Brand is not a logo by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Brand is not a logo by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Today, I had the pleasure of a return visit to Rossmoor, a gated community near Monroe, NJ. In the past I’ve talked about the Chromebook, Social Media, and graphic design at this 55 plus Computer Users Group, but today I talked about something more akin to Psychology or Business meetups than computer groups: Organizational and personal branding. I was a bit worried about how it would be received because I have only given the talk to more brand minded groups, but figured that if I really believe that brand is universal, which I do, that the talk would be appropriate.
It was received very well. The people there talked about their communication methods, their platforms, their keywords, and discovered their brand. We discussed abstraction and concretia in branding, such as the idea of loving as a keyword versus technology as a keyword. We talked about how everyday meetups and conversations are opportunities for branding, and that even though not everyone is familiar with their brand, that everyone has one and that it is beneficial to become familiar with it, shape it, and strengthen it.
Thanks very much to Rossmoor, Paul, and Gano for the kind reception, patient ear, and engaged responses.
Location: Princeton Public Library  Technology Center
Interested in creating your own blog? In this two-part course, social media and technology expert, John LeMasney will teach how to start and manage a blog for free through WordPress. Prior web design experience is not needed. Session 2 will be held on Tuesday, May 21.
I have spent most of my career as an instructional technologist. When I accepted my first job at a university in this role, I was not entirely certain of what instructional technology was, but I was able to answer all the important questions.
In short, Instructional Design is the important work of integrating technology in a teaching and learning environment, and all that goes with that process: research, troubleshooting, experimentation, problem-solving, system administration, programming, design, and being creative. It is, without a doubt, the best job in the world for someone who loves this list of job attributes.
As it turned out, I was perfectly suited for instructional technology, also often called academic technology, educational technology, or instructional technology & design, because I am a versatilist (I know a little bit about a lot of things in my expertise), media producer, technologist, and teacher, and am passionate about these attributes.
From supporting teachers to teaching
In the last few years, I have been fortunate enough to experience the faculty side of this process as a professor in the graduate program I graduated from, the MA in Organizational Leadership at Rider University. I teach students in this program about change management, communication, media creation, media transliteracy, convergence, and effective use of social media. I was recently invited back to teach my third class in the program, and have been working on the syllabus. I like to think of success in course development as making a class that I would be very excited to take. I have done at least that here. I’m sharing the core topics from the course below, and if you have any thoughts about the lineup, feel free to share in the comments!
Weekly topics:
Getting started. Introduction to the class, WordPress account setup, and first posts.
WordPress best practices | WordPress Getting started codex | WordPress demo
Personal and Organizational Branding | Seth Godin lit review | Facebook Demo
Convergence, mobile technologies, and platforms | Google Glass lit review | Google Plus App demo
Creating, gathering, and sharing visuals | 3 tutorials for Inkscape | Inkscape demo
Effective Social Media presence for leaders | case studies for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest
Virality, ethics, and balance | Kony 2012 | Basic concepts of headlines/Case study for American Apparel marketing methods
Basic web creation literacy and development | Codecademy assignment | Codecademy assignment review and discussion on practical use of code as literacy
Staying aware of trends, ideas, news, and contacts with social media platforms |social media dashboard lit review | Hootsuite demo
Legal issues for individuals, organizations, and society regarding new media | articles on firings, etc, Organizational  Social Media policy | best practices document from Princeton
Creating, gathering, and sharing audio via podcasting and other platforms | Stitcher assignments | Audacity Demo
Communicating, embracing, and navigating change with a comprehensive organizational communication plan | case studies | Google Drive demo
Creating, gathering, and sharing motion visuals | YouTube assignments | editing video
Hey, Pinterest, please let me know who follows me back - lemasney.com
Hey, Pinterest, please let me know who follows me back – lemasney.com
“This two-part webinar will introduce you to Pinterest, the explosively popular free visual bookmarking service. In Session One, Pinterest experts John LeMasney and Hilary Morris will introduce you to the service, showcase how others are using it effectively and share their savviest tips to help you get started following, pinning, & liking pins yourself! In a highly-interactive Session Two, we will discuss your experiences in the few weeks that have passed, answer questions about your practice, and discuss strategies for future pinboard improvement. By attending this two-part webinar series, you can expect to: Gain new insights into your library’s audience. Generate content for library’s social networking and blogging practices Connect with highly engaged, tech-savvy users in your local and online community. Expand your library’s brand placement and presence as well as other related brands. Increase visibility and reach among your target audiences. Define your library brand’s visual elements far beyond the logo. Â Registration Information Limit: Â 100 Register online by using the link below. Link to Online Registration – Login Notice: Â You MUST log in first to see the online registration link. Only Authenticated Users (who have a LibraryLinkNJ Website user account) can register for any event or program. Use “User Login” on the left side menu or at https://librarylinknj.org/user. If you have not yet created your account, go to ” quoted from FREE Webinar: Pinterest: Community Engagement Through Visual Bookmarking | LibraryLinkNJ at https://librarylinknj.org/content/free-webinar-pinterest-community-engagement-through-visual-bookmarking
On 5/23/2012 I gave a talk to the Newcomers of West Windsor on the benefits and functions of Pinterest, and got a chance to talk about the gentle move towards PNG from GIF and JPG, as well as the increased importance of visual communication skills for the average person. The response from the organizer was “Thank you so much for the wonderful job you did lecturing at Tech Talks on the history of images on the web and Pinterest. Your depth of knowledge always amazes me. You are our favorite teacher.”
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