Happiness CCCXL

May 28, 2010 | happiness

When talking with employees, listening and acting on what they say is the important part.

It depends…

May 21, 2009 | blog

Funny how many questions have answer that start with those two words. This tends to be exceptionally true of the coporatization of social media.

  • What if I call my boss a jerk on Twitter? It depends…
  • What if we find bloggers defacing our product images?  It depends…
  • What if my company finds me posting on Facebook when I’m home sick? It depends…
  • How do we monitor the blogosphere for our multiple brands? It depends…

The complexities of the requirements for big business and their employees is not as clear cut as it is for small, aggressive start-ups. In the end, the reality is that discretion is required on both sides; by the people who post or create media, and the people who read or consume media.

The Youth Movement

Apr 21, 2009 | blog

'Queen's Commerce Class of 2008 group photo 18' by eddiehosa It’s an interesting time we live in. Economic turmoil, changing social norms, 100 year old publishing businesses crumbling, and new media powerhouses being established. You’d be hard pressed to give our present era a pass and claim it to be not as important as <fill in your favorite era here>.

Along with these incredible times are some challenges for every business, and everyone that works in them. The reality is that the past decade has brought incredible change in our communications and social structures because of digital communication. Included in this is the first generation raised entirely within the Internet, and mobile communication revolution of advanced technology.

This generation has experienced the freedom of wireless connections from an early age, and rediscovered the power of text communications. The “kids” in this generation have expanded their mental and reflex capacities through vigorous sessions of online, multiplayer, interactive & collaborative games. These folks have no stigma about being online, and this generation comes prewired for online social interaction. They have the ability to actively team-build without preamble and pep talks, can do business virtually without the need to meet in person and can work with folks on the other side of the globe as easily as they work with people in the next cube.

This is the youth movement of today, and they’re entering your business right now. These young folks are part of the largest workforce to enter the American business landscape since the boomers. They are your new entry level employees and they know what’s up. They’re smart, fast to learn new things, and anxious to prove themselves. With the Baby Boomers retiring and GenX/Y moving up, these folks coming out of college are bringing a revolution in relationship management with them.

Are you ready for them?

Photo credit: eddiehosa

Enabling Trust in the Organization

Apr 1, 2009 | blog

'trust' by Jerry Vo We’ve all been there.  You’ve got a great idea that you wish you could find a way to share with the appropriate team at your company.  You’re not able to, because you’re not part of that team. Or that department.  Heck, it’s not even a field you’ve specialized in or worked in much, but you’ve got that idea – a good one – and you’re sure that it’ll help in some way.

How do you share that idea? How do you get a chance to talk to folks on that team or present that idea without someone saying “gee that’s great” and then ignoring it because you work in another part of the company? How do you make your voice heard?

Unfortunately this is all too common in corporations today because of various institutionalized barriers.  Different departments, protective fiefdoms, overzealous paperwork, and draconian process and procedures.  These all contribute to the problem we have today of large, slow, companies that make incremental improvements rather than large bold ones.

Cut Out The Middle Man

This is where cutting through the organization from another angle is beneficial, and while it’s not a new idea, its facilitated by social media tools.  Call them “Enterprise 2.0” or some other Gartner approved term if it helps you out, but it’s all web 2.0 tools and with social interactivity built into the technology.

These new tools foster that important cross-organization conversations that help promote sharing the institutional knowledge that is part of each employee.  Allowing them to forge new relationships and new communities within the organization.

This lets people – the most important resource of any organization – to feel more welcome to share and trade ideas, just like sharing anecdotes and stories.  The workplace becomes less rigid in it’s communication allowing everyone from the bottom up, or the top down, to be more receptive to comments, ideas, questions, and suggestions coming from other parts of the organization.

Getting There

Getting to that point is a lot of work, and simply making the executive decision to try something new is a large step in the right direction.  That first step is a doozy though, because its all about trust.  Not just trust in a new CFO, or in a Director of “This Or That”.  Its trusting every employee at every level.  Trusting that they’ll do the right thing.  Trusting all those intelligent folks that were hired to do those jobs in the first place.

That’s the first step… the next is almost as hard.  Accepting feedback.  But that’s another post.

Photo credit: Jerry Vo

Social Media Burnout

Feb 10, 2009 | blog

'REBOOT!' by Magnus So you’ve drained all your energy on social media and don’t know what direction to go next?  Don’t fear my hard workin’ friend!  The next step is closer than that notebook you’re drooling on.  Come on!  Wake up!  You’re makin’ us look bad.

I know you’ve been trying to take it to the next level and figure out how to break into the blogging stratosphere alongside the Brogan’s and Scoble’s of the world.  Of course, the reality is that getting to that level is through a LOT of hard work.  A never-ending job of reading, learning, tweeting, researching, writing, blogging, writing, and (hopefully) consulting.  All to become really good at what you do.  As any expert, and they’ll describe the same type of thing.  Long hours, following their passion on a topic that they want to share as much as learn about.

So you’ve been writing about social media, talking & tweeting with the rest of the flock about social media.  What’s the next step for you to make your mark?

Find something else to talk about.

Seriously, I’m not trying to be a smartass about this.  You stumbled upon (heh, get it 😉 ) social media and something clicked, but you came from doing something else.  I’m not saying there isn’t space to explore social media as a career.  What I am saying is that its nothing more than a set of tools to better communicate.  You need to use these tools to better interact with folks either in your industry or the genre that fits your passions.

  • Social Media allows you to listen to customers better and faster.
  • Social Media allows you to start, and join in conversations with customers.
  • Social Media can be a new teambuilding tool.
  • Social Media are tools of change for those looking to affect change.

So if you still have dreams of being a blogging superstar, make sure that you find your niche and get started sharing your knowledge.  That’s one of the values of social media – sharing what you know in a way that helps other folks, but also brings more folks to your doorstep.

Good luck my friend, and don’t let the keyboard leave marks on your forehead!

😀

Photo credit: Magnus

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