Why the political parties have no Social Media Policy?

2012 is an election year. This is not only the case in the US, but also in many other countries including my own, Belgium. There will be local elections and union elections this year. But I am looking forward, with a lot of anticipation, to how US politics will be using Social Media to rally to victory. Four years ago, Team Obama surprised everybody, but this year, many politicians and candidates will be fighting back and use the same weapons.

What I can not stop wondering about is whether the Democratic or Republican party has a Social Media Policy. I do not think so and in all honesty I am not sure they can make one that sticks. In reviewing the database of social media policies (http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php), there are a number of elements that always show up in such a policy. Maybe this is a good time to benchmark some paragraphs of these policies versus the political world. It will become apparent why it would be close to impossible to create a Social Media Policy (that would stick to) for any political party: Here are some clauses and further meaning:

• Respect your Audience: One should show proper consideration for other’s privacy and topics considered inflammatory.
• It is a Conversation: it is supposed to be a two-way conversation and not just shouting out to the audience.
• Respect your competition, do not pick fights or launch personal attacks: Seems very obvious and does not really require any further explanation.
• Be honest and transparent: do not be sneaky or devious. Do not have others go out there and say good things about you and bad things about others. Stay away from ghostwriters.
• Be yourself and respectful: Voters will see through your marketing tricks and talk. Be passionate and let that show through your personality.
• Get your facts right: Separate your opinions from your facts. How often is this not forgotten?
• Admit mistakes, apologize and correct your mistakes: do not be afraid to say that you were wrong. Admit to those mistakes and correct them.
• Think twice about posting: Before you post think about how it will be perceived since that is what people will see as the reality. The internet does not forget easy. Make sure you are allowed to post this content.
• Do not lie: Obviously since you are personally responsible for “speaking” on a public platform.
• Add Value: People’s time is valuable so do not waste it with.
• Aim for Quality and not Quantity: Offer your contribution with content and in context.
• Do not spam your audience: Respect people’s time.

As most companies and organizations are urged to create good social media guidelines and policies, I think politicians should set the example. However, I know that politicians stand on the barricade when they see these types of policies, but just like marketers they feel that their hands are tied. So I wonder if any of the political parties are even giving this any thought and would love to hear from them. Any thoughts?

The Social Media Policy undercover

Social Media Policy is more than a document; it is a process and an attitude.

More and more but still too few companies are thinking about creating a social media policy. This however only the beginning. From experience I can say that within companies that have a social media policy less than 10% of all employees know about its existence. Even worse, earlier this year I even encountered HR managers (from ICT companies) that were unaware of their own policy even though it is publicly available on the internet. So there is a need for more than just a document.

The implementation of social media must be seen as an implementation of an ICT application. Remember, social media platforms are true Cloud Computing applications and require thus a good implementation plan. The creation of the policy document is only a little step in this process. Additionally, you can use the social media policy to create the necessary awareness of social media for all your employees. They can learn about the who, the what, the benefits and the dangers of social media. It is important to show them that the individual’s behavior cannot only influence the perception about them but also the company in both positive and negative sense. The guidelines mentioned in the policy will enlist your employees to be your best ambassadors. A benefit that is too often forgotten.

Every policy contains both traditional guidelines and policies about the use of social media during and after working hours. It is also good to include the different platforms and profiles where the company can be found. This often forgotten and leads to employees making all kinds of groups and profiles without any coordination or approvals. Another benefit of your social media policy is that you clearly state what training (platforms where the company is active sounds like a good rule) is made available to all employees to make the most of the platforms. Let’s be honest, who reads a book on how to set your facebook privacy settings?

And then there is the distribution of the policy within your organization. Do not just send an email or put it on the intranet. This is the quickest way to go into hiding and thus not to be understood or known by the employees. A personal presentation or creative approach will reap benefits and create excitement. Creating a video (Ministry of Justice of the state Victoria), a commented PowerPoint (Salesforce.com) or a cartoon strip (Adidas). Reaching the employees individually is key especially since you are handing them useful guidelines to protect their (and the company’s) reputation.

