The following piece of advice is shared often with clients and others who are trying to get their head round all this social media gubbins.

It’s simple, it’s obvious, and can be applied to any platform / situation / strategy / sector.

Here we go:

This pearl provides something to check yourself against as newbies (and us oldies) craft their social media use with an eye on subsequent strategic development.

Here’s the rule applied—in a real room with real people would you:

• talk about yourself constantly—we’ve all met these people and wished they had a mute button. Please don’t do this online. Here’s a nice test: check out Wordle and put the link to your blog/site in there, if it’s all about you then it’s time to shift the focus of your content.

• cover your head with your company/organisation logo and/or introduce yourself just using the company/organisation name—time to step from behind the curtain and become human again. Brands can’t tweet, people have to tweet on behalf of brands. Being people is what it’s all about.

• only talk in press release headlines—boring, boring, boring. If you are going to share this stuff make sure its in context and adds value to the conversation.

• automate your responses without taking into consideration the person you’re talking to, their level of knowledge, why they are interested etc—of course we all have stock answers and similar things we say in certain situations, however, if you said the same thing EVERY time you’re not a person who cares but a robot who nobody cares about.

• wear a dressing gown and expect people to take you seriously—being human does not equate to being unprofessional.

• stand at the back, never engage with others and then call it a crap party—having a blog and not updating it or commenting on others is exactly the same. If you don’t know where to start ask those you know to introduce or recommend others. Seek out those who look and sound interesting. Ask questions. Make statements. Get involved.

Does this make sense?

What other things wouldn’t you do in a big room / using social media?

Originally posted on MediaSnackers

One of my favourite jazz musicians is Chet Baker—the guy has a voice like honey and plays a mean horn.

Baker, like many of his contemporaries, has mastered the art of improvisation.

Although seemingly chaotic, improvisation is born out of (chord) structure and (melodic) understanding. It’s a conversation on many levels : between the musicians, the artist and audience, the improviser and the emotional narrative they are trying to communicate.

Social media is the same, it’s all about conversation, understanding and exploring all the new technologies and available online platforms to create a new sound which people will want to engage with.

A leaders role is to provide the solid base for your staff to riff off: a focus, a cause, the direction, not the how so much but more the why.

This is about expanding the toolshed and allowing yourself and your staff to play (to learn).

Create social media Tuesdays (it can be any day) : one lunchtime every month where everyone presents on a new platform they have found and discuss the possible benefits which could be gained by its use.

Get your corporate team to blog (they won’t be alone) : you could even contribute like these guys as well.

Within this exploration of social media use patterns will emerge, standards by which your metrics of success will be set against, which will all aid your brand transparency and authenticity.

Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise…

George Gershwin

Pic credit

Last month we got quoted in the Reputations At Risk article from the Director magazine.

A valid exploration into the social media discourse of reputation and risk management for organisations and companies. The crux of the debate centres around the power individuals now have which means brands cannot control the message across social spaces.

Understanding risks is definitely a good thing and we spend a lot of time with our client exploring this (although mainly discussing the risk of not utilising social strategy adoption). However, it shouldn’t stop you from being human and entering the conversation (I talk about this at the end of the Director article).

Just like IT departments should enable just as much as they protect, this is an opportunity to embrace new skills and avenues of connections with your audiences/clients/customers.

It boils down to this : do good stuff in the first place, understand you can’t please everyone and act on more opportunities than risks—or am I being too simpllistic?

Looking forward to reading the next article from Director exploring the opportunities which lie in social media (or ping us if you want us to do it for you guys).

If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be too cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

Annie Dillard on Taking Risks

Yesterday, our little sister company MediaSnackers delivered one of their internal events to the staff and partner agencies of South Dublin County Council—check out the blog post which features feedback vid and photos.

One of the bespoke break out sessions I lead was for director-level personnel and senior management teams, focussed on how social media can impact positively on their current operations and strategies (internally and externally).

For this collection of individuals and the organisation as a whole, social media is a new consideration / activity / opportunity / threat etc.

Whether you’re trying to understand the opportunities of geo-location functionalities in mobile apps or simply trying to manage your time effectively to explore this stuff, social media means, for most, doing something different. Learning something different.

And there’s the rub, doing something different means change. Depending on your point of view this is either a hindrance or an opportunity.

All these new technologies and funky online platforms has to create benefit and value to your current operations. This is how we present it. This is how change should always be positioned.

It’s why we’re in the change business not social media business.

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Alvin Toffler

Take a look at the image above. I’ve recreated it after seeing a similar picture in a copy of the Metro newspaper. It illustrated that people care about what is close to them. People like to do business with those who they can walk up to and shake hands with, people we can learn something about and share experiences. For that to happen, we either need to be close to those people, or communicate with them frequently using phone calls or emails, or do something else. That ‘something else’, is now becoming available to us in the form of geolocation software.

