 My name is William Jackson, born and raised here in Philadelphia, it's great to be back home and actually be able to speak at the conference this weekend. I've been here a couple of times, didn't have a chance to speak, but this year it's a wonderful, awesome year to do it. The weather to me, like typical Philly weather, it's like okay it's a little gloomy, little overcast, but the energy is awesome, the energy is wonderful. So before I continue, you know my name is William, so we're not going to go around the room and introduce each other, because that would take so long, but I would be remiss and I would get in really serious trouble if I didn't introduce Aida, my girlfriend. So she is the artistic person in our relationship because being a guy is like I'm good with just text and stuff, but Aida is good with the graphics and lighting everything up and the color coordination. So as we were developing this PowerPoint presentation, I had to sit back a little bit and say okay I'm going to let you do all of that and you're good at that, I'm going to stay in my lane as the kids like to say. So I have to give it up and give her a hug. So please give her a hand because without it, this would not be the great presentation that it's going to be. So you know what I said, this is going to be a great presentation, right? So y'all help me make it a great presentation, okay? Alright, so first of all, I'm an elementary school PE teacher. Who knows what PE means? And please don't say play education, okay? What is PE? Visual education. And I'm also a technology teacher, so I have the best of both worlds. I teach PE where I can wear T-shirts and shorts and tennis shoes and I teach technology so I can teach the kids a whole lot of stuff while they're trying to figure out how to be programmers, designers, coders, and of course you got young ladies and young men that want to hack the whole world and take over everything. So you have all that combination. So this presentation basically is not on a specific platform but it's designed to get some dialogue going on about the type of content that you're creating and why it is important not to just rely on SEO, not to just rely on Google Analytics but to get out and get involved and engage in your community. Those being what I call clinical digital platforms cannot show the emotion and the passion that you have for what you're doing. So when someone looks at what you're creating, your digital content, you want them to get a feeling for the type of person that you are and what you could contribute not just to your business or organization or who you're working with or your associations, but the people that are just looking at your content, they just come across it and even the people that you're probably marketing to. So as we talk about this, if you have a couple of questions, I'll be more than having to attend a couple of questions but particularly afterwards if you have more in-depth questions I'll be happy to answer and I'll be happy to answer as well. So like I said, I'm a teacher, I'm an elementary school teacher, so I do have a lot of energy. So if I have a tendency to go really, really fast, it's okay to just say William, slow down a little bit. And I do move around a lot too. So if I'm moving around and you kind of get a little vertical, you can just tell me just to stop and stand still, all right? Because my kids are like, gosh, you're like, oh, but you move around so much. And it's funny when a kindergartner says that because they're like, if you ever seen kindergarteners try to walk in a line, it's like herding cats. It's like they're all over the place. And don't let a butterfly come out of nowhere and it's like their tent is like, it's just gone. So one of the things I want you to think about is one, the type of content that you create because you all are content creators. You've developed some type of content that you're placing in a digital environment. So I like to start off with, everybody take out your digital devices. No, we're not in school and no, I'm not going to take it from you. So when you got a phone or a tablet, take it out and hold it up, all right? So I need y'all to repeat after me. Okay, all right, you ready? This can be my best friend or my worst enemy. So you keep that in context and you're thinking of how you develop your content and where you post it and how you post it, okay? Because it is very important because even though you're posting or marketing to a specific audience, you never know who's going to run across your content, okay? I just saw her in here, is Jody in here? Jody's not in here. Okay, young lady named Jody, we were talking about downstairs before we were getting our headshots, that how people now are really thinking about when you're attending a social event, what kind of drink you have in your hand or if you actually have a drink in your hand, oh, that's cool, okay? So the industry thinking is because you're representing your business or a business, you have to be very mindful of what you have in your hand and where that picture's going. So you don't want to have a Budweiser in your hand, you don't want to have a Michelob in your hand, you don't want to have a glass of wine because that makes an inappropriate perception of what you're doing. If you're part of a nonprofit organization, definitely you have to be careful of the perception people have of you and what you're doing. So the general consensus is now that you put it down or you hide it because the people that you're associated with or you're seen with also can and does give you value to your content now and forever more. And then on top of that, you just don't let anybody take your picture because you don't know where that picture's going. So you have to be very careful. So it doesn't matter if you're with a Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, Fortune whatever, your perceptions are very important with the content that you have. So let me ask this question. Raise your hand if you're on Facebook. Oh my gosh, why are y'all still on Facebook? It's like nobody's on Facebook. That's what the kids tell me. Raise your hand on Instagram if you're on Instagram. Raise your hand on Twitter if you're on Twitter. How about, oh, it's