Now your policy is effective! Successful companies are those where the social media policy promotes ambassadorship and people are made aware through training and induction programs. If you have any questions or comments, please react via the comments field in this blog!

Positieve redenen om aan mobiele sociale media deel te nemen

Mobiel is de toekomst. Smartphones en tablets nemen gestaag de functies van desktops en laptops over. Steeds krachtiger processoren, grotere geheugenruimtes en geschiktere schermen zorgen ervoor dat we een bijna gelijkaardige gebruikservaring krijgen. Mobiel internet en WiFi garanderen daarbij dat men altijd en overal toegang tot internet heeft. Het gevolg is dat men meer en meer gebruik zal maken van het mobiele toestel ten koste van de klassieke PC’s. Die trend is al zeer duidelijk merkbaar bij PC bouwers. En dus gaat men ook meer en meer van sociale media gebruik maken op die mobiele toestellen. Niet alleen vanwege die natuurlijke evolutie, ook omdat mobiele sociale media een aantal zeer belangrijke extra voordelen bieden.

Wat zouden de belangrijkste redenen zijn waarom iemand ervoor kiest om ook via de mobiele telefoon actief te zijn op sociale media? Die kunnen zeer divers zijn, maar laat ons hier even alleen op de positieve aspecten concentreren.

Eerst en vooral is er het aspect connectie. U gebruikt het om in contact te blijven met familie, directe vrienden en collega’s. Dit zijn over het algemeen de mensen die in de contactenlijst van de telefoon staan.  En daarnaast heeft u dikwijls reeds een veel bredere digitale kennissenkring opgebouwd op sites als LinkedIn en Facebook. Ook met die mensen kan u op uw mobiele toestel directer en sneller in contact komen dan voorheen.

Het plezierige aspect van mobiele sociale media mag zeker niet onderschat worden. Enkele van dergelijke media sites bieden incentives aan om het verkeer naar hun sites te verhogen, maar dat is slechts bijzaak. Het echt onderhoudende element is simpelweg het bevredigen van de natuurlijke nieuwsgierigheid die ons mensen eigen is. Met een mobiel toestel, dat een kleiner scherm heeft dan een PC, wordt de aandacht veel meer gefocust op de informatie die er te lezen valt. Daardoor krijgt uw sociale mediabeleving op zo een toestel ook een veel directere ervaring.

Zelf heeft u net daardoor ook eerder de neiging van veel sneller te reageren en hoeft u niet te wachten tot u weer achter uw PC zit om updates rond uw status de wereld in te sturen. Met een mobiel toestel kan u hier en nu onmiddellijk een update geven, reacties posten en contactverzoeken aanvaarden. De interactie met de anderen wordt daardoor groter en voor een belangrijk stuk zelfs persoonlijker.

De meeste mobiele toestellen zijn daarenboven uitgerust met een GPS chip en kunnen zelfs aan de hand van de WiFi netwerken waarmee u verbindt hun locatie bepalen. Dit biedt u de mogelijkheid interessante plaatsen waar u komt gemakkelijk te bewaren en connectie te maken met de mensen die op die plaatsen het mooie weer maken. Dit is niet enkel handig voor het verhogen van uw eigenwaarde door de wereld te laten weten waar u bent en wat u doet. Vaak over het hoofd geziene redenen om locatiebepaling en sociale media te combineren, is enerzijds het aanleggen van een verzameling herinneringen aan momenten en activiteiten uit het verleden, en anderzijds op plaatsen waar u aanwezig bent uw eigen intellectuele nieuwsgierigheid bevredigen. Probeer apps als Goggles of Layar maar eens uit.

En tenslotte kunnen mobiele sociale media zorgen voor een verbetering van uw tijdsgebruik. Iedereen dient wel eens te wachten of anders verloren tijd door te komen. Waar u anders een deel van uw productieve tijd opofferde door via uw PC aan sociale media deel te nemen, kan u dat nu vermijden door dit tijdens die anders dode momenten te doen op uw mobiele telefoon.

