Don't Waste Your Time on Social Media

Don't waste your time on Social Media. Make your interactions count. Having a clear Social Strategy and policy for your employees (and yourself) means the difference between return on your investment and sunken cost and time. Before opening the floodgates consider these steps:

Create a clear policy on what type of social media interactions are within the professional area of your employees. For example, human resources, should be using Linkedin and Facebook to review potential new candidates. They should also ensure that the company listings are current and appropriate. A great example is Boston based recruiting company Hollister staffing, where they are also active in groups for seeking new candidates from the experts.

Divide time between monitoring, replying and feeding. Some of this can be automated, and the tools are improving for monitoring. Be careful to keep it authentic. Too much automation in reply and feeding can have a reverse effect. One company to watch that is doing some interesting things here is Stockholm based Springtime. They do the filtering and deliver to the appropriate expert within your organization.

Keep it professional: When on the company twitter account, posts should be relevant and of interest. Share articles of interest to show your keeping current. When posting news, always link back to company blog or website. Provide time constraints. Keep the talk clean, limit slang and avoid swearing. Jeff Bullas in Sydney has written several great blog entries about the importance of linking back.

Learn how to use social media as a resource for new information both pre-existing and that which comes from requests. Teach your employees to do the same. The more clarity you have in your policy for social media use in the workplace, the more effective your team will be. They will thank you for it and you will see the results.

It is helpful to always remember that social media and networks are tools for knowledge sharing in a dialog, not simply new media channels. The sooner you create a clear policy for use, the better off you and your organization will be.

Why We Engage

In trying to understand better just why and how social media is better at engaging us as individual users, I have been looking into several different theories often applied to education technology. So here is a first shot and please feel free to put in your two cents, as this is just the start of what will be far more extensive research.

Engagement theory (Kearsley & Schneiderman, 1999) uses the base structure of Relate, Create Donate, assuming we are talking about engaging both the teacher and the student. As participants in user based media we are both the teacher (sender) and the student (receiver). We therefore all benefit and become more engaged based on participation as we contribute to of all the three areas (Relate, Create, Donate). Perhaps it is more cyclical in the open collaborative model version of how we interact online today. Instead of creating one final product of research, it is ongoing and dynamic. So we are engaged, but how do we stay there?

So, now let’s look at the psychoanalytical perspective to understand Social Representation (Serge Moscovici in 1961), a "system of values, ideas and practices with a twofold function; first, to establish an order which will enable individuals to orientate themselves in their material and social world and to master it; and secondly to enable communication to take place among the members of a community by providing them with a code for social exchange and a code for naming and classifying unambiguously the various aspects of their world and their individual and group history". Here we must have rules established in order to engage as the interaction is based on TRUST. It is generally agreed that we must have this trust in order for user based tools to be successful.

Outside of the academic sphere and into the multifaceted global realm, we have new rules and codes that are being created. The rules are evolving and are being created collaboratively. With each new evolution of the tools we use the codes of interaction evolve. And yet, the sharing and learning continues. Are we engaging simply for the sake of curiosity, the need to learn and to share? Even Wikipedia struggles to find a general collaboration theory that explains it. What we do know is that it is happening and users are engaging. In the quest of understanding effectively interaction for maximum benefit for both the receiver and the sender, I put this out there as a seed for discussion. What are your experiences with engagement and how do you feel that the rules have changed to make it more effective?

Social Media ABCs for Dinosaurs

Okay, so perhaps we do not need to go to the extreme of calling them or us dinosaurs. In fact, many clients referring to themselves as "dinosaurs" are not so old. They simply have a comfort level with the tools they are familiar with: paper calendars, email and newspapers. They may have adapted to the online version of their newspaper, and even do research using search engines. They might even order a book or two online. Their reference to dinosaurs being unfounded, for what they need is not savvy but comfort. So what is more comfortable than going back to being reminded that the base rules lie in what we already know, the ABCs:

A Authenticity
B Be Present where your intended audience is
C Consistancy encourages following
D Dynamic content is more engaging
E Edit entries before submitting
F Filter, you do not need to see everything
G Global reach, there is a big world out there
H Help others who are in need of answers
I Ideas, test them
J Just what you need, be selective about where and when to avoid "overindulgence"
K Knowledge is for sharing
L Link to that which adds mutual value
M Monitor what is being said about you (your brand)
N Networking, start with the ones you already have (face to face) and go from there
O Objectives, be clear on what you hope to achieve
P Policy, know what you want kept private and when
Q Questions, ask them
R Reputation, maintain yours with integrity
S Share
T Tools, use ones that simplify and automate where applicable
U User, all users ultimately are individuals
V Video, use it if you have it
W Watch your statistics
X Xenophobia, be wary of your own fear of the unknown, be open
Y You are a multidimensional being/organisation, expressing this is an asset
Z Zenith, you can achieve your maximum potential through more effective interactions

Social Media Not Just Marketing & Socializing

Finding the holy grail of engagement in social media, we have to be ready to take it on whole heartedly. This means not just throwing a web page or fan page up or even creating a social platform for participants. It means interacting and "engaging" for the maximum effect. Think in terms of stakeholders/people/social. It means listening and speaking.