a good one. Raise your hand if you're on Snapchat. You know, only the young people, there you go, the young people on Snapchat. Everybody else, we're not allowed to get on it. How about, who has a YouTube channel? Awesome, that's good. So we got a pretty good mixture. OK, well, thank you for attending this session. I appreciate it. Hey, we all got a lot from each other. No, I'm just kidding. But if you look at the graphic, the graphic has different languages. So we are in an era of diversity, which is very important. And one of the things that we need to think about is not just the diversity in gender, lifestyle, color, culture, but language as well. Because the internet has created an environment where we can instantly communicate with anybody anywhere in the world. And if you're like me, you get in the habit of when you're doing something at home, at work, usually you have your phone in your hand. So and you can be honest when I ask this question. How many of you have actually had your phone in your hand, but then for some other reason, started looking around wondering where your phone is? It's like, where is it? I just had it. And then you realize it's in your hand. So we are ingrained in technology now to a point where we are keeping aware of actually where all our tech are, is. So I'm your presenter. Yay, me, yay. OK, these are some graphical representations of a little bit of history of myself. I went to Camden High School in Camden, New Jersey. Yay, Camden. All right. My mom was a teacher there. I love education. My brand is MyQuestToTeach. So that's what I like to do. I like to teach. I like to talk. I like to engage with people. It doesn't matter who you are. I like to talk about technology, education. Raise your hand if you know what STEM is. What's STEM? OK, great. Give me a hand. All right. So let's get a little bit harder. Who knows what STEAM is? Anybody knows what is STEAM? OK, give her a hand. All right. Who knows what STEAM is? What's the R for STEAM? So you don't have to say the whole thing. Reading, very good. Give me a hand. Good job. All right, let's step it up a little bit more. Who knows what the C and C STEAM is? It could be. But it's real easy. It's real obvious. That could be awesome. OK, that could be awesome. See how diverse the verbage is? How you can apply different things to it. So when you're talking, that's a good one, also. So when you're talking to somebody about technology, you have to get an understanding of how they apply technology, how they are integrating technology, and if you're in the business, how you can collaborate using the diverse and different types of technology. So it's not just one term fits all. That doesn't work anymore. So you have to broaden your spectrum. Like I talked to my kids, you have to have a global perspective of the world now. You just can't keep it in your one specific area. One of the other things I like to do is I like to volunteer with TEDx Jacksonville. I'm sorry, let me phrase that. Let me say it correctly. TEDx Florida State College of Jacksonville, because there's two. And I help manage their social media content, i.e. to help also with managing their social media content when we have speakers come in. And their backgrounds are so diverse, we have to make sure we match their content with what they're actually talking about. Why is that important? Because when you're engaging with different people, they're going to take your content as you are the expert of your content, that you're the expert of the things that you're talking about, that you're the expert that whatever information you give them, they're going to take it away with them. Why is that important? Because you don't know who they are going to share your information with. And it's all about information network. There's a term that we use in the school system. It's called PLCs, Professional Learning Communities. So this is a professional learning community here. That's a professional learning community there, where you can break it down and also call it a professional learning network. And when I go to conferences and I speak at conferences, and I either reminds me every once in a while that you have to remember that everyone should have a business card, because people still like paper. They still like to have something in their hands. So before you leave, we invite you to take some of our business cards because that's a reminder that no matter where you go, carry your business card. And the reason you do that, because it gives you a mindset that you have a personal life, but your personal life and your business life do blend together. And sometimes people can't make that separation or a distinction. And sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, but you look at the business that you're in with technology, anybody can almost find out anything about you by just doing a Google search or hashtag search or some type of search on you and what you're doing. So your content is very important to keep up to date. As a point of reference, how many of y'all have business cards? Raise your hand. So our encouragement to you is, by the time this conference is over, your pocket should be empty from your business cards, but your pocket should be full of everybody else's business cards. Because then that way, that builds collaboration and networking. It's better to collaborate than it is to compete because there's enough stuff out there, there's enough people out there that you have the opportunity to do that. I'm also a proud graduate of South Carolina State University, or HBCU in Orangeburg, South Carolina. And there's other things that I've done in the community too. One of my favorite pictures up there is Coach, Coach Jackson, that the kids designed and posted at school. Figure out, one of the challenges is, figure out people's perception of what they think about you, whether it's your kids or your customers. So if I walk into this room and I look at this side, I see a bunch of innovative, creative, smart, intellectual, young people. So I could walk on this side and I could see millionaires, billionaires, and thousandaires. So how do you mix all that together? How do you create a dynamic, thank you, all right. So how do you create