Met andere woorden: er zijn heel wat argumenten te bedenken pro mobiele sociale media. Maar een waarschuwing is daarbij evenzeer op zijn plaats. Zoals met zoveel in het leven kan overdaad schaden. Hou de ervaring dus positief en vermijd obsessief raadpleginggedrag en impulsieve reacties. U heeft waarschijnlijk toch ook wel een leven buiten dat kleine scherm?

Joris De Sutter  is Partner bij Vanguard Leadership.

Twitter/LinkedIn

Have you joined or left Google+?

In July Google announced its newest addition in terms of social media: Google+.  This was Google’s next attempt to make a big splash in the social media world.  At that time I was really questioning the viability of such a new network and I think looking at where we are today, I still stand by my views.

Yes, I ranted and raved about the fact that I was not able to get onto Google+ but with thanks to a few friends I finally succeeded.  The frenzy Google+ was looking for did not miss its target.  The number of users grew to 20 million in no time.

Over the time I have been using Google+, I have not seen any (good) reasons why I would drop my other social media platforms and again I have been proven right.  Today, Google+ might claim to have millions of people but like I many have created an account, seen what the buzz was about and then left account inactive.  My point is that if all my friends are on other platforms, why should I switch…

Even worse, I ran across a post (http://mashable.com/2011/10/12/eric-schmidt-google-plus/) about Google senior management not being on Google+.  It seems that they were not eating their own dog food.  Since the public announcement of this fact, Google management has decided to join.  Now let’s see how their activity levels will be in the next months.

Looking at the stats for Google+, we can see that about 40 million accounts exist but it seems a boy’s network and a lot of them are working the field of social media.  Lately, posts have been showing up that Google+ is declining and/or loosing active users.  The main reason behind this is Facebook and the other social media platforms are taking the “new Google+” functionality on board quickly to re-establish their lead.  So what Google+ is accomplishing is to keep the competition on their toes, which is not bad!

Now that Google+ has opened up to the public, I am wondering if the adoption rate by “real” people that will actively use it, is going to go up.

If you just joined I would love to hear your experiences.  If you left, why?

Van Push naar Pull in Social Media

Push email is in het bedrijfsleven goed doorgedrongen. Met oplossingen als Groupwise (Novell), Lotus (IBM), Exchange (Microsoft) tot zelfs Google Apps kan de actieve professional op een perfecte manier bij blijven met wat er rond zich gebeurt. Belangrijke mails worden verwerkt, contacten en documenten beheerd en kalenderitems worden uitgevoerd. De zogenaamde push functionaliteit, die er voor zorgt dat die dingen nu onmiddellijk in real time onder onze aandacht gebracht worden zonder enige vertraging, is voor de ene een zegen, maar voor de ander echter een gesel. Ongeacht of u nu tot de eerste of de tweede categorie behoort, het bedrijfsleven kan niet meer zonder push omdat de samenwerkingsmodellen binnen bedrijven er grotendeels op gebaseerd zijn.

Ondertussen zijn met Web 2.0 de diverse social media netwerksites sterk opgekomen. LinkedIn en Twitter spelen een belangrijke rol op bedrijfsvlak, maar Facebook is zakelijk zeker ook niet te onderschatten. Daarnaast zijn er ook nog mediasites als Flickr, Picasa en Youtube waarmee bedrijven promotioneel aan de slag kunnen, net zoals met locatie gebaseerde toepassingen zoals Foursquare. En tenslotte nog zijn er ook nog fora, blogs en Slideshare die toelaten gerichte informatie met de doelgroepen te delen. Wat al deze social media gemeen hebben, is dat ook zij met push functionaliteit werken. Gebeurt er ergens iets in een kanaal waarop u geabonneerd bent? Dan kunt u daar onmiddellijk van op de hoogte gesteld worden.

Hoe u die verwittigingen ontvangt hangt van uw eigen voorkeur af, tenminste indien u de moeite neemt de instellingen van elk afzonderlijk platform te bestuderen en aan te passen. Wie dat niet doet of door de bomen het bos niet meer ontwaart kent de gevolgen. Waar push ons vroeger hielp om op de hoogte te blijven van belangrijke berichten, hebben veel mensen nu juist hulp nodig om bij te blijven met de push functionaliteit op zichzelf. We leven in een tijd met een overvloed van informatie vanuit ontzettend veel  sociale webdiensten, die ons via PC en smartphone bereiken. En dat komt op velen over als een bombardement.

