Social as a Business Workstream
11 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Lessons
Many members of company communities are interested in their social platforms first as a social outlet. Lots of gardening and photography (and let’s not forget motorcycle!) groups the first year.
As time passes, and users become more adept at using social as part of their day to jobs, they realize that it can :
- easily replace blast eMails sent to constantly outdated distribution lists (internally)
- replace those much-deleted monthly ‘broadcast’ newsletters from the corporate university or division
- offer an opportunity for users to ‘talk back;’ to offer their opinions on corporate positioning; to suggest better ways to position products or services to customers
- and, in short, it can create a dialogue that enhances the quality of communication and the quantity of sales via transparency in sharing best practices
Making social part of the overall workstream is a challenge that many of face.
How have you done it, or how do you plan to do it? This intrinsically ties into the notion of measurement; if aligned to the workstream, would social then be considered a factor…maybe even a driving factor in driving leads or revenue?
Enough – When Seeking More Leads you Astray
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Lessons
When is enough enough for YOU?
Duirng the latter part of 2011, we had a rather eventful family life. Nothing so unusual that I need to write about it in great detail, but the regular joys and trials of family life (lucky for me, far more joys).
But I have realized something about myself, pretty much nothing is enough. I’m always looking for more, to do more, to be more, and…shamefaced…to have more.
While many of us have resolutions that we seriously intend to keep, I just want to be mindful of the many blessings in my life and to acknowledge that I have enough. In fact, when it comes to family and friends, I have receive far more than my fair share.
Have you had enough yet?
Happy, Happy!
26 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
No matter how you celebrate, what you celebrate, or even IF you celebrate, may you all be happy and blessed!
When Service Becomes a Disservice
18 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
I’m a first time Jet Blue flyer, and I have to say it was great. Each seat had more legroom than any other recent ailrine I’ve flown, no charge to check luggage, and free premium movies. All good.
So after a great vacation, I was happily looking forward to the flight home. The boarding process was fast and orderly, but after sitting for about five minutes the pilot made an announcement that there were folks ‘stuck in customs’ and we were going to wait for them. No bother for us, we were flying home to Boston so didn’t have to make a connecting flight.
After ten minutes, four people boarded and we all felt badly for them. Two adults, hustling two children, obviously harried after running from customs to the airplane.
Ready for takeoff!
Not. The pilot spoke from the cockpit, “We have another five people stuck in customs, and since we’re one of the last flights we’re going to wait for them.”
A low rustle could be heard through the airplane rows. Why are we waiting for people AGAIN? I was at the airport three hours before takeoff, as instructed, what time did THEY arrive? People started to speak across aisles, weighing the pros and cons of waiting and one man expressed his concerns to the flight attendant.
It boiled down to this:
- It was incredibly nice of the Jet Blue staff to wait for everyone (and, they were already late for takeoff waiting for the first group so waiting for another group wouldn’t be a hit against them)
- As nice as it was to wait, there were about fifty people on the airplane who had arrived on time, and worked their way through the process in time to board. Of course, those most upset were those with connecting flights.
We did, of course, eventually take off about 30 minutes after scheduled takeoff. It did make me wonder, though, did the gratitude of the five people we waited for outweigh the anxiety and occasional anger of the fifty who were kept waiting?
I’ll tell you what the flight attendant said, “It’s the holidays, why WOULDN’T we do everything we could to make our customers happy.”
Couldn’t argue with that.
I’ll fly Jet Blue anytime I have the option.
EMC Innovation Conference Aftermath: An Environment of Trust
01 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: innovation, tips, trust
After an inspiring day at the EMC Innovation Conference, I began to realize that we are all surrounded with brilliance. The woman who was talking about some quantum-physics style algorithm (or something like that), the presenter who spoke about a nametag that could offer an analysis of your interaction via body language and the like, the EMC Innovation award winner who has a plan for global mentoring…..and so many more.
Brilliance surrounds us, but I wonder how much of it we recognize. Conversely, how much of it goes unnoticed?
EMC’s VP of HR talked about trust being the key driver of innovation. Trust to state an opinion, even if it opposes the norm; trust to make a stand and persist in the face of naysayers, trust that when you fail you may not be applauded but you will be encouraged to continue pursuing both your career and other great ideas.
Here are my quick tips on trust, gathered from 20+ years in corporate environments.:
- Know your group. Not a quick ‘hello’ in the morning that you learned in a management class, but via (minimum) weekly 1:1 meetings. In really trusting organizations, you don’t even need the scheduled meetings because you collaborate on a daily basis.
- Play to your, and your team’s strengths. Find out what folks love to do, and let them do it. Even if it’s in addition to their ‘day’ jobs, if there’s a passion it will be done.
- Laugh at yourself, not others. We all have our quirks, sharing a good laugh that doesn’t involved laughing AT anyone but yourself is a great tension reliever and builds trust
- Keep secrets secret. Really. If you’re told something in confidence, NEVER repeat it. If you hear it six more times, from six different people, get really good at putting that surprised expression on your face and saying, “You’re kidding!”
- Share the plan. We all have one, whether it’s our own career development or the evolution of our organization. Let people know what the current thoughts are, and where they might fit in. If you aspire to a different role, share your plan…..once. Make it known, give it a chance, and then move on if it doesn’t happen. No use bitching about it and bringing everyone else down.
Simple thoughts that require zero time in a management immersion experience 
Listen to This!
18 Nov 2011 3 Comments
in Lessons, New Community Managers
I’m getting increasingly disturbed by the widespread use of the word “listening” in a social context. We’ve been taught that listening can be either active or passive in a face 2 face situation, but the word listening is inherently passive.
Maybe if we started using words that our non-social wannabees could relate to, it would be easier for them to understand what we’re talking about. It’s like talking to them in their own language; how radical is that?
