Changes and Other Perspectives

Living in a new place and taking on a new role means that things have changed for me both personally and professionally; changes that will likely be reflected in this space.

I’m no longer managing school-wide communications campaigns, BUT that doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest in social media and outreach tools. Far from it in fact.

It does mean, however, that I will likely start injecting other aspects of communications, engagement, outreach and relationship management into my posts here. Heck, you might even get a few, “here’s what I’ve learned about living abroad” tidbits too.

In the spirit of all that, here is one of those tidbits: when you move to a new place, you have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. This is your big chance to stick your hand out and say, “Hi, I’m new here.” It’s networking, that thing we all talk about doing online. Making those connections up front will help you in the long run, professionally and personally. Thanks to my new friends and colleagues, I learned how to get my home internet set up quickly. I learned where I can find root beer. I even avoided certain disaster by purchasing and utilizing dishwasher salt.

Sure, those things are somewhat silly and trivial (not the internet one, though – that was vital). But those people, their knowledge and their connections will help me out in the short and long terms. And hopefully my connections and knowledge will help them as well.

Time Waits for No One

One of the biggest challenges of working within an international organization is dealing with time itself: if I’m in California, what time is it in Stockholm? Or Toronto? Or the Bahamas? Or Beijing? Before, all I really had to worry about was making sure that meetings and phone calls all fell within US waking hours. Not anymore.

Working within a multi-timezone framework impacts individual conversations and interactions, but it also influences the timing for social media activity. For example: what’s the best time of day to send a Tweet so it will reach the maximum number of people at any given time anywhere in the world?

Answer: there is no single, magical time that’s best for everyone. So what to do? Listen to your audience. Follow the timing of their social media interactions. When are they actively tweeting and posting to Facebook? When do things quiet down? Try to locate “sweet spots” during a 24 hour period that will reach most of your followers. Make note of which day of the week it is as well. For example, I’ve noticed a lull in conversation on Friday and Saturday evenings, with things picking back up on Sundays (makes sense).

Going back to time zones…here are some of the tools I use to make sure I’m not inadvertently calling someone in the middle of the night:

Vela Clock – a dashboard widget and iPhone app that let you make a whole list of time zones to monitor, including UTC.

Every Time Zone – a website with sliders to help you determine what time it is where, and help you plan future meeting timing.

Mashable and I must have been thinking along the same lines. Here’s their post on some free online tools for managing time zones.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.