Uiteindelijk is dit een probleem dat niet zozeer vanuit een technologisch standpunt dient aangepakt te worden, dan wel vanuit een verandering van de eigen visie op wat sociale media voor u betekenen. De focus ligt uiteindelijk op het sociale, en niet op de media die slechts het vehikel is dat de boodschap draagt. Er is dus vooral een mentale aanpassing nodig. Wat zijn uw verwachtingen eigenlijk van uw deelname aan de diverse netwerken? Laat u alles gewoon op u afkomen (het push bombardement) of probeert u effectief in dialoog te gaan? Indien u naar het laatste neigt zal u vanzelf merken dat u langzaamaan automatisch naar een Pull functionaliteit zal evolueren. Al doende leert men.

Die evolutie naar Pull, om slechts die updates die u echt interesseren en waarmee u aan de slag wilt er uit te pikken, is niet evident. Er bestaan handige tools die u hiermee kunnen helpen en diverse trainingen en workshops zullen u zeker op de juiste weg zetten. Maar vergeet nooit dat de belangrijkste tool zich steeds tussen uw twee oren bevindt.

Joris De Sutter  is Partner bij Vanguard Leadership.

Twitter/LinkedIn

To Be or Not To Be on Social Media?

Many companies and professionals are already using social media to promote their products and services, connect with their clients and prospects and manage their reputation.  However, there are even more skeptical people in this world (working in smaller companies or as freelancers) that think of 1000 reasons why they should not be present.  Let me give 10 reason why they should reconsider.

Looking for new clients and prospects?

1. We live in a knowledge society, so sharing our knowledge is best done through a blog which will increase your visibility.  You will be able to provide your clients and prospects with relevant information and score higher in Google Search (SEO).

2. Your Blog will help you demonstrate your expertise in your field.  You will become a source for information for both your existing clients and your prospective clients.

3. Social Media allows you to be on top of things.  You are able to spot questions in your field of expertise and answer them quickly.

Looking for new contacts?

4. The power of social networking lies in the 2nd degree (the contacts of your contacts).  Social Media allows you to reach out to these 2nd degree contacts easily to establish new connections.

5. Social Media allows you to identify the Influencers in your domain of expertise.  Connecting with these Influencers will allow you to (possibly) use them for introductions, recommendations, and feedback.

6. Storytelling  is very powerful, so you should tell a good story!  Clients and prospects alike will get to know you better and this will lead to more trust.

7. By now you know you can not do everything yourself.  Creating a strong network is thus a must.  Social Media allows you to find Freelancers, Consultants and new business partners quickly and efficiently.

Looking at new products and services?

8. Social Media allows you to creatively promote your Products or Services.  Using video or photo you can lift the customer experience to the next level.

9. You have many good ideas but will they fly?  Crowd sourcing will allow you to test the waters without spending much money.  People love to help and contribute.  But remember, treat them special whether your product or service flies or not.

Finally, the last point (and in my opinion the most important one) is that you should be present in social media to listen what is being said about you, your company, your products and your people.  As is the case in the real world people talk about you in the widest sense of the word (just think when you were at a network meeting and someone was talking about you behind your back… What did you do?). You need to start Monitoring Social Media for mentions (both GOOD and BAD) today!

Have other ideas, concerns, blocking factors, etc., then I look forward to your comments to this post.

CEOs lack time to take part in Social Media

Close to a billion people are using social media platforms today.

Most, of them are doing it for personal use but more and companies are jumping on the bandwagon.  Though some CEOs are embracing social media most of them despise it and stay away as far as possible.  This brings up a lot of challenges for the social media champions and social media addicts to convert and convince these people.

Most CEOs do not (want to) see the benefits of social media because their mind is set on other things such as return on investment.  Social media can reap a lot of return but unfortunately, it takes time and most CEOs and executives do not have that time (to wait for results).

