Ten takeaways from today’s Women Who Tech TeleSummit
Posted by:
Jordan Viator on
March 31, 2008 at
11:54PM EST
Today, over 650 women across the country gathered around their phones and computers to participate in the first-ever Women Who Tech TeleSummit. After participating in the sessions with a group of my coworkers, here are my ten takeaways from today’s discussions and presentations.
10. Engaging people online is becoming more difficult. Creative and interesting content can help gain the attention of your constituents, like that found on the www.notymybreasts.org site, which in turn will help grow your email lists.
9. Having a solid community is one of the key components of online success.Examples of people harnessing communities well include Beth Kanter who uses social media to fundraise and communicate with her community and Michelle Murrain who use online communities such as Linuxchix to learn about and educate others on Open Source.
8. Strategies exist for breaking through technology barriers in the workplace like management who doesn’t “get it”, low budgets or lack of proof that tactics like social media work and do have an ROI. Some of these strategies include: using baby steps in rolling out ideas, make leaders in your organization users of the technologies, support your case using relevant case studies and learn from your mistakes.
7. Women (or anyone for that matter) should build a personal brand for themselves online. Developing an online presence – or brand – on personal Web sites, Twitter, Facebook and other social media spaces is crucial. Just Google yourself and you will get an idea of what information exists about you and what it is doing to help or hurt your online reputation.
6. The old PR paradigm doesn’t work in the world of blogs. Because of this, many PR, advertising and communications professionals pitch bloggers unsuccessfully. The four key parts of blogger relations to remember are: prepare, participate, pitch and publish. (Do not: send press releases as pitches or forward pitches in mass emails.)
5. Beth Kanter’s theory-in-the works : The Cute Dog Theory . A remix of the Cute Cat Theory, Beth discussed the act of assessing online audiences, listening, creating conversation, staff roles and other important aspects to consider when utilizing social media.
4. Technology changes, people don’t. This point was brought up in the “Web 2.0, Hot or Not” panel by Connie Reece. She made the great point that Web 2.0 is just a set of tools that help us do what we’ve always done – communicate and connect with one another.
3. Social capital is a key component in new media as relationships and the sharing of ideas is often the goal in these spaces. “Expanding your own tribe,” as Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post refers to social capital, helps women in here. An example of this is a site like LinkedIn where the more people you are connected to allows you to better build your online reputation, find jobs, receive referrals and access more people for help.
2. There are a multitude of resources available for women to empower themselves and continue learning how to overcome technology obstacles and barriers. Organizations like NTEN and online sites like Blogher and Moms Rising help women embrace technology.
1. Women in technology are smart, powerful and capable. And by coming together with events like this TeleSummit, women can continue to bolster their presence and influence in the technology community – whether that be in the nonprofit, political or for-profit sectors.
Thanks to Allyson Kapin and all the other amazing women who worked hard to put this event together!
(2) Comments
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Posted by: Beth Kanter on April 8, 2008 2:06PM EST
Just catching up after an all too brief vacation. Great succinct notes from the conference. I wish I could have been on the other calls, but I was technically on vacation in Florida and working on the cute alligator theory ..,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/2388654298/in/set-72157604334512955/
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Thanks Beth! I loved your cute dog theory and look forward to hearing more about it as you develop the ideas further. Great pic, btw. I still need to go check out the full page of np dog shots on flickr!
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