if so flo unconference

I attended the if so flo unconference at Friends House in London on Friday... for a day of learning about the power and practicalities of social networking and using the web in creative industries. As a literature organisation we are never sure how much is too much and what exactly all these 'ping', 'ning', 'twitter' and other things really do. However we were willing to accept that they could help us connect and share as well as taking up valuable time!

Friday's event was an eye opening experience - a nice friendly format, too. It was useful to meet other organisations who, like us, know this stuff is going on but don't really know how to connect with it or whether it is for them anyway. It is, it turns out, and I returned with renewed faith and feeling a little more savvy in the realms of social networking. The conference raised some interesting issues, though, that remain unsolved - how do you know how to tweet or blog or set up a ning? Who teaches this? Where do you go for help, and how do you know you need help with it if you've no idea what these things are? How do you convince your employer that spending an hour on various social networking sites is actually a marketing exercise? How do you know if using these things is having an effect or just a rather entertaining waste of time? Measuring the results is a challenge, one that I am told can be met with the use of Google Reader and other such programmes that help to monitor traffic and keep your various blogs in order.

So, armed with my newfound confidence I resolve to try harder - to tweet (and to get over my resistance at even using that word), to find my way around a Ning, and to experiment with ping to keep the whole lot tied together.

I'll let you know how it goes. If I ever remember to update... :)

Sara