S.M.A.R.T. Blog

Denovati, Here We (Be)Come!

Earlier this year we announced an initiative to create a new brand identity for the SMinOrgs Community. This blog post details the reasons for making the switch, as well as the 13 criteria we developed for selecting the best new brand. As the effort evolved, it became evident that what we were doing was much bigger than simply coming up with a new name for SMinOrgs. It was really about rebranding and consolidating SMinOrgs, the Renaissance Strategic Solutions consultancy, and the Global Center for Digital Era Leadership (GCDEL) under a single unified identity.

The results of a survey we conducted in February to solicit feedback on the four brand options we had identified produced a clear winner: Denovati (day-no-VAH-tee), which translates roughly as follows:

• DE = Digital Era
• NOV = short for novani, the Latin term for colonists, immigrants, new residents...
• ATI = those who seek knowledge and/or are in the know

Put another way, the Denovati are Digital Era explorers, pathfinders and immigrants who seek to understand and effectively leverage new social and digital technologies.

The Denovati Group can be viewed as an alliance that enhances the success of individuals and organizations in the Digital Era. Here's an overview of how the alliance will be organized, along with some of our working taglines (click the image to enlarge it).

 

 

Our working short descriptions are as follows:

• The Denovati Group enhances the success of individuals and organizations in the Digital Era through research, thought leadership and guidance, consulting and training services, and a professional community that fosters communication and collaboration.
• The S.M.A.R.T. Blog explores the applications and implications of Social Media And Related Technologies in organizations, focusing on both opportunities and challenges from both conceptual and tactical perspectives.
• S.M.A.R.T. Resources include white papers, research reports, ebooks and other materials that provide both strategic and tactical Digital Era guidance for individuals and organizations.
• Denovati Solutions (formerly Renaissance Strategic Solutions) helps individuals and organizations function more efficiently and effectively in the Digital Era through the design and implementation of innovative and leading-edge strategies and programs.
• The Denovati Network (formerly the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community) is a global, multi-disciplinary professional community that helps individuals at all skill levels successfully navigate Digital Era opportunities and challenges.
• Through research and thought leadership, the Denovati Institute (formerly the Global Center for Digital Era Leadership (GCDEL) and SMinOrgs) provides a forum for exploring important Digital Era issues that individuals, organizations, economies and societies face.

We are still finalizing our brand identity, including the logo and color scheme, and have started building our new website and related digital network. We'll be revealing additional changes gradually, targeting a full official reveal by the end of May.

Stay tuned... Lots of new and exciting developments are in the works!

Do People Need Social Media Training? Yes. And (Much) More.

Earlier this year I shared my thoughts about online social learning communities in response to a Forbes post by Meghan Biro. This post supplements those ideas by reflecting on a 2012 series written by Shel Holtz about social media training:

• Part 1: Introducing a series on social media training
• Part 2: Getting buy-in for social media training
• Part 3: Research is at the heart of social media training
• Part 4: Social media training for employees: decisions, decisions
• Part 5: Should C-suites and boards of directors be exempt from social media training?

I'm always glad to see others write about the need for education and training, which becomes more important as the gap between technological and human capabilities continues to grow. I especially appreciate the thought and effort leaders like Shel Holtz put into helping leaders understand why the issue is important and how it can be addressed most effectively.

But just as marketing is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the applications of new communications technologies, so is social media training when it comes to Digital Era competencies. Based on my own research and writing on the subject, as well as the preliminary results of some focus groups on digital competencies I've been conducting, I offer the following considerations for both individuals and organizations:

1. As internal applications and implications of social and digital technologies expand (and will become far more pervasive and relevant to workers of all types), the training provided by organizations will need to expand as well. The focus must move beyond external discussions on public platforms to internal communication and collaboration on private digital networks. No functional area is exempt.

2. Our prevailing LIY (Learn It Yourself) attitude may have some limited effectiveness for personal uses of new technologies, but it is both inefficient and ineffective for professional uses. Most people - and especially later adopters - need help to develop the competencies they need. There has to be a balance between formal and informal learning, with different weights applied to each depending on an individual's baseline competencies. The ultimate goal, however, should be to enable people to engage in self-directed learning.

3. Education and training will have to range from high-level concepts to specific skills. Everyone should know how to do basic tasks like insert and crop an image and hyperlink text, for example, but they should also have at least a basic understanding of things like the role of mobile technology in commerce and legal considerations for both individuals and organizations.

4. Similarly, we have to focus on both the simple and complex. Yes, learning can often be boiled down to a few simple points, but those points hardly reflect everything someone needs to know. For example, knowing basic accounting principles like "assets = liabilities + owners' equity" and "revenue - expenses = net profit" is important, but that knowledge hardly qualifies someone to be a bookkeeper, let alone a CPA or CFO. 

5. Education and training must also address strategic and tactical considerations, again to varying degrees depending on the learners and the learning objectives. In addition to knowing what they need to do and how, professionals - and especially organizational leaders - need to understand why they should be be doing it.

6. Not everything can or should be taught in house. Some aspects of education and training should be customized, but general concepts and skills can be developed through more standard approaches. We need more valuable services to provide what organizations need - and organizational leaders must be willing to make the necessary investments in those services.

7. Higher education - especially in professional schools like business - has a critical role to play in developing competent Digital Era professionals and effective Digital Era leaders. There is MUCH more that they can and should be doing to create the necessary foundations for ongoing professional development of all types.