In a recent survey done by Vanguard Leadership, we found that a remarkable number of Belgian CEOs are present on one of the major platforms (89%). However, less than 25% are active.  So what are their reasons not to be active:

• Lack of time – CEOs do not spend, like most of us, time in front of their PC, ipad or even smart phone. Let’s be real they are not paid to do the legwork.
• Lack of peers and interaction – This is a continuation of the above point.  Since they are not taking time to read, comment or contribute to social media there is no interaction between them and others (peers or not).  No interaction means no incentive to contribute.
• Information overload and quality – Having a lot of information is good for decision making but we all know that social media provides too much information. And if you do not control it properly (and that takes time) it creates overload.  Too much (unqualified) information leads to confusion and bad decision making.  Not what a CEOs is waiting for…
• Lack of knowledge and understanding – Most CEOs are not digital natives.  So social media is not part of their DNA. Time and energy are needed to learn about a multitude of platforms.  And the speed of evolution of these platforms brings on another big problem for them when trying to keep up with these evolutions.  A challenge CEOs do not really need or want.  Additionally, they only hear the bad stories because good stories are less told so why should they invest their valuable time.

However, there are some good reasons why  you need to convince them to join.  More and more CEOs are doing it and seeing the benefits:

• By taking part in social media the CEO demonstrates his leadership in adopting new technologies and thus more members from the executive team will join.  A great starting point to get CEO buy-in is to implement social media internally first.  By using social media internally not only does communication improve (less distance between management and employees) but lessons are learned internally and no mistakes are made when social media is externalized.
• When CEOs use social media with customers, suppliers and  employees, it makes the person and company more human and you get the benefit of more opinions and easier accessibility
• It is clear that a CEO can boost the brand by using social media.  Many US examples have shown the way here.
• Finally, when the CEOs is on social media, the company is able to attract easier young people since the company is seen as a dynamic operation.

The conclusion is really that today’s CEO is far from joining actively social media because of the lack of time but once convinced he will be the motor that can shifts the company into a higher gear.

Are you being kept awake by circles, hangouts and sparks

Two weeks ago Google announced it latest effort to get involved with social media, called Google+.  Today, Microsoft leaked its efforts for yet another social media network.  Are these two efforts too late to battle Facebook and Twitter?

Google+ will offer a high degree of integration with its other social media platforms and this will be the USP to fight Facebook and Twitter.  The stream, which looks a lot like the one in Facebook, will be complemented with circles (groups in which you put people), hangouts (your favorite online places) and sparks (bits and pieces of information).  And Google claims this is only the beginning.

Microsoft leaked the story about its social network (Tulatip?) built around the Bing search engine to create a social search.  However, from the limited information available, Microsoft will not be inventing the network but use bits and pieces from Facebook and Twitter which might be a smart idea.

Back to Google+.  As it is fitting for social media platforms, memberships are handed out in small amounts which has lead to a frenzy to get access in the first week or so.  Many people were looking for such an “invite”.  Getting such an invite meant you are someone in social media land or had the right friends (what a good time to test the “give and receive” attitude).  I did not get one till 3 weeks into the process thanks to Roland Legrand from De Tijd.

Though I was disappointed that I did not get an invite, it made me think and ask a number of questions.  First of all, is this not just another gadget which we are not waiting for?  We are already part of so many social media platforms and networks.  Why add another?  After which we will complain that we have a lot of work to keep our social media profiles up to date… How much can we kid ourselves?  It seems we are looking for more work.

Second, all those people that are looking for such a special “invite” will not be the users of tomorrow.  These people are going to “test” Google+ to either break it down to the ground or praise it into the heavens but few will be (active) users in 6 months.  Many profiles will die very quickly even if Google claims they have 100 million profiles in less than a month.  Who wants to rebuild his/her Facebook/Twitter or even LinkedIn  network again on yet another platform.  Not me!

As far as I am concerned I am really waiting to see where Google+ will be making the difference with Facebook and the others before I switch.  The integration with tools such as  Tweetdeck and others will define if and when I switch to Google+.

