All I Learned was taught by the Beatles
24 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: beatles community
I’m forever quoting Seinfeld episodes, but yesterday was different. I found myself quoting the Beatles, and John Lennon in particular, at least three times.
How does John Lennon relate to social media, you ask? My first response is he did it way before anyone else did. Remember the John & Yoko “bed-in” for peace that was broadcast globally? But his lessons remain true today.
Let it Be
It may take me a bit of time, but I have learned during the past 18 months as a Community Manager to sometimes just let it be. Not easy for a driven, Type-A personality to let a request go unanswered even for a few hours. But when I’ve practiced, I find that folks often answer their own questions given the time and the ‘opportunity’ to look for the answer.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not abandoning my community. I’m just letting a bit more time lapse before I don my “Community Savior” cape and offering people the chance to figure things out. Received three excited messages yesterday from folks like this, who found the answers to their own questions and were SO proud.
All you Need is Love
That speaks for itself. Let’s face it, when you manage a social community, with tens of thousands of people, some of them will…….well……..push your buttons. You have to remember that they are YOUR buttons, and only YOU can decide who will push them, and you, over the edge.
I’ve learned that with patience (and more patience), full explanations, examples, illustrations, and most importantly kindness that community members will always respond positively. They may not get what they wanted, but they will get what they need
Instant Karma’s Gonna’ Get You
This one’s my fave. Whatever you reap, so shall you sow. When you teach someone how to do something in their social space, you can expect a teaching to come your way. When you respond with kindness and patience, it will be returned to you. Maybe not the same day but it will be returned.
So, imagine.
Housecleaner Needed: Why Every Community Manager needs one
08 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Lessons, New Community Managers, Uncategorized Tags: cleanup effort, housecleaning, space management
Or, why some might argue that every Community Manager must BE one!
Spaces proliferate faster than putting two undetermined gender bunnies in a cage. Before you know it, you have hundreds (and hundreds) of communities and groups. Wearing our rose-colored glasses, we can quote those stats to show how we’ve accomplished adoption in our work environment.
But let’s get a dose of Dr. Phil and get real. Not every space is successfully launched, prepared, nurtured, revised, evaluated, redesigned, and adopted. I don’t have numbers to back me up, but I do know from experience that an annual ‘cleanup’ effort reduces the overall number of spaces by about 20%.
So back to the housecleaner. I don’t know about you, but my workday is quite full with supporting users, community managers, creating and changing spaces, moderating content, making connections between the business and community…oh, and attending meetings, planning strategy, generating reports and doing all the things that all of us have to do all the time.
Housecleaning communities is, for me, an annual event that is mind-numbing. I have to wonder what it would be like to have the time to follow up on every space request, to reach out to Community Managers to offer assistance and to jump start their spaces, to archive spaces well before they hit the ‘no content in six months…you’re archived’ rule.
One person can’t do it all. Anyone out there have a housecleaning strategy?
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 
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?
Spaces and Groups: Jive World 2011
09 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
O-O-Open spaces
I won’t bore you with the classic stories of lights blinking, and noisy machine play, and the irresistible smell of stale cigarette smoke (right!).
I will tell you about the great things learned at Jive World in Las Vegas last week.
Everyone uses spaces and groups very differently. Everyone I met, most of whom were new to the Jive platform, used some permutation of:
- No spaces, just groups
- One primary space, not for discussions, but as a reference to groups
- One space per department, users create groups at will (open, secret etc.).
- In fact, we appeared to be one of two companies using a hierarchical space structure and disallowing user created groups
- Open Spaces
I’m a Year Old Community Manager now!
12 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
Geez, seems like only yesterday I was in SoMe diapers
This year has flown, here are some of the things I’ve learned. I hope they prove helpful to others who find themselves newbies in the social media management space:
- People are good. With over 32,000 registered users I can think of only one occasion where an online conversation adopted a ‘tone.’ Folks, for 99.9% of the time, moderate themselves and each other without my involvement.
- Teach ‘em to fish. Whenever receiving a request for help, I take the extra five minutes to look up and send ’how to’ links instead of fixing the issue. If there aren’t any instructions available, I write them.
- Enablement is key. No one can personally manage thousands of users and hundreds of communities. Let go, share responsibility, find and engage advocates – for me, especially in the technical areas.
- Staying out of it is sometimes best. If there is a ‘questionable’ post, sometimes the best thing to do is let it sit. This was probably my biggest lesson; moderation is not about correcting, it’s about knowing when to jump in and when to sit back.
- I make mistakes. Not just once or twice, but often with great flair. I also apologize, accept responsibility, and make it right. Which brings us back to:
- People are good. They forgive silly mistakes, they will wait until you have time if they know you are working on another issue, they want help even if those words don’t leave their lips.
No lights, no power, no water…..oh my!
02 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
Hurricane Irene has wreaked havoc across the eastern US, but I think we’ve all learned some valuable lessons from being unplugged.
Not just from social media, but literally cut off from the rest of the world for a number of days. In my case, no electricity which = no water since our pump runs on, you guessed it, electricity. My iPad went dead after a day and, guess what, not a paper book in sight!
With a broken foot, and unable to drive, I came close to pulling what we lovingly call a “Jack Nicholson” (remember The Shining?). I thought I would miss my internet connection, or television but no. What I missed the most was water. Can’t tell you how many times I turned on a faucet to wash my hands and nothing; the times I flicked on a switch to no light, even the simple but unceremonious need to flush was denied to me.
With power restored, I am now aware and thankful of the very many things that many of us take for granted. And, let’s not forget those still without power and those in the world for whom electric power is not even a dream.
