Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community

Social Media Engagement: 5 Guiding Principles

Extending the ideas in my previous piece on social media engagement (7 rules for working smart, not just hard), this post offers 5 principles to guide the efforts of both individuals and organizations. As with the previous piece, it is targeted to rookies who are just getting started with social media, as well as those who want to regroup and redirect their efforts. The guiding principles include proceeding with “mindful flexibility,” listening first then talking, being strategically tactical, balancing idealism with pragmatism, and emphasizing quality over quantity.  

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I’ve been giving talks to social media rookies for three years. The focus of these talks varies depending on the audience, and the details have evolved over time, but there are certain principles, or “rules of engagement” (ROE), that I highlight in almost every presentation. These principles are an extension of the ideas I shared in Social Media Engagement: 7 Rules for Working Smart, not Just Hard. Whereas that post focused on high level considerations connected with preparation and planning, this post is more tactical and action oriented. I like to think of them as mantras…

The rules of engagement often repeat a set of core themes that can’t be emphasized enough, but each offers a unique twist on the theme. They can generally be applied to the activity of both individuals and organizations, though there may be a stronger focus on organizational engagement. Similarly, they can be applied to both external and internal applications of social media and should have value to both beginners and initiates who may be looking to regroup and improve their efforts.

These rules don’t necessarily apply to early adopters, however. The experiences of individuals and organizations who are on the leading edge of technology adoption are generally more dynamic and chaotic, and less efficient, than these rules may allow. Their processes are highly experimental and organic, and following restrictive rules could inhibit both their explorations and their discoveries.

In other words, these rules are for settlers rather than trailblazers…

I would love to hear the rules that other people recommend and/or follow. And as always, I welcome questions and comments.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt

PS –Upcoming posts in this series will focus on Communication and Engagement Rules, as well as Time and Information Management. I’m also working on a Lessons from Successful Digital Communities post, a couple Social Media Buyer’s Guides and two follow-ups to my post on LinkedIn Profiles. Please subscribe to the blog to be sure you’re notified when future posts are published.

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1. Proceed with “mindful flexibility.”

The underlying philosophy necessary for success with social media is one that balances focused discipline with adaptability. Being mindful means that you “begin with the end in mind” (to quote Stephen Covey) and have a clear sense of what you’re hoping to accomplish in general terms. As I discussed in the previous post, this goal or objective will serve as a guiding force for your decisions and actions.

But rigidly hewing to a specific course of action is virtually impossible. Being flexible means that you accept that you cannot perfectly pursue a “master plan.” You must recognize that the environment within which you’re operating is constantly changing, with new technologies, platforms, tools, and best practices emerging all the time. You also need to develop a high degree of tolerance for ambiguity and chaos, and be willing and able to change course when circumstances dictate.

A corollary idea is to be patiently impatient. You want to move forward with a sense of urgency, but you also need to recognize that you may not see positive results immediately. Depending on your starting point (e.g., your skill level, your operating characteristics), it could take months or even years to reap significant and consistent returns on your investments. There are few overnight successes, and it’s probably naïve to expect any. But that doesn’t mean the investment isn’t worthwhile…

 

2. Listen first, then talk.

In my previous post I suggested that people shouldn’t underestimate the power and value of listening as a reason to be engaged with social media. Too often people focus on what they can/should say through social media rather than what it enables them to hear. Digital monitoring is incredibly powerful. Your initial investment may actually focus on listening rather than talking – in fact, it probably should.

I suggest finding, following and studying the digital activities of early adopters and experts in your profession and/or industry. You can and should also identify key customers and prospects and start listening to their chatter in the digital spaces where they hang out. And don’t forget to tune in to competitors and suppliers, as well as relevant professional associations and public sector entities.

Focus on both content and style when listening to the individuals and organizations you decide to follow. Don’t automatically assume their activity reflects best practices. There are countless enthusiasts and early adopters who continue to make rookie mistakes and/or follow norms that are no longer generally acceptable. Note what you like and don’t like about their activity and pick and choose what makes the most sense for you. Also make note of when they change their own modus operandi and/or shift courses, and look for clues as to what does/doesn’t work for them so you can learn from their experiences.

For more on the value of listening, check out my Trickle-Up Socialnomics white paper.

A corollary idea to transition into the next rule is listen broadly and speak narrowly. Your digital inputs should generally exceed your outputs in both quantity and diversity. Part of the reason social media gets a bad rap is that too many people are talking and not enough people are listening. Buck the trend by placing more emphasis on tuning in than tuning other people out. I know that information overload is a challenge for all of us, but there are tools and techniques to help you manage it. I’ll say more about that in a future post.

 

3. Be strategically tactical.

When you are ready to become more actively engaged, you need to invoke another corollary to ROE #1: think before you act. If you can’t provide a cogent explanation for why you want to pursue a specific tactic, then you probably shouldn’t pursue it. It’s true that the digital landscape is still a bit of a “wild west,” and there are no guarantees, but your risk taking should be calculated rather than blind. Before committing to a course of action, evaluate your options based on your goals and objectives, as well as the potential longer term consequences, both positive and negative.

Even the most rationally-determined courses of action can fail, of course, but the key is to fail smart, which means fast – and hopefully small! Success in the Digital Era is defined less by the ability to avoid failure than the ability to respond appropriately. Every new tactic you try should be viewed as an experiment. You should monitor the immediate consequences, evaluate them, derive lessons learned, and decide whether to stay the course, shift it, or abandon it altogether.

In addition to learning from your own experiences, you should monitor the activities of others and learn from their successes and failures as well. Cyberspace is full of cautionary tales and examples of what not to do. Don’t repeat someone else’s mistakes unwittingly.