a dynamic where you mix that and you blend it and you use it to your benefit of either building your company, broadening your brand, how to effectively apply all that information? So you're thinking about, okay, using my content, how can I use my content? We're looking up here on the screens, which are like pretty cool. I wish I had that in my classroom. Your digital environments, what environments are you on? What are you using? You don't have to use all of them, but you look at the group that you wanna park, your group that you wanna market to. So if I ask you to take out a sheet of paper, and this is a little homework assignment, your little homework assignment, I got like three or four of them, is when you have some downtime, and I know it's like limited for a lot of people, write down the social media platforms that you are putting your content on, and then also next to it, what benefits are you getting from that content on those platforms? Because the general consensus is you don't have to use everything. You can link them together and have them work together and collaborate as opposed to every once of our year people say, well, I can't sit down and do Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all of that at one time, where you don't have to because there are platforms and programs out there that allow you to do that. So just by a show of hands, who here are actually using different types of platforms to send out like a broad spectrum of their content? Okay, so this young man, what are you using? Okay, okay, all right. So with the LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, are there programs out there that can link all of them together? So let's just say if you post on one, it'll broadcast to the other. Can you give us some examples? Okay, all right. Okay, okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am, young lady over there. Okay, all right. Anybody else use another? Yes, sir. Okay, all right. Thank you very much. So the collaboration is there just by sharing and exchanging information. Your content does define you and your brand. Oh, I got a good question. Raise your hand if you do not have a brand. Who does not have a brand? Okay, so the consensus is once you post content online, you do have a brand, whether you know it or not. You are your brand because your face is your face of your content. The enlightening part for me came a couple of years ago when a fourth grade student came up to me and said, I'm following you on YouTube. And I'm like, well, first of all, you on fourth grade, what are you doing on YouTube anyway? But that is the reality of young people and kids are on these digital devices, accessing YouTube, Facebook, whatever. When you have the opportunity, do a little bit of background research and find out in your area how many young people are actually using digital devices to access content that's beneficial for them. That creates a need for you to go out and either talk to young people at high schools, middle schools, or colleges because you have to look at yourself as you are the expert of your content because that's what you create. And because you are the expert, it's important that you share your content with as many people as possible. Yes, ma'am, you got a question? Yeah, write down the social media platforms that you're using and next to that, you create a list how beneficial are those platforms and actually what you're trying to do? Because there are so many out there, you can use Facebook and you know the young people like they're not even on Facebook. So you have to figure out like, what demographic is using Facebook? What demographic is using Twitter? What demographic is using Instagram? Because you have to pad in your content and developmentally figure out, this will be good for like six months. But after six months, is that still beneficial? Or the, just left my mind. YouTube, Vimeo, and your other platforms, video platforms, young people go back and forth, back and forth to different ones. So you forgot which one is best for which, which one can you use as best for you? So up here on this one, it says it took 38 years for 50 million users to access radio. 50 million users to access TV, it took 13 years. And I don't want to date anybody, so I'll just date myself. How many I remember when TV was like black and white and at 12 o'clock, everybody signed off and all you heard was do. And then it was like time to go to bed. Okay, I remember that. So the advertisers had a limited time space in order to put all the advertisement that they needed. And then they had to figure out, well, who's up at six o' p.m.? Well, people are eating dinner at that time line. Families are coming together, but they're not necessarily watching TV. Well, that was 20, 30 years ago. Now it's like a TV in every room. So marketers like jumped on that. Or in the evening from eight to 11, who's watching what on TV? And it develops a marketing strategy. You can use that content to develop your marketing strategy to increase or magnify your brand. It just takes a little time to do that. Also, it took four years for 50 million users to access the internet. Now, it's like the whole world is online. Okay, your refrigerators and freezers are online. Your toasters are online. Okay, Alexis is listening to you snore at night. All right, and broadcasting. You know, crazy things like that are happening with technology. So you have to be mindful of what information is out there. How many of y'all have, this is your first word camp. Very cool, give him a hand, everybody. Okay, I stopped counting because I enjoy it and it's a lot of fun. I've spoken at six or seven and they're all fun and I always learn something. With me, once I get started, I just start running my mouth but I try to make sure that information is important because I have the best, I have the best mentors in the world because I have five, six, seven, eight, nine year olds and if they're not interested, their minds are off some place else and a lot of people's attention span are like, okay, it's kind of short. I'll listen to what you have to say. I have to take what you're talking about to apply it to me because everyone learns differently. So occasionally I'll ask whoever I'm