You can learn more about Digital Era competencies and the need for education and training through the Related Resources listed below. I encourage folks to share additional resources and especially welcome comments and questions about the challenges faced by digital rookies and what they need to bridge their own digital divides.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD 

 

Related Resources

10 Digital Era Truths

Social and Digital Tech Trends: 9 Take-Aways for YOU

Digital Era Adaptation in 2013: A Long and Winding Road

The New Digital Divide: Thoughts for Leaders and Laggards

Digital Era Competencies: How Do You Stack Up?

What's Your Social Media Sophistication? The SMQ (version III)

Social Media Education and Training: Pro or Con? Please Discuss…

Social Media Education & Training: Where We Are. Where We’re Going.

A Master’s Degree Specialization in Social Media & Online Communities

Digital Era Leadership: The Role of Business Schools

For even more resources, check out slides 35-42 from my closing Impact99 keynote, The Road Forward: Striving for Balance. More recent pieces can be found in the blog archives from December to the present. 

The Social Media ROI Challenge: Are We Making Progress?

This post revisits the social media ROI (return on investment) question, focusing in particular on whether we're making progress in terms of the challenges put forth by organizational leaders and other experienced professionals who have been resisting 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 some indications that leaders may be moving away from specious arguments and balancing concerns about ROI with the equally important COI (cost of inaction), and invites others to share their insights and experiences as well.

===//===

A little over a year ago I wrote The Social Media ROI Challenge: What it Really Means (and 7 Related Faulty Assumptions). After kicking off this year with Social and Digital Tech Trends: 9 Take-Aways for YOU and Digital Era Adaptation in 2013: A Long and Winding Road, I thought I would revisit and update my thoughts on the question of social media ROI (which can also be extended to the adoption of other new digital technologies).I welcome the insights of others as to whether and how we're making progress on addressing the important Digital Era issue of new technology adoption by organizations and their leaders.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

 

ROI is Often Code for...

Technological advances continue to outstrip the willingness and ability of many organizational leaders to address the opportunities and challenges they present. When it comes to social technologies in particular, skepticism has been widespread, and often manifests itself in questions about the kind of return on investment (ROI) leveraging these technologies can produce.

These questions seem perfectly rational on the surface, and it appears that leaders who ask them are fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities and acting as good stewards of their organization's limited resources. But looks can be deceiving. All too often the ROI argument has been used as a smokescreen and/or a form of filibuster against moving forward. 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. The phone, and in-person exchanges - and even email - are seen as inherently superior to newer forms of digital interaction. 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. 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 beyond software, to hardware and networks and analytics too (i.e., SMAC - social, mobile,analytics, cloud).
• When it comes to software in particular, 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.

 

We're Making Progress (Slowly)

It's perfectly appropriate for individuals and organizations to decide not to take more advantage of the digital capabilities that currently exist, as long as they're making informed decisions. When it comes to organizational leaders in particular, they have a fiduciary responsibility to understand the new environments in which their organizations operate so they can provide the proper guidance, both strategic and tactical, as well as the necessary resources their organizations need. 

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.

Fortunately, there are encouraging signs. I'm seeing and hearing less resistance. And although there is still some reluctance, the acceptance of new realities and the need to understand (if not embrace) them is increasing. Here are a few specific examples from my own recent experiences:

• In two weeks I will be leading a digital engagement strategy session for the Midwest region of a large grocery chain. This chain's excellent brand reputation has facilitated their talent acquisition efforts for years, but as they expand into new markets where they're less well known, they recognize they have to up their digital engagement efforts to continue to attract top talent.
• Earlier this year I met with two different groups of executives and senior professionals in transition (in one case presenting Job Search in the Digital Era to over 100 job seekers). The response to both sessions was extremely positive, with virtually no skepticism about new social technologies and their importance. The recepton to those talks has led to a project focusing on how senior professionals can and should enhance their digital competencies, from both career management and organizational leadership perspectives. (If you would like to participate in this project, please email focus@denovati.net)
• I am also developing an initiative with a leadership consulting firm that will help leaders develop their digital competencies. The managing partner has the vision to recognize that no quantitative "proof" is needed to determine that this is an important area his firm and their clients must begin to tackle. Proof of concept is sufficient for him to move forward.

Although progress is often painfully slow, I am encouraged by the shifts in both attitudes and behaviors I'm seeing so far in 2013. Are you seeing encouraging signs too? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

 

Related Resources

Social and Digital Tech Trends: 9 Take-Aways for YOU

Digital Era Adaptation in 2013: A Long and Winding Road

What's Your Social Media Sophistication? The SMQ Quiz 

"Social Media" is SO 2009! 7 Proposed Semantic Upgrades

SMinOrgs Social Media Primer

Digital Era Leadership: Defining Characteristics?

Note: many of the above pieces include links to additional resources.

Digital Era Leadership: Defining Characteristics?

What does it mean to be a leader in the Digital Era? Have the requirements for success drastically changed, or are they fundamentally the same? This post invites people to share their thoughts, as well as related resources, on the defining characteristics of leadership as the Digital Era progresses and evolves.