Keeping your ear to the digital ground also means paying attention to the latest trends in social media and digital technology – but don’t be tempted to become a “fad follower.” Unless you’re a consistent early adopter, it’s generally not a good use of your time or resources. You don’t want to miss an excellent opportunity, of course, but there’s little risk in watching and waiting and joining the second or even third wave of users. The key is to make sure it makes sense for you and your organization.

Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of infrastructure and laying a solid foundation from the outset. In addition to thinking about specific platforms and tools, you want to think about how they should be integrated into some kind of social media or digital engagement system. Thinking of specific tactics as pieces of a puzzle and having an idea of how the pieces fit together will enable you to move forward with greater efficiency and effectiveness and will minimize the risks of having to undo and redo things down the road.

 

4. Balance idealism and pragmatism.

It’s great to be enthusiastic and ambitious, but don’t let your ambitions exceed your ability to realize them. Recognize the very real constraints you face (e.g., limited time, money, and/or human capital resources) and plan your actions accordingly. Engaging in social media may not take a lot of cash, but it can take a great deal of time to do it right. It’s better to be conservative and go for small wins than to try to hit the ball out of the park and strike out.

It’s also wise to start with where you/your organization are, rather than where you’d like them to be. I often hear people talk about the cultural shifts necessary to create social media success, but I don’t necessarily agree that organizations must become more egalitarian and open, with a highly engaged workforce, before they can leverage new digital tools. These tools can produce tremendous value in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in even the most top-down, command-and-control environment.  And as adoption spreads, cultural shift may result. So don’t wait for ideal circumstances to think about moving forward – the process isn’t that linear. It’s better to identify the value to be derived based on current circumstances, build on the foundation that already exists with respect to processes, culture, resources, etc., and let things evolve organically from there.

 

5. Emphasize quality over quantity.

Many aspects of this rule are reflected in the previous post and the rules above. Don’t feel compelled to be everywhere in cyberspace all at once. Choose the platforms that make the most sense given your goals and objectives, operating environment, and resource constraints. Start small and build incrementally. Avoid creating digital ghost towns and/or leaving a trail of digital detritus by committing to platforms/tools you can’t maintain.

You should always be conscious of your digital brand and your social media credibility. Cyber memories live on for a very long time, and everything you do contributes to (or detracts from) your reputation. Always act with integrity and professionalism. You can certainly share your personality, but I would caution against getting too personal. With few exceptions, it’s generally better to err on the side of conservatism and formality than to convey the wrong impression by being too loose and informal.

Finally, make sure the content you create, curate, and/or share is high quality and relevant. You want your contributions to be viewed as valuable signal rather than unwelcome noise, so that people will want to continue to tune into what you have to say rather than tune you out.

Check out my Twitter Worst Practices and In-spam-ity posts for a deeper dive into my perspective on improving signal/noise ratios in cyberspace. Fair warning: I take a pretty strong stand!

 

Conclusion

I’ll say more about content creation, curation, and sharing in a future post on communication and engagement principles. To round out this series, I also plan to address time and information management challenges. Subscribe to the blog to make sure you’re notified when these posts (and more!) are published.

Social Media Engagement: 7 Rules for Working Smart, not Just Hard

Written for both individuals and organizations, this post provides high-level guidance for rookies who are just getting started with social media, as well as those who are looking to add more structure, focus and discipline to existing initiatives. The guiding principles address topics such as setting goals, assessing the operating environment, conducting a communications audit, developing a plan of action, acquiring knowledge and skills, incremental implementation, and managing time and information.  

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Between educational and networking events, my own speaking engagements, requests for help, and responses to my blog posts, I am constantly reminded that in spite of all the media hype, the vast majority of professionals are still social media rookies. Many people are still grappling with basic questions like:

• When, where and how to begin
• How to learn and develop proficiency with different platforms and tools
• How to establish a strong digital presence and create/manage a social media brand/image
• How to manage (the often overwhelming) time and information flows

Others have implemented specific initiatives, but their approaches have been tactical rather than strategic and have produced mixed results. Both individuals and organizations have encountered challenges in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and have struggled to manage the necessary time commitments. Organizations face additional challenges because their fragmented, siloed efforts often result in stakeholder confusion and frustration, as well as frequent cannibalization of their own digital properties. In other words, they have a mess on their hands!

As much as people would love to find a silver bullet or killer app that will solve their social media challenges, one doesn’t exist. There is no “one best way” or simple formula for effective digital engagement. Like many other worthwhile activities, it comes down to dedication and hard work. But there is a set of best practices emerging, many of which reflect the same fundamental principles of success in other endeavors.

Here are my top seven “working smart” principles, which are applicable to both individuals and organizations. I also recommend taking a look at the Social Media Primer for a deeper dive into some of these principles, particularly Part 7 – The SAPLING Approach to Leveraging Social Media.

I would love to hear the rules that other people recommend and/or follow. And as always, I welcome questions and comments.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt

PS –Upcoming posts will focus on Rules of Engagement and Lessons from Successful Digital Communities, as well as a couple Social Media Buyer’s Guides and two follow-ups to my post on LinkedIn Profiles. Please subscribe to the blog to be sure you’re notified when they’re published.

 

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1. Know your goals and objectives - in general, not just with respect to social media.

It’s such a basic consideration, but it is all too-often overlooked. Given how time challenged we all are, knowing what you want to accomplish is paramount to determining how you should focus your time and attention. All forms of media – including social media – are means to an end rather than ends in and of themselves. Before you can determine whether investing in social media is worthwhile, you must know why you might make that investment in the first place.

Remember to unpack your goals. It’s not enough to make no-duh statements like “I want to get a (new, better) job” or “We want more clients” or “We want to increase revenue.” For the goals to be effective, they have to be SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Before you do anything else, either create some goals or revisit the ones you have to ensure they offer the kind of behavioral guidance you need.

Finally, in identifying your goals, remember that “less is more.” Your goals should serve as a beacon, a guiding light. More than three will probably confuse you. Having one that trumps all others will help you manage conflicting priorities and make tough decisions.

