Jul 20, 2010 | blog
Sometimes you have to write, even if it’s wrong. I’m not sure if this is right or wrong, but not sharing ideas, thoughts, mistakes, and successes with you surely is wrong. That’s what I’m hoping to change.
I’ve kept from posting for who knows what reasons. I know I can’t explain it well. So I’m not making promises about regular posting and I’m not suggesting any new directions with my blog here. I do know that I’ve been holding back and that’s the one thing I am going to change.
Will I still blog about corporate social media, or challenges therein? Sure, but I think, no I know, there are a number of topics that I want to chime in on, but haven’t felt like I should. I don’t know where or when any of those will pop up, but I do know that it begins now.
Jun 25, 2010 | blog
Have I mentioned recently that I do consulting and implementation work in social media strategy, community development and training? Probably not as much as I should, but I wanted to include that at the top in this post because I don’t bring it up often.
It’s also relevant to what many people are doing in their role to help their businesses understand how they can use social media. You see, sometimes you need to induce change and one of many ways is to think like an outsider.
Taking the perspective of someone new to the organization, but with a focus on your task at hand (social media). How would that new individual go about things? Will they simply accept “that’s how we’ve always done it”, or would they push to discover a new way?
What if you took that new perspective, one that an independent consultant might have? How would that change your organization? You have the ability to stat that today and begin to develop your own independent perspective while maintaining your current role.
I was in IT when I started thinking differently. For me it became an interest to see what else we could use all that corporate technology for in addition to simply running the company. There was a growing desire within to start sharing the ideas and exploring how the company could benefit.
Start making change – explore your independence behind the firewall.
Photo courtesy of orkboi
May 31, 2010 | blog
Much of what social media is can be viewed differently from different angles. There’s a marketing side, a public relations side, a technical side, a communications side, and a human side.
It’s these different aspects of social media that combine to confuse what “it” is for. It’s so easy for people working for an organization to mistake the varying degrees of social media for things that seem frivolous or unneeded. Instead, focusing on the one facet that appeals to them or their role in the organization without recognizing the opportunities of a fully integrated approach.
Taking a broader view of what social media can bring to an organization is a difficult proposition for many companies due to the differing needs of each department. Its those internal differences that sometimes conflict with each other and keep progress from happening. It takes some really special people with multiple talents to keep the idea moving forward.
These people are multifaceted, or better put, multi-disciplinarians. The people spreading the message in your organization need to be able to talk tech, marketing, and corp-speak to multiple groups. They’re the ones you need to identify, recruit (especially internally), train and empower. Give them the leeway and the lines of communication they’ll need, in essence set them up to succeed. Hamper them in any way and you’ll not have the results that you’re looking for.
I’ve seen numerous organizations that just can’t get around the idea of one spokesperson for the organization, or seeing security vulnerabilities and productivity losses at every turn. These organizations can’t seem to find consensus on who should “own” (you loose already if that’s the culture) the message, let alone even participate.
At the same time, I’ve seen organizations that “don’t get it” but still end up doing it right. These are the organizations that not only recognize that they don’t totally understand, but they’re also the type know the world has changed and that they have to embrace new ideas. Its these types of corporate cultures that end up getting it right for their customers and learning more about how they can best solve their needs.
So understanding the multiple facets of social media and how they can be applied inside a company is crucial. That’s what the job of a social media strategist, architect, analyst, or other similar role really is. There’s more to each of these roles of course, but the ability to identify the needs, opportunities and the tools & solutions required to meet them is the key set of knowledge and experience required.
Photo credit: biggertree
May 28, 2010 | blog
Another Friday, another chance to share some recommendations with you of the folks who really inspire me to do, create, and share. Rather than put a flood of twitter names in a handful of tweets where I can’t tell you why these folks are great, I’m putting them together here in a post with a bit more about each person and links to their Twitter and blogs (where available).
This week, I’ve listed 5 of the top Women Twitter users in Minnesota. They’ve got unlimited ideas, knowledge and passion for what they do. I invite you to follow them and see for yourself how great these gals are.
Erica Mayer (@ericamayer) – Photographer, proponent of great causes, and producer for WCCO TV in Minneapolis, Erica understands how social media can be used for a good cause. In the first 4 months of 2010, she’s raised 100% of her Charity Water campaign goal ($10,000) over two weeks before its end date.
Kay Loire Roseland (@KayLoire) – “Networker and marketer extraordinaire!” That’s how AgencyBabylon describes Kay. Search long and hard, but you won’t find a more outgoing and vivacious individual in social media. Founder and blogger at Shareology, Kay follows the social media happenings in the Twin Cities (and beyond.)
Leslie Carothers (@tkpleslie) – Think social media is the sole domain of marketers and PR folks? Think again, as this ecologically aware furniture industry expert & interior designer uses her social media skills to the her client’s story of their products. Leslie is also the CEO of The Kaleidoscope Partnership, and author of Furniture Today’s “Retail Ideas” blog.
Meg Gerritsen Canada (@dotmeg) – A true 21st century librarian who understands the power of social media and uses tools like Twitter for engagement with patrons of the Hennepin County Central Library in downtown Minneapolis, MN. Meg is also co-founder of UnSummit.org, an “unconference” style conference which focuses on crowd sourcing the speakers, content and of course the attendees.
Lisa Foote (@footenotes) – As co-founder of MixMobi, Lisa’s passion around the mobile space allows her to take the lead on demonstrating new media ideas on the go. Her focus on Mobile + Social + Realtime is unique in my Minnesota friends – she truly understands where things are going in the future.
So there you go, some of the best in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul. I highly recommend following them all.
Until next week then!
May 28, 2010 | blog, happiness
I’m so tickled with myself after getting something done yesterday that I can’t help but post about it. I finally was able to split out my Happiness series of posts from the main blog feed, populating them on their own page here on the blog.
Longtime readers will remember I started posting almost-daily on things that occurred to me at the time. Mostly these were a sentence or two on something that made my day, or made me smile, or something along those lines. I’ve not done many this year (or late last year) because of workload and such. I also started refraining from posting these nuggets because I didn’t want to dilute the message I am trying to share on the blog.
So moving these posts to their own page was what I wanted to do. What really made this possible, since I’m not a PHP/WordPress coding guru, was using the Headway Theme. This great skinnable theme framework let me slice and dice the post feed in multiple ways. One of them being I can exclude a category from the main feed, and put it on another page. I know, I know, there’s many ways to do this, but this was within my reach and more importantly… it worked! Thanks to the folks over at Headway Themes and their support staff for helping answer a couple of questions. Now I can publish those Happiness posts right to the main blog feed and not worry if their going to the right place.
Awesome.
Photo credit: h.koppdelaney’s
May 26, 2010 | blog
As in all endeavors, there are many steps involved in accomplishing our goals. In transitioning from corporate social strategist to independent consultant I had a number of directions I was hoping to go. It’s finally time to launch one of those directions – I am now offering training courses through Social Media Breakfast.
While I’m working on additional courses, I now have the initial training session that SMBMSP is offering: Social Media 101 – Where to Start. 
While a large number of the Social Media Breakfast – Minneapolis/St. Paul members are beyond this level, we have a host of new members in the last several months from multiple disciplines. I think this course will be a good place for these folks to start, and subsequent training sessions will provide more in depth information as they grow and develop in the social media environment.
It’s been an interesting path to follow these last few weeks as I’ve been getting started on multiple initiatives – many taking more time than I had anticipated! Watch for more new things coming in the next few weeks.
Photo credit: erikaemergency