So I will let Google convince that switching to Google+ will be worth my while and bring VALUE rather than just more work.

Are CIOS lost in the social media cloud?

Introduction

source: shutterstock

Cloud Computing is one of the hottest topics in IT.  As more non-IT business people are getting tech and internet savvy, they are bringing in cloud applications into the enterprise to solve their specific problems.  A lot of time this is even done without support from IT.  This is known as stealth cloud computing.   CIOs under the pressure of shrinking budgets are struggling to embrace the cloud computing concept and trying to figure out how to integrate this into their product offering to the business.  Some are succeeding, but most are struggling.   But the biggest cloud application to enter the enterprise today is social media and this is being ignored by a lot of IT managers. More and more social media applications are being used by different departments in the enterprise thus requiring IT managers to chain their point of view.

To understand social media the statement “practice makes perfect” stands out.  But how much practice are CIOs putting into to understanding social media.  Are they becoming a social media champion or hiding in the basement?

Research

In an independent market research exercise, over 100 CIOs of top companies in Belgium have been analyzed for their social media presence.  The research has focused on the business side of social media which includes LinkedIn, Twitter and Blog presence.

As could be expected nearly all CIOs have a profile on LinkedIn (97%). When it comes to Twitter 67% has no account.  21% has a clearly identifiable account.  The remaining 12% are accounts that could belong to a CIO but no picture or clear reference is made (only a likely similar name of the CIO was found).   Finally only 7% seem to have personal website of blog page.

Digging a little deeper in Twitter (all 33%), it reveals that 32% have never sent a tweet, The next 26% less than 5 tweets from which we can conclude that twitter is not really used.  There is one CIO in the list of 100+ analyzed that stands out with over 3000 tweets.  The same picture comes up to when looking at the number of people CIOs follow, 16% have no followers or follow someone and 70+% have less than 50 with the majority under 10.

Recommendation

Sticking your head in the sand and ignoring social media, as some large enterprises have opted to do, probably isn’t the solution. Whether it is internal use of social media or external branding and sales, CIOs have a critical role. CIOs should help HR, marketing, sales, product to leverage social media for company’s advantage. CIOs are expected to provide the technical strategy and tools to execute social media strategy and provide results on its effectiveness while avoiding security breaches or a social media meltdown.

Now that CIOs have conquered social networking using LinkedIn , the next step is to demonstrate they understand social media by starting a blog (add value by sharing) and a Twitter account (info sharing and traffic generation).

Are you ruining your business reputation?

When it comes to business networking, LinkedIn has been the trusted platform of choice. A large number of members are conscious of the fact that they need to have a professional profile. A further reduced number is making the most of the “Status update” to bring value to their network and drive traffic to good content. Over the last weeks and months, the level of professionalism of the “Status Updates” has dropped considerably. When you were looking for people that said that “hated their job” or “were bored”, you needed to do this on platforms such as Facebook. We all remember the “OMG, I hate my job post on Facebook”.

Well, today you can find similar posts on LinkedIn with compliments of Twitter.  Thanks to LinkedIn Signal search option, these messages now become very apparent and public.  I am even convinced the people who have these types of posts are no longer aware of the fact they linked their Twitter account to their LinkedIn account.  So messages such as below are now regulars on LinkedIn reducing the level of professionalism of certain people.

On another note, we all know the name calling of Facebook, but say welcome to similar expressions on LinkedIn!  Here are some examples.

Do you really want your professional reputation tarnished by these types of comments?  Your co-workers are listening to you on business networks… not to mention your current and future employers.

Though it is simple to connect your social media accounts, you really need to think this through.  Do you really want people to see where you are eating (Foursquare to Twitter to LinkedIn)? What you are doing in the garden or what store you are at?  If you are a frequent Twitterer, the constant status updates will annoy the hell out of your contacts and you will soon be stopped being followed in professional networks achieving the opposite of what you were aiming for.

If you want update your status on multiple networks, consider using tools such as tweetdeck or hootsuite where at least you know where you are posting the messages.  And remember to disconnect all post-through actions.