 

2. Know your operating environment.

Although social media platforms and tools are available to anyone who wants to use them, their value varies widely depending on a number of factors. Make the time to understand the digital landscape in which you’re operating, by researching the answers to questions like:

• Industry. What sector are you in: commercial, nonprofit, public/government, health care, education? If commercial, is your focus business-to-consumer or business-to-business? If education, is it primary, secondary or higher education? And what kind of nonprofit – charitable, trade or professional association, issue oriented?
• Peers. How far along the digital learning/adoption curve are other individuals and organizations you consider your peers (including competitors)? How widespread are digital engagement practices? What are the emerging trends and norms?
• Stakeholders. Who are your target audience and key stakeholders? How digitally savvy are they? Do they use social media? If so, on what platforms do they hang out? How engaged are they?

 

3. Determine whether social media can help you achieve your goals.

Too often, social media is an answer in search of a question. Rushing into engagement, impulsively jumping on the bandwagon, or being a fad follower usually results in failure – or at least disappointment and frustration. Your efforts are wasted if they don’t enable you to pursue your goals and/or don’t make sense given your operating environment.

Keep the following in mind when determining whether social media makes high-level sense:

• There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Just because someone else is doing something doesn’t mean you should. You must absolutely know “why” using a particular social media platform or tool is a good choice for you.
• Don’t underestimate the power and value of listening as a reason to be engaged. Too often people focus on what they can/should say through social media rather than what it enables them to hear. Digital monitoring is incredibly powerful. Your initial investment may actually focus on listening rather than talking, and that’s perfectly appropriate.
• You may conclude from your assessment that the benefits to be gained from social media – either in general or on a specific platform – aren’t significant enough to justify the costs. Remember, though, that the ultimate question is not “if” but “when.” Plan to circle back to the assessment every few months to determine whether “not now” has become “it’s time.”
• For organizations in particular, even when the answer is “not now,” it’s worthwhile to make the minimal investment to grab the digital real estate you may want to use in the future and hang a “coming soon” sign. In some cases, if someone has already staked a claim in territory you may want (e.g., a particular Twitter handle), you may be able to get it back. Claiming, preserving, and protecting your brand identity is as important in cyberspace as anywhere else.

 

4. Assess social media’s specific value and plan a course of action.

Once you’ve determined social media’s high-level value, you will want to do a more granular assessment focused on specific platforms and tools. This assessment should also include a critical assessment of traditional media and current practices. Given limited resources, you may find that you should replace traditional approaches (e.g., snail mail, trade shows) with digital ones because they are more economical, effective – or both. At a minimum, you will want to integrate traditional and new approaches so you don’t unnecessarily duplicate efforts across multiple channels.

If you’ve already dabbled with social media but have your doubts about the effectiveness of your efforts, it might be worthwhile to conduct a communications and engagement audit. Though you can do this yourself, it’s probably better to hire an outsider who has digital expertise and can offer an objective and independent perspective. Regardless of who conducts the audit, it must be framed in terms of your goals and operating environment, and must make sense for your individual or organizational brand. In addition to critiquing current practices, the audit results should include a specific roadmap of possibilities and targeted efforts.

In addition to conducting an audit, organizations should also solicit input from their key stakeholders, both formally and informally, to ensure they understand the preferences, habits, and digital savvy of the people with whom they want to engage. Too many organizations have learned the hard way the risks of making decisions in a vacuum.

 

5. Acquire the necessary education and training.

When it comes to social media, most people “don’t know what they don’t know.” At the same time, many social media rookies are more digitally engaged than they think they are. I am reminded of both of these truths whenever I administer the Social Media Quotient (SMQ) Quiz during presentations and workshops.  

Every rookie can benefit from educating themselves about social media and/or undertaking training that is appropriate for their role/position. Although many early adopters and social media devotees will advocate “learning by doing,” that approach is neither as efficient or effective as being guided by someone who’s already climbed the necessary learning curves. It’s also fraught with unnecessary risks. Even if you already have well-developed knowledge or skills, you must remain committed to continuous learning to keep up with the constantly-changing digital landscape.

As with other aspects of your social media engagement, your efforts here should be guided by your goals and operating characteristics, as well as the plan of action you’ve devised. You need to “learn smart” before you can “work smart.”

 

6. Implement incrementally.

It’s incredibly easy to become overwhelmed by all the things you should be doing, and failures often result when people try to pursue a variety of initiatives simultaneously. An effective roadmap will lay out specific steps within specific windows (e.g., 1, 3, 6, 9 & 12 months), based on your defined priorities.  If you stay focused and disciplined, you can transform your digital engagement from anemic to robust in a year or less.

In addition to implementing a plan of action, organizations should also address related issues like:

• Governance
• Social media policies and guidelines
• Ownership of accounts, relationships and data
• Commenting and community management guidelines
• Crisis management

 

7. Develop a workable approach to managing time and information.

Discipline and focus are also critical to successful engagement. Don’t underestimate the ongoing time commitment you have to make to social media, and be sure that you are able to stay consistently engaged over the long term before you begin a specific initiative. Also remember that quality is much more important than quantity.  Don’t feel pressured to engage constantly, and make sure your engagement is viewed as valuable signal rather than noise.

Specific considerations include:

• What to share. Not everything has to be created from scratch. Most organizations are content rich and can easily identify existing content to repurpose and/or rechannel through social media. Even individuals can identify relevant and valuable content to (re)share. In an environment of information overload, there is an increasing need for high-quality content curation and unique thought leadership. Those are the best types of content contributions to focus on.
• Who should engage. You may want to outsource or delegate specific activities and tasks, but your digital reputation is your responsibility and you want to be careful about to whom you entrust it. Also remember that authenticity is especially important in cyberspace. Hiring someone to handle your social media activity for you may seem efficient in the short term, but it can backfire over the long term if/when people realize they’re not actually hearing from or engaging with the person they thought they were.
• When to engage. Generally speaking, your social media engagement should be proactive rather than reactive. To avoid being sucked into a time-sucking black hole, and to ensure your digital presence is consistent rather than sporadic, develop an editorial calendar and posting schedule for sharing content. You should also set aside a specific amount of time each day or week to monitor activity and respond as necessary. Tools like the social aggregator HootSuite can help.