===//===

In honor of President’s Day in the United States, I’d like to solicit people's views on what leadership means in the Digital Era. Specifically:

• Do leaders need to exhibit new values, traits or behaviors to be effective? If so, what are they? And on the flip side, are there values, traits and behaviors leaders need to stop exhibiting?
• Should leaders be directly involved with social technologies. If so, where, how and to what degree?
• What kinds of fiduciary responsibilities do new social and digital technologies present for leaders?

We’re currently working with Silverman Research to develop answers to these questions by analyzing various "conversations" in cyberspace that try to tackle them. We've created a database with over 70 sources 400 data points (e.g., a blog post and its comments), and we'd love to add more perspectives to the mix. In addition to telling us your own point of view, we appreciate your sharing links to articles, blog posts, and research studies that address one or more of the questions above. And of course we invite you to share the post with your own networks so that we can expand the conversation even further.

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

Note: This project is an extension of research we started in August 2011. The preliminary results of our efforts were summarized in a blog post entitled “What Does it Take to be a Leader in the Digital Era?” Jerry Carducci and Karin Wills have also developed a forthcoming publication tentatively titled “Leading in the Digital Era: Communications, Relationships, and Decision Making.” If you’d like to be notified as soon as it’s available, please send a message to de-leaders@sminorgs.net. Thanks!

500+ Books about Social & Digital Technology: Trends and Opportunities

It’s probably no surprise that over 500 books have been written about social and digital technologies over the past 15+ years, and that many of these focus on social media marketing. What’s more intriguing are the topics that have not received much attention yet from thought leaders and authors. This post offers a brief introduction to a research project that explores the Digital Era literature and (in true 2.0 fashion) invites people to participate in its ongoing development.

===//===

Last year, with the help of Marci Stewart and Genifer Snipes, I embarked on a project to identify all the books that had been written about social and digital technologies. It was a naïve quest that has turned into a very ambitious undertaking. Although I was aware of the most well-known books from the past five or so years, I had no idea how many other publications were out there, or how far back they stretched. We’re now at 520 – and counting!

In this post I share some project details, the initial high-level results, and what we plan to do next. More importantly, I’d like to invite folks to participate in the development of the project by sharing the questions, analyses, and information they’re most interested in. And of course I welcome recommendations for books lists, titles, and authors, to make sure our final list is as complete and accurate as possible.

I look forward to hearing from you!

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

 

Methodology

Here, in a nutshell, is the approach we have used to create the database:

• We selected Goodreads as our primary source of information, primarily because it’s vendor neutral – and of course it’s a social media platform in its own right!
• We seeded the list with titles from “best of” lists like The 25 Best Social Media Books of 2011, 10 Best Social Media Books, and Top Social Media Marketing Books.
• For each book we collected the publication data, Goodreads rating information, title, author(s) and book description.
• To expand the initial list we checked the titles listed under “Readers also enjoyed similar books” and “Lists with This Book.” Once we had exhausted those sources we conducted 40+ searches using all the potentially relevant terms we could think of, including general terms like social media and big data as well as specific terms like Facebook and Tumblr.
• In an effort to make the data collection effort more manageable, we only included books that were written in English and had at least one review. Yes, that’s somewhat arbitrary – but we needed some kind of cutoff! We also tried to limit the database to books that were targeted to non-technical readers.
• Throughout the process we added relevant titles as they were brought to our attention if we hadn’t already identified them.

Using the book descriptions, we created a three-tiered coding scheme to reflect their focus:

• Perspective: conceptual (focused more on conveying information or discussing topics at a high level) and tactical (“how to” oriented).
• General focus: categories ranged from macro to micro and included society, commerce, marketing, workplace, individual, and data.
• Specific focus: used to indicate if a book was specifically focused on a single topic (e.g., cloud computing, Twitter, mobile, LinkedIn).

We’re happy to provide more details about our methodology upon request. Please add a comment or email books@sminorgs.net with your specific questions.

 

Initial Results

To convey a general sense of what these 500+ books are all about, we have created two Wordles using the books’ titles (after cleaning them up by deleting unnecessary words and combining similar terms).

The first Wordle includes all the relevant terms (click to enlarge):

Because SocialMedia, Guide, Marketing and Business dominated the results, we created a second Wordle without those terms to dig a bit deeper into the books’ focus (click to enlarge):

The initial results may seem “no duh-ish” to some folks, especially early adopters. There’s nothing particularly revelatory about the fact that the books published to date have had a heavy emphasis on business, specifically social media in the context of marketing. The “how to” focus of many of these books, as well as the promises of success, are also not surprising.

But some of the emphases are less obvious. For example:

• Blogging (which has been declared “dead” at least twice in the past 5 years) remains a primary topic.
• Even though Facebook is a significantly larger platform, Twitter and LinkedIn have received relatively more emphasis as book topics.
• Although people are still wrapping their brains around what to do with data, there have been a relatively substantial number of books focused on the topic (e.g., analytics, metrics). Similarly, cloud computing has also been a fairly significant topic of discussion.

And perhaps most importantly, we need to think about what’s not been addressed, as those are the areas in which there is perhaps the greatest need – and the greatest opportunity for thought leaders and authors. These include:

• More discussion and guidance about topics like gamification and mobile technologies.
• How social and digital technologies can and should be used in non-commercial sectors, including in non-profit and religious organizations, public sector entities, and academic institutions. In a similar vein, there’s probably a need and opportunity for more focused discussions on digital communities and community management.
• Applications and implications of new technologies inside organizations (e.g., enterprise 2.0, social business, social enterprise).
• Leadership-oriented discussions, especially in terms of what it means to be a leader in the Digital Era.
• The human-capital management implications of new digital technologies, as well as legal/policy issues and risk management considerations.
• Applications and implications of new technologies for individuals, including digital competencies, jobs, professions, and careers.

