Yesterday evening, May 17, 2012, Joy Davis and a panel of CSI social media users across the country presented SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS by webinar to our Northern Illinois CSI Chapter meeting in Glen Ellyn, IL.
Thanks to Joy Davis and the panelists for generously sharing your time, and your experiences with social media, with us in the Northern Illinois Chapter.
We had 21 people at the actual chapter meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and at least one member who tuned in to the webinar from his home.
Your efforts made a difference in persuading several people to try social media. Here's a little feedback:
- Dewain Peterson and I followed the accompanying Tweetchat #SMarchitect. Looking out at the audience, I saw several people working their smartphones from time to time, presumably following the Tweetchat. (I hope they weren't just idly surfing the web or checking email.)
- Several people approached me after the presentation, and told me that they were going to try Twitter, and/or expand their current activity on Twitter, now that they can see it's not just a way for teenagers to convey personal messages.
- This morning, I got an email from an experienced product rep who attended the meeting in person last night. He indicated that he, too, was going to try Twitter out, and that he may be contacting me for help occasionally. If he asks a question I can't answer, I know I can call on the CSI social media community for help.
- We didn't convince everybody, though. After the meeting, one person, obviously agitated, told me that social media "just delivered too much information", and that he was concerned that he couldn't keep up with the flow. I tried to reassure him that he didn't need to read everything that he gathered in a social media feed, and tried to draw an analogy between reading a newspaper and using a social media feed. He didn't buy it.
Personally, I'm just using Twitter and Linkedin currently. As I get more proficient, I'll probably expand to use more social media platforms.