 

Blogging: A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide (updated)

This blogging beginner's guide is intended for people who want to incorporate blogs into their organization’s social media efforts but aren’t sure where or how to begin. Individuals interested in blogging for personal/career management reasons, as well as folks aspiring to be professional bloggers, may also find the guide useful in helping them get started. The guide focuses on external blogs, but many of the concepts apply to internal blogs as well. This guide updates and extends the original blog post published in May 2011.

To many professionals blogging is still a foreign concept. Although virtually everyone has read them and some may even comment and subscribe, when it comes to thinking about how to leverage the tool themselves, people often freeze. They feel intimidated because they think their writing skills are not good enough, pressured by the prospect of having to create fresh content on a regular basis, and/or uncertain of how they are going to manage the time commitment.

Cyberspace is full of blogging “best practices,” rules and tips. Many of these guides are great, but they are not necessarily comprehensive and/or designed for people who are just getting started. Therefore, I thought I would create my own guide based on my interactions with social media rookies over the past few years, as well as my own experience as a relatively new blogger (since March 2010). The guide was originally published as a (long!) blog post in May 2011. The updated version updates and extends the content, in addition to presenting it in a more polished format.

You can view the guide through the embedded link below or directly via SlideShare.

As always, I welcome feedback. If you disagree with one of my recommendations, have a tip to add, and/or feel something was unclear, please do not hesitate to add a comment or question to the blog post or SlideShare page, or send an email to blogtips@sminorgs.net. Thanks!

- Courtney Hunt

 

Blogging: A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide

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Social Media Resolutions: Made Any? Kept Any?

As 2011 faded from memory and 2012 came into sharper focus, people around the world engaged in the annual “resolution ritual.” This post invites folks to share their social media goals for the year ahead, evaluate the progress they have made so far in keeping the resolutions they have made, and refocus their efforts to ensure their goals are realistic rather than idealistic.

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Although I am constantly making (and breaking) resolutions, I do view the start of a new year as an opportunity to be more focused and disciplined in my approach to change. And as someone who spends much of her time in cyberspace, a fair number of my resolutions for 2012 are related to my digital activity.

As I was formulating my plans for the year ahead, I became curious to know if other people were making digitally-oriented resolutions as well. So a few weeks ago I posted a query in a handful of places to see what kind of response I would get. Although my query was met with deafening silence in some places, I got some good responses in others, including:

• GovLoop
• Focus.com
• LinkedIn’s Q&A feature

Many of the resolutions people shared offered great food for thought and enabled me to evaluate my own goals in a different light. Because I think there’s value in public sharing (and accountability!), I thought I’d take a more formal approach to soliciting people’s 2012 resolutions. So here’s my query again:

All the talk about social media forecasts and New Year's resolutions has me wondering if folks have made any social media resolutions for themselves, with their work groups, and/or in their organizations. 

Have you created any (new) social media goals? 
Do you plan to start any (new) social media initiatives? 
What do you want to do more of in 2012? What do you want to do less of? 

I'm looking forward to hearing - and being inspired by - your ideas. Thanks! 

Now that we’re one month into the new year, we also have an opportunity to evaluate our progress in achieving our goals, and perhaps regroup and refocus our efforts. In particular, many of us have likely discovered that our initial goals may have been more idealistic than realistic. I’d love to hear people’s reports on their successes (and failures) so far, and how they have adjusted their focus to more pragmatic and achievable goals.

So, how are you doing? I’m looking forward to hearing about your goals and progress to date!

-  Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

PS - Is LinkedIn a focus of people’s resolutions for 2012? Based on the response to  7 Simple To Dos for LinkedIn Rookies to Enhance Their Profiles, it appears so!

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In the interest of full disclosure (and public accountability), here’s a brief report on my main social media resolutions for 2012:

• Promote even greater focus on the applications and implications of social media in organizations. This has been my mission for over three years, and the reason I founded the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community. For a variety of reasons (e.g., lack of knowledge and understanding, fear, the global economy), progress has been pretty slow, but as I noted in the recent State of the Community report, there has been a marked increase in interest and activity in the past 3-6 months.  I need to capitalize on that interest by promoting the growth of SMinOrgs, continuing my education efforts through writing and speaking, and helping organizational leaders focus on the most important issues and initiatives.

• Evaluation: As always, it seems, my ambitions outstrip my capacity – but I keep plugging away!  We started a member recruitment campaign for the SMinOrgs LI group, and so far the response has been great. I have generally achieved my goal of at least two (educationally oriented) blog posts per week and am pursuing new speaking opportunities. I need to be sure I stay focused on the issues I consider most important, so I don’t spread myself too thin.

• Read less (and filter more). As a content curator and someone who strives to develop and maintain a high level of digital expertise, I must read almost constantly. But keeping up with the daily deluge of information and news is more than a full time job. The more I take in, the less I can put out. So I have vowed to be more selective about the kinds of stories I focus on and the sources I rely on. 

• Evaluation: I am definitely more focused on creating my own content, which automatically reduces the amount of time I have to take new content in. But knowing that I’m missing things and falling behind is unsettling. I need to further increase my filters and rely on the delete key even more.

• Be smarter about where – and how – I engage. This is an ongoing goal for me, but I need to be even more conscious of it in 2012. I have to focus on the digital communities that are most relevant to my personal and professional objectives. And whenever I am tempted by a topic or conversation, I need to stop and ask myself if commenting is the best use of my time relative to those objectives.   