 

Coming Up

We are conducting more in-depth analyses of the data (including a formal text analysis in conjunction with Silverman Research) and plan to share more results in the coming weeks/months, including:

• A slide deck of Wordles that reveal emphases by year, category, etc.
• An infographic, which will include things like the first time Social Media appears in a book title and most popular buzzword(s), as well as various representations of general and specific categories.
• A white paper that offers a more formal treatment of the methodology, results, and implications.

If you’d like to be informed as soon as these and other results are published, please join our mailing list or subscribe to the S.M.A.R.T. Blog.

 

What’s on Your Mind?

To enhance the value of this project, we’d love to hear from you. Specifically, we’d like to know things like:

• What books would you like to make sure we include? Are there specific “best” lists we should double check? Favorite books or authors? Your own tomes? We’re especially interested in hearing about recently-published books, as we are more likely to have missed them.
• What other topics, categories and/or questions do you think are important to explore?
• What questions do you have? What would you like to know? What are you curious about?

Please add a comment or email books@sminorgs.net with your specific suggestions. Thanks!

 

Related Content

Paper or Digital? The Results are In… And It’s a (Virtual) Tie! With over 500 votes and nearly 200 comments, the results of a recent poll indicate people are fairly evenly split between paper and digital book formats. Although the poll wasn’t perfectly scientific, the richness of its results can be of great value to authors, book publishers, and designers, as well as professionals in other fields such as training and development, academia, and communications.

4 Big Barriers to Social Media Adoption in Organizations: Key Research Findings. The results of a unique and ground-breaking study by Silverman Research (n=644+) indicate that there are four main barriers to increased adoption of social technologies in organizations: lack of knowledge and understanding, unprepared leadership, fear, and the absence of a well-grounded business case. This post highlights those findings and offers recommendations for overcoming the barriers. It also provides a link to a free report with details on the research and its results.

Creating a Digital Era Brand: 13 Key Factors… and a Request

Creating a new brand identity in the Digital Era poses a unique set of challenges – especially for a technology-oriented organization. This post suggests 13 key factors that should be considered to maximize the likelihood of success. And in true 2.0 fashion, we invite folks to participate in a survey to help us decide which of four new brand options we’ve identified is the best one for us to use going forward.

 

Over the past 12-18 months it has become increasingly obvious that the Social Media in Organizations Community (SMinOrgs) needs a new name/brand (we explain why at the end of the post). The first order of business for 2013, therefore, has been to create a new identity. Working with our Global Leadership Team and staff, I have embarked on an intensive exploration and investigation that has not only produced four viable options, but has taught us a lot about the most important factors to consider when establishing a new brand in the Digital Era. These factors are primarily relevant for organizations, but they can also be used by individuals who want to create valuable brand identities for themselves on multiple digital platforms.

This post provides a checklist of the 13 factors we used to identify four options for our new brand. In addition to sharing those factors, we’d love input from a wide range of folks as to which of the four options is best. After all, this is the 2.0 Era, and we know better than to try to finalize our new brand without soliciting input from “the crowd.” To that end, we greatly appreciate your participating in and sharing this brief survey.

The survey will be open until February 15, 2013, and we’ll publish the results in a future blog post. In the meantime, if you have other recommendations for factors to consider when (re)creating a Digital Era brand, we’d love to hear them. Thanks!

Next on the agenda, creating a logo and a tagline…

- Courtney Shelton Hunt

 

A Digital Era Brand Should…

Based on our experience with the SMinOrgs brand over the past 3+ years, lessons learned from the (re)branding efforts of others (e.g., Netflix and the Qwikster debacle), our internal discussions and fairly exhaustive research, we developed a list of important criteria for creating and selecting our new brand name. Specifically, a Digital Era brand should…

1. Reflect the essence(s) of what an organization and its product/services are all about rather than being a literal description
2. Maintain relevance over time, even as the entity and its focus change
3. Be unique but not confusing
4. Have an easily explainable meaning (but that meaning doesn't need to be immediately obvious)
5. Invoke positive emotions (or at least not invoke negative ones)
6. Not be used in another context with a meaning that's contrary to the organization’s objectives
7. Not appear too Anglicized or American (especially true if the target market is global)
8. Be short - fewer than 10 characters
9. Not have to rely on CamelCase to make the meaning/name clear; look equally acceptable in any capitalization combination
10. Be relatively easy to pronounce (or at least the mispronunciations should be bearable!)
11. Not end in an S (creates too many problems when trying to write in the possessive)
12. Be available as a url (.com, .net, and .org), Twitter handle, etc. (and be sure to grab the "digital real estate" you might need asap, so no one else can take it)
13. Be trademark-able

 

Why We Need a New Brand Identity

SMinOrgs was started as a LinkedIn group called Social Media in HR in May 2009. By the end of that year, the name had changed to Social Media in Organizations to reflect the growing community’s broader focus on all functional areas.

