What Is An Expert?

Jun 9, 2009 | blog

'Experts Only' by Ross Mayfield What is an expert?  Is it a guru?  Is it someone who has thought deeply on the subject?  Or is it someone who has actually performed work and generated results?  So many people today are scrambling to become a social media experts, then it’s quite confusing to businesses looking for talented help.

The reality in social media, as with any burgeoning industry or trade, there are none.  Or at least, there are only a handful who truly have the skills, but will never call themselves experts.  I’ve really enjoyed Christopher S. Penn’s explanation of experts in social media.  Relating the rise or growth of individuals who have explored the space before many others got there.

In two of his posts from June 2008, Who is a social media expert? and  How to Become a Social Media Expert, he recaps the analogy of Japanese martial arts to social media and (ironically 😉 expertly describes why it’s difficult in the world of social media to identify a true expert.

There simply isn’t a better description of what it takes to start down the right path to be a viable social media professional than those two posts.  There’s a lot of great content on the Internet to help folks figure it out, and experimentation is a great leaning tool.  But as a professional practice, there are many pitfalls to claiming expert status.

As with project management methodologies, there are just too many ways to do the same thing.  What works for one client, for one project, for one product, isn’t necessarily what will work for the next.  Even if it’s an update to the previously successful product that enjoyed a thrilling viral marketing campaign.

There are talented folks out there though, and these are the one’s that you want to seek out.  Whether it be for a contract job, hiring for training purposes, helping change the culture in your company, or running that stunning viral campaign.

They’re not hard to find, but they are hard to get scheduled as they’re often in high demand.  So don’t hesitate to ask consultants who inspires them, who they learn from, or what resources they use to learn new things.  Their answers are indicative of professionals who know their stuff.  For true experts realize that they don’t have all the answers, they are aware that surprises await in every endeavor, and they have the resources to deal with everything that is thrown at them.

So while you should be cautious of those who claim (scream?) expert status from their online profiles, you’ll also find a growing group of real professionals in social media that come from all backgrounds… and that’s for another post.

Undiscovered Opportunities of the C-Suite

May 4, 2009 | blog

Sometimes you don’t know what you have in front of you. The opportunity to change.

That’s what lies before today’s C-Suite executives if they choose to explore it. What I’m talking about here, of course, is really about relationships. With the advent of social computing in the second half of this decade, the power has shifted from producers and marketers to people.

The challenge, of course, is for today’s executives to leap into the deep end of the pool and embrace these new relationships. To build new loyalty into their customer base, by demonstrating the ability to listen, learn, share and improve.

This is a great opportunity that current executives and VPs have that their predecessors didn’t have.  The ability to change the relationship and make it one built on the trust and respect of quality products and honest interactivity.  This goes equally for internal communications.  The opportunity to use these same open and trust building methods within an organization is huge.  Especially with organizations that are struggling with employee engagement and moral in these trouble economic times.

It goes beyond displaying good will, however.  Any effort in using social computing for building new relationships requires a commitment to open dialog, acceptance of public feedback (both good and bad), and the willingness to discuss this in a public venue.

The point here, is that our current executives have this powerful new option that their ancestors did not.  The question is, how many are of strong enough to take that bold step?

Image credit: Envios

Walk Your Walk

Apr 2, 2009 | blog, leadership

'There Are Places I Remember' by Thomas Hawk If there’s one thing you should always do, it’s to keep your unique individuality.

As an individual we need to recognize how and what we do differently.  Protect and nurture those qualities that make us who we are.  It’s important to realize that these qualities are what others see in us, and differentiate us in a crowd.

Quite a bit of this relates to your personal brand, and perhaps that context helps make the most sense.

Walk Different

Walk a funny walk, have fun, explore who you are and what others see in you.  Dare to be different.  In doing so, you’ll start to learn what others value in you.  You’ll also be able to realize that there’s opportunity in doing things differently.

Try those new things, find ways to step out into the future and expand your skills and worldview.  You may be great at what you do today, but there are other things you may be well suited for.  It’d be a shame not to find out what those may be.  It’s rewarding to relearn things about yourself that you may have forgotten.

Walk Tall

Be proud of where you come from, what you do, and how you accomplish your work. Your walk can be compared to your “brand personality” when you meet a person , often the first thing you see is them walking towards you. Much like the t-shirt you brand from Print My Logo, you have control over what is seen.

There are no unimportant jobs in society, and it’s what we do with our lives that’s the real testament to each of us.  It’s what we do day-in and day-out that people remember, and this is the base of who we are.  It’s always a good idea to start from a firm foundation, and that is what walking tall is about.

Don’t let others define your success as success is a subjective label to begin with.  Only we can define what that is, because only we know what’s important, or what the next step in our path was supposed to be.

Walk Straight

Sticking to your values is what this is all about.  Its when we stray from our ideals that we begin to loose our way.  By following through on your plan and remaining true to your core values, its easier to reach those goals that you prize most.  This is also something that people remember about us.  It’s about being consistent, honest, and following through.  Not always easy, but never ignored either.

Walk With Purpose

Having a purpose to things is just as important as everything else.  It’s about direction.  There’s a reason that we’re all good at different things and make different decisions every day.  Define for yourself why you do things the way you do, get to understand what that purpose is, and refine it as time goes on.  This is ultimately what drives each of us in our own way.  We have some ultimate goal that we alone hold.

Stepping Up

Finally, taking the time to map out a path to walk in life is a great thing to take time to do.  Plan out short and long goals, match your pace in life with your ultimate goals.  Enjoy the each step along the way.

rickmahn-hrThis is a post from my ‘inspirational’ list.  Not sure if it really is, but I like to give it a try from time to time.  All feedback is welcome!  That’s one of my goals as I walk through life, to learn from anyone willing to share suggestions or criticism.  It’s all good from my perspective as I just want to learn.

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

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