• Evaluation: As noted above, this is not easy. I hate feeling like I’m missing something or falling behind. I also feel bad when I don’t support my fellow community members by liking or commenting on things they share. But I have to get over it.

It really all comes down to focus and discipline, and I’m generally doing okay with both. But I feel like a bit of an automaton, and I hate feeling like I’m dissing people by not immediately responding to their messages, commenting on their posts, or even answering the phone when they call at inopportune times. Managing work – and relationships – in the Digital Era is not easy!

Allstate "Social Media Boot Camp" Presentation Excerpts

In August 2010 I was invited to speak at Allstate's Supplier Diversity Exchange. This video clip includes excerpts from my presentation and the Q&A session that followed. Even though a year-and-a-half seems like an eternity in "social media time," the concepts and ideas I shared then are still relevant today, especially for social media rookies.

You can watch the embedded video below or view it on SlideShare. I hope you find it valuable.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt

 

Allstate "Social Media Boot Camp" presentation excerpts

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7 Simple To Dos for LinkedIn Rookies to Enhance Their Profiles

This post provides seven basic recommendations that can help LinkedIn (LI) rookies upgrade their profiles from anemic to respectable. These tasks can be tackled in as little as an hour (and no more than a half-day session) and will produce a solid basic presence that also lays a foundation for future development.

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Judging from the anemic LinkedIn (LI) profiles I view on a daily basis, I hope that many professionals have resolved to enhance them in 2012. I know people are busy, but if how they represent themselves as professionals is important to them (and it should be), they need to make the time. Anyone who can manage to carve out time to go to a hair stylist should also be able to carve out time to ensure their basic cyber presence is well styled too.

For many people, expressed concerns about lack of time are often code for “I’m overwhelmed.” If they haven’t spent much time on LI, the task of updating their LI profile seems daunting, and they have no idea where to begin. LI makes each individual step pretty easy, and they provide lots of online help, but the volume of choices can make the overall effort hard to manage. Taking a “crawl-walk-run” approach and breaking the project down into three parts should help.

This is the “crawl” post, which focuses on a handful of basic things people should do to make sure their LI profiles are presentable. If you’re a LI rookie with a less-than-impressive profile, this post is for you. If you’re not a rookie, it might still be worth double checking to make sure you haven’t inadvertently made a rookie mistake.

Future posts in this series will focus on intermediate and advanced issues. If there’s a specific topic you’d like to see addressed, please add a comment or question. I also invite folks to share their “recommendations for rookies,” in case I may have overlooked something.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt

PS - If you want to receive parts 2 and 3 in this series as soon as they're published, be sure to subscribe to the blog.

 

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Following the recommendations below will ensure you have created a respectable basic presence on LI, in addition to laying a solid foundation you can build on later. Depending on your starting point, you should be able to enhance your LI profile in as little as an hour – or at most, one half-day session.

Set a goal to get the basic tasks done in the first quarter. Then you can tackle the intermediate tasks in the second quarter and the advanced tasks in the third quarter. By the fourth quarter you should have a fully functioning profile!

Note: Before you get started, check to see if your employer has created guidelines for you to follow. Since they’re paying your salary and you’re representing their brand, they have a say in how you represent them and your role. (see this post  for more details)

 

#1: Let Your Profile Be Public

Given the purpose of LinkedIn, it’s hard to understand why anyone would want their profile to be private or anonymous, but many people are still hesitant to let their presence be known. Here are three good reasons why you should opt for a public profile:

• If you have an externally-facing role and/or are a senior professional, people you may interact with will look for your profile to learn more about you.  As more and more people come to rely on LI as a resource, it will increasingly strike people as odd if they can’t find you. That’s not a good reflection on either your professional brand or your organization.
• With an anonymous profile, you are referred to in LI as “private private,” which can look really silly. It’s especially funny when someone with a private profile gets recommended by someone else. I’ve lost count of the number of notifications from my first-level connections that will say something like: Jane Doe has recommended private private: “I worked with Bob Smith at XYZ… (so much for anonymity!).
• If people want to find your profile, they can. I can’t reveal the trick, but resourceful LI users know how to access profiles using people’s LI member numbers. It’s a very simple workaround.

If you’ve kept your profile private because you don’t think it’s ready for public viewing yet, follow the rest of the recommendations below to get it ready.

 

#2: Add a Respectable Profile Picture

As in most social networks, there’s a normative expectation that people have a profile picture. If you don’t, people will either assume that you don’t know what you’re doing or that you have something to hide. Why let them go there? Including a profile picture avoids the speculation and lets you control the initial impression people get when they view your profile.

Depending on their jobs, industries, and reputations, some people on LI can get away with more daring profile pictures. For most of us, however, a conservative approach is best. Here are some tips that will work for most people:

• Use an image that reflects your professional identity not your personal identity
• If you use a photo of yourself:
  • Make sure it’s current and decent quality
  • Only include yourself in the photo
  • Focus on your face, not your body (i.e., it should be a headshot)
• If you don’t want to use a photo of yourself:
  • Find an image that reflects your values, capabilities or essence in some way
  • Be careful about using things that are too cutesy or may involve questionable humor

 

#3: Include a Headline

To me, the LI headline is better in concept than in reality. Personally, I’ve always struggled with what to include, and I’ve never been completely satisfied with what I’ve come up with. But since it’s something of a “necessary evil,” you have to try to make the best of it. Here are a few suggestions based on my own experience and my review of hundreds (if not thousands) of profiles:

• Short descriptors separated by bars are probably easier than trying to craft a sentence
• Focus on what you offer, not what you want (e.g., don’t say you’re looking for a job)
• Avoid bland descriptions like “experienced accountant”
• Highlight your unique professional capabilities and/or character using key words that will catch people’s attention
• If you’re currently employed, it’s perfectly acceptable to include your current job title

 

#4: Provide a Robust Description for Your Current Job (at least)

Even if you don’t have time to fully flesh out your profile, you should at least provide a robust description of your current position. This is especially true for folks in externally-facing roles like recruiting, human resources, public relations, marketing, sales, and business development. You should also at least list all your previous employers/positions – certainly the most recent/relevant ones.