With the rise of mobile technology and cloud computing, as well as the increasing importance of analytics, our focus has continued to evolve and expand. Although the applications and implications of social software are still critically important, its impact cannot be considered in isolation from other major technological changes. We therefore need a new brand identity that better reflects our focus on social software and mobile devices and cloud-based computing and analytics, both individually and with respect to their interplay.

The human capital/people implications of technological change have been and will remain paramount, but in addition to classic HR considerations, our perspective encompasses interest areas such as communication and collaboration, knowledge management and innovation, training and development, organizational change, and individual career management. Woven throughout these emphases is a focus on leadership, both formal and informal, at all organizational levels – and even from organizations themselves. The notion of what it means to be a leader in the Digital Era is ever-present…

Here’s a working description that reflects our current focus:

We are a global, multi-disciplinary professional community whose members represent organizations of all types and sizes in all economic sectors. Our mission is to help these individuals and their organizations function more efficiently and effectively in the Digital Era. Going beyond marketing/branding, sales, public relations and customer service, we primarily focus on the internal applications and implications of social and digital technologies, particularly in terms of the opportunities and challenges they create for employees, leaders, and organizational functioning. Focal topics include risk management, strategy, governance, organizational structure and design, employee engagement, and all aspects of human capital management including job design, talent management, compensation, training and development, internal communication and collaboration, etc.  In addition to addressing changes that have immediate and direct impacts on organizations, we also explore general social and economic trends that have longer-term or indirect impacts.

One of the key benefits we offer is access to foresight (about the present, future present and future trends, etc.), which allows members to gain insight into how their professional lives and organizations are likely to be changed, maybe even radically transformed, as the Digital Era progresses.

We have idnetified four possible new brand names that generally reflect this focus and - perhaps more importantly - meet the 13 criteria listed above. We’d love to know what other people think of them and will use that input to make a final decision. To that end, we hope you'll participate in and share this brief survey, which will be open until February 15, 2013. Thanks!

7 Reasons To Love - and Embrace - SlideShare

Most people have heard of SlideShare, but they probably don't realize how powerful and diverse the platform is, or the important role it can play in their content marketing and digital engagement efforts. This post offers seven reasons for taking another look and considering an upgrade in 2013.

===//===

According to this infographic, SlideShare is the "quiet giant of content marketing." I consider our SlideShare (SS) presence a vital part of the SMinOrgs and GCDEL digital network. We've had a Silver Pro account ($19/month) for years, and it's definitely been a worthwhile investment.

Here are some of the reasons SS could make a significant contribution to your digital presence and engagement as well...

1. It's not just for sharing slides. Sure, it's a great way to share samples of your work and expertise via presentation decks, but you can also use it to share documents (like the SMQ Quiz and the Trickle-Up Socialnomics white paper) and videos (like these clips from a presentation atAllstate).

2. It reduces the need for attachments. When you want to share content (e.g., a presentation deck) with someone, you can include a hyperlinked reference to the deck on SS in an email rather than attaching a large file. The new "Send Tracker" feature for Pro accounts makes sharing presentation decks even easier, and also provides tracking data.

3. It's public AND private. With a Pro account you can upload files you want to share only with select groups (e.g., attendees from a private, paid-for presentation), as well as files you want to share widely. The private files have a "secret url" you can then send to folks via email or embed in a document.

4. It can be used for live presentations and meetings. The Zipcast feature can provide a great alternative to services like GoToMeeting or free screen sharing tools, especially when you're presenting to or meeting with a small group.

5. You can do LOTS of tracking. SS provides ongoing counts of the number of people who have viewed, favorited, and downloaded shared content. With a Pro account you can also gather "leads" from folks who have downloaded files. And when a presentation is trending on another platform like LinkedIn or Facebook, SS will feature it on its home page. We've been fortunate to have that happen with our content about half a dozen times!

6. It's a search engine. This is probably the #1 reason to love SS, even though few people talk about it. I certainly try to cross-promote our SS content via other channels like LI, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest, but most of the views come from within SS itself. For example, there have been over 15,000 views of the different versions of the SMQ Quiz over the past couple of years, the majority of which have come from searches within SS.

7. They keep getting better. Even before SS was acquired by LI, they were committed to continously improving and enhancing their product and features. For example, with a Pro account you can add audio files to your presentation decks to turn them imto slidecasts, and can embed YouTube videos in them as well.  And although there was a bit of hue and cry when the SS application was disabled in LI, the new integration between the two platforms is much better and offers much more control.

Are you an avid user/fan of SlideShare? What other recommendations for leveraging it would you add?

- Courtney Shelton Hunt

 

More of Our Sample Content

In addition to the items referenced above, here are five examples of the kinds of diverse content we've had a lot of success sharing via SlideShare:

• SMinOrgs flyer
• Blogging: A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide
• Twitter Hashtag Decision Making Flow Chart
• Career Management in the Digital Era
• Impact 99 Closing Keynote

Of course there's much more. Please visit our SlideShare channel to check it out!

Social and Digital Tech Trends: 9 Take-Aways for YOU

The advance of social and digital technologies continues unabated. We witnessed dramatic changes in 2012, and the anticipated changes in 2013 promise to be equally profound. This post provides resources that capture some of the key trends and predictions and offers nine bottom-line insights about what these trends mean for both individuals and organizations.