My phone is asking me to submit my location information for practically every application I use. And because of this I’ve started to spend some time exploring the use of geolocation services such as Foursquare, GoWalla, and Scvngr. After a few weeks playing with them, I can see the benefits of including it in your business strategy immediately.

How do these services work?

The premise of Foursquare for example, install the application on to your phone (currently only iPhone or Android operating systems) create a free account with the service, and document (or geo-tag) the locations you visit. Each time users ‘check-in’, points are awarded to that persons score. The more locations you visit, the more points you gain. Fail to attend a meeting or a date, or just not ‘check-in’ at that location on your phone, and you miss out on the points gained.

Similarly, GoWalla, encourages people to ‘check-in’, which gives status ‘points’ in the form of collected graphical items or badges. Illustrating the users commitment to playing the game.

Scvngr differs from Foursquare and GoWalla, by not only including a points based system like the others, but setting challenges for people to complete along the way. Encouraging people to say something and/or take a photo to gain extra points.

All the above services operate on a points based game theory, but aren’t strict enough to be used competitively, for example, I am technically able to ‘check-in’ to a location without actually visiting. However just because the game play isn’t perfect, it shouldn’t be ignored. The addictive inclusive nature, encourages interaction and dialogue across departments and offices… and may just be the key that you need to invigorate tired staff, at no extra cost.

How exactly can this work for your business?

If you operate a retail outlet, or a service centre for the public, you have the opportunity to learn more about your regulars from an unobtrusive distance, learning their habits, their frequency of visits, likes and dislikes. Who they are friends with and what they like about your business. You will gain the ability to reward them directly for their efforts. Starbucks have introduced discounts for Foursquare ‘mayors’ and FaceBook is working with MacDonalds to introduce checking in and showing featured food items in their posts. Examples such as these offers up a wealth of consumer engagement opportunities for businesses. But what about if you operate a call centre or distribution warehouse? What opportunities are available to you?

Apart from new and existing employees being able document their daily activities in a fun competitive way, they will also be encouraged to mix internally across departments, as well figure out uses that no-one has yet imagined. Checking in takes no time at all to complete, and creates a sense of value and comrardery often lacking in many workspaces. Creating an environment for new employees on their first working day with the use of geolocation services, becomes an internal viral method of inclusion, rather than plonking them down on a desk and hoping that they ‘make friends’ quickly.

Now think about if you knew everything about your customers—all of them, what they were eating, where they were visiting, what they were saying about various topics when they aren’t in your presence. Your employees, clients and customers, new or old, would be able to have a more personalised dialogue with your company and the people within it. If you are already thinking geolocation could improve your working environment, and want to begin, it is available to you today, now, for free, with little to no time/cost to your current operations.

You don’t even need to purchase anything, as so many mobile services are including them naturally in their applications. Want to test my theory? Print out a few A4 signs saying ‘Have you checked-in today?’ and put them up around the office wait a few minutes, your staff will do the rest. It’s that simple.

What is the catch?

Well, that depends on your business and your clients. These services, by their very nature gets to know the location not just of your offices externally, but internally as well, and potentially if users choose, sharing photos with some degree of short form commentary as well. Your business will literally be ‘mapped’.

What happens to that ‘public’ shared data?

Well, clearly the company application that you choose to utilise or promote your workplace, gets to see the popularity of whatever locations are mapped. That data may be sold on in future to local businesses who wish to know where people are gathering and what they are talking about. So effectively, depending on your business nature, you could be the direct beneficiary of encouraging geolocation activities on your premises. This aside, I think the benefits of building a strong, happy, healthy, communicative workforce are worth it alone, and as with all social media related activities, this will begin to happen with or without you, so why not be included right from the start?

Now take a look back up at that simple diagram above, if after reading all this, you still do not agree with me, then please disregard everything I’ve just said. You’re clearly not ready for geolocation in your business operations.

Though maybe your competitors are.

Social media is just a tool (actually it’s a set of tools).

For many of our clients these online platforms and strategies create, unsurprisingly, new benefits, expectations, challenges, understandings.

They enable us all to broaden the range of possibilities related to our current operations and focusses.

The takeaway here is that, if you use the same tools, day in day out, you’ll invariably create the same outcomes. Put another way, if you want something different to happen (like tap into a new sector/market, increase productivity across departments etc) then you have to do something different.

So what’s your favourite social media tool?

Image credit

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Poll ends 15th May 2010.

You know this fantastic U2 track, right? The one which goes:

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give, and you give
And you give yourself away

With or without you…

Well that’s social media.

To make it work you have to give stuff away.

What seems counter-intuitive is now a positive move to share with your community the development of a new product line (to build up momentum before the launch); engage your audience in the process of crafting what you serve (and by doing so create a built-in check-and-review focus group); develop relationships with existing clients by detailing industry insights in thought-provoking and engaging ways (another words, not just white papers but dynamic media such as digital stories, video, virtual timelines etc).

Plus, it's happening now.

With or without you.

It's up to you to get involved.