Generally speaking, the description you provide in your LI profile is the same as what you’d include on a resume. So if your resume is current, you should be able to just cut and paste titles and text from that document to the data entry boxes on LI. If your resume isn’t current, this is a great opportunity to update it! They should basically be in synch…

Here are some additional tips:

• Be sure to link the job to your employer’s Company Page. If they don’t have one, suggest they set one up – pronto!
• Limit your description of the organization to 1-2 sentences. If people want to learn more, they can go to the Company Page.
• Also limit your description of the job and your responsibilities as much as possible, focusing instead on unique contributions, value added, and accomplishments.
• Remember that you’re writing for both search engines and human beings. That means your descriptions should be key word rich, but they also need to be attractive and readable by people.
• When in doubt, leave it out. The profile should entice people to want to learn more rather than try to tell your whole life story. The less relevant a job is to your current professional activities, the less you should say about it.

If you have any kind of professional certifications, be sure to list them in the Certifications section. Similarly, if they’re relevant to your current professional activities, you can also list Honors and Awards. Both sections can be completed in mere minutes.

 

#5: Include Your Education

As with some of your older work experiences, you can take a “name/rank/serial” number approach to providing information about your academic background. You should definitely list all the schools you attended and/or got degrees from, but you don’t need to provide more detail than your degree program and the years attended. Yes, I would include the years. If you don’t, people will naturally conclude that you’re trying to hide the fact that it was a long time ago, so not listing them doesn’t protect you from discrimination. Besides, if someone is going to discriminate against you based on your age, you probably don’t want to work with them anyway.

 

#6: Don’t Include Personal Information

I don’t know why LI provides these fields, but I would recommend against including personal information such as your address, marital status, and date of birth. This information is generally not relevant to your professional identity or interactions.

 

#7: Enable People to Get in Touch with You

Related to the fear of having a public profile, many professionals seem to be afraid that if they don’t restrict access to themselves they will be inundated with and overwhelmed by a variety of requests. In my experience, the fear is greater than the reality. I recommend lowering the drawbridge and letting people contact you through every available LI channel. And if you’re in a job like business development or recruiting, you own your own business or are on the job market, make it easy for people to get in touch with you outside of LI as well by adding a statement under your Contact Settings that shares your contact information. Here’s the statement on my profile:

I can be reached directly via email at cshunt@renaissance-solutions.com, or via phone at 312.225.3365.

To make it easier to manage inappropriate requests, clearly specify the kinds of opportunities you’re open to hearing about.

 

Related Resources

To access additional posts on LI, check out this Spotlight on LinkedIn email blast from last fall.

If you’re currently on the job market (or hiring), you may also be interested in my post Recruiting in the Digital Era: Updated Guidance for Employers, Recruiters, and Candidates, which provides additional guidance and resources about managing one’s professional presence in cyberspace.

Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs): State of the Community 2012

The Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community began in May 2009 as a LinkedIn (LI) group, and quickly expanded to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. In early 2010, the S.M.A.R.T. (Social Media and Related Technologies) Blog was born. The start of a new year seems like a good time to reflect on the current state of the Community and share a few goals for 2012.

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Scroll down to view the embedded SMinOrgs State of the Community report or click here to view/download the report on SlideShare. The report includes brief updates and goals for:

• LinkedIn
• The S.M.A.R.T. Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook and Other Platforms

Our primary goals for 2012 are to: 

• Grow the LinkedIn group to 5000+ members 
• Increase website traffic by creating more blog content, promoting the blog, and optimizing search engine results
• Increase blog subscriptions

If you would like to volunteer to help SMinOrgs achieve any of these goals, please email volunteer@sminorgs.net. We welcome and appreciate the help.

Here's to a fabulous 2012!

Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD
Founder, SMinOrgs

PS - I'm curious to know if anyone knows of other similar reports that focus on things like "social engagement," "digital engagement," "community engagement," "social enterprise," "social learning," "social recruiting," or "government 2.0." It'd be great to see what other organizations are doing along these lines. Thanks!

 

State of the SMinOrgs Community 2012

View more documents from Courtney Hunt

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Feb. 8 - 2012 Educational Conference on Social Media - Northeast Circuit Clerks' Association

Feb. 23 - Faculty and Staff Development Workshop on Social Media - Parkland College

Feb. 26 - Guide to Private Social Networks - Club Manager's Association of America

Mar. 13 - Workshop on Using Social Media Internally - NELLCO Symposium 2012

Apr. 17 - Social Media Strategies for HR - The Conference Board

Apr. 19 - Social Media Panel at Northern Illinois University

June 8 - Developing a strategy/plan for leveraging 2.0 tools and technologies inside organizations - GSLIS Corporate Roundtable

The Social Media ROI Challenge: What it Really Means (and 7 Related Faulty Assumptions)

This post offers a different perspective on the social media ROI (return on investment) challenges put forth by organizational leaders and other experienced professionals who resist increased digital engagement. Playing off the ROI acronym, it provides alternatives for interpreting the ROI argument. It then articulates – and counters – seven assumptions on which the resistance arguments are often based. The post concludes with a call to move away from specious arguments and to balance concerns about ROI with the equally important COI (cost of inaction).

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Last week I wrote a post for the Digital Era Thinkers Blog entitled, “12 Hopes for 2012: Enhanced Adoption of Digital Technologies.” Recognizing that technological advances continue to outstrip our willingness to address the opportunities and challenges they present, the post focuses on the psychological challenges we face and our individual and collective ability to tackle them in thought, word, and deed. 

