Bringing Small Town Back

Sep 17, 2010 | blog

Small towns. I grew up in one, and wish many more folks had that opportunity to really get to know the people in your community. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality in our neighborhoods today, where the urban landscape seems to run unendingly into the horizon.

It was in small towns that communities were, more often than not, strong and supportive. In these small communities, people looked out for each other and most of the time made it easy for people to succeed. You relied on your neighbor because of the challenges and demands that were common to everyone.

For many of us, this kind of community didn’t exist. Or some of us started in those small communities and moved to much, much larger ones. The differences are profound and complex. Large communities tend to seem about numbers rather than people, and coming from an environment where you know everyone to one where you’re lost in the crowd can be overwhelming.

However, we’ve found another way to create unique, small communities that have tremendous value through the Internet. These innumerable, special-interest communities are not unlike small towns. They’re made up of many different individuals with wide-ranging perspectives and experiences, and they are the better for it.

I very much like to compare online communities to those small towns I speak so favorably about. Mainly because they reward the members as they participate and interact with each other. They open up new worlds of opportunity and knowledge that seem daunting at the outset, making friendships and acquaintances easier for many people lost in larger physical communities.

I see a number of small communities I belong to today, each one unique, offering something the others do not. These communities help define and direct who I am and what I do much like the small town I grew up in helped shape my world view and direction in life.

I truly hope you have great experiences with your small communities and help others to discover theirs.

Photo credit: Kodama (home)

Changes and Challenges

Jan 18, 2010 | blog

Changes & Challenges

Challenges – the unique opportunity to see if we’re good enough.  It lives within us all, and the organizations we work with as well.  Do we really have what it takes?  Can we really meet the expectations that are set without our control?  Can we let go of control and still be able to survive?

So it is with social media in business.  Taking the concepts of transparency and community behind the firewall brings numerous challenges and requires many changes in a company’s culture.  If that culture is too ridgid, the change is met with skepticism and sometimes fear.  The fear comes from losing control, or from having to learn yet another set of skills that leave you further behind that your contemporaries.

Whatever the case, the challenges of organizations taking up social media can easily derail many attempts that were designed to enhance the company’s ability to move forward.  Its the opportunity for individuals within the organization to help lead, help educate, and help demonstrate how things can be done.  The question becomes how to educate and train people on these new methods, along with selecting the proper solution for the business need at hand.

Oftentimes, the social media “expert” you hire has a direct impact on the success – many times because of the focus on the tool rather than solving the need.  You see, social media is no different than anything else.  It’s a set of ideas or concepts.  It consists of a number of possible technologies.  To be successful, you need to understand the requirements (needs) of the business before selecting the right tool.

You wouldn’t use a Standard blade screwdriver to tighten a Phillips screw, so why would you select the wrong tool in social media?

I think the confusion come from the number of tools, and the fact that nearly all of them overlap in one or more area.  This is where the knowledge of the social media professional needs to be leveraged.  The person who helps coach you through the identification of needs and selection of tools will need to have worked with them in multiple ways so they understand what would work best in your application.

Identify the challenges of your company and the changes needed to move forward and you’re on your way to providing what your company needs to remain competitive as the world changes around us.

Where Do Social Media Pros Come From

Jun 15, 2009 | blog

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 as the most prevalent practitioners. However, I’ve found that folks from any profession are surfacing as real social media professionals. Many never thought about a career transition from what they were doing into marketing, PR, or communications. Many never thought of themselves as writers, broadcasters, teachers, or leaders.

This is what happens in the early phases of any new field. Where did the early “computer geeks” that built out the early I.T. departments made up of micro-computers? They came from accounting, shipping, or it may have even been the boss’s secretary.

The reality is that as many disciplines developed, they were started by folks who really were professionals in another field, but had an interest or passion in something new. Perhaps it was the “new” factor, to be challenged in a new and unexpected direction, learning things that they never thought they’d need to know. To be out on the leading edge and be looked up to because of solving a problem, that could be it too. Sometimes it’s the least expected things that attract people to a job.

Another interesting thing about social media pros is that they have an extensive background. That is, they have multiple skills, developed over time from this job or that opportunity that they’ve followed up on. Whether these skills were intentionally pursued, or unintentionally picked up in some maintenance job, all these skills are what you’re going to look for in a social media professional.

These folks will come with communications skills, writing skills, technical skills, project management skills, and more. They work well under stress, they understand the concerns of the c-suite and legal, yet are able to demonstrate the opportunities for an organization as well as the challenges. They can walk from a technical project status meeting in IT to a creative marketing meeting, and be able to understand and participate with both on equal footing.

Finding these people is a challenge in itself, and you may have to look long and hard to find the right mix of skills for your business. The important part is to not be afraid to look inside, as many hidden gems are laying, waiting to be discovered in your backyard. For social media practitioners are in all corners of every business. Sometimes it’s just being able to recognize raw talent, providing time and experimentation, and letting them lead the way.

Photo Credit: photoholic1

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