RIBA Local Members Forum 2016

On 8 July 2016 I gave a presentation to the RIBA Local Members Forum at the RIBA in London entitled ‘Social Media: What should We be Doing?’. The slides (with some omissions for confidentiality) are below.

Useful Resources

During the session and afterwards in discussion we talked about several useful apps and platforms which are available to make the process of using social media and communicating more effective and efficient. Here are some of them with links through to the relevant websites.

Alternative private platforms for work

Slack – A great alternative conversation place better than Facebook for Work, Linkedin Groups etc. Invite people by email address to join your ‘Team’ and ‘channels’ in the team based on events or topics. Upload documents to discuss, share links and use the mobile app to keep in touch on the go. Great for collaborative working on any project. Plenty of options to automate tasks too. Watch a tour here

Todoist – the best to do list ever. Also collaborative, get your team involved.

Toggl – time recording software, great for practice too. No more spreadsheet timesheets and its free or very cheap to use.

Doodle – need several people to confirm their availability for a meeting? Set up the time and date options, send them a link and let doodle do the rest.

Mailing List management

Mailchimp allows you to set up a subscription list which you can encourage people to sign up to, to keep in touch via email. You can then keep in touch with your list via email

Posting and scheduling tools for your status updates

Tweetdeck is owned by Twitter and creates a twitter dashboard to make it easy for you to see whats going on using search, lists and other features. Schedule posts and collaborate on one twitter account. NB my Twitter Pinterest board includes some useful links about Tweetdeck

Hootsuite is like Tweetdeck but also works with Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram as well as twitter. Free to use for single users, also provides you with data about how many people retweet or click on your tweets with links.

Buffer is a way of scheduling posts on a variety of platforms by adding them to a ‘buffer’ and then sends them out at timings you specify in advance. Set up a load of tweets on the bus or at the desk in the morning, and have them go out over the week.

Event Management

Eventbrite is a great tool for organising events, and if the event is free it is free to use. Set up a signup landing page for people to share, set up different ticket types (including a waiting list if  you need one) and attendees will automatically be reminded about the event and even given pdf tickets. There is an accompanying app for users and for organisers to use to register arrivals, all free. Embed the signup on your website to get even more people to come.

If you’ve got any questions or would like to propose any additions to this list why not post them in the comments below? Don’t forget you can always see discussion about the event at #localmembersforum