In the post, I expressly stated that I wanted to focus on the positive rather than the negative. But after I shared the post, I got some classic pushback in a response from a person who runs a company that provides management and leadership training. She wrote, in part: 

We are constantly asked about the time/value, pros/cons, and cost/benefit of social media. These folks who ask barely have time to do everything they have to do for their jobs, let alone figure out the most effective way to use social media. We network and ask those we trust what we can use (and tell clients to use) to get relevant info quicker, faster, better. The key word is RELEVANT. The vast majority of social media is full of useless, time wasting verbiage that lacks filters. The key to figuring how to best utilize the best of it and get rid of the worst of it, would be some form of easy to use, customized and targeted data mining. Until this comes to the fore I don't see how it can provide the ROI on a leader's or executive's time. I am sure that most people in busy jobs feel the same.

 

ROI is Code for...

I've heard these - and similar - arguments more often than I can count. In my experience, when organizational leaders and other experienced professionals talk about the ROI of social media, they’re not just referring to Return On Investment. ROI, in fact, is often code for: 

• Ridiculous Online Indulgence. In their disdainful dismissals of social media, people still highlight the (over)abundance of vapid and banal social media activity (e.g., people sharing what they had for lunch) and characterize the people who engage in it as shallow and narcissistic, with too much time on their hands.
• Real professionals Only Interact in traditional ways. There is a clear bias among many professionals toward how things have “always” been done. Email, the phone, and in-person exchanges are seen as inherently superior to digital ones. More importantly, the different types of exchanges are viewed as mutually exclusive rather than integrated and complementary.
• Resist Out-of-the-box Ideas. In spite of all the media hype surrounding social media and digital technology, people are not particularly quick to adopt – let alone embrace – new ideas and thinking.
• Reserving Our Interest/Investment until we see what others do. And for better and worse, most senior professionals tend to follow more than they lead. Though there may be a strong desire to “keep up with the Joneses,” very few people actually want to be the Joneses.
• Risk aversion Over Innovation. Even when they recognize that they probably need to move forward, fear – of the unknown, of failure, of unintended consequences – holds them back. The risks of engagement are always clearer than the risks of inaction.
• Respect Our Idiosyncrasies and Inconsistency. If pressed, leaders and other experienced professionals would have a hard time defending their negative positions on social media and other digital technologies, especially relative to other positions and decisions. But many of them seem to expect others to accept their arguments at face value and not question or challenge them.

 

7 Faulty Assumptions Underlying Resistance

Generally speaking the resistance arguments contain a number of implicit - and often faulty - assumptions, including:  

1. Social media technologies – particularly the public platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – represent the complete range of digital technologies available today. 

• Today’s digital capabilities are far greater than most people realize – and they’re expanding every day.
• People need to think about both hardware and software. When it comes to software, they need to think beyond specific platforms to the tools and technologies that comprise them.

2. Organizational leaders know the ROI of current practices for marketing, branding, selling, etc. - and it's good. 

• The links between many current practices, such as advertisements and trade shows, is difficult, if not impossible, to measure.
• The costs of traditional approaches can be much higher than comparable digital efforts. 

3. Current communication and collaboration practices are efficient and effective and cannot be improved on by leveraging new digital technologies.

• The limitations, challenges, and frustrations of email are well-known.
• Many in-person meetings are considered an avoidable waste of time.

4. It's appropriate to hold new practices - particularly new digital technologies - to higher standards than existing practices.

• People need to be willing and able to critically examine current approaches. There should be no sacred cows.
• The relative value and utility of different approaches should be determined based on a fair assessment.
• It’s unrealistic to expect any approach to working to be “drag free.”

5. Leveraging new technologies requires adding them to rather than integrating them with or substituting them for current practices.

• We should all be open to identifying ways to work smarter, not just harder.
• The best approaches to achieving goals/objectives should be pursued.

6. It will all settle down (or maybe go away?) at some point, so why bother engaging and suffering through all the chaos before it does.

• The only constant in the Digital Era is change. Expecting things to settle down is unrealistic.
• By the time the laggards choose to engage, it could be too late. At a minimum, they will have missed out on a number of potentially great opportunities.

7. It's better to wait for a "silver bullet" solution than to invest in the necessary hard work now to climb the required learning curves and lay a foundation for future success.

• As in other aspects of running an organization, there are no silver bullets.
• Success in the Digital Era requires a new mindset, as well as new knowledge and skills. Learning new ways of working is unavoidable.  

 

Let's Get Real

I'm perfectly fine with any individual or organization deciding not to take more advantage of the digital capabilities that currently exist, as long as they make an informed decision. In my experience, however, that's generally not the case - and when it comes to organizational leaders in particular, I would say that they're neglecting their fiduciary responsibilities by not making a stronger commitment to understanding the new realities in which their organizations operate so they provide the proper guidance, both strategic and tactical. I recognize there are a ton of good reasons why many people haven't done more with digital technology to date, but those reasons - which are anchored in the past and the present - are lousy excuses for not giving greater focus to the future. 

As a practical matter, digital  technology is only going to continue to advance, and the longer people wait to understand and embrace it, the more risks they take with respect to creating and maintaining their own success. In addition to being concerned about the ROI, in other words, they should also be thinking about the COI – the Cost Of Inaction.

