitter offers. Most opinions I’ve read say that a company should send tweets under the company handle, but place a picture and name of a live person in the profile, or vice-versa. This seems like an excellent practice.

The two companies referred to here are Micro Arts, and Boost Training. I mention their names with the hope they are monitoring their names using Google alerts, and will find this blog post.

I’m not mad or upset at them for not associating a live personality with their profiles, but as I move forward advising individuals and small business on social media trends and practices, I’d like to know their reasoning, if any, for not doing so.

So what do you think? Should a company associate a face with their Twitter profile? Have you ever advised against this practice? Lets hear about it in the comments.