speaking to, if you're an introvert, raise your hand. Okay, good, continue that. If you're an extrovert, raise your hand. All right, if you don't know what those are, raise your hand. All right, so I'm more or less an introvert. I start, I'm a shy person, laid back, quiet but I have developed to where I have an extrovert mentality because it doesn't do me any good sitting down, not engaging with people because of the information that I can learn and not just learn that information, share it. So if I'm talking to these young people over here about branding and marketing, the information I have up here, I gain from the information. I gain from the young people over here. So cross-referencing that information. So looking at this slide, building your credibility. Why is credibility important? And you might explain a little bit. Why is credibility important? Yes, ma'am. Okay, anybody else? Okay, you want to be credible. You want to be believed. You want people to see your brand and say, hey, that brand is dope, it's fly, it's awesome, it's crump, it's wild, it's great because the young people that you engage with today can be your clients and employees tomorrow. So you have that broad spectrum of being engaged with young people. And trust me, I'm engaged with them every day and they still scare me sometimes. All right, because they'll ask me questions related to technology and blogging and I'm like, okay, I need to give a real good explanation that leads them in the right way. The same with the type of content you're creating. When you create your content and you're posting it, where does that lead people to? Does it bring them closer to your brand? Does it make them go away from your brand to somebody else or your products or services? So you always have that train of thought, how am I helping to promote intellectual thought or am I promoting an emotional status or an emotional feeling? Integrity, everybody raise your hand. Everybody has a certain level of integrity from our background experiences. Now, I'm not gonna hold this against anybody. When I said, everybody raise your hand, not everybody raise their hand. For whatever reason, so there are certain words that make people pause and think. So you're talking about credibility, you're talking about integrity, you're talking about ethics. All of those can be projected online, but you look at the demographics that are looking at it as well, because, and I don't get into politics, but in the educational environment, the political environment, the social environment that we have now, there's so much going on, you have to determine for your brand and for your business and your services what is beneficial for you. Did everybody in here hear the keynote speaker this morning? She was very good and she brought up some very valid points about diversity. And that's another area, embracing diversity, and diversity is just not talking about color and culture. There's a broad range of diversity. And in this day and age, you have to be able to distinguish the different types of diversity and how you can engage with diversity whether you want to or not. What is your intent and your competency? Your intent is to do what? Is your intent to sell something? Is your intent intellectual design? Is your intent to create an emotional environment where you get people to do something like social engagement? Competency is really basically knowing as much as you can know and sharing it. So when someone asks you a question, you're able to answer that question to the best of your ability and not to be one of those like, well, I'll get back to you in a couple of days and you don't get back to them at all, okay? That creates a problem for your brand as well. Facebook in one year added over 200 million users. That was back in 2014. Did y'all know there's a Facebook on the continent of Africa and China and Israel and Mexico and just about any place in the world that's Facebook. People are using Facebook. Did y'all know that? Okay, so having that information now, how can you use that to increase your brand and to market your resources and your services? Now, I don't have all the answers to the questions that I'm putting out there, but these are opportunities. Opportunities create the brain synapses in your brain to start firing and to come up with ideas. So if you know kids are on YouTube, they're on Vimeo, they're on digital platforms that increased the opportunity to create videos, how are you gonna access that information and use that information, all right? Everybody's branded here as the right brand for them, but you have to strategically make sure that you apply SEO and Google to it as well, but that's not always the only way. Just like you're doing right now, you're engaging with me here and you're talking and we're engaging and sharing information. To me, that's what I said earlier, there are clinical applications, but it's important to get involved in your community. Elon Musk, we all know who he is, right? Somebody wanna enlighten us on who they think he is? Tesla, all right? I saw some really nice Teslas the other day, really nice cars. He's very expressive, his mind is like, he'll just say stuff that off the top of his head that's really dynamic and interesting. Once you get past his business side, which is not bad at all, but when you're talking about people's perception, how do people perceive you? And another homework assignment for you is, those of you who have children and grandchildren, ask them to write five things, five perceptions they have of you on a sheet of paper and give it to you and see if that matches your perception that you have of yourself. Also, if you have clients or you have people that you work with, that you can trust, ask them to write five perceptions that they have of you as well. And the reason I ask you to do that is because your perception of your content when you post it may not be the same perception that people get or receive of it. So once you get that information and create some mindset, what do I have to adjust in my content that will create the perception that I need? So at my school, because I do have a tendency to carry a lot of keys, if kids don't know who I am, I'm either the janitor, the bus driver, somebody's