===//===

Although we tend to emphasize personal resolutions and goals at the beginning of each new year, there is value in establishing professionally-oriented priorities as well. With that in mind, I’d like to share some of the resources I’ve gathered about social and digital technology trends and offer my thoughts about what these trends mean for professionals in all functional areas, at all career stages, and in organizations of all types and sizes (in other words, everyone!). Armed with this knowledge and insight, I hope folks will give serious consideration to how they will bridge the “digital divides” in their professional lives to enhance both their own technological competencies and those of the individuals, groups and organizations with which they work.

Have you established any specific technology-oriented goals for 2013? If so, I’d love to hear them. I also welcome links to other resources on trends and predictions for the year ahead, as well as additional insights.

Thanks!

- Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

Coming Up: In the next few weeks I’ll be revisiting some of the issues I covered in early 2012, including digital technology aspirations for the year ahead, the “ROI question,” and the need for training and education to enhance digital competencies. I'll also be sharing new ideas about some of the things individuals and organizations need to think and do to be more successful with digital technology in 2013 and beyond. Please check back or subscribe to the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog to be notified when those posts are published.

 

The Bottom Line for Individuals and Organizations

Let's begin with the end - what the trends and predictions shared below mean for you, your peers and leaders, and the organizations of which you're a part...

1. In case you’re still wondering, the Digital Era is not coming, and it’s not just getting started. It’s HERE.

2. While many new technology trends, like public social media platforms and mobile technology, have reached a certain maturity level, there is still significant upside potential with respect to both growth and opportunity. We are nowhere near saturation.

3. New technologies, platforms and tools, as well as new applications for existing technologies and tools, are being developed Every. Single. Second. Every. Single. Day. And there is no end in sight. Truly the only constant is change.

4. Technology development and adoption may happen first and fastest in the individual consumer space, but they eventually reach and spread throughout organizations.

5. There is a convergence among four main technology movements: social software, mobile devices and access, cloud and network computing, and data analytics. Individually, each one of these movements is incredibly powerful. Together, they have the potential to create dramatic transformations.

6. Now more than ever it’s incumbent upon organizational leaders to be focused on the future and to operate with a big-picture, wholistic, strategic perspective. Change is happening too fast and in too many different dimensions, and falling too far behind could ultimately be disastrous.

7. Even more importantly, leaders of all types must have at least a high-level understanding of how social and digital technologies work. Lacking that understanding can be viewed as irresponsible – and possibly even a breach of their fiduciary responsibilities.Leaders who don't see value in pursuing the opportunities presented by new technologies must still be prepared to manage the unavoidable challenges and risks.

8. The Digital Divide is increasingly being defined by lack of knowledge and use rather than lack of access. Professionals at all levels and at all career stages who are socially savvy and digitally engaged will reap both direct and indirect rewards, especially as the differences between them and their less-savvy peers grow. Being a “digital dinosaur” is a luxury few people can afford.

9. Individuals and organizations should no longer assume that an LIY (Learn It Yourself) approach to developing digital competencies is an effective strategy (if it ever was). People need help to climb their learning curves efficiently and effectively – and providing that help in both structured and unstructured ways is a critical investment that will pay dividends in both the short term and over time. We have to stop thinking about technology education and training as an (unnecessary) expense.

 

General Social and Digital Technology Trends

Mary Meeker's Latest Must-Read Presentation on the State of the Web. Call me a geek, but I look forward to this annual summation from the Kleiner Perkins partner. The 88-slide deck offers a great snapshot of Digital Era realities and possibilities.

The Future of Digital. A 137-slide deck of trends in digital media created by Henry Blodget and his team at Business Insider to kick off IGNITION: Future of Digital conference in the fall. Even when you are aware of how drastically and rapidly things are changing, some of the data is still mind boggling - especially when it’s represented visually!

Social Media around the World 2012. This 129-slide deck from InSites Consulting provides “insights on the status of social media and more than 2.000 facts & figures about social media in 19 countries. Topics cover main adoption and usage, interactions of consumers with brands, impact of branded conversations, evolution of mobile and the opportunities for structural collaboration between consumers and brands.”

Nielsen’s Social Media Report 2012. A 15-page ebook from NM Incite (a joint venture with McKinsey) that mixes text and visuals to provide a series of snapshots on topics ranging from the global social consumer to social TV and social care.

 

Technology Trends and Predictions for Organizations

Although the focus in these pieces is on commercial enterprises, many of the ideas and implications can be extended to organizations of all types and sizes in other sectors as well.

The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report. This report is based on a survey of more than 1,200 IT and business professionals, as well as 250 academics and 450 students, throughout the world. The bottom line… four pivotal information technologies are rapidly reshaping how enterprises operate: mobile technology, business analytics, cloud computing and social business.

Forrester – Cloud Predictions for 2013. The 14 predictions in this post nicely reflect the fact that cloud computing is coming of age. A related post on the Cisco blog – Six Predictions for Cloud Collaboration in 2013 – provides a nice complement to the Forrester predictions.

The Leading Indicators of Social Business Maturity in 2012. Although I think his numbers and estimations are too optimistic, the underlying ideas and trends that Dion Hinchcliffe addresses are spot-on. The piece also provides links to additional resources. He followed it up recently with Sizing up Social Business for 2012.

The Can't-Miss Social Media Trends For 2013. Ryan Holmes, the CEO of HootSuite, makes six predictions about the kinds of growth and changes we can expect in the year ahead. In 5 Ways Social Media Will Change The Way You Work in 2013, he offers his take on some of the ways in which social media will impact the workplace.