Listening is not:
- Monitoring social channels for mentions
- Pumping out reports on the number of mentions
Listening, to my beginner’s mind, IS:
- Monitoring social channels for mentions AND taking action
- Replying to happy customers and inviting them to our social spaces to continue the conversation
- Responding to unhappy customers and offering a quick resolution to their issue
- At least attempting to measure sentiment, albeit not an accurate science or easy task
Maybe we call it engagement (another widely used social term). Or Customer Conversation. Or Customer Touch Point.
I don’t propose to have the answer, but I know that the word ‘listening’ doesn’t get across the breadth of activities, or the full value that can be produced by its flawless execution.
Post-Cleanup Aftermath
14 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Lessons, New Community Managers, Space Architecture
If you’ve been following along, you remember that I just finished archiving over 170 spaces / communities. It was among the most tedious, mind-numbing things I’ve ever done and I will think three times before ever creating a new space again. OK, that’s an exaggeration but I will certainly apply lessons learned.
Of those 170 spaces, managed by approximately 300 Community Managers, I have received three…..three…..requests to reactivate the spaces:
- “I post a quarterly newsletter in that space, I need it.” Well, communities aren’t really intended to ‘push’ content but rather to engage but in any event the last time a newsletter was posted was a year ago. Haven’t heard back from that one, time sure does fly.
- ” Where did my space go? It just disappeared!” Remember that post that I highlighted, advising that I’d be archiving spaces? Well, your space had three pieces of content, all posted by you, all more than a year old. It’s gone, baby, gone.
- “I urgently need you to reactivate my space; my boss is all over me.” Really? Maybe your boss has been gone for 11 months, but not a piece of content has been added or viewed in that timeframe.
The rest of the Community Managers may someday discover that their spaces have been archived, but I doubt it. Monitoring spaces, especially when attempting to manage over 700, has to be a nearly weekly routine.
Blaze an active space!
Autumn is the time for Space Cleanup
09 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Lessons, New Community Managers, Space Architecture
Well, not really. The time for space cleanup is probably every week at best, but I only get around to it seasonally. A few months into my Social Media Management role, and I’ve just archived 170 spaces of some 700+ in existence.
It is a mind-numbing activity with multiple steps, spreadsheets, and documentation to substantiate the decision to archive. But I followed one basic rule: no content in 6 months qualifies a space for a focused review. Now I didn’t archive EVERY space with no content for 6 months, but I found a boatload of spaces with no content for two years.
And, I learned some lessons during this effort that might be helpful as you create new spaces:
- The majority of spaces that I archived were being managed by either contract employees or student interns. Nothing wrong with that, but it appears that these folks either rotate roles or are more transient in their roles. They have a tendency to move on without notification, leaving their spaces unattended and withering on the proverbial vine.
- Second in the archive line were private spaces. Oh, everyone wants them but more often than not they sit empty or with occasional (VERY occasional) efforts at starting conversations that no one gets to see.
- And finally, the third category of ‘bound to be archived’ spaces are sub-sub-spaces. When will we ever get out of this hierarchical model of space architecture?
I hope this experience can hep you in some way. Would love to hear your observations!
Atumn Space Cleanup
06 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: 201, private_spaces, space_architecture
We have a policy of not allocating private spaces for a number of reasons. They encourage siloed communication, and they continue to be counterintuitive to the whole concept of open communication. And, truth be told, they are most often unsuccessful because it is difficult enought to get participation in an open space where tens of thousands of users might participate, but a private space when only a dozen or so are invited? Not much chance.
While I was conducting our semi-annual space clean up, which was a tedious job at best although I grew to disproportionately enjoy arciving those inactive spaces, I noticed that many of the ‘empty’ spaces were, indeed, private spaces.
Gave me some comfort as that is a conversation that I have with users several times each week regardless of blog posts, explanations, and suggestions for alternative tools that allow both privacy and collaboration.
In total, I archived over a hundred spaces and the Six Sigma Green Belt in me has to note that it’s a four step process so that’s over 400 discrete actions. I’d estimate that it took about 20 hours (and that time does not include the time it took to generate and un the space utilization reports).
I can say that, right now, I am far less wllling to just ‘create a space.’ What I’ve learned this past year or so is that everyone wants a space and has great intentions. What everyone doesn’t have is a business plan to grow their space, a marketing plan to make it visible to relevant audiences, and the time and commitment needed to make any social space a success.
I’m a little wiser, maybe a bit more cynical, but certainly more confident in my ability to help people create spaces with appropriate titles, and detailed plans to both customize and market them.
I may have graduated to Community Manager 201
Space Architects: The New Horizon?
27 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
I’ve been laughed at a few times for using the term “space architect” to describe folks who have responsibility for the overall representation of their social spaces, so go ahead….give me a chuckle.
In reality, space architecture is the key to overall social space effectiveness. Left to their own devices, people will create any number of spaces in an organization. They do so independently, and without the context of a division-level or organizational view.
What we end up with is a mish-mash of spaces that are often redundant, that overlap, and that make the users’ search experience a virtual nightmare. Imaging for a moment that you are searching for a space titled “Pizza.” (that’s a fake search term used to protect the guilty).
In return, you receive more than 15 results: Pizza, Pizza Lovers, Favorite Pizza Toppings, Best Pizza in New York etc. Which do you choose? Most users might poke around a little, but many abandon the effort in frustration.
Hence, the need for Space Architects. The Pizza Division Space Architect may decide to use categories to segment content on a Pizza ‘front door’ space, or maybe create groups that area all linked from that same front door. What the Pizza Space Architect won’t do is create separate, un-coordinated Pizza spaces.
Now, just replace the search term “Pizza” with your organization. What would you see?