dad that works someplace. My school is up the street from NAS Jacks. So I get a lot of different perceptions. One of my duties in the morning is I manage the school buses in the morning. So we have 10 buses that pull up. So I need to have the kids to have a perception that they're gonna have a great day at school. So I'm greeting the kids as they get off the bus. So some buses, we have five kids, two kids, 50 kids, 60 kids. So I have to create a perception that we do once you're here at school, which we do, and you're gonna have a great day. So that takes a lot of energy. So the energy that you put into what you're doing is gonna be the energy that you receive from it. You just have to make sure that you put that energy into it. Even on days that you don't feel like doing it is a benefit to it, okay? Never forget that people are watching you. You never know who's looking at your content. You never know who's following you. And it's not just the visual following. It's like, okay, I'm following this person because they are awesome content creator. They are a videographer. They're doing whatever. No, they're in a digital environment, so they're looking and they're tracking and they're watching what you're doing and where you're going and who you're associated with. How many of y'all that are on Twitter know you just have people that are following you but you're not following them? Because they're looking at your content. And when you're on Instagram, and Iita and I were talking about this a couple of days ago, we have so many people that are following us because when we go to conferences, we love to take pictures and video to kinda inspire more people. Not just to get on WordPress, which is a great, wonderful platform, but to be more involved in technology and business and starting a business and collaborating with people. So that way the visual element is really important. Don't just rely on SEO and Google. Use all the tools that you have available to you. Your brand, you are the cheerleader for your brand. So you have to make sure your brand is the best brand in the world. Better than Coke, better than Pepsi, better than Disney. So you put in that energy for it. Yes ma'am? Okay, okay, okay. So real simple. When you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, you need to say to yourself, you are the most handsome as man in the world or beautiful as woman in the world. You make sure you have that emotional connection because if you feel good about yourself, other people will feel good about yourself or feel good about you. If you feel good about your brand, you exude that exuberance and that passion for what you're doing. So once you show that you're happy and excited about what you're doing, who you are, then people will see that. And not only that, but get out there and talk about it. All right? Business cards are real important, but they don't do any good if they're sitting in your car, in your trunk. If you're an author and you have a book, that's not doing you any good if your book is in your car and your trunk. You have to carry one around with you. Every once in a while, I encourage people, and I have to be careful when I say this, to each drop on people's conversation, but not really each drop on their conversation. Because when people find that you're engaged in technology, they think that you're the expert of everything. Let somebody know that you're good at technology. What's the number one thing people ask you for them to help them with? Fix their computer or the printer doesn't work. All right? That's like the number one thing. So when you're having to listen to somebody's conversation about web development or technology, it's a way to ease into the conversation. Oh, I heard you had a technical problem. Well, my company is such and such, or I'm good at web development, or I'm a coder, and either I can help you with your problem, or I know someone that potentially can, and then you strategically take out your business card. Oh, by the way, I have a business card if you're ever interested, or your company's business card. So you're the motivational factor about how to get yourself out there and promote your brand. It does take practice, it doesn't work all the time, so you feel how the environment is to actually do that. My son rides motorcycles. Okay, I never thought he would, he surprised me. This is like a change in my life, because I had to learn about motorcycles and safety and the environment, and not just hear about all the bad stuff that's going on with motorcycles. And I was worried and scared about him riding. He was like, dad, it's okay. I took the class, it helps me lower my insurance. I was like, oh, thank you Jesus, thank you. I took a safety class so I know what I'm doing, okay, great. I ride with a helmet all the time. So he looks like a little army ranger with his helmet, shoulder pads, knee pads, elbow pads, and I had to accidentally said it one time. I was like, don't you think you're overdoing it? He was like, no, because I'm almost ready for anything to happen. So that's that forward thinking. And he taught me that, think forward to the future. Six months, 12 months, 18 months. How is the industry gonna change? And how are you gonna use those change to benefit what you're doing? And you look at the progression of things that are happening in technology. One of the last things that I wanna do is before everybody gets out of here, you're gonna take 30 seconds. And I know it's gonna take some people out their comfort zone. You are gonna greet the person to your left, the person to your right. If you have a business card, you're gonna exchange business cards. And all you need to do is tell the person your first and last name and what your business is or what your brand is. So I eat an eye, thank you for attending. We hope you got some great information. I know it was kind of fast, but I wanted to get as much information as possible. So we are glad that you're here at Workcamp. And I know Workcamp Philly is glad as well. So before you go, make sure you take out your business card, greet the person to your left, greet the person to your right, exchange your business card and have a wonderful awesome rest of the day. Thank you.