 

Digital Era Leadership

The World in 2013: A Top Ten for Business Leaders. This Economist article is a must read for everyone, not just leaders - and certainly not just business leaders. Seven of the ten trends involve social and digital technologies in some way, and their impacts potentially affect organizations of all types and sizes.

Social Media And The Boardroom: Critical Questions Directors Need To Ask. This Fast Company article offers specific suggestions that reflect the fact that “social media are no longer novel stakeholder and consumer outreach tools; they are the new normal in the modern business operations environment.”

9 Digital Era Photo Essays

Nine photo essays, using images from around the world, tell nine different but similar stories about life in the Digital Era, highlighting social media and digital technologies. These stories focus on both individuals and organizations and emphasize the need to adapt to changing times in ways that blend the best of the earth with the best of the cloud.

===//===

I am a visual person, which is one of the main reasons I've been so enthusiastic about establishing an SMinOrgs presence on Pinterest and Tumblr. I especially love photo imagery. I've been an avid photographer most of my life, and as my friends and family can attest, I love using pictures to tell a story... 

Though it wasn't intentional, the first official S.M.A.R.T. Blog post I wrote was a photo essay reflecting on what the city of Rome, Italy can teach us about building digital communities. Since then I've created eight more photo essays via different media. This post highlights all of them, categorized in two groups: Signs of the (Changing) Times and Digital Era Reflections.

I hope you get as much out of viewing them as I did out of creating them. And if you know of other great Digital Era photo essays, please add a link in the comments. Thanks!

Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD

PS - You can find more original photos and reflections in our Digital Era Images and THIS is Social Media Pinterest boards.

 

Signs of the (Changing) Times

Social and Digital Technology in Rome and Cairo. A Facebook album that contains examples of social media and other digital technologies from my trip to Rome, Italy and Cairo, Egypt in February 2010. I was particularly interested in examples that contained elements of surprise or defied people's expectations of how these technologies can and should be used.

 

 

Tourism in the Digital Era. A Facebook album that shares some of the ways in which digital technology in general - and social media in particular - enriched a road trip in the summer of 2011. Also check out the accompanying blog post: Technology-Enriched Travel: 10 Take-Aways that Reveal Digital Era Truths.

 

Celebrating "Books" in the Digital Era. A Facebook album of photos from the 2012 Printer's Row Lit Fest in Chicago, which used to be called the Printer's Row Book Fair. As our notion of what a "book" is morphed, and print media gave way to digital media, the name - and what was being celebrated - also had to change. These images and my observations reflect those changes.

 

Dublin in the Digital Era: A City in Transition. Using images from a recent trip to Dublin, Ireland (Sept 2012), this SlideShare photo essay offers examples of how the city and its residents are moving forward into the Digital Era, while simultaneously clinging to remnants of a paper-based way of life.

 

An Post: A Venerable Institution Transforms Itself. On the trip to Dublin, I was also captivated by the country's Post Office (An Post). Unlike the US postal system, An Post seems to have done a great job of transforming itself over time to adapt to changing circumstances and technologies. This SlideShare photo essay offers examples of how it has embraced and responded to Digital Era realities, and demonstrates that its current adaptive capacity is deeply rooted in a history of flexibility and nimbleness. 

 

Technology at the HR Tech Conference: Old School Meets New. The significant progress the HR industry has made in developing and leveraging social and digital technologies was clear at the 2012 HR Tech Conference in Chicago. Especially impressive was how "high tech" was used to facilitate "high touch" interactions.

 

 

Digital Era Reflections

11 Lessons about Digital Communities from Rome. I visited Rome for the first time in 2010. Struck by powerful images, I decided to study the city while I explored it. Viewing it as a metaphor for virtual communities, I was curious to see what kinds of insights I could glean into the factors that should be considered when building, maintaining, and participating in digital communities. I identified 11 lessons, organized into three themes.

 

 

 

The Early Bird May Get the Worm, But the Brave Bird Gets... The Fries?!?! In June 2010, I (unintentionally) shared my lunch with some brave sparrows who made me reflect on the role of bravery in the context of social media adoption.

 

 

Think You Know What Social Media Is? Think Again. Using images from a road trip in the summer of 2011, this SlideShare photo essay demonstrates that social media is about more than digital technology. The essay strives to demystify social media and get people to think more broadly about it and its economic and social roles. Providing this perspective on digital manifestations of social media should help everyone from rookies to mavens, detractors to advocates, understand that today's social media isn't just novel - it's normal.

Social Media and HR: Lessons and Reflections from SUMMIT 2012

Want to know how to increase the role of social media in your organization’s HR strategy? Or maybe you’re just beginning to talk about it and don’t know where to start... A panel of senior professionals at SUMMIT 2012, the annual premiere event of The Human Resources Management Association of Chicago (HRMAC), recently shared their experiences and lessons learned. This post offers tips and takeaways for enhancing the effectiveness of social media initiatives in any organization and raises questions about how individual HR practitioners, their organizations, and professional associations like HRMAC should navigate the road ahead. 

===//===

This is a guest post from The Human Resources Management Association of Chicago (HRMAC).

