I’ll be speaking about social media next Tuesday morning at a professional development event organized by the IABC Golden Horseshoe Chapter. The Golden Horseshoe Chapter is the newest IABC chapter in Ontario. So, it should be a good opportunity for communicators from Hamilton, Halton, the Niagara Region,  Haldimand-Norfolk and Brant County to meet one another and get a sense of the benefits of an active IABC Chapter.

I’ve been asked to present a hands on demonstration of social media tools. The room will have a WiFi connection and I plan to show people how to set up persistent searches using Google Blog Search and Twitter search. I’ll also show everyone how I use Radian6 to track references to Thornley Fallis and issues relevant to us. I’ll make sure that everyone is set up with a working Twitter account, iGoogle profile and subscriptions to RSS feeds in Google Reader. That’s the nuts and bolts.

Of course, I’ll also talk about how social media should be introduced into an organization only if the culture is ready for it and if the leadership understands that the organization will be served only if the community first is served.

If you are in the Hamilton-Niagara region next Tuesday morning and want to talk about social media, why not join us at the IABC Golden Horseshoe Social Media PD Event. You can find the details on the IABC Golden Horseshoe Website and register at EventBrite to attend.

I hope to see you there.