Learn From The Truth
Sometimes its hard to listen to someone telling you the truth. Deep down you know they’re right, and that’s why you don’t stop them in their tracks. You know you need to hear it even though you don’t want to. It’s good for you. The reality is that we often need to have our perceptions reset, and that means we need to listen. It also means that we need a network of closely trusted peers that can tell us we’re full of it, and be able to remain close because of it. If you don’t have that kind of network, then you haven’t been working hard enough in...
Read MoreWhere Do Social Media Pros Come From
So where do social media professionals come from? Where does any real professional that really knows there stuff come from? Is there some school that generates these professional people that have experience in so many things, been challenged in multiple ways allowing them to really get the big picture and think about things that most won’t consider? What creates a professional in any industry? How does this come about? Well to be sure, folks who you find in social media are coming from all sorts of backgrounds. While “traditionally†you’ll find folks from marketing...
Read MoreSocial Media and the 40 Hour Work Week
One of the more frequent questions I hear about social media, is around how much time should a person allocate towards it. The answer is a lot simpler than it seems: lots. For those looking at moving into a social media role, whether its a community manager, specialist, analyst, or strategist (hmm… lots of –ists in there) expect to spend quite a bit of time. Each of these jobs consist of a lot of hours, mainly because you’re dealing with a platform that never turns off: the Internet. The speed of the Internet really has an influence on the time you need and...
Read MoreHow Do Companies Find Their Community Managers?
It’s a new field where there are no experts; no real training for classification or certification, and it’s difficult for folks participating in it to explain how it works. It’s not a lawless field where anything goes, but the cowboys still roam the prairie where social media grazes. Christopher S. Penn describes the problem and the process quite well in his post How to Become a Social Media Expert, comparing social media to the nuances of martial arts training – pretty good analogy in my book. Since there are no real experts with years of schooling and...
Read MoreFire Drill Projects & Ownership
Have you had the pleasure of participating in a “fire drill” project? You know the kind, the ones that are rushed into being with such a flourish as to miss many (heck, most) of the components that make a successful project. I only mention this because I’m in the middle of such a project (again), and continue to marvel at how often it happens to any size company. That is not to say that fire drill projects are always a mess, or always a failure, or don’t meet there objectives within budget or timeframe. Often, their outcomes are successful, mostly due to the...
Read MoreThe Authoritative Voice
Do you blog with an authoritative or a more passive voice? By “authoritativeâ€, I mean an expert, someone with experience. I don’t know about other bloggers, but I seem to get wrapped around the axle when it comes to authoritative voice in blogging. Maybe I’m not even on point in this post – you tell me. When a post starts drifting from my intent, it usually starts sounding “wishy-washy†and doesn’t draw conclusions as I’d like. Depending on what you’re focus or intent is for your blog, it’s important to keep your tone...
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About Me
Rick Mahn is the Founder of SMBMSP, and Principal of Rick Mahn & Associates. With two decades in Information Technologies and Social Media Architect, Rick connects people & organizations by helping them embrace open interaction and renewed commitment to each other.Learn more about Rick.
