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?

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.

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.

Can a serenity prayer help social media marketers?

We all know that marketers are a strange breed. I am also one of them.  We are the people with the latest gadgets, following the newest trends and do the fun things in the company.  So social media is like a gift from the gods.  Every day a new tool or platform emerges.  It is hard to keep up with the newest technologies.  Never a sad day again!

We have also discovered that these social media fit our toolbox perfectly. We can get close to our customers; create more visibility for our company; built more interactive campaigns; and send out more messages to the world.

As marketers we know we have to listen to what is said about us.  We soon find out that we are not alone sending out messages about our company, products and people.  These messages also come from our co-workers.  We get upset since we consider ourselves the only one that can speak in name of our company.  We are losing control of the brand and it makes us furious.

Company management also have gotten the fact that people, including their own employees, are speaking about them.  So they are requesting that a social media policy be created to guide the employees when using social media.

The job is often given to HR or IT to come up with such a policy. With a little bit of luck, marketing gets called to chip in (from my personal experience more and more).  However, it freaks us out to live by all these rules.  We feel caged by these rules and they limit our creativity.

Our skepticism stands in the way of us seeing how such a policy can actually help us turn these employees into great ambassadors.  We keep on saying that there should be only 2 rules: “people have to use their good judgment” and “we are the only one to speak about the company”.  But every day we see examples in the newspapers of how people are using their good judgment.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter blunders happen all over the world every day!  We should really understand that we should contribute to a positive social media policy rather than fighting it.

I want to offer the marketers some advice I heard from some self help groups.  We have to accept that there are things we can not change (loss of control of your brand); have the courage to change the things we can change (contribute to a policy); and have the wisdom to see the difference between these two (share our social skills to make our co-workers become our ambassadors).

Trade Unions and Social Media Policies: an explosive mixture

I am looking with a lot of interest at the actions of trade unions when it comes to social media policies in companies.  Over the last months several court cases, which I do not care to mention (just Google “social media policy union”), have made the news and have spread via different media across the world.  It is true that currently most of the controversy is coming out of the US but I am sure in time we will have similar discussions in Europe.

There are 2 points that intrigue me:

• Trade Unions about Social Media policies
• Social Media policy in Trade Unions

I know that I am touching on very sensitive points.  So I think we need to face this topic before more discussions end up as social media cases.

Trade Unions about Social Media Policies

As more and more companies are seriously beginning to look at creating and implementing a Social Media Policy to control their employees, it raises more attention with the trade unions.  We all know that controlling social media is impossible!  So what am I seeing?

• Some companies have realized that rather than creating a strict policy it is better (for company ambassadorship) to provide guidelines to the employees.
• More and more companies are involving different functions and departments during the creation phase of a policy. We see HR, marketing and IT collaborate on such policies.

My recommendation, however, is that you make the trade unions part of your project team to create the company social media policy.  Daring?  Impossible?  Not!  Speaking from experience, it can be done!

Social Media Policies in Trade Unions

Source: Alexwhite.org

Trade Union members are active on social media, let’s not deny this.  While most are there from a personal point of view, some are their as a trade union member.  This brings me to wonder if trade unions have their own social media policy or even social media guidelines since they are a brand too. What guidelines or policies are in place for trade union members to react via social media?  Just imaging how much damage the trade union brand and reputation could suffer from not having these guidelines. So far, I have not found one trade union that has published a policy but it would be interesting to see what their guidelines/policy looks like.

My recommendation is that Trade Unions should create, implement, communicate and publish their social media policy so their members do not hang out the trade union’s dirty laundry.

Conclusion

My business mantra is that you can complain about a problem but you need to come up with at least one solution.  So if trade unions are going to fight social media policies, they need to have one themselves and companies must include the trade unions in their social media project creation and delivery teams.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

Not getting recruited via social networking? Do not worry, you are not alone.

The results from a recent survey (September-October 2010) from Executives Online Ltd (www.executivesonline.com) puts a bit of shade on the so much hyped social networking as a means to efficient recruitment. This is the second year the survey was conducted.

Over 1200 senior executives were surveyed and asked about their opinion and effectiveness of social networking in their personal and professional life.  In concurrence with many surveys in this area, including the study done by Mic Adam from Vanguard Leadership of July 2010, LinkedIn was deemed by most professionals as the most interesting social networking site with Facebook coming in as a good second and Twitter as a third.   All these platforms grew in importance over the last 12 months.

As can be expected, LinkedIn is viewed as the most useful platform for recruitment (90%) while the other platforms are struggling to get to 50%.  This is understandable since the audience surveyed is executive level.  Facebook is still viewed as purely private networking while Twitter is a big unknown to many.

With the hype around social media in general, more and more people are resorting to these platforms to find a new job but few have actually succeeded at securing such a position.  I think this really reflects the practice in the recruitment market. The numbers do show a 50% increase over last year’s results which holds a good promise for the future.  Let’s be honest, social networking still has to find its ‘balanced’ place in the mix of tools used by managers and recruiters both professionals and corporate.

When it comes to hiring via social networking sites, the numbers are even lower.  Fewer than 5% of the respondents have actually tried to hire through social networks and even fewer have hired people recruited through social networks.  So the conclusion is that the supply of job seekers far exceeds the demand (job offerings).  However, here too the numbers are on the rise.

Even though there is certainly an uptake of social networking for recruitment, there are some serious showstoppers which hold true for all trades when it comes to social media.  They can be summarized as follows: lack of authenticity, the myth that social networking is for younger and less senior people, and most importantly, the time factor since keeping a social media presence takes time to maintain and follow up.  This is where a lot of falls apart.  Managers and recruiters, just like marketeers, are finding that using social media & networking is a time consuming activity but keep in mind that going to network meetings is too!

Even though these numbers do not seem to live up to the hype, I feel they really reflect the reality of today.  There are,  of course, today recruitment agencies as well as private companies that are getting more than 15% of their new hires through social networking, it is realistic to say that social networking recruitments will be responsible for 10% of the new hires in the future.  The traditional method will continue to exist and possibly regain their strength.

The full survey can be found at:

http://www.executivesonline.co.uk/about_us/reports/social_networking

Do you have a success story and want to share your secret on how to get recruited via social networking,  I would love to hear about it.