Over a series of posts, I’ll be looking at some of the most common responses we face regarding concerns, questions and fears from CEOs and Senior Executives about using social media. Covering topics such as ‘Time’, ‘Controlling Conversation’, ‘Security’, ‘Branding’ and ‘The Corporate Image’.

Lets kick off with the big one, time. Clients are always happy to hear that social media is free, but never keen to hear that it will need a lot of time investment. There’s no getting away from the fact that social media is as much about ‘social’ as it is the ‘media’.

2009 figures from EMarketer research informs us that 25% of individuals saw time as their biggest barrier.

So what can you do?

Internal Use

Firstly we recommend using everyone in the company to get social on your behalf. Build it in to their day, set some targets and you’ll soon start to see your brand grow through your web statistics. Every department can help. Introduce it to IT, Legal, Finance, Human Resources, Research, and Reception. All involved should be able to search and receive searches based on the specifics of their job descriptions and share the load of creating and monitoring the online conversation.

Staff should be encouraged to comment on company blogs, respond to Twitter messages, and use their online network to help spread good words about your companies activities.

The overall goal should be to develop better visibility online, react and respond to conversations, present your business as a more approachable one to get issues and information out to your clients and customers, and be seen to be a progressive company looking to attract the good employee’s you need.

Share the load

Why should the social elements of digital media only happen to projects and conversations outside a company? Introduce collaborative working opportunities internally as well.

The more projects and activities you can share internally, the more people with knowledge can jump departments and assist. It doesn’t matter where a good idea comes from, the important thing is to create the means and mechanism to communicate quickly across departments, and instill a culture of value and belonging for all the people that want to contribute.

Reduce the length of time a meeting should take by sharing a Google Doc and get everyone’s questions and concerns out in the open before getting in the room. Save the meeting time for action and decisions. Luis Suarez talks more about how Collaboration Is More Important Than Ever on the excellent blog, socialmediatoday.com.

Create social space in your day

Understanding the way that individuals work should also be respected. Some will like dipping in and out of social spaces as and when they feel the need, or as a break from a regular task. Whilst some will prefer stricter operational boundaries, perhaps setting allocated time slots in the morning, lunch and end of the day to check social activity.

John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing has a great breakdown of his ‘system’ for managing social media activity. Some of the sites may differ from you, but the structure may still be applicable, or inspire you to create your own plan.

Test the water by having a Social Media Friday, or telling staff that certain times in the day will be available for social spaces. Or even better—trust your staff. It’s all too easy to introduce more and more restrictions and rules to an employees life and assume that we’re doing good for them and us. However that may not be the case. Letting people manage their own time, free’s up a managers time so they can get a lot more of their work done and not spend half their day having to organise everyone else’s.

Overuse

We also face concerns about overuse. What should be done if people abuse their time online?

How would you respond to staff wasting time in the office offline? Be that reading the paper at their desk or standing in the hallways chatting. You would have a word with them, give a warning and be told to knuckle down. Or even better, find the root cause of their distraction. Is it anything the company can help with?

The reason why people can get away with abusing Internet usage in a company is normally because either company projects aren’t shared digitally, are unmonitored and unaccountable to other members of a project or Internet usage is not allowed, too restrictive, or frowned upon in the first place, forcing employee’s to sneak their usage into the day. Not good. Which one are you? Hopefully, neither.

Even if you give employee’s the freedom to use as much Internet as they wish, they still have their work to do, and are answerable to colleagues, targets and management. Those that abuse usage in any form, naturally face the same disciplinary procedures as any other form of mistrust.

Dealing with distractions

Distractions have a lot to answer for. Those that are well into Social Media usage in their business, they may find that juggling social spaces becomes the distraction itself, if so, Mashable offers up 5 Ways to Reduce Social Media Distractions and Be More Productive.

Social Media and Marketing Practitioner Amber Naslund presents a good overview and understanding about social media distractions as well.

Start small

Effective use of time is also about not trying to do too much. Set one objective for the company, with a couple of social tools or spaces that are relevant to your needs and work with those for a while. Perhaps you just need a blog and Twitter account, or a FaceBook Group and monitor some RSS feeds? Whatever you decide to do, make it practical, manageable and review the usage for your operations. If you aren’t getting the results you’re expecting, get professional advice, before throwing in the towel. As it may just be a small change required to get back on the right track.

Balancing a new way of working with existing workloads, is a challenge for any individual, let alone an entire company, which is why change needs to happen gradually and with a long term goal in mind. Those that make the switch and invest enough time, obviously see the rewards, but be warned that you can’t really just dip in and out, this requires full commitment to instil a new way of working. Hover on the fence and fiddle about doing nothing much, and you’ll just be adding to the digital background noise, struggling to be heard along with everyone else.

My next blog post will be about ‘Controlling Conversations’, specifically addressing the professional voice and how to deal with negative reactions online and how to prevent them.

If you have any thoughts or opinions on making social media work for you, please let loose in the comments and we’ll see what we can do.

(Image Credit Metro Centric)

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