Why do we participate in LinkedIn and keep our profiles fresh? To represent ourselves accurately in the case of a referral or a request. Why do we participate in a group? Because it is of interest and stimulating. Otherwise we become "lurkers" in our interactions online. We log many hours but never leave a trace, besides a number in the Analytics (which might just as well register the time while I leave my computer on a webpage while I go to lunch).

Let's look at several different forms and impact of engagement. First, PLAN!
What is the purpose? Is it engaging my consumers? Communicating with my shareholders? Selling something? Recruiting? Connecting remote teams? Define resources/time I have/wish to commit to it. In this case, let's say, I create a blog and start by talking about my work and things that impact my business and what I think is interesting about it. Hmm, the analytics show low traffic. Promote it with tags relating to the posts on other related social media sites. Ok, good start, still not much though. Remember that someone needs to be interested. So write to your audience. Your strategy includes understanding who you are communicating with. Context delivers quality and increases interest.

The beauty of social media is that it is based on "user generated content" (UGC), that means there is a person behind it. Speak to the person and show that you are one too, in other words, respond. What you are building is TRUST and RELATIONSHIPS. This is not limited to the world of marketing, but to the sphere of people. People are your peers, shareholders, employees, clients, customers, members, designers and developers, testers, and more. They will be talking regardless. Become part of the conversation.

Twittered Out

Given my current research on the efficient use of social media as both a personal and professional tool, I spend far too much time monitoring and using social media tools. I am increasingly bothered by Twitter-like messages. I certainly believe that less is more, but is it really necessary to tell everyone you are waiting in a cue for ice cream? I must admit, I have been known to enter tidbits on my Facebook wall presenting the ”me” beyond my professional self. We are, after all multi-dimensional beings. But without turning all notifications off (which the average social media user never bothers to learn how to do) we are getting flooded with menial messages. Even though they are well meant, they borderline spam (albeit from a pre-approved source).

I am all for aggregating media and making things freely accessible. But we do need ways to simplify the filtering process and monitor our own behavior for efficiency. The Internet has been an endless source of information for the curious. Now we personify that beyond research. We learn more about our friends, our peers and our community. But do we get what we need or want? We need to feel connected. We want to be entertained and informed. Yet, when we lose ourselves in the curiosity factor, do we lose our piece of mind (or five minutes peace) with all the Twitter going on around us? It remains to be seen. But personally, I am learning to find my piece and my peace with more effective use of the Internet so that I can be off-line more.

Aggregating and Filtering

We are currently working with some new developers and I am excited to see the application of new tools that enable us to aggregate the information that we need without having to go to so many sources. We are applying the K.I.S.S. theory to everything we do. Most of all we are finding ways to deliver what people need and are actively looking for based on behavioral tracking rather than requiring the filling in of yet again more forms and registrations. It is delight to work with such talented and engaged developers.

Social Networks on Mobile

Great to see a continuation on the dialog of the importance of mobile technology in social media. We have put a priority on mobile accessibility in our development so as to reach our complete intended audience in both developed and developing countries.

Talent Development for Women Executives

Talent Development For Women Executives

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: executives women)

Due to popular request from both attendees of this workshop and others who were unable to attend, I am posting the slides from the Talent Development for Women Executives Workshop held at the BPW International Congress in Mexico City last week. The video elements do not work with this slide share functionality, so I have removed some and replaced others with still images. I hope this will help make it more fluid. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions about it. Note that it is easier to read the text in full view version (click on easel next to the page numbers).

Social Media in Plain English

A great simplified explanation of social media. I thought I would share it, as many ask me what it is all about. Thanks to CommonCraft for producing this great short clip.

Ariadne Capital's Investors Forum

It is an exciting time to be involved in the development of social media. I have just returned from Ariadne Capital's Investor Forum in London. The presentations were very thought provoking and well presented. It was encouraging to see an organization like Ariadne and Julie Meyer pulling together the strengths of such an interesting mix of entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers. After working in the solitary isolation of start up phase living in a culture that loves the idea of entrepreneurial success and ingenuity but frowns deeply on failure (even if it is learned from). I found the forum refreshing in content and atmosphere. So, thank you Julie for pulling that together and inviting me to take part.

As social entrepreneur in "isolation" I found it refreshing to get feedback on the financial side and monitising of the business from straight talk. I realised from the feedback that I had steered away from our original model for 2BalanceU in order to appease our network members. But in the process we had given away some of our most critical features that support the members, who essentially the site is for and remove our critical revenue streams. Frustrated at first, I am delighted to see that the insight has brought us back to the core of what we started out to do and believe in. So thank you, Dr.-Ing. Jörg Sievert (SAP Ventures), Thomas Schulz (Ariadne Capital), and Candace Johnson (Johnson Paradigm Ventures) for your straight talk and insight. Thank you also to Arjo Ghosh (SpannerWorks) and Carl Uminski (trutap) for your inspiring entrepreneurial spirit and great ideas.

The past month has been a true test of my own entrepreneurial spirit and willpower (yes, stubbornness, diplomatically put). We closed down our US operations and moved everything to Sweden. We are reviewing the next steps to get us back on track. Thanks to the forum, I am renewed with new ideas to get back to the old. Always good to go back to the original model for vision and what it will take to get there. There has been a lot of learning along the way, and I am sure there will be more. But each in turn makes us stronger. Out of the ashes rises a phoenix. So that is how we shall commence 2008, rising to flight when we can expand our full wing span and follow where the wind currents take us.