HRMAC held its annual premiere event, SUMMIT 2012 on November 8^th at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. With over 800 attendees and four general sessions, one of the highlights of the day was a panel discussion entitled Social Media and Mobile Communications: Leverage Your Ability to Connect, Share, and Engage. The session was moderated by WTTW Chicago Tonight’s Phil Ponce, and the panel included three leaders from the Chicago area: Joel Warady, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Enjoy Life Foods; Paul Hamann, President of The Night Ministry*; and Veronica Micklin, Manager of Associate Training at True Value Company (panelist bios appear at the end of this post).

The session began with a few poll questions that produced interesting results and set the stage for the discussion to follow:

• 51% of the respondents disagreed with the statement “Social media is important to my company’s overall HR strategy” (35% agreed, and 14% were uncertain).
• For professional outreach 87% said they mostly use LinkedIn (4% said Facebook and 3% said Twitter).
• 52% indicated they mostly use social media for recruitment; 34%said networking.
• 88% responded that their organization still has a significant learning curve in integrating social media into their HR strategy.

To early adopters and social media enthusiasts, these percentages may seem surprising and perhaps disheartening, but they are fairly typical and indicate that social media adoption in most organizations is still in its infancy.

In their introductory comments, the panelists emphasized that social media is a means for connecting and needs to be used as such in organizations, especially in HR. They also highlighted the fact that social media should be used for two-way communication and should become a platform for dialogue. Specifically, Hamann noted that social media is a great way to connect with employees who work odd-shifts or might not be in working environments that easily connect them with the rest of the organization. And Micklin reminded the group that people are always learning from one another. Offering electronic media simply facilitates a natural process.

Warady suggested that organizations consider hiring a ”Chief Listening Officer” to identify opportunities for improvement based on what employees and customers are saying about the organization and its products and services. Hamann recommended that the CEO set an example by using social media as his or her primary means of communication. The panelists also advised:

• A senior person or the CEO must be prepared for an increased level of transparency that will follow the initiation of social media. If she or he is not ready to be more transparent, then the use of the media cannot be complete or effective.
• Be aware that the use of social media will bring with it a whole host of other concerns that need to be addressed, such as policies around its use, employee access to it “off hours,” etc.

When asked by Phil Ponce about implementing social media into HR strategies and with employees, the panelists gave this advice:

• Start with a process or group in which sharing will be natural and the convenience will be appreciated, such as a cross-functional project or multi-site team.
• Start small and document your successes. Run a pilot in which you move communication from email to a new platform. Make access and participation easy.
• Invest in one-on-one time you need to make participants feel competent and excited about participating. You can prevent small questions from becoming barriers. Everyone learns at a different pace.
• Shake off any age bias. You’ll be surprised at the fast adoption and creative use by Baby Boomers.

Hamann also noted, “The constant goal is to keep your employees interested and involved in the overall social media plan of the company.” And Micklin suggested attendees remember the four E’s of social media: Engage, Educate, Excite and Evangelize.

 

Where Do We Go From Here?

The social media panel was both informative and stimulating, providing HR professionals and social media advocates alike with ideas and advice on how to better leverage social media and engage employees in its use. It also raised a number of questions and provided important food for thought. When we connect this session with the opening keynote from Penelope Trunk (The Brazen Careerist), in which she championed the idea of HR professionals assuming more significant roles as change agents, we were left with a few questions of our own:

• What role should HR professionals play in helping organizations and their members become more socially and digitally sophisticated?
• What changes need to take place in organizations to enable HR to assume a greater leadership role with respect to the digitization of work and the workplace?
• What changes do HR professionals need to make to better prepare themselves to take on those leadership roles?
• What role should a professional association like HRMAC take on to help HR professionals, HR functions, and organizations better prepare themselves for success in the Digital Era?

HRMAC has been and will continue to help its members address these questions and more as the Digital Era continues to evolve. We’d love to hear your thoughts on them as well.

 

About HRMAC

Since its founding in 1915, HRMAC has been leading the dialogue on workplace strategy, connecting HR leaders with the industry’s best-in-class resources, and growing Chicago area companies and talent. With a membership of over 750 organizations and a network of more than 7,000 HR professionals, HRMAC is the oldest organization of its kind in the country and independent of other local, state or national organizations. For more information on HRMAC please visit our website at www.hrmac.org.

 

About the Panelists

Joel Warady is Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Enjoy Life Foods, a leading brand in the North American Gluten-Free, Allergy-Friendly CPG category. Prior to joining Enjoy Life, Joel was Principal of Joel Warady Group, a Marketing, Social Media, and Business Growth consulting firm. Internationally, Joel is respected as a marketing and social media expert, speaker and business advisor. 

 

Paul Hamann is President & CEO of The Night Ministry, a 36-year-old Chicago non-profit that compassionately provides housing, health care, outreach, spiritual care, and social services to adults and youth who struggle with homelessness, poverty and loneliness. The Chicago Community Trust named Paul as one of three Nonprofit Experienced Leader Fellows for 2012, and in July of 2012, he was awarded a Champion of Change Award by the White House and the Federal Interagency Council on Homelessness.

*Disclosure: The Night Ministry is a client of Renaissance Strategic Solutions, which is Courtney Shelton Hunt’s consultancy.

Veronica Micklin is the Manager of Associate Training at True Value Company where she provides leadership in helping employees improve their job performance and develop their careers. For True Value University, she created a blended multi-level curriculum for company managers, and developed the series Human Resource Toolkits, used extensively by True Value retailers.