As always, I welcome comments and questions.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

 

Related resources from the SMinOrgs Social Media Primer

• Part 1: What is this “Fire” of Which You Speak?
• Part 1a: What is Your SMQ (Social Media Quotient)?
  • The Revised Quiz
  • Updating the Quiz
• Part 2: The Juggernaut is Bigger than You Think!
• Parts 1 and 2 Updated: Revisiting the Fire and the Juggernaut 
• Part 3: Reality Check – Four Mental Shifts Organizational Leaders Need to Make
• Part 4: Ante up! Organizational Factors Relevant to Joining the Social Media Game
• Part 5: You Can’t Outsource Leadership
• Part 6: Human Capital Management Challenges 
• Part 7: The SAPLING Approach to Leveraging Social Media
• Part 8a: It’s a Brave New World … Even if You Want the Old One Back

 

12 Hopes for 2012: Enhanced Adoption of Digital Technologies

As the Digital Era progresses, technological capabilities continue to outstrip our willingness and ability to address the opportunities and challenges they present. In this post from the Digital Era Thinkers Blog, I offer 12 hopes for 2012 that are rooted in the psychological challenges we face and are built on our willingness – both individually and collectively – to tackle them in thought, word, and deed. As always, I welcome input from others.

Click here to read the post.

via www.gcdel.org

Expressing Gratitude at SMinOrgs

This post expresses thanks to the many individuals and organizations that have supported the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community and contributed to its growth, development, and success.

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Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the United States, so it seemed appropriate to take a few minutes to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community since its inception – and especially during 2011. I’m doing this from memory, so please forgive me – and let me know – if I forget anyone!

I started SMinOrgs in May of 2009 as a LinkedIn group called Social Media in HR. During the first six months of its existence, I changed the name to better reflect its expanded focus and the diversity of its membership. I also established a presence on other social media platforms – most notably Twitter and Facebook.

Click here to learn more about SMinOrgs’ history and engagement

Over the past 2 ½ years, SMinOrgs has grown organically and steadily, with new members joining each week. And as it has grown, it has become more and more active. In the early days, I was about the only voice of the Community, and I can’t tell you how sick I got of seeing my own face and comments! Now I’m happy to report that although I am still a major contributor and primary thought leader, I’ve become more of a Community Manager.

I have many people – and a couple organizations – to thank for SMinOrgs’ growth, development, and success. Let me begin with some “behind-the-scenes” folks:

• Janet Fogelsong, who has helped me manage the LinkedIn group and the SMinOrgs mailing list. 
• Jill Formeister and Brandon Hunt, who have been reviewing and offering feedback on SMinOrgs Social Media Primer parts and other blog posts, to help me determine the best way to package them into a book. 

Many, many thanks to Jerry Carducci for being SMinOrgs’ first regular guest blogger, contributing many great News Digests on a variety of topics throughout the year. I’m looking forward to publishing his first case study in the coming weeks. Honorable mention also goes to Jeannette Paladino for her guest post on the Social Media Strategist early this year.

Want to get involved with SMinOrgs? Click here to learn how

Social Media Today and The Social Customer have both republished several SMinOrgs blog posts, which has expanded the audience for my ideas and the Community in valuable ways. I appreciate their ongoing support. Sharlyn Lauby, SPHR, CPLP has also expanded the reach of SMinOrgs by endorsing the Community in her own posts. And Nicholas Lamphere’s reference to the first version of the SMQ Quiz in one of his social media presentations continues to drive traffic to the site. 

A number of folks have also directly endorsed SMinOrgs by providing recommendations on LinkedIn. Many thanks to:

• Mic Adam
• Heidi Burkley
• Jerry Carducci
• Greg Jensen
• Elina Jokinen
• Bruce Kneuer
• Ellen Levy
• Ron Thomas, HCS SWP
• Karin Wills

Click here if you’d like to recommend one of SMinOrgs’ offerings

Digital communities can’t thrive without active contributions and engagement from their members. There is an unofficial rule that out of 100 members, only 1 will contribute content, 9 will engage by liking/commenting on content, and the remaining 90 will not engage directly at all. A tip of the hat, then, to the “1%” of SMinOrgs members who have shared valuable content with the LI group and/or regularly contributed to group discussions:

• Bruce Bixler
• Sean Charles
• Cecil Dijoux
• Judith Delaney
• Tracy Gravesande
• Sean Hart
• Barry Hurd
• Bruce Kneuer
• Erin Korogodsky
• La Donna Lokey
• Michael Marchionda
• Ian McCarthy
• David McDermit, ACB
• Bob Mendonsa
• Eric Meyer
• Helder Milheiro
• Angelo Mohanan
• Chris Norton
• Vic Okezie and Adam Britten
• Jeannette Paladino
• John Proano
• Dante Ragazzo
• T. Randall Riggs, SPHR, GPHR
• Jay Rombach
• Ron Shulkin
• Dr. Fred Simkovsky
• Kristina Sorrelli
• Ron Thomas, HCS SWP
• Paul Thoresen
• Michael VanDervort
• Toby Ward
• Karin Wills

Thanks also to the following Twitterers who regularly retweet and/or mention SMinOrgs in their own posts:

• @bkneuer
• @erikj
• @giovanni_bursi
• @mijori23
• @RichardRashty
• @Socialmediapath
• @TomasBogren
• @WhineandDine

Although I can’t name them all, I also appreciate the “9%” of folks who have liked, favorited, bookmarked, downloaded, commented on, and/or shared SMinOrgs’ content. I see the traffic and I know you’re out there. So even if I don’t know exactly who you are, I appreciate you! : )

I’m also grateful to the “90%” – the people who have officially “joined” SMinOrgs by participating in the mailing list; joining the LI group; following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and SlideShare; liking us on Facebook; and subscribing to the YouTube Channel and the S.M.A.R.T. Blog. I always say that listening is a powerful – and undervalued – form of engagement, and I appreciate the fact that not everyone who’s paying attention and connected to the Community will demonstrate their engagement publicly. Lurk all you want – I know you’re out there!

Finally, thanks to all the people who visit the SMinOrgs website to read, learn, and explore. Visitors are always welcome.

Again, please forgive me – and let me know - if I have forgotten to thank anyone. I truly do appreciate all that everyone has done to make SMinOrgs successful, and I look forward to your ongoing support and contributions.

-  Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD